My grandpa used to say, "If beans don't taste good for the 4th or 5th meal in a row, you haven't worked hard enough that day. Get down from the table and go muck out the stalls in the barn." Everyone ate their beans in silence.
Great gran used to have something called a bean bowl. It was what they used to sort good from bad beans and stones that came in the package. Mom inherited it
There is such a thing as lack of creativity!! I could subsist on bean variations for months while my husband can't stand them. He was overdosed on beans so much as a child he has great difficulties. I have turned him onto some variations but only in limited amounts. So, too much of a good thing turns it into a bad thing.
My grandma (who was born in 1919) always told me stories of the great depression that her parents went through and what type of meals they made/had. She would show me tricks they had for saving $ on just about everything. She would wipe of The aluminum foil she used, folded it up and reuse it & so many other things. One of the meals that she showed me how to make was the potato pancakes, but she would always add onions to hers… and the combination was absolutely delicious such a simple recipe, but tasted so good! She lived to the age of 95 & I miss her every day! She taught me so much & had so much wisdom to share. With what’s going on in the world today…. I am thankful to have learned those tips & recipes from my grandmother from so long ago… Because I have a feeling they’re going to come in real handy in the days/years to come.
Oh, please…..maybe sometime consider writing your grandma's tips down in a small book. People do need these ideas today, and in the foreseeable future. Your memories are treasures! I bet you could sell hundreds of your book.
About 15 years ago, I had a visit with an elderly neighbor and I went around her yard explaining all of the edible wild plants on her property. She was in awe. She said, "I wish somebody would have explained all this to me during the great depression. Then we would have had more to eat." She has since passed away. God rest her good, kind soul.
Yeah tell me about it when I came back to the states to visit because I live somewhere else. I was appalled by the poverty and and the cost of living I thought about relocating there but I can't afford it. It's too difficult to find a job where you're not working three jobs. The amount of work hours you have to work just to be able to rent an apartment. We better get Trump into office fast❤
@@meggrotte4760he wants tariffs of 200%+- that would absolutely destroy what limited gains we’ve made after how badly he handled 2020. And how bad his first set of tariffs went. He couldn’t even handle his business without constant bankruptcies, why would he be able to handle something that always fragile like an economy. He’ll send us back to 1930s with his tariffs, they made the Great Depression worse,
Well when you have a society where the one percent benefit the most and while inflation rises corporations make more money Yes the economy is doing good it's just the average citizen isn't benefiting from it. cuz you have people like musk, The fact that we have billionaires proves our economy has been fixed to help the wealthy become even wealthier while they get huge tax right offs and benefit from loopholes when billionaires only pay $700 or no taxes at all
I've had 6 kids and have never been rich. When I've made meatloaf, I've stretched out using leftover cooked rice. I usually planned meals a day in advance and if l didn't have any leftover cooked rice, l would cook some the day before just for the meatloaf the next day. I never had creamed peas on toast, but always as a side dish. And I've made Chicken A La King not just with rice or noodles but sometimes on toast or with homemade bisquits. My oldest daughter was born in 1975, and my youngest daughter was born in 1999, with four others born in between in 1978, 1979, 1983, and 1989. None of them died from starvation and I never had a lot of money. They ate cheap and now cook a lot of the things l used to cook.
My grandma raised her family during the depression. I'm still enjoying many of her budget meals. One is diced potatoes, sliced okra, and diced onion all fried up in bacon grease.
My dad is 88 years old , he drove up from Florida this week and told me and my brothers a story that we remember well, about how he would shoot rabbits and squirrels , for his step mom too cook , the depression lasted a long time in the south Virginia and North Carolina
I was raised in Michigan. City Chicken is what we called those mock chicken legs. Mother used to make potato pancakes and salmon cakes for a meal. In the summer for supper we might have bread and butter, corn on the cob, and sliced tomatoes. a winter version of that would be stewed tomatoes over torn up day old bread and a jar of home canned corn. Our place had a river running by and a woods. We fished and hunted. That gave us perch, squirrel, rabbit, and pheasant, as well as venison. We grew a big garden and had an orchard a fruit trees as well as berry bushes. We made pickles relish and sauerkraut. Grandpa even made pickled pigs feet. My other grandpa made cider. All in all, we got along pretty well.
Yep. Loved my mum's salmon patties, meatloaf, boiled dinner and potato pancakes. She could take hamburger, canned tomatoes, egg noodles and makeone wonderful dinner dish.
I can't imagine eating squirrel! Probably like musk rat though. I know people have eaten that. Daddy caught rabbit, possum and raccoon. Wild just the same. I guess when we're hungry, just bless and eat! (Just don't tell me if it's musk rat or squirrel!)🤣 MERRY CHRISTMAS! 🎄❤️✝️❤️🎄
I live in Pittsburgh,Pa. City Chicken is amazing, it's made with beef and pork small chunks on a wooden skewer (like a kabob) breaded and fried. It's usually eaten at Easter in Polish areas around here.
My grandmother was born in 1911. I was in 1956 . I remember as a child her making my sister and I creamed salmon and peas on toast when we would have sleepovers at her tiny cottage. ❤😊
I love all these foods, I don't even consider many of them depression foods but more comfort food now. My mother use to make alot of these foods as was growing up, I sure wish she was still living so she could make them. Rare she ever used recipes unless it was something new. She made the best pie crusts ever.
My Grandmother had wild Raspberry bushes in her back yard - they were all over Crested Butte, CO. She would go out and pick a big bowl and Raspberries then make Raspberry pies. Those were so good! I've made a couple myself and it is so reminiscent. I wish both my Mothers were alive again. I would among other things, ask them to show me some recipes that are now lost. They too didn't write it down. They made everything by and for heart.
SOS is great. I've raised 4 and make many of these meals today. I'm worried now though because it's fixing to get bad again and we barely afford these meals. Peace and Love to you and yours.
I loved creamed chipped beef on toast when I was growing up (I'm 71), but a while back when I decided to buy some packages of Buddig's chipped beef to make a batch it was shockingly expensive. When I was young you could buy it for around .39 a package. It turned out the Buddig's was too salty which I no longer like.
I live alone, which can make it difficult to eat fresh vegetables without anything going to waste. I make a clean-out-the-fridge soup the day before I go to the grocery store. It’s so versatile! A little vinegar and red pepper flakes makes it a hot & sour soup. Egg drop soup is easy, or poach whole eggs right in the soup for something different. If I’m feeling fancy I purée all the vegetables for a nice, smooth soup and throw in some milk (or non-milk) or the last piece of cheese. It is never the same twice, and it’s always delicious. 😋
I’m 72. I grew up on my grandma’s depression era recipes. My husband grew up on Southern depression foods. Today we still fix some of those dishes. Tonight it’s pork, fried cabbage and rice.
My mum used to take a bit of hamburger, cook it up with onions and garlic. then she would throw in stewed tomatoes, and egg noodles. I made it for my grandma in law and she loved it!
@@harrietharlow9929 Yes! Add a little Paprika, maybe Smoked Paprika and call it Hungarian Goulache. Oh, also add some sliced bell peppers, whichever color you like!
I think that Goulaches are one of the types of things that you can add anything left over in the refrigerator (great for cleaning time) and the kitchen sink! I love those meals. They taste great and use up stuff before it really gets bad and you have to throw it out!
Thank you! And it was brought to the south by African slaves. And it is now a staple in Virginia historical hotels. George Washington Carver was the scientist that analyzed the African food. For nutrition. For healthiness. And that’s why soul food is so good for our soul.❤
I love green peas on toast, homemade tomato soup, and pickle sandwiches. My grandma was born in 1900 and lived to the age of 98, boy could she cook. She and her sisters had to get up early, eat a quick breakfast, and then get ready to feed the farmhands. She taught my mom but it really is a lost art of some of those dishes. I only wish I was 1/10th of how good she was.
Our Grandparents and Parents worked hard so that we could have a better llife.....and we did, but the meals were so good that we kept on making them, and now our chidren don't realize the significance of these recipes....they just know that they taste good, much better than the fast food and TV dinners we have today. No comparison. And some of this stuff is not a whole lot more work than the other crap. And a lot cheaper!
Throughout the centuries, I believe thick soups were what people lived on. Today we eat more than we need and solid foods rather than thick soups. I love a meal of thick soup, any kind! Wonderful meals that usually dont make you really fat.
I think today we WASTE more than we eat. when people are trying to "cut carbs" and all that foolishness to lose weight, it messes with the body's biology by making people hungrier than usual and thus require MORE calories to sustain themselves. A bowl of rice or pasta goes a long way to keeping people energized, but everyone acts like it's "too fattening". cause it's "Carbs". and throw away half of it. Wasteful....utterly wasteful.
One quick fix if you want to thicken a soup, or even some sauces - add a handful of instant potato flakes. It thickens instantly and is shelf-stable so I just keep some in the pantry.
My beloved Mom grew up in the depression and told stories about how her dad would go out and shoot sparrows for them to have a little meat. My Mom was an excellent cook, and raised her 4 kids on a shoestring budget. She's been gone 31 years, and I miss her every single day.
My father grew up poor, started working at 14 years old for a circus to help support his family. Way later he became a “mess Sargent “ in the Army, and a Master Chef. He would make the best “Ice Box Soup “ from leftovers in our fridge. That was an amazing task considering we rarely had very much leftovers.
@@happycrabknits9109 Soup is the best. You can throw pretty much anything in there and it's delicious and usually pretty cheap. It's what I make when I have a bunch of veggies, random pantry items, or leftover meat and don't know what else to use it for. It all goes in a pot for soup. Good way to use up ingredients instead of letting them sit in my pantry for 5 years and eventually be thrown away lol.
We didn’t have much, but I didn’t know how hard things really were until I was an adult. We always had balanced meals, but no seconds, or snacks laying around. We worked, and played outdoors, watched very little tv in the evenings, and no one was overweight in most families I knew.
I guess they're considered an "odd food combination" but my mom and I used to eat peanut butter and pickle sandwiches when my parents were particularly tight on money because that's what we had the most of in the cupboard lol. I loved them at the time and thought of them as a treat for dinner, but I didn't realize until I was an adult the real reason we ate them.
I grew up on navy bean soup, rice pudding, meatloaf, veggie pies, mac n cheese, scalloped potatoes, potato soup, red beans and rice, etc. My mother fed her 10 children with homemade Penn-Dutch meals like smoked pork hock simmered with green beans, onions and potatoes. Also chicken pot pie made in one pot with one whole chicken. onions, potatoes and then once the meat was tender the chicken carcass was removed. chicken meat was added back to the pot. the day before my mother rolled out homemade noodles very thin, let them dry then cut them into bite-sized pieces. These were added to the pot to cook in the broth the next day. I still have that enormous stock pot she used.
