The Home Front in World War Two

by Susie Hodge

  Black market

  Although ration books were precious commodities usually held on to vigilantly, by 1943 the government estimated that 700,000 had been lost or stolen. Inevitably perhaps, an illegal black market flourished where certain individuals sold difficult to obtain items secretly at high prices or favoured customers were sold rare items from – literally – under the counter. Perhaps even more inevitably, many of these illicit goods were not what they promised to be. The Ministry of Food employed staff to investigate these illicit dealings secretly and the government passed legislation to enable the courts to impose fines of up to £500, with a possible two years’ imprisonment. Ultimately, nearly 1,000 inspectors were employed by the Ministry of Food for these investigations. The MP Joseph Clynes described the black market when the country was facing such hardships as “treason of the very worse kind” and others in the House of Commons joined him in calling for the government to introduce even stronger punishments for black market offences.

  An example of an adult’s weekly rations in 1943:

  3 pints of milk

  3¼lb-1lb meat

  1 egg (or 1 packet of dried eggs every two months)

  3-4oz cheese

  4oz bacon and ham

  2oz tea

  8oz sugar

  2oz butter

  2oz cooking fat

  16 points a month for other rationed foods, subject to availability

  Rations were extremely meagre by contemporary standards. For instance, two ounces of tea is equivalent to about 20 teabags. Three to four ounces of cheddar cheese would probably be eaten as a snack today. With hardly any households containing fridges or freezers, convenience foods during the war were mainly tinned or bottled items, such as spaghetti, ravioli, baked beans, peas, soups, potatoes, custard, creamed rice, fruit, Carnation milk and salad cream. Sauces, pickles and relishes were in short supply but not rationed, as were pastes, some biscuits and jellies. Housewives tried to stock up with these as well as with nerve tonics and comforting beverages such as Horlick’s, Ovaltine, Rowntree’s, Bournvita, Bourneville or Fry’s cocoa.

  Better nutrition

  It is generally accepted that food rationing improved the nation’s health. Pre-war surveys showed that a quarter of the British population was undernourished, infant mortality was at a high rate, 80 per cent of under-fives had some bone abnormality and 90 per cent had badly formed or decayed teeth. As the shortages continued, people became used to eating less food, less fat and sugar and more vegetables. Officials calculated the minimum nutritional requirements for everyone and planned rationing accordingly, issuing different coloured books to suit different requirements. Buff-coloured books were given to most adults; green books were given to pregnant women, nursing mothers and babies and children under five. They were allowed the first choice of fruit, a larger allowance of fresh orange juice, a daily pint of milk and a double supply of eggs, while blue ration books were issued to children between five and 16 years old, who were allowed fruit, the full meat ration and half a pint of milk a day. On 8th December 1941, the government introduced the Vitamin Welfare scheme, to make sure that all children got the vitamins they needed to stay healthy. Children up to the age of two were given free cod liver oil and blackcurrant syrup. In 1942, the blackcurrant syrup was replaced with orange juice and the scheme was extended to include expectant mothers who were later also allowed Vitamin A and D tablets if they could not tolerate cod liver oil. This care of the nutrition of babies and children was considered to be of the utmost importance; as Churchill had said in 1943: “There is no finer investment for any community than putting milk into babies.”

  Fair payment and allocation

  Rationed goods still had to be paid for and in 1941; the Ministry of Food implemented comprehensive new price controls across the country to prevent retailers from making excessive profits on foods that were in short supply. That June, the Ministry also introduced ‘controlled distribution’ of eggs as rural areas had a greater supply of eggs and other farm produce than town-dwellers. For the course of the war, the government took over the organisation of all food provision and supply to retailers. All importers, manufacturers, wholesalers and retailers worked under the direction of the Ministry of Food, which acted for the benefit of the country as a whole. To this end, local Food Control Committees were set up to look after the interests of consumers and to supervise retail distribution. Shopkeepers were licensed to trade by these committees and instructed not to supply excessive quantities to any customers, while similar powers were taken to prevent people from buying too much. Maximum prices were fixed by the Ministry for most foods and displayed in shop windows.

