It’s really beautiful that you don’t treat being poor like some kind of disease or moral shortcoming. You talk about scarcity as a matter of fact… which is exactly what it is. I really appreciate that.
@@autumn5852 honestly though, was it something certain people “knew” how to flourish in or were there some people who were in positions of privilege who were able to further that privilege by exploiting those affected by financial crises? capitalism benefits those who it’s intended to benefit, the rich.
I'm poor due to disability factors. I have looked around between Walmart, 99cent store and dollar tree. I've found some great buys at the 99. This wonderful woman is very helpful and kind with her recipes being simple. Your comment was refreshing.
@@arourtutor8833 Look into foraging edible wild plants in your area. Garden what you can. Sprouting seeds or lentils is easy with just a jar on your windowsill if your mobility is limited and gives you a supply of veggies you can add to soup or salads.
My grandparents got married in 1930, so they had to raise their kids during the depression and then WWII. My favorite story from WWII rationing is that when one of the neighborhood kids would have a birthday, all the families would save their sugar rations so they would have enough sugar to make a birthday cake for the kids.
My grandmother always said rationing was worse than the depression. They had a large family (9 kids), but the ration coupons did not go by your family size. My grandfather would walk to work so he could trade his gas coupons for food coupons.
My mother survived the depression and the years after. She, too, was an emergency preparedness person. I grew up on a working farm. We grew our own food and canned everything, including our meats. My folks always said that if the lights go, our food won't! I learned alot of depression and post war recipes. My cousins and I still cook those recipes to this day. Yes. I'm an older person. My mother would be 99 this year if she were living. I am putting together a cookbook of what I learned from my Mama and Daddy and relatives from that time. When it comes out, I will send you a copy if you would like.
Definitely put my name down as well. I’m 57 and my mom lived during the depression, she remembered that when they ate pancakes for dinner, she knew that money was tight but they never went to bed hungry bc my gma who was a “flapper” was also a nightclub singer and a bakery owner so they were creative with dinners, but her mom would sell the day old donuts and bread to the people who didn’t have money and she’d tell them she’d put it on their tab, and they just didn’t have to money to ever pay. They’d walk down to the store (in Philadelphia) and bring a giant bowl to get heavy cream to make fresh whipped cream. They also had a dinner of browned ground beef, green beans, corn, tomatoes and other garden veggies with stew like gravy and a dash of ketchup/mustard mixed in, with diced potatoes and they’d call it a “slop bucket” bc it was just leftover veggies and random things with ground beef. I like that to this day!
Game changer: at Christmas when eggnog is available, buy some extra (it has a loooooong shelf life) and use it as a substitute for milk when making French toast. Delicious 😋
My Dad was born in 1926. He always used honey as a sweetener, second choice was maple syrup, then sugar. His family had 5 kids, and when he was 5 he and his sister were sent from Detroit to Canada to live with their grands. He was a great cook and we were raised on a lot of these recipes. I remember a a kid picking berries and fruit to make pies for special occasions. It made the special occasion even more special.
Great Grandma Ross (born 1880) when there was a scarce week would make milk toast. It's basically a thin white milk gravy over homemade bread toast. She had 10 children and sometimes there just were not enough eggs for that morning. SUPER filling. We still make it today only with a little extra pepper. Sometimes she would boil 4 eggs. Chop them up and add them to the gravy. That is also very good. She is the one when I was 8 taught me to make dump it in there soup with leftovers. She was a goddess of creation in the kitchen. I am a post WWII baby. Grandma Ross Died 1964. She left a huge legacy. Her son, My grandpa, Was the BEST biscuit maker of all time.
@@Selena-gz9tssounds like cream chipped beef without the chipped beef. I loved that with toast when my Grammy made it. I could just eat it as a "soup" lol
Not everyone made their own bread during the Depression. My paternal grandmother, who could make anything, often bought bread from her neighbor across the street. The neighbor was a widow with children. She did laundry and alterations for people and baked bread so she had an income to support her family. My mother grew up in the city. Hardly anyone baked their own bread.
Buying bread from her is the best reason I've ever heard for not making her own! That's the kind of help we should still be able to count on today but sadly it's not. Knowing your family's hard earned money helped another hard working family survive is something to be proud of. Not to mention how the neighbor didn't want handouts. She wanted to earn it herself. She should be proud as well. Thank you for sharing your story!
That was so kind and thoughtful of your paternal grandmother. Neighbors helping neighbors. I can't currently find a seamstress (alternations, Canonsburg, PA) in my neighborhood and desperately need one right now. Blessings.
We make our French toast the same exact way. Also a drop of almond extract is delicious in the custard. My daddy was raised in the Appalachian mountains. He taught me to take left over mashed potatoes, mix with a little flour and egg, flavor with a little onion and garlic powder shape into hamburger sized patties then fry up on a hot buttered griddle. 😋
When I was first married I checked books out of the library filled with depression era meals. I used them to create a variety of meals to get the most nutritious meals possible. For years I fed my growing family for around $25/week. This was in the early 90s.
Ha! My soul sister lol. Just kidding. I spent $25 a week and then when I started babysitting (as a stay at home mom) I had to bump it up to $50 a week. That was from 1984-1990. It kills me to see how many young people buy extravagant items on credit cards - we lived by cash only and was able to go on getaways many times a year with the money we saved
I'm disabled and poor. Learning from depression cooking recipes has made me able to enjoy making these easy tasty and fast meals. I buy only on sales so when the same item is full price the item is waiting in my pantry. The last week of the month I'm penniless but that's the week I enjoy cooking the most. I go through my pantry and make a game out of what can I make this week? It makes me incredibly happy to see what I can come up with. 😊
You got to do a series on how far you can stretch a rotisserie chicken you can get from Sam’s club, Costco or just a regular grocery store rotisserie chicken,
They are so versatile! This is a great idea! After I have cleaned all the meat off, I put the bones in a crockpot with some water (and whatever herbs) and let it cook on low for a while (usually at least 12 hours) to make some nice broth.
use chicken carcass for soup just boil debone and then take out bones and add veggies after picking out bones and chopping meat . add meat back and seasonings
I think going through the thirties and forties definitely made an impression on people that they never forgot. My grandparents lived through those years and I was told many stories about making do, doing without and making it last. My grandmother used to reuse aluminum foil. She'd wipe it clean and save it for another use. She never threw anything away. She would save a tablespoon of veggies, freeze them and when she had enough, make soup. Brown beans, fried potatoes and cornbread was and still is a favorite meal. Even better if it's summer time and there's fried okra and fresh sliced tomatoes to go with it. I cherish the lessons they taught me as a kid. People think that hard times like those are a thing of the past but history certainly has a way of repeating itself.
My mom was born in 1922 so she would have been learning to cook during the Depression. This is exactly the way she taught me to cook. The reason that you didn’t have bacon grease to pour off was that what you were using is what my mom called sow belly, with big chunks of meat making it tough and not much fat. It was considered very poor quality bacon. Your French toast is exactly the way I still make it, except with 2% milk and pre sliced bread. I like to use whole wheat because it’s more substantial. She also taught me to make my own syrup, using white sugar, water and maple flavor. That way it’s hot when you pour it on the toast, pancakes or waffles.
My Grandmother picked dandelion greens from her yard. She poured the bacon, onion, and potato with the fat in the pan over the greens, and added apple cider vinegar. I've made this salad for people who have never had it before, everyone has loved it and asked for the recipe. You can use leafy endive in the winter, it is a little more bitter than dandelion, but if you like the mild bitterness of dandelion, you will like endive too. Edit: Gramma just boiled a few extra potatoes for dinner and saved them for salad the next day.
I still make this today. I add those plentiful wild violet leaves too. And in the summer I pick and dice a few day lilies blossoms and add dandelion petals. Toss these in as you remove greens from the heat. Adds color and beta carotene!
@@lstj2979 I don't cook the greens. I just fry the bacon and saute the onions, then pour it over the greens. I don't eat potatoes regularly (I'm on Keto) so I use a small potato for a family-sized salad. I've tried dandelion flower petals but I thought they didn't add anything to the flavor of the salad. I have read they are even more nutritious than the greens, though. Wild violets are not plentiful where I live, it gets hot and dry in July and August, and the dandelions have turned woody. So I get endive at the grocery store. I'm lucky, my local grocery is a family-run store, I've noticed the larger chain groceries don't carry endive.
My mom was born in 1922 and grew up during the depression. There were 5 kids in her family, and they ate a lot of potatoes, cuz they were cheap and filled up hungry tummies. My grandpa said they always made extra baked potatoes, and he would cut them up like you did, fry them in bacon fat, and serve with scrambled eggs. He called them "Warmed Over Potatoes." My mom made them, I made them, and now my kids make them. A good way to stretch a dollar and make a yummy breakfast!
The previous dean at my ex-husband’s church did that at the parish retreats. The 1st retreat after he retired, the wife of one of the priests and I made the “Dean’s potatoes” for Sunday breakfast. The parishioners were so excited to see that we continued the tradition.
Potatoes are so easy to grow. A bucket, a big bag, and a few old potatoes that sprout will give you an entire bucketful of potatoes. You can grow them in chilly weather or on the unheated porch. It is a way to keep going especially if you have a few chickens.
They always talk about victory gardens, but my grandfather always talk about digging up the yard for a garden earlier during the depression. I grew up with everyone in our family having gardens, but I have moved to raised beds as they are easier for me. Grandpa said they grew potatoes, but they also started keeping chickens. Both could be done in a standard small backyard. My daughter loves ducks, so that is what we have now, but they aren’t as efficient because you end up with some males in the mix.
