Yinzer Yums of Yesteryear: WWII oatmeal bread

What appears to be a normal snapshot from a page of a Pittsburgh newspaper is anything but ordinary if you look between the lines. While there are ads for beauty products and local services plus an array of recipes meant to make every home warm and happy with loved ones gathered around the table, this page from The Pittsburgh Sun-Telegraph was printed in the midst of World War II.

During the war, Americans were called upon to ration meat, sugar, butter, certain canned goods, cooking oils, coffee, and a variety of other food products. Those who cooked meals for their families had to do a bit of creative thinking when it came to meal planning.

In the current state of our country, it’s becoming increasingly difficult for families to afford their groceries. Not to mention the avian flu crisis, the loss of farm workers to racist ICE raids, and rampant price gouging. There may come a time soon when we may need to stretch our grocery budgets and our creative thinking.

This oatmeal bread is a product of WWII ration planning, making good use of cheap ingredients and avoiding using large quantities of rationed goods. There is no sugar, no oil, and very little butter in this bread. Oats were, and still are, cheap, and they stretch out the recipe so you don’t need to use as much flour. This recipe also does not call for eggs, which fits with today’s “rations.”

The original recipe calls for the following:

• 1 ½ cups of oatmeal plus 2 cups of boiling water
• ½ cup molasses
• ½ tbsp salt
• 1 tbsp butter
• 1 yeast cake (today, we use a yeast packet) dissolved in ½ cup lukewarm water
• 5 cups flour

Add 2 cups of boiling water to one and a half cups of oatmeal and allow to sit for about one and a half hours. Then add the rest of the ingredients. Stir together well. Let rise till doubled in bulk then stir down. Knead gently on a flowered board for 4 to 5 minutes. Turn into buttered bread pans (3). Let rise again until the dough reaches the top of the bread pans. Then bake in a hot oven set to 400° for around 50 minutes. You may add fruit or nuts after the first rising.

After the oatmeal came together, I followed the directions regarding combining the ingredients, but I did so in my KitchenAid stand mixer. I added the flour last, one cup at a time. I used my paddle attachment for the first three cups, then switched to my bread hook attachment before adding the fourth cup of flour.

I only have one bread pan, and it’s on the larger side. So I separated my dough into two equal portions and allowed one half to rise in the bread pan first, then baked it. I did not add the optional fruit or nuts to my dough, but I did garnish the top of the bread with raw oats. My bread was fully baked at forty minutes. I removed it from the pan after resting for ten minutes and let it cool on a rack.

I sliced the first loaf while it was still warm, which was a mistake. The bread split in the middle. So I sliced the second loaf after allowing it to cool in the refrigerator overnight. The slices came out thin and perfectly even.

The original author suggests serving this toast with homemade jam. Why not? It has a slightly sweet taste and is wonderful with butter or as French toast. But it also makes a great substitute for sandwich bread. My son and I enjoyed using this bread for grilled cheese sandwiches, which we gobbled down with some broccoli soup (another budget-friendly recipe).

You can find a printable PDF of this recipe here:

This article appears in Jan 29 – Feb 4, 2025.