  In it together

  The government promoted rationing and economy as a moral, nationalistic issue, with posters declaring that while waste in peacetime cost money, waste in wartime cost lives. It all amounted to greater originality and creativity being needed by those who provided meals at home. “Better pot-luck with Churchill today than humble pie with Hitler tomorrow”, “Be thankful and never grumble” and “Never leave any food on your plate” ran contemporary advertisements. People – particularly housewives – rose to the challenge with resourcefulness, sacrifice and enterprise. Rather than being crushed by the difficulties, in place of deprivation there developed a shared sense of camaraderie and fighting spirit; a united approach to making the restrictions a reason for innovative thinking and creative cooking. A glut of recipe books was published to accommodate shortages of the most basic ingredients. Wherever they appeared; in magazines, newspapers, leaflets, books or advertisements, all recipes were designed to encourage wives and mothers to extract as much nutritional value as possible from the limited variety and amounts of food available. The Ministry of Food produced information leaflets on nutrition and cooking, such as A Kitchen Goes to War in 1940, in which famous people contributed 150 recipes that could be prepared using rationed foods. The famous contributors included Lady David Douglas-Hamilton, Lady Milne-Watson, Margot, Countess of Oxford and Asquith, the chef of the Savoy hotel, Agatha Christie, Rebecca West and Stella Gibbons. These people were all known to the public from the society and celebrity pages of daily papers, and the objective of the leaflet, coming so early in the war, was to reinforce the idea that everyone was in it together. The recipes aimed to help housewives avoid boredom with the limited ingredients available, but most were not particularly exciting! For instance, Agatha Christie contributed a recipe for Mystery Potatoes, which were simply potatoes mashed with anchovies. In addition, short educational films were shown at cinemas and the BBC launched a daily morning radio programme called The Kitchen Front, which featured plenty of facts, recipes and advice. Various presenters of cooking came to the fore. Two sisters, Elsie and Doris Waters were a successful comedy double act and stars of radio and stage. Better known as the Cockney duo “Gert and Daisy” they wrote their own comic songs and sketches and made several films for the Ministry of Food. They also produced Gert and Daisy’s Wartime Cookery Book, which was a great success as they were so popular. Other wartime cook books included Meals without Meat, Potato Pete’s Recipe Book, McDougall’s Wartime Cookery Book, The Stork Wartime Cookery Book, Try Cooking Cabbage this Way and We’ll Eat Again. Cooking demonstrations by well-known cooks such as Marguerite Patten were held in many large stores across the country. Mrs Patten joined the Ministry of Food in 1942 to advise families on how to manage rations and gain the maximum nutritional value from the food available. Her brief was to ‘inspire people’ and among many things, she tried to persuade adults to eat raw, grated turnip as a valuable source of vitamins. All the information given to the public was intended to instil confidence in (mainly) women who were unsure about how to provide varied, nutritious meals on what little they could get, how they could alleviate hunger on meagre rations and how to stretch the limited ingredients further than they realised they could.

  Inspired by necessity, everyone faced the challenges with resolve and made do with less, or substi
tuted ingredients with the unusual or unexpected. In April 1940, William Morrison became Minister of Shipping and Lord Woolton became Minister of Food, remaining in the job until December 1943. Lord Woolton was determined to improve the nutritional value of the British diet and for the first time the findings of nutritional science, which had been researched since about 1914 were applied to feeding the population. The subsequent food policy promoted both adequate nourishment and the economical use of available foods. Under Lord Woolton’s direction, a new government advertising campaign was promoted; reminding everyone not to waste food, and giving further nutritional information and recipe suggestions. (Prosecutions for wasting food were not unknown.) As the campaign was launched, Lord Woolton published an initial message that outlined the government’s aims:

  “Here is your part in the fight for Victory. When a particular food is not available, cheerfully accept something else – home produced if possible. Keep loyally to the rationing regulations. Above all, when you are shopping, cooking or eating – remember, ‘Food is a Munition of War. Don’t waste it.’”

