BBC - History - Rationing in World War Two (pictures, video, facts & news) Rationing in World War Two Giles Coren and Sue Perkins investigate what life was like for a housewife in World War Two. Rationing in World War Two Rationing of food and other goods during World War Two changed the social landscape of Britain for a generation, creating a national culture of ingenuity, austerity and making-do. Photo: Three young children make do with carrots on sticks, a healthier alternative to ice cream which was unavailable during World War Two due to rationing. (Ashwood/Fox Photos/Getty Images) Introduction The role of British Restaurants during WW2 Giles Coren and Sue Perkins try some of the food served up in wartime 'British Restaurants'. Giles Coren and Sue Perkins try some of the food served up in wartime 'British Restaurants', created to feed the public at a subsidised price. Giles Coren samples Churchill's sumptuous wartime diet with the help of historian Andrew Roberts. Giles Coren samples Churchill's sumptuous wartime diet with the help of historian Andrew Roberts. Sue Perkins attempts to source ingredients for a wartime Sunday lunch.

Sue Perkins attempts to source ingredients for a wartime Sunday lunch, for her 'husband' Giles Coren. House keeping and ration advice from the Home Service Frederick Grisewood presents this episode of the daily show designed to give wartime housewives hints and tips. Frederick Grisewood presents this episode of the daily show designed to give wartime housewives hints and tips on the best and most resourceful ways of using their rations. The Buggins Family on Kitchen Front In this Home Service programme, Emily Buggins decides to make a 'Connaught Pie' for an unexpected visit from Aunt Maria. Emily Buggins decides to make a 'Connaught Pie' for an unexpected visit from Aunt Maria, and Grandma Buggins suggests a way of making wartime sausage more palatable. The programme was a mixture of information from the Ministry of Food and the comic talents of actress Mabel Constanduros. The Buggins Family on Kitchen Front In this Home Service programme, Emily Buggins decides to make a 'Connaught Pie' for an unexpected visit from Aunt Maria.

Emily Buggins decides to make a 'Connaught Pie' for an unexpected visit from Aunt Maria, and Grandma Buggins suggests a way of making wartime sausage more palatable. The programme was a mixture of information from the Ministry of Food and the comic talents of actress Mabel Constanduros. House keeping and ration advice from the Home Service Frederick Grisewood presents this episode of the daily show designed to give wartime housewives hints and tips. Frederick Grisewood presents this episode of the daily show designed to give wartime housewives hints and tips on the best and most resourceful ways of using their rations. More information about: Rationing in World War Two Why didn’t Britain have enough? Less than a third of the food available in Britain at the start of the war was produced at home. Enemy ships targeted incoming Allied merchant vessels, preventing vital supplies - including fruit, sugar, cereals and meat - from reaching the UK. Because of this, and to ensure fair distribution of supplies, the Ministry of Food issued ration books to every person, and families had to register at one shop. Official rationing began on 8 January 1940 with bacon, butter and sugar.

Rations were distributed by weight, monetary value or points. One person's typical weekly allowance would be: one fresh egg; 4oz margarine and bacon (about four rashers); 2oz butter and tea; 1oz cheese; and 8oz sugar. Meat was allocated by price, so cheaper cuts became popular. Points could be pooled or saved to buy pulses, cereals, tinned goods, dried fruit, biscuits and jam. A healthier nation Digs For Victory The pioneering Ministry of Food's Dig For Victory campaign encouraged self-sufficiency, and allotment numbers rose from 815,000 to 1.4 million. Pigs, chickens and rabbits were reared domestically for meat, whilst vegetables were grown anywhere that could be cultivated. By 1940 wasting food was a criminal offence. As sugar was in short supply, sweets were rationed from July 1942 to February 1953. An attempt to de-ration them in 1949 lasted just four months, as demand far outstripped supply. Luxuries were in short supply Despite the stresses of wartime, the health of the poor improved.

People were encouraged to eat protein, carbohydrates, pulses and fruit and vegetables. Babies, pregnant women and the sick were allocated additional nutrients such as milk, orange juice and cod liver oil. Luxuries, including alcohol and cigarettes, weren't officially rationed but were limited and expensive as factories focused on the war effort. It was considered prudent to 'keep in' with the local grocer, who reserved extras for favoured customers. From September 1939, petrol was only available for business or essential purposes. Furniture and clothing became utilitarian: pleats and turn-ups disappeared from trousers and garments were plain. Women painted gravy browning on bare legs as a replacement for silk stockings. Restaurant food was curtailed by price (a maximum of five shillings per meal) and quantity, but eating out was popular with those who could afford it. Local authority-run 'British Restaurants' fed those bombed out of their homes and also provided cheap meals for workers. They were often set up in schools and church halls. By 1944 there were 2000 British Restaurants in London alone.

The resourceful use of rations The Ministry of Food produced posters, leaflets and also Food Flashes, which were shown to 20 million cinemagoers from 1942 to 1946. Marguerite Patten's cooking tips on the Home Service drew six million listeners daily. Homefront housewives had to be creative: 'mock' recipes included 'cream' (margarine, milk and cornflour) and 'goose' (lentils and breadcrumbs). Amongst other things, carrots replaced sugar in apricot tart and were also eaten on sticks as lollies. Powdered egg and Spam from the US were mainstays of the era. Despite the complexity, the queuing and the paperwork, many appreciated the fairness and equality of rationing. It continued until 1954 due to the large number of men still in the armed forces, a badly damaged economy and Britain's responsibility to feed those parts of Europe under its control. World War 2 - food facts - History cookbook - Cookit! History Cookbook 1 Eating habits were changed greatly by wartime shortages.

For many people rationing, synthetic foods, strange food combinations and the restrictions of the daily diet were among the most vivid memories of life in WW2. More The rationing system was seen as complicated but fair and was popular for this reason. People registered at their local shops. Each family/household had a ration book. The ration book was handed over to the shopkeeper, who removed the coupons (as well as taking the appropriate sum of money). 2 During the war many foods were rationed. Food rationing was introduced in stages, beginning in January 1940. Foods that were rationed included bacon, butter, sugar, meat, tea, cooking fat, jam, cheese, eggs and milk. More Rationing started on January 8th 1940, when bacon, butter and sugar were rationed (by weight), followed by meat in March 1940 (by price rather than weight). In July 1940, tea, cooking fat, jam and cheese were also rationed (by weight). Eggs and milk were rationed by allocating supplies to shops in proportion to the number of customers registered there.

