Great Depression Meals

I've seen scrapple in groceries here, with breakfast sausage section.

as a kid I enjoyed the Stouffer's chicken pot pies and the mac & cheese; also enjoyed hot dogs and baked beans and I remember my mom making cucumber sandwiches for herself; I never tried them.

My mom still enjoys banana in milk mushed up, as a sweet snack. She was born in '34
 
We ate a lot of leftover cold or room temperature rice with milk and nutmeg on it. My mother still likes it, but my son is a believer that there should be no leftovers. :lol:
 
that reminds me of rice pudding
your son seems like my dad:lol:
 
Beowulf said:
Spam came into being in 1937, well after the Great Depression.
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1937 is still within the Great Depression time period. Historians say it ended in the early 1940's, especially with the US entry into WWII.
 
Some of those dishes aren't too bad! But others... yikes! lol
 
Reba said:
TCS and I like chipped beef on toast. In the Navy, it has a different name--SOS. Not a nice name. I don't know why because it's actually not bad tasting. Maybe it was the appearance.
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I never had chipped beef on toast. My mom use made some kind of slop from Campbell chicken soup and put it on toast! And this was NOT during the Great
Depression! But it was enough to made you depress having to eat the slop! When my ex brother got married he wanted my mother to tell his wife how to make this!!
 
Reba said:
I love to eat cooked cabbage, especially cooked in the pot with corned beef, but it doesn't agree with my tummy afterward. :(
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That is a popular dish in New England on St Patrick Day . My parents would cook it one in awhile . We had it with boiled potatoes, cabbage, carrots and corned beef. I think we put brown mustard on food while eating it. It's called New England Boiled dinner.
 
We also used to eat a lot of creamed ground beef or creamed eggs on toast. That was Betty Crocker's medium cream sauce, with either chopped hard boiled egg or browned ground beef.

Daughter really likes it, son does not. I may make some again soon, but use my almond or rice milk.
 
Reba said:
My grandfather used to make dandelion wine. He was born in 1900, so he was an adult during the Depression.
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My dad was born around 1892 . He was 50 yo when he married my mother who was 25 yo. Dad would tell people that mom was his 'daughter' and us kids where his 'grand kids!' My mother had to try and keep from laughing out loud as people really believed my dad tall tale!
 
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whatdidyousay! said:
That is a popular dish in New England on St Patrick Day . My parents would cook it one in awhile . We had it with boiled potatoes, cabbage, carrots and corned beef. I think we put brown mustard on food while eating it. It's called New England Boiled dinner.
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My maternal grandmother made it for us at our house every year. She was originally from Massachusetts, and later Connecticut. Definitely New England. :)
 
KristinaB said:
We ate a lot of leftover cold or room temperature rice with milk and nutmeg on it. My mother still likes it, but my son is a believer that there should be no leftovers. :lol:
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My dad once took all the left over food and put it the blender and had this green glop ! His brother came over and asked dad what he was making and dad said 'soup' his brother kept telling dad "it was not going to work!" Dad asked his brother if that was a new hat he was wearing. His brother said "yes"
Dad said "let me see your new hat " And dad dumped the green glop into his brother new hat! That is what happen to left over food in our house!!
 
Reba said:
My maternal grandmother made it for us at our house every year. She was originally from Massachusetts, and later Connecticut. Definitely New England. :)
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Did you put brown mustard on the food? It been over 40 years and I am trying to recall the brown mustard. The cabbage smelled the most! I when out when my daughter and granddaughter and it was St. Patrick Day and I had a hard time finding something with no meat. I got a Greek salad thinking that would 'meat free' and it had corned beef in for St. Patrick Day!! I was so bummed out! I do not eat beef
and beef fat was all over my Greek salad !! GROSS!!
 
whatdidyousay! said:
Did you put brown mustard on the food? It been over 40 years and I am trying to recall the brown mustard. The cabbage smelled the most! I when out when my daughter and granddaughter and it was St. Patrick Day and I had a hard time finding something with no meat. I got a Greek salad thinking that would 'meat free' and it had corned beef in for St. Patrick Day!! I was so bummed out! I do not eat beef
and beef fat was all over my Greek salad !! GROSS!!
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My family is half Irish so we make that corned beef meal every year on St Paddy's Day and we use Horseradish mustard with it.
 
whatdidyousay! said:
There is Dandelion wine too! I knew someone that ate dandelion , she grew up in the Great Depression
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really? :barf:

whatdidyousay! said:
My dad was born around 1892 . He was 50 yo when he married my mother who was 25 yo. Dad was tell people that mom was his 'daughter' and us kids where his 'grand kids!' My mother had to try and keep from laughing out loud as people really believed my dad tall tale!
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:lol:
 
Move over Wikipedia. I learn a lot right here on Alldeaf.

It never ceases to amaze me the kinds of things I learn on here.
 
Lots of you will cringe, but remember I grew up at the tip of Appalachia.

I have eaten all but 3 of the items on that list. I can also add to it. Squirrel, raccoon, possum, cattail hearts, wild nuts and fruits and jelly water. That is when you rinse the jelly glass out with water and divide it among the kids for flavored drink.

Remember that hunger is very demanding. It helps when you come from a family of good shots and good cooks too. They could make anything taste good.
 
LDNanna said:
Lots of you will cringe, but remember I grew up at the tip of Appalachia.

I have eaten all but 3 of the items on that list. I can also add to it. Squirrel, raccoon, possum, cattail hearts, wild nuts and fruits and jelly water. That is when you rinse the jelly glass out with water and divide it among the kids for flavored drink.

Remember that hunger is very demanding. It helps when you come from a family of good shots and good cooks too. They could make anything taste good.
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Don't forget cattail bread, though you need to cheat to make it taste good. And pokeweed, there's so much of it! Heck, there's so much food out there just waiting to be picked and eaten! :|
 
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