Depression Era Meals

[dhermann1]

Here's an interesting article from a blog about Depression era eating habits.
http://thesurvivalmom.com/2011/12/29/could-you-stomach-these-great-depression-meals/

 

[LizzieMaine]

I recognize a lot of those -- we used to dig dandelion greens out of the backyard all the time, and I hated them -- bitter, bitter, bitter. I used to take mustard sandwiches to school all the time, after a breakfast of cornmeal mush, and I'm eating an American Cheese sandwich right now. And if you count a deer hit by a truck as "road kill," I've had that, too.

 

[Retro_GI_Jane]

There's a lot on that list that we ate growing up in the early 80s. I still love fried bologna sandwiches and we always thought it was a treat to have hot milk poured on rice; my mother would add a little sugar and cinnamon to it to sweeten it up. While we didn't eat easy over egg sandwiches, we did have fried egg sandwiches too. Might have to whip some up as a snack this weekend now that I'm thinking about it!

 

[Stanley Doble]

In one of the Dead End Kids movies from the thirties the gang is planning some kind of shenanigans. One of the members begs off, which gets him the fish eye from the gang, until he explains "tonight we're having meat for supper" which makes it OK. Everyone agrees you can't miss a treat like that.

They left a few off that list like salmon patties made of canned salmon mixed with egg and fried. In those days canned salmon was one of the cheapest sources of protein. You can also mix leftover boiled potatoes, chopped onions and eggs and fry them.

Home made soup, vegetable soup in summer, or barley soup with a beef bone, or bean soup with a ham bone. Whatever was available cheap.

Mother grew up on a farm and she learned young that there is always enough to go around but never enough to waste. We ate a lot of oatmeal for breakfast but we got a lot of home made apple pies too.

 

[Stanley Doble]

Home made rice pudding made with milk, eggs, brown sugar and nutmeg. A treat. Nothing like the so called rice pudding you buy today.

You can make a meat loaf of ground beef stretched out with oatmeal or cracker crumbs. Savory spices and topped with tomato soup. Serve with mashed potatoes and green beans fresh out of the garden mmmm yummy. Feed the whole family with a pound of cheap meat and enough left over for lunch sandwiches next day.

Baked macaroni and cheese with lots of milk and cheddar cheese. Another cheap dish I wish I had some of right now.

Where did they get all those lousy recipes for things like oatmeal and lard? Who the hell ever heard of that? Sounds like something they would whip up in the Bible and pelagra country down south.

Butter and grits with milk and sugar, ridiculous. You can eat grits with milk and sugar like a hot cereal or Southern style with butter and salt but not both at the same time.

Who wrote this anyway.

 

[Connery]

fried bologna sandwiches

Every time I read or hear this I think of my father. Thank you!

 

[Stanley Doble]

Dandelion greens are only good in the spring when they are young and tender. They are not bitter then. When they get old and tough they are awful.

 

[Yeps]

Milk toast

Not sure what this is.

Chipped beef on toast

Oh the joys of S.O.S. Makes me miss Boy Scout camp.

Cucumber and mustard sandwiches

Delicious.

Mayonnaise sandwiches

My dad loves these (maybe with an onion on them, or a pickle). Not really my taste.

Ketchup sandwiches

Meh. I can understand the appeal, but I would rather eat plain bread (as my Granpa called it a "Jam sandwich" take two pieces of bread and jam them together)

Hot milk and rice

This sounds great.

Turtle/tortoise

Again, very good eating.

Gopher

Can't imagine why this would be a problem.

Potato soup – water base, not milk

Okay, this does not appeal to me, but you make do.

Dandelion salad

This is more expensive in restaurants than regular lettuce.

Lard sandwiches

Have you ever heard of Lardo? Like prosciutto but just the fat. Fantastic, especially when it is winter and you need the extra calories to keep warm.

Bacon grease sandwiches

Sounds delicious.

Sugar sandwiches

Can't imagine that these were very satisfying, but I bet kids liked them.

Hot dogs and baked beans

Why is this under weird foods of the depression?

Road kill

Depends if the meat spoiled when it got hit.

One eyed Sam – piece of bread with an easy over egg in the center

Again, this is normal food, if not downright special.

Oatmeal mixed with lard

Sounds reasonable. I normally put a bunch of butter in my oats, can't imagine lard would be unwelcome.

Fried potatoes and hot dogs

Ballpark?

Onion sandwich – slices of onion between bread

Another favorite of my dad.