Sounds very yummy. Know what to do with that carass? What we did after Thanksgiving ... Strip most of the meat from the bones (not too carefully; leave some on, like the hardest to remove especially! Then throw it in a pot with some chicken or turkey broth and some veges, some noodles like egg noodles and herbs/spices. Simmer it in a big pot for a few hours or all day on very low -- YUM! I never did, but if you don't want bones in the soup merely place the carcass in cheesecloth, tie it up and then remove the package after the soup's done. I like the added flavor and don't mind picking the bones out but if you have small children, I recommend the cheesecloth. You don't even need any thickening agents; the gelatin from the bones does the thickening.
They make these wonderful packets that have all the dried ingredients for split pea soup - all the peas and grains and seasoning. Look in/near the dried bean department. Tells you how to cook it up into a soup. Much better than canned! Add some ham if you like...
My father (born in 1910) hated casseroles so my mother never made them. (Except for "turkey tetrazzini" made from leftover Thanksgiving turkey.) My husband likes casseroles because he grew up on them but I almost never make them--maybe once every few years.
I'm from the hills of Tennessee and I ate some of these dishes when I was coming up in the '70s and '80s. There were nights when all we ate were boiled potatoes and Momma worked her magic and made a sauce with the starchy water and she baked a pone of cornbread and we drank a glass of cold raw milk. I wish I had asked her how she made the sauce so I could try making it for myself. Momma could make old shoe leather taste good!
Manys the night we had beans and rice. Served together it had a complete protein which many people didn't get. Pretty much hate it now...but at the time, it was heaven sent. Rice pudding we sometimes had for breakfast, cold or hot. People think the depression magically disappeared in the fifties, but the sad truth is in many places it lasted well into the sixties as it did for me and my folks.
🤷 Trying to be a frugal wife in the late 80s and 1990-2000 while still making food healthy and tasty, I often did serve brown rice pudding on weekend mornings with breakfast, whether made with cow's milk, soy milk, nut milk or even pureed tofu, always eggs, sugar/honey/maple syrup or whatever sweetener we were using, raisins or apples, spice, alongside eggs or fruit and yogurt; things like hearty bean soups (usually with a good deal of veggies thrown in), biscuits or dumplings or corn muffins and salad, etc, but even back then chicken, beef, and often fish prices were fairly reasonable.
It did for my folks too (last into the early 60s). By the time we came around in the 60s though, they no longer had to make beans every night for dinner so I grew up on some really fine meals that were actually pretty frugal just by nature of being tasty, but also had some nice steak dinners. Dad loved his steaks. He bought a deep-freeze then waited for really good sales and then stocked up on expensive meat. Dad was one of the first Programmers, and he also worked his 888 off so he made pretty good money and could afford good meals but he and Mom were still very frugal. So we ate very well.....but very tasty meals, some of which were very frugal. I was also not spoiled. Between them and my adopted Mom, I learned to make frugal but very tasty and varied meals and still do to this day (especially now that I'm retired) but could also experiment with some fine dining - experimented with some very fine and interesting ingredients. When I was younger I followed in Dad's footsteps and became a Software Engineer, but now I enjoy being at home and doing a lot of cooking.
I cook at home, fast food is very expensive now, and I have gone back to making my own bread, corn bread, pancakes, muffins, bisquits, etc. However, flour and cornmeal have gone up too, but still better and cheaper.
And you can freeze flour, cornmeal, coconut flour, etc., so it keeps a lot longer than when sitting on a pantry shelf. I cook and bake only for myself now, and have done the freezer storage for staples for years. Sure saves me a lot of angst and money.
Born in 1943, beans stayed on the menu for us though most of the 1950s. (My niece made hamburger gravy on biscuits through thier tough times of the 1970’s.) Tough times built creative cooks. I especially loved it when my mother made egg noodles to cook with a stewed chicken, Yum!. (Back when chicken had real flavor.) I also ate my share of various bean sandwiches in grade school. And i loved my grandmother’s smoked pork hocks and cabbage. Poverty is not necessarily tasteless, when a great creative cook is in charge, and grammy wast a great cook! My mother, her daughter, was a recipe cook, but she made sure her food was always vitamin packed, though she was a very frugal cook of necessity. And i too, learned from their creativity, managing through the hard times. My pantry, like my grandmother’s and Mother’s, is prepared for the hard times to come.
For rice pudding, my mother added either lemon flavoring or lemon zest, sometimes just vanilla to make it tasty. She loves lemon. As for carrots and turnips, the flavor is improved by adding brown sugar. Both veggies go better with brown sugar.
I learned first hand that gravy can cover a multitude of sins (slash that) foods. I have eaten gravy alone as a meal. Also gravy on bread, gravy on whatever you had available, at least it helps get rid of that knawing feeling of being truly & in explicably hungry. As a 60's kid, I never understood why my mom continued to garden & "can" @ home when one could just run to the grocery store. I understood that when she was growing up that the depression hit and food was scarace. Still it never really registered w me until I became an adult and had to do my "adulting" alone because my Mother had passed. Now I wished I had been canning all these years and not have to concern myself so much w what will I eat.
My Grandma did a lot of canning and I started canning too, when I grew up ;). I had a "Salsa Garden" with all ingredients to make salsa. I had so many tomatoes that I had to find ways to can them. I canned a lot of Salsa and Spaghetti sauce with all the vegetables and herbs. I labelled them and put them up in a dry dark cabinet. Years later, at least 5 years probaby more, I hesitantly opened them up and started using them. Ended up using them all and wishing I had made more. Not only were they perfectly fine (I was careful to read all the right instructions and warnings and used a pressure cooker and sterilized canning jars to properly can and seal them), they tasted great too! Think of all of the Salsa and Spaghetti Sauce ingredients sitting together in a jar after cooking to seal the jars.....mixing for over 5 years!! Totally yummy! Lasted just as long as any professionally sealed cans you'd buy at the store. Way better tasting. And free, save the price of some seeds and a few small plants. And some water.
I always hated and never ate my mother or mother-in-law's scalloped potatoes (both were French Canadian). I then tried them with milk instead of water - loved them ever since.
My Parents were from the depression era , I always wondered why they saved everything when they passed.... Now I know, especially what’s going on in today’s world. 🇺🇸Semper Fi
I lost both of my parents when I was 14 and lived with a dear aunt and uncle. After the war my uncle always worked in the food industry as a chef, butcher, etc. He and my aunt taught me how to season food which is really important. She had some small appliances that still worked from the 40's! Things were made to last in those days!
@@lindahandley5267 I bought my house in 1996 with applices made probaly in 1994-5. Frigidaire. They lasted until 2018. Not bad considering the times. Not as good as the 40s but not bad. I bought the replacement refrigerator, microwave and gas stovetop. Production since moved to China. The refrigerator is a piece of crap. You can't even put a gallon of milk on the top shelf. The shelves are immobile so you're stuck with the shelves where the Chinese wanted them. The ice maker never worked right; I have to move the lever myself to turn it off and on. The shipping plastic was put in place before the covers were installed so the edges of the plastic could never be completely removed! The microwave is similarly poorly designed. They added a small turntable so now half the interior is unusable. I can no longer cook larger items even though the outside of the Microwave is the same size. The features are fewer and work silly (you can't defrost something for 6 seconds; the minimum is about 15-20 seconds so I have to manually stop it if I want to soften butter or melt small amounts. Things like that. Now, the stovetop is dangerous. The grills are designed such that smaller pots don't sit very good unless you place them JUST RIGHT. Otherwise, it could tip in between the grates and let the (hot contents fly all over the place. Keep your children far away when you are cooking just in case! If you place a cutting board near the knobs, the knobs turn slightly enough to start trying to ignite. Many other really stupid design flaws like this when the previous version of the same models worked perfectly fine!! Not only lasted a lot longer before but designed twice as good for a fraction of the price. And we had the jobs, not China. This is why tariffs are a good thing, if jobs come back here and real Engineers can re-design them, get some good test Engineers to test them, put our people back to work to improve the economy so that we can make these foods because they taste good and not because we have no other choice.
@@fhill2895 That sounds like a LOT of problems! I built my house in 2000, so its 25 years old now. I've never had many problems before recently. Before Christmas, my fridge went out, the oven went out, the t.v. went out and now, the lights over the kitchen sink, and the ceiling lights went out and yesterday my coffee maker went out, the faucet in the kitchen sink broke, so I'm just waiting to see what's next.Oh and my washing machine died. Dang! I need to start living better! Maybe 2025 will be a much better year. I'm about to have my kitchen cabinets painted. It's ALWAYS something when you have a home! I hope things get better for you Fhill! Thanks for sharing!🤗
They keep showing an old TV but TV didnt come into being until the 1950s, way after the depression! I grew up with parents who made these dishes. Both were very badly affected by the depression. I loved split pea soup, and creamed peas were a standard lunch with tuna in it and maybe some cooked carrots in it as well. And if we had eggs, a hard boiled egg would be sliced in. All served on toast. Yup. Great meals.
Back in the 70's when I was a kid we had a lot of cheap dinners from sandwiches to soups but we didn't starve. occasionally we had a fancy meal like macaroni and cheese among other delicious foods back in the 1970's but thanks for the classic food memories of the past thank you.😋🧆🍝🍲🍛😋
My mom made most of these dishes. She learned from her Mom who was around in the depression. She taught me how to cook them. She would make the corn beef hash into a soup. Her corn bread cakes were amazing. I’d forgotten that I knew how to cook with actual basic ingredients. Thanks for sharing. Brought back good memories.
My mom and dad were born in the very early 1900's. I was the youngest in our family.....Mom use to make a special dinner for company...she would make a large batch of biscuits and pat the dough out in cake layer pans.....then bake them in the oven....mean while she would make a large batch of white sauce and add a can of chopped asparagus and cooked onions..... into the white sauce....then she split the two very large biscuits in half and layer them with the asparagus sauce and stacked up like a layer cake and sprinkle the top with sliced boiled eggs.... Asparagus Short Cake.... everyone loved it. 🎉🎉
I still make a lot of these foods. My grandparents & parents lived through the Depression, so, you learned to make filling meals with what you had on hand.
My mom makes creamed tuna with peas over mashed potatoes. And over toast the next day for lunch. Its made the same way as creamed peas you just add drained canned tuna. And it's still one of my favorite meals
😆 I'm French -creole and beans and rice is a staple At my house! Only thing My family uses pinto beans instead of kidney beans my Dad hated kidney beans!❤❤❤❤❤
I use pinto beans, or kidney beans (LOVE them!), or cannellini beans, black beans...anything except butter beans....to make my beans and rice. But I'm just plain old American---English ancestry, nothing remarkable---and I like nearly every bean there is. I've even used leftover 15-bean soup with which to make beans and rice.
