Depression Era Recipes

My grandmother made something very similar when i was growing up.  Both of my parents grew up very poor.  My maternal grandfather died right before my parents were married and his dying words were to ask my father to take care of his "girls"...my mom, my aunt (15 years old) and my grandmother.  Dad moved in with my mother's family and we all lived together my entire life!  Since my grandmother was sick and couldn't work her "contribution" to the family was to do the cooking.  As was customary, she didn't use recipes for anything.  My mom watched my grandmother and wrote down the recipies as my grandmother cooked.  I have looked through that entire cookbook and can't find the recipe for the cucumber "salad" as she called it.  if i remember correctly, it was only me, my dad and grandmother that liked it!  I will have to ask dad...maybe he remembers what she put in it!

Several years ago I found this thread and read it all the way through.  I used several recipes from it to feed my family, like creamed peas on toast.  (I also made it with tuna and peas.  They loved it!)

 I just found this thread again today and read the last couple of years of postings.  My grandparents raised children through the depression in Canada.  I will write my mom and ask which of the recipes her mom used in the 30s, and then share them.

 I have always, since childhood, been nostalgic and contemplative about the years of my foremothers.  Writing the family history book about my grandparents and their days and descendents only sharpened that.  

I wanted to express my heartfelt appreciation for those who have posted here with memories and stories from the Depression years. 

Aunt Jean, in particular I appreciated your long passages telling your stories.  Thank you so much for taking the time to refect and share those with all of us!

Natalia

Jusmom1, that is so wonderful that your mom watched her mom and wrote down her recipes.  

I thought I might have a recipe for cucumber salad from my family history book, but many of my grandmother's recipes were lost and we don't seem to have one for that.  However, I was curious and did an internet search to find a depression era recipe for it and found this:

"My grandmother was raising her 7 children on her own, during the depression years. This recipe has been reduced in servings since way back then.

Combine lemon juice, sour cream, water, salt & pepper, whisk to blend. Fine chop peeled cucumber and scallions.  Toss all together.   

from http://recipes.sparkpeople.com/recipe-detail.asp?recipe=1815617   

I hope that is something like what you remember.  :)

NataliaBC

Jusmom1, that is so wonderful that your mom watched her mom and wrote down her recipes.  

I thought I might have a recipe for cucumber salad from my family history book, but many of my grandmother's recipes were lost and we don't seem to have one for that.  However, I was curious and did an internet search to find a depression era recipe for it and found this:

"My grandmother was raising her 7 children on her own, during the depression years. This recipe has been reduced in servings since way back then.

Ingredients:

*Lemon Juice, 1/2 a lemon yields
Sour Cream, 2 tbsp 
Water, tap, 2 fl oz 
Cucumber (peeled), 1 large (8-1/4" long)
Clove of garlic, minced
Fresh dill weed 1 sprig
Scallions, raw, 1 large 
Salt 1 tsp.
Pepper Black 1/2 tsp.

Combine lemon juice, sour cream, water, salt & pepper, whisk to blend. Fine chop peeled cucumber and scallions.  Toss all together.   

from http://recipes.sparkpeople.com/recipe-detail.asp?recipe=1815617   

I hope that is something like what you remember.  :)

First of all thank you for the kind words about my longwinded posts.  Iived with my maternal grandparents during the week while both of my parents worked.  May of my memories are of their generation.  All of the woman in that family were great cooks.  I remember one time my grandmother found out shortly before linch (we called it dinner) that she would have a extra person for lunch.  She brough up jars of canned beef from the cellar and fixed it with potatoes and brown gravy.  For dessert she made vanilla pudding.  She had me out and pick mulberries from outside the kitchen. Luckily they were ripe.  She combined them with the pudding.   The extra guest was a man helping Grandad and he raved about the dinner and the pudding especially.  She also had other canned vegatables and pickles of all kinds.  Farm women were usually prepared for a fast meal  from the work they had done ahead  of time and stored to feed their families.   There was always canned fruits, jams and jellies, pickles, juices and vegies of all kinds.  Plus she canned a lot of meats.  All without a pressure cooker.  How hard the Depression women worked to feed everyone.  Aunt Jean

I am sorry my post ended up on the bottom of yours.  The only cucumbers I remember as a child were what my Dad liked.  Mother peeled and sliced cucumbers the night before.  She sprinklied them with salt and let them sit.  The next morning she rinsed them, added sliced onions and then vinegar mixed with water and brought to a boil.  This was poured over them.  I still love them and make them regularly.  Aunt Jean

Depression Era Cough Syrup.  I am sure this is a much much older way of making this , in fact I think my Mother learned it from her Mother in Law who was born in the mountains of Colorado in 1873.   For a cough, slice whole onions onto a platter or bowl.  Cover with sugar, let stand overnight.  Use the syrup it produces for coughs.

