Tasting History with Max Miller
Published 19 Nov 2024

Hearty, if mushy, vegetable soup with honey biscuits and a cup of tea

City/Region: London
Time Period: 1940

If you were taking shelter underground during the Blitz, a period in WWII when German planes bombed British cities, the food options were somewhat limited. You could bring snacks with you, but there were also canteens from which workers sold things like tea, cocoa, soup, biscuits, and chocolate.

This soup, fittingly named Blitz Soup, is mainly composed of fresh vegetables that many would have had access to from their victory gardens. While it’s surprisingly flavorful and delicious, if you cut down the cooking time to about 30 minutes, the vegetables wouldn’t be as mushy. Though either way, a thermos of this soup would have been a comforting meal while taking shelter.

Instead of the historical recipe, which is very basic, here’s the poem that accompanied it.

When down to your shelter you flitz,
It may not be quite like the Ritz.
If you drink something warm,
You’ll come to no harm,
And the best soup to drink is the “Blitz”.
(P.S.- Any vegetables can be used, and you’ll find this a very useful soup to take to the shelter if you have to take cover. We hope you don’t.)
— Gert and Daisy’s Wartime Cookery Book, 1940

Ingredients:
1 carrot
1 turnip
1 onion or leek, I used a leek
1 to 2 potatoes
A few stalks of celery
6 cups (1.5 L) water
2 teaspoons salt
1 teaspoon black pepper
A few bones, I used chicken bones*
1 teaspoon meat extract or yeast extract, like Marmite
*A lot of people were raising their own chickens during the War, so this seemed right to me. Leftover bones from a rotisserie chicken work well.

Instructions:

1. Peel and chop all of the vegetables. The size here is up to you. Keep in mind that the soup will cook for a long time, so no matter their size, the vegetables will be fairly mushy.
2. Put the chopped vegetables in a large pot and add the water, salt, pepper, and bones. Bring the pot to a simmer, then cover it and simmer for 1 hour.
3. After the hour is up, stir in the meat or yeast extract, and serve it forth.

Honey biscuits with Blitz Soup and a cup of tea

City/Region: United Kingdom
Time Period: 1943-1945

Biscuits were one of the items available for purchase in the underground shelters of the UK during the Blitz in WWII, when German planes were bombing British cities, but with sugar rationed, War Cookery Leaflet No. 23 urged people to use alternative sweeteners like fruit, saccharin tablets, and honey.

This recipe comes from the same leaflet, and the biscuits are delicious. Unsurprisingly, they’re not very sweet, and the honey really gets to shine. These would be perfect to have with a cup of tea or cocoa.

Honey biscuits
2 1/2 oz. margarine
1 oz. sugar
1 dried egg, dry
2 tablespoons honey
6 oz. self raising flour
1 teaspoon cinnamon
Pinch salt
Cream the margarine and sugar and beat in the egg. Add the honey, work in the flour, cinnamon and salt. Roll out until 1/4 inch thick. Cut into rounds, place on a baking sheet, and bake in a moderately hot oven for 10 minutes. This quantity makes approximately 40-50 biscuits.
— Making the most of the sugar (War Cookery Leaflet No. 23), 1943-1945

Ingredients:
Generous 5 tablespoons (75 g) margarine
2 tablespoons sugar
2 tablespoons honey
Scant 1 1/2 cups (170 g) plain flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
Pinch of salt

Instructions:

1. Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C).
2. Cream the margarine and sugar until it’s nice and smooth. Beat in the honey until combined.
3. In a separate bowl, sift the flour. Whisk in the baking powder, cinnamon, and salt.
4. Add the dry ingredients to the butter mixture and mix until it’s just combined.
5. Either on a floured surface or between two pieces of parchment, roll the dough out to 1/4 inch (5 mm) thick.
6. Cut the dough out using a 2 inch (5 cm) cookie cutter. Place the cookies on a lined baking sheet. They aren’t going to spread much, so you can place them close together. Gather, reroll, and cut out more cookies from any leftover dough.
7. Bake for 10 minutes or until golden brown.
8. Let the cookies cool completely, then serve them forth.

About the Film: Sir Steve McQueen’s Blitz follows the epic journey of George (Elliott Heffernan), a 9-year-old boy in World War II London whose mother Rita (Saoirse Ronan) sends him to safety in the English countryside. George, defiant and determined to return home to his mom and his grandfather Gerald (Paul Weller) in East London, embarks on an adventure, only to find himself in immense peril, while a distraught Rita searches for her missing son.

Written and directed by Academy and BAFTA Award-winning McQueen, the film stars Academy and BAFTA Award nominee Ronan and newcomer Heffernan, with Harris Dickinson, Benjamin Clementine, Kathy Burke, Paul Weller, Stephen Graham, Leigh Gill, Mica Ricketts, CJ Beckford, Alex Jennings, Joshua McGuire, Hayley Squires, Erin Kellyman and Sally Messham rounding out the cast. McQueen’s Lammas Park produces alongside Tim Bevan and Eric Fellner of Working Title Films, Arnon Milchan, Yariv Milchan and Michael Schaefer for New Regency, with producers Anita Overland and Adam Somner.

McQueen reunites with production designer Adam Stockhausen (12 Years a Slave, Widows), costume designer Jacqueline Durran (Small Axe), and composer Hans Zimmer (12 Years a Slave), with cinematographer Yorick Le Saux (Little Women) and makeup designer Naomi Donne ( Spectre, Skyfall).