1940's Experiment

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Kathleen

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So I was cruising about the Internet like I often do and something caught my eye: A woman had engaged in an experiment to make do with what would have been her weekly food rations during WWII. She lives in the UK and so her weekly ration is as follows:

Bacon & Ham - 4 ounces
Meat to the value of 1 shilling and six pence (1/2 pound of minced beef)
Butter - 2 ounces
Cheese - 2 ounces
Margarine - 4 ounces
Cooking fat - 4 ounces
Milk - 3 pints
Sugar - 8 ounces
Preserves - 1 pound every 2 months
Tea - 2 ounces
Eggs - 1 fresh egg per week
Sweets/Candy - 12 ounces every four weeks

In addition, you got to spend an additional 16 points per four weeks which would get you a can of tinned fish, 2 pounds of dried fruit, or 8 pounds of dried peas.

I've not been able to find a definitive list of what one could claim in the states, but I've read it was roughly twice the UK rations. I do know that it was a pound of coffee per five weeks.

When I first started to read about the project, I was pretty sassy. "Oh, I could do that," I said with a flip of my hair....until I hit the egg and milk part. Then...sugar. I've also read that flour was sometimes scarce. Seafood and fish were not limited unless it was in a can.

So the lady who did the experiment lost a boat-load of weight, which was her goal, but I'm totally amazed that she stuck to her rations!

I also learned that rationing in the UK continued until well-past the war.

If that kind of thing returned, I believe that I could do it - but it would take some serious planning. I'd definitely have a victory garden and a backyard full of chickens!

Does anyone remember food rations during WWII or after?


 
very neat, kath. thanks for posting this.

i was raised on stories of rationing during the big one. my mom was the youngest of eight children of recent norwegian immigrants living in brooklyn, and dad served in the 28th infantry, then came home to brooklyn after the war.

i'll have to ask my parents for more specifics of the meals they ate during that time.
 
very neat, kath. thanks for posting this.

i was raised on stories of rationing during the big one. my mom was the youngest of eight children of recent norwegian immigrants living in brooklyn, and dad served in the 28th infantry, then came home to brooklyn after the war.

i'll have to ask my parents for more specifics of the meals they ate during that time.

I'm really curious on how the UK list differs from the one in the US. I remember my grandmother talking about wearing her worn out sneakers to town only to change into her nice shoes to shop and changing back when she got to the edge of town to return home. I also know that she would walk to her mother's home as her mother ran a dairy and help make butter, cheese, etc.

Yikes...I would be protein starved in no time.
I think I would see if I could trade my minced beef for beans and use the ham/bacon to season them. I see a lot of beans in my future with this diet. Hmm...was one allowed to legally trade?

Also, with such little sugar, I would try dehydrating to store fruits.

My best plan involves a garden and egg-laying hens.
 
My parents spent a few months in England in 1946 on their way from Sweden to the US. My mum admits she went a little crazy because of the chocolate rationing. She hadn't realized she was a chocoholic. :LOL:
 
I don't think this would "go over" very well with many people in today's entitlement culture if it really happened again. Interesting problem to think about. Social unrest, food riots, cattle rustling and other thefts would become more common. Much different reaction than the "pull together", "self reliant", and "common good" culture of that generation.

You would have to supplement your rations to survive. Home canning would suddenly become very BIG again. The hoarders you see on tv would be proven right.

Just my .02

.40
 
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What I remember was the meat rationing. As a result, we kids would dig for clams in the summer and after a Nor'easter, all of us would go down to the beach and harvest the lobsters that got washed up on shore. It helped my mother save her meat coupons for the end of the month. But we did eat a lot of seafood during the war. The fishing fleet at that time was located in our community. My mother would go down there and buy just one large haddock for supper. Then she would go to the community garden and buy some veggie for supper. A local farmer's market. The veggies were cut or pulled right there from the ground. You got dirt and all the topping of the veggie. Like in carrots.

I also remember my mother making toast and sprinkling a little sugar on it and telling me that was desert. Most of the deserts she made though had molasses in them in place of the sugar that other recipes called for. I don't remember of ever feeling deprived at that time. For me, it was when I learn most of my cooking skills from my mother. You learned to make do with what you had. She taught me how to haggle for a better price. :angel:
 
I grew up in the 1950's learning how to cook from 5 aunts and my mum who were all smashing cooks. These women were inventive, shrewd and and fed families on practically no extras that we take for granted today. They would make tasty, filling and honest dinners. OK, so they weren't going to win 'Masterchef' but nothing ever seemed to faze them. I still have a weakness for homemade bread and strawberry jam or a roly poly pudding and custard. When I grew up and was a young mum and we were really hard-up I knew how to feed us well. All thanks to those wonderful ladies.
 
What I remember was the meat rationing. As a result, we kids would dig for clams in the summer and after a Nor'easter, all of us would go down to the beach and harvest the lobsters that got washed up on shore. It helped my mother save her meat coupons for the end of the month. But we did eat a lot of seafood during the war. The fishing fleet at that time was located in our community. My mother would go down there and buy just one large haddock for supper. Then she would go to the community garden and buy some veggie for supper. A local farmer's market. The veggies were cut or pulled right there from the ground. You got dirt and all the topping of the veggie. Like in carrots.

I also remember my mother making toast and sprinkling a little sugar on it and telling me that was desert. Most of the deserts she made though had molasses in them in place of the sugar that other recipes called for. I don't remember of ever feeling deprived at that time. For me, it was when I learn most of my cooking skills from my mother. You learned to make do with what you had. She taught me how to haggle for a better price. :angel:
My maternal grandmother had a garden and kept laying hens. Growing up, my mom would tell me about how grandpa got paid "in kind" (he was a pharmacist) and would often come home with food. My grandmother did a lot of canning, and they supplemented their diets with fish and wild game. Luckily, my grandfather got "C" gas rations because he had to deliver drugs (omg, never thought about it--I'm related to a drug runner...), so they could go out into the country and hunt or to the lake to fish. Times were tough, but they didn't starve.
 
