Americans turned Christmas dinner into patriotic duty during WWI with wartime recipes
Published: 20 December 2025
By Deirdre Bardolf
via the FOX News website
wwi-win-war-kitchen-cookbook
The 1918 "Win the War in the Kitchen" cookbook urged Americans to conserve food. (National WWI Museum and Memorial)
When Americans sat down to Christmas dinner in 1918, the meal wasn’t just a celebration — it was an act of patriotism.
During World War I, the U.S. Food Administration urged households to save wheat, sugar, meat and fats so more food could be shipped to troops overseas — and it backed a cookbook, “Win the War in the Kitchen,” filled with ration-friendly recipes.
Today, the National WWI Museum and Memorial in Kansas City preserves that cookbook through its online exhibit, “War Fare: From the Home Front to the Frontlines.”
“Everyone must help if we are to win,” the cookbook declared. “Fats are the most precious thing in this war,” it added, noting the Army needed them both to feed soldiers and produce glycerin for explosives.
Even sugar mattered: “Saving that ounce a day is part of YOUR WAR SERVICE.”
Christmas still called for dishes
that felt special.
The cookbook drew contributions from food companies, American Red Cross dietitians, women’s auxiliaries and magazines of the era — with endorsements from figures like Herbert Hoover, then head of the U.S. Food Administration, and President Woodrow Wilson.
It was driven by patriotism, said Lora Vogt, the museum’s vice president of education and interpretation.
“Hoover helped lead the nation, not by saying, ‘The government is mandating this,’ but instead, ‘Each of you American families get the opportunity to support our nation and support American ideals by changing how you eat,'” Vogt told Fox News Digital.
While wartime substitutions like carrot coffee, soybean loaf and calls to “make every day a fish day” filled everyday meals, Christmas still called for dishes that felt special.
Below are seven dishes that would have appeared on some 1918 American Christmas tables.
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