My great grandmother had home canned food in her basement that was canned in the 40’s and she used to try to get me to feed it to my kids when they were little!! She was determined that it was still good! We were always Leary of eating at her house because we didn’t know if she was cooking 50 yr old vegetables!! She was definitely a food hoarder!! Bless her sweet precious heart, she was absolutely lovely❤
Also, this is another meal my grandma used to make. She was born in 1918, was one of 9 kids, and also was one of the youngest. I her mom passed away a few years after she was born in the Spanish flu pandemic. Her father was able to move some of the kids around to other relatives, but she was one that stayed with him. They traveled from OK, where she was born, and went up and down the west coast as migrant farmers, living out of their car. To hear it called depression food is always weird to me because I was used to her making them as I grew up. Nothing went to waste at her house. If there was even a spoon full or 2 of leftovers in a dish, it would go in the fridge. Reused tin foil, ziplock bags, ect. It's interesting to see the differences in generations and times!
Thank you for sharing about your family and I think you’re doing a great job. I think those people who complain about you not making your own bread or those people who leave you negative comments are full of crap do your show the way you want to do it?❤
I agree with you! She's not a historian so I'm not sure why so many complain about what she is doing you know? She's just trying to let us know that you don't have to be rich to eat a variety of things. That you can have full meals for less if you really have to. I like her! I just found her today and have been binge watching her and have learned a few things on top of it. To subscribe to her was a no brainer for me.
@@DollarTreeDinners Hi there! I’m a new viewer. Although I’m a vegetarian and you cook mostly meat dishes, I’ve been enjoying watching your channel nevertheless. I oftentimes think of what can I substitute to turn your meals vegetarian. Anyways, _I_ wanted to help you out with a tip for a change, since normally _YOU’RE_ the one giving out all the tips. You deserve helpful tips too! Haha. You mentioned that breakfast is your favorite food genre (and it definitely is a great one!), but you don’t cook potatoes for the breakfast dishes as often as you would like to, because potatoes take so long to cook. You thought that pre-boiling them here would cut down the cooking time, but obviously that didn’t end up being true because you told us it took 45 minutes to an hour to boil those two huge potatoes! So here’s my tip: Use an Instant Pot! It only takes around 10-15 minutes to cook them after the pot comes to pressure (which doesn’t take that long at all)! I understand that you probably don’t use “fancy gadgets” for your videos on principle, because the point of is to teach people how to eat a variety of food with a limited budget, and that usually includes kitchen equipment that doesn’t come super cheap. But that doesn’t mean you can’t use such equipment when cooking on your own just for yourself. :) The pot is awesome for cooking another breakfast food: hard/soft boiled eggs! The shells come off sooo easy after being cooked in an Instant Pot. I also _LOVE_ cooking rice in it. No more hassle or messy stove-top cooking. Just dump everything in, set it up, and walk away! I’m very impoverished myself, but I scored when I was out and about on a walk in my neighborhood... there was a garage sale with an InstantPot they said had only been used _ONE_ time, and they were selling it for just $10! I couldn’t resist, so I snagged that up in a heartbeat. I’m disabled with a really messed up back, so I can’t spend much time standing in the kitchen because of how painful it is. Not only does the Instant Pot save a lot of time, but it’s awesome how hands-off it is, and how much electricity/gas it saves. It looks like you have an electric stove, so this will save you a lot of money in electricity cutting down from boiling potatoes for an hour to only using the instant pot for maybe 20 minutes at most (including the time the pot uses to get up to pressure)! :) Of course you could use a microwave too, but potatoes tend to come out dry from the microwave, versus always nice and moist from the Instant Pot. You can get super good deals on IPs, so just keep your eyes peeled. They had a bunch on sale for Black Friday on Amazon recently.
@@DollarTreeDinners P.S. I _LOVE_ crêpes. Next time you make them, you should try using sliced fresh strawberries rolled up inside (keep the powdered sugar dashed on top), instead of using preserves. It is out of this world delicious and I could eat them every day of my life with fresh strawberries! Whenever I see big packages of strawberries on sale during the summer, that is my cue that it is crêpe making time! :)
My dad was born in 44 also. I'm sorry for your loss. I lost my dad much later, but still too young. I feel like so much personal history was contained in that couple of sentences about your paternal grandma and your dad.
I would make crepes for our potluck breakfasts at work. I would take two cans of peaches, one to drain and fill the crepes, saving the juices. The other I would put in a sauce pan with the extra juice, smash the peaches down, mix with cornstarch to lightly thicken, heat and then pour over the crepes. Would chill and just before serving would dust with powdered sugar, lightly. You can use any fruit of choice. They were always a hit.
My mother and her 6 siblings were sent off to school each morning with a breakfast of toast soaked in the previous day's reheated coffee. Sometimes with a side of fried potatoes, which they grew in their backyard. Since her pap made the coffee strong, she said it gave them a nice caffeine boost for the walk to school. Eggs, bacon, and oatmeal were too costly for breakfast, so were saved for lunches and dinners.
When I moved from PA to NC at 27, I was surprised to find the number of families that served day old homemade biscuits or homemade cornbread with cold coffee in the summer and hot in the winter!
Potato biscuits: 2 c flour,4 tsp baking powder,half tsp salt sifted ** 4 tbsp shortening hand squeezed into the flower. 3/4 c cold mashed potatoes, 1 egg 3/4c milk. Roll into thick dough to look like a pizza and cut into 4, then each 4th cut into 3. Bake 350
Fun fact about whole milk is that it has the longest shelf life/lasts the longest. I appreciate the fact that it doesn’t expire as fast as skim or 2% because there are some weeks and months that I don’t use as much dairy and don’t want to be throwing out money
I have found that lactose free milk lasts a long time. I live alone and have chronic health issues so I don’t cook every day. I try to be mindful when grocery shopping but still sometimes things will go bad. So to have the milk stay good helps me a lot. I also buy frozen diced onions and diced garlic.
I did not know that. If anything I would have thought it was the other way around due to the fat content. I've never heard of milk lasting months though. Thank you for the information!
You can also freeze milk,just put it in freezer bags ,smaller amounts and when you need them, just take out however much you want ,whenever you need them, thaw them out fully and they're just as good as when you open up your carton of milk.If your in Canada and can get the bags of milk,just put them straight into the freezer, unthaw them when you need them.
When you are boiling or microwaving Potatoes for frying, I've found that you don't want to go to fork tender. You still want it to be firm enough to hold a shape before frying yet soft enough that you started cooking the potatoes. I actually pre-dice my Potatoes before nuking them for 1-2 minutes
I have that Depression Era cookbook! My mother in law had been a short order cook at some point and she made this and called it Tater Eggs. The ex would save any potatoes from the week, french fries, etc and mix them with eggs on the weekends. My grandmother lived through both the depression and wartime rationing. You could have lived a year off my grandmother's cabinets and about 6 months off my mother's.
My grandmother was born in 1922, and many of the things she ate as a child became staples for generations. Ham and potato casserole was a big one, and even I grew up calling pie crust scraps kringles like the were something super special😂. In reality, it's the scraps left rolled out, topped with cinnamon sugar,. We folded ours in half, cut into strips and then baked. They're so very simple, but still my favorite cookie to this day
I think the reason why a lot of things weren't baked was many people were living in tent cities during the depression and they would have had to cook over an open fire. You know what I do for a really special treat with French toast is take a slice of bread and put peanut butter and jelly on it and roll it up like a little tiny Swiss roll. Dip in the egg mixture and cook it and oh my gosh it's so good and you don't need syrup.
I have had that cookbook for years and love it. My parents were acutely affected by the Depression and with the addition of the years of wartime rationing, we ate pretty efficiently as I grew up. I recognized the whole pattern of meal imagining right away. In fact, I still revert to meals like those when I want comfort food. We had a big pot of pinto beans with onion and some random remnants of some ham on the bone that was in the freezer. Cornbread was always there for that meal as a child so that's what we ate with it. Leftovers tonight so i'm really looking forward to dinner. Tomorrow, we're back to the 21st century 💝
Great recipes! I bought a dozen eggs at United supermarket for $1.99/dozen this morning. I live in the Tx panhandle. My grandmother (born in 1913) taught us to make French toast with a tsp of cinnamon and a tablespoon (or more) of maple syrup to the custard. We sprinkled the toast with powdered sugar. We rarely added more syrup.
We used to sometimes have it sweet but usually as just beaten egg with a drop of milk & salt n pepper. Soak the bread for a few seconds then fry till golden on both sides. Really good if there were not enough eggs to go round till the next shopping trip.
My Depression era mom made crepes all the time, and French toast. Sometimes she put the french toast in the waffle iron for "bread and butter waffles." We loved those.
The 1st meal was probably for 5 or 6 people because we had one egg as Moma did and Dad had two. There was always bread of some kind to go with each meal which helped fill bellies cheaply. Everything looked delicious.
