Food In Wartime Britain

The introduction of rationing in January 1940 ensured that food became a central concern for the British people during the Second World War. The Food Companions investigates the cinema of this period and demonstrates the cultural impact that rationing and food control had on both government propaganda and commercial feature films. Combining archival research, detailed film analysis, and the extensive use of contemporary documents and resources, this book is the first to fully address the extensive propaganda work of the Ministry of Food, both inside and outside the cinema. It also explores the tensions contained in images of communal dining, investigating the role that food played in Gainsborough’s narratives of excess and identifying and analyzing a cycle of black-market feature films. Lively and illuminating, The Food Companions will be welcomed by film scholars, historians, students, and anyone who has ever wondered about the important contribution that tea made during the war to shaping ideas of Britishness.

When World War II began, Britain had an immediate crisis on its hands: its ability to import food drastically curtailed, the island would very quickly have to find ways both to produce more and use less. For that latter task, the kitchen was the headquarters, and this little book presents the battle plan. Drawn from scattered sources in the archives of the Imperial War Museums and presented here in a charming gift book, the recipes of Victory is in the Kitchen helped guide British cooks as they coped with unprecedented scarcity and restrictions. Rustling up creative dishes out of meager rations, the recipes gathered here include scrap bread pudding, potato pastry, and sheep's heart pie, as well as adapted English standbys like Lancashire hot pot, Queen's Pudding, and crumpets. ​Interwoven with the recipes are colorful reproductions of inspirational wartime posters, while an introduction sets the historical context. The resulting package is the perfect gift for any cook, a reminder of a time when ration books and recipes had to be made to work together.

Food is critical to military performance, but it’s also central to social interaction and fundamental to our sense of identity. The soldiers of the Great War didn’t shed their eating preferences with their civilian clothes and the army rations, heavily reliant on bully beef and hardtack biscuit, were frequently found wanting. Nutritional science of the day had only a limited understanding of the role of vitamins and minerals, and the men were often presented with a diet that, shortages and logistics permitting, was high in calories but low in flavor and variety. Just as now, soldiers on active service were linked with home through the lovingly packed food parcels they received; a taste of home in the trenches. This book uses the personal accounts of the men themselves to explore a subject that was central not only to their physical health, but also to their emotional survival.

During the Second World War, as Canada struggled to provide its allies with food, public health officials warned that malnutrition could derail the war effort. Posters admonished Canadians to "Eat Right" because "Canada Needs You Strong" while cookbooks helped housewives become "housoldiers" through food rationing, menu substitutions, and household production. Ian Mosby explores the symbolic and material transformations that food and eating underwent as the Canadian state took unprecedented steps into the kitchens of the nation, changing the way women cooked, what their families ate, and how people thought about food. Canadians, in turn, rallied around food and nutrition to articulate new visions of citizenship for a new peacetime social order.

Based on deep analysis of Mass Observation wartime diaries, Food in Wartime Britain explores the food experience of the British middle classes in their own words throughout the course of the Second World War. It reveals that, while the food practices of the population were modified by rationing and food scarcity, social class and personal circumstances were key dimensions of the wartime food experience that demand to be taken into account in the historical narrative of the Home Front.

A fascinating and nostalgic collection of over 40 wholesome recipes from the Second World War At a time of shortages and rationing, the British were challenged with providing nutritious meals daily for the family. This pocket-sized compendium of recipes is illustrated with contemporary propaganda notices, photographs and advertisements. Dishes such as Scotch Broth, Dumplings, Savoury Onions, Corned Beef Rissoles and Coconut Orange Pudding recall the ingenuity and camaraderie of those wartime days. Look out for more Pitkin Guides on the very best of British history, heritage and travel.

From the bestselling author of The Chilbury Ladies’ Choir comes an unforgettable novel of a BBC-sponsored wartime cooking competition and the four women who enter for a chance to better their lives. NAMED ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR BY GOOD HOUSEKEEPING • “This story had me so hooked, I literally couldn’t put it down.”—NPR Two years into World War II, Britain is feeling her losses: The Nazis have won battles, the Blitz has destroyed cities, and U-boats have cut off the supply of food. In an effort to help housewives with food rationing, a BBC radio program called The Kitchen Front is holding a cooking contest—and the grand prize is a job as the program’s first-ever female co-host. For four very different women, winning the competition would present a crucial chance to change their lives. For a young widow, it’s a chance to pay off her husband’s debts and keep a roof over her children’s heads. For a kitchen maid, it’s a chance to leave servitude and find freedom. For a lady of the manor, it’s a chance to escape her wealthy husband’s increasingly hostile behavior. And for a trained chef, it’s a chance to challenge the men at the top of her profession. These four women are giving the competition their all—even if that sometimes means bending the rules. But with so much at stake, will the contest that aims to bring the community together only serve to break it apart?

This book, first published in 1940, is a systematic analysis of Britain’s principal food supplies and the means by which they are distributed to the people. Its calculates the total quantities of food required to feed the whole nation properly, examines pricing structures and the sources of the food stuffs. Both home produced and imported foods are covered in this survey, as are restrictions in the form of the wartime governmental controls.