People were permitted one egg per fortnight but this was not guaranteed, as with other foods. Rations varied considerably; the cheese ration, for example, varied from 1oz (30g) per person per week to 8oz (225g). The meat ration worked out at approximately 1lb (500 grams) per week. 3 There was also a points systems for a range of other goods. The points system gave shoppers a choice of foods such as breakfast cereals, condensed milk, biscuits, canned fruit or fish. Each food product had a value and you could buy up to the points ration for the family. More The points system was introduced on 1st December 1941 on a range of goods. Everyone was given 16 points a month, later this was raised to 20 points. The points system gave people a degree of choice; for example, a tin of soup was 6 points, a tin of fruit 24 points, condensed milk 10 points. 4 The government appointed a Minister of Food. His job was to sell the benefits of rationing to the public and educate people into better eating habits.

More The government went to great lengths to ensure people had enough to eat, so they were fit to face wartime challenges and contribute to the fight. Plans for rationing and distribution were drawn up with this in mind. 5 Lord Woolton held this important job from April 1940 to December 1943. It was the first time the findings of nutritional science, built up since WW1, were applied to feeding the population. Lord Woolton ran a very successful campaign and his famous Woolton pie became legendary! (See recipes) More Lord Woolton had seen the effects of malnutrition in Liverpool and was determined to improve the nutritional value of people's diet to overcome this. The resulting food policy promoted both adequate nourishment and economical use of available foods. 6 The loss of imports saw the need to increase agricultural production. As more and more supply ships were being sunk by the German U-boats, additional home grown food was needed. All able-bodied men were needed to fight, leaving a shortage of labour to work on farms. The Women's Land Army provided much of the labour force required.

More The girls of the Land Army looked after animals, ploughed the fields, dug up potatoes, harvested the crops, killed the rats, dug and hoed for 48 hours a week in the winter and 50 hours a week in the summer. As there was not enough machinery to go round, they often had to work with old fashioned equipment, such as horse drawn hand ploughs, and to harvest crops by hand. 7 People were encouraged to grow their own food. The 'Dig for Victory' campaign saw people turn their flowerbeds into vegetable patches. The aim was to make Britain as self sufficient in food as possible. Chickens, rabbits and even pigs were reared in town gardens. More The Dig for Victory campaign was so successful that plenty of vegetables were produced. Office workers even dug vegetable patches in town parks. 8 'Potato Pete' and 'Doctor Carrot' tried to get children to eat more vegetables. The carrot and the potato became the focus of a campaign to get people, especially children, to enjoy and value vegetables. They even had their own cartoon characters and songs. Even traditional nursery rhymes were adapted to the theme! More Increased potato production provided necessary vitamin C in the diet.

One nursery rhyme to promote the potato went as follows: Potatoes new, Potatoes old Enjoy them all including chips Remembering spuds don't come in ships. 9 Some foods such as potatoes, bread and coffee were not rationed. Coffee was not such a popular drink as it is now. There were no fast food outlets other than the chip shop, which opened at weekends. This was considered a treat, not an everyday meal. More Other foods were not rationed but were not obtainable at all. This included fruits such as bananas. 10 The wartime loaf was made of wholemeal flour and was very healthy. As less wheat could be imported, more flour was extracted from what grain there was. This method provided a wholemeal loaf, high in vitamin B1, but different from the white bread people were used to. More Many found the greyish colour off-putting but it was very nutritious. The high extraction rate of 85% meant that there was more bread to go round. 11 The emphasis was on importing high energy foods.

The energy levels of home-grown food was still not high enough, despite the increase in agricultural production, to make up for the loss of imports, Some 2500 merchant ships were sunk by the U-boats, so it was important that those which did get through carried the foods most needed. More Foods such as oilseeds, oils, fats, canned meat, cheese, processed milk, boneless compressed meat, canned fish and pulses were major imports. Imports of perishable goods like fresh fruit, however, were reduced. 12 People became used to dried milk and dried eggs. The Ministry managed to get spam, dried eggs and dried milk in large quantities from the USA. The egg powder made rubbery omelettes and puddings but became, if not popular, at least remembered with affection. More From 1942, one packet per person of dried egg (equivalent to 12 eggs) was distributed every other month. The slaughtering of many dairy herds to grow food also meant that dried milk was important. To help people cook with these, there were leaflets, books, posters and radio broadcasts. 13 A radio cookery show called "The Kitchen Front" was a very big hit.

This was because many housewives were struggling to make the family ration stretch and to make meal times more interesting. Some really bizarre recipes were put forward. More Some of the stranger recipes put forward by listeners included onion and carrot chutney, rosehip chutney, squirrel tale soup, crow pie, sheep's head broth, carrot fudge, patrotic pudding, all-clear sandwiches, pig's brains and cow's udders, potato and chocolate pudding. 14 People were encourage to preserve perishable foods. There were leaflets on pickling onions, bottling fruit and preserving tomatoes. The idea was to preserve food when available for use in the winter. More People were given instructions on how to seal and store the jars to make sure the vitamins were not destroyed and the food stayed fresh. Housewives were also advised to make chutneys and pickles to make food taste better. 15 No food was wasted. Apple peel was boiled to make a lemon substitute in jams or drinks; bacon rinds provided fats for cooking meat or were used for flavouring soups; stale bread went into puddings or to make stuffing. Other scraps fed the animals. More The Ministry of Food recommended scrubbing potatoes rather than peeling them.

Prior to the war, some families stock-piled food. This became an offence in wartime, even punishable by imprisonment. As the war went on, people had to make the little they had go further. Leaflets like 'What's Left in the Larder' ensured that nothing was wasted. 16 Those who lived in the countryside were generally better fed. People who lived in the countryside had more room to keep livestock or grow extra vegetables than those in large towns or cities. More They also had access to herbs, berries and fungi that could be collected and cooked. They could also get access to eggs, butter and some meat off-ration. 17 Supplying the fighting men with enough food was an enormous task. There were field canteens, and where these had not been established 'compo' (composite) rations were provided, containing enough food for 14 men. There were also 24-hour rations packets for troops in active combat. The food was not exciting but contained everything necessary to maintain health. More Each crate of compo rations had to be partially prepared from tinned and packaged goods. A cook was generally 'elected' from the men. Food was usually prepared over petrol cookers.

