The 2-Ingredient Sandwich That Was Popular During World War II

A number of dishes have come about because of wartime, and the era of World War II was no different. Rationing took its toll on the civilians who stayed behind while soldiers battled on the front lines in both Europe and the Pacific theaters, with clever housewives creating Woolton's Pie and pulling out their Wacky Cake recipes from the Depression era. Where sweets were concerned, those in uniform were provided with military-grade chocolates. Meanwhile, cocoa-rich candies were mostly unavailable to civilians, so they had to make do with a two-ingredient sandwich known as a jam butty for a sweet fix.

Popular in Northern England, jam butties were literally just bread and jam, with the word "butty" being a slang English term for a sandwich that's popular in the North, Wales, and the Midlands. But they were a real treat to the people who ate them, especially if they could get their hands on sugary jam (to make it last longer, refrigerating it would help). This was not always the case, however; it does appear that at times, when homemade jam from whatever berries were available was used, jam butties may not have always been so sweet, but were at least flavorful thanks to the fresh fruit. Still, at the times when homebound civilians did use their monthly allotment of jam to make jam butties, these actually sweet sandwiches must've tasted like a little bit of heaven.

Of course, people put their own spins on the jam butty, both in the era when the sandwich was originally conceived and all these years later. One popular variation on the two-ingredient jam butty was simply to add an ingredient — butter. While butter was also heavily rationed during World War II, it would have been such a small, simple joy (in a time of such hardship and grief) to add a slather of the creamy, satiny yellow dairy product with the bright, fruity filling, and envelop both ingredients between two pieces of sturdy bread.

Later cooks would also actually fry the jam butty. This was a much more involved process that included dipping the sandwich into a batter made of butter, flour, water, and an egg, then shallow-frying it on each side in a pan (and in the spirit of today's Uncrustables, which can also be fried, the crusts were also typically removed). If you were feeling extremely fancy — and you were far removed from the meager war years and its rationing — you could hit it with some powdered sugar while still hot for an extra sweet finish.

And while the concept remained the same, jam butties did evolve into, well, whatever-is-in-the-pantry butties. Anything from bananas and other fruit, to even fries (called chips across the Atlantic) could end up sandwiched between two slices of bread, battered and fried, and called a butty.