@dawniesimon I hope that you enjoy your beans and cornbread Did you see some bacon grease in the cornbread? It makes it taste sooooo good pass the green onion and the cheese please! 😄😄😄
I don't like kidney beans either,, I use pinto beans in my chili,, and we like them by their self with mashed potatoes& meats,. I mash them. Up& make refried beans when we make taco's& Burritos.
My mother grew up during the Great Depression and when I was growing up in the 1970's she would still cook Depression-era type meals and they were good. Fried potatoes and onions, meatless spaghetti except she made her own sauce instead of using store-bought, Spanish rice, and hash.
Funny my kids prefer spaghetti without meat .. we’ve had tough times of our own beans and rice and deer got us through a very tough winter our kids were small so they didn’t notice how tough things really were
There aren't a lot of American food places around any more ;(. They just recently closed one of my favorite restaurants - an Irish place. They made Corned Beef & Cabbage, Irish Stew and one of my favorites - Shephard's Pie. That's another one of those great era meals: In a casserole dish, layer any kind of cooked meat at the bottom, cover that in gravy (although my favorite lately has been to replace this with Campbell's Asparagus soup, no added water, use any kind of cream soup that you like), then a layer of your favorite vegetable - sweet corn or peas are a great option (I prefer frozen peas over canned), topped with mashed potatoes until everything is covered. Place this in the oven at 350 and bake until hot throughout; doesn't take long since it's cooked already. Maybe broil on low until the potatoes are browned a bit - to taste. Ground beef or other meat, cooked, is nice and cheap for the bottom layer; I had bought some cans of cooked beef/pork chunks during the pandemic and ended up using those a couple of times with great results. This is a wonderful meal-in-a-casserole-like-a-meat-and-potatoes-but-not-stew casserole. Really different and can be made as cheap as you like or on pay-day made with some really nice pieces of meat......even a very great use of left-over roast meat. Beef, Pork, Lamb if you like it - whatever kind of meat works. Quickly made and really good leftovers too. Can even prepare ahead of time and freeze to use instead of TV dinners. Just pop in the oven for a short time and voila!
I remember my grandma telling me about when she and my grandfather were first married they lived and worked on a potato farm and that's often all they had to eat along with onions,maybe on paydays they'd buy some salt pork. My mom told me about eating saltine crackers with a bit of hot water to soften,a dab of butter and a sprinkle of sugar. She still sometimes makes a soup from those times, potatoes, green or wax beans or peas, canned evaporated milk, butter/margarine and salt and pepper. Usually served with a slice of buttered bread. It's actually pretty tasty.
This is a great video. My Grandmother and my uncles grew up in The Great Depression. Years later she couldn’t touch rice. She was an amazing woman and a phenomenal cook. We didn’t have a lot of money, but she always filled my stomach up.
When my husband was little his mother made the same meals each week only changing up for holidays. He said he never wondered "what's for supper." His father worked in the coal mines. He had 3 sisters. They had a huge coal-fired kitchen range.There was no furnace, that old stove had to do. Like me, they grew up poor. There was no food pantries, welfare or freebees of any kind. But we made it and didn't bitch and moan either.
My Grandpa also was a coal miner! He and Grandma also had a coal stove that heated the whole house and heated the water too! Grandma had to keep the stove going all day - bringing up buckets of coal from the basement several times a day. That's why they never needed exercise machines in those days -- regular day-to-day activities gave them 10 times the exercise we get today. If the stove wasn't kept burning all day, you didn't have hot water and the house wasn't very warm. No need to pre-heat the stove. It was ready to cook at the snap of a finger. Every summer, they purchased a big truckload of coal - maybe a ton give or take? The truck would pull up close to a window just above ground, the top of the basement in the coal room, and shovel the coal in through the window. Life used to be a lot harder, but in many ways it was better. People got a lot of exercise. There wasn't a lot of Entertainment; they made their own. A lot of musicians in those days. A lot of live Entertainment that was varied and creative. Gardening was the hobby. Horse-back riding was a necessity. The only smog was from the coal burning (let me tell you; the air was even worse. Burned coal in the air fills your nostrils and they become very sooty). I did like the smell in the air. Completely different from City air.
we were snowed in....nine feet of snow between us and the side road. He told me there as nothing in the fridge to eat. Pulling it apart, removing all the drawers and doors. I found a few withered carrots and celery, a few sad potatos. There as a handful of rice left in the bag. There as something frozen into the side of the freezer, and chipping it out, I found a small bird. There were a few slices of stale bread, some garlic, and a bit of margerine. By the time he got back from ploing....we had bird soup and grilled garlic bread. "what...KIND of bird?" "hell if I know. It was in your freezer." After four hours in bitter cold, he said it as the best "bird soup" he ever ate! Nowadays we are moving back; more beans, less meat. More foraging, less processed food. Turnips and carrots; parsnips, beets. MUCH LESS processed white flour. I'm going to try versions of a few of those!!!
My grandfather was born in 1897 he planted seeds along dirt roads in his town to feed everyone that needed he also had mules that kept his neighbors working to make $ logging out Pymatuning Lake in Ohio/PA today. Old ways work it’s time tested! We still make his hard cider recipe today some things should last forever!! ❤
Oh my, these meals are those that we eat so often. Ate them because they are so satisfying. Ate them because they are so good. Try potato sausage soup. Yum Yum good!
Tomorrow I'm making a sausage gumbo with smoked link sausage, okra, tomatoes, onions, celery, bell pepper, homemade chicken stock, and some 'gumbo filet' seasoning mixed in at the end before serving over rice with a crispy french bread! 😋
@@leslietittle8968 Wow. You had to make do with what you had! I can't remember the kinds of dishes my grandmothers made for my mother and her 8 siblings, but they had fields of veggies, chickens and I guess some beef. I do remember them saying that everything was very tasty.
We don't know what is coming so these recipes are awesome.. You all been raised poorly...we were raisedby alcoholic parents..so we didn't have much to eat, i was so thin you could see my bones...I was too young to cook and i needed to know how to cook..I stayed will an eating disorder for yrs...i was used to not eating but had my mother stopped drinking she was the best cook...when i would come home from school and there was a boiling pot on our woodstove i knew my mom was sober and a meal was being done...these recipes here i wish i would have known...I'll be sure to keep this channel. ...now my problem is my mate never experienced not having food..they were on the richer side...the bad side of this is that he's fussy eater...i get angry with him...he doesn't like this or that...🙄
My Mom made that cream pea dish, over toast. With corned beef in there too. She could make anything taste good. Now, few people can cook, not even with quality ingredients. You go to the store and there's less and less fresh food and more and more processed packaged food that costs a fortune and tastes like crap. The younger generation doesn't know what it's like to eat fresh wholesome food done up by a great cook.
Coconut milk? Johnny Cakes pictured recipe. Oops. They probably meant evaporated milk, or powdered milk. Coconut milk was not a thing during the depression.
I still cook like this is was born in 52 so my mom taught me how to cook all of this stuff but my great grand ma was from Germany and French cooking so all the stuff had sauces and wonderful desserts so not a bunch of food but it was great.you know we Americans are pretty tuff we survived through alot of stuff, but I have always lived with Jesus and he never left us begging for bread. He was always there for us 😊
Also as a tea. One of my friends makes dandelion tea during dandelion season here in our state, and she freeze dries as much as she can to have throughout our short winters.
My grandma was born right before the depression hit and was the 3rd oldest of 10 kids, several were born during the depression. My great-grandparents were country rural folks, they raised their own pigs and gardens...so all the kids learned how to stretch money and food. There are several of these meals that I grew up eating. I can remember my grandma telling me stories when she would be cooking about how they stretched things. Some of my favorite meals are from back then....like the potato soup...or meatloaf. She taught me how to cook...and I will always cherish those memories. Thank you for tak8ng me down memory lane ❤
Growing up, we loved it when mom made soup beans (navy beans with a little bacon or ham) and hot fresh bread with butter. Mmmmm!!! It lasted for 2-3 days and we weren't complaining!
You know, there are some stores - Walmart being one at times - that sell frozen bread dough. Ready-made and formed in the shape of a loaf; all you have to do is thaw out the dough and place in a loaf pan (after greasing it so the loaf doesn't stick; I like to add parchment paper then it's really easy to get out). Bake per instructions - doesn't take long, maybe 10 minutes or so. Turn the pan upside down on a wire rack after it cools a little bit and tap the loaf out. You can either taste a slice of this lovey warm bread, maybe with some butter - YUM or wait and and eat it when you need bread for something. I recommend slicing (gently, with a serrated knife) on an as-needed basis. Another benefit to home-made bread. Smells the house up nicely. If you are solo and can't eat a whole loaf of bread, cut it in half, place half in a plastic zip-lock or loosely seal on a Foodsaver (on pulse; don't vacuum-seal too tightly else it will squeeze the bread back into dough!). Thaws out tasting just about like it did when you froze it. I also found that it lasts pretty long too, but it's not stuffed with preservatives like ready-made bread loafs are today. Notice how you can find an old loaf of that bread and it's not moldy or "bad" yet - but still doesn't taste very good? 8P
My Mom was born in 1949, her parents were born in the 20's so they ate very simple meals. When she was growing up there were 9 kids and my Grandparents didn't have much money so they had beans Monday through Thursday, Friday was fish night, and Sunday's they had chicken. My grandparents kept chickens in the backyard and that's what they ate.
I'm in my 60's but complaining about what's on ur plate wasn't a thought. Just grateful for it. We are so spoiled today and its ashamed. Not much appreciation. And if one needs to improvise, could you? Be humble and smart.
When my grandparents were kids during the Great Depression, they grew up eating sautéed cabbage with chopped bacon. Then, in the 50’s, 60’s, and 70’s when struggling on a teacher’s salary, they made that for my dad and his sisters when they were growing up. I had it back in the 80’s when i was very young and my family struggled. Now as an adult, its now delicacy since bacon is expensive in my area. Good thing instant ramen noodles and canned fish are cheap. Make that with cabbage thats under a dollar at my local stores and i have a hardy meal to get me through rough moments. Im definitely going keep these dishes in mind for next year when the tariffs and trade war hits next month.
I havean adult daughter who makes rice just so she can make rice pudding, shefell in love with it at my cousins house,her elderly great aunt who parents, were off the boat from sweeden made it for every gathering!
