7shooter
Member
In our area a lot of the corn turned into a liquid cash crop ( MN 13 ) unless the revenuers intervened.
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Depression-era food...
- Thread starter PALADIN85020
- Start date
My grandfather told me of the same happenings around our area. He pointed out to me every place that had a still on it during the depression.... at least tween our place and the Md/ Delaware line. The farm my wife and I owned on the Eastern Shore had a steam powered sawmill on it and I was told the fellow that ran it made some really great lumber....err... likker
jtcarm
Member
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They had an explosion of those buggers in the Texas Panhandle at the height of the dust bowl. There was actually a 2-cent bounty on the ears.
I don’t know how, given the drought.
On my neck of the woods, for most people around my age(62), it's still considered a delicacy. I can't speak for the "newest generations" though.
LoboGunLeather
US Veteran
Sounds just like our usual menu at home when I was growing up. My mother was born in 1912, my oldest brother was born in 1934. Mom's first husband was killed in WW2, she remarried my father and had two more children. My father was an Ohio farm boy, also raised during the Depression and served in WW2.
I always thought that was how everyone ate. Never gave it a second thought. I still enjoy a pot of ham & beans as much as anything else, and hobo stew is pretty good, too.
Today everyone seems to be concerned about what they eat, fat content, carbs, gluten-free, whatever. When I was a kid it was all about getting your belly filled, and Mom and Dad made that happen during a lot of tough times.
I always thought that was how everyone ate. Never gave it a second thought. I still enjoy a pot of ham & beans as much as anything else, and hobo stew is pretty good, too.
Today everyone seems to be concerned about what they eat, fat content, carbs, gluten-free, whatever. When I was a kid it was all about getting your belly filled, and Mom and Dad made that happen during a lot of tough times.
bulletslap
Member
My grandmother, who passed at 102 three years ago said they would have starved out on the Llano Estcado if not for Jack Rabbit and boiled green tumbleweeds.
And I still sometimes wash and dry plastic bags and reuse wrapping paper, it drives my wife crazy.
And I still sometimes wash and dry plastic bags and reuse wrapping paper, it drives my wife crazy.
I get choked up reading my own post. Dad died little over two years ago. He cooked dinner the night before I took him to the hospital. He said "How bout some hamsteak?" He was gone ten days later. I worked on a tough to peel hardboiled egg today knowing my dad would be pissed if I threw it away. Sounds silly. Miss you Dad.
Jackrabbits are built for desert environment, there system is designed to get more nutrition from dry plant material than they would from fresh green food. The are able to get enough moisture to survive from the morning dew on the grass. And they run fast!
HOUSTON RICK
Member
Apples for weeks at a time in the winter and spring sometimes with something pickled or preserved in mason jars, barely soup, lentils, pepper sandwiches, navy bean soup, dandelions, butcher scraps (Goetta or Scrappel) for protein, a cornucopia of fresh vegetables (tomatoes, green beans, corn, radishes (white and red), carrots, bib lettuce, cabbage, asparagus, broccoli) from the (grandpa's) farm in Midsummer to late fall. I would trade back to it for the restaurant food that I eat now.
OP
Here's a tip I learned recently on peeling a hardboiled egg:
1. Fill a glass about half full of water. Drop the hardboiled egg into the glass.
2. Over the sink, put your hand over the mouth of the glass, and shake the glass vigorously for about 15 seconds.
3. Pour the water and egg out, and slip the shell right off the egg.
Works like a charm. My wife used this method while making deviled eggs a few days ago, after I shared the technique with her.
John
In 1942, a noted food writer of the era, M.F.K. Fisher, wrote “How to Cook a Wolf”, a cookbook for dealing with wartime food shortages. The book resonated with my mother, who grew up during the Depression. Your list, and a lot of Fisher’s book, recalls my mother’s home cooking in the early ‘50s
How to Cook a Wolf - M. F. K. Fisher - Google Books
How to Cook a Wolf - M. F. K. Fisher - Google Books
One of my most vivid images of my grandfather, born in 1881, was opening the tin of lard on the back of grandma's cook stove and smearing some on a slice of home made bread with a little salt. I was born in '52 to parents who lived thru the depression and never forgot how tough the times were. Tomato sandwiches on moms home made bread were terrific, and I ate a bunch of them growing up.
Blood sausage and home canned beef, we called it "jar meat" were a part of my folks childhood also a part of mine. I have eaten a lot of items on that list, but drew the line when mom fixed some chicken feet. Used to clean out the chicken house and new where those feet had been!
