The ancient spice known as "red gold"
Local organizations would band together and organize canning sessions to prepare food not just for themselves and for their local communities, but also for the troops. Prior to this era, preserving was mostly practiced by those living in rural areas, but with the war effort it became common practice everywhere. Home pickling and fermentation have also come back into vogue with vengeance in recent years.
These days, there’s barely a recipe out there that doesn’t start with onions and garlic. Prior to WWII, however, this wasn’t always the case. The onion rose to prominence during wartime as a cheap, readily available ingredient to bulk up dishes and add flavor.
However, the crowning glory of the WWII diet was, without a doubt, the potato. Potatoes were grown locally and inexpensively, and provided a boost of energy for those working hard to keep the country running. When other ingredients became scarce, the potato would always step in as a replacement. The British government pushed the potato agenda shamelessly.
Perhaps slightly more successful and less misleading, the recipe for this baked bean loaf was shared by the US Office of War Information in 1942. The meatloaf substitute used blended beans, vegetables, and breadcrumbs to form a heavy loaf with a similar texture to ground meat. This questionable dish was perhaps the grandfather of the vegetarian nut roast!
A famous British wartime dish that utilizes potatoes is the Woolton pie. The vegetable pie was the perfect end-of-week dinner when there was little left in the cupboard except for scraps. Whatever veg was left would go into the pie, and meat scraps if you were lucky. Baking ingredients like butter and flour were also hard to come by, so the crust for the Woolton pie was subsidized with mashed potato so it would stretch even further.
Wartime food was usually bland and frugal, certainly nothing like decadent lashings of Nutella on bread or crepes! However, Nutella was actually born out of the shortages of real chocolate during WWII. An Italian chef named Pietro Ferrero (whose son would go on to create Ferrero Rocher) began adding hazelnuts into his chocolate dessert recipes, eventually creating the beloved Italian sweet Pasta Gianduja.
Italian mothers would spread it on bread and give it to their children. Ferrero began selling it in a jar and renamed it Supercrema Gianduja. The name was eventually changed to Nutella in 1964.
Sources: (BBC) (Reader's Digest) (10Best) (Historic UK)
Governments in countries where rationing was introduced acknowledged that it was challenging to subsist on such small quantities, so they released recipe books for wartime cooking that focused on more readily available ingredients like local vegetables. Particularly potatoes. Lots and lots of potatoes!
The housewives of WWII-era Europe were still expected to serve up a decent meal for their families every evening, despite harsh rationing that left them with comparatively tiny portions of meat and dairy products to be stretched each week.
In the UK, each adult was entitled to 4 oz (110 gm) of bacon, a shilling’s worth of other meat which was equivalent to two pork chops, 2 oz (60 gm) of butter, 2 oz (60 gm) of cheese, one egg, and 3 pints (1.7 l) of milk. This was a huge drop compared to a British adult's weekly intake of meat and dairy before the war.
Most Europeans and Americans were used to getting their meat and veg at dinner, so these recipes attempted to recreate homecooked classics with meat substitutes. Keep in mind, however, that they didn’t have access to soy-based products like tofu or impossible meat... They were working with very limited options to turn a few bland ingredients into a passable meal (they didn’t always succeed).
Even in these modern times when plant-based diets are on the rise, there are still plenty of meat-eaters who can’t imagine dinner without some animal protein on their plate. Imagine how many indignant carnivores there were when World War II broke out in 1939!
Many kitchens were left with whatever spices and seasonings they happened to have in the pantry before food shortages began, making it even more difficult to add flavor to their newly restricted menus.
Unfortunately, they soon became so sought-after that there was a shortage of onions and anyone who could get their hands on them treated them like a luxury item.
The British government launched a campaign called Dig for Victory, encouraging those at home to start growing their own root vegetables in their gardens to assist with food shortages. Signs everywhere informed passersby of the benefits of having a “Victory Garden” to help stretch their rations even further.
