Anyone else interested in trying out ration dieting?

[W-D Forties]

I had to go out and buy a new swimsuit last week and I practically wept looking in the mirror. I'm in!

I'm going to go down the route of limiting protien, eating more veg and having much smaller portions. I'm not eating Snoek for anyone though!

 

[Flicka]

Here, restaurants were rationed too, but I don't know about the US. We have a pretty short season too - fresh produce grown in Sweden is only available for a short period (huuuge difference to the UK, actually surprisingly shorter).

I found this company that delivers boxes of vegetables, ecologically and mostly locally grown, and they have this one box which they call "adventurous" which only contains seasonal stuff (cabbage and potatoes in the winter, fresh greens in the summer etc) so the contents really differ from one season to another. I thought having one of those delivered a week and trying to plan the food around that would be a good basis for my ration diet. But yes, people had canned vegetables a lot in the 40s and 50s (they were rationed too; everything here was rationed towards the end of the war, but I think I'll think 1940-41, before the worst shortage). Freezers weren't common here until much later - not really a staple until the late 60s (I didn't have one until a few years ago). For the sake of nutrition though, I'll forgo the cans and stick with frozen stuff just the same.

 

[vintageTink]

I had to go out and buy a new swimsuit last week and I practically wept looking in the mirror. I'm in!

I'm going to go down the route of limiting protien, eating more veg and having much smaller portions. I'm not eating Snoek for anyone though!

I feel your pain. I'm going to make tap pants from recycled nighties (make do and mend!) but don't want to in the size I currently am.

 

[Stanley Doble]

Home canning of fruit and vegetables was still common into the thirties and forties and had a revival during the war. One old timer told me fresh peaches were available in season in large quantities but canned peaches were a rare treat. So they bought peaches by the crate and canned them at home. Sugar being rationed, they bought some honey from a local bee keeper. So all winter they had their own canned peaches in honey syrup.

During the war, home canning guides were published with special attention to limiting the use of sugar.

Surplus produce from Victory Gardens was also canned (in glass Mason jars). Home freezers were unknown until the fifties. There were frozen food storage plants where you could rent a locker. My grandmother did this, she bought beef and pork by the side from the local slaughterhouse and stored it at the public frozen food locker. Each week she would go and take out what she needed for immediate use. The frozen food lockers went out of business in the early sixties, by that time everyone had home freezers.

Could SMP whites and yellows be powdered eggs? Dehydrated or powdered eggs were a mainstay of military cuisine. I think many tons of this staple were shipped to England during the war for civilian use too. It sounds like they were made in Sweden as well.

 

[Stanley Doble]

Powedered or dehydrated eggs can be reconstituted with water and used to make scrambled eggs or used in baking or cooking.

Powdered egg history, courtesy Wikipedia

Powdered eggs are fully dehydrated eggs. They are made using spray drying in the same way that powdered milk is made. The major advantages of powdered eggs over fresh eggs are the price, reduced weight per volume of whole egg equivalent, and the shelf life. Other advantages include smaller usage of storage space, and lack of need for refrigeration. Powdered eggs can be used without rehydration when baking, and can be rehydrated to make dishes such as scrambled eggs and omelettes.

Powdered eggs were a staple of camp cooking at least as early as 1912.

Powdered eggs were used in the United Kingdom during World War II for rationing. Powdered eggs are also known as dried eggs, and colloquially during the period of rationing in the UK, as Ersatz eggs.

The modern method of manufacturing powdered eggs was developed in the 1930s by Albert Grant and Co. of the Mile End Road, London. This cake manufacturer was importing liquid egg from China and one of his staff realised that this was 75% water. An experimental freeze-drying plant was built and tried. Then a factory was set up in Singapore to process Chinese egg. As war approached, Grant transferred his dried egg facility to Argentina. The British Government lifted the patent during the war and many other suppliers came into the market notably in the United States. The Chinese were airdrying eggs that had been whipped and left in the sun to dry and then ground since the Middle Ages. Early importers to the US included Vic Henningsen Sr. and others in the UK.

 

[vintageTink]

I'm a little dubious about eating bread. Perhaps someone will trade me bread and corn for their meat rations?

 

[Stanley Doble]

From a list of items rationed in the US during WW2:

Sugar May 1942 to 1947
Coffee November 1942 to July 1943
Processed Foods March 1943 to August 1945
Meats, canned fish March 1943 to November 1945
Cheese, canned milk, fats March 1943 to November 1945

It appears fresh fruit and vegetables were not rationed although that does not mean you could find them. Bread was not rationed.

I think liquor was rationed although it does not appear on the food list.

There were other restrictions. For a time you could not buy a tube of toothpaste unless you handed the druggist your old empty tube. Toothpaste was not rationed but the tubes were made of zinc and any metal was precious to the war effort.

 

[vintageTink]

I guess I can use artificial sweeteners! They've been popular since 1897. I had no idea they were that old!

