Food memories from World War II

A few years ago I showed this book to Owl's grandma, who was 13 years old when Pearl Harbor was bombed. After she looked through the book, she said that they didn't have many of the ingredients listed in the recipes. In rural Utah, those items weren't rationed--they weren't available.

Her dad was the game warden, and she said they often had trout for breakfast.

She also remembered eating

• beef heart with stuffing
• cakes with a jam center that were steamed in cups
• sausage gravy
• her dad's baking powder biscuits with cracklings
• sweet soup made by a Swedish neighbor--a soup with large tapioca, prunes, and raisins

My mother was 5 years old when Pearl Harbor was bombed. She lived on a fruit farm. They saved most of their rationed sugar for canning and preserving fruit, so she remembers longing for anything sweet. I grew up with dessert nightly (often fruit), and I think that tradition came out of her deprivation as a child.

My father was 9 years old when Pearl Harbor was bombed. I'm not sure if this was during the war or not, but he remembers his family buying shredded wheat cereal for the first time (the big shredded wheat; not "mini" shredded wheat cereal). They couldn't figure out how best to eat it so they tried boiling it. I don't think any of them were impressed.