The 24-hour rations contained items such as service biscuits, oatmeal, tea, a meat block, a tin of preserved meat, chocolate bars with raisins, nuts and vitamins, boiled sweets, chewing gum and cubes of meat broth - exact amounts varied thoughout the war. The men obtained fresh dairy and vegetables where they could. British Wartime Food: How Britain Fed Itself During World War Two British Shopkeeper cancelling coupons. April 1943 United States Office of War Information, Overseas Picture Division. In Britain, during the First World War, 1914 to 1918, queues for food had become dangerously long. A Ministry of Food was created to help with the homefront food situation, and rationing was introduced starting with sugar in December 1917, then with meat and butter in February 1918. The government congratulated itself on its measures, and the Ministry of Food was dissolved on 31 March 1921. In truth, though, it wasn't a great success: food prices rose by 130%, and the ration coupons were often useless, as the supply of items just wasn't there to meet even that coupon-limited demand.

Britain would do better during the Second World War, 1939 to 1945. The government was always able to honour all ration coupons, and food prices during the war rose by only 20%. The British population emerged healthier than it had ever been before, and families had been educated in putting nutritional, frugal meals on their tables. In many ways, it was home economics that would win the war. Leadup to the Second World War In the 1930s, before the outbreak of the Second World War, the British population was somewhere between 46 million and 52 million. Britain imported 70% of its food; this required 20 million tons of shipping a year. 50% of meat was imported, 70% of cheese and sugar, 80% of fruits, 70% of cereals and fats, 91% of butter. Of this, 1/6th of meat imports, 1/4 of butter imports and 1/2 of cheese imports came from New Zealand alone, a long ways away by shipping lanes.

Knowing this would lead the Axis powers into hoping to starve the British population into submission, by cutting off those food supply lines. The British government began planning for wartime rationing in 1936. Should war occur again, this time they hoped to be better prepared based on their experiences the last time around. A Food (Defence Plans) Department was set up as part of the Board of Trade to do the project planning. Ration booklets were printed up in 1938, ready to go. Ministry of Food Britain declared war on Germany on 3 September 1939. Lord Woolton, Minister of Food, serves up food to diners at a mobile field kitchen in Sussex 1941. On the 4th September 1939, the Ministry of Food was reconstituted, with William Morrison as the Minister. On 3 April 1940, Neville Chamberlain replaced Morrison with Frederick Marquis, Baron Woolton. Marquis (his real last name) had been a former social worker and former managing director of the Lewis store chain in Northern England.

He had proven experience in communicating with consumers, and had been awarded a peerage in 1939 before the war for his contributions to British industry. He had not been involved in politics or government previously. He would remain Minister of Food until December 1943, at which time Churchill transferred him to the Ministry of Reconstruction to start planning to rebuild Britain after the war. Woolton decided that it wasn't enough to just ration food or limit what people ate; he set the Ministry the goals of treating the British public as consumers, and explaining nutrition to them in simple terms so that they could get the most nutrition out of the available food despite the rations. Previously, before the war, the British government had been infiltrated by the thinking of Home Economists. Consequently, it was widely accepted by government in the UK that there was a strong link between diet, and a healthy population. Woolton's chief scientific advisor was Jack Drummond, who worked closely with Wilson Jameson, British Chief Medical Officer from 1940 to 1950. Their methods of communicating would prove to be effective: by the end of the war, housewives had become very educated in nutritional vocabulary.

The Ministry issued many cooking leaflets, often dedicated to specific topics such as the magic of carrots. The language used was practical, and realistic for the time -- in listing ingredients for suggested recipes, the government leaflets would often say beside an ingredient such as butter: "if possible." Cooking demonstrations by women such as Marguerite Patten (see separate entry) were held in many stores, including Harrods. Educational short movies on cooking were made for showing at cinemas; BBC Radio ran a morning radio programme called "Kitchen Front", broadcast from studios in Oxford Street, London, hosted by Stuart Petre Brodie and featuring guests such as Marguerite. 15,000 people eventually worked for the Ministry of Food. There were 18 Food Officers in Great Britain, and 1 in Northern Ireland; 1,500 Food Control Committees (with consumer and retailer representatives on them), and 1,300 Local Food Offices, who distributed ration books and licenced shopkeepers to handle them. The Ministry of Food went so far as to regulate how grocers got the food that they sold to their customers.

They were told to get their supplies from the nearest wholesaler or maker of the item, in order to reduce distribution costs and save petrol, rather than shopping around and ordering in items from around the country. By 1942, this applied to items such as margarine, bread, flour, cakes, biscuits, and bacon. [1] The Ministry of Food also created secret food depot warehouses throughout the country in which it stockpiled food in the event of invasion. This was unknown to the wider population. Ration Booklets: Coupons British WWII Ration Book The already-printed ration booklets were issued to the public on 8 September 1939, 5 days after war was declared. They were not actually used until four months later, however. Bringing rationing into effect was postponed several times owing to a campaign in the press led by the Daily Express newspaper, which called rationing an unnecessary folly and government interference with civil liberties. The government finally overcame political resistance and rationing came into effect on 8 January 1940. It's important to note that the food coupons in Ration Booklets didn't entitle you to, say, butter, for free.

Instead, they entitled you to purchase a certain amount of butter -- you still had to come up with the money. A ration book was issued to each person and each child. The public went to their local designated Ministry of Food offices to collect their ration books. A responsible person in the household could pick up and sign for the ration booklets for everyone in the household. New ration books were issued about once a year. To replace a lost booklet, you had to sign a declaration, and pay a 1 shilling fee. You had to register at a store that you wished to use the coupons at, and could only use them there. There was no shopping around for those items. At first, you had to use the coupons during the week indicated for those particular coupons being valid. Later, you could save them up a bit: bacon/ham for two weeks, other items for 4 weeks. There actually was some flexibility in the system for special dietary needs: special ration books were issued for vegetarians, for those with religious dietary restrictions (Muslim and Jewish), people with special health needs, those engaged in hard physical labour, people from poorer backgrounds, etc.

Vegetarians, Jews and Muslims, for instance, were allowed to use their ham or bacon allowance on cheese instead. Jews could get kosher meat. Rationing meant that no matter how rich you were, the food available was equally shared at fair prices. Rations applied to the Royal Family as well -- even they were issued ration books, and had to register at merchants to use them. In 1944, Queen Mary was registered at Hall & Sons at 21 Buckingham Palace Road for meat, and at Warren Brothers at 32 Buckingham Palace Road for eggs, fats, cheese, bacon and sugar. [3] In 1942, when Eleanor Roosevelt stayed at Buckingham Palace, she reported on the rationing of food at dinner there (and noted that hot bath water was rationed as well.) An important functional principle was that, unlike during the First World War, the government applied rationing only to items that it could be sure of people being able to get always. The goal was to ensure that the consumer's ration entitlement would always be honoured. A ration coupon was your guarantee that you would get your share of something, however small the shares were.