  The Ministry of Food arranged for supplies of sugar to be delivered to various women’s voluntary organisations, such as the Women’s Institute, the Townswomen’s Guild and the WVS. So that British-grown fruit was not wasted, the sugar was used for making jam. The Ministry of Food also urged everyone to substitute accessible ingredients where others were scarce, such as potato pastry in place of the usual pastry made of flour and grated potatoes in place of suet. Sour milk was suggested to be used instead of cheese; grated raw vegetables could replace fruit and whipped margarine with vanilla flavouring was suggested as an adequate substitute for cream. Oatmeal was another ingredient people were encouraged to eat more of, which was quite new to those living in the south of the country and carrots were used as a sweetener for all sorts of recipes, including steamed puddings, cakes and carrot jam. Other creative attempts at making mundane, repetitive ingredients tasty and diverse included pounding, mincing and marinating.

  Scornful of some of the suggestions for menus and recipes using rations, Winston Churchill wrote to Lord Woolton: “The way to lose the war is to try to force the British public into a diet of milk, oatmeal, potatoes etc., washed down on gala occasions with a little lime juice.” In another incident, when Churchill heard that people were complaining about the meanness of their meat ration, he asked to see it. Not realising that he was being shown a week’s allowance, he assumed it was for just one meal and remarked that it would be quite enough for him!

  For those living through the war who had not had the privilege of cheap package holidays, wartime recipes were far plainer than we are used to. Careful planning was always advised and recipes included many stock-cupboard ingredients that rarely included exotic spices. Apart from an occasional shake of nutmeg, cayenne pepper and generic curry powder, there was little in the way of seasoning beyond salt and pepper and white sauce was often recommended, while sweet dishes were often flavoured with condensed milk or golden syrup instead of sugar.

  Examples of wartime recipes

  Here are a few of the dishes offered to wartime housewives in magazines, leaflets and newspapers.

  Railway pudding

  6 oz flour

  3 oz margarine or dripping

  2 oz sugar

  1 egg

  A little milk

  1 teaspoon baking powder

  Pinch of salt

  Sift the flour with the baking powder and a pinch of salt. Rub in

  the fat, add the sugar and mix with the beaten egg and about four

  tablespoons of milk. Put in a greased pie-dish and bake in a

  moderate oven for about 30 minutes. Serve with warmed jam on

  top.

  Potato Jane

  1½ lb potatoes

  3 oz grated cheese

  2 oz breadcrumbs

  ½ chopped leek

  1 sliced carrot

  ½-¾ pint milk or water

  Salt and pepper

  Put a layer of sliced potatoes in an ovenproof dish. Sprinkle with

  some of the leek, carrot, crumbs, cheese and seasoning. Fill the dish

  with alternate layers, finishing with a layer of mixed cheese and

  crumbs. Pour over the milk and bake in a moderate oven for 45

  minutes or steam for 1 hour.

  Carrot cookies

  ½ lb carrots

  3 tablespoons of sugar

  2 tablespoons of cooking margarine

  5 tablespoons of self-raising flour

  Cream together the margarine and nearly all the sugar, keeping back

  a dessertspoonful. Grate the carrot and beat it into the margarine

  and sugar. Fold in the flour lightly until the dough is soft and

  creamy. You can add a tablespoon of water if the carrots are dry.

  Drop spoonfuls of the mixture into greased patty pans. Sprinkle the

  tops with the extra sugar. Put into a moderate oven and cook for

  about 25 minutes.

