Even though food was very short in Britain during the First World War, families often sent parcels to their fathers and brothers fighting at the front.

The parcels contained presents of chocolate, cake, tobacco and tinned food.

At the beginning of the war, soldiers received just over a pound of meat, the same amount in bread and eight ounces of vegetables every day.

Some soldiers worked in field kitchens set up just behind the trenches to cook meals for the soldiers who were fighting.

By 1917, the official ration for the average British “Tommy” was much smaller. Fresh meat was getting harder to come by and the ration was reduced to only six ounces of “bully beef ”, or corned beef as it is known today. Soldiers on the front line got even less meat and vegetables.

“Maconochie’s meat stew” and hard biscuits was a meal that many soldiers ate, but the meat was mostly fat and this, along with a shortage of fresh fruit and vegetables, was responsible for many upset stomachs.

Back home, the cost of food more than doubled during the war years. Some prices went up by even more than that. A pint of milk cost a penny in the early 1900s. Just after the war, people were expected to pay sixpence a pint.

As the fighting dragged on, fresh fruit, vegetables and meat got harder to find. There were even stories of butchers selling dead cats.

Bread and flour were very hard to get. By 1916, bread was being made from ground-up turnips.

The new Ministry for Food put out a leaflet with ideas for making pastry, cakes and buns from potatoes, and even “chocolate potato biscuits”.

Women had to be inventive in the kitchen. Wartime cookbooks had ideas for foods such as “potted cheese” or leftover crumbs of cheese, mixed with mustard and margarine, baked in the oven and served with biscuits or toast. Another recipe used cooked fish, rice, and breadcrumbs to make “fish sausages”.

The Win-the-War Cookery Book carried this message: “Women of Britain... Our soldiers are beating the Germans on land. Our sailors are beating them on the sea. You can beat them in the larder and the kitchen.”