Are there are websites that have the entire list of dishes (along with the recipe) that were made during ww2 for a country?
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I canât speak for all the nations involved, but for America, the newspapers I transcribe from (ex: The Pittsburgh Press) actually posted on occasion recipes in the womenâs pages.
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There are various Finnish war / rationing / shortage recipes here and there in the internet. Not sure of any particular site collecting all of them. There also exists several different cooking books for the era (in Finnish, and rather rare these days, even those with modern âlook-a-likeâ prints)
For example:
Shortage era cooking book (Pula-ajan keittokirja) - 1941, ~300 pages
Shortage era recipes (Pula-ajan ruokaohjeita) - 1940-1946 (originally, new prints do exists), 48-49 pages (depending on edition & print).
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Iâm sure there are sites that have recipes, although I donât know of one site that fully catalogues them. Iâve posted a few on my blog, as British rationing only ended about five years before I was born and it still came up in conversation with my family long afterwards.
6 Wartime Foods
British Ration Week Episode 5: Woolton Pie
British Ration Week Episode 4: The National Loaf
British Ration Week Episode 3: Creative Cooking
As I wrote in another posting:
Without significant amounts of imported food, Britain could not feed its people. Even with imports, the amount of available food was subject to unpredictable fluctuations as losses at sea interrupted supply and left empty shelves in grocery stores. Although losses were relatively low early in the war (early U boats were unable to stay at sea for long periods, and German bases were a long way from most British trade routes), the writing was on the wall if the war continued for years.
To fight a totalitarian regime, Britain had to emulate some of its methods (ironically, full rationing wasnât introduced in Germany until much later in the war). For the middle classes, this was an unwelcome intrusion of the state into private affairs, but generally accepted due to the war. For the working classes, in many cases it was actively welcomed. While the rations were small, there was the promise â and generally a fulfilled promise â that some would be made available even in the poorest areas of the country. My mother was nine when the war began, and she remembers seeing more food in the stores of Middlesbrough after rationing was introduced. After the deprivations of the Great Depression, many people in the north and in Scotland were better fed and clothed during the rationing period than they had been for nearly a decade.
Given that information, it should not be surprising that so many people voted for Labour in the 1945 elections: theyâd had what they believed to be a live demonstration of the benefits of socialism for six years of war, and didnât want to go back to the pre-1940 status quo.
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I tried accessing the pittsburgh express archives but it wants me to pay for that.
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Thanks! Also, did Italy also have a rationing system or did they do it much much later (say after it became apparent that the allies were going to invade Italy).
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Go to the Google newspaper archives, hereâs a recipe from June 30, 1942 for the Fourth of July:
https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=XAkeAAAAIBAJ&sjid=q0wEAAAAIBAJ&pg=3120%2C188632
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Iâd always assumed they did, but I didnât know any of the details. Italian civilians were perhaps some of the earliest of the major WW2 combatant powers to face food shortages, due to the international embargo of Italy imposed after the invasion of Ethiopia in 1935 (although League of Nations sanctions were only somewhat effective in many cases). Hereâs an excerpt from an article about life in Italy during the war:
In a way, the embargo strengthened Mussoliniâs desire to make Italy an autarchic country. One thatâs able to sustain itself and its economy only with products and produce coming from within its borders and from its colonies. Coffee for instance was largely substituted with chicory and tea with hibiscus flowers coming from the African colonial lands. We called it âcarcadĂ©â and itâs still a relatively popular drink in Italy, especially during the hottest months.
By the beginning of the war, in June 1940, the country was already struggling. Further restrictions were implemented, with heavy rationing of specific foods such as meats, butter, and cereals. Soldiers at the front were usually given larger rations of restricted foods than civilians. They even obtained things not available to people at home outside of the black market. My grandfather, who fought on the Russian front where he found his death at the age of 29. He used to send back home to grandma and their with two children, his own coffee and chocolate. This can be found in the content of some of his beautiful letters.
My maternal grandparents spent most of the war on the farm where my grandfatherâs family worked as sharecroppers. They never really had problems with food, as grandma used to say. With a hint of pride, I remember â they never had to eat brown bread, as they could make their own white flour.
Keep in mind that World War 2âs brown bread had nothing to do with what we know today! It was largely made with chaff and, at times, it was made bulkier with sawdust. All rationed foodstuff, including bread, was given out by the State, by each family being allowed to keep a specific amount. Its quality, as you may imagine, was extremely low and plenty of people tried to get better food on the black market.
Truth is that things, from this point of view, were slightly simpler for those living in smaller, country villages or in the countryside. It was much harder for city dwellers. Fruits, vegetables, cereals, and meat were more easily available in the countryside, and they were often simply exchanged among families rather than bought. Of course, this didnât mean life was easier, but simply not as bleak.
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Oh⊠I didnât know that was possible. Thanks!
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Youâre welcome! 
Thatâs where I transcribe many of the articles for my America at war! thread.
donât your eyes hurt after transcribing them because the letters are too small. Do you use split screen to type?
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That is pretty good article I read the entire thing instead of reading only the food part. But that leaves with another question, why would a soldier be allowed to send his rations back home when that could have taken to fuel the armyâs need?
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Sort of, if you consider two separate windows to be split screen⊠
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I see your point and it certainly seems a good question, but I have no idea unless the ordinary soldier in Italian service was allowed to do that because their superiors were sending home more than just portions of rations? Iâm speculating there, but totalitarian societies have a strong tendency to create opportunities for corruption for officialsâŠ
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Well⊠you could see this video for things people ate during the war and go on a hunt for the recipes.
Also try looking up Rava (Semolina) Idli (Idli is a rice cake (sort of)) which was invented due to a shortage of rice
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That purple bread 
looks like ummm⊠well left alone too long 
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AI colorization does tend to make our food look like alien vomit 
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LOLâ:joy: early Roswell visit
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Maybe itâs those crazy Foo Fighters messing with us again 
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it is highly possible that she put jam on the sides. Who knows.
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