I just remember stories like everyone saving sugar to take to a bakery so the baker could make a wedding cake.

My Father's family had it pretty easy, as far as food, during the Great Depression and the war rationing. His Father owned a farm and was a part time mailman, his Grandfather owned a store that housed the small town post office. My Mother's family had relatives that owned a farm and her Father was a fire chief for the city that they lived in.

I have always had an interest in the sacrifices that people made during the Great Depression and the war rationing. A great series of books by Rita Van Amber and her daughter Janet Van Amber Paske provide a glimpse into peoples lives and help understand why we eat some of the foods we do. Another good book is Grandma's Wartime Kitchen by JoAnne Lamb Hayes.

If you can find a complete list of the war time rationing rules in the United States I would be willing to see if I can get by for a couple of weeks, sounds like an interesting challenge to me!

This link has some additional information.

http://histclo.com/mat/rat/cou/rat-usw2.html
 
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I grew up in the 1950's learning how to cook from 5 aunts and my mum who were all smashing cooks. These women were inventive, shrewd and and fed families on practically no extras that we take for granted today. They would make tasty, filling and honest dinners. OK, so they weren't going to win 'Masterchef' but nothing ever seemed to faze them. I still have a weakness for homemade bread and strawberry jam or a roly poly pudding and custard. When I grew up and was a young mum and we were really hard-up I knew how to feed us well. All thanks to those wonderful ladies.

The best education is at your mother's side. Some of the best recipes written were found in Woman's Day magazine and others like them. And a lot of those recipes were taken and improved upon by mothers like yours. :angel:
 
From what I have seen so far I would need to reduce my use of processed/rationed meat, fat and cheese. I think the limit was 2 1/2 pounds per person/week. I would also need to reduce or be careful with canned tomato products. I would have to pinch a little on the coffee, one pound every five weeks for each person over the age of fifteen. Eggs, chicken and fresh local produce produce were not rationed so I would be in good shape with that. It would get a little monotonous for me in the winter and early spring if I had to rely on only fresh carrots, squash, cabbage, onions etc...

It looks like we were in much better shape than the folks in England.

I would also be fine with the three gallon per week gas ration, that would be a tough one for many people today.
 
From what I have seen so far I would need to reduce my use of processed/rationed meat, fat and cheese. I think the limit was 2 1/2 pounds per person/week. I would also need to reduce or be careful with canned tomato products. I would have to pinch a little on the coffee, one pound every five weeks for each person over the age of fifteen. Eggs, chicken and fresh local produce produce were not rationed so I would be in good shape with that. It would get a little monotonous for me in the winter and early spring if I had to rely on only fresh carrots, squash, cabbage, onions etc...

It looks like we were in much better shape than the folks in England.

I would also be fine with the three gallon per week gas ration, that would be a tough one for many people today.

Living so close to the sea, and having kids that would dig for clams and the fishing fleet just about four blocks from where we lived allowed my mother to save all her meat coupons until the end of the month and then it was feast time. We ate a heck of a lot of sea food and fish. To this day, I still love clams and other fish. But they are now priced out of my limit. And I am too old to go digging for clams. Along with the fishing fleet moving into Boston down on Northern Avenue, you almost have to have a security clearance to get on the dock. So that is out of reach also.

Sometimes for a treat, she would make me a cup of tea (she always got two cups out of one tea bag.) along with toast. Other times it was a cup of weak cocoa with evaporated milk. That tin of cocoa lasted for many cups. :angel:
 
Wonder if it was necessary

My father told me that during U.S. gas rationing, in the Air Corps they had an abundance and would even use it to clean parts on the planes. I wonder if a lot of the food rationing was the same thing i.e. government waste and ineptitude, mal-appropriation of resources by central planners, etc.
 
I watched the series on TVO. It was very enlightening. Farmers' contribution to the war effort was to eek more food out of their lands. This involved introducing more efficient means of farming. I complain about how much work it can be to harvest and preserve food. At least I have electricity and indoor plumbing!
 
I watched the series on TVO. It was very enlightening. Farmers' contribution to the war effort was to eek more food out of their lands. This involved introducing more efficient means of farming. I complain about how much work it can be to harvest and preserve food. At least I have electricity and indoor plumbing!

Farming is not the easiest job in the world. And under war conditions is was even more difficult. Almost everyone is this country had Victory gardens. And for those that didn't could go to the Community gardens. They would take an empty lot where once a house or building stood and till it for farming. They were all over the city here. We may not have had a lot of meat, but we sure had plenty of vegetables. And some of them had greenhouses so there were veggies available for winter. :angel:
 
I was born in the dead of winter on a farm in Minnesota in 1943. My mother hoarded gas stamps, determined it would be her last winter there. When she finally had enough, she told my Dad she was going home to California with me and hoped he would come too, and he agreed. Atta girl Mom...you've always been my hero.

Because they had a farm at the time (a pump in the sink, no electricity) she never said much about rationing, except for gasoline.
 
I know my mom used to talk about all the ways my grandma could stretch a head of cabbage and tomatoes to feed them for a week. Of course, grandma made her own bread and had laying hens. During the winter, my grandma's canned tomatoes were front and center almost every meal during the depression. It was only my mom, grandma, and grandpa. My mom's brothers were 10 and 12 years older and were not living at home...they both ended up in Hawaii after Pearl Harbour.
 
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