Depression-era meals or recipes wanted

[Krodor]

How to Cook a Wolf, by MFK Fisher. Good place to start.

 

[Buster]

I made fried potatoes and hotdogs not long ago. A friend gave me a couple jars of homemade chow chow that complimented it nicely.

My grandma told me she made biscuits and gravy for breakfast and beans and corn bread for dinner every week night during that time.

 

[CallMeNugget]

I made fried potatoes and hotdogs not long ago. A friend gave me a couple jars of homemade chow chow that complimented it nicely.

What is chow chow?

 

[Mick]

Cold bean sandwiches.

Peanutbutter and banana sandwich.

 

[Buster]

What is chow chow?

It’s a kind of pickle relish. Lots of versions out there. Some made with green tomatoes or cabbage as the base vegetable. In the south it’s usually sweet. Served on hot dogs, hamburgers or beans. Or whatever you would use pickle relish on or in. It reminds me of grandma.

Chow-chow (food) - Wikipedia

 

[martym]

Last week at mom and dad’s I had cornbread crumbled into a mason jar and filled with ice cold buttermilk.
Heaven in a jar!

When I was little we had lots of bean tacos.

 

[EL Alamein]

Thanks for then suggestion of Clara's videos. I enjoyed them immensely.

Talked with my 83 year old mother today about them and she's interested in seeing them. It stirred up a lot of memories for her.

Chris

 

[kelbro]

When I was little we had lots of bean tacos.

Same here. By the end of the week, I think there was more lard than beans in the pot LOL!

 

[Mr. Bonney]

I was recently searching for a no-egg chocolate cake recipe that I remembered as a child, and came across many "depression" cakes, also known as wacky cake and crazy cake.
Seems like the name came from the fact that you mixed all the dry ingredients in the bowl, and made 3 small depressions in the mix to hold the liquid ingredients prior to mixing. Then I stumbled upon that it was called "depression cake" because it was invented during the Great Depression! Didn't use eggs, dairy, or butter - all of which were hard to come by and expensive during that time. Makes sense to me.

Do an internet search for wacky cake - there are alot of variations.

 

[Mecator]

I made fried potatoes and hotdogs not long ago

Fried potatoes and hot dogs were a treat when I was a kid. We still have them several times a year. My father told me that when he was a kid they would have potato peal soup, and the peels did not have much potato. The soup was made with potato water and a piece of speck.

 

[kelbro]

Have you ever heard of a wish sandwich? A wish sandwich is the kind of a
sandwich where you have two slices of bread and you, hee hee hee, wish you
had some meat...
Bow bow bow...

'Blues Brothers - Rubber Biscuit'

 

[DoctorShavegood]

Last week at mom and dad’s I had cornbread crumbled into a mason jar and filled with ice cold buttermilk.
Heaven in a jar!

When I was little we had lots of bean tacos.

Yes we did. Corn tortillas slathered with butter and refried beans. Hot sauce was too expensive.

 

[OldSchoolYoungin]

This thread makes me even more thankful for what we have access to today. We're now way overfed as a nation and produce way too much food, but I suppose it's better than the opposite.

 

[oc_in_fw]

What is chow chow?

It’s a kind of pickle relish. Lots of versions out there. Some made with green tomatoes or cabbage as the base vegetable. In the south it’s usually sweet. Served on hot dogs, hamburgers or beans. Or whatever you would use pickle relish on or in. It reminds me of grandma.

Chow-chow (food) - Wikipedia

The greatest thing ever- Buster posted a good link.

 

[VerbaVolant]

Meat was a priveledge. only once and a while, we always ate good, just not expensive.
I do remember boning out pork shoulders at like under .50 cents lb. and then hand grinding it, making broth from the bones and hand cranking kielbasi and italian sausages. Ha, casing could find in any store, now good luck.
so kielbasi and cabbage, tomato from garden , made sauce for spagetti and sausage when we could afford it.
everything was stretched.
Being polish, made stuffed cabbage, added a lot of rice to stretched the burger
Pierogis, some cheese some potato..
Beet soup\
Cabbage soup , add smoked pork hock, head of household had the hock, rest had soup
of course chicken soup
Lard on toast
everything was home made. nothing frozen,
zuchini bread, real cheap desert.
Hell we made our own soap with leftover fat.
I still have some old cook books and pressure cooking cook books to preserve foods,, most ppl wont touch
whats in there in todays world.
CHicken caccitore(sp) , from carcases made soup . cut up chicken for the meal.
Ratatouille,, tomatoes zuchini , eggplant. sauce
egg plant parmesian, to cut out meat..
Canned stuff, I would find apple trees, pear trees, peach trees that were underpicked. Got the leftover for free,
canned applesauce, pears, peaches,
There are lots of cuts and lots of ways to stretch food if one has to.

My childhood. Exactly. I will never forget.

 

[oldtree]

youtube has a gramma from the era that is posting videos of what they use to eat when times are hard

 

[Bad Badger]

I remember my Grandmother putting 1 slice of cheese on a piece of bread, then pouring some beans on top. She would put it in the oven just to heat up. It really doesn't sound good, but I have fond memories of eating it with her.

 

[Acmemfg]

More Depression era recipes in this book than anyone will ever need.

 

[John Rose]

Then there are those poor people on the East coast (of North America) who could not afford to eat anything better than lobster.

Have you ever heard of a wish sandwich? A wish sandwich is the kind of a
sandwich where you have two slices of bread and you, hee hee hee, wish you
had some meat...

Ah. Sounds like a "Jam Sandwich".
Take two pieces of bread and jam them together.

Another source of low-budget recipes can be found in a Victory Cookbook, published during WWII, during rationing.
Victory Cook Book | Wartime Canada
or
Victory Cook Book Lysol 1943 : Lehn & Fink Products : Free Download, Borrow, and Streaming : Internet Archive