Thrifty Tips From Wartime: Sandwich Making

Wartime ideas for more exciting sandwiches

1943

We've been doing some road tripping as a family and typically that is the time I make a bunch of sandwiches to save money and keep tummies happy along the way. (Cheese, crackers, and fruit is another great alternative.) Sandwiches are just super economical and easy to make!

I think one of the things I've been most impressed by in wartime recipes is the never-ending supply of sandwich ideas. Whether working, going to school or on the go, packing lunch boxes became a new art. And I love the ideas this one cookbook had for setting up a "lunch station" with all the tools you need for quickly preparing healthy lunches. How many tools can you identify?

300 Helpful Suggestions for Your Victory Lunch Box, 1943. Edited by Gertrude Buchholz

This wartime concept is the very reason why I keep tape in my kitchen drawer. And it's important to note that they had disposable paper containers too.

ca. 1943 - check out all of those disposable paper containers!

Granted, there are a lot of wartime ideas that today we would find highly questionable. (I'm looking at you liver... 👀) But there are some really clever and downright delicious ideas too! I'm going to focus on the tasty recipes. While the weird ones are definitely entertaining, I want to arm you with a lot of inspiration for making your own thrifty, inexpensive sandwiches! A few ideas might be a stretch for some, though, so keep that in mind.

If you'd like to learn more about the philosophy of wartime lunch making, check out my episode all about it!

Episode 12 - Eat a Lunch that Packs a Punch

Eat a Lunch That Packs a Punch Substack post

300 Helpful Suggestions for Your Victory Lunch Box

1. Switch Up Your Sandwich Bread

The most fascinating idea to avoid sandwich boredom is to use a variety of breads.

• Enriched white

• Whole wheat

• Rye

• Pumpernickel

• Cheese

• Oat

• Sweet breads like Date-Nut or Honey Orange Nut Loaf

• Etc.

One of the wartime bread recipes that left an impression on me was the “School Days” bread from the 300 Helpful Suggestions for Your Victory Lunch Box. This was a regular yeast bread, but it has 3 tbsp. of cocoa powder in it. It made some very tasty sandwiches!

Here is a page from the cookbook with “unusual yeast breads” lol. It has a nice array of savory and sweet loaves to try, including the “School Days” bread.

2. Vary Your Sandwich fillings

Besides blowing my mind that you can use sweet loaf breads for sandwiches, exploring wartime sandwich filling ideas has really broadened my scope of imagination. I’ve loved learning how important it is to vary texture, having sweet and savory options, and that there are so many ways to mix and match ingredients.

I will admit that this is where we start treading on shaky ground. What they deemed as “delicious” back then would be dismissed as disgusting today, so it really is a matter of taste.

When I was in 4th grade, our school didn’t have a cafeteria, so we ate lunch in our classrooms. I remember that no one was willing to eat with our classmate Aaron Wilson because he brought to school and relished his liverwurst (Braunschweiger) and ketchup sandwiches. I grew up eating liverwurst on occasion, so I didn’t mind eating with him. I mean, I ate peanut butter and Miracle Whip sandwiches, so we were pretty good company for each other. Haha!

There are a plethora of sandwich filling ideas from the 1940s, but for the sake of simplicity, I’m just focusing on the ideas found in the 300 Helpful Suggestions cookbook. Do you see any you like? Any that would be a hard NO? For convenience, I’ve divided up the ideas by Meat and Vegetarian.

MEAT

• Meatloaf

• Spicy Ham Loaf

• Minced Ham & Pickle

• Mix chopped leftover meat with minced celery, onion and mayonnaise

• Bacon & Chopped Celery

• Minced, chipped beef and Swiss cheese spread with mustard-horseradish sauce, on rye bread

• Cream Cheese & Bacon

• Flaked fish with hard cooked egg, minced pickles, lemon juice and mayonnaise

• Frankfurters (yep, a hot dog sandwich!)

• Hard cooked eggs, mashed with salmon or sardines, moistened with mayonnaise

• Good ol’ BLT

• Shrimp Salad - chopped shrimp, celery, minced onion, moistened with mayonnaise

• Liverwurst sauteed in a little butter; or mashed with mayonnaise or prepared mustard. Yum!

VEGETARIAN

• Florida Fruit (raisins or prunes, cream cheese, grated orange rind, orange juice

• Grated raw beets mixed with salad dressing

• Peanut butter and chopped ginger, moistened with mayonnaise

• Egg and Celery (hard cooked eggs)

• Blue cheese, celery, mayonnaise, dill pickle

• Cottage cheese with chopped dried fruit, honey, jam or jelly

• Cream cheese, mashed, moistened with a little milk and beaten until fluffy; mix with finely-chopped spinach, season with salt and pepper

• Peanut butter mixed with chopped dates, moistened with mayonnaise

• Chili-Peanut - peanut butter, cream, chili sauce, finely-chopped salted peanuts (It sounds bizarre, but this one is actually quite a good savory mix!)

• Chopped hard-cooked egg, diced leftover ham, moistened with mayonnaise (Oops! This has ham, but you can leave it out or sub in a vegetarian savory something instead for a variation of egg salad.)

You may have noticed that mayonnaise is a theme. It’s a little pricey now (egg prices! Yikes!), but back then it was an economical way to hold together minced sandwich fillings. And we really haven’t strayed too far from this concept. I myself like a good chicken salad for a sandwich, and it’s even more fun when you add golden raisins, minced apple, and some curry powder with the mayo.

You can save a lot of money by making your own mayonnaise. For a homemade mayo recipe, there are plenty of options online, but here’s one that I found. Homemade Mayo

And here’s a super fast recipe using an immersion blender. 1-Minute Mayo

I’d love to hear if any of these sandwich ideas have piqued your interest. What’s your favorite or go-to sandwich? And is anyone willing to take me up on a peanut butter and Miracle Whip sandwich challenge? I love eating it with a few leaves of iceberg lettuce. It’s a really unique, savory sandwich that needs more love. Haha!