Depression-era food...

[PALADIN85020]

I thought you might be interested in the food our not-long-ago ancestors settled for when food was scarce and the budget for it was slim. Count yourselves lucky that you are living now and not then... My parents lived through the Great Depression, and until they died they figured out ways to save as many pennies as possible. Can't blame them, and my hat's off to them.

John

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• Milk toast

• Chipped beef on toast (this was a staple in Army chow halls - we called it S.O.S. - don't ask)

• Cucumber and mustard sandwiches

• Mayonnaise sandwiches

• Ketchup sandwiches

• Hot milk and rice

• Turtle/tortoise

• Gopher

• Potato soup – water base, not milk

• Dandelion salad

• Lard sandwiches

• Bacon grease sandwiches

• Sugar sandwiches

• Hot dogs and baked beans

• Road kill

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

• Oatmeal mixed with lard

• Fried potatoes and hot dogs

• Onion sandwich – slices of onion between bread

• Tomato gravy and biscuits

• Deep fried chicken skin

• Cornbread in milk

• Gravy and bread – as a main dish

• Toast with mashed potatoes on top with gravy

• Creamed corn on toast

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

• Squirrel

• Rice in milk with some sugar

• Beans

• Fried potato peel sandwiches

• Banana slices with powdered sugar and milk

• Boiled cabbage

• Hamburger mixed with oatmeal

• American cheese sandwich: 'American' cheese was invented because it was cheap to make, and didn't require refrigeration that many people who lived during this era didn't have.

• Tomato gravy on rice

• Toast with milk gravy

• Water fried pancakes

• Chicken feet in broth

• Fried bologna

• Warm canned tomatoes with bread

• Butter and sugar sandwiches

• Fried potato and bread cubes

• Bean soup

• Runny eggs with grits

• Butter and grits with sugar and milk

• Baked apples

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

• Corn meal mush

• Spaghetti with tomato juice and navy beans

• Whatever fish or game you could catch/hunt

• Tomato sandwiches

• Hard boiled eggs in white sauce over rice

• Spam and noodles with cream of mushroom soup

• Rag soup: spinach, broth and lots of macaroni

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

• Popcorn with milk and sugar – ate it like cereal

 

[Mule Packer]

Interesting post, John.

My dad's family was fairly well-to-do, and I don't think my dad even knew a depression was going on.

My father-in-law, on the other hand, lived on a 13-acre farm in rural Utah. They had a dairy cow, raised their own pigs, and had a big garden. And, believe me, they knew a depression was going on.

As he once told me, "Our clothes were patched, but all of the kids at my school wore patched clothes. Our shoes had holes in them, but all of the other kids had holes in their shoes, too. But, because of the farm, we never went hungry, and there were a lot of kids at my school who couldn't say that."

 

[ContinentalOp]

There's a YouTube channel I would watch from time to time called Great Depression Cooking. Unfortunately, the host of the show, Clara, passed away, but the videos are still there.

Here's one of them:

[ame]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3OPQqH3YlHA[/ame]

 

[Recusant]

My dad grew up then. As a result he was always tight with money. I image he still had his "rabbit money" when he passed several years ago.

 

[pharmer]

My family ate lots of Polenta, gnocchi. Special occasion was "soup meat" which was like a "cow kneecap gristle missle." None of them got fat until after WW2. Joe

 

[redlevel]

Folks who lived on the farm ate pretty well, those in the South anyhow. My Daddy said they really weren't directly affected by the depression; they had almost no cash money before, and almost none during the depression. They owned land, though, and in S Georgia you can grow something to eat almost 12 months a year. Peas, fresh in the summer, and dried in the winter. A legume, so pretty high in protein. Sweet potatoes, "hilled out." Collards, cabbage, turnips year round. Corn, eaten fresh in the summer, pulled and stored in the crib to feed livestock, and to "take to mill" for corn meal in the winter. Of course copious amounts of fruits and vegetables were canned or dried. Someone in the neighborhood always made cane syrup. Hams, shoulders, and bacon were cured in the smokehouse. Biscuits and cured ham fed many a farm family two meals a day. Lard was rendered when hogs were killed, and kept in tin containers.

About the only items purchased were flour, usually by 25 or 50 pound bags, sugar, coffee, salt by 50 lb bags for seasoning and curing meat. Other seasonings, of course.

There was a milk cow in the lot, that had to be milked twice a day. Plenty of butter, whole milk, and buttermilk.

