Since then I have always maintained a reasonable stock of non-perishable food in the cupboard. The village shop is nearby but has a limited range of goods, and is not the cheapest. It is useful to be able to rustle up a meal from stores if there are unexpected visitors [taking my cue from Matthew 25;4]
It's five years since covid arrived - and eighty five since WW2 Rationing started [end of January 1940] I came across a list of foodstuffs which the government recommended to housewives in 1939, as something to keep in stock in the event of an emergency, as the War started. [we will ignore the assumption that all food shopping was done by the females!]
Have a look at this, and compare it with your cupboards
- No 'tinned fat' - but definitely cooking oil
- Plain Biscuits and rusks replaced with sweet biscuits and cheese crackers
- No Bovril [but there is always Nutella for the children]
- No saccharine, but I do have some Stevia for a friend who likes sweetener in her tea
- No jellies or dried eggs
- Peas are in the freezer, and beans in tins
- No pickled or dried eggs- ever!!!!
How has our diet changed? Well my Brexit Box definitely contained rice and pasta- two staples of my store cupboard for 40+ years, but not a regular part of the British diet in WW2 [although the list has curry powder, so what did they serve with their curries?] And a bottle of fruit squash.
Which of these items are usually in your cupboard?
Which do you never buy?
And what is missing for you?
**I usually put a few extras in my trolley at the supermarket when I do a big shop, and leave them in the foodbank donation bin on my way out, as well as supporting our regular collections at the chapel. And I try to be mindful about it - nobody wants an unvaried diet of baked beans, or pasta and sauce.
The big difference from 1939 has to be the advent of the domestic freezer. My tin store is fairly small but the freezer is ram jam full! I have most things from their list but not necessarily in the form listed. And I was pretty well prepared when covid struck, except I didn't have enough bread flour.
ReplyDeleteYou are right, the freezer [and fridge] has changed things - mainly because people dont need to shop so often and can have frozen meat and veg to hand.
DeleteCurry powder for Mulligatawney soup??
ReplyDeleteNow that IS a good explanation for its inclusion on the WW2 list. Mulligatawny soup was popular from Victorian times when British soldiers brought it back from the Raj. Mrs Beeton included it in her cookbook. In primary school when I was 7 we did a play about her [why??!!] and I got to play Mrs B because i was the only one in the class who could actually read/pronounce Mulligatawny!
DeleteMy Mother was 17 in 1941 and working in an office before she was conscripted at 18 into Anderson Boyes Engineering who made coal cutting machinery. She always said that her family didn’t have a lot of money to stockpile foods and my grandmother (born in 1899) was deeply suspicious of all things from a tin. The whole street saved their sugar rations for her wedding to my father in 1945 so that she could have one real tier of fruitcake in her wedding cake.(The rest was cardboard) Like you, I try to always have rice, pasta, porridge oats and my new favourite Idaho Mash in the cupboard. We are so lucky to have freezers now which help to store extra food. I also try to have a spare jar of decaff coffee, and long life oat milk for the Shedman. Catriona
ReplyDeleteI must check out Idaho Mash, as I have not heard of this. [our Jess loves mash] Your Mum was the same age as mine - and she and my aunts often talked about rations. My gran persuaded all the family to give up sugar in tea so she could make jam with the fruit from the garden
DeleteThat is so wonderful about the whole street saving their sugar rations for the wedding cake. In my family they all saved their one egg a week ration for Mum and Dad's wedding cake. Grandma was a trained cook so it was a special one!
DeleteJanF
Curious about tins of fat - sounds odd
ReplyDeleteIn the Asian supermarkets they sell tins of ghee (butter fat) I presume it keeps well , especially if you have no fridge
DeleteCrisco shortening (hydrogenated vegetable oil) is still available in cans over here in the US.
DeleteIt is quite a useful list. In autumn 1940 the Ministry of Food put notices in The Times asking all housewives to store some of the flour which was available.
ReplyDeleteI would add dried yeast for our bread, powdered milk, and cream crackers to the list, and hoard a bit extra tea. Happy the housewife who had stocked up on tinned fish and meat, when it took so many coupon points to be able to buy them. I keep plenty of tinned sardines for a meal even if the power is out. They don’t even need a tin opener.
We have a few hens, so we had to give up our egg ration. February 1941, the situation about poultry feed is still not sorted.
The pandemic panic buying of toilet paper seems ridiculous now. There was no real shortage.
You are right about the loo rolls
DeleteI still have my Ration Book!