Thought I might as well put my oar in here for some ideas.  My parents grew up in the depression and many things were passed on to me.  Here are a few of what I grew up.

In spring when dandeloins were very small and no flower, we would dig them up, clean (like spinach) and cook them.  Always made a huge pot which would shrink down to nothing (like spinach).  She would then drain it and put in a frying pan some bacon grease (always had on hand for frying), melt it and then add some flour.  This would brown and then add the cooked dandeloins, heat it through and that would be our vegetable.  We always had vinegar on the table and put a little vinegar on it.  (My father was of German descent, so vinegar went on everything!).

We also had wilted lettuce - leaf lettuce from the garden, melt bacon grease and maybe have a little bacon, add a little vinegar, put sugar on the lettuce then the hot bacon grease mixture.  I still eat this today!

Sugar sandwiches were always a treat along with a lettuce sandwich with a little mayo on it.

We also have bread with either bacon grease or butter and then put dark or light karo syrup over it.  Oh my was that good.

We also went by the railroad bed and picked wild asparagus by the bags full.  Come home and cook some, cream it with a white sauce and serve over toast.  Another thing I still eat today.

Just a few extra things we had that I haven't seen in other posts.  Fond, fond memories!  We never ever went hungry.  (Fried bologna sandwiches, fried spam sandwiches!)  Usually everything was fried, but can't beat the taste!

For treats Dad would take us to the A&W Root Beer Stand and get a $.05 glass of root beer and a bag of popcorn.  Which these were still around.  Sometimes the Dairy Queen and get a $.05 coated ice cream cone.

Your Mother did her Wilted lettuce like my Mother In Law did.  We put sliced green onions and sliced radishes in ours and no sugar.  How Mother made it.  We love it and have it often today.    You ate most of the same foods I grew up with and love them still.  We cream asparagas and just eat it as a vegie, ymmy  Dairy Queen was new right after the war ended (ww2) and when we went to town we could stop on the way home for a DQ, just ice cream cones then.  What a treat to a farm kid.  You just can't beat those old recipes.  So good even today.

We had fried bologna too sometimes just plain and for Daddys sandwiches in his lunch.  I used to take pork tenderloin sandwiches in my lunch to school and got so tired of them.  My folks butchered a hog every winter and cured the hams, etc, themselves.  Mother made the most delicious mincemeat from the head.  Most people made head cheese but we didn't like it.   I have carried these recipes on to my own children and some may be being used by my grandchildren too.  Love this site.

I love this thread......times have gotten hard for my hubby and I and I have been looking for recipes to cook from back when times were harder. Some of the recipes sound familar....like the sugar and butter on bread. My mom would make a "chocolate gravy" for us to pour over biscuits for breakfast sometimes....don't know what time period she got that recipe from. I am making the cabbage and bacon stew recipe that I either found here or on another depression era site, and I just had a peice of the Crazy Cake that I made from a recipe here. YUMMY.

I am gonna try the yeast cornbread too. And google other recipes here that were mentioned several times but didn't have the recipe with them. Like the creamed peas on toast. Can't wait to try them.

I made a menu this week with depression era type meals, and bought less than 30 items at the store and still spent almost $80! Tuna was $1.08 a can! Depression era menu...NOT depression era prices. :-(

Nancy

Aunt Jean

NataliaBC

Jusmom1, that is so wonderful that your mom watched her mom and wrote down her recipes.  

I thought I might have a recipe for cucumber salad from my family history book, but many of my grandmother's recipes were lost and we don't seem to have one for that.  However, I was curious and did an internet search to find a depression era recipe for it and found this:

"My grandmother was raising her 7 children on her own, during the depression years. This recipe has been reduced in servings since way back then.

Ingredients:

*Lemon Juice, 1/2 a lemon yields
Sour Cream, 2 tbsp 
Water, tap, 2 fl oz 
Cucumber (peeled), 1 large (8-1/4" long)
Clove of garlic, minced
Fresh dill weed 1 sprig
Scallions, raw, 1 large 
Salt 1 tsp.
Pepper Black 1/2 tsp.

