The Wartime Kitchen and Ration Book Cooking - Day Three: Eggs and Egg in a Nest: WW2 Mock Fried Egg Recipe (2024)

The Wartime Kitchen and Ration Book Cooking – Day Three:

Eggs and Egg in a Nest: WW2 Mock Fried Egg Recipe

Today is day three of my Wartime Kitchen and Ration Book Cooking challenge, and today is all about eggs. Yesterday was avegetarianday for us, and I made a rather tasty Woolton Pie, you can read all about it here:. Janice and Fiona have also been busy in theirwartimekitchen too,andyou can read all about how day two was for them here: Farmersgirl Kitchen and London Unattached. But today is a walk on the wild side, enter the Black Market and the currency of EGGS!Whilst poring over my copy ofWartimeFarm, that was verykindlysent to me by FionaSmithat Octopus Books, I was intrigued to read that eggs became unofficialcurrency andwerelinkedto the black market. The egg ration,accordingto BOTH myparents, was one of the hardest of rations toendure – we take eggs for granted today, but if you think how useful andnutritionaleggs are in the kitchen for baking, breakfast and supper dishes, you can better understand how hard it must have been to try to live off one egg per adult per week. You were also allowed a packet of dried eggs in your ration, (one packet every 4 weeks; each packet contained theequivalentof 12 eggs) but they were universally hated, mainly due to not beingreconstitutedcorrectly; my mother still hates eggs to this day some 78 years after the start of WW2.

If you lived in the country you were more likely to have more eggs; I keep chickens, soduringthe war, my hens’ eggs would not only have been a boon for cooking family meals, but Icouldhave engaged in a bit of “under the table” activity and maybe I could have sold them on the Black Market or bartered with myneighboursforotherrationed ingredients. If you kept hens, you could give up your right to the egg rations, such as it was, and in exchange you would have received chicken meal/food.I have tried to keepRIGIDLYto the constraints of WW2 rationing and thus far we have lived exactly to ourallottedrations, but today I am using one of my precious eggs, although I presently have about a dozen at my disposal! So,breakfasttoday was a very thrifty way of feeding TWO adults with one egg, and we both LOVED the recipe:Egg in a Nest: WW2 Mock Fried Egg.The recipe I made comes from a Ministry of Food Leaflet – Number 11 called Dried Eggs.I wanted to try some powdered eggs, but Ididn’tmanageto get any in time for my ration book challenge, so I used ONE shell egg as a substitute, as the original recipe calls for ONEreconstitutedegg.

I saved some bacon dripping the other day (from another WW2 recipe that I made and will be sharing this week) and so I was able to add some extra flavour into these mock fried eggs, which were filling and very tasty as it happens. Served with a dollop of brown sauce,whichwas still availableduringthewar, it made a wonderful breakfast for a chilly frosty morning. The recipe is below…….

But on to my menu for today, day three:

Daily Meal Plan for Wednesday 7th November:

Breakfast: Egg in a Nest – Mock Fried Egg and two cups of tea with milk

Lunch: Leftovers – Woolton Pie with Salad two cups of tea with milk

Tea: Leftovers of Nettle and Watercress Soup (Recipeto follow) and two cups of tea with milk

And what I have left for the rest of the week is:

WW2 Rations 1940: Two Adults

Butter: 3 3/4 ozs (90g)
Bacon or ham: 200g (8oz)
Margarine: 6 1/2 ozs (160g)
* Cooking fat/lard: 200g (8oz) Used 20zs (50g) – 60zs (150g) left
Sugar: 14 1/2 ozs (440g)
Meat: To the value of 2/4d – about 2lb (900g)
* Milk: 5 pints (3000mls) – Used 1 pint (600ml) – 4 pints (2400mls) left
Cheese: 8oz (200g)
Eggs: 2 fresh egg a week – NOT taking this ration up as I have my own chickens
* Tea: 30zs (70g) left – Used 1/2 oz (15g) – 2 1/2 ozs (55g) left
Jam: 900g (2lb) every two months. 120g (41/2 ozs) left
Dried eggs: 1 packet (12 eggs) every four weeks
Sweets & Chocolate: 700g (1lb 8oz) every four weeks

As you can seen from my latest ration stores, due to eating leftovers, I still have a considerable amount left for the rest of the week, and I will be using some of my meat, cheese and butter rations soon, as well as some of my points. Points wereput in place which you could use to purchase extra non-rationed goods; these includedstore cupboard ingredients such as dried fruit and pulses, tinned fish, meat or imported goods. 16 points were available in your ration book every 4 weeks, and those 16 points would enable you to purchase one tin of fish or meat, or 2lbs of dried fruit or 8 lbs of split peas, although, the points for these items did changeaccordingto shopping losses and the local market.

That’s it for day three, do pop back tomorrow to see what I am cooking up in my wartime kitchen, whereI will be talking about the British Restaurants……bye for now, Karen.

What favourite egg or baking recipes would you have tried to make during WW2?