A History of the Ministry of Information, 1939-46
SECTION II
PREPARED DESSERTS
This part of the investigation was intended to collect information on the following points:-
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(1) The number of housewives who serve prepared desserts. The frequency with which custard powder, blancmange, junket, and dishes in which cornflour is used, are served.
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(2) The comparative numbers of housewives serving these foods more and less frequently during the last few years than they used to, and the reasons for these changes.
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(3) The extent to which a cut-down in the supply of these foods would seriously inconvenience housewives’ catering arrangements.
In the pilot investigation a number of housewives mentioned that they missed jellies very badly. In order to find out how badly housewives miss them, the following question was added:-
Is there any ready-made dessert which is now not on the market and which you would like to have?
Summary of Results
Prepared desserts are used by 94% of the housewives in the sample, custard powder by 92%, blancmange by 66%, junket by 29% and cornflour for other dishes by 59%.
The majority of those who serve custard powder do so regularly. The other cornflour foods are, in the great majority of cases, only used occasionally.
No considerable group differences exist in the use of these foods. Custard powder and blancmange are used more by households with children. More Urban housewives and those in the upper income groups serve prepared desserts than country-dwellers and poorer women.
The smallest number of housewives making use of these dishes is to be found in the Eastern region. In Scotland, custard, blancmange and junket are less frequently served than in other regions, but cornflour generally is more often used than anywhere else.
The three prepared desserts and cornflour are less frequently served now than they were a few years ago.
Two main reasons are almost equally responsible for this decrease - lack of supplies, and lack of the necessary ingredients, sugar and milk.
A reduction in the supplies of custard would seriously inconvenience 62% of the sample, of blancmange 26%, of junket 8% and of cornflour 29%.
1.1. Number of housewives serving prepared desserts
These are served by the overwhelming majority of housewives.
1.2 Frequency with which prepared desserts are served
Of the three kinds of prepared desserts investigated, custard is regularly used by two-thirds of housewives; and less frequently by another quarter; blancmange and junket, though at one time or another served by respectively two-thirds and a quarter of the sample, are only occasionally used by the majority of the purchasers.
More than half use cornflour, but again with less frequency in most cases than custard.
Table 2
How often do you serve custard powder, blancmange, junket and other dishes made from cornflour?
2.1 Increase and decrease in serving of prepared desserts
There has been a decrease in the serving of all these desserts. There has not been a considerable decrease in the use of custard powder, but blancmange and junket are now used considerably less than formerly.
Table 3
Do you serve desserts more often, less often or the same as you used to?
2.2 If prepared desserts are served less often, what are the reasons?
The reasons for serving less often now are of two main types - the particular dessert is unobtainable in shops, or the housewife has not the ingredients (mainly sugar and milk) with which to prepare the dish.
The first is the principal reason in the case of blancmange and “cornflour in other dishes”, the second with custard powder and junket.
Table 4
| Custard Powder | Blancmange | Junket | Cornflour | |
| % | % | % | % | |
| Not available in shops | 46 | 65 | 46 | 67 |
| Lack of necessary ingredients | 58 | 38 | 56 | 35 |
| Not answered | 1 | 1 | 3 | 1 |
| TOTAL USERS | 1270 | 1533 | 610 | 1311 |
3.1 Hardship caused by a possible cut in supplies.
Any cut in the supplies of custard powder would be a considerable blow to housewives. On the other hand, few would miss junket. About a quarter of the sample said they would be considerably inconvenienced if blancmange and cornflour could not be easily obtained.
Table 5
Would it cause you hardship ?
| Custard Powder | Blancmange | Junket | Cornflour | |
| % | % | % | % | |
| Yes | 62 | 26 | 8 | 29 |
| No | 30 | 40 | 21 | 29 |
| N.A., & does not serve particular kind | 2 | 28 | 65 | 36 |
| Never served prepared desserts | 6 | 6 | 6 | 6 |
| SAMPLE | 4398 | 4398 | 4398 | 4398 |
The numerical distribution of reasons given as to why hardship would be experienced is as follows:-
Table 6
Reasons for hardship caused by cut in supplies
| % | |
| Replaces other foods | 25 |
| Always use it with fruit | 22 |
| Needed for children, invalids | 21 |
| Nothing to replace it | 5 |
| Easy to make, saves time | 4 |
| SAMPLE | 4398 |
A few quotations will help to throw light on the meaning of the table, by enlarging on the reasons given above:-
“Accustomed to have custard with every sort of sweets.”