Yep my mom made it with raisins in it. I always remember she put a pan of water in the oven with it to keep it moist. Then warm milk in your bowl with it if you wanted.
Wow I remember those days it’s 100% all true! I would feel the pressure cooking breakfast lunch and dinner when we financially struggle! But my meals in those days came out so delicious using lots of garlic 🧄 onions rosemary herbs plants from my own garden including potatoes🥔! I used to bake lots of homemade fresh corn bread
Potatoes are so easy to grow! At least here in Southern California. Take a potato, especially one that has started to sprout already and too old to eat. Dig a hole and plant the potato, then cover it up. Water it, maybe a little bit of fertilizer and a couple/few months later (after the sprouted plant has flowered then started to die), dig around the bottom of the plant and find wonderful big potatoes, some small ones too :). Voila you are done! All from a potato that you couldn't eat but didn't want to waste, either.
🙏Thank❤You🙏 for the Lovely Wonderful old recipes of the 1920 depression meals! Wonderful video I loved it made miss my old days with my beloved parents grandparents thank you❤
My Dad’s favorite was navy beans! Made the whole house stink. He just passed at 94.😂 I always cooked for him but when he wanted navy beans I cooked them at his house.
My parents went through the depression and I grew up in the 50's. My mother made a lot of these recipes including yorkshire pudding which is basically eggs flour and milk. I still remember Wednesday night was spaghetti night my favorite.
My mother was born in 1923 so she was still young when the depression hit. I was born in the 1950s but I grew up on alot of these foods. I still make them. I learned other meals from my SIL who came from large family and they did alot w/ what little they had at times.
My Grandma Ruggera (born early 1900s) made the best homemade Spaghetti Sauce. Wonderful, never had tasted such unique sauce and haven't since she passed away. She was a wonderful cook. Best woman that I have ever met in my life. All 4'8" ? of her :). I can still see her in her 40s housedress (this in the 60s and 70s) and body-long apron which she wore all day long unless she went out. She had the biggest smile, always smiled and was the sweetest thing. Never complained no matter what. And I know what now because I'm almost her age and inherited the family arthritis. No fun. I don't know how she did it!
I remember eating Creamed peas. Sometimes over toast or biscuits. Sometimes with leftover cooked beef or chicken. Also creamed beef over toast or biscuits Aka: “S-O-S” 🤗
I love fried tater sandwiches, bean soup, rice pudding, veggie soup, all the dishes in this video. I'm going to make some gravy, heat up one of my homemade biscuits, and have supper now!❤️yummy!!
@@robertpace1622 Take that fried potato, scrambled egg and a breakfast meat like fried sausage, bacon or kielbasa...mix and you have a lovely breakfast!
Dandelion, rocket, arugula, cress, sorrel, chickweed, garlic mustard, chives, wild thyme all grow in my backyard, and if you live in the the US, probably in yours too. If you forage, be sure to wash it all thoroughly and maybe soak in salt water for a minute before rinsing and serving in a salad or sauteing. The addition of a little fresh or dried garlic and onion in the oil offsets and compliments dandelion greens.
I make a salad out of dandelion leaves, and wood sorrel leaves. I organically garden so I don’t have to worry about the pesticides. I’m curious if the other plants you named grow in my area. I’ll have to look them up. I know we still have wild chicory although it’s not as prevalent as it used to be when I was growing up.
Just curious, do you have any rabbits or other pesky critters? I have a lot of rabbits behind my house so as soon as I try to grow lettuce, it disappears, bit by bit :\. If you have them too, what do you do?
@@marygreen2672 Right-I live in Illinois & lunch was lunch & the last meal of the day was supper. We never called any meal dinner but I’ve heard co-workers in Illinois call lunch dinner. Back in the 1960’s I never heard the word dinner used unless you called a meal chicken dinner
We had breakfast, lunch and supper as well. However, a big meal like a roast was called dinner whenever it was served. Typically around 2 pm on Sundays or occasionally at 5 or 6 pm on weekdays, although it was very rare to have a weekday roast.
@revrotunda3206 , I call the last meal supper and I live in Illinois. Maybe people in orher states call it dinner. Oh well. Yes a chicken dinner if u go out to eat😭 I was born in 61. Have a great day and enjoy your lunch and supper😁
@@revrotunda3206 born and raised in AZ from a Mother from Colorado, and a Dad born in Oklahoma but raised in AZ. We had breakfast, lunch at noon-time and finally dinner in the evening around 6-7pm. No supper.
Egg drop soup is one of my favorite soups. I make it now with chicken bone broth and free range eggs, very lightly garnished with either a splash of sesame oil and soy sauce, or crumbled bacon and minced green onion.
Me 2 I love egg drop soup...crazy new thing I tried was added egg (just like you make your egg drop & added broccoli n cheese to it)... another recipe I created was a "potato stock" (you can also use "pasta stock" but my preference in the tuna fish soup is potato) to make a tuna fish soup....hence (tuna fish, peas, diced potatoes, spices of your chosing).. nowadays MAYO for the salads has drained the budget.. tuna oil is probably healthier than the mayo oils (despite many varieties) I want to go simple, heart healthy...for those willing to try it. Let me know....open to feedback....
I like to add vinegar in mine as well, maybe even some hot chili oil and a little honey well mixed in. Make it half egg-drop and the other half sweet, hot and sour, another of my favorites :)
My grandpa used to say, "If beans don't taste good for the 4th or 5th meal in a row, you haven't worked hard enough that day. Get down from the table and go muck out the stalls in the barn." Everyone ate their beans in silence.
That s true...
Great gran used to have something called a bean bowl. It was what they used to sort good from bad beans and stones that came in the package. Mom inherited it
Smart grandpa 😂😂
Lol 😂
There is such a thing as lack of creativity!! I could subsist on bean variations for months while my husband can't stand them. He was overdosed on beans so much as a child he has great difficulties. I have turned him onto some variations but only in limited amounts. So, too much of a good thing turns it into a bad thing.
One of the recipes that my Mom brought from the depression was fried potatoes with fried cabbage and I still enjoy it at 75.
yes , my Mom & Grandmother did, as well. Thanks for jogging my memory 😊
Good eats
What is the recipe?
I make it every week. Fried in bacon grease😋
A favorite of mine too
My grandma (who was born in 1919) always told me stories of the great depression that her parents went through and what type of meals they made/had. She would show me tricks they had for saving $ on just about everything. She would wipe of The aluminum foil she used, folded it up and reuse it & so many other things. One of the meals that she showed me how to make was the potato pancakes, but she would always add onions to hers… and the combination was absolutely delicious such a simple recipe, but tasted so good! She lived to the age of 95 & I miss her every day! She taught me so much & had so much wisdom to share. With what’s going on in the world today…. I am thankful to have learned those tips & recipes from my grandmother from so long ago… Because I have a feeling they’re going to come in real handy in the days/years to come.
I love potato cakes with onion my mom's parents were poor so she knew that one. I even add mustard to mine is really good
WoW! What a blessing for you to have heard all those stories from your grandmother.
My Grandma, born in 1922 was adding onion and a clove of garlic to potato pancakes. I do the same.
It is a recept from Germany. Maybe some grandmas had German parends. The name is Reibekuchen.
Oh, please…..maybe sometime consider writing your grandma's tips down in a small book. People do need these ideas today, and in the foreseeable future. Your memories are treasures! I bet you could sell hundreds of your book.
About 15 years ago, I had a visit with an elderly neighbor and I went around her yard explaining all of the edible wild plants on her property. She was in awe. She said, "I wish somebody would have explained all this to me during the great depression. Then we would have had more to eat." She has since passed away. God rest her good, kind soul.
Knowledge is power!
These ideas are greatly needed these days. No matter how much the politicians lie about how “good” the economy is.
Yeah tell me about it when I came back to the states to visit because I live somewhere else. I was appalled by the poverty and and the cost of living
I thought about relocating there but I can't afford it. It's too difficult to find a job where you're not working three jobs.
The amount of work hours you have to work just to be able to rent an apartment.
We better get Trump into office fast❤
We need to get people to hold these higher up accountable for price gouging. Stop giving the rich tax breaks.
@@meggrotte4760he wants tariffs of 200%+- that would absolutely destroy what limited gains we’ve made after how badly he handled 2020. And how bad his first set of tariffs went. He couldn’t even handle his business without constant bankruptcies, why would he be able to handle something that always fragile like an economy. He’ll send us back to 1930s with his tariffs, they made the Great Depression worse,
@@That.Lady.withtheYarnYou need to do a lot more research. Maybe shut your mouth until you do? Absolutely incorrect in what you are saying.
Well when you have a society where the one percent benefit the most and while inflation rises corporations make more money Yes the economy is doing good it's just the average citizen isn't benefiting from it. cuz you have people like musk, The fact that we have billionaires proves our economy has been fixed to help the wealthy become even wealthier while they get huge tax right offs and benefit from loopholes when billionaires only pay $700 or no taxes at all
As I grew up in the 1970s, we ate leftover rice just with butter and sugar as dessert. I liked it.
Rice pudding with raisins! Yum!
Me too!
My mother would do something similar with white bread--toast with butter, cinnamon and sugar.
Butter and brown sugar..yummy
and cinnamin
I've had 6 kids and have never been rich. When I've made meatloaf, I've stretched out using leftover cooked rice. I usually planned meals a day in advance and if l didn't have any leftover cooked rice, l would cook some the day before just for the meatloaf the next day. I never had creamed peas on toast, but always as a side dish. And I've made Chicken A La King not just with rice or noodles but sometimes on toast or with homemade bisquits. My oldest daughter was born in 1975, and my youngest daughter was born in 1999, with four others born in between in 1978, 1979, 1983, and 1989. None of them died from starvation and I never had a lot of money. They ate cheap and now cook a lot of the things l used to cook.
I made "food box" meals. I had to rely on food bank and donations from friends and free school lunch.
God Bless
Hamburger or weenie soup with hoe cakes!
Bacon grease always on dandelion greens sliced hard boiled egga
It’s called city chicken
Cabbage, potatoes and ham are another good meal
Or slice up some kielbasa instead of the ham.
Oh yes!
@@margarettickle9659
Kielbasa good to mix in with rice & beans
Still make this ❤
Colcannon
My grandma raised her family during the depression. I'm still enjoying many of her budget meals. One is diced potatoes, sliced okra, and diced onion all fried up in bacon grease.
Yum
I made poor man's stroganoff it turned out well
My grandma used to make a wonderful goulash.
@@tealelliott3870 my dad still loves okra 🤔😵💫😝 but I can't even look at it 😵💫
Same my.mom.had to do it at 5 years old her ma had died.
