World War 2 Rationing Challenge: too much food?

[StoatofDisarray]

My partner has bet me I can't follow the UK world war 2 ration for November 1943 for a week.

I've just done the shopping for it and it seems like too much food. I can't work out what I'm doing wrong. Has anyone done this?

First meal: black coffee (technically unrationed and I've got some leftover cold brew in the fridge which I'm not wasting), 50g oats and 100g bramley apple (unrationed), 20g sugar, pinch salt, 30ml milk, half a crushed allspice berry. I don't normally eat breakfast soo I'm feeling leaden!

i think there were carrots, which they used for their sweetness

Apparently, you traded it for more tea and eggs from the second set of chickens that were hidden at the back of the garden, well away from the ones in the shed that were declared to the Man from the Ministry, according to my mother, at any rate.

Don't forget a massive portion of fish and chips on Fridays, by the way.

No. Nobody starved from rationing. That was the point of it.

My Nana was a thrifty woman, known for having managed to stockpile sugar during rationing, for a rainy day. When rationing ended, she had a cupboard full of sugar!

Hmmm OP I am wondering whether you'd have had a freezer back in the early 1940s

My parents didn't get a freezer until the 80s.

Thanks OP, this is so interesting.

New fridges - which of course weren't being made during the war, so just after - had iceboxes, so that's the equivalent of one shelf. We had one like that, which wasn't replaced with a fridge freezer until the early 80s. Though we had a chest freezer in the garage a bit before that. White goods were built to last they were relatively much more expensive and people expected them to last, and got someone out to mend it rather than replace.

One of the uncompleted Dorothy L Sayers (finished by Jill Paton Walsh) featured a "pig club" - a village got together to buy and feed a pig together and idc slaughter it and share out the meat as an addition to rations.

People used to eat a lot more offal then as well, as the aim was zero waste

This has got me wondering if pet ownership declined during the war years

hmm, they did euthanise dogs i read - owing to food shortages
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/British_pet_massacre#:~:text=The%20British%20pet%20massacre%20was,shortages%20during%20World%20War%20II.

cannot imagine that now,
look at Ukraine, the refugees carrying their pets

People got through a lot of sugar because almost everyone had sugar in their tea.

I'm only using the freezer to chuck my leftover mince n because I bought too much. My ration mince is in the fridge.

The quantities allowed are a bit misleading. "Dig for victory" was the slogan that encouraged every square bit of land (gardens, parks etc) to be turned into vegetable patches. There were shortages and long queus for absolutely everything. The shop keeper would very often have run out by the time it was your turn to be served. No ordinary person had a freezer or even a fridge. Perishables were stored in a cold pantry. Sugar would have been almost impossible to get and people made cakes with carrots as a sweetener. In fact carrot cake was invented by Marguerite Patten who worked for the Ministry of Food and gave radio broadcasts with recipes using the rationed food that was available.

Anyone want to role play with me?

I would like to offer the following items as swaps:

Boiled sweets 3oz /170g
Tea 2oz/57g (25 teabags)

Do you have anything you'd like to swap with me? I'm looking for meat (including offal), fat or milk, or even dried eggs.

Can’t help with the offal @StoatofDisarray but I’ve got some lovely snoek going spare 😂

Lol! You know what, if I can find any online I will "swap" for it!

Found some.

https://www.thefishsociety.co.uk/products/snoek-aka-barracuda?variant=45576423932214&gadsource=1&gclid=Cj0KCQiApOyqBhDlARIsAGfnyMoYBNzAHddE7jouiSHcsFDvPScTV2gy7CQKgKm-TBjkJfsXLZaVBo4aAky9EALwwcB

Would you like to specify the amount you have available to swap and what you'd like for it (tea or sweets or both)? It comes in a pack of 700g but you can specify how much I can use. Fish was not rationed.

Excellent, @StoatofDisarray. I'll swap you the tea for 250g. You won’t be able to eat much of it. A littler goes a long way 🤮😱😂

Hopefully you’re fine with the info on that site -

And just to confirm what you already know: snoek is no stranger to worms. You'll find a few in most packs - they'll be fine once cooked

<runs screaming>

Great! hands over the 57g of tea receiving a package in return

I'll let you know what I did with it! Meanwhile, here's what I packed for lunch and snacks today:

Two thick slices of brown bread
15g marg
85g spam
2 russet apples

If you had money life was a lot easier (quelle surprise!) restaurants weren't rationed plus lots of workplace canteen ms existed too. Dp's dad told him they also few huge amounts, they had a few acres of land

😭😭

But a great shortage of onions.

This solves a big head scratch I've always had when reading books about the war or watching films - high class folk eating in seemingly glamorous restaurants. I'd always thought they must be eating rationed food just in glam surroundings. But no - restaurant food wasn't rationed. Fifty seven year old history graduate learns something new!

They wanted to encourage communal eating as it’s more efficient. There was a price limit on a meal sold anywhere.
There was a plan to set up ‘feeding centres’ but Churchill said no they must be called National Restaurants as it will make people feel better to think they are eating in a restaurant.

It's not the rationing I'm finding hard (yet), it's the thunderous flatulence and the endless bloody washing up.