As well as the terrible situation out in the trenches, women and children faced many sacrifices at home, with food being a major factor. During the Second World War predominately, rationing was a country wide initiative to end starvation as imports into the country came to a standstill.
Food rationing occurred between 1940 and 1954, finishing nine years after the Second World War ended. There were many different food stuffs affected such as bacon, sugar, tea, and butter. Lots more foods were rationed as the years progressed including eggs, which were rationed at one per week in 1941. However it was not only foods that were rationed but clothes, paper, petrol and soap were also rationed. Shopping was also very different from nowadays for example you couldn’t go just to one shop for everything, and shopping was a daily occurrence due to no one having freezers. This affected many things for people back at home, as they had to improvise with meals due to the rations leading to many common meals during the war being unrecognisable to the modern era.
The following recipes give a very small taste to what it would have been like living in wartime Britain.
The first is Woolton Pie:
Ingredients:
- In season veggies enough to fill your pie dish for example: leeks, swedes, carrots, onions, and broccoli.
- potatoes for mashing
- 60g butter extra for mashing
- 60g flour
- 400ml milk extra for mashing
- cheese for grating
- seasoning to taste
Method:
Secondly an eggless sponge cake was a very common recipe used in wartime Britain:
Ingredients:
- 175g plain flour
- 3 tsp baking powder
- 70g butter
- 60g sugar
- 150ml milk
- jam or buttercream for the filling
Method:
As you can see foods were very different than nowadays so if you feel like going back in time to remember the fallen then try out some wartime food favourites!
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