What Did People Cook with Their Rations? A Family Kitchen in London, 1943 #57

About eighty years ago, in wartime London, meat, butter and sugar were all strictly rationed. So what did families actually cook at home? We follow May, who cooks for a family of four, through one day in October 1943: a ration book for every person and shops you had to register with; the morning radio show The Kitchen Front and its advice to enjoy our food; grey bread that was never rationed during the war; bringing your own wrapping paper; meat rationed by price, not weight; tins chosen with points; a packet of dried egg worth twelve eggs; oranges kept for little children first; Doctor Carrot and raw carrot snacks; and Woolton Pie, invented by the head chef of the Savoy. Note: May, her family and the details of their day, conversations and cooking are a reconstruction based on historical sources and research. Names, feelings and details of the day include creative interpretation. Key sources: Ministry of Food, How Britain Was Fed in War Time: Food Control 1939–1945 (1946, archive.org) / Ambrose Heath, Kitchen Front Recipes and Hints (1941, archive.org) / Ministry of Food War Cookery Leaflets and Ministry of Agriculture Dig for Victory leaflets (archive.org) / Imperial War Museums / English Wikipedia (Rationing in the United Kingdom, National Loaf, Woolton pie, Carrot and others) 0:00 Opening 0:31 A Ration Book for Everyone 1:45 Morning Radio and Grey Bread 2:55 Off to the Queue with Old Newspaper 3:55 Tins Bought with Points 5:21 Doctor Carrot and the Back-Garden Plot 6:24 Baking the Vegetable Pie 7:38 Dinner Together 8:41 Getting Ready for Tomorrow 9:48 Summary #HowDidPeopleLiveBackThen #London #BritishHistory #Rationing #1940s #History #Cooking