Peppery eggs are my favorite, especially hard-boiled. I love that breakfast recipe, it's right up my ally, cause I just love throwing everything together. What is also good about it, is that you can substitute the meats. I know that when we've been low on food and money, for my family, using any kind of deli meats you have in the fridge are good for breakfast. French toast is my favorite too! Oh my, and you cooked it in bacon fat, YUM. I'm gonna have to try that, I usually use butter. Aw, honey. My Daddy died when I was young too, I wanted to reach out and give you a hug when you were talking about him. I'm so glad you had a community that was there for you and your mom, afterwards. John sounds like a sweetheart of a man. You are such a natural cook. I don't know if you've had any training, but you did a really good job for your first time making crepes. I'm glad you decided to film it. I really enjoyed this video! I hope you have a fantastic week. 🌸
My great grandpa worked on WPA projects during the Depression, he always talked about how his team of mules made $1 a day and he only made 50 cents 😂. He and my great grandma raised 10 kids, one of whom had special needs (we think it was prob cerebral palsy) on that. Incredible. Really love this series!
Mashed potatoes truly are a perfect secret ingredient for making biscuits super tender. I've made similar biscuits before but I never fried them in bacon fat, I know there is no way that could taste bad.
I knew an old lady who hated green beans because in the depression they grew them and it was all they had to eat most the time. I always wondered why her parents didn’t grow a variety of produce but I’m sure there’s some reason for it. I just love depression cooking videos. Clara’s kitchen is one of my favorites and I’ve made her poor man’s meal many times for my family. I just saw eggs on sale in my area $1.50 a dozen which is better than I’ve seen in a while.
By cooking large batches, for lunch or general ingredients - like the potatoes, you reduce your fuel costs as well as save time (heat through or eat cold). In winter a pot of soup and a pot of water, for tea or washing, was always on the back of the heating stove/furnace/wood burner, because the wife made duel use of that resource.
The first breakfast my family has done since the 80s. We call it farmer's breakfast, started making it while living in Germany. I have made it with ham, bacon, steak or sausage. Makes great filling for breakfast burritos also.
My parents were raised during the Depression. My mom made a very easy version of crepes that she called Swedish Pancakes. 1 C flour, 1 C milk and 4 eggs. Beat until smooth and spread thinly in a buttered skillet. We would put powdered sugar in the center and roll them up. Added fresh berries if we had them. One of the first recipes I learned. Always good!
My mom was born in 1935 she called those tater cakes and she would just leave them round and she would leave the potatoes a little lumpy where you would get a surprise bite of potato every now and then she didn’t add as much flour though. Just enough to bind the potatoes, eggs, and milk together. Then fry them in a pan like you did. I liked them with ketchup.
I thought this looked like my leftover mashed potato cakes! I use just enough flour so that they hold together, usually throw in a bit of browned chopped onion, and then flour each side (round like you said) before frying. I add garlic, too, if they're to have as a base for hamburger gravy or creamed chicken.That way, we can have hot buttered biscuits on the side!😂😂😂
Mashed potatoes are also AWESOME in yeast rolls. I make them every year for Christmas, Easter, and any other family get-together. I turn them into crescent (or croissant) rolls, making some really big for sandwiches and some smaller ones for dinner rolls. Everybody who's had them has raved about them, and now my daughters make them for their in-laws! They are by far the family favorite. To get any kind of bread to last longer is a process called "tang zhong", where you cook some of the liquid with a little bit of the flour at a 5:1 ratio. You can also look up "Japanese Milk Bread" for a recipe. You can use it with any bread or roll recipe, and every single time the bread is super moist and stays that way for weeks on the counter! I make my sandwich rolls this way and they have lasted close to 3 weeks with no refrigeration, staying moist and mold-free the whole time. When I make hamburger buns, I do it this way, and top them with egg wash, then grated cheddar cheese, garlic powder, jalapenos, sesame seeds, parsley or cilantro, and a little cayenne if we want spicy, or for an Italian version I put the egg wash, Italian seasoning, garlic, cheddar cheese and parmesan, sometimes sesame seeds or sesame oil, and parsley or cilantro. They really are amazing gourmet breads and rolls!
Aunt Clara's (Not sure if it was Aunt Clara, her grandson did all the videos) channel here on UA-cam is one of the best channels ever. I was happy to see you have her cookbook. She's a Gem. :))
Potato scones are a traditional Scottish breakfast food, Tattie Scones. The dough is a little soft and cooked a little thinner. If you order a “traditional breakfast” in Scotland you will get potato scones with it. I have the depression cookbook as well. Thank you for the breakfast video. I enjoy watching you cook.
Thank you for sharing that info!!! I love hearing about food from different places. When she added the egg, I began to think that it was going to turn out more like my leftover mashed potato cakes that I roll in flour before frying, These definitely had a different texture than what I make, but maybe she rolled them thicker than you mentioned? How thin would you say the dough should be rolled to for it to be a traditional Scottish scone? TU!!😊
My grandpa used to make this for us when we’d visit. Said it was the first thing he’d ever learned to make that likely kept him alive during the depression without parents to guide him (moonshiners taught him at 14!). “Things can be simple and still taste good” would be exactly what he’d say :)
My grandmother made us pan-fried biscuits when we were kids, but she didn't call them anything as fancy as griddle scones. She called them doughgads, and she served them with syrup to dip them in. They were so good that our family will still make them every once in awhile, when we're in the mood for them.
The milk available to most in the Depression would have been non-homogenized whole milk. The cream would rise to the top of the bottle. You could skim the cream off for coffee or a recipe or to make butter, or shake the bottle to mix the cream back in and have whole milk. So skim milk and whole milk would have been the choices most people would have had. My parents were born in 1925/1926 and grew up during the depression. It was my dad’s job to shake the milk bottle when it was delivered.
This video is fun and interesting. Thank you! One thing surprised me! I have never ever used any kind of sugar when making French Toast! I’ve never even heard of that, but then, I grew up cooking with my mother and grandmother, who rarely used a cookbook for fairly ordinary dishes. I don’t think that I ever looked at a cookbook recipe for French Toast! We generally put maple syrup on top of the French Toast, so I don’t think that we would really miss any sweetness. I’m age 70, and always enjoy seeing younger people trying out dishes of all kinds!
You did a great job! I’m going to rewatch this for the titles/author’s name. This is the type of cooking my Dad & Grandmother did. Maybe I can find the books! My Mom would cut potatoes in maybe 1-1 1/4” pieces and then boil them. It takes less time to cook through and that way you don’t need to cut them after they are cooled. That might be easier for you. And my sister lived in Belgium one summer. When she came back to the USA she made crepes for us. She said the first crepe of a batch is sacrificial, so you did great. I like sweet crepes and savory crepes as well. If you like spinach, try a little butter & olive oil combo in a frying pan, add a little bit of diced onion & finely diced sweet red pepper, cook til soft, but not caramelized, toss in a little garlic finely minced (or garlic powder if you are in a hurry), immediately add fresh spinach, cover until just wilted and very low moisture. Taste for seasoning, add salt & pepper if needed. This is a good side dish or a savory filling for crepes for dinner. I really enjoy your videos. Thank you for all the effort you put into it for us.
A lot of the sizes depended on what your family members did My grandfather, and one of my uncles were blacksmith. They worked very hard and I’m sure they ate pretty big. They also grew a very large garden and had chickens.
My grandma often cooked 2-4 potatoes and just kept them in the fridge. It was a quick way to make a meal and easy to do ahead while you were working on other things.
Eggs went back down to $2.77 a dozen on Santa Rosa, CA! They were just over $4.23 a few days ago. It goes up and down daily. Potatoes today are $1.09 for cheap russets, $4.24/lb for the Walmart brand bacon.
I guess the Californians don't want to comment on my earlier comment! 1.25 a dozen. Extra large and .79cents for medium in Alabama a way down South in dixie
My dad was born in 1930, my mom in 1937. In 2020, it was time for my parents to move into assisted living, and I was left to clean out and sell their home. My parents were frugal people. There was a lot to go through. In a wicker little chest she used as decor, I found a bunch of food packets - dressing mix, gravy, dream whip, pudding, etc. Their package marketing was obviously dated, but I was shocked when some of them expired as far back as 1981! 😂
It's fascinating to me that all four of those recipes were standard ones my mom passed down. She was born in the 60's and cooked in restaurants, but also logging camps in the Northwest, and outfitters camps in Alaska. She was used to having to feed a bunch of hungry, working men, so I could see why hearty and economical fit the bill. My dad would add cinnamon or nutmeg to the French toast. :)
When I make fried potatoes, I thinly slice them and layer them on a dinner plate, then microwave, covered for 5-7 minutes. Once soft, they then fry up quickly. Thought this might help, since it's MUCH faster than 45 minutes boiling. Thanks for sharing your cooking!
New sub here. These are some great recipes. I remember as a boy hearing my Grandma Kitty and Papa Lamar talking about the Great Depression and how hard it was for everyone especially for the extreme poor as they were growing up in South Georgia during that time. I would love to see more of these types of recipes if possible. Thanks so much for sharing. Take care 😁👍.
Mother would make the 1st recipe with bulk sausage, too. If she made it for supper, which she frequently did, she called it, farmers supper. It was the best! We had a small dairy farm, & daddy raised crops as well. He also worked as a carpenter in town, so he was a busy man! We also had a large garden, & ALWAYS had FRESH veggies! In late summer, Nana & grandma would come out & help mother can/freeze the veggies. We would also slaughter a cow in the fall, so we always had food. Mother told of one time tho, when we ran out of meat, & had only the vegetables in the freezer, to eat for the winter. I don't remember that. ❤
When you make potatoes or rice or pasta, make extra. You can always freeze it if you want. You can also make baked potatoes in the slow cooker, so you don't have to babysit them. I would add cheese to the first meal. yummmm! The potato biscuits would be great with cheese ( like mozzerella) mixed int the dough or in the middle before cooking.