  Potato scones

  6 oz flour

  4 oz mashed potato

  1 teaspoon baking powder

  ½ teaspoon salt

  1 oz fat

  4-5 tablespoons milk

  Mix the flour and salt. Add the baking powder and work into the

  mashed potato. Rub in the fat. Blend to a soft dough with milk. Roll

  out to ¼ inch thickness. Cut into rounds. Brush the tops of the scones

  with milk. Bake on greased baking sheets for 15 minutes in a hot

  oven. For a sweet scone add 1 oz sugar.

  Clear soup

  2 pints clear stock

  1 carrot

  1 turnip

  1 oz butter

  1 small piece of celery

  1 leek

  1 onion

  Salt

  Shred the vegetables. Melt the butter in a pan and cook the

  vegetables until they are slightly brown. Boil the stock and season

  to taste, add the vegetables and cook till tender. Remove scum as it

  rises. Add shredded lettuce, boil for a few minutes and serve.

  Potato Floddies

  Scrub two potatoes and grate with a coarse grater over a bowl, then

  add sufficient flour to form a batter and season with salt and pepper.

  Melt a little dripping and make very hot in a frying pan. Drop the

  mixture into it. When brown on one side turn and brown the other.

  Serve with jam if you want it as a sweet dish or, if you prefer it as

  a savoury, add a pinch of mixed herbs and a dash of cayenne pepper.

  Steamed chocolate duff

  6 oz flour

  ¾ teaspoon baking powder

  2½ teaspoons cocoa

  2½ teaspoons sugar

  1½ oz fat

  1½ oz grated raw potato

  Milk and water

  Rub the fat into the flour and mix all ingredients together. Make

  into a soft dough with the liquid and then steam in a small greased

  mould for about 30-40 minutes.

  Victory sponge

  1 large raw potato, finely grated

  2 medium raw carrots, finely grated

  1 breakfast cupful breadcrumbs

  1 tablespoon self-raising flour

  2 tablespoons sugar

  ½ teaspoon vanilla or lemon flavouring

  1 teaspoon baking powder

  Mix all the ingredients together, then coat the inside of a heated

  basin with 2 or 3 tablespoons of jam, allow to cool and fill with

  mixture. Tie on a cover of greased paper, steam for 2 hours.

  Steamed chocolate pudding

  2 oz margarine

  1 oz sugar

  1 cup grated carrot

  2 tablespoon golden syrup

  2 cups plain flour

  1 teaspoon bicarbonate of soda

  1 teaspoon baking powder

  1 heaped teasp
oon cocoa

  Pinch of salt

  ½ pint milk

  A little vanilla essence

  Peel and grate the carrot. Cream the margarine and sugar together

  until pale and fluffy and then stir in the grated carrot, syrup and

  the rest of the dry ingredients. Add the milk and a few drops of

  vanilla essence and mix it all to a fairly stiff consistency. Grease a

  basin and put the mixture into it. Cover with greased baking paper.

  Tie string around the paper and basin. Put the basin into a large

  pan of boiling water, put a close-fitting lid on top and steam for two

  hours. Do not let the water in the bottom of the steamer boil dry. To

  test, put a fork or skewer into the centre of the pudding. Like a cake,

  if it comes out clean, the pudding is ready.

  Pepping things up

  Without fridges, wartime housewives had to visit their local shops each day to buy fresh food as it was impossible to store this for more than a day or two. Most households kept milk, butter and other such foods in larders and bowls of cold water. Because so many recipes were somewhat uninspiring, flavourings in the form of sauces, pickles and gravies were recommended to enliven them. Such products included Bisto (invented in 1908 with the slogan, “Browns, Seasons and Thickens all in One”), Vita-Gravy, Oxo and Bovril. Many brands, included recipes in their advertising, for example, McDougall’s flour advertised a “mock beefsteak pudding” and a Bovril headline ran: “Little cubes of carrot, leeks and ‘taters too, simmered with some Bovril, make a beefy stew.” Usually a more detailed recipe was included, for example: