My banana bread recipe is in the 1943 edition of The Joy of Cooking. It uses pecans but no spices. It was a revised and expanded version of previous editions so its recipes still called for sugar and butter. There was a small section added near the back which offered some sugarless or low-sugar recipes and suggestions as well as a few for meatless or meat stretcher meals. (Sugar was first rationed in the spring of '42; then coffee in the fall followed by meat and many other commodities. Sugar was rationed until 1947 though most rationing ended right after the war.) The book was given to me as a 13th birthday present in '45...I wasn't cooking much at the time. However. my mother used it frequently until I married in the mid-50's and it's been used heavily since then and is held together with a heavy-duty rubber band. The banana bread page is heavily splattered. Reckon Mrs Rombauer would be pleased?

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