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

World War Two. England. March, 1944. Land army girls with a large basket of freshly laid eggs as they breed chicks at redlands poultry farm at South Holmwood in Surrey.

The Wartime Kitchen and Ration Book Cooking – Day Three:

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

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.

Powdered Egg

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.

Egg in a Nest: WW2 Mock Fried Egg Recipe

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…….

Egg in a Nest: WW2 Mock Fried Egg

Print recipe

Serves	2
Prep time	2 minutes
Cook time	5 minutes
Total time	7 minutes
Allergy	Egg, Wheat
Dietary	Vegetarian
Meal type	Bread, Breakfast, Lunch, Snack
Misc	Child Friendly, Serve Hot
Region	British
From book	Ministry of Food; leaflet 11

This ingenious recipe comes from one of the Ministry of Food leaflets that were issued during WW2 and is leaflet 11. The leaflet was all about how to cook with dried eggs and included recipes such as bacon and egg pie, egg cutlets, scrambled eggs and Yorkshire pudding. I was unable to obtain dried eggs, so I used one of my own hen's eggs in this recipe for my Wartime Rations week.

Ingredients

1 egg (fresh shell egg or reconstituted dried egg)
2 slices wheatmeal bread
salt and pepper
dripping

Note

This ingenious recipe comes from one of the Ministry of Food leaflets that were issued during WW2 and is leaflet number 11. The leaflet was all about how to cook with dried eggs and included recipes such as bacon and egg pie, egg cutlets, scrambled eggs and Yorkshire pudding. I was unable to obtain dried eggs, so I used one of my own hen's eggs in this recipe for my Wartime Rations week.

Directions

Step 1	Beat the egg. Cut holes from the centre of each slice of bread with small scone cutter.
Step 2	Dip the slices quickly into water and then fry on one side (in dripping if you have any available) until golden brown.
Step 3	Turn on to the other side, pour half the egg into the hole in each slice of bread, cook till the bread is brown on the underneath side.
Step 4	The bread cut from the centres can be fried and served with the slices. Serve straight away with salt and pepper to season and some HP or Daddies sauce or brown Chop sauce.

Welsh Eggs Recipe from WW2

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

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

Egg in a Nest (Egg in a Hole)
Saturday Breakfast and Brunch Memories: Smoked Salmon "Egg in a Basket" (Egg in a Hole)
The Secret Recipe Club, Cooking Whims and Classic Devilled Eggs
Egg in a Nest (Egg in a Hole)

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

FAQs

What is ww2 rations breakfast? ›

Porridge with a variety of toppings, cereals, fruit juice. Fruit, yoghurt, Pastries a couple of times per week. In the field, it was from ration packs, supplemented where we could. Ask any British Squaddie and compo sausages and bacon grill were some of the greatest things ever invented.

What was in a ww2 food rationing book? ›

Every person in the country, including children, received a ration book and each home had to register with a local butcher, grocer and milkman who had to ensure they had enough food for their customers. The ration books contained coupons which had to be presented when items were bought.

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How eggs were rationing in ww2? ›

Eggs were rationed and "allocated to ordinary [citizens] as available"; in 1944 thirty allocations of one egg each were made. Children and some invalids were allowed three a week; expectant mothers two on each allocation. plus, 24 points for four weeks for tinned and dried food.

What was the ration diet in the 1940s? ›

A weekly adult ration during the war allowed for 100g of Bacon and Ham, up to 226 grams of minced meat, 50g of butter, 50g of cheese, 100g of margarine, 100g of cooking fat and three pints of milk. It also included 225 grams of sugar, 50 grams of tea and one shell egg or one packet of dried eggs every four weeks.

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What did soldiers eat for dinner in WWII? ›

At first, the meals were stews, and more varieties were added as the war went on, including meat and spaghetti in tomato sauce, chopped ham, eggs and potatoes, meat and noodles, pork and beans; ham and lima beans, and chicken and vegetables.

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What does the C stand for in C-Rations? ›

*I do want to point out that the nomenclature “C” is the follow-up letter after the “A” and “B” type Field Rations and does not stand for “Canned” or “Combat” ration. The post-war canned ration, evolved out of the ww2 C Ration, is the “Ration, Combat, Individual”, but are commonly called C ration as well.

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What food was hard to get during ww2? ›

Rationed Foods. The categories of rationed foods during the war were sugar, coffee, processed foods (canned, frozen, etc.), meats and canned fish, and cheese, canned milk, and fats.

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What was powdered egg in WWII? ›

Powdered eggs were used in the United Kingdom during World War II for rationing. Powdered eggs are also known as dried eggs, and colloquially during the period of rationing in the UK, as Ersatz eggs. The modern method of manufacturing powdered eggs was developed in the 1930s by Albert Grant and Co.

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What were 3 items that were rationed during ww2? ›

Even though thousands of items became scarce during the war, only those most critical to the war effort were rationed. Key goods such as sugar, tires, gasoline, meat, coffee, butter, canned goods and shoes came under rationing regulations. Some important items escaped rationing, including fresh fruit and vegetables.

Was the WWII diet healthy? ›

As a result of rationing and an increased focus on fruit and vegetables being included in the diet, the population's health by and large improved considerably during these years, as there was more reliance on vegetables and less meat in their diets.

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What was the diet in the 1940s to lose weight? ›

The rice diet is a high-carbohydrate, low-fat, low-protein diet to lose weight. The diet features calorie deficit, reduced sodium, and mindfulness and may help some people lose weight and achieve better health. A research scientist at Duke University in Durham, North Carolina created the rice diet in the 1940s.

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What were K rations for breakfast? ›

Composition of the breakfast (Breakfast unit): 1 can of ham, veal, eggs, biscuits, 1 bar of fruit paste, 1 bag of coffee, a pack of 4 cigarettes, chewing gum, 3 pieces of sugar, tablets of purification of Halazone water, 1 key to open the can.

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