Blood sausage and home canned beef, we called it "jar meat" were a part of my folks childhood also a part of mine. I have eaten a lot of items on that list, but drew the line when mom fixed some chicken feet. Used to clean out the chicken house and new where those feet had been!
hivel37
US Veteran
Let’s hear it for pinto beans! Starvation may be
too strong a word but it would have been tough
without them. Dad kept a Crackshot on the tractor.
Many times what he killed was supper.
too strong a word but it would have been tough
without them. Dad kept a Crackshot on the tractor.
Many times what he killed was supper.
THE PILGRIM
Member
I love all Peas and Beans.
Pintos are probably my favorite.
I cook them in the slow-cooker and freeze them in pint containers.
Pintos are probably my favorite.
I cook them in the slow-cooker and freeze them in pint containers.
ancient-one
US Veteran
I was born in 1925 and my wife in 1924. Her folks lived on a farm and they had no money but lots o good food. One of her stories was about her flour sack panties. They were labeled from some Texas flour mill.
I was not so lucky. My dad ran a garage in the little town we lived in. Lots of times no work because people didn't have the money to get their cars fixed.
We ate what we could get. Lots of fish, squirrels and rabbit. It kind of hacks me to hear people make fun of cow peas. They were sure good cooked with salt pork.
I was not so lucky. My dad ran a garage in the little town we lived in. Lots of times no work because people didn't have the money to get their cars fixed.
We ate what we could get. Lots of fish, squirrels and rabbit. It kind of hacks me to hear people make fun of cow peas. They were sure good cooked with salt pork.
Chubbo
Member
My family's foods
Depression – Era food
PALADIN85020;
You have started a very interesting thread. The foods that folks ate, and survived on, during the depression era. I lived in the Depression era, and had the opportunity to see two completely different types of depression- era food types consumed, by my own family.
On my Dad’s side of the family, they tended to eat the basic, home produced food found on their farms, with little regard to the healthy aspect of their foods. I saw my paternal aunts fry bacon, and Fresh Side, to render the grease, and then throw the bacon, and fresh side in the garbage, and keep the grease. The grease when cooled, and hardened was used as a spread for their toast etc. My Dad loved, and craved potatoes fried, floating in melted lard, and sometimes would fix a batch of potatoes fried that way, himself, as Mom refused to fix ‘m that way. Most of their meat was nearly cooked to a crisp, while their fruit, and vegetables were hardly cooked at all. My Dad always raised tame rabbits, that were a regular family meat supply, also to sell to supplement our monetary income. Dad also, tanned, and sold those rabbit furs also supplementing our income.
On my Mom’s side of the family her cooking style was a different style entirely. Mom was way ahead of her time, and was a ‘Health Food’ advocate, long before there was such a thing as ‘Health Foods’. Mom wouldn’t prepare fatty meats, use Hominy, as lye was used in it’s making, she sun dried all manner of fruit, called ‘Snittla’ in German, to be used in pies, and pastry. She made her own, Grape juice, tomato juice, Sauerkraut, and bean soup. Mom & Dad had a large vegetable garden, that my Dad, and I spaded, and worked the soil up by hand. Mom canned & froze all manner of their home-grown vegetables, and fruit. Our families also shared our produce, and various skills. We were pretty much self-sufficient, back then. I wonder how members of today’s society would cope with the depression era’s foods, and methods of survival? Here are a few examples of Depression foods I remember:
Breaded deep fried alligator.
Hot dogs Split open and filled with 'tamed' jalapeno peppers.
Breaded deep fried dill pickles.
Raw oysters, soaked in vinegar, eaten on a soda cracker.
Green fried tomatoes.
Sardines in mustard sauce & soda crackers.
Home made, Sauerkraut & pork, or weiners.
Fresh fried on the spot in Alaska, Halibut or Salmon.
Ohio fresh fillet Lake Ere Pickerel/Walleye, deep fried in melted butter.
Fresh caught & prepared Florida Crabs eaten dipped in melted butter.
Fresh caught, cleaned, and Fried Snapping turtle & Turtle soup.
Fresh gigged, dressed, and Fried Bullfrog.
Ohio 1950 era, illegal, 'songbird' quail, fried in butter.
Wild Alaskan Tuna patties rolled in cracker crumbs, and baked.
Beef & pork tongue.
Beef & Pork brains cooked like scrambled eggs.
Fried goose, bantam, game chicken & Duck eggs.
Fried Chicken, duck, and goose livers & gizzards.
Fried bananas.
kid goat-(chiffon), goat milk, Ice cream, made from goat milk.
