The Ration Book Diet E-Book

Mike Brown

• Herausgeber: The History Press
• Kategorie: Geisteswissenschaft
• Sprache: Englisch

Seitenzahl: 123

Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2023

Beschreibung

In 1939, Britain was preparing for war. As well as building aeroplanes and digging Anderson shelters, this meant managing food supplies for the home front. The Ministry of Food rose to the challenge, introducing rationing, encouraging the nation to dig for victory, and issuing cookbooks and health advice. Drawing inspiration from Britain's 'finest hour', when the thrifty British housewife had to grow her own veg, stretch the butter ration and still keep her family fighting fit, this is both a social history of wartime dining and a collection of over sixty delicious and healthy seasonal recipes with a vintage twist.

Leseprobe

MIKE BROWN and CAROL HARRIS are experts on the Second World War Home Front and co-authors of The Wartime House.

C.J. JACKSON is a freelance food consultant, writer and cook. She has written for BBC Good Food magazine and is the author of The Times Food for Feasts and Festivals.

First published 2004

This paperback edition first published 2023

The History Press

97 St George’s Place, Cheltenham,

Gloucestershire, GL50 3QB

www.thehistorypress.co.uk

© Mike Brown, Carol Harris and C.J. Jackson, 2004, 2007, 2010, 2016, 2023

The right of Mike Brown, Carol Harris and C.J. Jackson to be identified as the Authors of this work has been asserted in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, without the permission in writing from the Publishers.

British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data.

A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.

ISBN 978 1 80399 398 0

Typesetting and origination by The History Press

Printed and bound in Great Britain by TJ Books Limited, Padstow, Cornwall.

eBook converted by Geethik Technologies

CONTENTS

Introduction

The Road to Rationing

Rationing in the Second World War

Using the Wartime Diet Today

Our Lifestyles Then and Now

The Ration Book Diet

How the Recipes Work

Spring

Summer

Autumn

Winter

Imperial to Metric Conversion Chart

INTRODUCTION

When VE Day finally came in May 1945, Britain was a very different place from the country it had been in 1939. Six years of war had taken their toll on the fabric of the nation. In many cases the effects were far-reaching in terms of Britain’s social, economic and demographic characteristics. But if there was one good thing to have come out of the war then it was food rationing: the war left us healthier as a nation than we had ever been before or have been since.

In this book we have adapted some of the most popular wartime recipes, which, as we have discovered through some very enjoyable tasting sessions, are delicious. We have recreated others to make them more appealing to the twenty-first-century palate, making use of some of those items that would have been difficult for most people to find during rationing. In doing so, we have not altered the nutritional content very much, but we aim to appeal to the more modern palate.

THE ROAD TO RATIONING

A healthy diet was one of the great achievements of food rationing on Britain’s Home Front during the Second World War, and is one reason why those who were children at that time have far healthier eating habits than children today. For today’s reader, the important thing to emphasise is that healthy eating now does not mean having to put up with shortages and a lack of variety. What it does mean is that we can learn from the approach taken during the Second World War and enjoy our food all the more as a result.

By the time the war broke out in September 1939 the British government had already been planning the distribution of food in wartime for several years. This was not a rare example of forward thinking on the part of the authorities, but rather a reflection of the lessons learned from the mistakes and failures of the First World War (1914–18). Then, government reluctance to take any action meant that supply and demand dictated food distribution in Britain; consequently, between 1914 and 1916 prices rose by about 60 per cent. Those on lower incomes went hungry and there were complaints about waste, hoarding, shortages and unfairness. News of food riots was suppressed; in some parts of the country local volunteers organised soup kitchens and similar schemes in the absence of any government initiatives. Eventually a Ministry of Food was established and rationing was introduced in February 1918, but it was generally too little, too late. Women volunteered to work on farms through the First World War, and the Women’s Land Army was created in 1917.

So in 1936, as war clouds gathered over Europe for the second time in twenty years, the government set up the Food (Defence Plans) Department. It began by stockpiling sugar and wheat, while making preparations for a national rationing scheme.

