With the introduction of point rationing and War Ration Book Two in February of 1943, meat, butter, margarine, canned fish, cheese, canned milk, fats, and oils were rationed. Shortages of both meat and fats during the early winter had caused alarm in Washington. When the government estimated that the 1943 civilian butter supply would fall 15 percent below demand, and two additional sources of fat (coconut oil and palm oil from the Philippines and East Indies) were lost to the enemy, the decision was made. Citizens polled said that they preferred rationing to the inequalities that were expected to result as shortages increased.
This was the first rationing program in which shoppers were able to pick and choose among available items and decide which to “spend” their points for. The little red stamps became a kind of currency that required special government ration banks and a lot of extra work for grocers. Of the rationed fats, butter was the most missed and the most talked about. Shortening and vegetable oil were in greater supply, cost less, and required fewer ration points to buy. When you ask home-front cooks about fats during the war, they rarely mention margarine, shortening, and salad oil rationing. Butter deprivation and collecting scrap fats are the factors that they remember most.
People also remember the white margarine. Early in the history of margarine, butter manufacturers had managed to get laws passed in many states taxing the coloring of margarine so it was purchased white and had to be colored at home. In some states, food service establishments were prohibited from coloring margarine at all. I remember the large blocks of white margarine on the table at the summer camp I attended just after the war. We all chose to call it “cold cream.”
Although fat from bacon and other meats could be and often was, substituted for butter as a cooking fat, the government recommended another use for them. Magazine articles and government posters counseled homemakers to save fats for making the glycerin used in explosives. Homemakers were told that a tablespoon of fat saved each day would make a pound a month. A pound from every home each month would make more than 500 million pounds of smokeless powder a year. Readers were directed to save the fat from deep-fat frying, meat drippings, and the rendered trimmings from steaks and chops; strain it and when a pound had been collected, take it to a butcher, who would pay the prevailing price for it in cash or ration stamps depending upon the program that was in effect at that time period.
Because butter was so sorely missed, what was available was saved for special occasions. To make it go farther, recipes recommended making spreads such as Honey Butter to use as a spread for bread and taught homemakers how to double the volume of butter by whipping it with an unflavored gelatin mixture or combining it with an equal amount of margarine. Well into the 1950s, my mother continued to whip together a pound of softened butter and a pound of margarine to make our table spread. Until I started this research, I never knew why. Lists of tips were everywhere to remind homemakers to thinly spread bread and rolls before serving (rather than putting a butter dish on the table), to use dried herbs, seasoned salts, and broth rather than butter on vegetables, and to use processed cheese, jelly, and peanut butter for spreads in place of butter. Do you know someone who opens only one end of a stick of butter and then rubs it over warm toast, corn on the cob, or on top of a bowl of vegetables? It might seem rude now, but that was perfectly acceptable, patriotic behavior in the summer of ’43.
Most wartime cake recipes called for vegetable shortening. Where butter appeared in a recipe it was either for a very special occasion such as Christmas or a wedding, an old recipe that hadn’t been changed (I found one where the editors called for shortening in the ingredient list but had forgotten to change the “butter” in the directions), or a tiny bit of butter was used in a crumb topping or over vegetables where it would be fully appreciated. In addition to replacing butter in baked goods, substituting for oil in salad dressings was an area in which homemakers needed help. Some of the recipes they used are included here. The baking recipes in this chapter often suggest that you substitute butter if you can get it—and today we can. So you can choose between using shortening for authenticity or butter for the flavor home-front cooks dreamed of.
