Could You Survive on British World War Two Rations?

oh it's like a very very cheap very disgusting sausage it's just absolutely disgusting you would have to be desperate to eat one of these hi I'm Dan snow and I've come to a wartime kitchen to find out what an ordinary British family would have eaten during Second World War rationing [Music] the UK had too many people and not enough food Britain had been a big importer of food before the second world war and as war broke out the British government became scared that German submarines would sink all those ships carrying food to Britain the British people would starve and Britain would have to surrender so on the 8th of January 1940 rationing was brought in rationing just means that people are allocated a very particular amount of food each it's very very efficient everyone got one of these Russian books to register at their local shops then shopkeepers were supplied with just the right amount of food for everyone registered on their books Russian books had a sort of coupon system so people could only purchase what they are allotted and no more a weekly ration was an egg two ounces of butter two ounces of tea an ounce of cheese eight ounces of sugar four ounces of bacon and four ounces of margarine meat wasn't immediately rationed but when it was it was done on price being cheaper Cuts quickly became very popular also if you were the royal family Aristocrats or Winston Churchill and you had a country estate you could have food brought into your London residence so whilst the royal family in Winston Churchill made a big show of having a Russian boat you're eating pretty well and luckily for instance Churchill booze wasn't rationed ah spam now spam actually wasn't on the ration it was an American salted tinned processed pork that was very very popular tinning was a kind of Wonder technology it meant that food could be kept good to eat for between one and five years so spam was issued to a lot of soldiers in the field and the Americans used it to carry favor with people back here in the UK let's give it a try [Music] it's like a very very cheap very disgusting sausage frankly the world where meat is rationed this stuff would have tasted pretty good bread and powdered eggs what a treat there was actually a ban on White Bread during the second world war something called the national loaf was brought in Bakers got together and worked out to use wholemeal flour to produce a standardized loaf so here you go nice Brown loaf I'm gonna have some powdered eggs eggs were rationed so by July 1942 powdered eggs became available thank you to the good old USA what you do is you dry out an egg and then you smash it to bits then you keep it and it will last for years and years the allowance was one tin of dried eggs every two months now one tin was about the same as 12 fresh eggs so 12 fresh eggs every two months I'm gonna go crazy and have it all in one go yet to add water to this egg mixture to turn it back into something approaching egg it was one tablespoon of dried egg two tablespoons of water if you live near the countryside and limit some hens like you you give up your egg ration exchange it for other Foods [Music] it doesn't taste that much like eggs to be honest so tasteless the ministry of food was desperate to get people cooking with dried eggs dried eggs they insisted were just as good as fresh eggs and should be used in the same way they're very useful for main dishes that's propaganda that is ah butter my favorite bit of bread and butter because this isn't butter there's a war on Hitler doesn't let you have nice things this is dripping it's the rendered fat that drops off a piece of beef now I think my dad must have Stockholm syndrome because he still talks about the dripping he remembers from his childhood with great affection let's see what it's like [Music] it's disgusting it tastes like rendered fat that's dropped off a piece of beef when it's hot as you'll know from your baking tray it's like a clear liquid but room temperature get congeals it solidifiers it tastes like a bit of plasticky plasticine it is disgusting I don't know what my dad's all about it was a very uh versatile food or substance I suspect you could probably use it to increase the access on your truck but people love eating it in a bread and dripping form piece of bread dripping on the top a little bit of salt and pepper why not treat yourself okay here goes meat was heavily rationed you're allowed four ounces of bacon a week and other meat was available at a price that meant people started turning to Alternative forms of meat meat that in peace time you would Overlook as unsuitable for human consumption and that included Pig Trotters Hooves things like that but also whale meat whale meat was an unrationed alternative to meat it was sold as wacon corned whale meat with its fishy flavor removed can't wait to try that let's get into these Pig Trotters I mean it's just absolutely disgusting you would have to be desperate desperate to eat one of these there still seems to be mud from the farmyard caught in this Trotter here about this all right I'm done with those one thing that was already available during those wartime years was vegetables you'll be glad to hear these were not rationed they became a Mainstay during the war people were expected and encouraged to grow vegetables wherever they could the expression dig for victory was a popular catchphrase there was a huge rise in the number of allotments all over the UK this is a fake apricot flat it's in fact made from carrot I mean carrots grew like weeds in the new carrots everywhere turnips there's plenty of those so there's mock apricot flan was cleverly designed to fool you into eating it when it was in fact carrots smeared with Jam it fooled me in 1941 the minister for food Lord Wilton issued this Clarion call for self-sustainability he said this is a food War every extra row of vegetables in these allotments Save Shipping their battle on the kitchen front cannot be won without help from the kitchen Garden isn't the how in the garden better than an hour in the queue so true everyone was encouraged to start Victory Gardens dig up any patch of Earth near your house and plant vegetables in it and to use substitute good alternate carrots get them in the food in the absence of sugar which is very heavily rationed carrots were added desserts like this to sweeten them and they had the added benefit according to the government and that they helped you see better in the dark and would protect you from bombs and during blackouts but that's just because the government wanted to be able to fill their bellies with carrots they wouldn't eat anything else I tell my daughter that she eats the crust on her toast I'll make her hair curly and just in case you thought cartoon characters pushing annoying public information campaigns anything new they had Dr carrot and potato peat during the second world war cartoon characters to get people to eat more vegetables and plentiful and sheep thanks for joining me folks if you've enjoyed watching please click on any of the videos on this screen for more delicious content foreign [Music]

Channel: History Hit

Views: 348,309

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Id: ehM6s9rpZsE

Length: 8min 35sec (515 seconds)

Published: Wed Jul 12 2023