Growing up in Virginia, we call "dinner," the noon meal. In the evening we eat supper.
Me too
Same in Iowa and Wisconsin!!
Breakfast, dinner, and supper!!!
Iowa also. Still do
@AmyWilcox-xb3sb I always thought it was a Southern thing , maybe Midwest too
Missouri too
My dad is 88 years old , he drove up from Florida this week and told me and my brothers a story that we remember well, about how he would shoot rabbits and squirrels , for his step mom too cook , the depression lasted a long time in the south Virginia and North Carolina
I was raised in Michigan. City Chicken is what we called those mock chicken legs. Mother used to make potato pancakes and salmon cakes for a meal. In the summer for supper we might have bread and butter, corn on the cob, and sliced tomatoes. a winter version of that would be stewed tomatoes over torn up day old bread and a jar of home canned corn. Our place had a river running by and a woods. We fished and hunted. That gave us perch, squirrel, rabbit, and pheasant, as well as venison. We grew a big garden and had an orchard a fruit trees as well as berry bushes. We made pickles relish and sauerkraut. Grandpa even made pickled pigs feet. My other grandpa made cider. All in all, we got along pretty well.
Yep. Loved my mum's salmon patties, meatloaf, boiled dinner and potato pancakes. She could take hamburger, canned tomatoes, egg noodles and makeone wonderful dinner dish.
I can't imagine eating squirrel! Probably like musk rat though. I know people have eaten that. Daddy caught rabbit, possum and raccoon. Wild just the same. I guess when we're hungry, just bless and eat! (Just don't tell me if it's musk rat or squirrel!)🤣
MERRY CHRISTMAS! 🎄❤️✝️❤️🎄
I miss pheasant hunting with my dad. We'd take a day off from school if he had a mid-week day off from the fire department.
I live in Pittsburgh,Pa. City Chicken is amazing, it's made with beef and pork small chunks on a wooden skewer (like a kabob) breaded and fried. It's usually eaten at Easter in Polish areas around here.
I love Michigan!
My grandmother was born in 1911. I was in 1956 . I remember as a child her making my sister and I creamed salmon and peas on toast when we would have sleepovers at her tiny cottage. ❤😊
I still make creamed salmon, but no peas because I don’t like them! It tasted great!
I like creamed peas on toast! I prefer to use frozen peas tho. And a sliced boiled egg or tuna thrown in. Good stuff!! 😋
I love all these foods, I don't even consider many of them depression foods but more comfort food now. My mother use to make alot of these foods as was growing up, I sure wish she was still living so she could make them. Rare she ever used recipes unless it was something new. She made the best pie crusts ever.
My Grandmother had wild Raspberry bushes in her back yard - they were all over Crested Butte, CO. She would go out and pick a big bowl and Raspberries then make Raspberry pies. Those were so good! I've made a couple myself and it is so reminiscent. I wish both my Mothers were alive again. I would among other things, ask them to show me some recipes that are now lost. They too didn't write it down. They made everything by and for heart.
I still love and eat most of these things. My grandmother made creamed chipped beef on toast, I love it!
SOS is great. I've raised 4 and make many of these meals today. I'm worried now though because it's fixing to get bad again and we barely afford these meals. Peace and Love to you and yours.
SOS Love this
I make it even today, but have always preferred it on mashed potatoes, along with a generous helping of hot buttered peas. My favorite "comfort" food!
I loved creamed chipped beef on toast when I was growing up (I'm 71), but a while back when I decided to buy some packages of Buddig's chipped beef to make a batch it was shockingly expensive. When I was young you could buy it for around .39 a package.
It turned out the Buddig's was too salty which I no longer like.
My grandma made that too
I make a "end of the week" soup. What ever was a leftover goes into beef or chicken stock, add a few potatoes and beans. My husband's favorite meal.
We make this for Sunday lunch.
I live alone, which can make it difficult to eat fresh vegetables without anything going to waste. I make a clean-out-the-fridge soup the day before I go to the grocery store. It’s so versatile! A little vinegar and red pepper flakes makes it a hot & sour soup. Egg drop soup is easy, or poach whole eggs right in the soup for something different. If I’m feeling fancy I purée all the vegetables for a nice, smooth soup and throw in some milk (or non-milk) or the last piece of cheese. It is never the same twice, and it’s always delicious. 😋
I think that's a really great idea, and I'm going to try it! A genius idea!😊❤
@@auntielaura5 Spring-cleaning soup! Yum! (really)
I’m 72. I grew up on my grandma’s depression era recipes. My husband grew up on Southern depression foods. Today we still fix some of those dishes. Tonight it’s pork, fried cabbage and rice.
Me too! Some of my favorite things are recioes my mom and grandma passed down to me.
My mum used to take a bit of hamburger, cook it up with onions and garlic. then she would throw in stewed tomatoes, and egg noodles. I made it for my grandma in law and she loved it!
Sounds delicious!
@@harrietharlow9929 Yes! Add a little Paprika, maybe Smoked Paprika and call it Hungarian Goulache. Oh, also add some sliced bell peppers, whichever color you like!
I think that Goulaches are one of the types of things that you can add anything left over in the refrigerator (great for cleaning time) and the kitchen sink! I love those meals. They taste great and use up stuff before it really gets bad and you have to throw it out!
0:18 peanut butter soup is the same as groundnut soup. Ground nut stew originated in Ghana, Africa🤎🖤🤎🖤🤎
Thank you! And it was brought to the south by African slaves. And it is now a staple in Virginia historical hotels.
George Washington Carver was the scientist that analyzed the African food. For nutrition. For healthiness. And that’s why soul food is so good for our soul.❤
Sounds yummy
🎉Exactly 🎉😊😊😊
I was looking for this comment! We literally eat this all the time. With fufu, rice, etc. It's not weird at all. 😂😂
@@erikaellieansah1564what’s fufu? A type of bread?
My family still cooks those dishes to this day. I like to keep things simple, and it’s the perfect choice for us.
I love green peas on toast, homemade tomato soup, and pickle sandwiches. My grandma was born in 1900 and lived to the age of 98, boy could she cook. She and her sisters had to get up early, eat a quick breakfast, and then get ready to feed the farmhands. She taught my mom but it really is a lost art of some of those dishes. I only wish I was 1/10th of how good she was.
My dad joined the British merchant marine in 1934, he was fourteen, I asked him once why he joined he said “so I could eat”👏
Our Grandparents and Parents worked hard so that we could have a better llife.....and we did, but the meals were so good that we kept on making them, and now our chidren don't realize the significance of these recipes....they just know that they taste good, much better than the fast food and TV dinners we have today. No comparison. And some of this stuff is not a whole lot more work than the other crap. And a lot cheaper!
My parents grew up during the depression. We ate these meals regularly. It reminds me of my childhood.
Mine too!
Throughout the centuries, I believe thick soups were what people lived on. Today we eat more than we need and solid foods rather than thick soups. I love a meal of thick soup, any kind! Wonderful meals that usually dont make you really fat.
I think today we WASTE more than we eat. when people are trying to "cut carbs" and all that foolishness to lose weight, it messes with the body's biology by making people hungrier than usual and thus require MORE calories to sustain themselves. A bowl of rice or pasta goes a long way to keeping people energized, but everyone acts like it's "too fattening". cause it's "Carbs". and throw away half of it. Wasteful....utterly wasteful.
100% agree!
And soups and stews are much better for the gut.
One quick fix if you want to thicken a soup, or even some sauces - add a handful of instant potato flakes. It thickens instantly and is shelf-stable so I just keep some in the pantry.
My beloved Mom grew up in the depression and told stories about how her dad would go out and shoot sparrows for them to have a little meat. My Mom was an excellent cook, and raised her 4 kids on a shoestring budget. She's been gone 31 years, and I miss her every single day.
We need some recipes,,,please😊
My father grew up poor, started working at 14 years old for a circus to help support his family. Way later he became a “mess Sargent “ in the Army, and a Master Chef. He would make the best “Ice Box Soup “ from leftovers in our fridge. That was an amazing task considering we rarely had very much leftovers.
These days the soups and other meals are so expensive in restaurants. So wonderful to make them at home.
Just made a lentil soup for dinner love soup year round
@@happycrabknits9109 Soup is the best. You can throw pretty much anything in there and it's delicious and usually pretty cheap. It's what I make when I have a bunch of veggies, random pantry items, or leftover meat and don't know what else to use it for. It all goes in a pot for soup. Good way to use up ingredients instead of letting them sit in my pantry for 5 years and eventually be thrown away lol.
I know, right!? And so much better homemade.
We didn’t have much, but I didn’t know how hard things really were until I was an adult. We always had balanced meals, but no seconds, or snacks laying around. We worked, and played outdoors, watched very little tv in the evenings, and no one was overweight in most families I knew.
I'm 71. I can only remember two girls in my elementary school who were obese. Everyone was normal weight (not the teachers, though).
Same here. We didn’t eat seconds and there were no snacks
I guess they're considered an "odd food combination" but my mom and I used to eat peanut butter and pickle sandwiches when my parents were particularly tight on money because that's what we had the most of in the cupboard lol. I loved them at the time and thought of them as a treat for dinner, but I didn't realize until I was an adult the real reason we ate them.
I grew up on navy bean soup, rice pudding, meatloaf, veggie pies, mac n cheese, scalloped potatoes, potato soup, red beans and rice, etc. My mother fed her 10 children with homemade Penn-Dutch meals like smoked pork hock simmered with green beans, onions and potatoes. Also chicken pot pie made in one pot with one whole chicken. onions, potatoes and then once the meat was tender the chicken carcass was removed. chicken meat was added back to the pot. the day before my mother rolled out homemade noodles very thin, let them dry then cut them into bite-sized pieces. These were added to the pot to cook in the broth the next day. I still have that enormous stock pot she used.
Sounds wonderful. I loved all of those dishes....still do, especially homemade soup with homemade chicken stock.
Instead of noodles we had slick dumplings cut in squares thicker than noodles but not like the puffy dumplings great with chicken or peas
It's official! Penn-Dutch is my favorite cuisine.
Sounds very yummy. Know what to do with that carass? What we did after Thanksgiving ... Strip most of the meat from the bones (not too carefully; leave some on, like the hardest to remove especially! Then throw it in a pot with some chicken or turkey broth and some veges, some noodles like egg noodles and herbs/spices. Simmer it in a big pot for a few hours or all day on very low -- YUM! I never did, but if you don't want bones in the soup merely place the carcass in cheesecloth, tie it up and then remove the package after the soup's done. I like the added flavor and don't mind picking the bones out but if you have small children, I recommend the cheesecloth. You don't even need any thickening agents; the gelatin from the bones does the thickening.