Tomato gravy and biscuits

Not sure what tomato gravy is, but this sounds good to me.

Deep fried chicken skin

Huzzah for just the best part of fried chicken.

Cornbread in milk

Also sounds delicious

Gravy and bread – as a main dish

Who is complaining about this one? I don't get it often, and I really like it.

Toast with mashed potatoes on top with gravy

This is also great. Who wrote this article and what do they eat everyday that makes this stuff sound so repulsive to them?

Creamed corn on toast

Not bad, not my favorite either.

Corn mush with milk for breakfast, fried corn mush for dinner

An American tradition. It sounds better if you call it Grits and Johnny Cakes.

Squirrel

Why do we think these are not edible?

Rice in milk with some sugar

Pudding....

Beans

Poor people food the world over. Also, very tasty and filling.

Fried potato peel sandwiches

I might try this when I move back to my apartment.

Banana slices with powdered sugar and milk

This sounds positively luxurious.

Boiled cabbage

Meh. I have it for St. Paddy's, but I can't imagine it as a whole meal.

Hamburger mixed with oatmeal

Why not?

American cheese sandwich, ‘American’ cheese was invented because it was cheap to make, and didn’t require refrigeration that may or may not exist back then.

Perennial cafeteria favorite

Tomato gravy on rice
Toast with milk gravy

Not sure what either of these are, but they sound fine.

Water fried pancakes

What does water fried mean? I think they end up kinda steamed. Sound interesting.

Chicken feet in broth

So, so delicious.

Fried bologna

This is depression food?

Warm canned tomatoes with bread

Not a bad idea.

Butter and sugar sandwiches

This sounds better than the sugar sandwiches.

Fried potato and bread cubes

Fantastic idea.

Bean soup

How is this abnormal? Do people not eat real food anymore?

Runny eggs with grits

An absolute favorite. Runny eggs (just the yokes runny) make most bland things so much better.

Butter and grits with sugar and milk

Now they are just talking about Southern food.

Baked apples

Again, I am not convinced this person has a kitchen.

Sliced boiled pork liver on buttered toast (slice liver with potato peeler)

Gotta try this. Sounds amazing.

Corn meal mush

Didn't we already say corn much/grits/polenta?

Spaghetti with tomato juice and navy beans

Meh, this one I could pass up, but I wouldn't turn down.

Whatever fish or game you could catch/hunt

Well duh.

Tomato sandwiches

Ever had a homegrown tomato on homemade bread? I challenge you to find something better.

Hard boiled eggs in white sauce over rice

Seems reasonable enough.

Spam and noodles with cream of mushroom soup

College food.

Rag soup: spinach, broth and lots of macaroni

If it has broth and pasta, I am in. Spinach for vitamins.

Garbanzo beans fried in chicken fat or lard, salted, and eaten cold

It is always good to have cold meals available.

Popcorn with milk and sugar – ate it like cereal

This sounds fantastic, and significantly better than most breakfast cereals. All it all, I like this list, and might start using it as a guideline for eating cheap at my apartment.

 

[dhermann1]

A lot of these things are merely traditional poor folks' food, and some are just popular rural foods. My brother grew up making himself a couple of slices of fried mush PLUS eggs for breakfast every day, about twice as much food as I could pack away, even tho he was skinny as a rail.

 

[Stanley Doble]

Milk toast, you put a slice of toast in a soup plate and pour on some hot milk and sprinkle with brown sugar. They used to eat this instead of cereal. It was considered a suitable food for children invalids or those with bad digestion.

Slice of bread and butter sprinkled with sugar, called "a piece" was something mom would give a kid for an after school snack or a between meal treat. The deluxe version was made of buttered toast with brown sugar and cinammon.

Yeps and dhermann are right this kind of thing used to be common fare for poor people around the world but the author obviously knows nothing about cooking.

Given the things on that list, like milk sugar potatoes canned tomatoes lard beans spinach etc etc a lot of old time moms would consider their kitchens well fixed, and would create some meals that would make your eyes dance and your stomach happy.

 

[LizzieMaine]

There's a certain class of people today who think food has to be "high end" to be proper food, the sort of people who won't eat anything without a pretentious ethnic pedigree or the imprimatur of a Celebrity Chef. These are the sort of people who wouldn't have lasted five minutes in the Depression.

My daydream is to have a house full of such types and feed them on nothing but Spam and Veg-All until they see the error of their ways.

