Vintage Desserts

Above is the directions to cookie making. This page comes from my 1942 Betty Crocker Cookbook of

All-purpose baking. Another favorite book of mine. There are a bunch of different variety of cookies from that same book below. I love how sweet and simple the photo is. It reminds me of the pastel color photos from long ago. (I love everything vintage and I still do not know what those types of photos are called.)

Here is my version of "Jumbles." They are a very soft and fluffy sugar cookie. Notice in the above photo "Cinnamon Jumbles" in the blue crock. I made mine plain so they would be more of a sugar type cookie. If you want cinnamon then simply sprinkle the top with cinnamon before baking. Also, buttermilk makes a huge difference in this cookie. The buttermilk makes the cookie more puffed up and gives it more of a distinct flavor rather than plain milk.

From my Health For Victory Cookbook comes this wonderful apple crisp. It smells so delicious baking in the oven. It is not the typical crisp that we know of today. The golden gooey goodness is made with honey. If you don't like honey then you can just use 1/2 cup of sugar. I believe honey was substitued a lot because honey was not rationed and sugar was very tightly rationed.

Sugar was the first food to be rationed, as the war with Japan caused our nation’s supply of sugar to quickly be reduced by more than a third. The Office of Price Administration issued 123 million copies of War Ration Book One, which contained stamps that could be used to purchase sugar. (1940s.org)

I thought this would be interesting to all the vintage lovers. 1940s Slang Terms:

Take a powder – to leave
Fuddy-Duddy – old-fashioned person
Gobbledygook – double talk, long speech
Fat-head – stupid or foolish person
Chrome-dome – word for a bald headed man
Eager beaver – enthusiastic helper
Stompers – shoes
Grandstand – to show off
Brainchild – someone’s creative idea
What’s buzzin’, cousin? – how’s it going?
Khaki wacky – boy crazy
Hen fruit – eggs
Hi-de-ho - hello

Some fun terms to be used today. I found these at 1940s.org. If you get the time you should visit there it has a lot of good information.

As I read and think about the 1940s and everyone living in that time I often find myself wondering if ideas from then would help our country today. It's no big secret our country is struggling with money and many other things. When the war started with Iraq would it have saved our country money to ration things such as were rationed in the 1940s? Rationing documents are everywhere and I bet the government still has the original idea and plan that started it all. I could be wrong because I usually am but I think another large part of our debt is due to the war. Wars cost money that is why rationing began in the first place to save money. The government asked us for our money in buying war bonds. I know everything wasn't "hunky dory" in the decades that have passed. I also know there are many other factors to the mess our country is in. Okay, that's my rant for now but I just think of this from time to time.


As I'm constantly compiling information for the Diary "Blog," I am still unsure of where I want to go with this. I know what I want my readers to feel, see, and hear but I just haven't found my groove of this yet. Any suggestions would be most appreciated. Should I write as in a diary or should it be more informational as I live my 1940s life? That's where I'm quite confused with all this.

Mrs. Homemaker

Food groups & Extending shortages

1943

Dear Friend,

Today was a very trying day as we are trying to put up the vegetables from our "Victory Garden." We are very fortunate this year because our tomatoes have produced in abundance even with this drought. Putting up vegetables and making jams, pickles, sauces, jellies, conserves, and simply canning really helps with the war effort. Many people grew Victory Gardens to supplement their nutrition and to help with rationing. Rationing began in 1942. With the war raging on overseas, more items were added to the list of rationed things this year. Of course, our American allotment of rationed items were only a minor inconvenience compared to those in Britain. It took a great effort from everyone on the Homefront. Even though rationing is not around now I am still trying to find ways to save in our economy today. I am very thankful for my Your Share booklet as it is full of inspiration for the frugal homemaker.

Here is the back of the book which talks about the 7 basic food groups one should be taking in each day. Below is a larger image of the circle chart. This image is hard to see so I made a larger image below.

 This good group wheel shows which foods we should be eating everyday to keep healthy. This wheel differs greatly from the modern food pyramid or chart that is used today.  Below is an explanation of each wedge in the wheel.

It is strange to me how there really was no high amounts of overweight people here in the '40s. One reason could be that there are not very many processed foods to be bought. I do know one major reason is rationing but people still ate good and very healthy. I have many menus from this period and the menus are large. There are many dishes to be served.

These two excerpts below show how to extend foods when times get tough.

"It is very important that we save our fats to be returned to the butcher shop. Many butcher shops will give back points for the amount of fats returned. Below is an excerpt from Betty Crocker All-Purpose Baking cookbook which will help all to ration fats easier." Many on the Homefront found ways to be frugal and also did whatever it took to get by. I think it was very wise to return fats to the butcher to get extra ration points. Many ideas from these passages can still be used today.

I started out wanting to post as if I were actually "living" in the era but I couldn't make up my mind on what my readers would want to read/hear. Any suggestions would be helpful. Thanks for stopping by.

Mrs. Homemaker