5 days of eating a WW2 ration diet...and here’s what happened... 

This is so interesting! My grandma grew up in Scotland during WWII and she said she used to think that heaven was a place where you could eat an unlimited amount of peaches.

I've finally found it... The video that perfectly intersects all of my weird youtube niches

As a historian I'd say you were incredibly accurate with a lot of your foods and mentality too.

Grackle--Everyone's wartime experience during WW II was a bit different, so don't apologize for the variations in what you found in your research. For instance (and I am discounting the black market here), those with a bit of land to grow what was called in the USA a "victory garden" allowed some to preserve summer fruits and vegetables, cutting down on what ration coupons they needed to use over the course of a year. My father served in WW II, so his experience on US warships was MUCH different than my mother's, who was raised on a poultry farm. The acreage provided them with all the fruits and vegetables they would need from one harvest to the next. Even into the 1960s, my grandmother "canned down" almost all the produce we'd eat over a year (my mother's dowry--yes, she had one, as did I--included a non-productive acre of the farm where our house was built "through the hedge" from my grandparent's farmhouse). The poultry--after what was sold to markets--provided them with meat and eggs. So, they had to purchase very little. The ration coupons were a great help; they needed only things like sugar, as they also grew enough wheat, rye, maize/corn, and oats to provide grain for themselves and the poultry. This continued to be true into the late 1960s, when my grandparents grew too old to continue farming; my mother had no interest in it and my father wasn't in the bloodline, so he wasn't even considered as an inheritor; and my siblings and I were either about to enter college, or still too young to be much help. In the 1990s, I found a WW II coupon book in a local antique shop and I snapped it up for my classroom. Most of the coupons were still intact in the leather "wallet". Yes, leather. I was surprised by that. Rationing in the USA didn't continue as long as it did in Britain, and the small local grocery outlet that was one of the outlets my grandparents used to sell their poultry in continued to send tins of canned food to my mother's UK high school pen pal for quite some time after the war.

Even if you made errors and didn’t follow what they would have to a T, you put in the effort and educated yourself. That is much more than many would do! Good on ya 👌🏼

They definitely had golden syrup! the Australian and New Zealand Army Corps (ANZACs) used to make biscuits from their rations which had golden syrup in them. We still make them every year for ANZAC day, they're delicious!

I'm not sure about Britain, but in America, we all saved our meat drippings...bacon grease, sausage grease etc. We could whip up a tasty gravy easily with the drippings as our base. I'm enjoying this video!

the bread's gonna keep you fuller for longer because it hasn't got the 'filler' that commercial breads have, and it's heavier too

I wouldn’t dream of coming for you, I think you did brilliantly well. It was so impressive that you carried your experiment through over 5 days. You thought about what you had, planned things, used what was available and generally made the best of things which is exactly how wartime cooking was done. I grew up in the 50s and 60s, but cooking methods and attitudes to food was still heavily influenced by the war. For example no waste, things like eggy bread or sugar toast for breakfast, and definitely no snacking. All things I tend do even now, so maybe the war diet is still around in a way. Anyhow, thank you for a fascinating video.

The fairy toast was usually made with butter as well as sugar ! My granny used to make it for us when we where little and it tastes kind of like cake with butter icing if it's on cold white toast 😊

Its been very interesting watching your 1950's vlog and then this one, I was born in the early 1950's and I think there is one main thing you need to be aware of as it makes a huge difference - men went to work and women were housewives. As far as I can remember all meals were home made, there was no refrigerator, no microwave, only a very basis electric or gas stove, if you were wealthier then mabe an AGA or Rayburn. The reason I mentioned the men / women situation is because the preparing and cooking of home made food took quite a but of time so it would have been pretty impossible for both men and women to work as there was not enough time in the day to do everything - remember there was no washing machines in those days so all the family washing was done by hand, and that took time as well. Also your food portions are far bigger than I remember, whereas we are always feeling full up today in those days we were nearly always hungry, not hungry starving, although some were in big city's, but just a feeling of hunger. Proper meat was only ever eaten on a Sunday and a chicken was a thing of fantasy and only eaten at Christmas. If we did have meat it would be cheap cuts like scrag-end, rolled shoulder and liver. Gravy was only ever made in the roasting tray using the left over meat juices and some flour to thicken, I don't remember anyone making gravy using Bovril, but it could have been done, it would need to be thickened or its just hot brown water. Its worth remembering nothing was instant in those days, it was all time consuming and hard work, that's why we were all thin and healthy.