Thanks for sharing your cooking and your memories with us. Expiration dates are overrated. Look at it sniff it everything looks good we’re still eating it! One thing you don’t hear about them making that often during the depression era was tortillas it seems like they would’ve eaten a lot of tortillas because flour and water is that all it takes but I don’t see a lot of that. Please keep making a series I love it
Not food related but relevant: I went with a younger friend to visit his grandmother (in the hospital). She was, or course, wonderful. She wanted to give my friend a large tin (the size you'd get popcorn in), he popped the lid and politely declined. The tin was filled with random bars of (unused) soap. I immediately understood why she had saved bars of soap, whereas he wouldn't have had a clue. She offered and I accepted the gift. Many years later I went through a very rough patch, broke as broke can be, I wound up using every last bar of soap out of that tin. I even grated some bars to use as laundry soap (since I could no longer afford to buy laundry detergent). Thanks grandma, you got me through a very rough patch, exactly as intended.
Your memory brought tears to my eyes. It was so very kind and wise of you to accept her gift! I'm sure it brought her much joy! I've learned that our elders always have lessons and wisdom in abundance if we're willing to listen.😊 My gramma saved slivers of soap that she'd put away for 'hard times', then she'd melt them down a bit, pour it into a butter dish, and cut into 2 'bars'. She also taught me how to grate them & mix with a bit of water for laundry detergent. I was young and politely told her that I didn't think I'd ever need to know that. She just smiled because she knew that 1 day I would indeed need to do it, too. Tu for sharing! It brought back good memories!
Your bread recipe making five loaves of bread sounds like what my grandmother used. She would bake a large amount of bread once a week. Nothing went to waste. The stale bread was cubed, put in a bowl, buttermilk poured over it and served for Sunday supper.
I love the homestead breakfast! The first thing I thought was "burrito time! Also, I make crepes with an identical recipe. When my kids were little, they'd have them as a special treat breakfast with a thin layer of Nutella rolled with banana or strawberry slices. Then, I added a very light coasting of powdered sugar, once rolled. Heavenly!
For the French Toast, that's the way my mom always made it, except a much lower ratio of milk to eggs, and the vanilla is the *secret* ingredient. That's why it doesn't need the sugar/cinnamon that so many use in their recipes.
My favourite homemade bread recipe is a no-knead recipe and it’s very easy to make when you’re short on time! 3 1/2 cups of flour, 2 tsp instant dry yeast, 1 tsp salt, optional is 1/8th cup of sugar, or you can add herbs for a savory flavour. Then 1 1/2 to 2 cups of warm water, mix it up and let it rest for a couple hours or overnight. I like to leave it overnight because in the morning then you have fresh bread! After it’s proofed plop it out of the bowl, cover in flour and turn it a few times to make it less sticky. Put the dough into whatever you’re baking it in and then preheat the oven (this gives the dough a little more time to rest) and then bake at 450 for 30 minutes. For a great crust put a little dish of water in the oven to create steam. Not everyone is gonna want to make their own bread and that’s totally fine! But if you do I recommend adding this recipe to your belt because I use it constantly! Any bread that is leftover or becomes stale is perfect for French toast or you can make your own breadcrumbs with it
I've known people who bake the bread dough in a crock pot. Only drawback is no beautiful brown crust but it sounds like a great way to cook without heating up the kitchen
@@branwen8009 Ah well I have found recently adding the yeast, a bit of sugar, and hot water then letting that rest covered for 10 minutes to create a yeast cake first makes a fluffier much better texture. Add the yeast cake to the flour and salt and then add the water, the results are very worth the extra step
On my side of Colorado Our potatoes are $5.99 for a pound and eggs are $4/$6 a dozen. I grew up with a survivalist father who his grandfather lived in the depression there is a lot of recipes they handed down to me and now I can as much as I can and dehydrate as well as I am growing my own potatoes and garden. Putting together a cook book for my daughter
Also live in Colorado. A garden and a few chickens can keep us going a long time. Potatoes are the best crop because you can start them in March and beans can be grown in a sunny window.
In Northern NY, the price for 1 dozen large eggs at Walmart is $1.24. My Irish Gran was born in 1909. I learned to cook all of these recipes from her. She cooked the eggs separate from the potatoes/bacon. She also made tomato soup spice cake. Also she would stack the crepes layering a thin layer of old fashioned Hershey’s bittersweet chocolate frosting in between. It was almost like a layer cake.
I love making breakfast scrambles. I'll dice up my potato and cook them up in my air fryer to get that crispy texture and use them over the next few days. We also love adding ranch style beans to ours, adds a yummy flavor. And we'll do whatever breakfast meat we have on hand. Keeps us full practically all day.
I am glad you enjoy trying out these recipes. Clara was certainly a youtube star. I treasure both my grandmothers' cookbooks, from early 1900' s through WWII.
Thank you! My parents were both kids in the Depression so I actually grew up making this. One of my kids will *only* eat eggs this way. Or with leftover beef or pork or ham. My Dad said his breakfast was sometimes just stale bread torn up in milk with a sprinkle of sugar if they had it. Mom said her dessert was normally cooked white rice in a bowl like cereal with milk, cinnamon, and a sprinkle of sugar if they had it. We grew up with the rice and loved it, as do my kids.
I'm a 54yo granddaughter and daughter of coal miners from SW PA. (I'm now singing with Loretta in my head! Lol) Coal miners never had much $ and owed most of it to the company store, (Change of songs Here! Lol)so we relied on gardens, bees for sweetner, foraging for greens and mushrooms, hunting, fishing, and a pen of rabbits! Our neighbors kept chickens, so we were able to trade honey & comb for eggs, and sometimes rabbit for chicken. We were fortunate to live at the far end of a rural town bordered by acres of woods that was like part of our grocery store.We only bought staples, like flour, salt & spices, coffee, milk and rice. That was a really long story to get to the point that I grew up, as did my children, eating cinnamon rice & and milk, usually as a breakfast with a hard boiled egg on the side.😂My children were raised on an off grid homestead so I continued to cook frugally, from scratch, as Gramma & Mama taught me. I feel that I was really lucky because I grew up in a home with both my parents and my grandparents. I learned so many skills like growing herbs and making medicinals, baking, jam & jerky making, canning and so much more from my Gramma while my mom worked! One of my daughters is continuing the tradition while her younger sister has said 'There is no way I'm doing that much work!' All I know for sure is if anything truly bad happens in this world, we'll be able to survive!(And now Hank Jr has entered the room!😂😂😂)
I live in North Georgia. Even though I live in North Georgia, I would classify it as a suburb of Chattanooga TN. To get to my house, you get off the last Exit on I-75. I have only lived here for 4 years. I was raised in South GA. About 1 hour north of the FL Line. But the area I was raised is desperate for factory type work. It is mostly a farming community that what is my dad did to make a living. However, my husband worked at a local factory, and it closed down. Since my husband had been there for 15 years, he was transferred. So we moved here to North GA. 12 large eggs are $1.70 at my local Walmart.
Tattie scones are an integral part of any Scottish cooked breakfast. You can buy them in the supermarket. Ours are thinner and don't always include the egg but apart from that, exactly the same. Perhaps Scots brought the recipe with them when they emigrated over to you guys. Also, French Toast is never sweet here - it's cooked plain and folks can add any toppings they want. I was more used to it as a savoury dish as a kid.
I ‘m American and I never made French toast “sweet“ when I was growing up, and still don’t do it today. I don’t know why people like it so sweet like that! The only sweetness in mine comes from the maple syrup I put on it, and sometimes a dash of powdered sugar. My recipe it’s pretty much just like the one that she made here.
My grandfather used to make us something he called flitters and Tators . Flitters were made with just flour and water and they looked just like your crapes . And potatoes were very small cut up potatoes. WE LOVED THEM!!♥️
My mom would make flitters and fried potatoes with pinto beans when we didn't have enough stables for cornbread or a big pan of biscuits. She would also do flitters for pancakes for something sweet we would put syrup on it.
I must be the odd one here. We never had "sweet" french toast. We had it exactly as you made it. It was topped with butter and syrup, that was the sweetness. I have never made french toast with sugar in the mixture. I would think they would be awfully sweet especially topped with syrup! We had Potato pancakes instead of scones. Both of my Grandmothers lived through the Depression, so that style of cooking is all we really knew. We had potatoes and bread with every dinner growing up. They were always a staple on the dinner table in some form or another. I'm 63.- Looking forward to what you make next!- Good video.
You're not the odd one. I grew up with French Toast with no sugar added to the batter. Butter and syrup was used to sweeten it. I agree with you that it would be more of a dessert and less of a breakfast if you added sugar, but to each his own. When I make French Toast now, I add cinnamon to the batter and a dash of nutmeg, but never sugar.
My grandma used to make "fried bread" using home made, home sliced bread and to make it fry evenly place a thinish, foil wrapped brick atop while it fried. After she moved into town, she did store bought bread and didn't need the brick and only did homemade as a special treat. As far as people criticizing you for not making your own bread, ignore. Depression era farm women had no choice if they wanted bread and they had to spend a lot of time in the kitchen and the house working with other foods anyway. Going to try your recipes. Oh, btw mashed potatoes added to any bread makes it rise better at least with yeast.
