Some of the most delicious recipes were invented out of necessity. Faced with a lack of certain ingredients, creative bakers scraped together whatever was in their larder so they could still put bread – or cake – on the table. Resourceful wartime cooks used their rations and their imaginations to come up with tasty meals and make each scrap of food stretch as far as possible. Here are some of the best dishes that were born from hardship and are now firm favorites.
Hoover stew
A combination of elbow macaroni, tinned tomatoes, sweetcorn, beans and chopped hot dogs, Hoover stew emerged during the Great Depression in the 1930s. It was often served in soup kitchens in ‘Hoovervilles’ – shantytowns built by displaced people and named after then-president Herbert Hoover. Now, this ramshackle concoction has a strangely comforting appeal, especially if you happen to be suffering with a hangover.
Meatloaf
American meatloaf originally emerged as a terrine-like take on scrapple, a mix of pork and cornmeal dating back to the 1800s, and rose to legend-like status during the 1940s. Adverts – like this one for a handy pamphlet of meat recipes – urged home cooks to be more creative with their meat dishes, using cheaper, more available cuts and mixing them with ingredients like breadcrumbs and eggs.
Desperation pies
More delicious and a little less dreary than they sound, desperation pies were popular among Indiana’s Amish and Shaker communities in the early 19th century. The category encompassed any sweet pie that could be made from larder ingredients when fresh, seasonal produce was scant. Sugar cream pie – or Hoosier cream pie – is a classic, made with sugar, milk (or evaporated milk), vanilla, nutmeg and flour.
The poor man’s meal
Hot dogs and potatoes were relatively plentiful during the Great Depression, as well as having a decent shelf-life, so they became staples of many dishes born of desperation across the USA. The poor man’s meal was a basic yet tasty and satisfying combination of fried potato and onion topped with sliced hot dogs – a little like breakfast hashes, which are still eaten (and craved) today.
Peanut butter and mayo sandwich
It’s debatable whether this is a fabulous food but, when you think about it, peanut butter isn’t technically a sweet food – so why not slather some creamy mayo on top? This became an easy, inexpensive and high-protein snack in the 1930s and during wartime, and was promoted in a joint ad campaign by Hellmann’s Mayonnaise and Skippy Peanut Butter in the 1960s.
