Tag: rationing

1940's · 1944 · main dishes · soup · vintage recipes

Vintage Recipe: Mushroom Shrimp Bisque

Anna L Eriksen2 Comments

There are several recipes in my 1944 Good Housekeeping cookbook that immediately intrigued me the very first time I flipped through it. The Apple Cheese Crisp I made a while back was one of said recipes, as was the recipe I tried today: Mushroom Shrimp Bisque.

Right off the bat, this recipe ticked all the boxes for me: mushrooms? Yes, please. Shrimp? Sign me up. Soup? Always. To boot, the recipe looked extremely simple and quick to get on the table during a busy week at the office. But the real kicker was the unique nature of the recipe. Located in a section of the cookbook that focused on combining two different canned ingredients to make a new dish, I thought the recipe for Mushroom Shrimp Bisque sounded creative and I could not wait to try it. 

Easy? Absolutely. The hardest part of this recipe was finding my can opener in the Kitchen Drawer from Hell. Fast? Without a doubt. I had this recipe done and on the table in less than 10 minutes. Now that’s what I call an ideal weeknight supper! This is GREAT, I thought to myself and I could not wait to dip my spoon into the bowl.

As I ladled the soup and delivered it to the table, I could tell the Mister and my Maman were not quite as enthusiastic as I was. “THAT’S what we’re having for dinner??”, the Mister asked. “What’s in here?”, asked my Maman. I excitedly shared the name of the recipe and we all took our first bite.

The glances at the dinner table told the tale. There was no immediate reaction of “wow!” or even furrowed brows whilst we decided if we enjoyed the soup or not. There was silence. 

The Mister, brave former Marine that he is, piped up first with “it doesn’t really have any flavor, does it?” My Maman quickly agreed that it was very, very bland. Staunch defender of my own cooking that I am, even I couldn’t put a positive spin on this one. What a disappointment. 

So what DID it taste like? Well, frankly, it tasted like a warm bowl of milk with things floating in it. Actually, plain warm milk probably would have been better. The soup lacked any taste of mushroom or shrimp. None of us could discern any hint of tabasco, onion, or sherry either. To say it was an unsatisfying supper would be an understatement. It was very, very bland. In fact I commented that it would be a nice soup for someone requiring a bland diet. 

If you do happen to have a medical condition that requires you drop a few pounds and eat a bland diet, nutritionally this soup isn’t bad: in just 77 calories you get 50% of your daily vitamin D needs as well as over 5 grams of protein. Normally I don’t do a nutritional analysis of the recipes I try, but I’m trying to make lemonade here! 

That all being said, I appreciate the recipe for what it was – a creative way for a woman to feed her family a nutritious meal on a tight budget during a time of war and food rationing. If it was 1944 and this was my dinner, I would have been mighty glad to have had it.

Mushroom Shrimp Bisque

  • Servings: 6
  • Difficulty: easy
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Ingredients

  • 1 can condensed cream of mushroom soup, undiluted
  • 1 ½ c. bottled milk or ¾ c. evaporated milk and ¾ c. water
  • 1 c. canned or cooked shrimp
  • Dash tabasco sauce
  • 1 teasp. minced onion or chives
  • 1 to 1 1/2 tablesp. sherry (optional)

Directions


Stir together the mushroom soup, milk, and shrimp, which have been flaked after removal of the black vein down the back. Then add the tabasco and onion, and heat well but do not boil. Just before serving, add the sherry if desired. Serves 6.


I used canned shrimp for this recipe, draining the liquid as a treat for the cat. He refused it. I should have known.

Bon appetit!

1944 · main dishes · vintage recipes

Vintage Recipe: Beef Upside-Down Pie

Anna L EriksenLeave a comment

Well, I guess the old expression is true: two outta three ain’t bad.

My first two endeavors with 1944 cooking were extremely successful. The Swiss Cheese Pie was superb (although, update: the leftovers do not keep well) and the Baked Bean and Hamburger Savory was delectable. So to say I had high hopes for round three, Beef Upside-Down Pie, would be an understatement. Better luck next time, it seems.

First off, I must start by saying that I have made much worse dishes. Much. Oh the stories my poor family could tell about beet soup, tofu, and my now infamous “90 alarm chili” (turns out a few tablespoons of cayenne pepper is slightly too much. Oops). Thank goodness Beef Upside-Down Pie was not even close to those culinary disasters. In fact, the dish really wasn’t even bad. It just wasn’t great. 

That being said, Beef Upside-Down Pie was created with a very specific purpose in mind and it more than checked the box. 

This recipe was located within a section of the 1944 Good Housekeeping Cook Book entitled “Making Beef Go Farther” and gave the hint of combining meat with vegetables, rice, and breadstuff when meat is scarce. As meat was on the list of rationed foods in the United States from March of 1943 through November of 1945, these types of recipes were common in cookbooks and women’s magazines during the war years. Red stamps from Ration Book Two were used to purchase meat during this time and those over the age of 12 were allowed 2.5 pounds of meat a week. That means, in my household of three adults, we would be allotted 7.5 pounds of meat every 7 days. This recipe for Beef Upside-Down Pie called for just 1/2 of a pound of ground beef and served 4. 

Successful in stretching the meat ration? Absolutely. But taste? Well, the very component that allowed me to use so little meat was what made the recipe less tasty than it could have been and that was… the biscuit. 

The Mister, my Maman, and I all agreed that the biscuit was much too dry and there was way too much of it. In fact, we all came to the same conclusion: that the meat portion of the dish was quite good but the flavor was totally overwhelmed by the dryness and sheer volume of the biscuit. My husband commented that the “meat is good, when you can find it underneath all the bread.” 

While I was preparing the biscuit dough, I did take note of the amount of baking powder used and expected it to rise a fair amount, but three inches? Well, butter my biscuit. That was the equivalent of a small loaf of bread on top of a hamburger!

That being said, I would consider making this again with one major change: cut the recipe for the biscuit in half or even in thirds. That would balance the taste and allow the delicious juices from the pie to soak into the biscuit, making it much more palatable. 

As to time, it took exactly 30 minutes for me to get this into the oven and another 20 minutes to bake. 50 minutes was pushing it a little for a weeknight supper, but it was a simple recipe to make. 

All in all, this was a 2/5.

Beef Upside Down Pie

  • Servings: 4
  • Difficulty: easy
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Ingredients

  • 1 1/2 c. sifted all-purpose flour
  • 2 1/2 teasp. baking powder
  • 1 teasp. paprika
  • 1 teasp. celery salt
  • 1/4 teasp. pepper
  • 1 teasp. salt
  • 5 tablesp. shortening
  • 3/4 c. milk
  • 1/4 c. sliced, peeled onion
  • 1 can condensed tomato soup, undiluted
  • 1/2 lb. chuck beef, ground

Directions

Sift first 5 ingredients with 1/2 teasp. of salt. Cut in 3 tablesp. of shortening, until of consistency of coarse corn meal. Add milk. Meanwhile, cook onion tender in the remaining 2 tablesp. of shortening in a skillet. Add soup, the remaining 1/2 teasp. salt, and beef. Heat; then pour into a 8 5/8″ x 2″ round baking dish. Spread dough on top; bake in a very hot oven of 475 degrees F. for 20 min. or until biscuit is done. Serve upside down, cut in wedge-shaped pieces. Serves 4.


I made the recipe exactly as written, with no substitutions.

Bon appetit!