Ration Week
To add a little trouble and fun to an otherwise mundane time of year, we decided to challenge ourselves to live as though on 1945 Food Rations for one week. Rationing in Great Britain lasted from 1940-1954 but the most stringent period was the year of 1945.
The average rationing per week, at the lowest point of rationing of 1945 in the UK:
(Per Adult)
Butter: 50g
Bacon: 100g
Margarine: 100g
Cooking fat or Lard: 100g (Jeordy and I used Margarine as cooking fat)
Sugar: 225g
Meat: To the value of 1/2 d - roughly 450g
Milk: 2 Pints (1200ml)
Cheese: (50g)
Eggs: 1 Fresh Egg a Week
Tea: 50g (Coffee was not rationed though was not popular or common at the time)
Jam: 450g Every 2 months
Dried Eggs: 1 packet (12 eggs) every four weeks. (Can be bought at markets or health food shops. e.g.. Holland & Barrett)
Sweets, Chocolate and Biscuits: 350g every 4 weeks.
After doubling up our rations to allow for two people, Jeordy and I went to the market to buy non-rationed items:
We purchased vegetables that would have been more readily available in 1945 England such as a bundle of carrots, a few pounds of potatoes, 4 leeks, 2 heads of broccoli, tomatoes, a cabbage and a cauliflower. We stayed well away from onions despite their presence in many recipes, as we are well aware they were almost impossible to find during the war. Examples of onions being prizes in raffles or being auctioned off were not uncommon. Though more readily available on the black market Jeordy and I would like to pretend that we lived licitly for the purpose of this exercise. We also bought dried red kidney beans and 2 cans of tinned fruit, items that were rationed to 1 can per person each week.
We used authentic 1940s recipes which were compiled at:
We have also decided to rank each vintage dish out of 5.
1/5 - Would not eat.
2/5 - Disappointing.
3/5 - Ok but would not recommend.
4/5 - Good and would recommend.
5/5 - Intend to make again.
DAY 1
Bread (Jeordy)
Jeordy: For this loaf I used the plain and simple recipe on the back of my yeast packet. As it was my very first time baking bread, I decided to cut myself a little slack and cut a few corners. I used Strong White Flour instead of Wholemeal Flour, which would have been the only type available for purchase in 1945. I also used fast-acting yeast which was not commercialised until the 1970s. Even so, starting the day and the week off by making fresh bread felt very authentic.
Ingredients:
-500g strong white flour
-1 tsp fast action yeast
-1.5 tsp salt
-1 tbsp sugar (I used brown sugar)
-25g butter
-320ml warm water
I began by weighing out flour using my vintage scale. It was easier said than done, but I got there eventually. I then measured out the rest of my ingredients.
I combined the dry ingredients, added the margarine by hand until it felt/looked like 'fine breadcrumbs,' and then gradually added the warm water. I mixed it all by hand until everything was well combined, then tipped it onto the table to knead. (The recipe said 'lightly floured surface' but my dough was very sticky and required more a moderate-heavy dusting.)
After kneading for approximately 10 minutes, my recipe instructed me to leave the dough to rise in a warm and dry place. I covered it with clingfilm and left it next to the radiator. The dough is supposed to double in size, which the recipe said would take approximately 1 hour. It took longer. I kneaded it again for about 5 minutes, placed it in the tin and left it to sit another half an hour. Before pooping it into the preheated oven, I dusted it lightly with flower and oats. I then placed it in a 200C oven for 45 minutes, and voilà! C'est le pain.
Ranking: 4/5
Baked Spaghetti (Jeordy)
Alongside making bread, I prepared lunch for the first few days on Monday afternoon. This recipe was actually my Great Grandmothers, and was used in California throughout the war and onwards.
Ingredients:
-1lb spaghetti
-1 can tomato sauce (if you're a cheater like me!)
-Grated Cheddar on top
-(optional) ground beef
My mother sent me this recipe off the top of her head, so I had to do a bit of improvisation, as any formidable housewife would. I started by scrounging up what pasta we had, which was roughly 1lb of tagliatelle and linguine. I boiled both until al dente, roughly 15 minutes in salted and buttered water. I had other things to do besides cook all day, so I cheated and used a jar of pasta sauce instead of making my own from scratch as would have been authentic.
We didn't have enough extra meat rations to afford to put ground beef in, so I moved straight on to grating a meagre amount of cheese on top and sprinkling on additional herbs to ensure it tasted of something.
