Victory Kitchen
Victory Kitchen is an exploration of food rationing in wartime America. Join author, historian, and vintage foodie Sarah Creviston Lee as she delves into World War II cookbooks, recipes and menu plans to discover how our grandmas got their food to fight for victory.
Episodes
Luncheon meat was all the rage during WWII. Convenient and economical, this tinned protein was both beloved on the home front and the loathed enemy of U.S. soldiers everywhere. In this episode, Sarah examines Spam and its counterparts to see what all the fuss was about and shares a unique Hawaiian cookbook from her collection.
To commemorate the 80th anniversary of V-E day, we turn to the American home front to see how they celebrated while keeping in mind the war wasn't quite finished yet. Sarah shares a special cake to honor Mother's Day and we hear words of wisdom from 1945 Nebraska school children about what V-E day means to them.
A special thank you to contributors on Internet Archive for making available a variety of radio clips from ...
Wartime meat rationing didn't just affect humans, it directly impacted their dogs and cats too. In this episode, Sarah explores how pets were fed pre-war and how pet owners got creative when the meat they relied on became scarce. Guest Kelsey Lonie, military historian, chats about the Dogs for Defense program, and two pets (Caspian & Rocky) try their own wartime ration recipes
In early 20th century America, Halloween was a time for unruly tricks, delicious treats and all sorts of "hijinks" in between. In this spooky episode, Sarah dives into how folks celebrated this anticipated (and dreaded!) holiday in a unique wartime setting. Festive, cursed recipes are brewed up with mixed results and we hear a haunting recitation of some chilling Halloween poems from 1942.
In 1942, the luxury of alcohol became a casualty of war to make way for industrial alcohol for war purposes. This left American drinkers high and (sometimes) dry.
In this episode, Sarah examines the tangled web of alcohol rationing and how states balanced the shortages and demands. Wartime pizza (with anchovies) hits the oven and we hear the story of alcohol crusader Ernest Albright - "the second Paul Revere."
Misconceptions surrounding American WWII food rationing are swirling around on the internet. Were eggs rationed? What about wheatless days? Milk was rationed too, right?
In this episode, Sarah sits down for an experimental ChatGBT sesh to see what it has teach her about rationing (it's not great). She breaks down the rationing basics, goes over what foods were rationed and which weren't and answers follower's wartime...
Homemaking during wartime presented its own special challenges. Join Sarah as she interviews Corina of The Hopewell Homestead, vintage homemaking extraordinaire, to answer questions about how women during WWII managed to do so much and run a household at the same time. A delicious meat pie recipe is on the menu and we get a look at breakfast time in a busy wartime household.
Two of the busiest workers on the homefront were honeybees and beekeepers! In this episode, Sarah talks about the insect/human dynamic duo and their important contribution to the war effort along with challenges they faced and solutions for those problems. Sarah tackles a couple honey recipes and a boy in 4-H discovers the joys of beekeeping.
Christmas in 1940s America conjures up a healthy dose of nostalgia for a lot of people even today. For this special holiday episode, Sarah peeks into traditions celebrated and wartime shortages folks experienced on the homefront from Christmas trees to chocolate. Hanukkah is given a special highlight and adorable children's letters to Santa bring plenty of cheer!
Join me on Substack for supplemental posts featuring images...
Canning wasn't the only way to preserve food in the 1940s! In this final episode of Season 4, Sarah highlights the old community staple of freezer locker plants, how they served their community and why freezing was maybe more patriotic than canning. She tries out a meatloaf recipe enshrined in bacon and shares an amusing freezer story back when frozen food was still a novelty!
Hospitals in wartime not only provided vital medical treatments and short- and long-term care for their patients, they fed them as well – but where did they get their food, especially in a time of war? In this episode, Sarah delves into the vague and completely unexplored aspect of American wartime food rationing: hospital farms. She looks at what they were, how they served the hospitals they were attached to and how World War II i...
War goods weren't the only thing that "rolled off the production line" during WWII. Babies swelled the U.S. population creating bottle necks for all sorts of goods from baby bottles to safety pins. In this episode, Sarah discusses not just baby product shortages, but how the little tykes were featured in propaganda, hospital vs. home births, and which baby foods were rationed and why. (Spoiler Alert: there are some d...
**It's a special Thanksgiving episode!** With the world at war, America's typical Thanksgiving feast was a lot more subdued, if not more patriotic. In this episode, Sarah explores Thanksgiving attitudes from WWII, the heartfelt and the guilt-trippy. She gets the details behind turkeys, rationing and their price tags, and delights over the birth of our iconic cranberry jelly "log".
Soda Fountains were at the core of American identity in wartime, representing so much of what we were trying to protect in our way of life: a sense of home, community, a place to relax & unwind, not to mention they were the dispensaries of our country's favorite sweet food: ice cream. In this episode Sarah digs into why Americans were obsessed with ice cream despite what the rest of the world thought of us and what unique ...
Eating away from home was a fact of life for busy people in WWII, and that was especially true for people traveling by rail. Dining cars were an essential part of feeding these people, but railroads were affected by wartime restrictions just like everyone else. In this episode, Sarah digs into this little researched topic to find out how railroads struggled with rationing, how civilians and the military ate aboard trains, and who m...
Wartime housing shortages led Americans resorting to live wherever and however they could while following lucrative defense factory jobs. Many of these places were not ideal. In this episode, Sarah discusses what the government did to address the housing crisis and focuses on two specific living conditions: trailers and apartments - plus the small space appliances that made cooking in them possible. She also interviews Jesse Willia...
Season 4 is kicking off its first episode in honor of this year's National Wildlife Week (April 5th - 9th) talking about hunting, fishing, and trapping in wartime! Sarah answers some pressing questions about ammunition rationing, goes over saltwater fishing rules, and discusses some hot wildlife conservation topics of the day fresh from WWII. She also highlights the hilarious, but very irresponsible, wartime cookbook by Lawren...
Much like the wartime conscientious objectors, not a lot is commonly known about the vital work that German and Italian POWs and the Japanese American Internees participated in to save our nation's crops during WWII. In this episode, Sarah highlights the Japanese agricultural heritage in our country, contemplates the conflicted relationship our communities had with enemy prisoners of war, and examines just how complicated the ...
Not much is commonly known about the important role conscientious objectors played in World War II except for maybe one Hollywood movie. In this episode, Sarah brings to light not only how conscientious objectors helped bring in the crops, but also the myriad of other vital ways they helped America during a crucial time of war despite the hardships they faced for their beliefs. Some cozy, winter-time recipes are discovered, and Sar...
Early in WWII, with much of the field labor being sucked into the military, defense or factory jobs, the farmers were in a really tough position for getting their crops harvested. In this episode, Sarah looks at the pros and cons of one of the most impactful agricultural programs ever implemented in the United States to help struggling farmers, the Bracero Program, which brought thousands of Mexican laborers to American fields. She...
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