Golden Syrup was definitely around during the war. They changed the 'tins' from metal to cardboard because of metal shortages, but the factory was still producing 2000 'tins' per day. There are a couple of rationing recipes that have golden syrup in them, too. The key thing to remember about golden syrup and wartime - the stuff lasts for ever. It doesn't go off. And it's so sweet that you don't need that much of it. My Nana used it to make toffee during the war, when she was a cook.

Well done, really enjoyed your video, I am 73 next month and can remember my mum talking about rationing. In fact, I was born in 1947, I can vaguely recall having my own ration book for sweeties!

GRACE! You have so much original talent, please keep inspirinh the rest of RU-vid to be as individual and creative as you are x

Rationing in UK lasted well into 1951 or so... and the rations did slowly change over time. There were a few interesting flexibilities in the system... For one, cabbage was planted everywhere because it grows fast on little soil, for another people who kept bees received a ration of sugar to feed the bees over winter and those with several chickens had a grain ration to help feed them. (My grandparents had chickens and bees, meaning they had more access to sweet things than most people, and more eggs as well, so my mother's breakfast each day included a boiled egg. All extra eggs and most of the honey were surrendered to the rationing board in their locale.) I remember my mother telling me that apart from the sugar for the bees they only used honey as a sweetener and that toast and dripping was a favourite light meal. She also said that toast brought you a choice: you could have jam, or you could have butter/margarine, but never both on the same piece of toast. The rationing of fruit also depended on whether you grew it yourself or had it as a ration item, and bananas were only given to the elderly. Cabbage was in every main meal except breakfast, and as a result when rationing ended my mother refused to ever eat cabbage again. You did fairly well with what you produced, but you could have added more herbs, edible weeds and explained that ALL oranges were imported. Apples, pears, berries and stone fruit were grown locally, and sometimes were not rationed at all. Meat, most dairy and baking needs were heavily rationed as were tea, coffee, alcohol and ready made confectionery. Golden syrup, treacle and molasses were rationed, though molasses was often kept exclusively for supplementing animal feeds. Carrots, potatoes, parsnips and greens were often home grown along with the cabbage, but turnips and swede were stock foods. For my mother, her milk was raw since the dairy was literally down the road, and her mother made their butter. A lot of Brits used barter to expand their range of foods, so when my grandparents had extra honey or eggs, they were exchanged with the dairy for milk or cheese. Yogurt was not a common food item there. Schools taught their students how to grow cabbages, potatoes and other non-greenhouse vegetables, and thus supplemented their own rations (for some, school lunches contained all the meat they would see in a week)

For woolton pie, you can put mashed potatoes on top instead of the wheat pastry. Much tastier. Also I'm sure people ate meals at friends houses now and again, so your free lunch probably would have happened back then too. ;)

This is FASCINATING to me! My parents were young marrieds during WWII (in the US -- my dad was a Marine Captain on Okinawa). I've always been obsessed with this era!

This level of content originality...queen of the never seen before kingdom omg

This just showed up in my recommended videos. Well done! I’ve always been fascinated with WWII, but I felt guilty saying so because (unlike my guy friends) I was never any good at remembering battles and such. One day, I was looking at my collection of WWII books and realized that my interest was in the home fronts and how people lived. Those who have the will to win Eat potatoes in their skin. Knowing that the sight of peelings Deeply hurts Lord Woolton’s feelings.

Hi, I recommend you watch Supersizers eat the '40's and Supersizers eat the '50's, to see Giles Coren and Sue Perkins and Mary Berry and another chef show the food during the war. You'll love it! You didn't actually stray off the ration diet. On Supersizers, they explain that restaurants opened during the Blitz, for rescuers and people bombed out. They were quite popular, and weren't part of the rations. I think you did a very good job!

Apparently I eat national load every Day. In Denmark it is the stable of the lunch table. We just Call it Rye bread, though.

No criticism, just a thought: what you describe as fairy bread seems a lot like cinnamon toast I grew up on. But the difference is you butter the untoasted bread, then sprinkle on sugar and cinnamon, then toast it. The sugar melts into a delicate crust and is very good. You toast it flat on a tray in the oven, of course, not in a toaster.

Also, what you say about using things up is really interesting. I do that without noticing (allowing for the odd fail when I'm busy). But I was brought up, and taught to cook by my Nana, who as I said in the other comment, was a cook in the 30s and 40s till she was called up for munitions work. So it was instilled in me from being tiny - if you're making a recipe, but something in the fridge is about to go off, chuck it in to avoid wasting it. I still feel guilty if we have a chicken and I don't boil the carcass for stock, like Nana did.

