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Many of today's favourites began in the 1930's with jaffa cakes, twiglets, marmite, kit-kat, rolo, smarties, aero,
milky bar, mars and popcorn all becoming available. In 1937 sliced bread was introduced. This was useful as many people would now have an electric toaster as
well as an electric kettle. Beforehand kettles had been used on a stove. Many new products came from the USA. Smiths started making crisps. Mechanised potato
peelers and good transport from fishing ports meant fish and chips became very popular. The middle class wouldn't eat out in the streets so they took their fish
and chips home wrapped in newspapers.
Everything changed with rationing introduced at the start of World War Two.
Foods were rationed at different times. Some examples are:-
- Meat – March 1940
- Tea – July 1940
- Cheese – May 1941
- Eggs – June 1941
- Biscuits – August 1941
- Rice – January 1942
It is not possible to say how much food you were allowed because it varied as food became more scarce or more plentiful. But, on average, you could have 2oz (50g) of butter and 4oz (100g) of margarine. You could have 8oz (225g) of sugar and 3 pints (nearly 2 litres) of milk. One fresh egg as we said, 2oz of cheese and 2oz of tea. You could have 1lb (450g) of jam every four weeks and 12oz (350g) of sweets every four weeks. Try it. Thought not.
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