This amusing guide on the correct way to boil vegetables in times of austerity features alongside a host of other handy wartime shorts on the BFI's latest DVD collection Ration Books and Rabbit Pies: Films from the Home Front, available to preorder now. http://shop.bfi.org.uk/rationbooksa...

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This intriguing title is essential viewing for cooks everywhere, especially in times of austerity. The two cooks, Sally and Jane, are called upon to assist their forthright, nononsense northern Grandmother (Mrs Ingleton) in cooking dinner. The girls are sent to find a large cabbage from the wartime garden and cut it in half: a whole cabbage would be frivolous; there is a war on!

Sally and Jane choose different cooking techniques but the message is simple: never boil green vegetables in vast quantities of water. I wish my mother had seen this film. (Sharon Messenger)

All titles on the BFI Films channel are preserved in the vast collections of the BFI National Archive. To find out more about the Archive visit http://www.bfi.org.uk/archivecollect...