Watching this in the time of the coronavirus. Hopefully will get some tips as all the supermarkets are empty from all the panic buying 🤦‍♀️😅

Fairy toast is great. Use a pestle and mortar to grind the sugar into a fine powder and sprinkle on the toast and put under the grill to melt the sugar. I used to do this when my daughter was little when we did a wartime ration month.

where do you come up with these ideas?! you're awesome, amazing and inspirational and you're teaching me to love food and live life again after my eating disorder - i honestly wish i could find a way to thank you materially...do you have a PO box?

Commenting a little too late maybe, but fun fact (??) about toast and sugar! I'm from Italy and my grandma was born in 1920, so she lived through WW2. When I was little she used to give me and my sister bread with sugar for pudding, but she made the bread wet with a little of water and then sprinkled the sugar on top (and i remember that we loved it!!) :) She always told us that that was she would usually have for pudding as a child, coming from a poor family, and that wasn't unusual! A variation of that, but for adults, was bread with wine (because we are from Tuscany, but I think that this might have been common in many other countryside places)

Love your personality, came across your channel yesterday and im hooked! also you look like Drew Gooden's British sister, lol

I know that I'm rather late to the game but I must share a few thoughts- My favorite moments are when you roll your eyes in surprise, and when you broadly smile in near astonishment at how pleasant (?) you find the taste :) For the past few years I've been cooking through my great Auntie's recipes- but modifying them to be vegetarian and/or vegan. She was a "tween" growing up through the depression and a young woman by the time the U.S.A. had entered WW2. My Aunt Dot pretty much raised me on her small farm until I was old enough to enlist in 1979. So many of these meals you shared were meals I grew up with - bringing back very fond memories. Thank you for sharing these:) Wishing you all the very best!

original content dayummm

Rationing in America wasn't quite so strict, but we all had HUGE gardens, and an enormous variety of vegetables. We had little (very little) meat, but we traded with our friends, and some had chickens, so eggs weren't a big problem. We could grow cane for syrup, and we had bee hives for honey. We didn't travel because there was no gas, or tires for the vehicles, but none of us were without ample food. We just had to plan and save back for cakes, and canning.

Ur dedication to sick new content makes me weep

Honey, they had feeding stations in UK during the war. It was the start of common restaurants. So your eating out would have been normal. Most people ate out at least once a week, sometimes more. It was off ration, but. Could have been anything because food was in short supply. You have done a great job trying this out. I enjoyed the 1950s diet one too. I think the great generation was so healthy because they physically worked so hard. I am American, but I love the UK. I would love to visit some day.

You're so charming and sincere! I learned a lot from this video and so enjoyed your honest reactions. Thank you so very much!

Probably the best and most interesting video you’ve done :) I’d love you to do another one as WW2 is also the war that i find most fascinating (in a non morbid way) Keep up the great work!

Interesting video and shows how different life was then. My friend’s grandmother always stored a ton of butter flavored crisco for “emergencies.” She was a young girl during the Great Depression and they only had plain crisco to use on food.

This was great ! Thank you ! Sweden wasnt in the war but We had rations and food was really short My grandma had a cottage so they basically grew as much as they could also My grandpa brought smoked pig from his relatives where he was posted half a country away When he could get home .my grandma helped to fed 3-4 families and she was really thrifty

That was a great video. I also find ww2 fascinating from the view of the people at home. Rationing, food stamps, etc would have been very hard to get used to! Thank you for doing this video, it was fun to watch

I, too, am fascinated by WWII homefront history. You did very well. Golden syrup was available but not plentiful. I have used Marmite to make a decent "beef stock" for noodles and gravy. But you did not have to worry about bread. National loaf was not rationed. I'm not sure how well I would have done without butter, which i love or even marg, which is better than nothing. question:is Marmite expensive in Britain or just because imported to US?

I had no idea that it was eaten at that time but I've had bread and sugar on top before and we used to add a little bit of water just sprinkled with your fingers over the sugar. My mom used to give me and my brother that when we were kids like 20 years ago 😀😀

Hello, thank you for this. We're learning about food rationing in WW2 in homeschool and this gave us a much better idea of things were during that time. So interesting!

As a comprision you could have a Polish girl / woman WW2 ration diet ;) For an adult person, a week's ration was consisting of: 2 kg of potatoes 1 kg of bread 100 g of flour 50 to 100 g of meat and it's preserves (which rarely was true) 50 to 100 g of sugar 50 to 100 g of marmolade (which was mostly made of fruit rests, like pits and fruit skin, as well as beats) 40 g of grain coffee 1/4 of 1/2 of an egg (!!! meaning there had to be taken one for a family) pinch of salt edit: you're suppossed to first sprinkle the bread, and then pour a little bit of warm water on top ;)

When I was in school (US in the 50's) they never taught us that in England rationing extended into the 50's, so I had no idea til a year or so ago. Don't think there was much, if any, rationing in the US after WWII but here we didn't have to buzz down all our ag fields to make runways and such either. Glad things are better for all of us now.