After around 35 minutes in a 190C oven, it was done and ready! It's something I grew up eating so it was comforting, and James greatly enjoyed it as well.
Ranking: 4/5
Hunt Pie (James)
For dinner I made a hearty meat pie.
Ingredients:
-1 Leek, 2 large potatoes, 4 carrots and 1/3 of a cabbage
-200g red Kidney beans (soaked in water over night)
-100g minced beef
-1 stock pot
Pastry:
-100g porridge oats
-100g plain flour
-1 teaspoon baking powder
-50g margarine
-(parsley)
After dicing all of the vegetables I boiled water and added them to a pot with the stock pot and kidney beans. Having never cooked kidney beans before, after about half an hour we realised they needed be soaked beforehand and so we carefully removed the beans...one bean at a time.
I mixed well and boiled the mix for 15-20 minutes until the vegetables had softened. In a pan I broke up the mince and fried it in margarine until cooked. I then added the mince to the pot.
Meanwhile, I made the pastry by adding the oats, flour, baking powder and margarine together with chopped parsley. I added between 1-2 tablespoons of water, mixed and then needed the pastry to form a sticky damp dough. I then rolled it out as flat as possible.
Once the vegetables had softened I added salt and pepper and gradually added flour to the mix stirring to make it thicker.
I then placed the mixture into a pie dish, covered it with the pastry and cooked it in the oven for 20 minutes on 180 degrees C. The pastry stayed relatively thin and soft. In actuality the pie turned into more of a stew with the pastry serving as a type of dumpling but it was moderately tasty and well within our rationing limits. The recipe is also very filling and left lots of leftovers.
For dessert I had a few multigrain biscuits and Jeordy had two squares of dark chocolate.
Ranking: 2/5
DAY 2
For breakfast we ate 2 toasted pieces of the bread Jeordy made with a thin layer of raspberry jam and one cup of tea or coffee.
For lunch we ate leftovers from the pasta bake (we also finished the hunt pie as an afternoon snack).
Bangers and Mash (James)
In summary, I steamed the broccoli and boiled the chopped potatoes for roughly 20 minutes until soft. I then fried the sausages and mushrooms in margarine until cooked through. I chopped the apple and added to a gravy made from gravy stock. Lastly I mashed the potato, added a dollop of margarine and splash of milk. We each had 2 sausages, mash potato mixed with margarine, and 1 head of broccoli between us. The gravy with fried mushrooms and apple chunks was put over top.
During the War the Ministery of Food implemented a law that all Sausages had to be at least 10% pork (luckily ours were closer to 90%).
This meal is actually part of our regular rotation, so naturally it gets a 5/5.
We finished the day with a dessert of tinned Tropical Fruit.
Day 3
We started the day with a very simple (yet luxurious) egg on toast. This used our fresh egg allotment for the week, which meant we had only dried eggs for the rest of our challenge.
Bread (Jeordy)
This time around I chose to make more authentic wholemeal bread. I mixed the wholemeal flour with the small amount of remaining white flour, which was common practice for homemakers during the war. I combined the yeast packet recipe with the wholemeal flour packet recipe. The main difference was that I left the dough to sit for longer at each stage, kneaded it a bit more, and baked it for slightly longer.
The result was a mouthwateringly tasty and wholesome loaf. It lasted a bit longer owing to the fact that it had more substance.
Ranking: 5/5
Cauliflower Cheese (James)
We were a bit trepidatious going into this recipe, owing to how disappointing the Hunt Pie was, but our fears were soon alleviated.
Ingredients:
-1 Cauliflower
-2 Tablespoons Corn Starch
-1/2 Pint of Milk
-1 Leek
-4 Oz Bacon
-2 Oz Cheese
-Knob of Butter
First I chopped up and boiled 1 whole cauliflower on medium heat. Then I set about making the sauce. I added the cornstarch, and a little milk to create a paste before adding the rest of the milk and the butter. I put the sauce in a pan on low heat stirring constantly.
The sauce should gradually thicken and I then added Salt and Pepper with a small tea spoon of mustard to add flavour.
I then fried the bacon and leek together until browned and soft.
I took the pan off the heat and added the sauce to the frying pan, once ready, and mixed well.