Split pea and ham soup is still great! I like corned beef hash for breakfast still!
They make these wonderful packets that have all the dried ingredients for split pea soup - all the peas and grains and seasoning. Look in/near the dried bean department. Tells you how to cook it up into a soup. Much better than canned! Add some ham if you like...
Group eating all these Foods. Not because I was born and lived through the depression but because my parents had❤
group? Perhaps you meant GREW UP.
These recipes are important today
Macaroni and cheese depression era is definitely delicious and the most amazing astounding food ever
I grew up with casseroles and still cook that way now at times.
Casseroles are the best to stretch the food , if U ask me .
I love casseroles.
My father (born in 1910) hated casseroles so my mother never made them. (Except for "turkey tetrazzini" made from leftover Thanksgiving turkey.) My husband likes casseroles because he grew up on them but I almost never make them--maybe once every few years.
I'm from the hills of Tennessee and I ate some of these dishes when I was coming up in the '70s and '80s. There were nights when all we ate were boiled potatoes and Momma worked her magic and made a sauce with the starchy water and she baked a pone of cornbread and we drank a glass of cold raw milk. I wish I had asked her how she made the sauce so I could try making it for myself. Momma could make old shoe leather taste good!
We made our scalloped potatoes with polish sausage . It was so good and a meal in one pan.
My mom did the same with Ham. Scalloped Potatoes and Ham :P
I love the simplicity of all these meals. I'm a 70's woman but this was just normal food growing up. Still is my comfort food
Manys the night we had beans and rice. Served together it had a complete protein which many people didn't get. Pretty much hate it now...but at the time, it was heaven sent. Rice pudding we sometimes had for breakfast, cold or hot. People think the depression magically disappeared in the fifties, but the sad truth is in many places it lasted well into the sixties as it did for me and my folks.
It's both a complex carbohydrate and a complex protein. Even when eaten hours apart.
🤷 Trying to be a frugal wife in the late 80s and 1990-2000 while still making food healthy and tasty, I often did serve brown rice pudding on weekend mornings with breakfast, whether made with cow's milk, soy milk, nut milk or even pureed tofu, always eggs, sugar/honey/maple syrup or whatever sweetener we were using, raisins or apples, spice, alongside eggs or fruit and yogurt; things like hearty bean soups (usually with a good deal of veggies thrown in), biscuits or dumplings or corn muffins and salad, etc, but even back then chicken, beef, and often fish prices were fairly reasonable.
"late 1980s-2000" I meant.
It did for my folks too (last into the early 60s). By the time we came around in the 60s though, they no longer had to make beans every night for dinner so I grew up on some really fine meals that were actually pretty frugal just by nature of being tasty, but also had some nice steak dinners. Dad loved his steaks. He bought a deep-freeze then waited for really good sales and then stocked up on expensive meat. Dad was one of the first Programmers, and he also worked his 888 off so he made pretty good money and could afford good meals but he and Mom were still very frugal. So we ate very well.....but very tasty meals, some of which were very frugal. I was also not spoiled. Between them and my adopted Mom, I learned to make frugal but very tasty and varied meals and still do to this day (especially now that I'm retired) but could also experiment with some fine dining - experimented with some very fine and interesting ingredients. When I was younger I followed in Dad's footsteps and became a Software Engineer, but now I enjoy being at home and doing a lot of cooking.
I still love many of these dishes!
I cook at home, fast food is very expensive now, and I have gone back to making my own bread, corn bread, pancakes, muffins, bisquits, etc. However, flour and cornmeal have gone up too, but still better and cheaper.
And you can freeze flour, cornmeal, coconut flour, etc., so it keeps a lot longer than when sitting on a pantry shelf. I cook and bake only for myself now, and have done the freezer storage for staples for years. Sure saves me a lot of angst and money.
Do you have a recipe suggestion for a basic bread? I'm just starting out. Thanks
Born in 1943, beans stayed on the menu for us though most of the 1950s. (My niece made hamburger gravy on biscuits through thier tough times of the 1970’s.) Tough times built creative cooks. I especially loved it when my mother made egg noodles to cook with a stewed chicken, Yum!. (Back when chicken had real flavor.) I also ate my share of various bean sandwiches in grade school. And i loved my grandmother’s smoked pork hocks and cabbage. Poverty is not necessarily tasteless, when a great creative cook is in charge, and grammy wast a great cook! My mother, her daughter, was a recipe cook, but she made sure her food was always vitamin packed, though she was a very frugal cook of necessity. And i too, learned from their creativity, managing through the hard times. My pantry, like my grandmother’s and Mother’s, is prepared for the hard times to come.
I was raised on these dishes and still make them all today.
For rice pudding, my mother added either lemon flavoring or lemon zest, sometimes just vanilla to make it tasty. She loves lemon.
As for carrots and turnips, the flavor is improved by adding brown sugar. Both veggies go better with brown sugar.
I learned first hand that gravy can cover a multitude of sins (slash that) foods. I have eaten gravy alone as a meal. Also gravy on bread, gravy on whatever you had available, at least it helps get rid of that knawing feeling of being truly & in explicably hungry. As a 60's kid, I never understood why my mom continued to garden & "can" @ home when one could just run to the grocery store. I understood that when she was growing up that the depression hit and food was scarace. Still it never really registered w me until I became an adult and had to do my "adulting" alone because my Mother had passed. Now I wished I had been canning all these years and not have to concern myself so much w what will I eat.
Plus, it tastes a hundred times better....especially tomatoes, green beans and soup mix.
I make gravy soup! Thin 2 cups of sausage gravy into soup with veggies
My mom canned all our fruits and vegetables and we kids helped.
My Grandma did a lot of canning and I started canning too, when I grew up ;). I had a "Salsa Garden" with all ingredients to make salsa. I had so many tomatoes that I had to find ways to can them. I canned a lot of Salsa and Spaghetti sauce with all the vegetables and herbs. I labelled them and put them up in a dry dark cabinet. Years later, at least 5 years probaby more, I hesitantly opened them up and started using them. Ended up using them all and wishing I had made more. Not only were they perfectly fine (I was careful to read all the right instructions and warnings and used a pressure cooker and sterilized canning jars to properly can and seal them), they tasted great too! Think of all of the Salsa and Spaghetti Sauce ingredients sitting together in a jar after cooking to seal the jars.....mixing for over 5 years!! Totally yummy! Lasted just as long as any professionally sealed cans you'd buy at the store. Way better tasting. And free, save the price of some seeds and a few small plants. And some water.
Never too late to learn ❤❤❤😊😊😊
I always hated and never ate my mother or mother-in-law's scalloped potatoes (both were French Canadian). I then tried them with milk instead of water - loved them ever since.
My Parents were from the depression era , I always wondered why they saved everything when they passed.... Now I know, especially what’s going on in today’s world. 🇺🇸Semper Fi
I lost both of my parents when I was 14 and lived with a dear aunt and uncle. After the war my uncle always worked in the food industry as a chef, butcher, etc. He and my aunt taught me how to season food which is really important. She had some small appliances that still worked from the 40's! Things were made to last in those days!
@@lindahandley5267 I bought my house in 1996 with applices made probaly in 1994-5. Frigidaire. They lasted until 2018. Not bad considering the times. Not as good as the 40s but not bad. I bought the replacement refrigerator, microwave and gas stovetop. Production since moved to China. The refrigerator is a piece of crap. You can't even put a gallon of milk on the top shelf. The shelves are immobile so you're stuck with the shelves where the Chinese wanted them. The ice maker never worked right; I have to move the lever myself to turn it off and on. The shipping plastic was put in place before the covers were installed so the edges of the plastic could never be completely removed! The microwave is similarly poorly designed. They added a small turntable so now half the interior is unusable. I can no longer cook larger items even though the outside of the Microwave is the same size. The features are fewer and work silly (you can't defrost something for 6 seconds; the minimum is about 15-20 seconds so I have to manually stop it if I want to soften butter or melt small amounts. Things like that. Now, the stovetop is dangerous. The grills are designed such that smaller pots don't sit very good unless you place them JUST RIGHT. Otherwise, it could tip in between the grates and let the (hot contents fly all over the place. Keep your children far away when you are cooking just in case! If you place a cutting board near the knobs, the knobs turn slightly enough to start trying to ignite. Many other really stupid design flaws like this when the previous version of the same models worked perfectly fine!! Not only lasted a lot longer before but designed twice as good for a fraction of the price. And we had the jobs, not China. This is why tariffs are a good thing, if jobs come back here and real Engineers can re-design them, get some good test Engineers to test them, put our people back to work to improve the economy so that we can make these foods because they taste good and not because we have no other choice.
@@fhill2895 That sounds like a LOT of problems! I built my house in 2000, so its 25 years old now. I've never had many problems before recently. Before Christmas, my fridge went out, the oven went out, the t.v. went out and now, the lights over the kitchen sink, and the ceiling lights went out and yesterday my coffee maker went out, the faucet in the kitchen sink broke, so I'm just waiting to see what's next.Oh and my washing machine died. Dang! I need to start living better! Maybe 2025 will be a much better year. I'm about to have my kitchen cabinets painted. It's ALWAYS something when you have a home! I hope things get better for you Fhill! Thanks for sharing!🤗
They keep showing an old TV but TV didnt come into being until the 1950s, way after the depression! I grew up with parents who made these dishes. Both were very badly affected by the depression. I loved split pea soup, and creamed peas were a standard lunch with tuna in it and maybe some cooked carrots in it as well. And if we had eggs, a hard boiled egg would be sliced in. All served on toast. Yup. Great meals.
I was a 80s teenager and I grew up eating most of this. I cook alot of this today. I never knew.
Back in the 70's when I was a kid we had a lot of cheap dinners
from sandwiches to soups but we didn't starve. occasionally we
had a fancy meal like macaroni and cheese among other delicious
foods back in the 1970's but thanks for the classic food memories
of the past thank you.😋🧆🍝🍲🍛😋
My mom made most of these dishes. She learned from her Mom who was around in the depression. She taught me how to cook them. She would make the corn beef hash into a soup. Her corn bread cakes were amazing. I’d forgotten that I knew how to cook with actual basic ingredients. Thanks for sharing. Brought back good memories.
My mom used to use left over mash potatoes pancakes. My brother's and I loved them.
My Mom made those too! Loved them!
Same here with my late Mom.
We used to have those as well, mixed with braised red cabbage and apples; potato and cabbage pancakes.