About the sugar on toast: I know in Italy we have a different bread but my grandparents used to have soaked bread with sugar. Put some water in a soup plate, add the bread and allow it to soak some of the water. Put it on a normal plate and add sugar. My grandma used to make it every day and I always had it is as a snack :)

My mum lived in the countryside of Scotland during the war. She said she remembers the fires across the Clyde when the sugar factory was bombed. She also recalled they would shoot rabbits a lot for meat, maybe that is how they made their gravy?

This was fun to watch . I think its great that you are trying things like this. It keeps those memories alive.

That was very interesting, Gracie. You did very well. Thanks for posting.

That was such an interesting video concept, absolutely loved seeing it. You always make me want to try my own 5 days challenges. :)

Your creativity when it comes to new content is amazing! Subbed 😋

My grandmother basically lived on war rations diet her whole life. She lived to 96with no ill health. Just got dementia in the end. No vegan, raw keto, nuffin.

My parents were both very poor in the war and lived in big cities where a garden was not feasible. A common dinner for my dad was boiled cow's hoof. They'd eat the gelatin plain or if lucky, with a hard boiled egg cut up into it. His mother frequently didn't eat to feed her children.

3 things I got from my nana who was born in 1913 so went through WW2. She taught me how to make pancakes with only milk flour and sugar, usually we would have this for pancake day as we are catholic. She would often eat her piece of bread after dinner with butter and a sprinkle of sugar... something I still do often and so does my daughter who is now 20. My grandad used to get lettuce leaves and sprinkle sugar in them. I always thought this was normal until I was in my teens and my friends mum asked if I wanted salt for my lettuce 😱. My daughter grew up calling them this treat sugar cups and still to this day when I buy lettuce will grab a couple of leaves sprinkle sugar and roll them up. The sugar and water is a wonderful mixture and the crunchy texture is so refreshing. Thanks for a great video ☺️

Loved this video. Would love to see more baking and trying recipe's from other periods of history x

Just found your video and you are an amazing girl. There is no way on earth I would have been able to get any of my three children to try an experience like this and you did it with a big smile! Good job!

Mum wasn't around in the war either🤣 Great experiment

You were right, they did have golden syrup during the war. I have a Margeret Pattern ration cook book and golden syrup was used.

A banquet compared to Europe, Asia,at least North Africa, Pacific, and countless refugees. A reminder that much of the world would consider this a feast now. Thanks for making us grateful to our forebears, and challenged to share the harvest and help others to plant and reap.

I love when you do these kinds of videos! We definitely need a part 2!

Golden syrup was used sometimes to replace the eggs as a binder of sorts.

Isn't it ironic that the ww2 rations are what I eat in a week, due to being on income support?

if anyone here lives in the US, Ezekiel bread is very similar to this bread recipe. it’s in the freezer section of most grocery stores!

I read this as WW2 radiation diet. My initial thought was how???? My next thought was omg pls don't die

Aus has golden syrup during ww2, it’s one of the ingredients in Anzac biscuits. The biscuits they used to send to the soldiers on the front so Britain might have had it to. But maybe not, rations in Australia weren’t as strict here as everywhere else.

Whether it's wartime or depression times any hot food was a welcome luxury.

I thought your video was very good! I totally agree with the national loaf. I've done the wwII ration diet myself and my husband and I noticed that we could fill up on one slice of national loaf compared with 2-3 slices of today's bread. I figured out it was because national loaf uses 100% wholemeal whereas today's it's like 60%. I also noticed that I had more energy as well!

Hello from Dublin! This was really interesting. Watched the 50s diet too. Well done you. I really enjoyed it.

Love watching your food challenges!! Such a good video idea! 👌

I think everyone should do a week of 'struggle', hard time, food stamp whatever you want to define it as. It will make you appreciate what others have had too do or are doing. Nice video.

Checking this out now ,Cannot believe I might have to actually use this recipe and start looking at rationing videos covid -19

The bread made from whole wheat flower has complex carbs which keeps you fuller longer compared to white flower.

Rewatching this later on now that 1. I'm broke and on a $25 budget for 2 people for food (so somewhat similar to like £20) this is giving me a lot of ideas. I do SO MUCH with cabbage now. 2. Were in a pandemic so.... yeah Its helpful. Luv ya content Grack!

