cross-posted from: https://lemmy.world/post/35679472
this post was submitted on 09 Sep 2025
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I think the problem is that after the Second World War, Britain's economy was so shot to hell that folks had to keep eating like the Luftwaffe was still blitzing London. That kept going on long enough to introduce generational trauma into British cuisine.
To me, another be part of it is that the British seem to have an awful penchant for giving delicious things names that sound like Victorian euphemisms for something awful. Spotted dick and toad in the hole sound like they would be ways for Victorians to talk about their STIs, and I'm unsure what exactly Gentleman's Relish would mean, but it strikes me as some sort of medieval form of punishment on the peasants.
My mom made these all the time when I was growing up, but she called them "Egg in a basket" 🥚 🧺. Sounds a lot nicer than "Toad in the hole". 🐸 🕳️
I had grown up calling it that it would probably seem normal to me though.
Rationing in the UK went on until 1954, nine years after the war ended.
Why, though? I mean it's not like Britain had to rebuild anything right?
They quite literally did, Britain and France nearly merged their economies it was so bad. While the London blitz is the most well known part of the bombing campaign it was actually the end of it, early on the Germans were specifically bombing factories and agricultural infrastructure like say granaries.
Reminder Great Britain itself isn't that big while still having a massive population, even while exploiting their colonies they were still massively hurting. Also converting their economy from a wartime one back to a civil one was slow as dick.
Makes sense.
We only finished repaying our WWII loans from the US and Canada in 2006
About 65,000 tonnes of munitions were dumped on Britain during WW2 by the Luftwaffe - they did more than break a few windows with all that.
That's how traditions are born.
To be more precise, they had to keep eating like the Kriegsmarine's U-bootwaffe was still sinking the ships with the food.