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Rationing

I see that margarine was an option. What did it taste like back then? I assume margarine was just margarine unlike the variations there are today.
 
MWS said:
I see that margarine was an option. What did it taste like back then? I assume margarine was just margarine unlike the variations there are today.
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My memories of margarine back then was oil in block form. It was better than nothing although not much better. My mother would buy half pound of butter and half pound of marg!
Still not a fan even with those fancy tubs!
 
mw0njm. said:
wow sweets again Wednesday 5 February 1953

With shelves stacked to the gunnels with sweets and treats of every colour, flavour and description sweet lovers today are perhaps a little bit spoilt for choice. But 70 years ago today our grandparents could only have dreamt of the choice we all enjoy today. On the Food Minister stood up in Parliament and announced to the Commons that ration and price control on chocolate and sweets had officially come to an end across the United Kingdom. Sweet rationing began during the dark days of World War Two on 26 July 1942 when people had a weekly ration of just 2 ounces of sweets or chocolate. A month later the ration was doubled for eight weeks and then cut back to 3 ounces a week
View attachment 190961View attachment 190963
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I remember that day…coming home from school, my mother gave me sixpence to go to the Polar Bear Sweet shop on Lozzells Rd. I was that proverbial kid in a candy store!
 
Richard Dye said:
My memories of margarine back then was oil in block form. It was better than nothing although not much better. My mother would buy half pound of butter and half pound of marg!
Still not a fan even with those fancy tubs!
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As I remember it, margarine then di not have much of a taste. It just provided a fatty material to put on bread or bake with. i don't believe many of the spreads sold today can technically be called margarine, as margarine is supposed to have at least 80% fat. True margarine is really only, nowadays, for baking purposes
 
I was too young to understand anything about rationing although it was still on in early 50s but reading about the margarine made me think about my Nan, she was a big fan of loose Danish Tub butter so it must have been a hard time for her :laughing:
 
Ken1947 said:
Margarine was pretty awful. The one I remember was called Echo and there was a small shop in Park Lane that would cut a slab in half to help
people who did'nt have much money. not a fan of these modern spreads, I like butter on my toast in the morning.
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Echo was an early margarine after the rationing was lifted. During the rationing, margarine was marketed as "special margarine" in greaseproof and the wording in brown. I remember it so well. I had only tasted margarine being born in 1945 and couldn't get used to the creaminess of butter. For that reason my Mom bought Echo margarine for me for many years and I've never taken to butter. I use Flora now. The Maypole grocery chain also produced their own brand of cheap margarine marketed as "Mayco" which tasted the same as Echo.
 
Clive F said:
Echo was an early margarine after the rationing was lifted. During the rationing, margarine was marketed as "special margarine" in greaseproof and the wording in brown. I remember it so well. I had only tasted margarine being born in 1945 and couldn't get used to the creaminess of butter. For that reason my Mom bought Echo margarine for me for many years and I've never taken to butter. I use Flora now. The Maypole grocery chain also produced their own brand of cheap margarine marketed as "Mayco" which tasted the same as Echo.
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Most grocery chains had their own brand of margarine: CO-OP, George Mason etc. I am a fan of butter, unsalted, that’s what my wife cooks with. We prefer Irish/European butters although there are some very good US butters from Wisconsin.
 
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