The Appetite of War

Tomorrow marks the centennial of the 1918 Armistice and the end of World War I , the war to end all wars. Unfortunately that was not the case. The 20th Century produced many more conflicts. Surprisingly or may not so surprisingly those conflicts influenced the way we cooked and ate.

World War I brought out prejudices and hatreds , buried for a while but then reborn with the US going against the Germans. German delicacies and every day foods were either shunned or renamed. Sauerkraut was renamed "liberty cabbage " while hamburgers received the new name of"liberty sausages" (whoever named the last really didn't think that one through).The idea was taken up at the turn of this century  with the French not supporting the Iraq War, It seemed those "true blue Americans" liked the idea of renaming French fries "liberty fries". It's a surprise that crepes weren't named liberty pancakes or champagne liberty sparkling wine. Luckily German Americans could go back to not only eating the foods they grew up on but also calling them by their correct names too. The Second World War also brought out biases, especially for German, Italian - and Japanese Americans, the last being sent to interment camps. Gone was their diet of traditional Japanese food and in its' stead they were fed a steady diet of spam, hotdogs and soggy potatoes. Cooks got created and made hot dog sushi along with a dish  called "Weenie Royale"made with hot dogs, eggs and rice.

The up side of war - if there is one - is what comes out of it, namely inventions. The soy sausage was one of those byproducts. German Chancellor Konrad Adenauer wanted a nutritious meat substitute to feed the German people.  His first idea was a wheat flourless bread. made from rice flour, barley and Romanian corn flour however that flew out the window when Romania entered the war. It was then onto to soy and creating something that would be filling. Chancellor Adenauer came up with the soy sausage and the rest is history. However , it didn't meet the German government specifications of what should be called sausage (there had to be meat). Funny enough he had better luck peddling it to his enemies. King George V of England granted him a patent in June 1918. Another by product of the Great War was the teabag.It was actually invented a decade earlier by an American tea merchant who used it to send out samples to his customers. Yanks quickly plunked them into their cups of hot water yet it was the Germans who ran with the idea. They copied the idea and gave the small cotton bags to every soldier.. They were  called tea bombs.

Life has to continue during a war. That means eating. There may be rationing, there may be new foods to come out of it. We all have to have sustenance, despite the circumstances.