Watermelon jelly-preserves.
Home made ice cream, made from the cream that rose out of the non homogenised milk that was delivered in the 1930 era, to the front porch in freezing weather, by adding honey or sugar to it.
Hossenfeffer-Pepperd rabbit, made from wild game rabbits, or tame rabbits.
Pickled red beets.
Grilled cheese sandwidges, made with Velveeta cheese, and served along with home made tomato soup. Made and served to me by my Mom when I was a teenager, circa 1930s.
Squab Pigeons, breaded, and fried.
Fried bananas.
Breaded deep fried alligator.
Hot dogs Split open and filled with 'tamed' jalapeno peppers.
Breaded deep fried dill pickles.
Raw oysters, soaked in vinegar, eaten on a soda cracker.
Green fried tomatoes.
Sardines in mustard sauce & soda crackers.
Homemade, Sauerkraut & pork, or wieners.
Fresh fried on the spot in Alaska, Halibut or Salmon.
Ohio fresh fillet Lake Ere Pickerel/Walleye, deep fried in melted butter.
Fresh caught & prepared Florida Crabs eaten dipped in melted butter.
Fresh caught, cleaned, and Fried Snapping turtle & Turtle soup.
Fresh gigged, dressed, and Fried Bullfrog.
Ohio 1950 era, illegal, 'songbird' quail, fried in butter.
Tuna patties. Wild Alaskan Tuna rolled in cracker crumbs, and baked.
Beef & pork tongue.
Beef & Pork brains cooked like scrambled eggs.
Fried goose, bantam, game chicken & Duck eggs.
Fried Chicken, duck, and goose livers & gizzards.
Fried bananas.
kid goat-(chiffon), goat milk, Ice cream, made from goat milk.
Watermelon jelly-preserves.
Homemade ice cream, made from the cream that rose out of the non homogenised milk that was delivered in the 1930 era, to the front porch in freezing weather, by adding honey or sugar to it.
Hasenpfeffer /Peppered rabbit, made from wild game rabbits, or tame rabbits.
Pickled red beets.
Grilled cheese sandwiches, made with Velveeta cheese, and served along with home made tomato soup. Made and served to me by my Mom when I was a teenager, circa 1930s.
Squab Pigeons, breaded, and fried.
Fried bananas.
Stewed spinach, always loved it, I didn’t know that I should hate it.
Potato soup.
Squirrel.
Dandelion Greens/salad, and stewed.
Bullseyes, a slice of bread fried with an egg in the hole.
Bean soup, any kind of beans, dried lima beans, and ham my favorite.
Boiled cabbage.
Fried bologna sandwiches. Casing bologna, sliced thick, with cheese melted in the upturned center.
Apple dumplings. Baked, served with vanilla sauce.
Roman Holliday. My mom’s special version of Spaghetti.
Fried spam.
Sauerkraut. Homemade, Raw / cooked with ham, or wieners.
Wieners / Hot dogs. Any kind, never ate one that I didn’t like.
“****, on a Shingle’. Shaved beef, in a creamed sauce, served over toast.
Carme led cinnamon toast. Toast baked in oven with brown sugar, cinnamon, and pat of butter.
Sloppy Joe sandwiches.
Carp fish. Properly cleaned & baked, delicious.
Baked Apples.
Black raspberry pie. Homemade, with home grown black raspberry’
Limburger cheese, sandwich on rye bread, with mustard, and dill pickles. A sandwich fit for a king.
There are many more, but my memory fails me.
Chubbo
Depression – Era food
PALADIN85020;
You have started a very interesting thread. The foods that folks ate, and survived on, during the depression era. I lived in the Depression era, and had the opportunity to see two completely different types of depression- era food types consumed, by my own family.
On my Dad’s side of the family, they tended to eat the basic, home produced food found on their farms, with little regard to the healthy aspect of their foods. I saw my paternal aunts fry bacon, and Fresh Side, to render the grease, and then throw the bacon, and fresh side in the garbage, and keep the grease. The grease when cooled, and hardened was used as a spread for their toast etc. My Dad loved, and craved potatoes fried, floating in melted lard, and sometimes would fix a batch of potatoes fried that way, himself, as Mom refused to fix ‘m that way. Most of their meat was nearly cooked to a crisp, while their fruit, and vegetables were hardly cooked at all. My Dad always raised tame rabbits, that were a regular family meat supply, also to sell to supplement our monetary income. Dad also, tanned, and sold those rabbit furs also supplementing our income.