Great video. Brings back memories of my childhood. BTW, I always keep a cooked potato on hand for breakfast. I'll pierce a potato with a fork 3 or 4 times. Place it in a covered microwaveable container (I use an unsealed microwavable zip bag) and nuke for about 3 min give or take 15sec. Leave it in your fridge overnight and its ready to go when you are. Makes the crispiest home fries. 😇
Those potato scones look good, I need to try them. Mom would make potato pancakes with left over mashed potatoes. She' add an egg, ¼ to ½ cup flour, and some baking powder maybe a tsp or two. Fry them up like regular oancakes and top with preserves or maple syrup.
In my family we add an egg and some flour to left over mashed potatoes and some chives or finely chopped celery, or dried parsley, add salt and pepper and form them into patties and fry them until golden, good savory little side dish.
My mom always made German pizza, when we went tent camping with 9 kids and my mom and dad. It's similar to your egg scramble, but she layered sliced potatoes and spam, then added the scrambled eggs and shredded cheese. That was in the 70s, and is still my brothers and sisters most talked about and favorite meal. Cooking it on a camp fire, in huge cast iron fry pans, also added to the flavor. I don't make it often, but if I do, I use frozen hash brown potatoes. It's fast and easy and can be baked in the oven. People either love or hate spam. But it adds a unique flavor that can't be substituted
My mother grew up in Ireland (I live here still) and she said rationing was awful. She was a food hoarder too and had a small back bedroom filled with long-life milk and tins of food of all kinds and bags of sugar and salt etc The potato scones are very like Irish potato bread or cakes with some changes. Flour, eggs and potato mixed together and fried is always gonna be delicious (I'm biased because I'm Irish but I'm not wrong either 😊)
In the UK we don't sweeten French toast. We just use eggs milk salt n pepper for the egg mix, and soak and cook as usual. We eat it with hp brown sauce or ketchup. I was in my mid 20's before trying sweet French toast!
Regarding your commentary on the griddle biscuits: I agree. In fact, it appeared to me that if you baked them next time, like you talked about, and in a rectangular baking sheet, you could then cut them into squares that could be used as sandwich bread since you mentioned how easily they pulled apart. I used to do that with a weekly pan of focaccia bread that was as versatile as these griddle biscuits look.
I’m so fascinated by those fried scones being so flaky/tender! What a wonderful surprise to bite into the fluffiness even tho it’s got potato in there!! I might try that bc we barely use our oven and I like to use a griddle or something on the top of the stove. ❤
Thank you . I can't tell you how much I enjoyed this video. It brought back so many delightful memory. I'm retired now , but recall my mother and aunts getting together on weekends They'd cook and bake, laugh and tell stories. It was great fun as a child.
I love these depression recipes and your stories are so inspiring. John must have been a wonderful person. It’s interesting how God puts special people in our lives when we most need them. Lovely memories. Thank you for all your videos.
I like the cage free Grade A orange yolk eggs such as Happy Eggs & on the high end they can be $7.99 a doz. Sometimes they’re 5 or 6.99 but they also go on sale for 2 doz. for $7! so I’ll grab 2 doz. I’m in SoCal. The other eggs also range from $3.99 for 20 & assorted prices & quantities. My grandma lived thru the depression & the war too but she made everything from scratch. She had an herb garden & chickens, so she could make meals from a few ingredients. She made the best homemade flour tortillas which were added to meals & it made everything super filling. She also taught portion control which everyone was mindful of back then. Not like today’s huge portions 😄. I like a ton of egg on my French toast, no milk & vanilla. I like to serve with banana slices & blueberries. And a coupla slices of Hoffy bacon, which periodically goes on sale for $2.99 for 12 oz. at some markets. That’s my dream version, lol. The first egg dish reminded me of breakfast burrito filling. Wrap in a flour tortilla, add avocado & pico de gallo if desired. Again, my dream version. TFS 💕
My dad made fried potatoes with meat and veggies and called it fried stew, My mom always saved things that she could reuse, like paper bags, plastic bags, even aluminum foil, Thank you for awesome videos you put out Blessings to you and yours
@@jerripeterson4689 thank you, my dad made the best stew, he would buy extra ingredients so he could make the "fried stew" for breakfast, it is so delicious
This is the first time Ive encountered your channel, and I love it. You have an excellent personality for presentation! Some thoughts: 1- I agree with cooking the eggs seperate from the potatoes and other stuff, absolutely how id prefer it 2- Ever tried peanut butter on french toast? Its my favorite, and 100% depression era friendly. 3- Skillet method may be due to being able to cook when away from the kitchen; you can use the skillet anywhere you have a fire 4- flipping crepes by hand without burning yourself is a real talent 😅
My mom grew up during the depression and then the war rationing. She grew up on a large farm so they had a lot more food than people that lived in town. Mom did say it annoyed her that the best cuts of the beef and pork from their butchered livestock were legally sold to in town butcher shops so the family was making some income off of the best items when they used to consume that themselves. They grew all of their own grain for flour, oars and cornmeal, they has to buy rice, they had dairy cows, beef cattle, hogs, turkey and chickens (for both eggs and butchering). They had a huge family garden and a big truck garden. There was a big orchard and there were berry bushes. My grandfather made molasses, sorgum and he had bee hives. They had 2 big ponds on their farm one was full of fish like bluegill and catfish and the other pond was a bass pond. They also had berry patches for strawberries. Fields of potatoes, melon patches and my grandfather also grew peanuts. There were pecan and walnut trees and figs, persimmons and fox grapes grew on the farm. It was a wonderful place, unfortunately after my grandparents past away it was left to.my uncle who let it fall completely to ruin and now all the buildings have fallen down and my uncles widow rents out the tillable fields for a little bit of income to tobacco growers. My grandmother used to can, dehydrate and freeze so much food, she had 2 huge freezers on her enclosed back porch chock full of beef, pork, chicken, turkey and fish, and a lot of frozen fruit too. There were big bags of flour, oatmeal and cornmeal in the big pantry. Grandmother bought screens and she'd dehydrate fruits and veggies buy placing them inside of this clean but very old sedan type car she had that had a large amount of glass windows. The farm was in south central Virginia and it got very hot inside that car in the summer. I thought her use of the old car was fairly ingenious and ilthe car honestly didn't look terrible parked down close to the garden. The little dessert pies my grandmother made with dried apples were fantastically delicious. I really miss that farm and my grandparents a lot.
My Grandparents survived the Depression and wars, recessions and so on. My Mother grew up post war. We grew up canning, drying and eating recipes like this as normal cooking. I never heard the term "poor mans food/recipes/meals" or depression meals until I was in my 30's.
It’s really beautiful that you don’t treat being poor like some kind of disease or moral shortcoming. You talk about scarcity as a matter of fact… which is exactly what it is. I really appreciate that.
There’s never been any scarcity in the world and people who knew that flourished during so called depressions and many made their millions
@@autumn5852 honestly though, was it something certain people “knew” how to flourish in or were there some people who were in positions of privilege who were able to further that privilege by exploiting those affected by financial crises? capitalism benefits those who it’s intended to benefit, the rich.
@@autumn5852 There was a dust bowl that devastated agriculture in the USA. It wasn't just a stock market crash.
I'm poor due to disability factors. I have looked around between Walmart, 99cent store and dollar tree. I've found some great buys at the 99. This wonderful woman is very helpful and kind with her recipes being simple. Your comment was refreshing.
@@arourtutor8833 Look into foraging edible wild plants in your area. Garden what you can. Sprouting seeds or lentils is easy with just a jar on your windowsill if your mobility is limited and gives you a supply of veggies you can add to soup or salads.
My grandparents got married in 1930, so they had to raise their kids during the depression and then WWII. My favorite story from WWII rationing is that when one of the neighborhood kids would have a birthday, all the families would save their sugar rations so they would have enough sugar to make a birthday cake for the kids.
That’s how community should be ❤
That's such a beautiful memory 🤗😇😊
My grandmother always said rationing was worse than the depression. They had a large family (9 kids), but the ration coupons did not go by your family size. My grandfather would walk to work so he could trade his gas coupons for food coupons.
I can definitely imagine the rations being a harder system, I’m surprised it isn’t talked about more to be honest
In the 80s my ex and I were stationed in Germany. Gas, and Ciggs were rationed.
I was told by my mom that most families had victory gardens. Her family had a farm. And she was one of 6 kids.
@@maryellis8804 oh yes, everyone had a garden, how they survived!!
@@melanieroberts2221 in the early 90s when I was stationed there also along with coffee , sugar and alcohol .
My mother survived the depression and the years after. She, too, was an emergency preparedness person. I grew up on a working farm. We grew our own food and canned everything, including our meats. My folks always said that if the lights go, our food won't! I learned alot of depression and post war recipes. My cousins and I still cook those recipes to this day.
Yes. I'm an older person. My mother would be 99 this year if she were living.
I am putting together a cookbook of what I learned from my Mama and Daddy and relatives from that time. When it comes out, I will send you a copy if you would like.
Yes, I would buy as well. Sounds wonderful.
You should start a list of people who would buy a book and put my name down
Definitely put my name down as well. I’m 57 and my mom lived during the depression, she remembered that when they ate pancakes for dinner, she knew that money was tight but they never went to bed hungry bc my gma who was a “flapper” was also a nightclub singer and a bakery owner so they were creative with dinners, but her mom would sell the day old donuts and bread to the people who didn’t have money and she’d tell them she’d put it on their tab, and they just didn’t have to money to ever pay.
They’d walk down to the store (in Philadelphia) and bring a giant bowl to get heavy cream to make fresh whipped cream. They also had a dinner of browned ground beef, green beans, corn, tomatoes and other garden veggies with stew like gravy and a dash of ketchup/mustard mixed in, with diced potatoes and they’d call it a “slop bucket” bc it was just leftover veggies and random things with ground beef. I like that to this day!