Once the cauliflower was soft I added it to a pie dish and poured the sauce/bacon picture on top evenly. I then grated the cheese over it. I placed under the grill for roughly 2 minutes until the top had turned brown and the cheese was bubbling. ( Be vigilant!)
The result was a wholesome, tasty and relatively healthy dish that will become a regular meal for us both after the Ration Challenge ends.
Ranking: 5/5
For dessert I had a few biscuits and Jeordy had a few more squares of dark chocolate.
Day 4
We had another satisfying breakfast of tea and toast. The wholemeal bread made this meal more substantial and nutritious.
Kale and Potato Soup (Jeordy)
For the second batch of lunch I made a hearty soup. I chose this simple but nutritionally complete Kale and Potato concoction.
Ingredients:
- 2 pints vegetable (we used chicken) stock
- 1.5lbs potatoes
- 1 onion or leek
- 4oz kale
- Parsley
- 4 tbsp dried milk (we used Almond milk)
- salt, pepper, and any other herbs to taste
First I prepared my ingredients by chopping the leek, potatoes, kale, and dissolving a chicken stock pot into 2 pints hot water. Next I combined the stock, leek and potatoes in a pot and boiled until the vegetables were soft. The instructions on the recipe said to only use half the stock, but it was insufficient for me so I used all the stock from the get go.
The next instruction was to remove the pot from heat and mash everything together, which I did. I then added the washed and 'shredded' kale, and returned the mixture to a boil. I then boiled it all for an additional 20 minutes. While my recipe instructed to season at the end, I prefer to season as I go, so I added salt, pepper, and garlic powder at this point.
I then removed the pot from heat and stirred in the milk. After adding (dried) parsley, the dish was ready to go! In the future I would run it through my blender to give it a smoother texture and appearance, but I chose not to in order to maintain the 40s aesthetic. This lunch meal lasted us until Saturday.
Ranking: 4/5
Broccoli and Bean Bake (Jeordy)
I didn't realise going into this recipe that it was intended to be made up of leftovers. This meant it was peculiar, and not particularly enjoyable.
Ingredients:
-1 head broccoli -1 large onion or leek. -1.5 cups of kidney beans -15-20 cherry tomatoes -2 cloves garlic. -Butter or margarine for oil -Salt and pepper and mixed herbs, plus a handful rolled oats
Despite the former bean failure, I forgot to soak them and therefor had to look up how to cook them on Wikihow. I boiled them briefly and then let them simmer for 2.5 hours. Towards the end of this time I prepped the rest of the ingredients: I chopped and sautéed the leek and garlic, chopped and boiled the broccoli (for 5 minutes, until al dente) and cooked the cherry tomatoes until they split. I seasoned all with salt and pepper as I went. I then combined garlic, broccoli and cooked beans in a greased pan before adding all the ingredients to a baking dish. I topped with the leek and tomato, and then sprinkled some oats on top, and baked for 20 minutes at 220C.
It was recommend to have gravy with it, but we were out. Overall it was unimpressive for the amount of effort, and quite bland.
Ranking: 2/5 Healthy but not enjoyable.
Day 5
Breakfast was toast with margarine.
Lunch consisted of Kale and Potato soup, leftovers, and toast.
Canadian Bake (Jeordy)
The canadian bake was another strange, hodgepodge dish, though much tastier than the last.
Ingredients:
-1.5 lbs of small white haricot beans (we used kidney beans)
-1 lb of potatoes
-1/4 lb of chopped boiled bacon (we omitted this)
-Dessertspoon of ground sage
-1 tsp sugar
-Salt, pepper and butter/margarine
-Crisp breadcrumbs (we used oats)
I began the night before by measuring out the beans and leaving them to soak for 24 hours. As the photo shows, we only had about 1 lb left, so I used what we had.
The next evening I boiled the potatoes and beans separately. Once they were cooked I drained and combined them before mashing them up together. A more difficult feat than you might expect! At this point I added salt, pepper, sage and margarine. Next I would have added bacon, but my poor planning meant we had finished it the night before and I was forced to abstain.
Therefore I greased the dish with a butter wrapper I'd saved (an authentic 1940s trick I learned from my mother) and because I neither had breadcrumbs nor intended to waste precious bread making some, I simply lined it with porridge oats. I cannot say I would recommend this substitution.
I then filled the dish with the mixture and baked it for 30 minutes at 190c. I am of the mind that baking the dish was to its detriment as it dried it out.