My mom and dad were born in the very early 1900's. I was the youngest in our family.....Mom use to make a special dinner for company...she would make a large batch of biscuits and pat the dough out in cake layer pans.....then bake them in the oven....mean while she would make a large batch of white sauce and add a can of chopped asparagus and cooked onions..... into the white sauce....then she split the two very large biscuits in half and layer them with the asparagus sauce and stacked up like a layer cake and sprinkle the top with sliced boiled eggs.... Asparagus Short Cake.... everyone loved it. 🎉🎉
Wow that sounds really good! I'm going to have to try that...even tho I really shouldn't have gravy.....
Thank you!!!❤
My favorites are creamed tuna on toast and tuna noodle casserole!! I grew up eating that and still is my favorite comfort food
my school friend's mother was itailian she taught me cooking 60 yrs ago, i still make a big pan full and frezze portions
What a blessing!
@@kathymc234 i use olive oil or coconut oil only
I still make a lot of these foods. My grandparents & parents lived through the Depression, so, you learned to make filling meals with what you had on hand.
We always had a few gardens thanks to my dad, and his mother teaching him how to grow one.
My mom makes creamed tuna with peas over mashed potatoes. And over toast the next day for lunch.
Its made the same way as creamed peas you just add drained canned tuna. And it's still one of my favorite meals
😆 I'm French -creole and beans and rice is a staple At my house! Only thing My family uses pinto beans instead of kidney beans my Dad hated kidney beans!❤❤❤❤❤
I use pinto beans, or kidney beans (LOVE them!), or cannellini beans, black beans...anything except butter beans....to make my beans and rice. But I'm just plain old American---English ancestry, nothing remarkable---and I like nearly every bean there is.
I've even used leftover 15-bean soup with which to make beans and rice.
I just made a pot of pinto beans yesterday. Made cornbread today.
@dawniesimon
I hope that you enjoy your beans and cornbread
Did you see some bacon grease in the cornbread?
It makes it taste sooooo good pass the green onion and the cheese please! 😄😄😄
I agree with your dad. Kidney beans are disgusting.
I don't like kidney beans either,, I use pinto beans in my chili,, and we like them by their self with mashed potatoes& meats,. I mash them. Up& make refried beans when we make taco's& Burritos.
My mother grew up during the Great Depression and when I was growing up in the 1970's she would still cook Depression-era type meals and they were good. Fried potatoes and onions, meatless spaghetti except she made her own sauce instead of using store-bought, Spanish rice, and hash.
@@prettybullet7728 hamburger meat and oatmeal with an egg yolk 😉
@@Louis-e6qEven oatmeal is expensive now
Funny my kids prefer spaghetti without meat .. we’ve had tough times of our own beans and rice and deer got us through a very tough winter our kids were small so they didn’t notice how tough things really were
There aren't a lot of American food places around any more ;(. They just recently closed one of my favorite restaurants - an Irish place. They made Corned Beef & Cabbage, Irish Stew and one of my favorites - Shephard's Pie. That's another one of those great era meals:
In a casserole dish, layer any kind of cooked meat at the bottom, cover that in gravy (although my favorite lately has been to replace this with Campbell's Asparagus soup, no added water, use any kind of cream soup that you like), then a layer of your favorite vegetable - sweet corn or peas are a great option (I prefer frozen peas over canned), topped with mashed potatoes until everything is covered. Place this in the oven at 350 and bake until hot throughout; doesn't take long since it's cooked already. Maybe broil on low until the potatoes are browned a bit - to taste. Ground beef or other meat, cooked, is nice and cheap for the bottom layer; I had bought some cans of cooked beef/pork chunks during the pandemic and ended up using those a couple of times with great results. This is a wonderful meal-in-a-casserole-like-a-meat-and-potatoes-but-not-stew casserole. Really different and can be made as cheap as you like or on pay-day made with some really nice pieces of meat......even a very great use of left-over roast meat. Beef, Pork, Lamb if you like it - whatever kind of meat works. Quickly made and really good leftovers too. Can even prepare ahead of time and freeze to use instead of TV dinners. Just pop in the oven for a short time and voila!
I remember my grandma telling me about when she and my grandfather were first married they lived and worked on a potato farm and that's often all they had to eat along with onions,maybe on paydays they'd buy some salt pork. My mom told me about eating saltine crackers with a bit of hot water to soften,a dab of butter and a sprinkle of sugar. She still sometimes makes a soup from those times, potatoes, green or wax beans or peas, canned evaporated milk, butter/margarine and salt and pepper. Usually served with a slice of buttered bread. It's actually pretty tasty.
This is a great video. My Grandmother and my uncles grew up in The Great Depression. Years later she couldn’t touch rice. She was an amazing woman and a phenomenal cook. We didn’t have a lot of money, but she always filled my stomach up.
Leek and potato soup or chicken and dumplings! Pure Heaven.
❤
I still make spilt pea soup. We love it!
I am the only one who likes it but I still make it. I may eat it for a few days but that's fine w/ me.
A lot of these dishes brought back some good memories.
My family to this day makes or made a lot of these dishes. I still love a lot of these to this day!😊
When my husband was little his mother made the same meals each week only changing up for holidays. He said he never wondered "what's for supper." His father worked in the coal mines. He had 3 sisters. They had a huge coal-fired kitchen range.There was no furnace, that old stove had to do. Like me, they grew up poor. There was no food pantries, welfare or freebees of any kind. But we made it and didn't bitch and moan either.
You had my interest until those unnecessary words ("bitch," "moan," as if there weren't better words to use).
My Grandpa also was a coal miner! He and Grandma also had a coal stove that heated the whole house and heated the water too! Grandma had to keep the stove going all day - bringing up buckets of coal from the basement several times a day. That's why they never needed exercise machines in those days -- regular day-to-day activities gave them 10 times the exercise we get today. If the stove wasn't kept burning all day, you didn't have hot water and the house wasn't very warm. No need to pre-heat the stove. It was ready to cook at the snap of a finger. Every summer, they purchased a big truckload of coal - maybe a ton give or take? The truck would pull up close to a window just above ground, the top of the basement in the coal room, and shovel the coal in through the window.
Life used to be a lot harder, but in many ways it was better. People got a lot of exercise. There wasn't a lot of Entertainment; they made their own. A lot of musicians in those days. A lot of live Entertainment that was varied and creative. Gardening was the hobby. Horse-back riding was a necessity. The only smog was from the coal burning (let me tell you; the air was even worse. Burned coal in the air fills your nostrils and they become very sooty). I did like the smell in the air. Completely different from City air.
I love all of these old recipes. Thanks for sharing!!! 😅
we were snowed in....nine feet of snow between us and the side road. He told me there as nothing in the fridge to eat. Pulling it apart, removing all the drawers and doors. I found a few withered carrots and celery, a few sad potatos. There as a handful of rice left in the bag. There as something frozen into the side of the freezer, and chipping it out, I found a small bird. There were a few slices of stale bread, some garlic, and a bit of margerine. By the time he got back from ploing....we had bird soup and grilled garlic bread. "what...KIND of bird?" "hell if I know. It was in your freezer." After four hours in bitter cold, he said it as the best "bird soup" he ever ate!
Nowadays we are moving back; more beans, less meat. More foraging, less processed food. Turnips and carrots; parsnips, beets. MUCH LESS processed white flour. I'm going to try versions of a few of those!!!
Good for you 😊😊😊
My grandfather was born in 1897 he planted seeds along dirt roads in his town to feed everyone that needed he also had mules that kept his neighbors working to make $ logging out Pymatuning Lake in Ohio/PA today. Old ways work it’s time tested! We still make his hard cider recipe today some things should last forever!! ❤
Sounds like a really sweet man.
What a wonderful man he was,, bless him💙
Oh my, these meals are those that we eat so often. Ate them because they are so satisfying. Ate them because they are so good. Try potato sausage soup. Yum Yum good!
Tomorrow I'm making a sausage gumbo with smoked link sausage, okra, tomatoes, onions, celery, bell pepper, homemade chicken stock, and some 'gumbo filet' seasoning mixed in at the end before serving over rice with a crispy french bread! 😋
P.S. I forgot one of the most important things you have to have for gumbo and that's okra! If anyone wants the recipe, I won't leave anything out!
Bear shitt stew, stale bread, soak in milk add a jar of homemade stewed tomatoes, my dad's favorite, he was born in 1918 and lived thru it all
@@leslietittle8968 Wow. You had to make do with what you had! I can't remember the kinds of dishes my grandmothers made for my mother and her 8 siblings, but they had fields of veggies, chickens and I guess some beef. I do remember them saying that everything was very tasty.
Did I miss supper?
@@kathymc234 Girlfriend! I'm so sorry! Next time I'll invite you! I must say it was very tasty!🥘Have you ever made some?
We don't know what is coming so these recipes are awesome..
You all been raised poorly...we were raisedby alcoholic parents..so we didn't have much to eat, i was so thin you could see my bones...I was too young to cook and i needed to know how to cook..I stayed will an eating disorder for yrs...i was used to not eating but had my mother stopped drinking she was the best cook...when i would come home from school and there was a boiling pot on our woodstove i knew my mom was sober and a meal was being done...these recipes here i wish i would have known...I'll be sure to keep this channel. ...now my problem is my mate never experienced not having food..they were on the richer side...the bad side of this is that he's fussy eater...i get angry with him...he doesn't like this or that...🙄
I hope you take turns cooking then!
Bless your heart
Teach him😂❤❤❤
I love cream peas! my 100 year old Grandma fed to me when I was little girl and still is one of my favorite foods!
My Mom made that cream pea dish, over toast. With corned beef in there too. She could make anything taste good. Now, few people can cook, not even with quality ingredients. You go to the store and there's less and less fresh food and more and more processed packaged food that costs a fortune and tastes like crap. The younger generation doesn't know what it's like to eat fresh wholesome food done up by a great cook.
Coconut milk? Johnny Cakes pictured recipe. Oops. They probably meant evaporated milk, or powdered milk. Coconut milk was not a thing during the depression.
It is now, and it's probably healthier for you. Maybe I'll try that next time.
I still cook like this is was born in 52 so my mom taught me how to cook all of this stuff but my great grand ma was from Germany and French cooking so all the stuff had sauces and wonderful desserts so not a bunch of food but it was great.you know we Americans are pretty tuff we survived through alot of stuff, but I have always lived with Jesus and he never left us begging for bread. He was always there for us 😊
Amen ❤️🔥
Amen and God bless. May your good fortune continue on...
a lot of them are beloved and everyday dishes here
Dandelion roots were also roasted, ground and brewed as a coffee substitute.
Also as a tea. One of my friends makes dandelion tea during dandelion season here in our state, and she freeze dries as much as she can to have throughout our short winters.