The humble onion wasn’t the only vegetable that experienced a renaissance at the time. With people all over Europe getting inventive in their gardens, desperate for any variety they could draw from the land, vegetables that hadn’t been seen for years started appearing on the dinner table.
Celeriac and squash are a couple of examples, both of which came back into fashion in the 21st century. Rationing may be to thank for some of the foody favorites of the modern era, from caramelized red onions on your burger to cream of celeriac soup.
Potatoes and onions are the basics of most kitchens these days, but would that still be the case had they not been forced upon us as essential staples during the war?
Needless to say, pre-war dishes like meat pies, casseroles, and stews were bulked up with potatoes to make up for the lack of meat.
There are countless recipes that use potatoes in the most creative (yet painfully bland) manner. For example, the potato finger was simply mashed potato shaped into fingers and baked in the oven. Then there were potato pancakes, potato soup, potato floddies (hash browns), etc. The list was endless!
The foods and drinks consumed by American soldiers became associated with prosperity and good health, which was the image the US military portrayed. The strapping young troops inadvertently served as highly effective marketing tools for US brands like Coca-Cola, Spam, Wrigley’s Chewing Gum, and, of course, Nescafé.
Instant coffee granules and powders were invented prior to WWII, but Nestlé supplied American troops with Nescafé during the war, which allowed it to spread all over the world with them. Many countries that either hosted or were invaded by the US military became very used to certain American products.
Battery farming was already practiced prior to World War II, but the new practices developed during this period of desperation certainly brought us a big step closer to the factory farming that dominates the poultry industry today.
On the topic of Spam, affordable meat became a huge issue during World War II. All meat was scarce during the war and the following years of rationing. This issue inspired a lot of experimental breeding to create new kinds of chickens during the war, and by the time rationing was over, chicken was suddenly affordable for all.
Previously, chicken was considered a luxury. A roast chicken was a real treat many families only had on special occasions. Thanks to new breeds of chickens that matured much faster and grew much larger, chicken became an affordable option for all.
There was a huge drive to promote canned food like preserves and pickles during World War II. The US government spread the word through posters and offered tutorials on how to properly sterilize jars for jams and pickled vegetables.
Today, chicken is one of the cheapest meats you can get your hands on, and is a staple in most meat-eating households. In the decades since WWII, similar farming shortcuts have been developed for other livestock such as cows and pigs, bringing down the price of all meats significantly.
This helped instant coffee to gain popularity in the UK and all over the world, partly contributing to Nestlé’s rise to global domination.
War changes everything. For instance, although World War II lasted from 1939 to 1945, rationing continued for more than a decade after the end of the war in many countries. It took a long time for the global economy to even begin to recover and for trade deals and routes to be rehashed. After nearly 20 years of food shortages and recession, our cooking and eating habits were changed forever. Scarcity of meat, dairy, and all imported products meant that home cooks had to get thrifty and creative. New ingredients that had been ignored before took center stage, and are still included in our pantry staples to this day. Those affected by the war adapted their habits out of necessity, but there was also the added impact of soldiers traveling far and wide and bringing their local products with them.
From the meteoric rise of the onion to the creation of Nutella, click on to find out just how war changed the way we eat today.
How war changed the way we eat
Necessity is indeed the mother of invention!
FOOD Crisis
War changes everything. For instance, although World War II lasted from 1939 to 1945, rationing continued for more than a decade after the end of the war in many countries. It took a long time for the global economy to even begin to recover and for trade deals and routes to be rehashed. After nearly 20 years of food shortages and recession, our cooking and eating habits were changed forever. Scarcity of meat, dairy, and all imported products meant that home cooks had to get thrifty and creative. New ingredients that had been ignored before took center stage, and are still included in our pantry staples to this day. Those affected by the war adapted their habits out of necessity, but there was also the added impact of soldiers traveling far and wide and bringing their local products with them.
From the meteoric rise of the onion to the creation of Nutella, click on to find out just how war changed the way we eat today.