Regardless, while it was baking I steamed 1/3 a cabbage to be had with it. I mixed the cabbage and beans together when serving to give more dimension to each bite.
I believe gravy, which was intended to be an accompaniment, would have improved this dish greatly, though it was flavourful and interesting on its own.
Ranking: 3/5
For dessert James and I cheated and indulged in some beautiful gluten-free, low-sugar cakes our flatmate brought home from work. One was pistachio and chocolate, and the other was a cheesecake-like Victoria Sponge. We regretted nothing.
Day 6
Pancakes (Jeordy)
For breakfast I made (American) pancakes. I followed my usual BBC recipe, which makes good fluffy pancakes: https://www.bbc.co.uk/food/recipes/fluffyamericanpancak_74828
Ingredients:
-135g/4¾oz plain flour
-1 tsp baking powder
-½ tsp salt
-2 tbsp caster sugar
-130ml/4½fl oz milk
-1 large egg, lightly beaten (I used dried egg substitute)
-2 tbsp melted butter (allowed to cool slightly) or olive oil, plus extra for cooking (I used margarine)
Ranking: 5/5 (obviously!)
Lunch was soup and leftover Canadian bake. The Canadian Bake was surprisingly delightful fried in margarine.
'Little Bit of Everything' Stew (Jeordy)
Today's supper was supposed to be a 1940s take on Julia Childs' Boeuf Bourguignon. Unfortunately we hadn't read the recipe properly and didn't realise it needed wine, or that it took 4 hours to make. As we started dinner around 19:00, waiting 4+ hours was not an option. Therefore I took it upon myself to invent a proper wartime 'Victory Stew' if you will.
Ingredients:
-500g stew meat
-about 1lb potatoes
-1/3 a cabbage
-a few carrots
-salt, pepper, paprika
Dumplings:
-flour
-butter
-salt, (dried) parsley
I started by frying the meat. It was just about to go off, so I took care to cook the hell out of it. Waste not, want not, right? I also seasoned heavily with salt, pepper, and paprika to ensure some flavour. After the meat was mostly cooked I added the potatoes and carrots, frying them a bit before adding water and a beef stock pot. I brought it to a boil and then let it simmer until the potatoes were nearly soft.
While it simmered I had James make dumplings. He doesn't have a recipe, but instead combines the seasoned flour and butter until they make a nice doughy texture. We were out of white flour, so he added in some porridge oats. I added them to the pot and simmered another 15 minutes. I added the cabbage 5 minutes before I turned it off, so it was cooked but not soggy.
What had started as a mild disaster ended up as a hearty and quite enjoyable stew.
Ranking: 3/5
For dessert I finished my dark chocolate, and James finished off the final few biscuits.
Day 7
We cheated and met some friends for brunch on Day 7. It was delicious, and the luxury of so many options was slightly overwhelming.
Curry (James)
Ingredients:
-2 Ibs of Potatoes
-2 carrots
-1 Leek
-1 Apple Chopped
-1 Tomato Chopped
-1 Table Spoon of Curry Powder
-2 Table Spoons of Flour
-1 Teaspoon of Malt Vinegar
-1 Pinch of Brown Sugar
I boiled the chopped potatoes and then fried plenty of margarine adding the chopped carrots, tomatoes, leeks and apple to the pan. I fried them until brown. When the potatoes were soft I added them to the pan and then added the curry powder, flour, vinegar and a pinch of sugar. I mixed it well and let it simmer for roughly 5 minutes in the pan.
I make curry regularly so it was interesting to try a new method. It was delicious but I prefer my more authentic curry and so probably won't make it again. It is however, a simple and delicious curry recipe.
Ranking: 4/5
For dessert Jeordy and I shared the second can of fruit.
CHALLENGES
This was a week of challenges.
1. It was a struggle using margarine instead of butter/olive oil.
2. We've been lucky enough to never have to pace ingredients so extremely. If we run out of something we need, like butter, we can very easily run to the store and get some more. It was humbling to put ourselves in a situation to better understand the constant struggle homemakers faced to obtain and prepare nutritious and delicious food.
3. The most difficult aspect was having to walk past snacks in the market or on the street and knowing we couldn't have them.
4. James does most of the cooking normally. I am very grateful he cooked at all during this week, because I could not have handled cooking every evening while also trying to study, get essays written and generally exist.