And I've seen the flowers turn into some alcoholic beverage.
@@jb6712 that’s interesting. I’ll have to try to make dandelion tea next spring/summer.
Creamed peas on a toast sounds good to me❤
I'm probably "weird," but I like mine on sourdough toast. That little bit of extra tang is just perfect with the creamed peas!
We'd have creamed tuna on toast w/peas.😋
Curries are also very good for making low cost, nutritious and delicious meal that are able to adjust to a wide variety of ingredients.
My grandma was born right before the depression hit and was the 3rd oldest of 10 kids, several were born during the depression. My great-grandparents were country rural folks, they raised their own pigs and gardens...so all the kids learned how to stretch money and food. There are several of these meals that I grew up eating. I can remember my grandma telling me stories when she would be cooking about how they stretched things. Some of my favorite meals are from back then....like the potato soup...or meatloaf. She taught me how to cook...and I will always cherish those memories. Thank you for tak8ng me down memory lane ❤
Growing up, we loved it when mom made soup beans (navy beans with a little bacon or ham) and hot fresh bread with butter. Mmmmm!!! It lasted for 2-3 days and we weren't complaining!
You know, there are some stores - Walmart being one at times - that sell frozen bread dough. Ready-made and formed in the shape of a loaf; all you have to do is thaw out the dough and place in a loaf pan (after greasing it so the loaf doesn't stick; I like to add parchment paper then it's really easy to get out). Bake per instructions - doesn't take long, maybe 10 minutes or so. Turn the pan upside down on a wire rack after it cools a little bit and tap the loaf out. You can either taste a slice of this lovey warm bread, maybe with some butter - YUM or wait and and eat it when you need bread for something. I recommend slicing (gently, with a serrated knife) on an as-needed basis. Another benefit to home-made bread. Smells the house up nicely. If you are solo and can't eat a whole loaf of bread, cut it in half, place half in a plastic zip-lock or loosely seal on a Foodsaver (on pulse; don't vacuum-seal too tightly else it will squeeze the bread back into dough!). Thaws out tasting just about like it did when you froze it. I also found that it lasts pretty long too, but it's not stuffed with preservatives like ready-made bread loafs are today. Notice how you can find an old loaf of that bread and it's not moldy or "bad" yet - but still doesn't taste very good? 8P
My Mom was born in 1949, her parents were born in the 20's so they ate very simple meals. When she was growing up there were 9 kids and my Grandparents didn't have much money so they had beans Monday through Thursday, Friday was fish night, and Sunday's they had chicken. My grandparents kept chickens in the backyard and that's what they ate.
I'm in my 60's but complaining about what's on ur plate wasn't a thought. Just grateful for it. We are so spoiled today and its ashamed. Not much appreciation. And if one needs to improvise, could you? Be humble and smart.
Thank you 😊😊😊
When my grandparents were kids during the Great Depression, they grew up eating sautéed cabbage with chopped bacon. Then, in the 50’s, 60’s, and 70’s when struggling on a teacher’s salary, they made that for my dad and his sisters when they were growing up. I had it back in the 80’s when i was very young and my family struggled. Now as an adult, its now delicacy since bacon is expensive in my area. Good thing instant ramen noodles and canned fish are cheap. Make that with cabbage thats under a dollar at my local stores and i have a hardy meal to get me through rough moments.
Im definitely going keep these dishes in mind for next year when the tariffs and trade war hits next month.
My parents parents lived through the depression, i now see where my mom got her recipes. We ate most of these recipes as kids in the 60s and 70s
I havean adult daughter who makes rice just so she can make rice pudding, shefell in love with it at my cousins house,her elderly great aunt who parents, were off the boat from sweeden made it for every gathering!
I buy cooked rice from my Chinese carryout and its better than any gummy rice that I have ever made.
Yep my mom made it with raisins in it. I always remember she put a pan of water in the oven with it to keep it moist. Then warm milk in your bowl with it if you wanted.
I love rice pudding or tapioca pudding. Yum!
Wow I remember those days it’s 100% all true! I would feel the pressure cooking breakfast lunch and dinner when we financially struggle! But my meals in those days came out so delicious using lots of garlic 🧄 onions rosemary herbs plants from my own garden including potatoes🥔! I used to bake lots of homemade fresh corn bread
Potatoes are so easy to grow! At least here in Southern California. Take a potato, especially one that has started to sprout already and too old to eat. Dig a hole and plant the potato, then cover it up. Water it, maybe a little bit of fertilizer and a couple/few months later (after the sprouted plant has flowered then started to die), dig around the bottom of the plant and find wonderful big potatoes, some small ones too :). Voila you are done! All from a potato that you couldn't eat but didn't want to waste, either.
🙏Thank❤You🙏 for the Lovely Wonderful old recipes of the 1920 depression meals! Wonderful video I loved it made miss my old days with my beloved parents grandparents thank you❤
We still have biscuits and gravy and we have boiled dinner. Left over went into it. Left over chicken made with biscuits. Yummy
My Dad’s favorite was navy beans! Made the whole house stink. He just passed at 94.😂 I always cooked for him but when he wanted navy beans I cooked them at his house.
My father liked to cook tripe....pressure cooker and stunk the house for days....
My parents went through the depression and I grew up in the 50's. My mother made a lot of these recipes including yorkshire pudding which is basically eggs flour and milk. I still remember Wednesday night was spaghetti night my favorite.
Yorkshires are the best with good gravy….Bisto works❤
My mother was born in 1923 so she was still young when the depression hit. I was born in the 1950s but I grew up on alot of these foods. I still make them. I learned other meals from my SIL who came from large family and they did alot w/ what little they had at times.
My Grandma Ruggera (born early 1900s) made the best homemade Spaghetti Sauce. Wonderful, never had tasted such unique sauce and haven't since she passed away. She was a wonderful cook. Best woman that I have ever met in my life. All 4'8" ? of her :). I can still see her in her 40s housedress (this in the 60s and 70s) and body-long apron which she wore all day long unless she went out. She had the biggest smile, always smiled and was the sweetest thing. Never complained no matter what. And I know what now because I'm almost her age and inherited the family arthritis. No fun. I don't know how she did it!
I caramelize my onions in the oven in a cast iron pan. Add chicken fat and a little salt, bake at low heat.
How funny and sweet - My husband and I still eat almost all of the time. Tonight will be ham and pea soup - Yum!! Excellent video - Thank you!
I remember eating Creamed peas. Sometimes over toast or biscuits. Sometimes with leftover cooked beef or chicken.
Also creamed beef over toast or biscuits
Aka: “S-O-S” 🤗
I grew up on beans and cornbread and fried taters. Still one of my fav foods. Fried tater sandwiches. Yummo!
I love fried tater sandwiches, bean soup, rice pudding, veggie soup, all the dishes in this video. I'm going to make some gravy, heat up one of my homemade biscuits, and have supper now!❤️yummy!!
My Sicilian grandma would fry a potato and scramble it with an egg and some onion then put it on two pieces of Italian bread. Very tasty.
@@robertpace1622 Take that fried potato, scrambled egg and a breakfast meat like fried sausage, bacon or kielbasa...mix and you have a lovely breakfast!
Yummy😊😊😊
Dandelion, rocket, arugula, cress, sorrel, chickweed, garlic mustard, chives, wild thyme all grow in my backyard, and if you live in the the US, probably in yours too. If you forage, be sure to wash it all thoroughly and maybe soak in salt water for a minute before rinsing and serving in a salad or sauteing. The addition of a little fresh or dried garlic and onion in the oil offsets and compliments dandelion greens.
People need to stop putting weed prevention on their yards.
I make a salad out of dandelion leaves, and wood sorrel leaves. I organically garden so I don’t have to worry about the pesticides. I’m curious if the other plants you named grow in my area. I’ll have to look them up. I know we still have wild chicory although it’s not as prevalent as it used to be when I was growing up.
Just curious, do you have any rabbits or other pesky critters? I have a lot of rabbits behind my house so as soon as I try to grow lettuce, it disappears, bit by bit :\. If you have them too, what do you do?
@@fhill2895 set traps. fried rabbit is yummy
Lol 😆 we call the noon time meal dinner too in North East Texas and the evening meal was called Supper
I call noon meal lunch and last meal supper in Illinois 😭😄
@@marygreen2672
Right-I live in Illinois & lunch was lunch & the last meal of the day was supper. We never called any meal dinner but I’ve heard co-workers in Illinois call lunch dinner. Back in the 1960’s I never heard the word dinner used unless you called a meal chicken dinner
We had breakfast, lunch and supper as well. However, a big meal like a roast was called dinner whenever it was served. Typically around 2 pm on Sundays or occasionally at 5 or 6 pm on weekdays, although it was very rare to have a weekday roast.
@revrotunda3206 , I call the last meal supper and I live in Illinois. Maybe people in orher states call it dinner. Oh well. Yes a chicken dinner if u go out to eat😭 I was born in 61. Have a great day and enjoy your lunch and supper😁
@@revrotunda3206 born and raised in AZ from a Mother from Colorado, and a Dad born in Oklahoma but raised in AZ. We had breakfast, lunch at noon-time and finally dinner in the evening around 6-7pm. No supper.
Egg drop soup is one of my favorite soups. I make it now with chicken bone broth and free range eggs, very lightly garnished with either a splash of sesame oil and soy sauce, or crumbled bacon and minced green onion.
Me 2 I love egg drop soup...crazy new thing I tried was added egg (just like you make your egg drop & added broccoli n cheese to it)... another recipe I created was a "potato stock" (you can also use "pasta stock" but my preference in the tuna fish soup is potato) to make a tuna fish soup....hence (tuna fish, peas, diced potatoes, spices of your chosing).. nowadays MAYO for the salads has drained the budget.. tuna oil is probably healthier than the mayo oils (despite many varieties) I want to go simple, heart healthy...for those willing to try it. Let me know....open to feedback....
Greek egg lemon soup is another…i add greens-not authentic. But a great way to use greens odds and ends.
@@KimberlyLuna-x9y I like the tuna in water now. Especially since I got used to it...tuna in oil is just, well.....too oily!
I like to add vinegar in mine as well, maybe even some hot chili oil and a little honey well mixed in. Make it half egg-drop and the other half sweet, hot and sour, another of my favorites :)
@fhill2895 that's cool...
Nice...enjoy
My mom, born 1927 used to fix tuna, canned peas with mayo on a lettuce leaf when I was very young back in the early 1950’s.
My Mom made the mockchicken legs, but she called them "City Chicken". Now I make them and they are so good.
How to make MOCK CHICKEN LEGS????