Jubilee Dishes: Patriotic Recipes for the 21st Century by Marguerite Patten

Last year, I had mentioned to a friend that I was interested in learning more about the rationing of food that went on in England both during World War II and for many years after. She was kind enough to send me this book, Jubilee Dishes: Patriotic Recipes for the 21st Century by Marguerite Patten OBE. As I have to sit and take frequent breaks while cooking, I keep this book handy to read during the breaks. I was very surprised to find a recipe that I used to use fairly often. I had found the recipe in a Taste of Home magazine for frosting only the book calls it Mock Cream. This is a wonderful item that if made correctly becomes the texture and close to the taste of the white Twinkie or HoHo filling. Yum. The books recipe though, gave the ingredients in teaspoons and tablespoons of ingredients instead of cups, as everything was carefully measured to make it stretch and it calls for ingredients that were in short supply, sugar and fat.

Rationing of food lasted in Great Britain until 1954. If you would like to read about and actually experience the taste of food from that era, this book includes many recipes developed to use with the rationed food and with the food that was supposedly unlimited, or such things as powdered eggs as fresh eggs were rare and precious. One interesting recipe was for a mock banana sandwich filling made using parsnips.

Reading this book makes me very glad for the plenty I see in the grocery store and also makes me realize what a spoiled nation we are. Most of the items, we couldn't get our children to eat. Obviously no chips, no pop, no candy, no abundance of anything. Yet during this period of time the British people were very healthy as they had a low fat, low sugar, low meat, high vegetable diet.