I'm curious to know what your normal diet consists of. Would have been nice to see the comparison!

if you had such meals for many months youd realise that you are missing on things. My mom remembered hearing her little brothers cry cause then wanted more food and they didnt have it, they couldnt fall asleep. At one time those boys eated some raw meat and her mom didnt have for the rest of the family . They had beet sandwiches for super.

your brother sniffing the soup so distastefully is amazing

Don’t feel guilty about eating out! It was really common and popular in WW2 as it didn’t count towards your rations. The restaurants were on rations too though and by law had to keep their prices to a minimum, so the food wasn’t great.

My father was in the war RAF and my mom made propeller parts in a factory. They had me in their 40's. Even in the 70's when I was a kid they only used salt and pepper. To this day I can't eat food with a lot of spice. LOL

Love your video. 💕🤗 My gran used to make wee cakes made with bran, oats, grated carrot, grated courgette, cinnamon, sugar or treacle/ molasses and egg, they were surprisingly yummy. I’ve made them a lot since and they are very filling.. 💕

It is so unusual for me to find a young person interested in World War II, especially rationing. In the odd chance you haven't, you might enjoy "The Wartime Kitchen and Garden" with Ruth Mott (on RU-vid). "Wartime Farm" is also interesting. People were also into wild foods like blackberries, and black walnuts. Canning was voluminous. Green beans were big because one could get two crops, high volume, and only use water to preserve. Kraut was made. If one could grow corn, there was cornbread. Dairy, and meat were rare.

The bread thing is interesting. My mum told me when she was a little girl after everything settled in Europe in the 1960s she was on holiday with her Scottish English family. And she remembered her mother buying every family members house she went to an electric Toaster. Because no one had one but these were well off people but they were so traditional and old school. A toaster was such a foreign concept.

People would have had herb tea from the garden, Mint, Lemon Balm, Calendula, Blackcurrent Leaf, Nettle, Rosehip (If you want to make Rosehip Tea ensure you remove all the little sharp hairs.) Also people would have had herbs growing in the garden for savoury flavouring. They could save scraps like bacon rinds or a bit of sausage meat, brown them in a pan & use them to make gravy with a little flour & water, & maybe a scrap of onion & carrot.

Usually you sprinkle water on the bread and then sprinkle the sugar to make it stick. My grandma used to make it when i was a kid before she passed.

does anybody know where her grey jumper from day 2 is from? It looks lovely!

Of course they had golden syrup, lyles golden syrup. It wasn't initially rationed but was added to the list later on in the war. And I'm sure they probably would have had home made stock or would have kept left over fat for gravy

You were able to go national kitchen /canteen for dinner so your catered lunch could be that.

Well done young lady! I could not agree more with the “thrift mindset”, it just takes a bit of effort, and with all of the food we have available today, everybody should be eating like kings on a third of what we spend currently. I’m Canadian, but my grandma was a UK war bride, my grandpa a Canadian aircrewman, her stories of wartime Britain were fascinating

Me and my friend were think of doing this when we had a project on rations and budgeting lol

“It’s ok because I can have this really nice thing to make it up” Mother laughed “you are wrong”

golden syrup was invented in 1885! it did exist xx

Gravy granules was made 1920s and syrup was invented in the victorian times and was used to make christmad cake

This was such a interesting different video xxx

Not attacking you, just informing you: They had no chocolate at all during the war. That was why it was so special when the troops took it with them and shared it with the folk when the country was freed.

Your videos are good. Halfway through the second video, I subbed.

Omg, you are a trip. I love this video, thank you!! Made me laugh, your mum is so funny. Yes, I quite enjoyed myself. Yes, the bread actually looks pretty good. Thanks again for the video.

Could y share the recipe for the bread??

I have 2 law exam tomorrow and here I am

To help save that daily tea bag, the cup of boiled water might contain a slice of fresh lemon.

With sugar bread, people usually add a few dashes of tea on top, at least that's what I do. Tastes delicious

I really enjoyed watching this. It's fascinating and I agree that we take far too much for granted nowadays. I think I could handle the toast too. I'm off to watch more of your videos 😀

id like to know how it effected you physically. weight, energy, cholesterol etc

I grew up just after the war when we were still on rationing. I was interested by the bread, because we had white bread but it was solid and filling, and very tasty. That fluffy stuff they now call white bread, I don't recognise and I can't eat it. I get wholemeal bread because it's usually more substantial, but not all brands are. We didn't have sliced bread until I was at least in my teens, but back then it was still substantial and tasty.