As a heavily populated but geographically small island, Britain, then as now, consumed far more food than it could produce: for instance, we produced only 20 per cent of the bacon we ate, the bulk of the rest coming from Denmark, Eire, Canada and the Baltic states. Other foods, such as bananas, could not be produced commercially here, owing to the climate. Large amounts of foods that could be produced at home, such as onions, were imported. In the years leading up to the Second World War Britain imported 20 million tons of foodstuffs costing £400 million annually (the equivalent of £1.2 billion today).

It was obvious to all that Merchant Navy ships carrying food would be the focus of enemy action. Britain’s reliance on imports meant that if those ships were stopped from bringing food into the country, shortages would lead to civil unrest as they had twenty years before. If this pressure could be kept up, the nation would starve and be forced to capitulate. Rationing, it was quite clear, would be essential.

The government encouraged individuals to set up their own food stores. On 2 February 1939 the President of the Board of Trade told Parliament:

I see no objection to the accumulation by householders in peace time of small reserves of suitable foodstuffs equivalent to about one week’s normal requirements … Household reserves of this kind would constitute a useful addition to the total stocks of the country.

Advice and training courses proliferated. Leaflets advising on home storage of food were issued as part of the country’s civil defence preparations. The emphasis was on tinned food, but people were also advised to preserve stocks of essentials such as flour, tea and sugar. The Canned Foods Advisory Bureau issued ARP Home Storage of Food, a booklet suggesting several lists of food costing 5s, 10s and £1, along with menus and recipes for their use. These stores included flour, tea, cocoa, coffee, sugar, cereals, baby and invalid foods and dried fruit, to be kept in metal containers with tightly fitting lids. The booklet suggested that, in the event of war, ‘the Nation would be immediately rationed with a limited supply of meat, butter, cheese, milk, flour, tea, sugar, potatoes and cereals’.

When war was declared on 3 September 1939, the preparations stepped up a gear. Within a week the Food (Defence Plans) Department became the Ministry of Food, with W.S. Morrison as the minister in charge.

Rationing in wartime was not seen simply as a way to keep people fed so there would be no repeat of the unrest of the last war. New discoveries about nutrition meant that by the 1930s the importance of diet and health was explicit in theory, but largely untested. Government scientists realised that the circumstances provided a unique opportunity for a major social experiment, and one that the First World War had shown was necessary.

During the First World War large numbers of conscripts were found to be unfit for duty because of ill-health related to poverty and, especially, malnutrition, and this led to government-backed research into the subject. Other research demonstrated the contribution of a poor diet to the ill health of poorer people in this country.

The food eaten by poorer children was of particular concern and interest. In 1934 the School Medical Officer for Glossop had designed a free school meal to make up the nutritional constituents missing from the normal diet of malnourished children. During the war this was reintroduced as ‘the Glossop Sandwich’ or ‘the Glossop Health Sandwich’. It consisted of:

1 pint of milk and 1 orange (when obtainable)

If no fruit then ¼oz of chopped parsley included in the sandwich filling

3oz wholemeal bread

¾oz of butter or ‘vitaminised’ margarine

¾oz of salad; mustard and cress or watercress, or lettuce and tomato or carrot

1½oz of either cheese, salmon, herring, sardine or liver

3/16oz of brewer’s yeast

Early in the Second World War plans to feed the nation a ‘basal’ diet were discussed. This was worked out by nutritionists to ensure that everyone received the basic nutritional intake essential for their needs. This basal diet was to consist of 1lb of potatoes, 12oz of bread, 6oz of vegetables, 2oz of oatmeal, 1oz of fat and just over half a pint of milk per day – and no meat. The idea was that this would form the basis of a person’s daily food intake and other items would be surplus to their nutritional requirements.

In 1940 the plan was vetoed by the new Prime Minister, Winston Churchill, who enjoyed his food. Appalled at the idea of such a spartan approach, he wrote to the new Minister of Food, Lord Woolton:

The way to lose the war is to try to force the British public into a diet of milk, oatmeal, potatoes etc. washed down on gala occasions with a little lime juice.

