Golden era food.

[Jay]

Cant't say this is close but the other day my mom broke our coffee pot, so I went to look for a replacement in our cabinets and found my Uncles old perculator instead. That makes a better cup of coffee than anything I've ever seen. Can't say I enjoy the grounds left at the bottom of every cup, tho.

 

[Nathan Flowers]

Wow, that is quite a family history. You are fortunate to have been brought up in such a place, and to still be able to live there is even better.

 

[Big Man]

Yes, I am very fortunate to be able to have the family connections that I have, and I thank God every day for that blessing.

 

[green papaya]

I have some old issues of LIFE magazine from the early 1940's and one of the most popular meals back in 1941 was "fried chicken dinners"....roast chicken dinner was also very common, the old diners or cafes would use the left over roast chickens and make a dish called "chicken ala king" and serve it for lunch specials the next day.

chili con carne

spagetti dinners

fried catfish dinners & hush puppies

corned beef & hash

pickled pigs feet

coffee & donuts

were also common back in the 30's 40's

 

[Wild Root]

Wow, talk about a blast from the past! Good points on that last post! Chicken was very popular in those days! Same with cornbread!!! Oh home cook'n, YES!

Reminds me of an old Ink Spots song called "Pork chops and Gravy" Home cook'n, IN THE BAG!

When I want an old fashioned taste, I eat plane cake doughnuts. That was the typical doughnut with a little powdered sugar on top. Only once in a wile I enjoy this treat.

WR.

 

[Big Man]

Doughnuts and Fried Apple Pies

My Grandmother used to make doughnuts, as well as fried apple pies. For her fried pies, she would use dried apples that she made. When in season, she would collect the apples from her tree, cut them into slices about 1/2 inch thick, and dry them in the sun in the back yard on an old piece of roofing tin covered with a window screen (to keep the flies away). these were things she did all her life, and had learned from her mother. So, I guess, you can't get more "vintage" than that. One of the things that always struck me with my Grandmother was how she could do "more with less" and not seem like it was any trouble. It all seemed to come so natural, and was just how things were done.

 

[green papaya]

a sailor standing in front of a diner in Baltimore, MD circa 1943

 

[Laraquan]

Here's a nice set of recipes from the Great Depression allegedly handed down by mum.

http://www.geocities.com/NapaValley/1918/great.html

I think what I like best about vintage recipes is their simplicity. You go through most cook books these days and each recipe often has one or two rarely used ingredients. One must either buy in very small amounts or be very careful about the order of meals one cooks or else there will be a lot of waste.

I suppose that will always be an issue if a person wants to mix Greek, Italian, Spanish, Chinese, Indian and English recipes, because each culture has a different variety of staples. Unfortunately, it often turns out to be such a bother, particularly as many such meals often require over a dozen ingredients.

With vintage recipes, it is often easy to buy in bulk because there wasn't such a variety of ingredients used. At least, this has been my experience.

 

[Forgotten Man]

I love to eat meals prepared out of vintage recipe books. A friend of mine has a collection of old recipe books from the 20’s and 30’s… very interesting things in there… some things people wouldn’t think to try today… I’d try anything once, and who knows, I may like it.

That is one thing I love about the older generation’s recipes… simple, basic and easy. Nothing too fancy or too crazy. Also, basic ingredients, lots of natural stuff. I also am 100% against margarine, sugar substitutes and other “Modern” ingredients. Give me the real deal, it’s really better for you, if you eat in moderation. Real butter isn’t bad, but if you eat to much of it, it is.

The kind of food that was eaten mostly in middle class homes in those days is different then today because they cooked everything from scratch! Also, kids played more, they burned off the carbs they eat. Lots of jobs required manual labor back in those days and people needed a lot of carbs to get through the day.

I can’t wait till one day I’ll buy a period stove so I can prepare meals on it… also, I’ll have a period monitor top fridge… I don’t mind the lack of freezer space… I don’t want any microwave bologna in my house! Fresh, natural, home cooked meals… Mmmmm, that’s for me!

Forgotten Man~

 

[Laraquan]

I also am 100% against margarine, sugar substitutes and other “Modern” ingredients. Give me the real deal, it’s really better for you, if you eat in moderation. Real butter isn’t bad, but if you eat to much of it, it is.

Forgotten Man~

Hehe, steer clear from the WW2 ration recipes from the British Home Front then ... unless you're real keen on dried eggs, sometimes reconstituted, sometimes not, which at least I don't believe counts as the real deal! And a lot of those recipes do call for margarine.