“Child likes them, and very good food for them.”
“Need them in wartime when we have no other things.”
“Helps pudding down; the goodness is helped in the pudding by the custard. Makes the pudding much more palatable, especially when we have no fruit.”
“Useful for quick puddings, easy and simple to make.”
“There is little enough change of food as it is, and custard helps out very much.”
“Always have custard for tea on Sundays.”
“Junket nourishing for old people.”
3.2 Which of the foods mentioned is the most, and which is the least important to you ?
In order to check up on the hardship question each housewife was asked which of the foods discussed was the most important to her. The order of their importance shows the same tendency as in the hardship question. Custard powder is the most, and junket the least important of the prepared desserts.
Table 7
| Very Important | Not so Important | |
| % | % | |
| Custard Powder | 73 | 3 |
| Blancmange | 6 | 16 |
| Junket | 1 | 56 |
| Cornflour | 14 | 17 |
| SAMPLE | 4398 | 4398 |
4. Subsidiary Information
4.1 Is there any ready-made dessert not now on the market, which you would like to have ?
The purpose of this question was, as already mentioned, to find out to what extent people are missing jellies. It was not easy to formulate an appropriate question. If the word “jellies” were actually mentioned in the question, it would have immediately biassed the answer, and it was therefore omitted. Unfortunately, it turned out that this omission produced a bias in the opposite direction, as many people did not think of jelly as being in the category of foods they had been discussing.
The analysis of the answers to this question is given in the following table, and should be treated with reserve.
Table 8
Is there any ready-made product not on the market which you would like to have ?
| % | |
| Custard Powder | 4 |
| Cornflour | 5 |
| Rice Cremola | 1 |
| Blancmange | 5 |
| Jellies | 19 |
| None wanted | 49 |
| Not answered | 15 |
| Never use prepared desserts | 6 |
| SAMPLE | 4398 |
Housewives who mention custard powder, blancmange, etc. here are those who were not able to obtain these foods in their own shops recently.
GROUP DIFFERENCES
Any group differences which exist are far too small to allow of any practical decisions being based on them, but those which are statistically significant, though small, are shown in the following tables.
Regional differences
1. The serving of prepared desserts
The smallest number of housewives who serve prepared desserts is to be found in the Eastern region, and after that Scotland and the North. The highest percentage serving these dishes is in the South (98%). This trend is more or less the same for the three different kinds of prepared desserts, but is more marked in the case of custard than for the other two, because the absolute figures are bigger.
Cornflour in “other dishes” is much more used in Scotland than anywhere else.
Table 9
1.1 Prepared desserts served
| North | East | Midlands | London | South | Scotland | |
| % | % | % | % | % | % | |
| Yes | 93 | 83 | 96 | 97 | 98 | 90 |
| No | 7 | 17 | 4 | 3 | 2 | 10 |
| SAMPLE | 1368 | 410 | 975 | 601 | 615 | 429 |
Table 10
1.2 Frequency with which prepared desserts are served
Opinion as to which of the prepared desserts and cornflour is the most or least important varies throughout the regions according to the extent to which these foods are actually used.
Table 11
3.2 Which of the foods mentioned is the most, and which the least important to you?
Class differences
Differences are so slight that only the table showing the percentage of housewives serving prepared desserts in general are given here. Further breakdowns did not reveal any significant differences.
1. The serving of prepared desserts
Differences between families with and without children
Breakdowns by number in family, age and number of children show the same trends, as is to be expected, the same factors being responsible for the differences. To simplify the presentation of these results, only the breakdown showing households with children of various ages is given.
Families with children serve more prepared desserts. Many more mothers serve custard powder and blancmange regularly than do housewives without children, but this difference does not exist in the case of junket and cornflour used for other dishes; the same tendencies occur in connection with whether or not a cut in supplies would cause hardship, more mothers saying that it would in the case of custard powder and blancmange.
Table 13
1. The serving of prepared desserts
| With children under 3 yrs. | With children 3-14 yrs. | Without children | |
| % | % | % | |
| Yes | 96 | 95 | 92 |
| No | 4 | 5 | 8 |
| SAMPLE | 793 | 1307 | 2298 |