Although the US had been sending food to our European allies since WWI began, we committed to sending much more after entering the war in April 1917. Herbert Hoover, the first director of the newly created Food Administration, encouraged Americans to conserve food so more could go to our servicemen and allies. Food wasn’t rationed, but Hoover publicized Meatless Mondays and Wheatless Wednesdays as patriotic activities and discouraged the use of sugar.

Newspapers and magazines published recipes to help home cooks comply, and most
did. Then came Thanksgiving.

Because Hoover pressed voluntary rationing, people soon began referring to their “hooverized Thanksgiving.” This meal looked familiar but had a few key changes as the use of wheat and sugar was discouraged.

Young turkeys were reserved for the men fighting or training, so homemakers bought old hens or gobblers or – the rare few – skipped meat. Since vegetables couldn’t be shipped overseas, they were encouraged for the table, with the traditional candied sweet potatoes being made with maple syrup instead of sugar. Cranberry sauce required too much sugar so most skipped it. For bread, cooks substituted cornbread or rye rolls for the usual yeast rolls. Instead of a cake and a couple of pies, the meal ended with one pie, preferably a single crust one like pumpkin. Mincemeat was out because it was an unnecessary use of meat.

After the armistice on November 11, Americans celebrated the end of fighting in Europe, but the war continued elsewhere and so did voluntary rationing. Thanksgiving dinner 1918 looked much as it did in 1917 but the people sitting around it must have felt great relief.