Rationing wasn't applied to seasonal items -- say, summer fruit such as berries, as the government couldn't guarantee, clearly, their year-round supply. Oranges on restricted sale. US Office of War Information, Overseas Picture Division. April 1943. Notable items that were never rationed included salt, and coffee (Brits weren't big coffee drinkers at the time anyway.) Other items such as lemons and bananas weren't rationed, either -- because they simply disappeared from Britain for the entire war. Some people growing up during the war didn't see their first banana until they were 10 or 12 years old. Bread was unrationed during the war, and then oddly, rationed after it. [2] Fresh oranges got through occasionally from America -- but consumption of them was restricted to children only. Ration Booklets: Points Points rationing was introduced 1 December 1941 via a separate pink ration book. It ran in conjunction with regular coupon rationing, but was more flexible than coupon rationing. A butter coupon would entitle you to purchase x amount of butter that week.

But if you didn't use it on butter, that was that: you couldn't use it on anything else, and you couldn't carry it forward; they were valid only for that four week period. The points rations gave shoppers greater choice than the ration coupons did, putting them more in control of their shopping. You got a certain number of points to use on any of the items, in any combination you wished, that were covered under points rations. (Again, you still had to cough up the cash for the actual purchase.) And, you could do the purchases anywhere, not just at the grocer you registered at for the coupon usage. The first items to go on points rationing were tinned meats, tinned fish and tinned beans; later, points rationing was applied to most tinned goods, dried fruits, cereals, legumes, biscuits, etc. When points rationing was first introduced, everyone had 16 points per every four weeks. Later that was raised to 24 points, then on 27 May 1945 reduced downward again, to 20 points.

The Ministry of Food could adjust upwards or downwards the number of points that a food item would cost, depending on the supply of it at the time in the nation's food chain. Housewives would watch the newspapers to monitor news on the "Changes in Points Value" columns, to see if anything they wanted had become cheaper (or more expensive) in points. For instance, upon the introduction of points rationing, a one-pound tin of canned salmon or of canned sausage meat from America originally required 16 points. People weren't trying the American canned sausage meat, so the Ministry of Food raised the points requirement for the salmon to 24 points, and reduced the points required for the canned sausage meat to 8 points to encourage people to try it. The sausage meat in question was Spam; the British public eventually came round to it. Shopping for Food In World War Two Britain Once the ration booklets were received for that year, you would take them and register them at the grocery stores you intended to use them at. Ration booklet store registration Note the plural, stores. This was before the days of supermarkets. You went to different stores for different items: the greengrocer, the butcher, the baker, the fishmonger, etc.

You would register at one store for meat, another for dry goods, etc. Sometimes, a grocer would sell more than one of the rationed items, and you could register for purchasing both there, if you wished. Shoppers would debate whether it was best to spread their registration slots around to different stores, in the hopes of spotting more items suddenly appearing for sale, or to concentrate them all at one store, in hopes of gaining favoured customer status for special items held back under the shop counter. The exception was tea ration coupons: you could use them at any store you wished. You did not need to register them. Note that the tea then would have been loose tea, not tea bags, as tea bags hadn't caught on at the time. And as for using it, the Ministry of Food advised "one spoonful for each person and none for the pot." New ration books were issued about once a year. That was a good time to change who you were registered with, if you wanted to. You could change at other times, if you wished, but it was tricky to do so without offending a shop keeper that you might later need to return to or want favours from later.

Shopkeepers got just enough food for the customers they had registered with them. Stores were encouraged to form Traders' Mutual Aid Pacts, to allow each other to temporarily take over looking after a store's registered customers if that store were bombed out. A family member could go to the store with all the ration books for that family (in practice, it was usually the mother.) You showed the shop keeper your coupons that allowed you to make the purchases. If they were regular ration coupons, the shop keeper then cancelled them in the booklet with a stamp. If you were using points coupons, they were cut out. Then, you passed over the money for that purchase. If you had used up all the coupons for an item for that week, or points for that 4 week period, then that was that until the next time period. No amount of money could get you the items in question. Even if you didn't want your rations or need all of a particular rationed item that you were entitled to, most people bought them anyway, and sold them, usually at cost, or traded them, to friends or neighbours who would want them.

Dig for Victory Dig for Victory Poster The Ministry of Food launched its 'Dig for Victory' campaign in October 1939, one month after war broke out. The campaign was led by an agricultural economist, Professor John Raeburn, who was recruited to the Ministry of Food in 1939, and who would run the campaign until the end of the war. The campaign encouraged people to transform their front and back gardens into vegetable plots. The goal was to replace imported food, thus freeing up shipping space for more valuable war materials, and to make up for food that was sunk in transit. By the end of 1940, 728,000 tons of food making its way to Britain had been lost, sunk by German submarine activity. In 1940, millions of commercially-farmed hens had to be killed and sold off as food, as there was a shortage of stuff to feed them. This led to an egg shortage, and egg rationing of 1 egg per person a week. Expectant mothers and vegetarians were allowed two eggs a week.

Consequently, people who hadn't before, and could, started keeping chickens in their back gardens, because that meant you had unrationed eggs. The catch was, you had to give up your egg ration, but you got entitlement for grain rations instead for your chickens. The Savoy Hotel in London had its own chicken farm, set up by Hugh Wontner, managing director of the Savoy hotel from 1941 to 1979. This supplied the Savoy with its own unrationed source of chicken and eggs. (They were still required to ration them on their restaurant menus to customers, however.) Pig clubs added thousands of pounds of pork to tables. Even soldiers at permanent stations had pig clubs. United States US Office of War Information, Overseas Picture Division. April 1943. Communities set up neighbourhood Pig Clubs, to buy a pig, then feed it scraps from the households involved. (In many towns, the councils put food waste bins in the streets: if you weren't part of a Pig Club, in there went peelings and scraps to be sent to farms to feed pigs.) If you belonged to a Pig Club, that was registered, and you had to give up your meat coupons.

If you kept a private pig, you had to register the pig, because half was supposed to go to the government, but not everyone registered their pigs. Rabbit keeping also became popular. They provided a ready source of meat, as they breed year round, and you could even sell the rabbit skin to be used for boots, coats, etc. "This is a food war," said Lord Woolton, Minister of Food, in 1941. "Every extra row of vegetables in allotments saves shipping… the battle on the kitchen front cannot be won without help from the kitchen garden." In 1941, the Americans sent 9 tons of vegetable seeds over through the British War Relief Society for the British public to use in their home gardens. Most vegetables were not rationed; cauliflower became a staple vegetable at meals.

