OUDG405 - Research, Collect, Communicate: PRODUCT

As I have decided to create a publication that will be a cookbook using the food available from rations and allotments during the war, I have decided to research this further.

WW1 Rations
Rations were only introduced during the first world war towards the end, in February 1918, to make sure that there were never food shortages. However, in 1916 families only had six weeks worth of bread left, which was a major part of their diet. Britain still imported their food from overseas, but in 1917 the Germans started sinking British merchant ships meaning there were was food shortages. Families were encouraged to turn their backgardens into allotments, and keep chickens. In 1917, the government attained 2.5 million acres of land for farming. This was done by the Women's Land Army as all the young men were at war. However, in 1918 the German U-boat campaign caused a lot of damage, and, rations were introduced. Products such as cheese, sugar and meat were rationed. As they were only introduced towards the end of the war, I am going to look at rationing in WW2.

WW2 Rations
During the second world war, rations were introduced at the beginning of the war in 1940. Each person in Britain was given a ration books, and there were three different types:

Rationing didn't end until 1954, even though the war ended in 1945. This suggests there would have been a need for women to have recipes which could be made out of what they had, because they wouldn't be used to such a restriction.

It wasn't just food that was rationed either, clothing and furniture was as well.

These are the weekly rations for 1 adult:

The recipes that I will include in the recipe book will have a lot more vegetables in them, as people grew them in their garden.

What was grown in the allotments

I thought it would be a good idea to research what herbs you can grow in a garden, because a lot of the recipes would lack flavour. I looked at a website which says the types of herbs you can grow at home and they included herbs such as basil, parsley, dill, bay leaves, sage and mint can be grown.

I also looked at a video on how to grow herbs.

In the feedback I received in this morning's crit, Ant said to look at posters which encouraged growing own vegetables and I found a campaign which was very morale boosting, Dig For Victory:

I then watched a video on the Victory Gardens, which people had in their back gardens. The sound was really bad quality, but I managed to hear the types of vegetables which people grew: potatoes, squash, leek, cabbage, carrots, turnips, spinach and cauliflower.

Women tended to the gardens of their factory grounds during their lunchtime, children worked on the land in their school time. This video tells where you can grow vegetables, who helps, how long it takes and tips on how to dig. It says you can grow potatoes, cabbages, leeks, tomatoes and peas. It is promoting and glorifying gardening and the crops it produces.

War Recipes

I looked on Amazon at reviews for a cookbook of World War 2 recipes, so that I could see what target audience it would be aimed at. They are both women who are old enough to be in or remember the war, and thoroughly enjoyed the book.
Therefore I will be aiming it at older women whose parents were in the war, or who were children during it, and are interested in reading about what foods their parents cooked, or what they ate themselves, and perhaps want to try them out now, or just simple read it for the nostalgia.

I went into the Brotherton Library at the University of Leeds, to look at some war-time recipe books. They have an extensive collection of old books, and I found one called Kitchen Front Recipes by Ambrose Heath.
I wrote down notes from the book and recipes that were included in it:

Pot-Roasting
Meat is cooked alone although vegetables are often added towards the end of the cooking. Solid or rolled piece of beef weighing about four pounds, say topside, chuck or clod. Salt and pepper are added. Melt a tbsp of beef fat until hot, in an iron stewpan, and when this is hot brown the meat all over in it. Now add a teacupful of hot water, cover the pan tightly, and cook over a low heat for about three hours. As for the vegetables, you can add carrots, celery, turnips and so on, whole or quartered or diced, and they can be cooked on the pan while the joint is finishing.

Watercress Soup
Wash a bunch well, put cress in a saucepan with a piece or margerine until the leaves go soft. Add 3/4 of a pint of boiling water and two large potatoes, peeled and sliced, put lid on and boil for half an hour. Rub the whole through in a sieve, put the puree on the fire and add a cupful of boiling milk. Bring it to the boil, season and serve.

Herbs and Spices
Basil is good with tomatoes
Bay leaves, of course, for flavouring soups, sauces and stews
Rosemary in a stew with hare or veal
Tarragon and sage in chicken and rabbit

Beetroot Soup
2 Beetroots, small head of celery, 1 1/2 pt water or veg stock.
Bake the beetroots, peel and chop them up with the head of celery. Cook these with water, adding 1 tbsp of vinegar. Cook until soft enough to pass through a sieve. Thicken with a little flour, season and serve.