@@shaunparadis2204 count me in too
I would love to be updated on when it gets published so too, can purchase this cook book!!
Game changer: at Christmas when eggnog is available, buy some extra (it has a loooooong shelf life) and use it as a substitute for milk when making French toast. Delicious 😋
Wow...very cool, I'm trying this next Christmas❤🌲thank you!
My Dad was born in 1926. He always used honey as a sweetener, second choice was maple syrup, then sugar. His family had 5 kids, and when he was 5 he and his sister were sent from Detroit to Canada to live with their grands. He was a great cook and we were raised on a lot of these recipes. I remember a a kid picking berries and fruit to make pies for special occasions. It made the special occasion even more special.
My grandmother made us crepes but filled them with cottage cheese then used heated preserves or jelly as a topping. They were so good.
Sounds amazing! It would have a similar flavor as cream cheese with jam I would imagine. Thanks for sharing your memory. 👍
Delicious!!
Would the first dish, Scrambled Eggs with Potatoes, make a good filing for the crepes, like a Breakfast Taco?
You should look up cheese blintzes! Sounds like something similar 😊
Okay that sounds incredible and I'm definitely trying it the next time I have a lazy Sunday morning.
Great Grandma Ross (born 1880) when there was a scarce week would make milk toast. It's basically a thin white milk gravy over homemade bread toast. She had 10 children and sometimes there just were not enough eggs for that morning. SUPER filling. We still make it today only with a little extra pepper. Sometimes she would boil 4 eggs. Chop them up and add them to the gravy. That is also very good. She is the one when I was 8 taught me to make dump it in there soup with leftovers. She was a goddess of creation in the kitchen. I am a post WWII baby. Grandma Ross Died 1964. She left a huge legacy. Her son, My grandpa, Was the BEST biscuit maker of all time.
I had a great grandma ross that made that milk toast too! She died in the late 90s. She always made delicious rice pudding too.
My mom used to make me milk toast when I was sick
I'm trying to picture it. Is it like biscuits and gravy? If so I see why you added the pepper.
Could I please get the recipe. I would love to try it.
@@Selena-gz9tssounds like cream chipped beef without the chipped beef. I loved that with toast when my Grammy made it. I could just eat it as a "soup" lol
Not everyone made their own bread during the Depression. My paternal grandmother, who could make anything, often bought bread from her neighbor across the street. The neighbor was a widow with children. She did laundry and alterations for people and baked bread so she had an income to support her family. My mother grew up in the city. Hardly anyone baked their own bread.
That’s interesting. I always just assumed everyone baked their own bread back then. Thanks for sharing.
Buying bread from her is the best reason I've ever heard for not making her own!
That's the kind of help we should still be able to count on today but sadly it's not.
Knowing your family's hard earned money helped another hard working family survive is something to be proud of.
Not to mention how the neighbor didn't want handouts.
She wanted to earn it herself.
She should be proud as well.
Thank you for sharing your story!
@@Selena-gz9tsnothing wrong with getting "handouts" (aka help) when you need it. People deserve to live, not just survive
Bartering is an awesome way to get things when you don't have much money.
That was so kind and thoughtful of your paternal grandmother. Neighbors helping neighbors.
I can't currently find a seamstress (alternations, Canonsburg, PA) in my neighborhood and desperately need one right now. Blessings.
We make our French toast the same exact way. Also a drop of almond extract is delicious in the custard. My daddy was raised in the Appalachian mountains. He taught me to take left over mashed potatoes, mix with a little flour and egg, flavor with a little onion and garlic powder shape into hamburger sized patties then fry up on a hot buttered griddle. 😋
Btw... I have cases of canned vegetables and meat under my bed that is probably six years past their date. 🤣
Potato pancakes
That sounds delicious!
My granny from the Ozark Mountains she was born in 1901 and she taught me the exact same recipe and it was called Tater cakes
Yum, yes, potato pancakes!
When I was first married I checked books out of the library filled with depression era meals. I used them to create a variety of meals to get the most nutritious meals possible. For years I fed my growing family for around $25/week. This was in the early 90s.
That was way smart!
Ha! My soul sister lol. Just kidding. I spent $25 a week and then when I started babysitting (as a stay at home mom) I had to bump it up to $50 a week. That was from 1984-1990. It kills me to see how many young people buy extravagant items on credit cards - we lived by cash only and was able to go on getaways many times a year with the money we saved
I'm disabled and poor. Learning from depression cooking recipes has made me able to enjoy making these easy tasty and fast meals. I buy only on sales so when the same item is full price the item is waiting in my pantry. The last week of the month I'm penniless but that's the week I enjoy cooking the most. I go through my pantry and make a game out of what can I make this week? It makes me incredibly happy to see what I can come up with. 😊
You got to do a series on how far you can stretch a rotisserie chicken you can get from Sam’s club, Costco or just a regular grocery store rotisserie chicken,
^this
They are so versatile! This is a great idea! After I have cleaned all the meat off, I put the bones in a crockpot with some water (and whatever herbs) and let it cook on low for a while (usually at least 12 hours) to make some nice broth.
I have seen an article that says a rotisserie chicken can yield 5 meals! I'd be interested to see that on video.
use chicken carcass for soup just boil debone and then take out bones and add veggies after picking out bones and chopping meat . add meat back and seasonings
@@tanishahogan9396 it takes 2 hours in an instant pot with a couple tablespoons of vinegar and enough water to cover the bones to make bone broth.
I think going through the thirties and forties definitely made an impression on people that they never forgot. My grandparents lived through those years and I was told many stories about making do, doing without and making it last. My grandmother used to reuse aluminum foil. She'd wipe it clean and save it for another use. She never threw anything away. She would save a tablespoon of veggies, freeze them and when she had enough, make soup. Brown beans, fried potatoes and cornbread was and still is a favorite meal. Even better if it's summer time and there's fried okra and fresh sliced tomatoes to go with it. I cherish the lessons they taught me as a kid. People think that hard times like those are a thing of the past but history certainly has a way of repeating itself.
My mom was born in 1922 so she would have been learning to cook during the Depression. This is exactly the way she taught me to cook. The reason that you didn’t have bacon grease to pour off was that what you were using is what my mom called sow belly, with big chunks of meat making it tough and not much fat. It was considered very poor quality bacon. Your French toast is exactly the way I still make it, except with 2% milk and pre sliced bread. I like to use whole wheat because it’s more substantial. She also taught me to make my own syrup, using white sugar, water and maple flavor. That way it’s hot when you pour it on the toast, pancakes or waffles.
My Grandmother picked dandelion greens from her yard. She poured the bacon, onion, and potato with the fat in the pan over the greens, and added apple cider vinegar. I've made this salad for people who have never had it before, everyone has loved it and asked for the recipe. You can use leafy endive in the winter, it is a little more bitter than dandelion, but if you like the mild bitterness of dandelion, you will like endive too. Edit: Gramma just boiled a few extra potatoes for dinner and saved them for salad the next day.
I still make this today. I add those plentiful wild violet leaves too.
And in the summer I pick and dice a few day lilies blossoms and add dandelion petals. Toss these in as you remove greens from the heat. Adds color and beta carotene!
@@lstj2979 I don't cook the greens. I just fry the bacon and saute the onions, then pour it over the greens. I don't eat potatoes regularly (I'm on Keto) so I use a small potato for a family-sized salad. I've tried dandelion flower petals but I thought they didn't add anything to the flavor of the salad. I have read they are even more nutritious than the greens, though. Wild violets are not plentiful where I live, it gets hot and dry in July and August, and the dandelions have turned woody. So I get endive at the grocery store. I'm lucky, my local grocery is a family-run store, I've noticed the larger chain groceries don't carry endive.
Dandelion greens are good eating.
I live in the city. Tons of dandelions around here. All the lawns are sprayed with poisonous chemicals. I would never eat them.
My mom was born in 1922 and grew up during the depression. There were 5 kids in her family, and they ate a lot of potatoes, cuz they were cheap and filled up hungry tummies. My grandpa said they always made extra baked potatoes, and he would cut them up like you did, fry them in bacon fat, and serve with scrambled eggs. He called them "Warmed Over Potatoes." My mom made them, I made them, and now my kids make them. A good way to stretch a dollar and make a yummy breakfast!
The previous dean at my ex-husband’s church did that at the parish retreats. The 1st retreat after he retired, the wife of one of the priests and I made the “Dean’s potatoes” for Sunday breakfast. The parishioners were so excited to see that we continued the tradition.
@@emmehouston ❤❤
Potatoes are so easy to grow. A bucket, a big bag, and a few old potatoes that sprout will give you an entire bucketful of potatoes. You can grow them in chilly weather or on the unheated porch. It is a way to keep going especially if you have a few chickens.
My granny's in Arkansas did the same thing and they were called country potatoes
They always talk about victory gardens, but my grandfather always talk about digging up the yard for a garden earlier during the depression. I grew up with everyone in our family having gardens, but I have moved to raised beds as they are easier for me. Grandpa said they grew potatoes, but they also started keeping chickens. Both could be done in a standard small backyard. My daughter loves ducks, so that is what we have now, but they aren’t as efficient because you end up with some males in the mix.
