SPUDS, PIES AND INNER TUBES
From the Savoy-standard to the stomach-turning, seven foodstuffs found on the wartime plate
SOMETHING FISHY
The wartime shortage of meat and fish encouraged the Ministry of Food to popularise alternatives such as whale meat and snoek piquant (snook) imported from South Africa. Newspapers and radio broadcasts provided instructions on how to prepare and cook these fish. Yet not everyone was sold on their benefits. One commentator claimed that whale meat was rather like trying to eat the inner tube of a car tyre.
THE SUPERSTAR VEGETABLE
The Ministry of Food spent much of the war encouraging the population to eat more carrots – chiefly because they were particularly suited to gardens and allotments. In fact, government officials were so enamoured of the vegetables that they even suggested that children should eat them instead of lollies.
The idea that carrots improve your eyesight largely has its roots in a Second World War propaganda campaign. During the war the Royal Air Force employed radar, which helped pilots shoot down German enemy planes at night. However, the pilots’ success was officially attributed to them eating large numbers of carrots.
PIE MINISTER
In the early 1940s, Britons began to tuck into a pastry dish of vegetables that had apparently first been served up in London’s Savoy Hotel. That dish is known as the Woolton Pie, due to the fact that it was popularised by Frederick Marquis, 1st Lord Woolton, who served as Minister of Food from 1940–43.
The Woolton Pie contained very little fat, sugar and meat, due to wartime rationing. But cooks worked wonders in compensating for shortages. Some even added a handful of stinging nettles or dandelions to the pie to pep up its flavour.
THE DAILY MUSH
Bread wasn’t rationed during the Second World War, but the composition of the loaf did change – and, in the eyes of many Britons, not for the better. In 1942, in order to combat the shortages of white flour made from imported hard grained wheats, the Federation of Bakers unveiled the National Loaf. This was similar to brown bread and contained added calcium and vitamins. But that didn’t save it from being labelled as mushy and unappetising.
The war also saw the Ministry of Food attempting to popularise the idea that eating crusts made your hair curl.
DECLARING WAR ON FATIGUE
The potato was another vegetable beloved of the Ministry of Food during the Second World War – for the dual reasons that it wasn’t rationed and it contained vitamin C, which helps prevent fatigue and fight infection. The ministry invented cartoon characters such as “Potato Pete” to bang the drum for the trusty spud, accompanied by a series of recipe books detailing the best ways to consume them.
POWDER PROBLEMS
The government and the population at large had to agree to disagree when it came to powdered eggs (or dried eggs, as they were known colloquially). The authorities championed them as an ideal substitute for fresh eggs, which were subject to rationing restrictions. Britons, however, widely turned their noses up at them. The official response to these criticisms was that powdered eggs were the same as fresh eggs and that the consumer was simply mixing the powder incorrectly.
A MOCK CHRISTMAS
There was a turkey-shaped hole in the traditional Christmas meal throughout the Second World War. A shortage of the domesticated bird led the Ministry of Food to come up with the idea of promoting the Murkey (mock turkey) in a bid to boost morale. The Murkey was a piece of breast meat from a sheep, reshaped by the butcher to look like a turkey and garnished accordingly. There was a problem, however: it still tasted like mutton – and was widely regarded as a poor imitation of the real thing.