Discover the top tips from wartime housewives on what to do with leftovers to turn them into delicious and satisfying meals. Reduce food waste, save money, and create sustainable meals with these leftover ideas.
During World War II, housewives were doing their part to help the war effort in many ways, including helping there family ration food. Wasting food was just not something you could do.
In vintage magazines and books from the 1940s you will find a lot of advice and recipes for using leftovers. You didn’t want to leave any bits of food behind.
Now food waste is a huge problem with nearly 40% of all food in America being wasted! That is not only a lot of money being thrown away but it’s also not great for our environment for us to waste food like that.
We can take note to the thrifty and creative wartime housewives and make new dishes with our leftovers. Some of their ideas are a bit weird modern palates but many are really great ideas. Even some that sound weird are actually great. Cream meat sounds strange but I’ve made cream ham and it’s actually delicious! So it’s worth trying some of the weirder sounding things as well.
These what to do with leftovers ideas come from a homemaking magazine from the 1940s. Some of the instructions are quite vague, I will try to share recipes when I can find full recipes.
I’m also adding some vintage recipe ideas for my own to help you find even more ways to use your leftovers, avoid food waste, and save some money!
What to Do With Leftovers
What to do with Leftover Beef
- Combine cubed meat with bread dressing (or stuffing) and bake.
- Combine cubes of pot roast with cubed vegetables, add leftover gravy, cover with mashed potatoes, and bake. (A version of Shepherd’s Pie)
- Spread moistened chopped beef, onion, and green pepper on biscuit dough, roll, slice, and bake. Serve with gravy.
- Combine ground beef with chopped pickles and salad dressing for a sandwich filling.
- Fill a pie crust with ground beef, vegetables, and gravy, and bake.
What to do with Leftover Pork
- Add diced pork to gravy, heat, and serve over toast.
- Combine cubed pork, celery, and gravy, and top with biscuits.
- Bake meat in gravy with mashed potatoes on top.
- Dice pork roast, add chopped onions, mushrooms, celery, gravy, and bean sprouts; heat and serve on noodles or rice.
What to do with Leftover Ham
- Spread thin slices with prepared mustard, place cooked green beans on each; roll and fasten with a toothpick; broil.
- Cream ham with chopped hard-cooked eggs and mushrooms, and serve on toast.
- Add chopped ham to scalloped potatoes, potato salad, macaroni and cheese, or omelets.
- Combine diced ham and condensed mushroom soup; heat and serve on toast.
Check out the post What to Do with Leftover Ham According to 1950s Housewives.
What to do with Leftover Chicken
- Serve creamed chicken over waffles or cornbread squares.
- Make chicken souffle, scalloped chicken with rice, chicken and noodles, chicken salad, or chicken pie.
My tip: Try making a chicken pot pie using a Bisquick crust!
What to do with Leftover Fish and Seafood
- Use in seafood cocktails, canapes, or sandwiches.
- Add to green salads or jellied fish salad.
- Make tuna souffle, fish loaf, salmon balls, or fish turnovers.
- Cream fish with peas and carrots, serve in fluffy potato nests, patty shells, or on toast.
What to do with Leftover Beans and Corn
- Use in succotash; combine green or lima beans and corn.
- Make corn and tomato scallop.
- Make corn fritters.
What to do with Leftover Spinach
- Add beaten egg and chopped ham or bacon; bake in custard cups until set. Serve with white sauce
What to do with Leftover Potatoes
- Slice or dice for hash-brown potatoes, au gratin potatoes, or oven-fried potatoes.
- Mashed potato cones; add chopped onion to mashed potatoes, form into cones, and brown in oven.
- Mashed potato casserole; add bread cubes, celery, and onion. Brown in oven.
What to do with Leftover Tomatoes
- Use in tomato soup with chicken broth.
- Make tomato sauce; use in meat loaf or combine with vegetables or meat and rice in casserole. Or pour over swiss steak.
What to do with Leftover Sweet Potatoes
- Mash; add beaten egg and seasonings; form patties or fry as croquettes.
- Slice and sprinkle brown sugar over, add marshmallows, and bake.
What to do with Leftover Vegetables
- Combine turnips, peas, and carrots, add white sauce, bake.
- Bake sliced carrots, pearl onions, and spinach in cheese sauce.
- Combine mixed cooked vegetables, top with layer of hard-cooked egg slices, white sauce, and top with bread crumbs; heat in oven.
- Use in gelatine salads.
- Mix to green salads.
- Reheat them in strainer over boiling water and add butter.
What to do with Leftover Apple Sauce
- Use in apple sauce cake.
- Make baked apple whip.
