Category Archives: Kate Smith

Kate Smith’s Wartime Egg Recipes

1943AugRadioMirrorWith wartime rationing of meat and even cheese, the humble egg was quickly becoming an important source of protein, and as Kate Smith‘s column in the August 1943 issue of Radio Mirror proclaims, it was no longer just for breakfast.

1943AugRadioMirror2Always helpful, she provided a number of recipes to make the egg the main course.  I haven’t tried it (yet), but my favorite is the one reproduced here, for Peanut Butter Creamed Eggs.  If you don’t know how to make white sauce, the Food Network comes to the rescue with the recipe.  For the budget conscious victory gardener, serving it with a dandelion green salad is especially good.

Update:  I decided to give it a try, and for an austere wartime meal, it wasn’t bad.  It was very filling.  I made the full recipe, and after eating a late lunch, I had about half left over.  I was out of butter, but margarine seemed to work OK for the white sauce.  I’m not sure if the peanut butter added much to the flavor.  I think it would have been just as good with the white sauce and just salt and pepper.

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1942 Kate Smith & Jell-O

1942Sep28LifeThis Jello ad appeared in Life magazine 75 years ago today, September 28, 1942.

Kate Smith, whose program was heard Friday evenings on CBS, reported that she was tickled pink when she learned that Jell-O and Jell-O puddings would be her sponsor. She loved to eat real lucious food and loved to talk about it.

And when she thought of all of the marvelous things that could be made with Jell-O and Jell-O puddings, she said that she could write a book, and just might write one.

She reported that she was busy rounding up her favorite recipes and figuring out new tricks. A few of those recipes appeared in the ad, and she was crazy about every one of them.  And Kate wasn’t one to jump on the all-natural bandwagon.  “Jell-O’s Strawberry, Raspberry, and Cherry flavors seem better than ever to me these days.  Richer, with a real fresh-picked taste.  And they tell me it’s because they’ve found a way to artificially enhance the flavor and then keep it ‘locked-in.'”

Here’s Kate Smith singing the White Cliffs of Dover in 1942:

 

Cooking With Sugar Rationing

1942JuneRadioMirror

Sugar rationing took effect in the United States in May 1942, and the next month, CBS radio personality Kate Smith stepped up to the plate in the June issue of Radio Mirror with recipes with which the housewife could conserve the commodity, but still prepare deserts.

Smith knew that her readers would accept rationing for what it was–“an emergency method of making quite sure that everyone gets all the sugar he needs and that no one gets more than he really needs.” She also knew that her readers wanted to make sure that they didn’t use their portion wastefully.

Therefore, she presented these recipes showing how delicious deserts could be prepared with other sweetening agents such as corn syrup, prepared pudding mixtures (which used dextrose), molasses, and honey.

Her sugarless layer cake used corn syrup, and the molasses cake used molasses along with a bit of brown sugar. She suggested that an easy and delicious filling for either cake could be made with a package of chocolate pudding mix and milk, following the package directions, but with a bit less milk. Instead of frosting, the cake could be covered with nut meats, currants, or raisins, or a light dusting of confectioner’s sugar could be used.

She also included a chocolate souffle recipe using a packaged pudding mix, and baked stuffed oranges using corn syrup or honey.

For glazing a ham, she included a recipe with a corn syrup glaze.

 



Kate Smith Gives Advice on Wartime Meals

Kate Smith

Kate Smith

Seventy years ago, rationing was in effect for most meats, dairy products, sugar, and even some canned vegetables. Therefore, meals required careful planning. CBS radio personality and singer Kate Smith took the time in the April 1945 issue of Radio Mirror to explain the rationale behind the rationing rules. For example, she notes that 2 billion less pounds of meat would be produced in 1945 than had been produced in 1944. But the needs of servicemen and commitments to the Allies hadn’t changed. Therefore, those two billion pounds would have to come from the civilian supply.

Despite the seriousness of the situation, she reminds the readers that there was no excuse for preparing a meal that didn’t measure up to pre-war standards. “The trick lies in your own ingenuity–in how well you can learn to plan menus around the foods that, although restricted in variety, are still available to us in sufficient quantity.”

With that in mind, she presents the following menus. As you can see, they lean heavily on eggs. Since she assumes that most of the lunches will be eaten from a lunchbox, most consist of sandwiches, and the dessert is generally left over from the prior evening’s meal.

1945Menu

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