Minestrone Soup
Potatoes, onion, carrots, brussel sprouts and parsley. Add stock or water and bring to boil, add salt and vegetables. Fifteen minute before serving, add broken up spaghetti and leave to cook until nice and thick.

Baked Stuffed Apples
Bake apples, any jam to stuff them, could add raisins, figs and dates, and ginger or cinnamon to add flavour to them. Blackberry jam or jelly, and honey and nuts also work well.

Chocolate Rice Pudding
Add to the milk as much melted chocolate or sweetened cocoa powder and then bake the pudding in the usual way.

Vegetable Hot-Pot
Wash and slice 1 1/2lb potatoes, add 1/21b runner beans, 1/1lb carrots and a bunch of spring onions sliced. Put all in a casserole, fill with water half way past the vegetables. Add salt and pepper, put a bunch of fresh herbs in and cover closely and simmer for an hour.

Stewed Fruit Pie
Add bicarbonate soda and 2oz of sugar to fruit. Stew fruit with half a level of bicarbonate soda teaspoon for each pound for fruit.

Interview
I then spoke to my Grandma about the food she used to eat when she was younger during the war.

"We used to have suet pudding and rabbit stew.

We used to have thick white lard used to put on bread.

We used to have broths.

And my mum used to have a great big jar of molt, and we used to have a spoon of that a day.

Stews were made up of anything left over.

We used to toast our bread and roast potatoes on the fire

My mum used to make rice puddings and we all used to fight over the brown skin over the top."

Hairy Bikers Recipe

Cookbooks
I am now looking at modern day cookbooks that I own, to see the types of recipes, the way it is laid out and sectioned, and the overall look and feel of them.

Jamie Oliver: The Naked Chef

The Student Cookbook

Three & Four Ingredients: 500 Recipes

The Children's Book of Baking

Slow Cooker Recipes

Cooking For Beginners

Appliances

In the 1940s, there were different appliances then instead of the modern ones we have today. To keep with the feeling of the wartime recipes I will focus on the traditional methods in my cookbook. I found what families had in their kitchens during this time.

Stoves

Stoves and ovens of the 1940s range from 30 inches to 40 inches wide, depending upon the space available in the kitchen, and were available in both gas and electric versions. Narrower models were used in apartment kitchens, while a larger and more luxurious home kitchen might have a wider and more feature rich stove and oven. Simple models included four burners, one oven, and a grill. Deluxe stoves had between four and six burners and may have had a built-in griddle. Two ovens and grills allowed multiple dishes to cook at different temperatures. Storage drawers and folding utility shelves were common.

Refrigerators

The refrigerators of the 1940s were available with freezers on the top or bottom. Larger refrigerators had a two-door configuration, while smaller ones had a single door with a freezer compartment. Most refrigerators, like the stoves and dishwashers of the 1940s, were white. Shelves, drawers and even rotating lazy Susans made the space usable and kept the '40s refrigerator well organised.

Small Appliances

One small appliance appears in nearly every kitchen advertisement from the 1940s. The stand mixer replaced the old fashioned wooden spoon or manual egg beater and made baking tasks, ranging from homemade cookies to fresh baked bread faster, easier and neater. Many '40s kitchens incorporated baking centres with space for a stand mixer, storage for baking pans and even bins for flour, sugar and other ingredients.

I have highlighted the appliances that were used, and will bear these in mind when writing the methods for the recipes.

Food Imagery From 1940s

These images from Retro Press mix photography wit type and illustration. I won't be using photography because I don't have the time or resources to photograph the recipes. But I will be using typography and illustration. The images seem to be very warm, so I could add a warming filter to the illustrations or drawings that I do on Illustrator.

Illustrations from 1940s

I also found some images from a vintage blog of advertisements which were popular in the 1940s.

Lucinda Rogers

In my feedback, Danielle suggested to look at Lucinda Rogers work, and a couple more people agreed this would be a good style to include in my work. I looked through some of her work, and I really like the mix of fine liner and watercolor, and this is a possibility to incorporate in my own work.