On my Mom’s side of the family her cooking style was a different style entirely. Mom was way ahead of her time, and was a ‘Health Food’ advocate, long before there was such a thing as ‘Health Foods’. Mom wouldn’t prepare fatty meats, use Hominy, as lye was used in it’s making, she sun dried all manner of fruit, called ‘Snittla’ in German, to be used in pies, and pastry. She made her own, Grape juice, tomato juice, Sauerkraut, and bean soup. Mom & Dad had a large vegetable garden, that my Dad, and I spaded, and worked the soil up by hand. Mom canned & froze all manner of their home-grown vegetables, and fruit. Our families also shared our produce, and various skills. We were pretty much self-sufficient, back then. I wonder how members of today’s society would cope with the depression era’s foods, and methods of survival? Here are a few examples of Depression foods I remember:
Breaded deep fried alligator.
Hot dogs Split open and filled with 'tamed' jalapeno peppers.
Breaded deep fried dill pickles.
Raw oysters, soaked in vinegar, eaten on a soda cracker.
Green fried tomatoes.
Sardines in mustard sauce & soda crackers.
Home made, Sauerkraut & pork, or weiners.
Fresh fried on the spot in Alaska, Halibut or Salmon.
Ohio fresh fillet Lake Ere Pickerel/Walleye, deep fried in melted butter.
Fresh caught & prepared Florida Crabs eaten dipped in melted butter.
Fresh caught, cleaned, and Fried Snapping turtle & Turtle soup.
Fresh gigged, dressed, and Fried Bullfrog.
Ohio 1950 era, illegal, 'songbird' quail, fried in butter.
Wild Alaskan Tuna patties rolled in cracker crumbs, and baked.
Beef & pork tongue.
Beef & Pork brains cooked like scrambled eggs.
Fried goose, bantam, game chicken & Duck eggs.
Fried Chicken, duck, and goose livers & gizzards.
Fried bananas.
kid goat-(chiffon), goat milk, Ice cream, made from goat milk.
Watermelon jelly-preserves.
Home made ice cream, made from the cream that rose out of the non homogenised milk that was delivered in the 1930 era, to the front porch in freezing weather, by adding honey or sugar to it.
Hossenfeffer-Pepperd rabbit, made from wild game rabbits, or tame rabbits.
Pickled red beets.
Grilled cheese sandwidges, made with Velveeta cheese, and served along with home made tomato soup. Made and served to me by my Mom when I was a teenager, circa 1930s.
Squab Pigeons, breaded, and fried.
Fried bananas.
Breaded deep fried alligator.
Hot dogs Split open and filled with 'tamed' jalapeno peppers.
Breaded deep fried dill pickles.
Raw oysters, soaked in vinegar, eaten on a soda cracker.
Green fried tomatoes.
Sardines in mustard sauce & soda crackers.
Homemade, Sauerkraut & pork, or wieners.
Fresh fried on the spot in Alaska, Halibut or Salmon.
Ohio fresh fillet Lake Ere Pickerel/Walleye, deep fried in melted butter.
Fresh caught & prepared Florida Crabs eaten dipped in melted butter.
Fresh caught, cleaned, and Fried Snapping turtle & Turtle soup.
Fresh gigged, dressed, and Fried Bullfrog.
Ohio 1950 era, illegal, 'songbird' quail, fried in butter.
Tuna patties. Wild Alaskan Tuna rolled in cracker crumbs, and baked.
Beef & pork tongue.
Beef & Pork brains cooked like scrambled eggs.
Fried goose, bantam, game chicken & Duck eggs.
Fried Chicken, duck, and goose livers & gizzards.
Fried bananas.
kid goat-(chiffon), goat milk, Ice cream, made from goat milk.
Watermelon jelly-preserves.
Homemade ice cream, made from the cream that rose out of the non homogenised milk that was delivered in the 1930 era, to the front porch in freezing weather, by adding honey or sugar to it.
Hasenpfeffer /Peppered rabbit, made from wild game rabbits, or tame rabbits.
Pickled red beets.
Grilled cheese sandwiches, made with Velveeta cheese, and served along with home made tomato soup. Made and served to me by my Mom when I was a teenager, circa 1930s.
Squab Pigeons, breaded, and fried.
Fried bananas.
Stewed spinach, always loved it, I didn’t know that I should hate it.
Potato soup.
Squirrel.
Dandelion Greens/salad, and stewed.
Bullseyes, a slice of bread fried with an egg in the hole.
Bean soup, any kind of beans, dried lima beans, and ham my favorite.
Boiled cabbage.
