Great Depression Cooking

[Caleb Moore]

Greetings all,

My girlfriend shared a discovery with me that I'd like to pass along. I couldn't find a mention of the site after doing a search, so here is Clara and her Great Depression Cooking show.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DuMkW35BwK8&feature=channel

www.greatdepressioncooking.com

I think she'd adorable and have a blast watching her shows.
Hope you enjoy them.

- Caleb

 

[Paisley]

I'm pretty sure this show was mentioned in a thread in the OB on 1930s cookbook portion sizes.

There's also a thread on the Ration Book Diet you might be interested in.

 

[Caleb Moore]

Ah, thank you very much, Paisley. I must have missed that.

I'm off to whip up some baloney pie, now. Take care...

 

[PS]

I love this little show.
Soon after watching the Poor Mans Meal, I had to whip it. My husband acted like it was some sort of gruel. My youngest, (5) who eats NOTHING that does't come from a cereal or cracker box devoured his. I made it with some left over ground beef, as I didn't have any hot dogs. With Autism, I don't usually force food on him and just let him be and but this also means that he is rather steadfast in his ways but comes along in his own time and Clara has given me a great gift!

Also I am on the look out for the HUGE basin/bowl she uses in the bread show..anyone have tips on where to find one, what size would that be? Local resale didn't have any.

 

[Foofoogal]

I so want to go in her kitchen and sit with her and drink some coffee.

 

["Skeet" McD]

Great Stuff....but remember: Clara is authentic but atypical....

Perhaps this is only because it's so obvious no one has thought (on YouTube or here) to mention it....but.....

Clara is a wonderful and very valuable window into her own experience of the Depression...but she is preserving a very ITALIAN view of the Depression. If you're interested in the Italian-American or Italian immigrant experience of those times, this is dead on for you. For the rest of us....use with caution and understanding, except in generalities.

For what it's worth, here's the text I wrote to accompany the Depression-era food I served at our vintage Skeet shoots:

Until the middle of the 19th Century, the few cookbooks that were printed were largely aimed at the rich (or more properly, at their servants). But as cookbooks became a consumer item they began to mirror the needs of the American people at large. Wartimes brought recipes that took rationing into account; "Hard Times" (the older term for what we today would call a depression) brought recipes that made the most of the least.

During the Great Depression, almost everybody needed to economize. The new immigrant populations may have had an easier time of it: in the old country, they were used to a diet heavy on starches and vegetables and short on meat. A big pot of pasta with a little gravy; a big pot of cabbage with a little schmaltz; a bit pot of potatoes with a little bacon: it was just like home. For native-born Americans, however, the land of "A Chicken in Every Pot" suddenly...wasn't.

It was meat that cost the most, so Depression-era recipes tried to make a little of it stretch as far as possible; that way, everyone got a taste. Casseroles and ground meat came into their own. Interestingly, even "luxury" items like cakes were revised to include fewer or no eggs and the like. The food here is all documented to the Depression. Clean your plate! Remember: there are children starving in Armenia!

For what it's worth, these are the books I found most helpful, not only for the recipes they contain, but for the first-person accounts of their experiences provided by the informants. Most of these informants are middle-western and rural, by the way, although from a broad spectrum of the country:

RECIPES AND REMEBRANCES OF THE GREAT DEPRESSION by Emily Thacker
This was the most informative, IMHO
http://www.amazon.com/Recipes-remembrances-Great-Depression-Thacker/dp/188394404X

STORIES AND RECIPES OF THE GREAT DEPRESSION OF THE 1930's by Rita van Amber Paske
This is also very good; for my money, these two will do you!
http://www.amazon.com/Stories-Recipes-Great-Depression-Kitchen/dp/0961966319/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1237991572&sr=1-1

DEPRESSION ERA RECIPES by Patricia R. Wagner
For my money, not as successful...but has some good recipes
http://www.amazon.com/Depression-Era-Recipes-P-Wagner/dp/0934860556/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1237991672&sr=1-1

"Skeet"