Eating

Much of this booklet dealt with stretching wartime rations, but it also addressed thrift and economy in a more general sense, with tips on how to curb waste in the home.

To celebrate the holiday season in 1943, Number 26 Canadian Army (Basic) Training Centre in Orillia, Ontario, held a special dinner. This menu was saved by Trooper A.E. Stone.

It was not unusual for units to have banquets before they left for service overseas - although the illustration chosen by the sergeants of the 51st Battalion might seem a little odd.

During the Second World War, Canadians became accustomed to rationing, which forced them to submit coupons in order to purchase commodities that the government had designated as scarce.

The Toronto-raised 134th Battalion sailed to England in the early spring of 1916, and was eventually broken up to provide reinforcements for other units in the field.

To mark Christmas 1916, the officers of a unit of the Canadian Army Service Corps held a formal dinner near the front. The menu card, which all in attendance signed, imagines the commanding officer rising through the ranks to become a field marshal in 1940, and then returning to civilian life in 1960.

Wartime rationing made it difficult to prepare tasty and varied meals, but in these pamphlets British Columbia Electric had some suggestions for Christmas dinners, entertaining on special occasions, and quick meals for "the business woman and war workers, for housewives who give much of their time to patriotic work."

Dedicated to "the Canadian Homemaker Whose Time is so Generously Devoted to the War Effort," this book offered hints on keeping the family fit, how to stretch the meat ration, wartime ingredient substitutions, "colourful salads in wartime menus," and desserts under rationing.

Originally intended to commemorate the Royal Visit of King George VI and Queen Elizabeth to Canada in 1939, the book was not published until after the Second World War began. Among the contributors were Lady Tweedsmuir and Eleanor Roosevelt.

This small recipe book provided suggestions for reducing the consumption of meat, butter, and sugar by using rolled oats in food preparation.