Granted, keeping vegetable gardens and animals was easier for people living outside the big cities, so in response, the Ministry requisitioned green spaces in cities, even some parks such as the Royal Park, Kensington Gardens, and divvied the land out to households in parcels known as "allotments", a small space where you could go and set up your own vegetable patch (and hope that a stray bomb didn't find its way there right at the start of harvest season.) Commercial fertilizers for gardens had of course disappeared at the start of the war, so whenever a delivery cart and horse, or a police horse, happened to pass by a house, mothers would send many a humiliated child out to the road with a bucket and shovel in the hopes that the passing horse had left a calling card in the form of some manure. During the war, daylight savings was put ahead by two hours every year in March, to allow more daylight hours for farming, and gardening after work. Overall, the campaign was a massive success: by 1943, it was estimated that home gardens were producing over one million tons of produce, and by 1945, around 75% of food consumed in Britain was produced in Britain.

The campaign was still kept up after the war, in order to free up food to feed the starving populations of Europe. Women's Land Army Women's Land Army. US Office of War Information, Overseas Picture Division. April 1943. A Women's Land Army (WLA) had been created in the First World War to help farmers and market gardeners by replacing the agricultural workers who had gone into the armed forces with women. The goal was to ensure that homefront agricultural food production was maintained. It was disbanded at the end of that war. The Land Army was reconstituted in June of 1939, 3 months before the Second World War broke out, by the Ministry of Agriculture and Fisheries, with Lady Denman being the honorary head. It was volunteer at first; some women worked part-time, seasonally as needed. Later, conscription of girls over 16 was used to bolster the ranks. A third of the women came from cities; the other two-thirds came from the countryside. The work was 48 hours a week in the winter; 50 to 54 hours a week in the summer.

They got a uniform consisting of a green tie and jumper (aka pullover sweater), and a brown hat, and extra rations, but were paid about 20% less than the male workers they replaced. Some lived with the farming families; on larger farms, some were given accommodation in special cabins built for them. Some were placed near to where they lived, so returned home each day. The women were often moved from farm to farm, depending on where they were needed when. By 1944, there were over 80,000 women in the British Women's Land Army. The Land Army was disbanded on 21 October 1950. Women who participated felt that they never really got much recognition; a ceremony was finally held in June 2008 in which then Prime Minister Gordon Brown presented badges to some of the veterans still living at the time. Canning and Preserves These were the days before refrigeration and freezing was common in household kitchens (and not just Britain -- the refrigerator revolution did not sweep America until the late 1940s), so housewives still knew and used preservation techniques such as canning.

The Ministry of Food educated people with leaflets, radio programmes and community demonstrations on the latest and greatest food preserving techniques, to ensure that no food went to waste. Eggs could be kept fresher for a bit longer by rubbing them with lard to seal the pores, or for longer periods, by storing them in crocks under water with isinglass or waterglass mixed in, or by turning them into pickled eggs. Canadian Women's Institutes supported their sister British Women's Institutes, by donating to them useful tools such as canning machines, etc, which could be shared out. Preserving of fruits and vegetables was largely done in Kilner jars: glass jars with glass lids with a spring on them. You put a rubber ring around the neck of each jar before sealing it. You replaced the rubber rings each season. Even if you grew your own fruit, making jams and preserves from it was tricky as sugar was rationed and you weren't likely to be able to get enough sugar, unless you had some food item you could swap with someone else for their sugar. Many people started saving up their sugar rations right at the start of the summer to help with canning time.

(Some years, during the summer, the Ministry of Food was able to double the sugar rations to encourage home preserving.) The Ministry of Food also advised people on how to cure and preserve meat. Pork or lamp chops could be preserved for up to six weeks by first cooking them, and then putting them in a crock completely covered with fat. The Root Vegetable Campaigns Dr Carrot Carrots were particularly promoted to the population, as there was no shortage of them, and they were deemed very healthy. The Ministry of Food suggested Carrolade (a homemade juice blend from mixed carrot and Swede juices), carrot jam, curried carrots, etc. For use in the Ministry's promotional efforts, a carrot family was invented for them on the other side of the Atlantic by Hank Porter, a Disney cartoonist: members of the family included Carroty George, Clara Carrot, and Dr Carrot (the Ministry of Food transformed him into Pop Carrot, as they already had their own Dr Carrot figure.) The drawings were wire-photoed to London, courtesy of RCA. The characters were used in newspaper campaigns, recipe booklets, posters and flyers.

Marguerite Patten later said she remembered that you wouldn't peel carrots; to reduce wastage, you'd wash them instead and leave the skin on, and cut the tops off as thinly as you possibly could. Potato Pete The Ministry of Food also created a Potato Pete character. The character acquired his own song, recorded by a woman named Betty Driver, later to become famous for portraying Betty Williams in Coronation Street, who in turn would become famous for her potato dish, Lancashire Hotpot. Those who have the will to win, Cook potatoes in their skin, Knowing that the sight of peelings, Deeply hurts Lord Woolton's feelings. The Ministry recommended scrubbing potatoes clean instead of peeling them, as peeling caused wastage, however small. One of the most famous dishes invented during the war was Woolton Pie, for the purpose of promoting root vegetables in general. It was created by Francois Latry (1919-1942), the chef at the Savoy Hotel in London, and named in honour of the Minister of Food himself.

The pie consists of carrots, turnips, parsnips and potatoes simmered in an oatmeal stock, then turned into a baking dish, topped with a crust of dough, or mashed potato, and baked. Sadly, despite all the promotion that the recipe was launched with, the dish never really took off in popularity amongst the public. Special British Wartime Food Products The Ministry of Food actually invented several food products, and legislated their production to substitute for other goods. All were a success in terms of keeping the population healthy and fed. Sadly, not all were a success in terms of endearing themselves to the tastebuds of the population. White flour was banned for the most part for household use [Ed: it was still allowed commercially in the production of some biscuits, etc.], being replaced by a National Flour, with "wheatmeal" being the official name invented for it. While not quite wholewheat flour (in order to be a bit of a compromise), it left all the bran in it. It was greyish in colour. Some women in desperation would sieve it through their nylon stockings to get white flour; if you kept chickens, the bran sieved out could go to make a ration-free mash for the chickens.

