Ration Book Recipes

During World War II and for quite some years after peace was declared, the Brits were heavily rationed in order for the bare necessities of home grown domestic food products to feed an entire nation.

Just as in the American Great Depression Era of the 1930s, self-sufficiency was the key to the kitchen front.

The phrase 'Dig for Victory' became one of the second world war's most famous slogans in the UK, as civilians dug up back yards and gardens to grow veggies and keep chickens and pigs. Lots of the great parks in London were turned over to productive land. Even the world-famous moat of the Tower of London was transformed into a highly productive, vegetable patch for a period during the war!

Ration books with cheery veggie cartoon-character recipes were issued to everyone. Kids had their own ration books and received half of the adult ration, which did not include sausages, bread, potatoes and other vegetables, though these basic edibles were hard to lay hungry hands on.

With just one egg and three ounces of cheese per person, each week, four ounces of bacon, three pints of milk, a pinch of butter and sugar, a tiny portion of meat, two ounces of candy, a blob of jam and another two ounces of tea, no wonder the Dig for Victory campaign was a big success. Veggies and freshly laid eggs were the mainstay of many a war-time dinner.

Even the glossy gourmet magazines of today are talking comfort food, and banquets for bankrupts. Though the majority of us are certainly not in nearly as dire a straights as our fellow American citizens of the 1930s, or the blitzed Brits of World War II there's a Waste Not, Want Not, Make Do and Mend movement sweeping the nation's kitchens in this current economic climate.

Time then to look back to our grandmother's recipe books. Nostalgia, home cooked meals around the kitchen table and not a dollar more to waste on extortionate imports.

Here's the first of my Ration Book Recipes. I hope you'll give it a try at home.

Toad in the Hole

2 oz butter
6 sturdy sausages of your choice (bangers taste best)
4 oz plain flour
pinch of salt
1 egg
1/2 pint of milk

Grease roasting pan with butter. Prick the sausages. Roast in a pre-heated 350 degree oven for 15 minutes until half cooked. Sift flour and salt and mix in egg. Add milk and beat until smooth. Take the sausage pan out of the oven and pour batter over the sausages. Cook for a further 25 minutes, or until the batter has risen and golden brown. Serve with green beans, broccoli or peas or baked beans.