This page will outline food box and label printables associated primarily with the US Army or the homefront. Other countries are listed if I have a box or label for them.
For a listing of wartime recipes, the 1940s Experiment has a list of 100+ British recipes. You can also see my Red Cross recipes post.
Drink
Vat 69 Blended Scotch Whisky – A whiskey label to print off on standard 8.5 x 11 printer paper. Then, glue the label to the Whiskey bottle. I’m not sure what kind of glue is needed, but you’ll likely need an original VAT69 bottle. Attributed to ChrisNZ.
For the stopper and the wax seal stamp, you can 3D print it using this guide. Use black for the stopper and red wax.
The bottles are green in color, and you can pick them up at various places online like ebay.com or etsy.com, etc. Google Images is a good place to start to see what’s available, as well as the old advertisements to see where the label parts get placed. For a short history of Vat 69, see A History of VAT 69.
While not Vat 69 for an overseas cocktail recipe that could pass censors, see the Ration Recipe Section Cherry Jar Cocktail.
Food
WW2 Wrigley’s Army Ration Cinnamon Chewing Gum Wrappers – A Pdf that shows two styles of the gum wrapper. The top is model ODC-1, and the bottom is ODC-2. I have not printed these off or tested the size.
There are also better options, such as buying the wrapper from an online source that didn’t exist when I first attempted to make these.
Wrigley’s developed Cinnamon gum because the mint gum that was included in K-rations made everything taste like mint.
Poor Man’s D-Ration: When I first started WW2 Reenacting back in the late 1990s, there wasn’t much way in the authentic rations. This was a broke kid’s attempt to make a D-ration.
Essentially, print off the wrapper on brown cardstock. You may need to adjust tones (half-tone seemed to work in the past).
Trim, cut, and fold it. Use a few dabs of Elmer’s school glue to glue the sides together.
In the past, I used Hershey bars as the D-Ration, which is just ridiculous. These days, I might either make the D-ration myself or buy some protein bars, wrap them in wax paper, and stick them inside.
Once you have your ration inside, use a few glue dots to close the lid. That way, you can re-open it without damaging it and continue to re-use the box.
If you want to make edits to the image size, you can download the document file here.
You can also refer to the Ration Recipes D-bar section for another.
Poor Mans C-Rations: When I first started WW2 reenacting back in the late 1990s, there wasn’t much way in the authentic rations.
The unit I was with, 88th Infantry Division, 350th RCT, came up with a poor man’s way to make rations. We were all poor high school and college kids trying to make it work.
Essentially, buy two 12oz cans. One can, the “M” unit, would be an off-the-shelf Pork n’ Beans. The other one, the “B” unit, would be a cheap 12oz can. You then take a can-opener that doesn’t leave rough edges and cut the top till you have about a fingertip left. The idea is that you could open and close the can and reuse it.
You then fill the “B” unit with biscuits (wrapped in wax paper), 3-5 caramels, a few sugar packets, and travel-size instant coffee.
You then print the label using gold-colored/foil paper, wrap it around the can, and glue it.
There are better places to find more authentic c-rations. Etsy appears to have a few that make them. But in a pinch, if you’re just starting, this could work.
Another way to make the units can be found in this document: Making WW2 C-Rations for Reenacting.
You can also refer to the Ration Recipes C-Ration Biscuit section for more information.
German
This will show a listing of German boxes and labels. For an example of a recipe, see Ration Recipes, German Goulash for Field Kitchen.
Butter-Keks are a brand of crackers. Wikipedia goes into more detail on the brand’s history. Looks like you can print it on cardstock. I’m unsure how many crackers go into the box. I would also guess the crackers would’ve been wrapped in some kind of craft or wax paper.