Bakers were obliged to use the National Flour to make only one type of bread, which was called the National Loaf. Nutritionists praised the composition of the bread (and fought for it to be the only legal bread after the war); the population however dubbed it "Hitler's Secret Weapon" because they disliked it so much. [Ed: for more information on this bread and National Flour, see the separate entry on National Loaf.] However, it was a success: the government was able to keep the supply plentiful enough that bread was never rationed during the entire war. Fresh, fluid milk was limited, so the Ministry of Food created two different types of powdered milk. One was "Household Milk", dried skim milk for general consumption. The second was National Dried Milk, a dried "full cream" milk powder aimed at feeding infants. [See separate entries on each.] There was a National Butter made, to help replace the reduced butter supplies from New Zealand. As well, there was a National Margarine: in fact two types, a standard and a special which was, in theory, of slightly better quality than the standard, though some people said even it tasted like melted candles.

Some people would mix it with their butter ration for better taste at the table. (Ed: see separate entry on National Margarine.) A National Cheddar was made, and the production of any other cheese banned. It would take the British cheese industry decades to recover. (See separate entry on British Cheeses.) From July 1942 onwards, there was National Dried Egg, courtesy of America. One packet of the powdered, dried egg was the equivalent of one dozen eggs. Meat in Britain during World War Two Meat, of course, did not escape rationing, and in fact, was the last thing to come off the ration list, in 1954. First of all, some "meats" were not rationed. For those who wanted it, horse meat was not rationed (housewives resisted buying beef on the black market, as you couldn't be sure you weren't ending up with horse after all.) Offal and sausages were only rationed from 1942 to 1944. But offal was still scarce (for the few that wanted it at any price), and the sausages had little meat in them, and much filler.

The Ministry of Food passed a regulation that sausages had to contain at least 10% meat. Meat pies were not rationed, though the meat in them was likely to be Spam. Spam from America was plentiful, and came to be seen as a godsend. Spam for meals would be fried in a frying pan, or battered and fried in oil with chips. Fish was not rationed, partly because the Ministry of Food couldn't find an effective way to ration it, given the underlying principle they followed that rationed items would only be those of which they could guarantee constant supply, and supply was governed by the natural scarcity of how many fishermen were willing to put out to sea with submarines lurking under them at any given time. Consequently, there were always very long queues outside fishmongers. Tinned Snoek, a type of fish from South Africa [Ed: Thyrsites atun], became widely and easily available off-ration from January 1945 onwards, but was not popular owing to it being very oily, extremely bony, and having a taste that people just couldn't place.

At the same time, the Ministry of Food made whale meat available off-ration as well, and encouraged people to eat it, releasing recipes, etc. But housewives complained that they just couldn't get the taste out of it, even after soaking it overnight in vinegar, and boiling it all day. A large tin of sausage meat from America [Ed: we're uncertain at this point which. Perhaps Wilson's Mor.) proved to be popular. It required a lot of points to be allowed to buy it, 16, but the tin was large enough for several meals, and had on top of the sausage meat nearly 1/2 pound of fat, which was really useful as a cooking fat. Fats Cooking fats rations There was a National Butter and two types of National Margarine. Before the war, a middle-class British household tended to put butter on the table, and reserve margarine for cooking purposes. But because the rations for the margarines were more generous than for the butter, margarine worked its way out of the kitchen and into the dining room. People were inventive in how they boosted the supply of proper butter at home.

Some people recalled that you'd do things like sweet talk the women at work canteens to put lots of butter on a scone, and then not eat it, but bring it home and scrape off the butter for use at home. Many would use beef dripping as a spread on their bread in place of butter or margarine. Glycerine and paraffin wax were so popular as substitutes for cooking fat that the Ministry of Food finally restricted sales of them for 'medicinal purposes only." Canadian Red Cross parcels for Canadian, British and Allied prisoners of war were preferred over British or American parcels because the Canadian parcels always included tins of proper butter; the British or American parcels had margarine instead 70% of the time. Restaurants Winston Churchill's Ration Book. US Office of War Information, Overseas Picture Division. April 1943. Fish and chips were not rationed. Consequently, fish and chips, which before the war had been seen as just a working-class food, made its way upward to become a food that all Britons ate. Your local chippie could also sell you meat pies, as they were not rationed, either -- though the meat in them was more likely to be Spam than anything else.

A convoy of mobile canteens would move into bombed areas to feed residents and rescue workers for free, coordinated by the Ministry of Food. These mobile canteens were largely funded by donations from America. The Ministry expected rationed home food to be supplemented by meals at work and at school. Before the war, only about 250,000 school meals a day were served; by the end of the war, school meals happened just about everywhere, feeding about 1,850,000 children a day. The Ministry made it compulsory for any factory over a certain size to open a canteen to feed its workers. The number of factory canteens consequently went from 1,500 in 1939 to 18,500 in 1945. In July 1940, restaurant restrictions started coming into effect. The first regulation was that in one meal you could not have both a meat and fish dish. So a fish starter, and meat main course, was out. In June 1942, two additional restaurant restrictions came into effect. The first was that no restaurant meal could have more than three courses.

The second was that no restaurant could charge more than 5 shillings for a meal (alcohol and coffee excluded.) This had the desired effect, of course, of causing restaurants to be more frugal in what they chose to offer, or serve smaller portions of it, so that they could still make a profit on the meal. To ensure that restaurants didn't just try to get around this through "cover charges", the restriction also stipulated that the highest cover charge that would be allowed was 7s. 6d. "You need no ration card for restaurants, although a waiter will serve only one meal to a person at a sitting, and that limited to three courses or five shillings expenditure. Swanky places get around the quality barrier by adding a stiff cover charge, but the three courses are never exceeded. A soup or hors d'oeuvres, an entree and a dessert are regulation. Coffee and drinks are extra. The maitre d'hotel or waiter may "save" a portion of joint for old customers, but a late diner will inevitably find the menu exhausted and only sausage or mushrooms available." -- Albin E. Johnson. Europe: Where the Cupboard is Almost Bare. Rotary International: The Rotarian.

September 1943. Vol. 63, No. 3. Page 18. Public eating centres called "British Restaurants" were set up across the country. The driving force behind their creation was a Mrs Flora Solomon, who was in charge of Marks & Spencer's staff canteens at the beginning of the war. She was inspired by seeing the Londoners' Meals Service, which London County Council started in September 1940 to feed those who had been bombed out of their homes. She gave the idea to Lord Woolton, whom she knew socially. He backed the idea, and asked her to get it started. She got permission from Simon Marks, one of the owners of Marks & Spencer, to use some of her work hours towards the setup. She set up the first "Communal Feeding Centre", as she called it, in the Kensington area of London, using Marks & Spencer's store personnel as staff, then set up one in Coventry after the blitz bombing it suffered on 14 November 1940. The Marks & Sparks store in Coventry had been bombed out; since the staff had nowhere to work, she pressed them into service for her Feed Centre there, as well.

