Yves Segers

The wartime kitchen: Food advice and cooking tips in Belgium during the First World War

ABSTRACT This article addresses a special aspect of daily life in occupied Belgium during the First World War. It examines and compares the nutritional advice and the cooking tips which were given by private and public organizations, physicians, nutritional experts, and home economic teachers. Furthermore, the article compares these recommendations with actual practices, through the personal testimonies of diaries and wartime memories. This analysis results in three main conclusions. Firstly, it is clear that during the war, the diet (and the advice given on food) had to be adjusted on a regular basis, depending on the availability of foodstuffs. As the war progressed, fewer animal products were consumed; more expensive calories were gradually substituted by cheaper ones. The import of American foodstuffs and the search for ersatz products became increasingly important, especially during the “hunger winter” of 1916–1917. Secondly, this article underlines the influential role of experts in promoting the latest nutritional science (such as the concept of calories) in light of the war situation. It demonstrates that at the beginning of the war, experts such as agronomists and physicians published relatively technical brochures, written in a language that was very far removed from the general population. From 1916 onwards, female authors especially published cookery booklets in an easily understandable language in which they presented recipes and menus that were nutritious, cheap, and easy to prepare. Thirdly, it emphasizes the importance of women in shaping and defining the eating experience during the war. Housewives were most especially faced with the daily price increases and with the limited supply of both familiar and unfamiliar foodstuffs; hence it was they to whom the food recommendations within these wartime cookery booklets were primarily aimed.