Wartime rationing recipes from chef Dan Lepard and IWM

%image(15444966, type="article-full", alt="The Second World War forced British cooks to make the most of simple ingredients like potatoes, which could be widely grown across Britain. In an episode of Rationing Recipes, Dan Lepard shows viewers how to make sardines wrapped in potatoes, a dish that tastes "like the best fish and chips without the grease". Picture: IWM")

Visitors to IWM’s social media channels will have access to a new series of videos, made in collaboration with chef Dan Lepard, celebrating the ingenuity and creativity behind wartime dishes.

Inspired by the IWM publication Victory in the Kitchen: Wartime Recipes, Dan has delved into IWM’s rich archives to offer modern twists on classic recipes that were concocted out of meagre rations during the Second World War.

Award-winning baker and food writer Dan Lepard said: “Recent months have seen many of us turn to cooking, baking and getting creative in the kitchen for some much-needed comfort and entertainment.

“IWM’s extensive archives contain a stack of fantastic and easy recipes as well as first-hand accounts of the challenges – from vegetable growing to rationing – that wartime cooking presented.

“Drawing inspiration from these, I am excited to have teamed up with the museum to release a series of short videos that celebrate simple ingredients delivering unexpected flavour and a side of history.”

Using simple ingredients, viewers can try their hand at dishes including a 1940s curry, baked jam and carrot sponge pudding, and potato-wrapped sardines in a series of quick cook-along tutorials led by Dan.

Featuring insight from historians and footage from IWM’s film archive, these videos explore themes such as wartime rationing and the introduction of cooking spices to post-war Britain.

They also shed light on the experiences of those who lived through the Second World War.

%image(15444967, type="article-full", alt="In this episode of Rationing Recipes, Dan Lepard looks at the long history of British curry and shows viewers how to make a delicious 1940s sweet curry. Picture: IWM")

Accounts from 92-year-old Muriel Morris-Jones, who was a child when the war started, and John White, a former Second World War RAF Flight Navigator, illustrate how communities came together in times of hardship to enjoy everyday activities such as cooking and dining with ingenuity and spark.

Book Victory in the Kitchen: Wartime Recipes shows the ingenuity and creativity behind dishes rustled up out of meagre rations – from austerity recipes such as scrap bread pudding, potato pastry and sheep’s heart pie to hearty English favourites including Lancashire hot pot, Queen’s Pudding and crumpets.

Visit https://www.iwm.org.uk/history/dan-lepards-rationing-recipes for more.

%image(15444969, type="article-full", alt="Dan Lepard shows viewers how to make a piping hot jam and carrot sponge pudding on IWM's social media channels. Picture: IWM")

%image(15444971, type="article-full", alt="Preparing meals during wartime. Picture: IWM")

%image(15444973, type="article-full", alt="From Imperial War Museums archive, preparing meals during wartime. Picture: IWM")