Could You Survive on British World War Two Rations?

In January 1940, the British government introduced food rationing. The scheme was designed to ensure fair shares for all at a time of national shortage. The Ministry of Food was responsible for overseeing rationing. Every man, woman and child was given a ration book with coupons. These were required before rationed goods could be purchased.

Basic foodstuffs such as sugar, meat, fats, bacon and cheese were directly rationed by an allowance of coupons. Housewives had to register with particular retailers. A number of other items, such as tinned goods, dried fruit, cereals and biscuits, were rationed using a points system. The number of points allocated changed according to availability and consumer demand. Priority allowances of milk and eggs were given to those most in need, including children and expectant mothers.

The British government promoted vegetable patches as a way of reducing reliance on food imports while also improving the nation’s overall health. Since ‘war demands better physique and health than peace’, officials were convinced of the need to effect fundamental changes in the nation’s eating habits.

In this video, Dan Snow experiences some of the food options for those on the home front in Britain during the Second World War.

First on the menu is some good ol' spam - essentially a brand of salty processed canned pork. He then tries some bread and powdered eggs, a less than impressive substitute for normal eggs, which were considered a luxury if you didn't have hens at home.

Next, Dan tastes another, quite frankly, grim substitute - dripping. This was a flavourful fat that is rendered from cooked beef and was used as a spread on bread.

After trying some disgusting pig's trotters, Dan finishes off his ration tasting with a "fake" apricot flan (actually made with carrots sweetened with jam).

Do you think you could have got by eating these rations? Let us know in the comments.

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[fatherwiiam]

The way he ate the spam without frying it first brought me pain to watch.

[akaDOOMZ]

This video is what it looks like when all your servants have a day off and you have to fend for yourself and not knowing what a kitchen is and how it works.

[NygaardBushcraft]

I remember my grandmother told me how she struggled to make the meager rations during ww2 in Denmark more palatable. She told me that fortunately she had the two most important spices available. When I asked what those spices were she said "Salt and hunger.. makes everything taste great."

[Getpojke]

Don't think Dan has ever been properly hungry/starving. Something we found on expeditions & eating mainly dehydrated food for extended periods is that you really start to crave fat & oily foods. believe me, that dripping would look like heaven after a while. Perhaps a more palatable way for him to try it would have been to melt it in a pan & make a good old British "fried slice". Just a slice of bread shallow fried in the fat. While its hot its good stuff.

[ramenisgoodu]

They say that Britain was never healthier than during the war. Also, I have the suspicion that Dan might have enjoyed the food more had he heated it up.

[jonathanstrom]

Of course it is disgusting when you're using the ingredients in this fashion! A lot of these foods are fantastic. You just need to prepare them better!

[Caesar_Himself]

Could You Survive on food from 2000?
**Squirts mustard directly into mouth, eats a raw chip, takes a spoonful of cold chopped tomatoes** - Dan - ''Disgusting!''

[lpcanilla]

You know there's a process called "cooking" that tends to improve food's flavour that's been around for thousands of years, Mr. Dan the Historian?

[Arkantos]

This feels more like a hit piece on ration food rather than an actual taste of how people ate back then.

[gulfalco]

American here but raised by Brits and loved Spam as a kid, but never saw my Gran(and she was a young woman in the war) just open the Spam and serve it, always fried it and it was delicious, I still have fond memories of Spam, Dan is just eating it wrong!

[pamburt]

My mum loved dripping on bread, and although I was sceptical before trying it myself, it’s actually really nice with a sprinkle of salt on the top. That stuff Dan Snow was eating looked more like lard, hence the disgusting taste( I wouldn’t eat lard like that either!). Proper bread and dripping incorporates the fat and meat juices from the bottom of the roasting tin, scraped up when cold and spread on a slice of bread ( making sure to include the brown meat juices as well). Great taste, but probably not good for your cholesterol levels I’m afraid!

[malinmaskros]

Pig's trotters are still eaten in Sweden, they are traditional Christmas food, I used to love it when I was little (the jelly around them was the best!). They were my grandmother's favourite food, it really was a treat for her when she was able to get one, and all the way to the end, her family made sure that she could have her trotter every once in a while.

[eugeniasyro]

Pig trotters are delicious when cooked and spiced correctly. Our elders made do during lean times and I admire them for it.

[evalevy]

As a kosher eater i have never had spam but even i know you're supposed to cook it first

[gonefishing]

I have collected British magazines and Ministry of Food brochures from 1939-1945. Many of the recipes in these were for using home-grown potatoes, carrots and cabbages plus rationed flour or breadcrumbs and tiny amounts of rationed butter and meat. Many people raised rabbits or kept a few hens for eggs. Some neighbors pooled their scraps to feed a piglet (the "pig club" was registered with the government) which they were later allowed to slaughter and share the meat among the club members but NEVER allowed to sell. Others picked berries from hedgerows in late summer and went to canning centers, obtained a ration of sugar specifically given to make jams and jellies and used only government approved recipes to make small jars of berry jams and jellies. Jams and jellies were very important when there was not enough butter to spread on toast and when breakfast was often just oatmeal porridge and toasted slices of bread plus a cup of unsweetened tea. A can of Spam from a friendly GI was a treasure to be thinly sliced or diced and used in a variety of creative ways along with breadcrumbs or grated potatoes or oatmeal to make mock cutlets or mock roasts or other illusions of large portions of real meat or poultry.

[bodhi]

This is basically what it would have been like to eat WWII ration food if you had no idea how to cook or prepare anything.

[mudgetheexpendable]

Toast and dripping was one of my WWII-era teenaged father's dream foods. He got his wish for some more in his final year because, at 93, why the hell not. "This is repulsive, " he said, "I'd rather have mayonnaise (a substance he wouldn't allow in the house because it caused him great spiritual pain even to see in the fridge)." What a difference 80 years makes.

[robertmellin]

Why did you eat everything cold?!! Spam is sliced and fried, my mother (who lived through WWII as a teenager) said whole meal bread was often home baked and stretched with dried ground peas or beans (and sliced VERY thin!), dripping is a classic Northern treat (and makes roast potatoes marvelous), dried eggs… well, you got me there, dried eggs aren’t great, but they’re better if they’re hot, carrot pie had the carrots grated finely, not sliced (like carrot cake), and pig’s trotters should be roasted, the fat saved, the meat carved off the bone, and the bones cracked and used to make marrow broth. Honestly, I wouldn’t have eaten anything presented cold like that. My mother also says they made “spinach” from cooked young nettles. She was amazed when she went to the US on assignment just after the war, and saw restaurants throw out half-eaten steaks!

[Avvakoum_]

This video only shows that the British had no idea how to properly cook food

[TC-they]

The dripping I recall had jelly and crunchy bits. It was quite the delicacy.