The wartime diet was not as stringent as Churchill feared, especially as campaigns to encourage people to grow their own food gathered pace and the convoys bringing supplies from Canada and the United States also carried new types of food such as Spam and soya flour. For many people the problem was more to do with the lack of variety. A long list of items remained unobtainable, such as lemons and other citrus fruits, fish and imported spices.

The government’s scientists, though experts in their field, were not necessarily always able to appreciate the need to make their ideas acceptable for the general population. Not that they were entirely insensitive to the views of the public. Magnus Pyke, a government food specialist, later recalled a proposal that the government should encourage people to eat their pets. The plan was never pursued as the effect on the nation’s morale would, it was decided, far outweigh the nutritional benefits from eating one’s cat or dog. And despite Churchill’s veto, the basal diet influenced a lot of scientific thinking and so the nation benefited from a diet that was nutritionally ahead of its time.

RATIONING IN THE SECOND WORLD WAR

At the outbreak of the Second World War the Ministry of Food introduced price controls for essentials. Within days the first list of foods with maximum retail prices was published, and this covered eggs, butter, condensed milk, flour, sugar, tinned salmon, potatoes and dried fruits. Private purchasing of foodstuffs from abroad was prohibited and the ministry became the biggest buying organisation in the world, bulk-buying basic foods in order to keep prices down.

On 29 September 1939 the entire nation was registered and over the next few days every man, woman and child in the country was issued with an identity card. The information gathered at this point, and the card itself, would, from November, be used to issue ration books. Different-coloured ration books were issued according to circumstances and age. Adolescents, for instance, had blue books and were allocated extra meat.

On 29 November it was announced that the rationing of bacon, ham and butter would begin on 8 January 1940. Opposition to the announcement came from both sides of the political spectrum. Many on the left wanted to see rationing brought in immediately, and on a far wider scale than just bacon and butter, to combat the already increasing shortages and price rises. On the political right the Daily Express declared:

We don’t need food rationing at all. It is absolute nonsense. It gives the people a sense of insecurity. It makes them feel that their supplies are unreliable … Give the workman in the factory, the labourer in the fields, the soldier, the sailor and the airman all the butter and bacon they want. And ask the office worker to do without. Ask him to give up bacon altogether, and he will do so. Ask him to cut down his butter consumption, too, and watch the response. Impose rationing on him, and he will eat up his four ounces a week, to the last scrap of bacon, and the last morsel he can scrape from the butter dish.

But in general people welcomed rationing as it showed that one mistake made in the previous war would not be repeated. It was announced that as well as being rationed all butter would be pooled, and only one type, ‘National Butter’, would be available. Pooling sprang from the ministry’s bulk-buying; the plan was that all trade brands of the most vital foods – tea, margarine, butter, dried fruits and meat paste – would disappear, to be replaced by a single National or Pool brand, to ensure consistent supplies.

There was some grumbling when a standard margarine appeared in the shops, although from February 1940 it had added vitamins A and D, but there was major opposition when a single brand of pooled tea was mooted. Britons were far too keen on their favourite brands to put up with this bureaucratic outrage. The idea was soon dropped.

At first, butter and bacon (including ham) were rationed at 4oz a week per person, and soon after sugar, at 12oz, was added to the list. Meat came next, although this was done by cost, not weight. Each person could have 1s 10d (9p) worth of meat a week.

The ration did not include offal, which included liver, kidneys and heart, and products such as sausages, although some offal was rationed later.

These non-rationed items were seized upon and soon became difficult to obtain. They were often supplied ‘under the counter’ by shopkeepers who kept them for their preferred customers.

Under-the-counter trading was viewed in very different ways by men and women. According to Croydon Courageous:

Men were annoyed when they could not get cigarettes and tobacco without pandering to the under-the-counter system. Women were more subtle. They often sacrificed their sweets coupons to give little tit-bits to the shop assistants and were rewarded by receiving a few of the things they needed – from under the counter, of course.