Cooking Looking for Depression-era recipes

[maleficent1959]

DH is collaborating on a cookbook of Depression era recipes (he's providing the historcial content) and they are in need of recipes. Does anyone have any recipes from parents or grandparents (or their own!) that they would be willing to share for inclusion in the book? You can PM me.

Thanks!

 

[Olaf]

I have a book I bought in England, entitled, "We'll Eat Again" A collection of recipes fromthe war years, by Marguerite Patten. It's really neat. You might be able to order it.

 

[mamajoan]

I don't know if you can use this but my dad who was born in 1926 used to eat Graveyard Stew
as he called it. He said his mom used to make it with homemade bread, fresh cow's milk from the farm, when he was a kid. He said his mom made this for breakfast, lunch or supper for her six sons.

Graveyard Stew, as told by Gordon Walsh

Two thick slices of bread-toasted
smear with oleo("butter was nice when we had it")
scalded milk poured over the top,,,
salt and pepper.

I know it is not much of a recipe, but it is something my dad enjoyed until the day he died.
Joan

 

[chessie]

My parents talked of eating coffee soup for breakfast. It was just coffee with lots of milk and sugar poured over bread.

 

[maleficent1959]

What is it about stuff over bread? My grandpa loved creamed corn over a piece of white bread. I tried it once when I was little and wasn't very impressed.

Thanks for the recipes. Look for a PM from me soon.

 

[piratesmate]

MamaJoan - I thought our family was the only one that ate what you called Graveyard Stew. At our house it was called "Milk Toast" and served only when we were sick. Of course my mother tells of having this as their only meal.

There were serveral other "odd" things that my parents talked about having during the depression. Corn Pie was another. I was trying to find the recipe, but will probably have to call my mother to get it. Fried Mush was another - no real recipe, just slice & fry the mush and serve with syrup. (Turkey brand) They also had just bread with syrup on it. Dandelion greens with hot bacon dressing.

One of my favorites is Deep Dish Apple Pie - served warm with milk as lunch. That's it - nothing else. Mmmmmm

Maleficent . . . .

My grandpa loved creamed corn over a piece of white bread. I tried it once when I was little and wasn't very impressed.

But I'll bet they "were glad to get it, too!" At least that's what my mother always said when she told us about what they had to eat during the depression!

d

 

[maleficent1959]

Piratesmate! My mom just gave me the recipe for dandelion greens with bacon grease dressing this weekend! She also gave the recipe for Red Eye gravy which was bacon grease and coffee mixed. Apparently you put it on Riverbottom Salad (yes, stuff pulled of the bottom of the river).

My grandma was lucky in that her family had a huge garden so they had fresh vegetables and fruit trees. Poor Grandpa got creamed corn on bread

 

[piratesmate]

I liked the dressing made with bacon grease, but wasn't too thrilled with eating the dandelion greens from the yard. We had pets . . .

Did you ever keep a can of bacon grease in the frig? I can remember doing that when we were young. This just reminded me of one of the worst things I remember my mother talked about being served for dinner. Just bacon grease (from that can in the ice box or on the counter) smeared on bread. YUCK!

When we first moved into our present home, there was a really old stove here. It had one burner that could be lowered & its liner replaced. (Like a large, sunken pot) The idea was to keep a pot simmering with the peels, skins & tops of vegetables to use as soup.

Actually, this thread brings up a question I had back at T'giving & C'mas . . . . how many of you cook the bones from your bird to make soup - or what we PS Dutch call Pot Pie? Just the bones - no actual meat? I dutifully did this every year until I started working. (DH always complained because there was no meat in it.)

 

[mamajoan]

Fried MUSH... YUM!!! No syrup, just butter and salt... you see a trend, my dad ate EVERYTHING with butter and salt... even raw celery sticks...
Oatmeal Sausage was another old favorite. I have a sorta/kinda recipe in my mom's old book for it, if you want it...
My mom taught me how to make oxtail soup when I was young. You should have seen my dh's face when I explained " oh honey that is just a vertebral disc" as he was rolling a piece around in his mouth after eating his first bowl of homemade ox tail soup !!
My dad always ate johnny cake, not cornbread..., or Jam pie- that was cherry pie with not enough filling so the crusts were jammed together.
Gosh I miss my folks..