Getting back to the original list, where are the offal meats? One of my favorite lunches as a kid was beef hearts -- tasty, hearty (so to speak), and fortifying. And we made many a supper on fried tripe.

 

[Feraud]

There's a certain class of people today who think food has to be "high end" to be proper food, the sort of people who won't eat anything without a pretentious ethnic pedigree or the imprimatur of a Celebrity Chef. These are the sort of people who wouldn't have lasted five minutes in the Depression.

I had a guy try and insult me by calling me entitled because I stated what our neighborhood needed was an old fashioned diner as opposed to a froufrou place that no one in the neighborhood will patronize. I told him to get a dictionary and learn the meaning of the word entitled before using it...:eusa_doh:

 

[Stanley Doble]

They forgot to mention dripping toast, an English treat especially popular in the north.

You save the dripping off the Sunday joint by pouring the contents of the roasting pan into a cup. This gives you a cup of grease on top of a rich gravy like jelly.

To make dripping toast you spread the dripping on toast as if it was butter.

You can also make fried bread by frying bits of bread in the dripping grease.

Used to be very popular among the working class when they could afford meat. Today eating bread and grease would be frowned upon but no worse for you that what they sell in fast food places.

From Biggles 1919

Biggles - Why don't we ever have dripping toast?

Valet - 'Ow can you 'ave dripping when you never 'ave joints?

 

[Yeps]

a pretentious ethnic pedigree

This is a bit ironic, as a great many of the "pretentious ethnic" dishes are simply foreign versions of these same things. Dal bhat: Rice and Lentils. Polenta: grits. Most fancy French cooking: offal and other poor people food that the rich people noticed was really good.

Getting back to the original list, where are the offal meats? One of my favorite lunches as a kid was beef hearts -- tasty, hearty (so to speak), and fortifying. And we made many a supper on fried tripe.

I agree wholeheartedly.

 

[LizzieMaine]

We used to make fried bread all the time -- we'd compress slices of white bread into dice-sized cubes and fry them up in the bacon fat. Better than toast, and when you ate it, you knew you'd eaten.

We also fried our eggs in the leftover bacon fat -- sometimes there'd still be chunks of bacon left in the pan that made the eggs even tastier.

The very first thing I remember cooking for myself was Cheese Dogs -- you take some hot dogs, slit them lengthwise, lay slices of American cheese in the slit, and brown them in the oven until the cheese is crispy. A real treat served with B&M Beans. (I bet if you called this "Chein-Chaud et Fromage" you could sell it for $20 a plate to tourists and make a killing.)

 

[Stanley Doble]

This is a bit ironic, as a great many of the "pretentious ethnic" dishes are simply foreign versions of these same things. Dal bhat: Rice and Lentils. Polenta: grits. Most fancy French cooking: offal and other poor people food that the rich people noticed was really good.

I agree wholeheartedly.

Borscht with sour cream = beet broth and clabber.

 

[Flicka]

I think most of it sounds quite good, actually.

Randomly, as a kid I used to love when my mother made 'beetroot beefs' - sliced beetroot, covered in breadcrumbs and fried. Usually served with sliced fried onion and boiled potatoes. It's one of my great-grandmother's recipes from the war (she was a cook).

 

[fortworthgal]

I remember my aunts & uncles fixing milk poured over rice with sugar or cornbread. I always thought it sounded disgusting, but apparently it was quite popular where I grew up. They also did the popcorn in milk & sugar thing.

These are all totally normal/acceptable foods as far as I'm concerned:

Chipped beef on toast
One eyed Sam – piece of bread with an easy over egg in the center
Beans
American cheese sandwich (only acceptable on cheap white bread with mayo!)
Bean soup
Baked apples
Hard boiled eggs in white sauce over rice (my mom used to make this over toast)

I grew up quite poor, but we did have a large garden, so we ate lots of veggies. Another one I remember eating is canned jack mackerel with tomato sauce over toast. I still find myself craving that sometimes. I also remember eating "offal" meats, liver in particular stands out. My grandmother made the best liver & onions on earth.

 

[jessesgirl08]

MMMMMM i am so hungry now........hurry lunchtime

 

[RBH]

My grandmother used to make what she called pea sausage.
She would take leftover field peas from the day before and mash them. She would then add sage, salt and pepper and enough flour to make a patty. Then she would fry them till brown in bacon grease.
I remember she once told me that when meat was short [back in the day] on the farm that pea sausage would make do for them.
They were very good and I still sometimes make some for myself.