| |
| Meat-stretcher
dishes looked delicious
—
but were often gruesome! |
Possibly I was prejudiced since for most of the
war years our little family consisted of only two people, but
it did seem extremely difficult to prepare a month of meals
with just the two ration books assigned to us. Perhaps we were
abnormally hungry or maybe I was an inexperienced housewife
— whatever the reason, I had
a terrible time trying to make our red meat points stretch to
last a full four week period.
Families consisting of parents and several children,
each of whom owned a full ration book, seemed to have a much
easier time — or maybe the
grass just appeared greener on the other side of the fence.
Looking back, I am sure they had every bit as much trouble working
with the system as I did.
Regardless of the reason, my husband
and I had a total of one hundred points —
or about three and one-third points per day
— to last a full four week period. With these allotted
points we had to make all our purchases of meat, butter, margarine,
cheese, lard, vegetable oil, canned fish and canned milk. Roast
beef was ten, sometimes twelve or thirteen points per pound and
other choice cuts were correspondingly high, so these luxuries
made a hasty exit from our dinner table. Still, it took more than
a little planning to have meat, or anything remotely resembling
it, on our daily platter.
The fact that neither fresh chicken
nor fresh fish products were rationed was supposed to help us
supplement our scanty meat quota. However, the normal market supply
of fish and chicken was probably not enough to have met the needs
of Washington's pre-war population, let alone the thousands of
extra people added during the war.
The Vanishing Meat Supply…
The women's pages of the local
newspapers and national magazines were constantly commanding
us to “Be patriotic! Use chicken! Use fish!” Glowing
and detailed accounts sang the praises of Mrs. Hattie Housewife,
who entertained twelve guests at a lavish feast. For days thereafter,
Mrs. H.H. was the talk and envy of all her townsfolk for she
had, with her own little hands, prepared each magnificent dish.
She had used, mind you, not one single ration point. I'll
just bet the dinner was lavish and magnificent. I'll
also bet it was strictly fictitious!
Even so, these newspaper stories made me feel I would be nothing
short of a national traitor should I devour even one ounce of
red meat. Unfortunately, by the time I had reached this firm
conviction practically all the fish and chicken in our neighborhood
stores had been bought by someone else or had just plain vanished.
Some cynics even said they had been swallowed up by the “black
market,” but whatever the reason chicken and fish were
in very short supply.
A local poultry organization, which had shops in both a Washington
department store and in several branches of a large grocery
chain, simply closed for the duration. They had nothing to sell.
And since everyone had suddenly developed an unusual fondness
for all types of seafood the supply of fish was never adequate
either. Even if we used a bit of our hoarded gasoline for a
trip to the waterfront we never knew whether we would return
home with or without fish.
It was obvious then that, since we were unable to depend on
more than an occasional chicken or fish dinner, we would be
forced to choose between “meat substitutes” and “meat
stretchers.” There was no difficulty in securing recipes
for wartime economy dishes —
our newspapers, magazines and grocers'
bulletins bombarded us with hundreds of new food ideas. Some
of the suggestions were delicious and may well have become part
of a housewife's postwar recipe
file. Others were, to say the least, far-fetched and included
combinations which were not only unusual but often revolting.
“Thrifty Dishes” Lead to Weight
Gain…
In addition to the printed ideas available, all our friends
and relatives were only too delighted to offer their favorite
meatless menu. These well-meaning individuals never seemed happier
than when describing in detail the merits and charms of their
lima bean and rice casserole or their ground vegetable patties
which supposedly looked and tasted exactly like choice meat
cutlets, or their “thrifty dishes” consisting of one
part hamburger and one hundred parts noodles. Whether tasty
or gruesome, all these dishes were said to be packed with vitamins
and capable of providing all one's
nutritional requirements.
But my own husband did not like any of them. I would spend
hours preparing a meat-substitute dish that was supposed to
hit the spot with a hungry man, offer tremendous nutritive value
and salvage many red meat points. Or I could embellish a platter
with elaborately carved rosebud radishes and fresh sprigs of
parsley. No matter — my husband
would take one look at the result of my toil and disgustedly
snort, “Ersatz! I want my meat to look like meat!”
Some of my friends who were inclined to gain weight were almost
pleased with meat rationing, thinking it would serve as a required
but painless diet. Alas, they discovered that it was not meat,
nor vegetables, nor to any great extent canned fruit which added
unwelcome pounds. It turned out to be the breads, cereals, sweets
and fats that seemed to cling so tenaciously to milady's
chassis. Unfortunately for milady, some of these fattening but
delicious foods were not rationed at all. An attractive casserole
created with a tiny portion of meat suffocated by quantities
of noodles, rice, macaroni or lima beans and drowned in a rich
cream sauce may contain all the proper vitamins; unfortunately,
it also contains the required number of calories and many more!
So we had our problems putting meals on
the table, but so did everyone else. And it was obvious from
our appearance that none of us had endured great suffering.
We all wanted to do our part to help in the overall wartime
effort. As for the run on meat after rationing ceased —
well, that is a story for another time!
Editor's
note:
Marguerite's idea that some meat-stretcher
recipes might remain in postwar recipe boxes was a good guess.
Below is a wartime recipe now in its third generation as one of
our family favorites:
TEXAS HASH
1 lb. ground beef (or more, since
meat has not been rationed for over 50 years!)
1/2 green pepper, diced
1 – 2 Tbsp. diced onion
1 tsp. chili powder
Worcestershire Sauce to taste
12 – 16 oz. tomato sauce
4 oz. water
1 cup uncooked rice
Brown the ground beef with the pepper
and onion. Drain and spoon into a greased casserole. Add remaining
ingredients and stir. Cover and bake at 350 degrees for 1 hour.
Does
your family still use any recipes that were wartime favorites?
Please email
your recipes so they can be added to this chapter. Thank you!
C.G.F.
Photo:
The Mary Margaret McBride Encyclopedia of Cooking, Homemakers
research Institute, Evanston, IL; p. 945