Her plan was that once the Communal Centres were up and running, they would be turned over to locals in the area to run. One opened in Newcastle on 6 October 1941, with the Duchess of Northumberland and the Lord Mayor of Newcastle having lunch on the first day to help promote it. The menu there in 1941 was Soup 2d (1p); Meat with 2 Veg 7d (3p); Sweet 2d (1p); Cup of Tea 1d (½p). Churchill liked the idea very much, but he didn't approve of the name. He thought it smacked of socialism, and suggested "British Restaurants" instead, and so, as of January 1942, "British Restaurants" they were. The restaurants were actually more like canteens. They were set up in church halls, town halls, school halls, etc, and run by Local Food Committees on a non-commercial basis. They would usually have restricted hours of opening, operating just at main meal times such as noon to 2:30 pm, etc All meals were ration free.

The only rule was that you could only have one serving of either meat, game, poultry, fish, eggs, or cheese. You couldn't have two from that list at the same meal. They were also relatively inexpensive. The set maximum price allowed was 9d, though even that would likely only have been charged in London where operating costs would be higher. The British Restaurants served basic foods such as sausage, mash, gravy, or minced beef with parsnips, greens and potatoes. There was also pudding and custard. Some of the British Restaurants supplied packed meals for working people such as miners. The British restaurant in Chopwell (in what is now Tyne and Wear County; previously Durham) advertised the following food to go: meat pies, sausage rolls or spam sandwiches at 4d each; ham or bacon sandwich at 5d; teacakes with butter and jam on them, 3d. By November 1943, there were 2,145 British Restaurants. Less populous areas had Food Distribution Centres, popularly called "Cash and Carry Restaurants"; they were supplied by a British Restaurant in a larger area. Any food waste from the restaurants went to local pig clubs.

Ed note: There was mention in at least one edition of the ration booklets that meat coupons were required to be used at restaurants. It may be that that regulation was printed, but never brought into force: Mention of ration coupons required at restaurants Population Health The government was not simply concerned that people had basic quantities of basic foods: they also considered the overall population health as understood at the time to be vital to the war effort. Doctors regularly visited schools to check the nutrition and health status of children. Schools dosed students up weekly with Virol, a bone-marrow laxative tonic sweetened with malt, to keep them regular. [4] School meals became free for poorer children. Children under five got cod liver oil; those under three got daily milk (fluid or full-cream from dried), and orange juice as well. Mothers picked up the bottles of cod liver oil and concentrated orange juice (both provided by America) at clinics called "Welfare Centres" that were set up. Though candies were rationed, cough drops were not -- not many children, however, liked cough drops enough that they considered them to be considered an acceptable substitute for candy.

Every national food product that the government created, and every suggested recipe released, was gone over with a fine tooth comb by dieticians, nutritionists and Home Economists. The one unhealthy thing about the war time food, by today's standards at least, was the amount of salt prevalent. Salt was unrationed, so it was used freely to try to give some interest to the monotony of the admittedly plain-tasting food. The result of these efforts was that, despite the deprivation, the British population actually ended the war tremendously fit and healthy: healthier than they had been before, or have been since. Children in general were even taller and heavier than those before the war. Infant mortality rates went down; average age of death from natural causes increased, meaning civilians just plain lived longer. Interestingly, the war-time precaution of night-time blackouts caused the number of people killed by night-time road accidents to double over pre-war figures, even though there were fewer journeys by car owing to petrol rationing. Wartime Kitchens in Britain Kitchens in wartime Britain were much as they had been in the 1930s before the war. Most kitchens had gas stoves.

Coal-burning boilers provided hot water for both kitchen use and heating the home through radiators. Hot water from the tap was used carefully, though, because the coal used to heat it was rationed. Most homes did not have refrigerators yet [Ed: nor were they common yet in North America], so canning was still a skill practised at home to preserve food, and there was a lot of shopping daily to pick up fresh produce. A 'Saucepans for Spitfires' campaign claimed much of the aluminum cookware in kitchens. It later emerged that the government didn't actually need this aluminum; it was more of a morale booster to let people feel that they were helping. Those people with relatives and friends abroad were fortunate, because food packages from them to help bolster or brighten kitchen pantries got through surprisingly often. It was illegal to feed human food to pets, even bread to birds. Bread wasted - Miss Mary Bridget O'Sullivan was fined a total of ten pounds, with costs, for permitting bread to be wasted. It was stated that her servant was twice seen throwing bread to birds in the garden, and when Miss O'Sullivan was interviewed she admitted that bread was put out every day.

"I cannot see the birds starve", she said." -- Bristol Evening Post. 20 January 1943. The Great Onion Scarcity Shortage of one item particularly exasperated house-wives: onions. Onions disappeared from the shelves of greengrocers early in the war. Previously, they had been imported so cheaply from Bermuda, Brittany, and the Channel Islands that they weren't being grown in large quantities in Britain. Onions became so rare that they would be prizes for raffles and contests. In February 1941, the staff at The Times of London newspaper held a raffle for a one-and-a-half pound onion, which raised £4 3s 4d . In that same month, the Minister of Agriculture, Robert Hudson, no doubt hearing frustration from his own wife, announced the intention to increase domestic onion production by 15 times.

By 1942, the Minister announced that the onion shortage was in theory alleviated, though an American rotarian, reporting on a visit to London he had done in the second week of January 1943 puts this claim in doubt: "Served as a side dish at our luncheon of the regular three-course meal, which Englishmen religiously impose upon themselves in conformity with ration regulations, was a medium-size boiled Spanish onion. "You've been robbing a bank or playing with the black market," exclaimed the astonished husband. "Neither," explained his proud wife. "Michael (her son and an officer on a destroyer guarding trans-Atlantic convoys) brought these from Bermuda on his last trip and I've been saving them for just such an occasion." -- Albin E. Johnson. Europe: Where the Cupboard is Almost Bare. Rotary International: The Rotarian. September 1943. Vol. 63, No. 3. Page 16. Rationing allowances Rationing allowances fluctuated during the war.