 

[Stanley Doble]

Here is a short film explaining the importance of the ration and price ceiling system. A few things struck me funny. One was how these 2 slender beauties think a pound and a half of steak each is about right for dinner. The next was the ceiling price of 45 cents a pound. Finally there was the very odd Uncle Sam at the very end.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UXRZgVm11pA

 

[vintageTink]

Here is a short film explaining the importance of the ration and price ceiling system. A few things struck me funny. One was how these 2 slender beauties think a pound and a half of steak each is about right for dinner. The next was the ceiling price of 45 cents a pound. Finally there was the very odd Uncle Sam at the very end.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UXRZgVm11pA

What? You don't eat 24 oz of steak at a sitting?

 

[Flicka]

Yes, I am assuming that my Magic Allotment™ produces enough for me to can certain stuff. Not peaches, obviously, since they don't grow here, but peas, spinach, cucumber, apples, strawberries, tomatoes and such. I'm pretending to use a good deal of my sugar rations for that. And later this season I'm going to try to get out in the countryside and pick blueberries (it's free picking here; even on other people's lands) and maybe mushrooms (and yes, I know which kinds are edible - my parents forced me to go mushroom foraging in my childhood ). Even if I don't, I'll buy some and pretend I did.

Powedered or dehydrated eggs can be reconstituted with water and used to make scrambled eggs or used in baking or cooking.

Powdered egg history, courtesy Wikipedia

Powdered eggs are fully dehydrated eggs. They are made using spray drying in the same way that powdered milk is made. The major advantages of powdered eggs over fresh eggs are the price, reduced weight per volume of whole egg equivalent, and the shelf life. Other advantages include smaller usage of storage space, and lack of need for refrigeration. Powdered eggs can be used without rehydration when baking, and can be rehydrated to make dishes such as scrambled eggs and omelettes.

Powdered eggs were a staple of camp cooking at least as early as 1912.

Powdered eggs were used in the United Kingdom during World War II for rationing. Powdered eggs are also known as dried eggs, and colloquially during the period of rationing in the UK, as Ersatz eggs.

The modern method of manufacturing powdered eggs was developed in the 1930s by Albert Grant and Co. of the Mile End Road, London. This cake manufacturer was importing liquid egg from China and one of his staff realised that this was 75% water. An experimental freeze-drying plant was built and tried. Then a factory was set up in Singapore to process Chinese egg. As war approached, Grant transferred his dried egg facility to Argentina. The British Government lifted the patent during the war and many other suppliers came into the market notably in the United States. The Chinese were airdrying eggs that had been whipped and left in the sun to dry and then ground since the Middle Ages. Early importers to the US included Vic Henningsen Sr. and others in the UK.

Yes, but this one product I thinking about seems not to be made from egg. It says in my "SMP Cookbook" that it's made from milk, and you can only use it for baking, not for making scrambled eggs and such.

Anyone at home with the UK rationing rules for flour, bread and egg powder? I would like to know how much of my own home baked bread/cake I can make a week. And honey; I already thought that might have gone under the radar, but I don't suppose you could get all that much so I might use just a little for baking.

 

[Stanley Doble]

"Yes, but this one product I thinking about seems not to be made from egg. It says in my "SMP Cookbook" that it's made from milk, and you can only use it for baking, not for making scrambled eggs and such."

Could it be dehydrated buttermilk? I used to buy buttermilk powder in the bulk food store and use it to make Irish soda bread.

I can't think of any other milk product that you could use only for baking.

 

[Flicka]

Nope, it's not just that. There are two products; one that's a substitute for egg whites and another that's a substitute for egg yolks. They were not marketed as "milk products" but as "egg substitute" but in the cookbook (made buy the manufacturer) they say it's made from milk rather than egg, so it's not "dehydrated egg" but something used instead of egg (in any form) when baking.

I shall have to dig on.

 

[vintageTink]

For breakfast I had some toast, homemade jam, and tea.

 

[Flicka]

I collected some info on the British rationing system and put it up at the Wartime Dieting Experiment blog I started:

http://wartimedietexperiment.blogspot.se/2013/06/rationing-in-britain.html

 

[lareine]

Very interesting, Flicka - thank you!

 

[LizzieMaine]

In the US, restaurant food wasn't rationed -- restaurant-size canned goods were exempt from point rationing -- but unless you lived within walking distance of a restaurant you were out of luck. If you held an "A" mileage ration -- as did the majority of Americans -- you were permitted only to drive your car for essential purposes, and driving to a restaurant was not considered essential. If an OPA inspector saw a car with an A card in the window parked outside a restaurant, he'd take down the license number -- and that motorist would get a letter in the next day's mail notifying him that his gasoline ration was revoked.

 

[vintageTink]

It's inconceivable to me that they could revoke a gas ration card and you couldn't buy it!
I was born after the gas rationing during the Carter administration.

 

[W-D Forties]

I'm a miserable failure already - I doubt a large curry and lager last night and chips (french fries) for lunch today would count as part of my ration! I shall start tomorrow!

 

[vintageTink]

I haven't been doing well either. Hard to do with spouse and kids!