Very nice rationing website with original articles and recipes.

[killertomata]

Hopefully I've chosen the right place to post this, I searched and didn't see this anywhere.

I just happened across this page while searching for 1940s recipes.

Features many jpgs of publications and articles issued by the 'Ministry of Food'- including recipes and hints.

And they also have this page for "Make Do and Mend" campaigns.

I am spending the evening in tonight and this is the perfect way to spend it, reading all these articles.

 

[Laraquan]

Oh, thank you! Thank you! That's just what I needed. I came onto this site specifically on the look-out for recipes.

EDITED: Oh, does anyone know how many eggs make up one dried egg, unreconstituted? There are recipes asking for a tablespoon of dried egg...

 

[The Wolf]

Dried eggs

When I went to the Imperial War Museum in London I bought a great packet called 'The Home Front: Documents relating to life in Britain, 1939-1945". It had all sorts of reproductions of items one might have on the home front. One such item was "War Cookery Leaflet Number 11" from M of F. It stated that one level teaspoonful of egg powder with two level teaspoonfuls of water equals one egg. It also had other "yummy" egg recipes.

Sincerely,
The Wolf

 

[Kishtu]

There are a couple of books that have just been published in UK - http://www.amazon.co.uk/Make-Do-Mend-Official-Reproductns/dp/1843172658/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1/202-8882756-6915015?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1189409867&sr=8-1 andhttp://http://www.amazon.co.uk/Eating-Victory-Healthy-Official-Reproductns/dp/184317264X/ref=pd_bxgy_b_text_b/202-8882756-6915015?ie=UTF8&qid=1189409867&sr=8-1

They look very interesting and have made their way onto my Christmas list...

 

[KilroyCD]

When I went to the Imperial War Museum in London I bought a great packet called 'The Home Front: Documents relating to life in Britain, 1939-1945". It had all sorts of reproductions of items one might have on the home front.

That is a good memorabilia pack, with a lot of good facsimile documents. I bought one of those (along with the Battle of Britain one) my first time visiting the IWM back in 1990. There's another similar memorabilia pack out now from another publisher, and it has some Ministry of Food items in it as well. It's available from www.aceshighcollectables.com, and costs half of what the IWM packs cost. There are several titles available, and are all well worth the price.

 

[Ada Veen]

the imperial war museum, home of many treasures

I'm not sure if someone has already posted this, but here are pictures of the imperial war museum's 1940s house
http://www.bbc.co.uk/london/content/image_galleries/1940s_house_gallery.shtml

 

[NoirDame]

Thanks for posting this. I'm really interested in rationing and might write my thesis on it.

I am really enjoying Eating for Victory: Rationing and the Politics of Domesticity by Amy Bentley right now.

 

[AmateisGal]

Here are two books on rationing on the American Homefront that look spectacular.

Grandma's Wartime Kitchen: World War II and the Way We Cooked

Grandma's Wartime Baking Book: World War II and the Way We Baked

 

[russa11]

Nice site. Here is one that you may enjoy. It has some good info here:

http://www.worldwar2exraf.co.uk/Online Museum/Museum Docs/foodration.html

 

[Bill Taylor]

Starting in the early part of WWII, Butter was rationed and in short supply. So, this new product called oleomargerine was introduced. We had several milch cows and therefore had plenty of homemade butter, but my mother felt we must participate in the war effort. So, she kept buying this "stuff" - oleomargerine. The mid-west dairy industry had protested, so it couldn't be yellow like butter, although after the war was over, they backed off of that stand. It came in these pasteboard boxes and was this awful white color. It also came with a couple of packages of orangish yellow food coloring. The drill was that your poured it all into a big bowl and mixed the orange yellow food coloring into the ugly white oleomargerine. It took forever to get it all mixed together so it looked like something edible. It didn't!

Although years later, margerine bacame a common foodstuff, my mother, out of perversity I think, always called it "oleo", the name it was originally called (not margerine). Anyway, to this day, I absolutely refuse to eat margerine.

Bill

 

[Josephine]

... my mother, out of perversity I think, always called it "oleo", the name it was originally called (not margerine).

Occasionally my mom and I will call it oleo too

 

[russa11]

my father still calls it that also.

 

[Joli7211]

Starting in the early part of WWII, Butter was rationed and in short supply. So, this new product called oleomargerine was introduced. We had several milch cows and therefore had plenty of homemade butter, but my mother felt we must participate in the war effort. So, she kept buying this "stuff" - oleomargerine. The mid-west dairy industry had protested, so it couldn't be yellow like butter, although after the war was over, they backed off of that stand. It came in these pasteboard boxes and was this awful white color. It also came with a couple of packages of orangish yellow food coloring. The drill was that your poured it all into a big bowl and mixed the orange yellow food coloring into the ugly white oleomargerine. It took forever to get it all mixed together so it looked like something edible. It didn't!

Although years later, margerine bacame a common foodstuff, my mother, out of perversity I think, always called it "oleo", the name it was originally called (not margerine). Anyway, to this day, I absolutely refuse to eat margerine.

Bill

Actually, in Canada, we have province where it is still against the law to sell "coloured" margerine - in Qu?©bec! My sister who lived there for a while was astonished and disgusted by it when she arrived there a few years ago and she hasn't had margerine since.