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This Is What People Ate When They Had No Money During The Depression
TBI ^ | 11-18-2011 | Vivian Giang

Posted on 11/18/2011 7:47:54 PM PST by blam

This Is What People Ate When They Had No Money During The Depression

Vivian Giang
Nov. 18, 2011, 12:25 PM

Image: Library of Congress, Prints & Photographs Division, FSA-OWI Collection

If you've ever visited anyone's house for dinner and a big, sloppy "secret family recipe" dish is flopped down in front of you, chances are high that the messy goodness could have originated from the Depression era.

Families were taught to creatively stretch out their food budgets and toast, potatoes and flour seem to be the popular, inexpensive ingredients. Expensive meat was typically eaten only once a week.

Some foods were invented during the Depression, such as spam, Ritz crackers, Krispy Kreme doughnuts and Kraft macaroni and cheese, according to livinghistoryfarm.org.

We've compiled some simple, easy recipes from 90-something Clara who shares her childhood dining memories during hard times. They may help you save money during our own Recession.

Click here to see what people ate>

(Excerpt) Read more at businessinsider.com ...


TOPICS: News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: cookery; depression; egginanest; food; recession; recipes
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To: blam

My dad always would tell us this story about the depression. He was one of 13, lived on a farm, and when he’d go to school, grandma would send them sandwiches on the biscuits left over from breakfast. But they weren’t meat sandwiches...many times they were collard or turnip green sandwiches.

He was often ashamed to eat his lunch in front of the other kids who had store bought bread, and regular sandwiches. In the fourth grade his teacher everyday would ask if he brought one of those “delicious biscuit sandwiches”...and of course he’d reply, “Yes.” She’d then ask if he wanted to trade her for her peanut butter and jelly sandwich (on sliced bread.)

As a fourth grader it never dawned on him that this was his teacher’s kindness and gracious act toward a child...he really believed, at that age, that the teacher like collards on biscuits.


181 posted on 11/18/2011 9:53:46 PM PST by dawn53
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To: GeronL
My grandma would take leftover boiled potatoes and cut them up in chunks then fry them up with chunks of bread to stretch it out. Still love it to this day.

Nothing beat my grandmas homemade bread. She's been gone almost 30 years now, and my cousins and I STILL talk about her bread when we get together. Their kids are probably tired of hearing about it.

She made really good homemade bean soup. And between my uncle, grandfather, grandmother and myself, we knock off an entire loaf of her bread with the soup.

Buttered bread and soup. Who needs a spoon.

When she'd bake bread in the morning, and when my grandfather and uncle would come in from the fields for lunch, she'd have to stop them from eating the fresh bread.

She'd spend the morning making bread. Something like 5-6 loaves. And after lunch 1 loaf would be gone. She'd get so frustrated. ALL that work, and in about 1/2 an hour 1 loaf is gone. She did it all by hand. Five foot nothing and maybe 100lbs, that was TOUGH work for her. Kneading that bread by hand.

I type this with tears welling up. 49 years old and I still miss them. Probably the 2 people I respect the most.

My grandma, when she wasn't cooking or doing housework, she was in her garden. And when time came, she was in the fields with my grandpa. My grandpa was 61 when I was born, my grandma a few years younger. So I never knew them as "young" people. My grandma was a hard worker until she died at 75. My grandfather was a hard worker until he died at 93.

I consider myself a pretty hard worker (so do my coworkers) I think my grandfather would have done a pretty good job keeping up with me in his 80's (at least his 70's)

182 posted on 11/18/2011 9:54:14 PM PST by mountn man (Happiness is not a destination, its a way of life.)
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To: GeronL

Lived in Detroit, the ice was delivered by a horse drawn wagon, you put either 25 or 50 pound sign in window so he would know how much you wanted..as kids we’d sneak up to the wagon when the guy was delivering and grab a piece of ice to suck on. milk was also delivered in horse drawn wagon. The horse never stopped, just trudged along at a slow pace so the milkman could catch up after delivering milk to your front porch...The sheeny man came down the alleys blowing a horn and you took out any big stuff or furniture you didn’t want and he’d pick it up....Sanford and son without the truck..he had a horse drawn wagon also with a hat on the horse..


183 posted on 11/18/2011 9:54:14 PM PST by goat granny
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To: yarddog

My father’s grandparents owned farms outside of his Mississippi hometown during the Depression. His father had been laid off from the railroad and no one had any money to speak of, but they were able to eat well enough which was something to be very grateful for during the Depression.

They had fare typical of the South: white corn, crowder peas, blackeyes, beans, grits, okra, tomatoes, cucumbers, ham, fried chicken, and lots and lots of iced tea. I know, because I was fortunate enough to be served the same at my grandmother’s home when I was growing up.


184 posted on 11/18/2011 9:58:08 PM PST by Pelham (Islam. The original Evil Empire)
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To: mountn man

I really wish I had recorded my dads stories. I don’t recall nearly enough of them.


185 posted on 11/18/2011 9:58:54 PM PST by GeronL (The Right to Life came before the Right to Pursue Happiness)
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To: maine-iac7

You’re one of my many cousins, aren’t you?

;)


186 posted on 11/18/2011 9:58:56 PM PST by Brad’s Gramma (I stand with Mr. Cain!)
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To: All; goat granny

176 posts and no one has mentioned grits?

