Eating For Victory: Healthy Home Front Cooking on War Rations (Official Wwii Info Reproductns) [Hardcover]

How would you survive on wartime rations? Eating for Victory (subtitled Healthy Home Front Cooking on War Rations) makes for absolutely fascinating reading -- and may answer the question as to what the reader might have made of these more straitened times.

The book reproduces official Second World War instruction leaflets (which have never before been published in book form) and demonstrates how millions of people in Britain endured food shortages during the hardships of WWII. With a perceptive foreword by Jill Norman, Eating for Victory shows that the government endeavoured to keep morale high by producing a host of the upbeat leaflets included here on such subjects as ‘using up stale crusts’ and ‘foods for fitness’ (the leaflets are most amusing in this area, showing how much thinking has changed over the years -- the use of fats and lard looks very quaint in these more enlightened times). But what gives particular pleasure here is the verbatim reproduction of the original artwork and typefaces, which vividly conjures a lost era. To read this entertaining little book is like climbing into a time machine to take us back to the 1940s. --Barry Forshaw

"Anyone interested in the wartime diet, its low food miles, accent on
healthy eating and using home-grown produce will enjoy experimenting with
the recipes. I know I will!"

"delightful"

"these nostalgic collections make a fascinating document of wartime austerity"

"Buy it... it contains the most efficient diet you'll ever go on"

"a fascinating slice of social history"

Keep it handy in your kitchen and learn how to bottle tomatoes, render fat and use up old crusts.

The period of wartime food rationing is now regarded as a time when the nation was at its healthiest. Food rationing was introduced in January 1940 after food shipments were attacked by German U-boat 'Wolf Packs'. The first food items to be rationed were butter, sugar, bacon and ham, with restrictions also placed on meat, fish, jam, biscuits, cheese, eggs and milk. The leaflets reproduced in "Eating for Victory" were distributed by the Ministry of Food and advised the general public on how to cope with these shortages. Typical contents include: recipes for steamed and boiled puddings; tips on how to use and prepare green vegetables; and hints about how to reconstitute dried eggs and use them as though they were fresh. As a result of the stringent rules put in place during wartime, people began to eat more healthily than ever before. "Eating for Victory" is a great gift book and not only does it offer a nostalgic look back at one of the hardest and yet perhaps healthiest times in history, but it is also a relevant guide on healthy eating for today.