ReplyDeleteThat is wonderful. I wonder how many coupons are in it
DeleteI have never heard of tinned fat, I think the closest thing these days would be jars of solid coconut oil or Ghee. WWII food rationing started on 8th January, I can never forget that as it's Alan's birthday. :-)
ReplyDeleteItems usually in my cupboard ... I would say a good representation of the whole list. What would I never buy ... tinned meat, I just don't eat meat, so no need. What's missing ... for me it would have to be half a dozen bars of chocolate, or perhaps some other kind of sweets. Obviously these weren't available during the war years, and if they were it was a very small amount on the ration. But these days they would be in my emergency store.
I think the nation as a whole eats more sugary/sweet food than 85 years ago
DeleteI'm smiling at the list. It is so British (in the best sense of the word)! I recognize all of it because I grew up in the UK in the early 1950s with a British mother (and lots of British relatives) and an American father. Imagine most US folks would likely have only a passing knowledge of some things like treacle, OXO, custard powder, Ryvita, Marmite or Bovril. As for the wartime list, I would say that I have more than three quarters of those ingredients in my cupboards, including the custard powder. Lyle's Golden Syrup was a treat drizzled lightly on toast as a child. As others have said, vegetables are more likely to be frozen now than tinned.
ReplyDeleteI love Golden Syrup, with the lion on the tin !
DeleteI just bought an 8 kg bag of rice since the other had run out. I don't like to buy tinned soups as they are loaded with salt, but we do like tinned beans in tomato sauce. I have dried beans but I guess they are more for emergency. I bought them during the pandemic. I'm keeping more flour in as I am trying to make no knead bread regularly. I still have my mother's ration book from WW2!
ReplyDeleteI took have kept more flour in stock since the pandemic I think
ReplyDeleteI'm a lot like Nelliegrace in that I have crackers (rather than Ryvita), dried milk (rather than tinned) and keep yeast and bread flour to hand - very useful during the pandemic. I also always have pasta and rice. I'll give the pickled eggs a miss though!
ReplyDelete👍
DeleteDo you remember dried 'surprise' peas and green beans, in packets? They used to be common.
ReplyDeleteThe surprise to me was that anybody actually bought them!!!
DeleteI still buy them They come up so fresh but soak for an hr before cooking. Packet mashed potato okay with butter and milk.I don't like tins. Frozen and dried yes !
ReplyDelete👍
DeleteWe keep most of those things except for pickled eggs and suet! The list says a lot about the British diet, especially as they are mostly still home staples!
ReplyDeleteI have never heard of tinned fat and haven’t made suet pastry for a long time but my mum did regularly.
One of the things I miss is Horlicks tablets! Rationing of some items was still in place when I was born.
During the first lockdown I sent flour, soap and sugar to my brother by post. He was designated as vulnerable and would not leave the house so relied on home delivery from Tesco and those were all out of stock where he lives.
To think of all that we went through, only five years ago!
Rationing finished just before I was born. Sometimes Covid seems forever ago, when it started I only had one grandchild, now I have four! But five years is not that long, and we are still suffering the effects.
DeleteAs I mentioned in reply to a comment above, we get Crisco shortening (hydrogenated vegetable oil) in cans, still, over here, in the US. When I read tinned fat, Crisco was the first thing that came to mind.
ReplyDeleteI have quite a few of the items listed in my pantry and emergency supplies. No dried or pickled eggs, though, or Marmite, Bovril, or Paxo.
When I was growing up in Sri Lanka, we had ration cards even in the early 1970s. Rice, sugar, fabric, were all rationed. We had to surrender our ration cards when we left the country.
I think Crisco is similar to our Trex [which I an currently trying to buy, but cannot find it in the supermarkets I've been to so far]
DeleteBovril,Marmite and Paxo stuffing are very British products,
I hadnt realised rationing was in place in Sri Lanka back then.
I haven’t been able to get Trex for ages. Sainsbury's used to stock it but not the last time I looked. Maybe people don’t make their own pastry any more!
DeleteI have quite a few of those items in my store cupboard but I am with you on the 'no pickled eggs'. Yuk!
ReplyDelete🥚☹️
DeleteMy usual foodbank donations are dried milk, bars of soap and teabags. I also donate sweeties when it comes to the birthdays of family members who have passed.
ReplyDeleteI don't want to even think about what my cupboards hold, but there is plenty of rice and pasta and loads of lentils.
I like your sweets idea!
ReplyDelete