What to do with Leftover Berries
- Use in Bavarian creams.
- Use in fruit tapioca pudding.
- Top uncooked cereals.
- Garnish desserts.
What to do with Leftover Fruit Syrup
- Use in fruit drinks, gelatine salads, fruit ices, or sherbets.
What to do with Leftover Cherries
- Use a rich biscuit to make cherry cobbler.
- Add to fruit salads or tapioca pudding.
What to do with Leftover Peaches
- Make fruit custard.
- Use in fruit salads.
- Use as topping for cream pie.
What to do with Leftover Pears
- Use in fruit compote, salads, fruit cups, or meat garnishes.
What to do with Leftover Pineapple
- Use in salads, fruit cups, or in an ambrosia.
- Broil to serve with meats.
- Make cream pie.
What to do with Leftover Dried Fruits
- Combine 1 cup pulp, 1 teaspoon lemon juice, 2 tablespoons sugar, and 2 stiff-beaten egg whites. Bake 25 minutes in 325-degree oven.
- Use in tapioca, steamed, rice, or bread puddings.
- Comine in fruit compote.
- Use in pineapple, apricot, and prune upside-down cakes.
What to do with Leftover Bread
- Cube or crumb for bread stuffings.
- Use two-day old bread for brown betty, French toast, bread pudding, or cheese pudding.
- Mix crumbs with melted butter for crumb topping or casserole fillers.
- Make croutons; butter slices, cube, toast lightly and serve with soups, vegetable juices, or use as a topping.
What to do with Leftover Biscuits and Muffins
- Split, butter, and toast in oven.
- Serve creamed meats or vegetables on top.
What to do with Leftover Cornbread
- Use in cornbread stuffing.
- Spilt, butter, and toast in oven.
- Serve with creamed meat, fish, or chicken.
What to do with Leftover Cooked Cereal
- Mold, chill, slice; fry to a golden brown. Serve with syrup and bacon or sausage.
What to do with Leftover Pasta
- Bake macaroni and cheese in green pepper cases.
- Make a spaghetti, meat, and tomato casserole.
What to do with Leftover Rice
- Use in rice pudding.
- Combine rice with ground meat, and seasonings for croquettes, meatballs, or for stuffing green peppers.
- Combine cold rice with crushed pineapple, quartered marshmallows, and sweetened whipped cream, chill.
- Make meat or chicken casserole.
- Make rice spoon bread, muffins, cake, or patties.
- Make beef or chicken soup.
What to do with Leftover Egg Whites
- Use in sherbets, angel cake, white layer cakes, meringues, tortes, frostings, or divinity candy.
What to do with Leftover Egg Yolks
- Use in custards, cooked salad dressings, noodles, hollandaise sauce, gold cake, or sponge cakes.
- Poach, sieve, and use as garnish on vegetables or salads.
- Use as white sauce “enricher.”
What to do with Leftover Sour Cream
- Use in cakes, cookies, waffles, pancakes, brown bread, gingerbread, donuts, cornbread, sour cream meat dishes, and rich gravies.
What to do with Leftover Cake
- Line mold with stripes of sponge cake; pour in Barvarian cream, and chill until firm. Unmold to serve.
- Tear in small pieces, add nut meats and chopped candied cherries, fold into whipped cream and chill.
Wartime housewives were masters at making use of every last scrap of food in order to stretch their resources and feed their families. Today, we can learn from their ingenuity and use leftover ingredients to create delicious and satisfying meals.
Whether it’s turning leftover meat into a hearty stew or transforming stale bread into a crunchy crouton topping, there are countless ways to make the most out of what you have. By adopting a more resourceful approach to cooking, we can not only reduce food waste but also create more budget-friendly and sustainable meals for ourselves and our loved ones.
I hope some of these tips I shared today will make it easier for you to help your family like the housewives of the 1940s!
Mildred Stephens says
I notice that a lot of recipes call for Cream of Mushroom soup, but can I use something else since I am severely allergic to mushrooms? Also, the same thing with nuts and seeds, can they be left out without affecting the recipe? Thank you for your help.
Lisa Sharp says
I’m also very allergic to mushrooms. You can basically always use cream of chicken soup (or a homemade version) in place of cream of mushroom. Other cream of soups can work as well depending on the recipe.
Deanna Piercy says
I, too, am allergic to mushrooms. I substitute a thick white sauce, seasoned for whatever will suit the recipe. I’m also allergic to nuts. In most cases, simply leaving them out works fine. If you want some crunch on top of a savory dish, bread crumbs, crumbled crackers or French fried onions are options. For toppings on baked desserts, try oats mixed with butter and brown sugar.