Of course, a lot of foodstuffs were bartered in the community. A side of cured bacon for two gallons of syrup. Eggs for peaches, etc.

I would guess that my grandparents produced at least 75% of the food consumed at their house, both during good times and bad.

 

[mckenney99]

ContinentalOp, Thanks for the video. While watching this I found myself tearing up. I see the spitting image of my maternal grandmother in her mannerisms, her voice, her sweetness and she even looks like my grandmother.

 

[BAM-BAM]

My Dad was 14 in 1930....... his father's business a Grocery Store failed.....always frugal but we lived well. Dad finished High School but told stories of delivering coal/driving truck to houses in his Burb of the Burgh when he was only 14 or 15. Joined the local Police Dept when he turned 21....... was there until he was 60. Motorcycle patrolman to Captain.

His youngest brother was the only one that went to College ....... after the War.

We had little debt beyond the mortgage which he paid off in 16 years... in time for me to go to College.

After he passed; I found he has a stash of commemorative silver coins. Which reminded me of a story he told me about my Grandfather having to turn in any US gold coins he had (1933)....... but that he had held back a few 1/10 oz coins "just in case".

My Grandfather told stories of hunting rabbits ( single barrel shotgun) in what in now a Twp park; about 5 miles from downtown Pittsburgh.


By the way I still enjoy a fried baloney and egg sandwich...... and Primanti's Brothers...... still sells them by the thousands all around the Burgh...... with french fries and cole slaw all between two slices of Italian bread.

 

[dockmurgw]

The depression was well before my time, but there are a lot of items on your list that I enjoy eating regularly now...and I can afford to buy whatever food items I desire.

 

[16thVACav]

Don't forget bean sausage! My grandmother used to make it, and it was delicious.

 

[brucev]

Thin cornbread fried on top of the stove and stewed potatoes is a good meal! Little sweet tea and you're living high! Sincerely. bruce.

 

[Rudi]

I like some of those.

 

[Skeet 028]

Oh heck...we still ate like that in the 50s when I was a kid. My grandmother had a Remington pump 22 smoothbore(I have it now) and in the winter she would throw crumbs on the snow in winter and shoot the sparrows and other birds when they gathered to eat 'em. Breasted 'em out and cooked 'em up for din din. Growing up on the Eastern Shore of Md they ate a lot of seafood which they caught and duck dove quail rabbit was surely on the menu. Oh and my grandmother and aunts all liked squab(young pigeons). In the late 50s and later I provided a lot of stuff for my 4 aunts and one uncle. Oh my grandmother told me grandad also collected good fresh roadkill usually rabbits and coons. Mom told me she wasn't very fond of possum though

 

[Coot47]

I still crumble cornbread in milk whenever I make a batch of barracho beans. Takes the edge off the jalapenos on the side.

 

[jimmyj]

Swamp Cabbage
Cow Tail Soup
Grits
White Bacon (Fat Back)
Crackens
Rabbit (Fried or Stew)
Squirrel (Fried or Stew)
Soft Shell Turtle
Biscuits
Corn Bread
Fresh Water Fish
Garden Vegetables
Eggs
Fruits
Pork (100 different ways)
Wild Berries

*** School Lunch: a split Biscuit with lard spread-wrapped in a piece of paper and tied with a string-the paper and string used over and over.

 

[THE PILGRIM]

I have eaten most everything you guys have posted-
Except the Lard!
I have eat a bunch of stuff fried in lard,
But don't recall ever eating any pure lard, like the mentioned Lard Sandwiches.

 

[Rustyt1953]

 

[Kurusu]

And what's the "stuff" their drinking. That's what I want to know.

With the "right" drinking "stuff", even dirt(to put it mildly) will taste good

 

[Rustyt1953]

^^^^^^^^^^^

Mum's cooking sherry.

 

[Ole Joe Clark]

I have, in the past, and sometimes still do eat some of those items. Cornbread in milk, tomato sandwiches and such are still mighty good eating.

When I was a kid, hand me down clothes were the rule of the day. Some of the things that I learned back when things were scarce still linger in my DNA, (or something like that).

I was born in 1943, and things were tough. Since all the neighbors were in the same boat, I was half grown before I realized we were poor. I weighed 120# when I graduated high school, the went off to basic training and gained 20 lbs on 3 squares a day and exercise. I could tell you some things, but then you might think I was making them up.

Not bragging or complaining, it was just the way it was.

Have a blessed day,

Leon