 

[GAIL HAYDEN]

maleficent1959,
If you can find a Fanny Farmer cookbook, you will find a TON of depression era recipes.
Some of the stuff is amazing. Let me know if I can help with anything specific.

 

[maleficent1959]

Thanks so much you guys. I knew the folks on the DIS would have some recipes for me.

Gail, do you have a cookbook from that time? The oldest we have is a Better Homes and Garden from World War II. I'll look for one on eBay.

 

[aprincessmom]

Actually, this thread brings up a question I had back at T'giving & C'mas . . . . how many of you cook the bones from your bird to make soup - or what we PS Dutch call Pot Pie? Just the bones - no actual meat? I dutifully did this every year until I started working. (DH always complained because there was no meat in it.)

I do save the carcass and late in the day put it in the soup pot to make the turkey stock for later in the week. However, my turkey still has some meat left on it -- not for lack of trying -- so it helps flavor. I do strain the stock, however, and add meat to the actual soup when I do make it. I do the same with some of the bigger roasting chickens. Helps make a nice stock.

 

[maleficent1959]

My MIL boils down her turkey bones. She strips them of everything she can, but there is still meat left. Then she boils the bones, cleans them, and then cooks pasta in the stock for her turkey spaghetti. It is too much of a process for me for a recipe I don't care for, and she and FIL "can't understand" why I don't do the same thing.

 

[Connie of Trenton]

Ditto here with the previously mentioned milk toast- when we were sick. (of course growing up in Michigan we also had Vernors ginger ale when we were sick) Also every Sunday night my dad and I used to eat smashed up saltine crackers in a bowl with milk poured on them. Actually I still like to eat that! Also Spam cut in slices and cooked with sliced potatoes and onions. A little water, salt and pepper cooked on the stove. If I made that for my family now they would die!

 

[yummy72]

Connie-

My dad always ate crushed up crackers in buttermilk...

AND my favorite childhood "recipe" memory:

peanut butter and syrup mixed together on bread. Has anyone else ever heard of this one?
I've only known one other person outside of my family that ate this growing up.

 

[piratesmate]

I never heard of peanut butter & syrup, but it actually sounds better to me than PB & Banana!

The thing we ate that made other people say "Ewwww!" was a cheese sandwich with grape jelly. (The jelly turns the cheese blue.) Or - making egg salad out of pickled eggs (red beet eggs) because it was pink.

 

[TellicoRic]

My mother fed us Grave Yard Stew when we were bed-ridden with scarlet fever and mumps. She made a milk soup with milk, eggs, and honey or sugar. She then floated a slice of buttered toast sprinkled with cinnamon-sugar on it. It was a welcome meal-in-a-bowl when you really didn't feel like eating.
Scrapple - (cornmeal mush with ground sausage in it), sliced, dipped in flour-sugar mixture, and fried in bacon grease was another family breakfast favorite.
My younger brother used to make what he called a "Space Martini" when he was eight. It was a glass of carefully poured milk and grape juice that e slightly stirred to produce a marbled effect.

 

[RogueX]

I have no idea who started this trend in my family, but my father ate ketchup sandwiches. Not two slices of bread even, just one folded in half with watered down ketchup.

 

[DL1WDW2]

Beans on toast

Also have recipe for Poor Mans Rice Pudding … I guess sugar was cheap cause it has maybe 3 cups with 1 cup rice !

We substituted celery or apple sticks dipped in sugar I guess penny candy was too expensive …
I remember taking coupons to the local corner store and they would let us use them to buy candy .
And returning soda bottles for money all the time to buy candy .

 

[disneyseniors]

My grandparents ate everything from the cow. I remember cow tongue boiled and on a plate. I just couldn't make myself eat that. They had pickled pigs feet. I can't remember the rest, but nothing was ever wasted. The leftovers went to the dog after being mixed together in a bowl. No store bought dog food for them.
My Dad carried over a recipe from his parents.
yes, it was bread torn into pieces, covered with milk, and sugar.