Grandma's Wartime Kitchen: World War II and the Way We Cooked [Hardcover]

Joanne Lamb Hayes (Author), Jean Anderson (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: November 8, 2000

An affectionate and informative look at women on the Home Front in the 1940s, Grandma's Wartime Kitchen presents more than 150 classic recipes (updated for today's kitchens) along with anecdotes, advertisements, advice, and archival recipes from a unique and defining period in America's history.

With details and personal voices that make the material come to life, the book covers:
* The U.S. government's food rules and ration books
* Substitutes for rationed sugar, and the delicious dessert recipes they inspired
* Stretching butter, meat, coffee, and other staples
* Cooking and baking for the troops abroad
* Wartime entertaining including Defense Parties, progressive parties, and a traditional Thanksgiving dinner using wartime commodities
* Monday Meatloaf, Mother's Fried Chicken, Macaroni and Cheese, Apple Dumplings, Vermont Johnny Cake, Honey Apple Pie, and many other recipes.

At a time when America is saluting the soldiers who fought in World War II, this one-of-a-kind collection offers a portrait of the courageous (and delicious) contributions of the women who stayed behind.

Editorial Reviews

From Booklist

In Grandma's Wartime Kitchen, Hayes recalls the belt-tightening days of World War II, when homefront cooks faced rationing of meats and sugar. Ingenious cooks supported the war effort by using oats or rice to extend small portions of meats, using variety meats, and substituting nonrationed sweeteners such as molasses for sugar. America's housewives learned to make good pork roasts, since that meat was in greater supply than was beef. Hayes has collected recipes from this era and supplies helpful commentary. These recipes are still useful for anyone seeking to conserve or to reduce the amount of red meat a family consumes. The book is also a reminder of the privations endured on the homefront during the great conflict. Mark Knoblauch
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

About the Author

Joanne Lamb Hayes has been writing about food for various national magazines since 1965. She holds a Ph.D. from New York University's Department of Nutrition and Food Studies, teaches both academic and recreational food courses, and is the co-author of seven previous cookbooks including Grains, The Weekend Kitchen, and Country Entertaining.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 256 pages
• Publisher: St. Martin's Press; First Edition edition (November 8, 2000)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0312253230
• ISBN-13: 978-0312253233
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 7.5 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.1 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (9 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #591,341 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

85 of 86 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars THE WAY WE WERE, November 3, 2000

By A Customer

This review is from: Grandma's Wartime Kitchen: World War II and the Way We Cooked (Hardcover)

With Grandma's Wartime Kitchen, Joanne Lamb Hayes has filled a void in the culinary history of the 20th century. Those of us old enough to remember WWII, food rationing, victory gardens, and canning marathons will welcome this book, which puts between two covers so many of the meat-, butter- and sugar-stretching recipes women cooked in those lean years. They will also love reading the stories of how women coped and cooked, often working in munitions factories all day, then coming home to cook for their children. What imagination, what grace-- and all of this without dishwashers, microwave ovens and so many of the time-saving appliances we take for granted in this pampering age of plenty! The recipes look wonderful, as on-target today as they were in the 40s and I, for one, am eager to try them. But even if you never cook from this book, you'll love curling up with it. No dose of history was easier to swallow. Take a hard look at this book, Gen Xers. Keep it on a handy shelf. You can learn a lot from your grandmothers!

40 of 40 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The Greatest Generation of Cooks, February 2, 2001

By A Customer

This review is from: Grandma's Wartime Kitchen: World War II and the Way We Cooked (Hardcover)

Those of us living in this age of plenty have no idea what it was like to cook during World War II when sugar, butter, meat and oh, so many canned foods were rationed. I was a very little girl then and didn't understand so many of the hardships my mother endured. This book answers so many of the questions left unanswered and for me it is a joy to read. I do remember many of the recipes included here and for old times sake, I plan to give many of them a try. This book is a must for anyone interested in food or food history. We may not cook this way today-- we don't have to. But these old make-do recipes can teach us all a lot.

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Just what I wanted, January 15, 2006

By 

C. Schmidt (Mid-America) - See all my reviews
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Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Grandma's Wartime Kitchen: World War II and the Way We Cooked (Hardcover)

I am writing a book sent during WW2, and I needed a good sense of day-to-day life in the era. This book provides that with authentic recipes and loads of other information about food purchasing and cooking tips that help to explain the era. I think this would be a useful and fun book for students of the era, regardless of their age.