Laura The Gastronaut > Old Recipes > 1940's Liberal Thursday Meal Plan

1940's Liberal Thursday Meal Plan

January 10, 2022 | Laura Ehlers

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You can buy Lily Wallaces's New American Cook Book which contains these recipes here.

Check out the previous 1940 recipes and meal plans I've made!

Watch me make these meal plans on my Tiktok!

- Thursday Breakfast Video
- Thursday Lunch Video
- Thursday Dinner Video

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LILY WALLACE NEW AMERICAN COOK BOOK

This 1946 Lily Wallace New American Cook Book is one of my favorite cookbooks that I own. Not only is it packed full of thousands of recipes, it contains some gems as well! It contains recipes that will never go out of style and are still cooked today. However, there are some recipes that should have stayed in the 1940s.. I'm looking at you aspics. There's also information on how to set a table, how a housewife should be running their home, diet suggestions, a plethora of information over vitamins, and meal plans based on your income.

In order to take a look back into history, I decided to cook all of the meal plans. Originally I was going to make them all in a week as it is suggested, but I couldn't do it. For one, my grocery list was a mile long, and it was just so time consuming I wouldn't have time for anything else except, well, surviving. A HUGE kudos to any housewife, past or present, that can pull something like this off.

There's four weekly meal plans in the book: Liberal Diet, Moderate-Cost Adequate Diet, Minimum-Cost Adequate Diet, and Restricted Diet for Emergency Use. The Liberal Diet was listed first so that's what I went with. This plan was made for those with $3,000 or over annual income, and "provides abundantly the nutrients needed by young and old for the enjoyment of buoyant health." For reference, $3,000 in 1946 is about $43,000 in today's world.

Each day has breakfast, lunch, and dinner listed. I have already completed the Monday meal plan, the Tuesday meal plan, and Wednesday's meals. So let's move on to Thursday!

1940's THURSDAY BREAKFAST

This Thursday breakfast was one of my favorites so far mostly because griddle cakes were involved. These griddle cakes were made very similarly to how I make pancakes usually, and they were coated with maple syrup. We also had baked apples which were also delicious. These are just apples that are filled with brown sugar, sprinkled with lemon juice and cinnamon, and baked in a little bit of boiling water in the oven for about 30 minutes. Right before serving a handful of raisins are thrown on top. Lastly, this breakfast is served with a cup of coffee, of course. If children are also going to be eating breakfast, they are served hot cereal and milk.

1940's THURSDAY LUNCH

I was really excited for this lunch because it had lamb sandwiches. Lamb is one of my favorite things to have leftover because it makes bomb sandwiches. The Wednesday dinner had stuffed lamb shoulder so these sandwiches used the leftover lamb from that meal. The lamb was minced and piled high on some day-old bread that had been coated with butter. I'd eat this sandwich any day of the week. Next, we had cabbage and carrot salad. This was a simple salad that included carrots, cabbage, onions, parsley, and mayonnaise. I made the mayonnaise from scratch which makes it extra delicious. I loved this salad and would definitely eat it again. We also had stewed dried apricots. This one didn't make much sense to me. I would have much preferred dried apricots directly from the package. Instead, they had me soak the dried apricots in water for 24 hours and then simmer them in water for 30 minutes. It just seemed like too much planning ahead for something that made minimal difference. Lastly, this meal was served with a glass of milk.

1940's THURSDAY DINNER

I was looking forward to this one. Baked cheese fondue? YUM. It was made with milk, bread crumbs, eggs, cheese, some seasonings, and butter. Since it's baked fondue, it didn't have the consistency of a cheese sauce. It reminded me more of a cheese souffle since eggs were included, and it puffed up while baking in the oven. The book also had me make a tomato sauce to go with the fondue. It was just a simple white sauce with tomato juice mixed in. The boiling of the tomatoes and squishing them into the white sauce wasn't a lot of work, but it was too much work for the end result. The sauce was bland and took away from the fondue, in my opinion. The sides of this dinner were very straightforward- buttered peas, boiled potatoes, and toast. The children also were to receive a glass of milk with this meal.

For dessert, we had fruit shortcake. I was also looking forward to this part of the dinner, but I found that it fell flat. I'm not sure if it was something that I did wrong or if the recipe was just mehh, but the shortcake was dry and definitely not worth the effort. Luckily, it was surrounded with strawberries and whipped cream which helped improve the taste.

As always, these meals were quite time-consuming to complete and to plan out. I'll always remain impressed by the efforts of a 1940s housewife. My favorite recipe from today's meal plan was a tie between the griddle cakes and the minced lamb sandwich. My least favorite recipe was the stewed dried apricots and fruit shortcake.

Stay tuned for 1940s Liberal Friday Meal Plan coming soon!

Make sure to follow me on TikTok where I make all of these recipes plus more!

YOU MAY ALSO LIKE

1940s Liberal Wednesday Meal Plan

1940s Liberal Tuesday Meal Plan

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You can buy Lily Wallace's New American Cook Book which contains these recipes here.

Check out the previous 1940s recipes I've made!

Bon appétit!

January 10, 2022 by Laura Ehlers