Sample 1943 rations of basics for a week for 1 person: 3 pints of milk 3 1/4Ib - 1Ib meat 1 egg a week or 1 packet of dried eggs (equal to 12) every 2 months 3 to 4 oz cheese 4 oz combined of bacon or ham 2 oz tea, loose leaf 8 oz sugar 2 oz cooking fat Rationing Timeline Note that rationing continued in Britain for nine years after the end of the war. The reason given was to help free up food to feed the starving European populations. 1940 - January 8: the first foods rationed were butter (4 oz), sugar (12 oz) and ham or bacon (4 oz), per person per week; 1940 - March 11: Meat in general was added to the ration list. This wasn't done by weight, but by price. You could spend per person up to 1 shilling and 10 pence on meat, any meat, any cut, which was about 23 cents American at the time. But obviously, cheaper cuts gave you more meat for that price.

The Ministry of Food estimated that it averaged out to be about 1 pound (450g) of meat a week per person; 1940 - July: tea, 2 oz tea per person, per week; 1941 - March: Jam, marmalade, syrup, and treacle added to list (8 oz per month); 1941 - May 5: Cheese added to ration list. 1 oz per person per week, increased a month later in June to 2 oz per person per week; 1941 - June 1: Clothing added to ration list; 1941 - July: sugar ration doubled for summer months to encourage people to make their own fruit preserves; 1941 - November: Controls on liquid milk; 1942 - January.

Rice and dried fruit added to ration list; 1942 - February 9: Condensed milk, breakfast cereals, tinned tomatoes, tinned peas, and soap added to ration list; 1942 - March: Gas and electricity are rationed; 1942 - July 26: Sweets and chocolate added to ration list; 1942 - August: Biscuits added to ration list; 1942 - December: Oats (flaked and rolled) added to ration list; 1943 - June: Your jam (or syrup) ration could be taken in sugar instead; 1943 - Sausages added to ration list; 1945 - May 27: Bacon ration cut from 4 oz to 3 oz, cooking fats from 2 oz to 1 oz, and part of the weekly meat allowance (reduced to 1 shilling and 6 pence by this point) had to be taken in corned beef; 1946 - Bread rationing introduced [2]; 1947 - Potato rationing introduced; What You Need To Know About Rationing In The Second World War

 | Imperial War Museums Quick read What You Need To Know About Rationing In The Second World War In January 1940, the British government introduced food rationing.

The scheme was designed to ensure fair shares for all at a time of national shortage. The Ministry of Food was responsible for overseeing rationing. Every man, woman and child was given a ration book with coupons. These were required before rationed goods could be purchased. Basic foodstuffs such as sugar, meat, fats, bacon and cheese were directly rationed by an allowance of coupons. Housewives had to register with particular retailers. A number of other items, such as tinned goods, dried fruit, cereals and biscuits, were rationed using a points system. The number of points allocated changed according to availability and consumer demand. Priority allowances of milk and eggs were given to those most in need, including children and expectant mothers. As shortages increased, long queues became commonplace. It was common for someone to reach the front of a long queue, only to find out that the item they had been waiting for had just run out. Not all foods were rationed. Fruit and vegetables were never rationed but were often in short supply, especially tomatoes, onions and fruit shipped from overseas. The government encouraged people to grow vegetables in their own gardens and allotments. Many public parks were also used for this purpose.

The scheme became better known as ‘Dig For Victory’. Certain key commodities were also rationed – petrol in 1939, clothes in June 1941 and soap in February 1942. The end of the war saw additional cuts. Bread, which was never rationed during wartime, was put on the ration in July 1946. It was not until the early 1950s that most commodities came ‘off the ration’. Meat was the last item to be de-rationed and food rationing ended completely in 1954. One way to get rationed items without coupons, usually at greatly inflated prices, was on the black market. Shopkeepers sometimes kept special supplies ‘behind the counter’, and ‘spivs’ - petty criminals - traded in goods often obtained by dubious means. By March 1941, 2,300 people had been prosecuted and severely penalised for fraud and dishonesty. Follow us BBC - Primary History - World War 2 - Food and shopping Food and shopping Grow your own food Wartime shopping There were no supermarkets. You went to different shops for different items.

For fruit and vegetables, you went to the greengrocer. For meat, to the butcher. For fish, to the fishmonger. For bread and cakes, to the baker. For groceries such as jam, tea, biscuits and cheese you went to the grocer. Other shops sold clothes, shoes, medicines, newspapers and all the other things people needed to buy. In most shops, the shopkeeper or shop assistants served customers from behind a counter. Many shops were small family businesses. Most big towns had department stores . Back to top Rationing Food rationing began in 1940. This meant each person could buy only a fixed amount of certain foods each week. Much of Britain's food came from other countries in ships. Enemy submarines sank so many ships that there was a shortage of some foods. Rationing made sure everyone got a fair share. You had to hand over coupons from your ration book, as well as money, when you went shopping. When you had used up your ration of one food (say, cheese or meat), you could not buy any more that week. Vegetarians could swap meat coupons for other foods. Back to top What could people buy?

People had to register with local shops to use their ration books. Often long queues formed as soon as people heard that shops had more supplies. The first foods rationed were bacon, sugar, tea, butter and meat. Lots more foods were rationed later, including sweets! One egg a week was the ration in 1941. There were no bananas, so younger children did not see their first banana until the war ended. Clothes were rationed too, so clothing factories could switch to war work. Paper, petrol and other things, such as soap (one bar a month) and washing powder, were also rationed. Back to top What foods would we have missed? Frozen pizza, chicken nuggets, burgers and chips perhaps. Remember, there were no home freezers! Potatoes were not rationed, so you could make your own chips - if you could find some oil or fat to cook them in. In summer, people were asked to eat more salads, to save cooking fuel. With eggs rationed, people tried dried egg powder. One packet was equal to 12 fresh eggs. Dried egg made good scrambled eggs, but it was bad luck if you only liked eggs fried or boiled.

Unfamiliar foods appeared too, such as Spam (tinned meat) from America, and snoek, a fish from South Africa. Back to top Grow your own food Many people grew vegetables at home or on allotments . Children helped 'Dig for Victory' by digging, planting and weeding. Some children worked on farms picking potatoes and fruit. Some families kept chickens, ducks and rabbits (to eat). People started 'Pig Clubs', collecting food leftovers in pig bins to feed the pigs. There were plenty of potatoes and carrots, and lots of suggestions for new ways to cook them! 'Potato Pete' and 'Doctor Carrot' advertised these foods, to encourage people to eat more of them.

Question: What food was not rationed in Britain during World War 2 but was rationed after it?
Answer: Bread