Combine lemon juice, sour cream, water, salt & pepper, whisk to blend. Fine chop peeled cucumber and scallions.  Toss all together.   

from http://recipes.sparkpeople.com/recipe-detail.asp?recipe=1815617   

I hope that is something like what you remember.  :)

First of all thank you for the kind words about my longwinded posts.  Iived with my maternal grandparents during the week while both of my parents worked.  May of my memories are of their generation.  All of the woman in that family were great cooks.  I remember one time my grandmother found out shortly before linch (we called it dinner) that she would have a extra person for lunch.  She brough up jars of canned beef from the cellar and fixed it with potatoes and brown gravy.  For dessert she made vanilla pudding.  She had me out and pick mulberries from outside the kitchen. Luckily they were ripe.  She combined them with the pudding.   The extra guest was a man helping Grandad and he raved about the dinner and the pudding especially.  She also had other canned vegatables and pickles of all kinds.  Farm women were usually prepared for a fast meal  from the work they had done ahead  of time and stored to feed their families.   There was always canned fruits, jams and jellies, pickles, juices and vegies of all kinds.  Plus she canned a lot of meats.  All without a pressure cooker.  How hard the Depression women worked to feed everyone.  Aunt Jean

I am credited with posting the cucumber salad recipe.  I can't take credit.  I got my post right under hers by mistake.  I apologize.   As to the cucumber salad it sounds so good.   Being from the middle of the US  and probably the poorest part at that no one bought things they didn't have.  Growing up on a farm  we only bought a few lemons for out iced tea in the summer.  Very few.   Garlic was not used in our house at all.  I know other people used it but from a mostly Scotch Irish English community, cooking was what you grew and preserved on the farm and pretty plain. Not many herbs at all, just salt and pepper.  My Dad put mustard on all his meat.  Even Liver. Just how our family and reltives ate.   Thanks Aunt Jean.

I don't know about you all, but I need larger print. Anyway, I just loved listening to everyone on this thread. I got here through searching for depression era cooking and so many memories came flooding back that I thought were gone forever. And even though I will forget them again, it has been good being back in grandma's kitchen, even your grandma's kitchen. So many good ideas and ways have been lost and discarded with the advent of technology, that it is real nice to see I am not the only one looking for a taste of history. Thank you all for sharing. I have a recipe book from the 1920's that my great grandmother used. It even goes into detail on how to set the table.

This is the Foreward: The mistress of the home who is suddenly confronted with a household of company for either luncheon, dinner or supper may turn to the recipes which are provided and feel assured that any of them is perfect in its way adn will earn the hostess the appreciation of her guests. You will find simple recipes--and elaborate ones--chafing dish specialties--canapes and salads--all essential factors that make for the successful meal. And the height of accomplishment. 

An inspiration at the proper time,Whether in cooking or in rhyme,

Adds to the table a pungent zest, I've given you the recipes, you do the rest.

In sincerity, "Sonia" from Sonia's Cook Book  A collection De Luxe of Tested and Selected Recipes. circa 1920

Thank you to everyone who has posted. I have read every post and taken them all to heart. I was looking for budget friendly meals and found so much more. I was born in the 80's and although we did have some rough times it was not as bad as it was during the depression.

Again thank you everyone for sharing your memories and recipes :) BTW not sure if this is Depression era but in our family Fried Cabbage is a staple. We usually use he scraps form the easter or christmas ham and bacon grease as a base. Then add sliced cabbage and cook down until soft and almost translucent. Serve over rice with cornbread :)

My Nana had many recipes from the Depression era, but the best one (the one I still die over) is Macaroon Pie. It is another one using crackers, like mock apple. Here goes: 3 egg whites, 1 cu. sugar, 1 or a little more of finely rolled soda crackers (about one long sealed package), 2 tsp baking powder, 2 tsp almond extract. Mix well together all dry ingredients. Whip egg whites until stiff. Fold in to dry ingredients and add almond extract. Fold well but do not stir. Cook in lightly greased pyrex pie plate for about 20 or 30 minutes (it should be crunchy on top) Let cool before cutting. Serve with whipped cream (lightly sweetened) . Store in icebox, does well cold, and is really great without whipped cream, because many of us don't have it. This is so incredibly delicious, mainly for those of us who like almond flavor.