Rationing Order

To deal with the shortages of food during World War 2, the Ministry of Food implemented rationing.   Ration books with coupons were provided to the population to be exchanged in shops for food and clothing. The Nazis believed that by cutting off food supplies to the U.K the nation would be starved into defeat, (a plan that would break us in minutes today). The system of rationing out food in our society seems almost unimaginable. In our mass supermarkets, where food is thrown out the back of the stores into large bins and where aisles and aisles of fully stocked shelves glisten through the windows, how would we cope as a nation today, without this ‘food security’? I like most people buy into this ‘food utopia’, expecting to be able to walk to a shop to buy exactly what I want. I am tempted by the offers and drawn in to buying more than is needed.

However, despite this, I do believe I am a reasonably educated in buying food in the modern day. I price check the shelves, consider the deals (and whether or not they really are a ‘deal’) and I do not throw food away! Old fruit will go in a crumble and scraggly vegetables will go into a soup. Unless something really would make me ill, it will be eaten rather than go in the bin. Although I do have an aversion to food wastage, whether or not I could deal with rationing for 14 years, I really am not sure. Like most people, I have become comfortable in knowing that the supermarkets are there with their troves of full shelves, and have probably come dependent on our diet of plenty. This is why I feel like I should do this project. I am not going to starve, or go hungry. I will not have to worry about food running out, rationing is not being imposed upon me by our government and our country is not fighting for survival. However, I am going to give it a go.

The key image of war rationing for me, from history books, television, and so forth has to be powdered egg. During the war, 1 egg per person, per week was the allocation. The thought of one egg a week, does strike a little bit of horror for me. As a keen baker, using three eggs at a time for a cake and 5 egg yolks for Crème Anglaise means that one egg would really not go very far in this luxurious egg fest.

An alternative offered by the Ministry of Food was 1 packet of egg powder a month which made up to 12 eggs. Today, egg powder is near by impossible to buy. None of the shops seem to supply it and I have had to go on-line. Luckily, I have found a quaint body building website who sells it as a protein supplement for muscle build. However, it is made in the same way as the orginal powdered egg, by spray drying it. Once this arrives, eggs a go go. From the recipes I have seen, distributed by the Ministry of Food, powdered egg really was a suggested replacement for eggs in all forms. From mock fried egg to scrambled egg this really was a promoted option.

When it arrives, from my muscle website, we will see how ‘just as good as fresh eggs’ they really are!  

Ration Kitchen

Like most, my grandparents endured the hardship of rationing throughout World War Two and beyond. In Britain, rationing was introduced in 1940 and did not end fully until 1954. For my grandparents, fourteen years of rationing changed their lives and gave them values on wastage that have stuck with them until today. Unfortunately, both my grandfathers have passed away, but both my grandmothers (one 90 and the other 84, who still live on their own) still recall this period and the lessons it taught them. I do hate wastage of all kinds and when you read in the media that a third of food is thrown away this does seem criminal!

I intend to revisit food rationing and cook through the recipes supplied by the Ministry of Food to keep Britain going through the War. Hopefully, I will discover whether these principles can be applied to our modern wasteful society and if these were healthier times.

An important note is that this will be my experience of the rationing policies of the 1940s and 50s. I do not presume to know what living with food shortages was like for 14 years with the constant fear of bombings and loss of loved ones throughout WW2. I have the upmost respect, for the generation who fought for our liberty and who endured so much so that we can have the freedoms we have today. I just hope that from my meagre experiment, I can experience a small modicum of what rationing was like and hopefully bring some of those lessons into the modern day.   

Within this blog I will also be incorporating the stories of all four of my grandparents who all experienced the war in a very different way. I find these stories interesting and I hope you do too!

Now where to find powdered egg?????