Tasting the Maltese bread that helped win the war

Abstract

On the 75th anniversary of the end of the Second World War the Institute of Tourism Studies conducted an experiment to recreate the traditional Maltese loaf of bread – the ħobża – according to wartime recipes . The nearest Malta came to surrendering to the enemy, in the summer of 1942, was not because of the threat of invasion but the result of the tightening of the siege that blocked vital food and military supplies from reaching the island-garrison. Re-creating and tasting the bread baked according to wartime conditions re-opened a chapter on one of the cataclysmic events in Maltese history.