 

[Josephine]

I can’t wait till one day I’ll buy a period stove so I can prepare meals on it…

My aunt had a gas period stove (think the one that they had in A Christmas Story) and she finally had to put it in the finished basement as it was next to the refrigerator 'cause the heat from the lack of insulation of it warped the fridge...

 

[BlancheDubois]

This 91 year old lady has as least 12 videos on YouTube demonstrating Depression Era cooking and talking about her experiences during The Great Depression.

http://www.youtube.com/profile?user=DepressionCooking&view=videos

 

[fashion frank]

This 91 year old lady has as least 12 videos on YouTube demonstrating Depression Era cooking and talking about her experiences during The Great Depression.

http://www.youtube.com/profile?user=DepressionCooking&view=videos

Man I'm glad I ran across this Thread what a wonderful woman.

All the Best ,Fashion Frank

 

[jamespowers]

Man I'm glad I ran across this Thread what a wonderful woman.

All the Best ,Fashion Frank

And twice baked potatoes! :clap:

 

[CONELRAD]

Good Things to Eat From Out of the Air

"136 tested radio recipes"



Written by Winifred S. Carter and published by the Procter & Gamble Co. in 1932. Includes an introduction telling us all about Crisco and how "Crisco fried foods are digestible", and just about every recipe contains it. The bottom of every page has a blurb with a radio star telling us their favorite recipe.

 

[Fading Fast]

Conelrad,

Wonderful graphics of the radio towers.

 

[fashion frank]

"136 tested radio recipes"

View attachment 31550

Written by Winifred S. Carter and published by the Procter & Gamble Co. in 1932. Includes an introduction telling us all about Crisco and how "Crisco fried foods are digestible", and just about every recipe contains it. The bottom of every page has blurb with a radio star telling us their favorite recipe.

Boy how things have changed , Crisco is digestible hu ???
Stumbling across this Thread was great though ,that woman was awesome R.I.P.

All the Best,Fashion Frank

 

[Inkstainedwretch]

Someone downthread mentioned the power of the dairy industry. When I was a boy in south Texas in the early 50s cafes served individual pats of butter or marjarine on paper squares. By law, butter pats were square, while marjarine pats were triangular. I don't know if the law was the same in other states, but the dairy producers there didn't want you to mistake marjarine for their product.

My mother's family were from south Texas dating back to the Republic, but my father's were dustbowl Okies who fled south instead of west like the Joads. To the end of his days he would occasionally make himself a mayonnaise sandwich - just a layer of mayo between two pieces of white bread. It always set my teeth on edge, but it was a Depression staple, when meat and cheese were hard to come by.

 

[Fading Fast]

Someone downthread mentioned the power of the dairy industry. When I was a boy in south Texas in the early 50s cafes served individual pats of butter or marjarine on paper squares. By law, butter pats were square, while marjarine pats were triangular. I don't know if the law was the same in other states, but the dairy producers there didn't want you to mistake marjarine for their product.

My mother's family were from south Texas dating back to the Republic, but my father's were dustbowl Okies who fled south instead of west like the Joads. To the end of his days he would occasionally make himself a mayonnaise sandwich - just a layer of mayo between two pieces of white bread. It always set my teeth on edge, but it was a Depression staple, when meat and cheese were hard to come by.

My Dad called mayo sandwiches - which he had eaten in the Depression - shadow sandwiches, which, broadly, meant any sandwich without meat or cheese or an egg, etc. While we were far, far from rich growing up in the '60s, we always had enough food (my Dad grumbled about the bills, but we always had food in the house) and I remember thinking how horrible it would be to have to - not choose to - eat a sandwich with just mayo or ketchup on it. We've talked about it elsewhere on this Forum recently, but for many kids of my generation (born in the '60s to parents who had lived through the Depression), the Depression was not history at all but - in many cases - the narrative that framed our upbringing and outlook on life.

As to the butter / margarine thing - I know today and I'm pretty sure as a kid growing up in the NY/NJ region, both butter and margarine came in squares (and, now, those horrible teeny, tiny plastic thimbles) at restaurants. That said, as a big fan of butter, I can't image anyone mistaking one for the other once they've tasted it. But I understand how dairy producers wanted to protect and distinguish their product.

 

[tonyb]

In my early years in Wisconsin the sale of margarine that resembled butter was banned by law. No kiddin'. It was flat-out illegal. We got what we called oleo, which came in a sealed plastic pouch. The stuff was white and had a red dot in the middle which, when you smooshed it all around, turned the white oleo a butter-like shade of yellow.

Relatives traveling down to Illinois would take orders for "real" margarine and bring it back with them.