Double Duty

From those patriotic folks at Knox, dessert and main-dish recipes that not only save ration points but time.

One days cooking for two days eating (their punctuation). Save yourself time! Save yourself trouble! Save fuel! Save pennies! On this and the next two pages are ‘double duty’ recipes that actually give you two days of good eating for one day’s easy cooking. The basic recipe makes a double amount, so you use half of it for a delicious treat one day – and next day turn the other half into a completely different recipe.

As hokey as it seems today, this would have been very appealing to a 1940’s housewife, who—in addition to all of the usual chores of childcare, cooking, cleaning, laundry, mending, chauffering, shopping, etc—was either volunteering several days a week at the Red Cross or USO, or working full time in a defense industry or to replace a male worker who was now in uniform.

And if she was under thirty-five she was probably doing this without Dad, who was away at camp or overseas, and trying to do it on military pay which meant a lot less money than many middle-class women were accustomed to having. Dishes that saved ration points and cash, and could be prepped the morning or even the night before, were a boon and a blessing.

The pages below were scanned from Salads, Desserts, Pies and Candies, published by the Knox Gelatine company in 1943. Left-click to enlarge or go here for full-sized images.






And just for Jitterbug, who inspired today’s post, here are some nummy, nummy recipes for desserts including one for jellied Prune Whip (her favorite).