These books/resources made it to the top of my stack

[Anna N]

Yup.  I think @liuzhou was culturally deprived.  I grew up in the Midlands in the 50s and recall Danish bacon and I'm pretty sure it came in a can (and was considered quite a luxury in my family)  but then so was beef dripping so take that as you will.

[Soupcon]

I was in the Midlands myself in the 50s for a couple of years and don't remember canned Danish bacon. In fact I don't remember bacon at all as rationing was still an issue. So I guess along with @lizhou I was also culturally deprived. But I do remember the game we ate (my father shot them)... pigeon, pheasant, duck, rabbit, hare, etc which cost an arm and a leg to day but we ate regularly as you did not need a ration book to acquire them.

[suzilightning]

I am now breaking the cookbooks I read into   ....

Reading Cookbooks

Cooking Cookbooks

 

I just finished Marcus Samuelsson's Red Rooster Cookbook.  It was a fabulous read though I will never cook any of the recipes because

a)  there is too much dairy for our lifestyle

b)  too much spice for Johnnybird

 

His writing is so wonderful and so evocative of the Harlem experience.  When I finished I wanted to call, book a table for tomorrow and a car to take me there and back since I don't do cities,,,,,,,,,

 

 

[liuzhou]

12 hours ago, Soupcon said:

I was in the Midlands myself in the 50s for a couple of years and don't remember canned Danish bacon. In fact I don't remember bacon at all as rationing was still an issue. So I guess along with @lizhou I was also culturally deprived. But I do remember the game we ate (my father shot them)... pigeon, pheasant, duck, rabbit, hare, etc which cost an arm and a leg to day but we ate regularly as you did not need a ration book to acquire them.

 

Yes, bacon was one of the first foods to be rationed (1940) and remained so until July 4th, 1954. Even after that, it was still difficult to find for quite a while.

Edited February 5, 2017 by liuzhou
typo (log)

[Anna N]

1 hour ago, liuzhou said:

 

Yes, bacon was one of the first foods to be rationed (1940) and remained so until July 4th, 1954. Even after that, it was still difficult to find for quite a while.

 

 And I remember getting into very deep Doo Doo when I was sent off to buy bacon with money and ration stamps and lost the stamps.  We kids were given ownership of the stamps for sweets and I stashed mine in my sock for safekeeping and lost them to the laundry.   Rationing was traumatic!

[chromedome]

I inherited my grandmother's copy of The American Woman's Cookbook when she died. It's the wartime "Victory" edition, with a full section of rationing-friendly recipes added at the end. It makes for interesting reading.