Runny egg and grits.
Butter and grits with sugar and milk.
Fried grit or fried cracked wheat pancakes?

I must be older than the rest of you.


187 posted on 11/18/2011 9:58:59 PM PST by DonnerT (American Autumn)
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To: goat granny

lol.

My dad lived out in the country I guess. Most of the time they didn’t even have their own property. They rented, share cropped or whatever they needed to do.

Of course it was a LONG time to the end of WW2 when things started improving. I am sure their situation changed a lot.


188 posted on 11/18/2011 10:01:09 PM PST by GeronL (The Right to Life came before the Right to Pursue Happiness)
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To: keats5

another underground veggy is potato...loved digging them up on the farm...you can even use a potato you have had so long they develop eyes. each eye will be another plant. just give each eye some potato and burying the eye just below the ground level...nice plant also...


189 posted on 11/18/2011 10:01:33 PM PST by goat granny
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To: DonnerT

I LOVE brown sugar and grits.


190 posted on 11/18/2011 10:04:04 PM PST by mountn man (Happiness is not a destination, its a way of life.)
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To: 21twelve

Ask her questions, have her reminisce....and YOU document it all.

Something I wish I’d have done...please do it while you can..


191 posted on 11/18/2011 10:05:09 PM PST by Brad’s Gramma (I stand with Mr. Cain!)
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To: blam

Great thread. Read every post and don’t regret a minute of it...


192 posted on 11/18/2011 10:06:09 PM PST by EternalVigilance
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To: Brad's Gramma

bump to that


193 posted on 11/18/2011 10:06:48 PM PST by GeronL (The Right to Life came before the Right to Pursue Happiness)
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To: dawn53
Great story

My late father shared a story about his earliest child memory.(he was born in 1932) His father was a potato farmer and made extra money in the winter driving a sleigh taking kids to school using his draft horses, my dad went with him. The annual snow fall was over 10 feet. After he brought the kids into town, my dad was treated to a banana at the local market.

This was a delicacy to a 4 year old.

194 posted on 11/18/2011 10:08:37 PM PST by dancusa (Socialism is a philosophy of failure, the creed of ignorance, and the gospel of envy. W. Churchill)
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To: blam

Strange! I don’t see any wagyu or arugula in those recipies.


195 posted on 11/18/2011 10:09:20 PM PST by reg45 (I'm not angry that Lincoln freed the slaves. I'm angry that Franklin Roosevelt bought them back.)
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To: madison10

I think they call those ‘one eyed susans’


196 posted on 11/18/2011 10:09:25 PM PST by Noumenon (The only 'NO' a liberal understands is the one that arrives at muzzle velocity.)
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To: EmilyGeiger

We’ve never stopped eating most of that stuff.Who knew people had to be told about baked apples except now you can do it in the microwave in a few minutes and save energy.


197 posted on 11/18/2011 10:09:32 PM PST by chris_bdba
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To: blam
A bit of an upscale SOS:

Pan fry white bread (garlic butter both sides). Set aside.

Same pan, pan fry burger, garlic, onion, green pepper till brown. Spoon off the grease. Add 1/2 coffee cup of water with dissolved beef bullion, basil, parsley to taste... stir till absorbed/ nearly burned off. Add one can of mushroom soup... stir till hot.

Serve on top of the bread.

A REALLY good breakfast, which I am sure came down in my family from hard times:

Boil a pork liver (thoroughly), wrap it in tinfoil and refrigerate overnight. using a potato peeler (peel off the dark rind of an area first) slice the liver very thin, and roughly according to what is needed today. Buttered toast... lay the sliced liver in one layer covering the toast. Salt according to taste.

Keep unused slices with the liver in the tinfoil wrapper (back in the fridge). One liver will last about a week to 10 days with a family of 6.

A really good lunch or light dinner, which again, came from hard times:

Peel eggplant, slice 1/8 to 1/4th " pieces. Dip in egg wash, dip in bread crumbs (I like Italian). Pan fry (low/med) in butter till golden brown and a fork will not lift. Serve on open faced white bread w/ butter... salt accordingly, and if in season, a big slice of tomato on top.

198 posted on 11/18/2011 10:09:47 PM PST by roamer_1 (Globalism is just socialism in a business suit.)
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To: Bellflower

Don’t let the shade stop you. Grow in containers and you can move them as needed to sunny spots. Peas, lettuce, peppers, tomatoes and more all grow well in containers. You can still grow things in 6 hours of direct sunlight.


199 posted on 11/18/2011 10:13:00 PM PST by Kirkwood (Zombie Hunter)
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To: musicman

My grandmother was a widow with 5 children. Mother said they ate corn meal mush twice a day. Grandma would cook it fresh in the morning and then after the leftover had set up they would slice it and fry it for supper. Lunch was usually beans, Sunday dinner was usually spagetti- rarely with meat in the sauce.

My aunts were older than my mother and one year they were really upset about not being able to have a real Christmas dinner so they stole two chickens from a neighbor. My grandmother was very angry with them and by the time she knew they had killed and were plucking the chickens. Grandma made them go to the neighbor and confess and work off the chickens. The neighbor let them work off the chickens but grandma made them cook them and take them to another neighbor that was hard up.


200 posted on 11/18/2011 10:14:16 PM PST by Tammy8 (~Secure the border and deport all illegals- do it now! ~ Support our Troops!~)
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