A History of the Ministry of Information, 1939-46
SECTION IV
THE USE OF JAM AND MARMALADE
The purpose of this part of the investigation was:-
(1) To determine housewives’ habits in connection with the use in cooking and serving of jam and marmalade.
(2) To ascertain whether a cut in the supplies of jam or marmalade would cause the housewife serious inconvenience.
Throughout the rest of this section, jam and marmalade are treated as one and referred to as jam.
Summary of results
94% of the housewives in the sample said that they took their full jam ration and that they had served it the previous week.
66% have jam every day on the breakfast table, 55% for tea, 57% used it for cooking, and 27% as spread in sandwiches during the 7-10 days before the interview.
The small number who do not take their jam ration (5%) refrain from doing so mainly because they consider the quality poor and do not use jam at all, or because they were able to make some themselves.
70% took some sugar instead of their jam ration last summer.
64% had made some jam last summer, more than half of whom had preserved more than 6 lbs.
80% think that it would cause them hardship if supplies of jam were cut down.
Only slight group differences exist. The upper income groups serve jam for breakfast more frequently, whereas working people use it more often as a spread in packed meals.
Scotland differs slightly from other regions in that jam is most often served at tea time and least often used for cooking. More housewives in the Eastern region than anywhere else use jam for cooking. London has the smallest percentage serving jam for tea.
The only other group difference which can be noted is in the amount of jam made at home. Housewives in rural areas and those who do not work outside the homes make their own to a greater extent than the others.
1. The extent to which jam is served
1.1 The overwhelming majority take their full jam ration and also used jam in one form or another the week before the interview.
Table 1
Jam bought, used
| Takes full jam ration | Served jam last week | |
| % | % | |
| Yes | 94 | 96 |
| No | 5 | 3 |
| Not answered | 1 | 1 |
| SAMPLE | 4398 | 4398 |
1.2 Two-thirds of the housewives in the sample had jam on their breakfast table every day of the week, and more than half served it for tea all the week. About half the sample used jam for cooking, and a quarter used it in packed meals.
Table 2
Number of times jam was served last week
| Breakfast | Tea | |
| % | % | |
| Up to 3 days | 13 | 17 |
| 4 - 6 days | 10 | 12 |
| 7 days | 62 | 55 |
| Did not use | 15 | 16 |
| SAMPLE | 4398 | 4398 |
Table 3
Uses to which jam was put
| % | |
| Cooking | 52 |
| Packed Meals | 27 |
| Does not use for either of these purposes | 21 |
| SAMPLE | 4398 |
To have jam on the table does not necessarily mean that all people taking part in the meal ate it, likewise the figures showing the number of people who used jam in packed meals is not indication of the frequency with which jam is used for this purpose in relation to other preserves.
1.3 Reasons for not taking jam ration
Those who did not take their full jam ration were asked why not. As already shown above, only 5% said that they had not done so. Because of this figure the next table cannot be more than an indication of the frequency of the reasons for not buying their ration. It should be kept in mind that the highest absolute figure in the following table is 85.
More than a third of the reasons given refer to the poor quality of the jam, the other most frequent reason being that the housewife prefers to make her own jam.
Table 4
Why did you not take your full jam ration?
A few quotations will give the table a fuller meaning:-
“I prefer meat pastes to jam”.
“It’s all rubbish now - we like blackcurrant or marmalade”.
“Because I like syrup better.”
“Once or twice I missed it because shop hadn’t marmalade, when I called again they hadn’t Blackwell jam, and in last week of period I forgot to look again”.
“Took sugar instead for jam-making”.
“Not needed, use own make at present, like it better”.
“Don’t like jam much, if I could take the ration in marmalade, it would be different”.
1.4 Amount of sugar taken instead of jam this summer, and amount of jam made
Two-thirds of the housewives took some or all of their ration in sugar instead of jam last summer.
About two-thirds of the housewives in the sample made some jam last summer, and more than a quarter preserved between 6 and 18 lbs. More housewives took sugar instead of jam than actually used it for making jam.
Table 6
How much jam were you able to make this summer?
| % | |
| None | 34 |
| Up to 6 lbs. | 24 |
| Over 6 lbs., up to 18 lbs. | 27 |
| Over 18 lbs. | 11 |
| Unspecified | 2 |
| Not answered | 2 |
| SAMPLE | 4398 |
Some of the housewives who preserved larger quantities had saved some of their sugar ration every week. Only a small percentage had taken the full amount of sugar available i.e. the normal ration plus the full jam ration in the form of sugar.
Table 7
Amount of sugar ration taken instead of jam
| % | |
| Full amount | 15 |
| Part | 76 |
| Not answered | 9 |
| No. taking sugar instead of jam | 3076 |
2. Hardship caused by cut in supplies
The majority of housewives think that a cut in supplies would cause them serious inconvenience.
Table 8
If there were less jam or marmalade available in the shops, would it cause you hardship?
| % | |
| Yes | 79 |
| No | 19 |
| No answer | 2 |
| SAMPLE | 4398 |
The following are typical reasons as to why a cut in supplies would cause hardship: -
“Would cause hardship - jam is the only fill-up for breakfast and tea for the children.”
“Yes, children would feel it - make their evening meal of jam; they won’t eat paste or potted meat.”
“We never have enough to take us through the month, I think we need more sweet things.”
“We don’t like bread and margarine.”
“Yes, I like jam in preference to most things now. I can’t get meat for sandwiches, it ekes out.”
“Because no cakes - I like one good sweet.”
“We must have something on bread, and the margarine does not always last out, and I have to make sandwiches.”
“Children will drink tea without sugar if they have jam.”
“A great hardship - the family asks for more.”
The numerical distribution of these reasons is shown in the following table:-
GROUP DIFFERENCES
Group differences are not very great.
Some regional and class differences occurred in the frequency with which jam is served.
Regional differences
1.2. Scotland differs from the other regions in that it has the greatest number of housewives serving jam for tea and the smallest number who use it for cooking. In London, a smaller number have jam on the tea table than in any other region, and also relatively few use it as a spread for packed meals. In the Eastern region, jam is taken least often at breakfast, but used most often for cooking.
Table 10
How many days last week did you put jam on the breakfast table?
Class differences
1.2 The upper income groups serve jam more often for breakfast, and also use it slightly more often for cooking, but less often for packed meals (simply because fewer packed meals are taken in these groups). There are no differences between income groups with regard to the serving of jam at teatime.
Table 13
How many days last week did you serve jam for tea or evening meal?
| A & B | C & D | |
| % | % | |
| Up to 3 days | 14 | 19 |
| 4 - 6 days | 13 | 12 |
| 7 days | 55 | 55 |
| Don’t use it at this meal | 18 | 14 |
| SAMPLE | 1035 | 3261 |
Making of jam
1.4 This is the only other question in which group differences of any significance were found.
Housewives in rural areas and those who do not go out to work preserve more jam than the corresponding groups.