Fried bologna sandwiches. Casing bologna, sliced thick, with cheese melted in the upturned center.
Apple dumplings. Baked, served with vanilla sauce.
Roman Holliday. My mom’s special version of Spaghetti.
Fried spam.
Sauerkraut. Homemade, Raw / cooked with ham, or wieners.
Wieners / Hot dogs. Any kind, never ate one that I didn’t like.
“****, on a Shingle’. Shaved beef, in a creamed sauce, served over toast.
Carme led cinnamon toast. Toast baked in oven with brown sugar, cinnamon, and pat of butter.
Sloppy Joe sandwiches.
Carp fish. Properly cleaned & baked, delicious.
Baked Apples.
Black raspberry pie. Homemade, with home grown black raspberry’
Limburger cheese, sandwich on rye bread, with mustard, and dill pickles. A sandwich fit for a king.
There are many more, but my memory fails me.
Chubbo
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BearBio
Member
I don't know why but in 35 yrs. as a utility lineman I have saw a bunch of woodpecker holes.Larry
Woodpeckers stash acorns in the holes for winter. Some, like flickers, search for insects. Also the males "drum" to attract females and build nests.
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OP
Chubbo,
Your comment "Most of their meat was nearly cooked to a crisp" brought back a funny memory.
Over 58 years ago when my wife and I were first married, we visited her grandparents in southern Ohio. Her grandmother was evidently motivated to make a good impression on me, and asked my wife what kinds of food I liked.
My wife told her that I certainly would enjoy a good steak.
Now, mind you that her grandmother did indeed live through the Great Depression. Unfortunately her version of "steak" was way different from my own, and she had evidently not served steak since Caesar was a road guard.
She bought a steak that was razor thin, and fried it in a pan on both sides until it was black and curled up into a nearly fetal position, resembling a leather shoe sole that had been soaked in a rain and then left in the sun for months.
When she brought it out proudly for dinner, my wife and I looked at each other like "WT*?", but neither of us commented and I gamely choked it down...
Those were different days back then, for sure.
My wife and I still chuckle about that incident, and we were glad that her grandmother never learned that she was definitely not a steakhouse chef!
John
Your comment "Most of their meat was nearly cooked to a crisp" brought back a funny memory.
Over 58 years ago when my wife and I were first married, we visited her grandparents in southern Ohio. Her grandmother was evidently motivated to make a good impression on me, and asked my wife what kinds of food I liked.
My wife told her that I certainly would enjoy a good steak.
Now, mind you that her grandmother did indeed live through the Great Depression. Unfortunately her version of "steak" was way different from my own, and she had evidently not served steak since Caesar was a road guard.
She bought a steak that was razor thin, and fried it in a pan on both sides until it was black and curled up into a nearly fetal position, resembling a leather shoe sole that had been soaked in a rain and then left in the sun for months.
When she brought it out proudly for dinner, my wife and I looked at each other like "WT*?", but neither of us commented and I gamely choked it down...
Those were different days back then, for sure.
My wife and I still chuckle about that incident, and we were glad that her grandmother never learned that she was definitely not a steakhouse chef!
John
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The meat cooked to a crisp brought back memories for me also.
My Mom was born in west Texas, Seagraves, then the family moved to Lamesa then to eastern New Mexico, Lake Arthur, over the depression days. My Dad was on a ranch east of Roswell N. M. until his Dad died in a ranch accident, and his Mom moved to town, Roswell.
They had numerous stories about depression life. All the meat my Mom cooked was well done, to say the least! I remember my Dad cooking a steak on an outside charcoal grille, well done always!!! Actually often burned!
Until I met my wife I thought that was the only way meat was cooked. She introduced me to rare cooked meat, and we settled on medium rare. What a difference for beef!
Pork is still well cooked, and chicken done!
My Mom was born in west Texas, Seagraves, then the family moved to Lamesa then to eastern New Mexico, Lake Arthur, over the depression days. My Dad was on a ranch east of Roswell N. M. until his Dad died in a ranch accident, and his Mom moved to town, Roswell.
They had numerous stories about depression life. All the meat my Mom cooked was well done, to say the least! I remember my Dad cooking a steak on an outside charcoal grille, well done always!!! Actually often burned!
Until I met my wife I thought that was the only way meat was cooked. She introduced me to rare cooked meat, and we settled on medium rare. What a difference for beef!
Pork is still well cooked, and chicken done!
bulletslap
Member
Lamesa lays claim to being the origin of Chicken Fried Steak. A cheap cut of steak, pounded flat, battered in flour and fried into submission.
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