My great grandmother had home canned food in her basement that was canned in the 40’s and she used to try to get me to feed it to my kids when they were little!! She was determined that it was still good! We were always Leary of eating at her house because we didn’t know if she was cooking 50 yr old vegetables!! She was definitely a food hoarder!! Bless her sweet precious heart, she was absolutely lovely❤
Also, this is another meal my grandma used to make. She was born in 1918, was one of 9 kids, and also was one of the youngest. I her mom passed away a few years after she was born in the Spanish flu pandemic. Her father was able to move some of the kids around to other relatives, but she was one that stayed with him. They traveled from OK, where she was born, and went up and down the west coast as migrant farmers, living out of their car. To hear it called depression food is always weird to me because I was used to her making them as I grew up.
Nothing went to waste at her house. If there was even a spoon full or 2 of leftovers in a dish, it would go in the fridge. Reused tin foil, ziplock bags, ect. It's interesting to see the differences in generations and times!
We have so much to waste these days!
A dozen eggs at Walmart in the Sacramento, CA area is $2.04 today.
I love Clara. We are lucky to still have her videos and hear her stories.
She passed away a few years ago,but her video's are still on youtube
I'm in pa farm country even eggs over 3.00. Znd milk 4.00 a gallon
$2.04?? Torture & cruelty. Do better! 😢
Thank you for sharing about your family and I think you’re doing a great job. I think those people who complain about you not making your own bread or those people who leave you negative comments are full of crap do your show the way you want to do it?❤
Thank you! I appreciate it ❤️
I agree with you! She's not a historian so I'm not sure why so many complain about what she is doing you know? She's just trying to let us know that you don't have to be rich to eat a variety of things. That you can have full meals for less if you really have to. I like her! I just found her today and have been binge watching her and have learned a few things on top of it. To subscribe to her was a no brainer for me.
@@DollarTreeDinners
Hi there! I’m a new viewer. Although I’m a vegetarian and you cook mostly meat dishes, I’ve been enjoying watching your channel nevertheless.
I oftentimes think of what can I substitute to turn your meals vegetarian. Anyways, _I_ wanted to help you out with a tip for a change, since normally _YOU’RE_ the one giving out all the tips. You deserve helpful tips too! Haha.
You mentioned that breakfast is your favorite food genre (and it definitely is a great one!), but you don’t cook potatoes for the breakfast dishes as often as you would like to, because potatoes take so long to cook. You thought that pre-boiling them here would cut down the cooking time, but obviously that didn’t end up being true because you told us it took 45 minutes to an hour to boil those two huge potatoes!
So here’s my tip: Use an Instant Pot! It only takes around 10-15 minutes to cook them after the pot comes to pressure (which doesn’t take that long at all)!
I understand that you probably don’t use “fancy gadgets” for your videos on principle, because the point of is to teach people how to eat a variety of food with a limited budget, and that usually includes kitchen equipment that doesn’t come super cheap.
But that doesn’t mean you can’t use such equipment when cooking on your own just for yourself. :) The pot is awesome for cooking another breakfast food: hard/soft boiled eggs! The shells come off sooo easy after being cooked in an Instant Pot.
I also _LOVE_ cooking rice in it. No more hassle or messy stove-top cooking. Just dump everything in, set it up, and walk away!
I’m very impoverished myself, but I scored when I was out and about on a walk in my neighborhood... there was a garage sale with an InstantPot they said had only been used _ONE_ time, and they were selling it for just $10!
I couldn’t resist, so I snagged that up in a heartbeat. I’m disabled with a really messed up back, so I can’t spend much time standing in the kitchen because of how painful it is. Not only does the Instant Pot save a lot of time, but it’s awesome how hands-off it is, and how much electricity/gas it saves.
It looks like you have an electric stove, so this will save you a lot of money in electricity cutting down from boiling potatoes for an hour to only using the instant pot for maybe 20 minutes at most (including the time the pot uses to get up to pressure)! :) Of course you could use a microwave too, but potatoes tend to come out dry from the microwave, versus always nice and moist from the Instant Pot.
You can get super good deals on IPs, so just keep your eyes peeled. They had a bunch on sale for Black Friday on Amazon recently.
@@DollarTreeDinners
P.S. I _LOVE_ crêpes. Next time you make them, you should try using sliced fresh strawberries rolled up inside (keep the powdered sugar dashed on top), instead of using preserves. It is out of this world delicious and I could eat them every day of my life with fresh strawberries! Whenever I see big packages of strawberries on sale during the summer, that is my cue that it is crêpe making time! :)
My dad was born in 44 also. I'm sorry for your loss. I lost my dad much later, but still too young. I feel like so much personal history was contained in that couple of sentences about your paternal grandma and your dad.
I would make crepes for our potluck breakfasts at work. I would take two cans of peaches, one to drain and fill the crepes, saving the juices. The other I would put in a sauce pan with the extra juice, smash the peaches down, mix with cornstarch to lightly thicken, heat and then pour over the crepes. Would chill and just before serving would dust with powdered sugar, lightly. You can use any fruit of choice. They were always a hit.
My mother and her 6 siblings were sent off to school each morning with a breakfast of toast soaked in the previous day's reheated coffee. Sometimes with a side of fried potatoes, which they grew in their backyard. Since her pap made the coffee strong, she said it gave them a nice caffeine boost for the walk to school. Eggs, bacon, and oatmeal were too costly for breakfast, so were saved for lunches and dinners.
When I moved from PA to NC at 27, I was surprised to find the number of families that served day old homemade biscuits or homemade cornbread with cold coffee in the summer and hot in the winter!
Potato biscuits: 2 c flour,4 tsp baking powder,half tsp salt sifted ** 4 tbsp shortening hand squeezed into the flower.
3/4 c cold mashed potatoes, 1 egg 3/4c milk.
Roll into thick dough to look like a pizza and cut into 4, then each 4th cut into 3.
Bake 350
Fun fact about whole milk is that it has the longest shelf life/lasts the longest. I appreciate the fact that it doesn’t expire as fast as skim or 2% because there are some weeks and months that I don’t use as much dairy and don’t want to be throwing out money
I have found that lactose free milk lasts a long time. I live alone and have chronic health issues so I don’t cook every day. I try to be mindful when grocery shopping but still sometimes things will go bad. So to have the milk stay good helps me a lot. I also buy frozen diced onions and diced garlic.
I did not know that. If anything I would have thought it was the other way around due to the fat content. I've never heard of milk lasting months though. Thank you for the information!
You can also freeze milk,just put it in freezer bags ,smaller amounts and when you need them, just take out however much you want ,whenever you need them, thaw them out fully and they're just as good as when you open up your carton of milk.If your in Canada and can get the bags of milk,just put them straight into the freezer, unthaw them when you need them.
When you are boiling or microwaving Potatoes for frying, I've found that you don't want to go to fork tender. You still want it to be firm enough to hold a shape before frying yet soft enough that you started cooking the potatoes. I actually pre-dice my Potatoes before nuking them for 1-2 minutes
I have that Depression Era cookbook! My mother in law had been a short order cook at some point and she made this and called it Tater Eggs. The ex would save any potatoes from the week, french fries, etc and mix them with eggs on the weekends. My grandmother lived through both the depression and wartime rationing. You could have lived a year off my grandmother's cabinets and about 6 months off my mother's.
My grandmother was born in 1922, and many of the things she ate as a child became staples for generations. Ham and potato casserole was a big one, and even I grew up calling pie crust scraps kringles like the were something super special😂. In reality, it's the scraps left rolled out, topped with cinnamon sugar,. We folded ours in half, cut into strips and then baked. They're so very simple, but still my favorite cookie to this day
I think the reason why a lot of things weren't baked was many people were living in tent cities during the depression and they would have had to cook over an open fire. You know what I do for a really special treat with French toast is take a slice of bread and put peanut butter and jelly on it and roll it up like a little tiny Swiss roll. Dip in the egg mixture and cook it and oh my gosh it's so good and you don't need syrup.
I have had that cookbook for years and love it. My parents were acutely affected by the Depression and with the addition of the years of wartime rationing, we ate pretty efficiently as I grew up. I recognized the whole pattern of meal imagining right away. In fact, I still revert to meals like those when I want comfort food. We had a big pot of pinto beans with onion and some random remnants of some ham on the bone that was in the freezer. Cornbread was always there for that meal as a child so that's what we ate with it. Leftovers tonight so i'm really looking forward to dinner. Tomorrow, we're back to the 21st century 💝
Great recipes! I bought a dozen eggs at United supermarket for $1.99/dozen this morning. I live in the Tx panhandle. My grandmother (born in 1913) taught us to make French toast with a tsp of cinnamon and a tablespoon (or more) of maple syrup to the custard. We sprinkled the toast with powdered sugar. We rarely added more syrup.
We used to sometimes have it sweet but usually as just beaten egg with a drop of milk & salt n pepper. Soak the bread for a few seconds then fry till golden on both sides. Really good if there were not enough eggs to go round till the next shopping trip.
My Depression era mom made crepes all the time, and French toast. Sometimes she put the french toast in the waffle iron for "bread and butter waffles." We loved those.
The 1st meal was probably for 5 or 6 people because we had one egg as Moma did and Dad had two. There was always bread of some kind to go with each meal which helped fill bellies cheaply. Everything looked delicious.
Peppery eggs are my favorite, especially hard-boiled. I love that breakfast recipe, it's right up my ally, cause I just love throwing everything together. What is also good about it, is that you can substitute the meats. I know that when we've been low on food and money, for my family, using any kind of deli meats you have in the fridge are good for breakfast. French toast is my favorite too! Oh my, and you cooked it in bacon fat, YUM. I'm gonna have to try that, I usually use butter.
