Recipes for Victory #5: Chinese Fried Rice

International-Style Cuisine in Wartime

Madame Chiang’s Chinese Cook Book, published by the Chinese Cook Book Company; Winona, Minnesota; 1941

Happy February and Lunar New Year! I’ve been wanting to get out my international wartime cookbooks and try some new recipes again.

This month’s recipe is for Chinese Fried Rice from Madame Chiang’s Chinese Cook Book. This cookbook is pretty amazing. There’s a recipe for Oriental Style Crab Salad in here that’s become a family favorite that we eat on New Year’s Eve. My kids look forward to it every year!

One thing I love about this cookbook is the purpose behind it.

It’s very telling of the time that the biggest selling point of Chinese food (besides it being delicious!) is that it stretches meat, the recipes are “principally of vegetables and are easily digestible” and are full of nutrition, not to mention filling! And while the war hadn’t started yet when this book was published, these points are what lends wartime-friendliness to these recipes.