How They Ate During The War

 

In May Kingston upon Thames held a readers festival. One of The people giving a talk was Marguerite Patten who worked for the Ministry of Food during the Second World War. The popularity of the talk brought about a first, the festival had never experienced anything like it before. The seats could have been filled twice over; little old ladies were begging to be let in, while some of us hoped for returns. Most of us were fortunate and got in. Marguerite Patten came across as an amazing woman, she was determined, had a lovely sense of humour and nothing seemed to faze her. She talked for more than an hour telling us all about the food during the war.
When war broke out she was working as a Home Economist and she gave cookery demonstrations on mouth watering food, were no expense was spared. Of course once war broke out these became a thing of the past, so she concentrated on creating good basic nutritional meals. In 1942 she began work for the Ministry of Food. She worked in Cambridge to begin with. There she had to do a demonstration at the local market setting up her stall next to a fruit and vegetable seller and a quiet dignified upper class woman selling slightly chipped crockery. She learnt very quickly to get her voice and point across.
Food rationing was vital; mistakes had been made during the First World War. Food rationing only came in when the war ended in 1918 and went on until 1921. So in 1939 advice was given and you would have to register with a butcher, grocer, baker and so on. In order to get your rations. There were no supermarkets in those days. If you moved you would need to re-register with someone else. The things that were rationed were:
1. Butter 1oz per person per week.
2. Bacon 4oz per person per week.
3. Meat went not on weight but price so you would have to be clever here and choose a cheaper cut but without too much fat to get a good amount of meat then it could be stewed to make it go further. Corned beef was used to make up the ration when meat ran out.
4. Margarine 4oz per person per week.
5. Lard 2oz or 4oz per person it varied per week.
6. 1 Egg per person per fortnight.
7. Cheese 2oz per person per week.
8. Milk one pint per week but it varied, as yield was higher in summer.
9. Tea 2oz per person per week.
10. Sugar 1lb per person per eight weeks. This seems a lot but you made jam, marmalade and cakes in those days.
You did not need to register for your sweet ration this was so children could pick and choose then go and get the best that was on offer. The ration was 2oz per person per week. When she shows this amount to children there is a look of horror on their faces. They would respond by telling her how they ate more in a day or afternoon.
The Ministry of food would let you have extra rations if you did hard work. For example if you were a miner or a farmer you would get extra Cheese. If you were ill you were given extra milk.
There was also a points system which enabled you to buy other items such as spam, cereal and biscuits. Concentrated orange came from America and was free for children. Dried eggs had an awful taste but this was because people got the measurements incorrect, if you could get it right it wasn't too bad. My mother told me that she was unable to make scrambled eggs with real eggs as she had only made them using powdered egg. If you ran out of cereal you could put some cubes of wholemeal bread into the oven to make it crisp and like cereal. This apparently was quite a tasty substitute. My mother also remembers having blancmange for pudding at school which was made of blood from cochineal, which she was told is a kind of fly! The pudding was a puce pink! And my great aunt used to boil tripe for her dog and it made the house stink.
To make the egg go further you would make eggy bread that way everyone could have a little bit. By 1940 the traditional meal of meat and two veg changed, people had to eat more vegetables and less meat.
Marguerite Patten went into hospitals and factories giving people good practical advice on food and meals. School meals may have been introduced in the twentieth century but they really came in during the war. This was to make sure children had at least one balanced meal a day. She also had to teach people how to cook vegetables; if they were over cooked the vitamin c content was nil, which was no good at all. To get your right amount of vitamin c you had to have turnip and carrot water. Everyone would have preferred oranges but citrus fruit wasn't available in the war. Leaflets from the Ministry of food were distributed in shops to help people with meals and making the most of the food they had. Everything had to be eaten according to the season. There were no tomatoes from the end of September until June; the growing conditions weren't like today. You bottled things like tomatoes to preserve them. Rationing went on long after victory came; in fact it went on till 1954 which was longer than any other country in the world.
VE Day brought peace people no longer went home looking at the skies for bombers and doodle bugs. They celebrated with tea parties. Sweets stopped being rationed in 1949 but were put back on four months later as everyone began to eat them and they ran out. Then gradually everything came off ration meat was the last thing to stop being rationed.
If ever something had to be rationed more than it already was they would break the news gently. In fact they would use a comedian and make up a little story about sugar having to be rationed more and how poor gran would cope as she likes so much sugar in her tea. They would also add a recipe that would contain less sugar but keep you satisfied. People would be so busy laughing and making a note of the recipe that they would forget about the extra rationing. The food advice was designed to be given in the right way so you weren't put off. It was very important that families ate well.
Here are some things that weren't rationed:
Bread although in 1946 it did have to be. This was due to problems with wheat.
Potatoes also had to be rationed in 1947 because of the weather which caused the potato blight.
Liver, kidney, heart, sausages and offal weren't rationed.

© Children's Web Magazine 2006