Grandma's Wartime Kitchen - by Joanne Lamb Hayes & Jean Anderson

About the Book

As America's men went overseas to fight during World War II, women back home took on extra work but were still expected to provide hearty meals. This fascinating reference contains 150 wartime recipes, anecdotes about social life, and historical ephemera like magazine clippings and ration books.

Book Synopsis

While the country's soldiers were fighting in World War II, the women who stayed behind were making their own courageous--and delicious--contributions.

Across the nation, women learned to do jobs formerly held by men while their husbands and sons served overseas. But on top of the extra responsibilities, they were still expected to cook hearty meals, set an attractive table and appear perfectly coiffed for dinner. "In essence, women were asked to work harder and harder, and they rose to the challenge," author Joanne Lamb Hayes writes in this fascinating book.

Grandma's Wartime Kitchen shows us how our mothers and grandmothers coped with shortages and strict rationing of meat, sugar, butter, cheese and canned foods--all without electric dishwaters and other appliances we take for granted today. Quotes and reminiscences reveal a wartime world where families scrimped, adapted recipes, and even foraged for food.

Part cookbook, part fascinating history, this collection contains more than 150 classic recipes that have been updated for today's kitchens, as well as plenty of anecdotes, advertisements and advice from the time. You'll find:
- Recipes for Monday Meatloaf, Victory Pudding, Mother's Fried Chicken, Apple Dumplings and more.
- The U.S. government's food rules and ration books.
- Substitutes for rationed sugar and the recipes they inspired.
Social life during wartime, including Defense Parties and a Thanksgiving dinner made with only wartime commodities.

Lovers of traditional American fare will also want to check out Joanne Lamb Hayes' companion cookbook, Grandma's Wartime Baking Book.

Review Quotes

"Grandma's Wartime Kitchen brings the reader a feast of memories as well as the comforting recipes that nourished Americans through the difficult years of World War II. Whether or not you remember Victory Gardens and ration books, you will recognize the recipes as family favorites and find this taste of the past as delicious as ever."
-- NATHALIE DUPREE, author of
Nathalie Dupree's Comfortable Entertaining: At Home with Ease and Grace

"Grandma's Wartime Kitchen is much more than a nostalgic cookbook. It is a cultural history that takes us right back to 1941-45 when home cooks--many of them interviewed here-- supported the war effort while feeding their families. Joanne Hayes has unearthed perfectly marvelous recipes for treasures such as Macaroni Goldenrod, Pork-U-Pines, and Maple Tapioca that show how women made do--and then some--with the scarcities of food rationing."
-- MARION NESTLE, PH.D., M. P. HProfessor and Chair, Department of Nutrition and Food Studies, New York University

"Fascinating, informative, and delicious. Grandmas Wartime Kitchen is much more than a collection of wonderful recipes from Grandma's recipe file. It tells us how the recipes got there. I never realized how much the way they cooked then influenced how we cook today."
-- MERLE ELLIS, author of The Great American Meat Book

"In Grandma's Wartime Kitchen you'll discover that the forties cook wanted just what today's cook wants--recipes that are heathful and, most important, fast! Joanne Lamb Hayes brings to life a bygone era--one that inspired creativity in the kitchen."
-- BONNIE TANDY LEBLANG, R.D., C.C.P., internationally syndicated daily food columnist and author of Express Lane Cooking: A Simple Solution to What's for Dinner