The Food of WWII

I've heard of that fruitcake decades old is it a high sugar content that preserves it or what?

 

That’s amazing. I would love to taste it that old. I buy a fruitcake every Christmas. I love it. Nobody else in the family does, however.

 

Can't remember the last time I had a fruit cake no one else seems to like them. But now I wanna get some,lol.

 

The Lions club in Australia has sold Christmas fruit cake for many decades...they are always delicious and sell many for their various programs...Its a bit of an Australian tradition.

 

Boy, that looks good.

 

Looks good your making me hungry, lol.

 

In most movies about the navy they always have lots of coffee and milk. Now coffee I'm sure the had lots of folders caninisters on board, but milk I'm sure they had fresh at the beginning but how long can milk last even if properly refrigerated. I was wondering if they carried condensed milk or powdered both last long and still retain the same nutritional value as fresh milk except for maybe whole dairy fresh, which they say is the most nutritional but is illegal in most states. A fear of getting illnesses from unprocessed milk which happened on occasion prompted such but accordingly there has been very few cases. This was probably a kind of falsehood started by those who own pasteurization plants and wanted the states to contract them to process dairy milk. Nutritionists say some of the healthy value of milk is lost in the process and have been tell people to take advantage of whole dairy fresh milk. Those still against are saying those people where state boarders are close and travel over the border to get whole milk and bring it back are breaking commerce laws. I think that kind of thing is kinda stupid. Basically if your on a road trip you do so buying gas and traveling as your violating the different gas tax from state to state. Some laws and people are just plain stupid. Like according to most cities to change any permanent fixture in your home requires a builders permit and inspection. That's was just another way for cities to collect more funds and most people never do it, what a 20 dollar permit to change a light switch or receptacle, and that's per device. That's one of the reasons building permits are now a third of the price of the building. You pay a fee for every electrical device, switches, outlets, light fixtures, load panels, phoe outlets, tv outlets, they get you for everything, phone system, alarm system and now at least here, a electrical builders permit covered low and high voltage but now you pay a different fee for electrical power, low voltage phone and low voltage alarm. The same with all the trades, the county and cities make huge amounts of money. They even have a charge for how accessible to public streets or freeways. If your near a freeway access that can add as much as a hundred grand to your permit as that access makes your business more accessible to the public. I was on a four story project, the super told me it was costing the developer ten million, almost two were all the permits and right of ways. I thought that was insane I had help with permits before and they weren't that expensive but the counties and cities had come up with new ways to generate revenue and it was really sticking it to the developers who also had to pitch in for infrastructure, roads, water power. With the aging infrastructure and the Feds not wanting to foot the bill lots of states have gotten creative with charging the public for it by adding taxes they say are for services but they have to label everything legally so I read some bills and the jackasses were billing for all sorts of infrastructure programs as much as 32 dollars per billing. That adds up to millions state wide. Well I hope their getting the money they need and are rebuilding although I attended a infrastructure electrical meeting and some of the proposals for a new grid would be in the hundreds of billions, I really think they need to rethink that and just upgrade the existing system.

 

Oscar Meyer shipped a lot of tinned meat to the Soviet Union. What were they? Canned ham? I think Hormels makes Vienna Sausaages so it can't be that.

 

I think I read that the Brits and Aussies loved getting Vienna sausages from us and all our canned meats the Russians as well. Stalin really messed up on food stocking. Because like all his purges they had lasting reverse affects. His armies were not organized or well trained because he purged about 80/90 percent of his officer Corp on the pretense they might turn against him. Well many of the farm country didn't like him either so he purged a lot of them as a result those he put on the farms just did what they had to they were not real farmers and didn't care how well the farms did as they didn't own the farm so there was no self pride to do well as a result the farm production fell drastically and there was nation wide shortages. I'm sure this is one of the reasons rations were low to the troops we sent thousands of tons of canned foods to Russia to feed their troops canned meats and vegetables. I read the soviets loved our canned foods. The soviets spent millions in improving farm production for years after the war. Stalin couldn't understand why couldn't Soviet farming compete with US farming methods they would spend millions trying to produce farming equipment that could compete with ours buying examples from the US then copying them. We on the other hand have farms run by generations of farmers who during the war produced crops and livestock at a level no other nation could match. Like hell we were just about feeding all the allied armies Britain, Australia, Russia as well as two huge armies in Europe and the pacific. Got all those Hawaiians stuck on spam, lol, Hawaii still consumes more spam per capita than any other state. BTW i use to like those Vienna sausages too haven't had any in a long time might have to get some and see if they are as good as I recall, great with crackers or toast.

 

Actually, this was a problem throughout the Pacific theater for the Japanese. Interestingly, since the IJN and IJA had completely separate supply chains, often in the Pacific where both were occupying an island base, the IJA troops were on meager rations occasionally shipped from Japan and mostly left to their own devices to somehow locally procure food. This was due to the intermittent nature of shipping available to the IJA. At the same time, the IJN would more regularly deliver supplies and food to their sailors ashore meaning that they weren't on the verge of starvation.

For example, on Kiska Island in the Aleutians, the IJN shipped in pot belly stoves and coal for their contingent while the IJA troops had to try and build fireplaces out of stone and scavenge for peat and wood to fuel them. As the two bases were separate entirely, the two services had little contact and subsequently little chance of trade, not that the IJA troops would have had much to trade with...

 

Chicken Tikka Massala.

 

Spicier the better, old boy. Anything with chicken works for me.

 

An interesting dodge practiced in the US to rationing was larger corporations opened cafeterias and had contracts for food direct from suppliers. They did this as a hiring incentive more than as a sop to employees. Because there was a general labor shortage during the war, and the government had put wage and price controls in place, corporations that needed skilled workers were at a disadvantage. One way they got around that was to offer stuff as 'wages-in-kind.' These benefits included health insurance, or even a company hospital and medical service, cafeterias that served great meals for free or for a small fee.
The later allowed workers to eat many of their meals at work before, after, or during their shift meaning they didn't have to use ration coupons to purchase as much food. This made their ration coupons go much further.

The free medical / health insurance thing stuck after the war even as many of the other benefits vanished as corporations tried to save money while raising worker's salaries.

On the shadier side, power tools were a very popular item for workers to take home. It kept many companies scrambling to have enough on hand to get things done.

 

This was one of the British answers to rationing.
"On Lord Woolton’s instruction, the Ministry of Food formalized the establishment of ‘communal feeding centres’ in 1940. Also known as ‘community kitchens’, ‘community meal centres’, ‘civic’ or municipal’ restaurants, they had already been established by local authorities and volunteer groups across the country, some of whom had the experience of similar initiatives in the First World War."
www.findmypast.co.uk/blog/history/british-restaurants