Aw, honey. My Daddy died when I was young too, I wanted to reach out and give you a hug when you were talking about him. I'm so glad you had a community that was there for you and your mom, afterwards. John sounds like a sweetheart of a man. You are such a natural cook. I don't know if you've had any training, but you did a really good job for your first time making crepes. I'm glad you decided to film it. I really enjoyed this video! I hope you have a fantastic week. 🌸
I use the eggs and potatoes recipe often. Sometimes I use spam diced up, but usually no bacon. Love it
My grand ma did that way but she would make homemade tortillas best taco
My great grandpa worked on WPA projects during the Depression, he always talked about how his team of mules made $1 a day and he only made 50 cents 😂. He and my great grandma raised 10 kids, one of whom had special needs (we think it was prob cerebral palsy) on that. Incredible. Really love this series!
Mashed potatoes truly are a perfect secret ingredient for making biscuits super tender. I've made similar biscuits before but I never fried them in bacon fat, I know there is no way that could taste bad.
I knew an old lady who hated green beans because in the depression they grew them and it was all they had to eat most the time. I always wondered why her parents didn’t grow a variety of produce but I’m sure there’s some reason for it. I just love depression cooking videos. Clara’s kitchen is one of my favorites and I’ve made her poor man’s meal many times for my family. I just saw eggs on sale in my area $1.50 a dozen which is better than I’ve seen in a while.
I watched Clara too, she was a total sweetheart❤.
By cooking large batches, for lunch or general ingredients - like the potatoes, you reduce your fuel costs as well as save time (heat through or eat cold). In winter a pot of soup and a pot of water, for tea or washing, was always on the back of the heating stove/furnace/wood burner, because the wife made duel use of that resource.
The first breakfast my family has done since the 80s. We call it farmer's breakfast, started making it while living in Germany. I have made it with ham, bacon, steak or sausage. Makes great filling for breakfast burritos also.
My parents were raised during the Depression. My mom made a very easy version of crepes that she called Swedish Pancakes. 1 C flour, 1 C milk and 4 eggs. Beat until smooth and spread thinly in a buttered skillet. We would put powdered sugar in the center and roll them up. Added fresh berries if we had them. One of the first recipes I learned. Always good!
That's so funny my family makes the same but we call them swiss pancakes, we fill them with sugar and cinnamon
My mom was born in 1935 she called those tater cakes and she would just leave them round and she would leave the potatoes a little lumpy where you would get a surprise bite of potato every now and then she didn’t add as much flour though. Just enough to bind the potatoes, eggs, and milk together. Then fry them in a pan like you did. I liked them with ketchup.
I thought this looked like my leftover mashed potato cakes! I use just enough flour so that they hold together, usually throw in a bit of browned chopped onion, and then flour each side (round like you said) before frying. I add garlic, too, if they're to have as a base for hamburger gravy or creamed chicken.That way, we can have hot buttered biscuits on the side!😂😂😂
Mashed potatoes are also AWESOME in yeast rolls. I make them every year for Christmas, Easter, and any other family get-together. I turn them into crescent (or croissant) rolls, making some really big for sandwiches and some smaller ones for dinner rolls. Everybody who's had them has raved about them, and now my daughters make them for their in-laws! They are by far the family favorite.
To get any kind of bread to last longer is a process called "tang zhong", where you cook some of the liquid with a little bit of the flour at a 5:1 ratio. You can also look up "Japanese Milk Bread" for a recipe. You can use it with any bread or roll recipe, and every single time the bread is super moist and stays that way for weeks on the counter! I make my sandwich rolls this way and they have lasted close to 3 weeks with no refrigeration, staying moist and mold-free the whole time. When I make hamburger buns, I do it this way, and top them with egg wash, then grated cheddar cheese, garlic powder, jalapenos, sesame seeds, parsley or cilantro, and a little cayenne if we want spicy, or for an Italian version I put the egg wash, Italian seasoning, garlic, cheddar cheese and parmesan, sometimes sesame seeds or sesame oil, and parsley or cilantro. They really are amazing gourmet breads and rolls!
Aunt Clara's (Not sure if it was Aunt Clara, her grandson did all the videos) channel here on UA-cam is one of the best channels ever. I was happy to see you have her cookbook. She's a Gem. :))
Potato scones are a traditional Scottish breakfast food, Tattie Scones. The dough is a little soft and cooked a little thinner. If you order a “traditional breakfast” in Scotland you will get potato scones with it. I have the depression cookbook as well. Thank you for the breakfast video. I enjoy watching you cook.
Thank you for sharing that info!!! I love hearing about food from different places. When she added the egg, I began to think that it was going to turn out more like my leftover mashed potato cakes that I roll in flour before frying, These definitely had a different texture than what I make, but maybe she rolled them thicker than you mentioned? How thin would you say the dough should be rolled to for it to be a traditional Scottish scone? TU!!😊
My grandpa used to make this for us when we’d visit. Said it was the first thing he’d ever learned to make that likely kept him alive during the depression without parents to guide him (moonshiners taught him at 14!). “Things can be simple and still taste good” would be exactly what he’d say :)
My grandmother made us pan-fried biscuits when we were kids, but she didn't call them anything as fancy as griddle scones. She called them doughgads, and she served them with syrup to dip them in. They were so good that our family will still make them every once in awhile, when we're in the mood for them.
The milk available to most in the Depression would have been non-homogenized whole milk. The cream would rise to the top of the bottle. You could skim the cream off for coffee or a recipe or to make butter, or shake the bottle to mix the cream back in and have whole milk. So skim milk and whole milk would have been the choices most people would have had.
My parents were born in 1925/1926 and grew up during the depression. It was my dad’s job to shake the milk bottle when it was delivered.
This video is fun and interesting. Thank you! One thing surprised me! I have never ever used any kind of sugar when making French Toast! I’ve never even heard of that, but then, I grew up cooking with my mother and grandmother, who rarely used a cookbook for fairly ordinary dishes. I don’t think that I ever looked at a cookbook recipe for French Toast! We generally put maple syrup on top of the French Toast, so I don’t think that we would really miss any sweetness. I’m age 70, and always enjoy seeing younger people trying out dishes of all kinds!
I'm 60 and also never put sugar in the milk/egg mixture for French Toast. We usually had it with jam or fresh fruit om top.
You did a great job! I’m going to rewatch this for the titles/author’s name. This is the type of cooking my Dad & Grandmother did. Maybe I can find the books! My Mom would cut potatoes in maybe 1-1 1/4” pieces and then boil them. It takes less time to cook through and that way you don’t need to cut them after they are cooled. That might be easier for you. And my sister lived in Belgium one summer. When she came back to the USA she made crepes for us. She said the first crepe of a batch is sacrificial, so you did great. I like sweet crepes and savory crepes as well. If you like spinach, try a little butter & olive oil combo in a frying pan, add a little bit of diced onion & finely diced sweet red pepper, cook til soft, but not caramelized, toss in a little garlic finely minced (or garlic powder if you are in a hurry), immediately add fresh spinach, cover until just wilted and very low moisture. Taste for seasoning, add salt & pepper if needed. This is a good side dish or a savory filling for crepes for dinner. I really enjoy your videos. Thank you for all the effort you put into it for us.
A lot of the sizes depended on what your family members did
My grandfather, and one of my uncles were blacksmith. They worked very hard and I’m sure they ate pretty big. They also grew a very large garden and had chickens.
My grandma often cooked 2-4 potatoes and just kept them in the fridge. It was a quick way to make a meal and easy to do ahead while you were working on other things.
Eggs went back down to $2.77 a dozen on Santa Rosa, CA! They were just over $4.23 a few days ago. It goes up and down daily. Potatoes today are $1.09 for cheap russets, $4.24/lb for the Walmart brand bacon.
Hi santa Rosa! We bugged out from there and headed 2 hrs north. I haven't bought eggs in 2 years!
Back down? My God, eggs are a dollar 25 for extra large and .79 for medium where I live. Yep, Alabama
When we get healthy egg layers in their place, the egg prices will go down again.
Just be patient😁
I guess the Californians don't want to comment on my earlier comment! 1.25 a dozen. Extra large and .79cents for medium in Alabama a way down South in dixie
My dad was born in 1930, my mom in 1937. In 2020, it was time for my parents to move into assisted living, and I was left to clean out and sell their home. My parents were frugal people. There was a lot to go through. In a wicker little chest she used as decor, I found a bunch of food packets - dressing mix, gravy, dream whip, pudding, etc. Their package marketing was obviously dated, but I was shocked when some of them expired as far back as 1981! 😂
It's fascinating to me that all four of those recipes were standard ones my mom passed down. She was born in the 60's and cooked in restaurants, but also logging camps in the Northwest, and outfitters camps in Alaska. She was used to having to feed a bunch of hungry, working men, so I could see why hearty and economical fit the bill. My dad would add cinnamon or nutmeg to the French toast. :)
Love it! Totally agree, I tend to eat more breakfast for dinner than Breakfast for breakfast - LOL.
When I make fried potatoes, I thinly slice them and layer them on a dinner plate, then microwave, covered for 5-7 minutes. Once soft, they then fry up quickly. Thought this might help, since it's MUCH faster than 45 minutes boiling. Thanks for sharing your cooking!
New sub here. These are some great recipes. I remember as a boy hearing my Grandma Kitty and Papa Lamar talking about the Great Depression and how hard it was for everyone especially for the extreme poor as they were growing up in South Georgia during that time. I would love to see more of these types of recipes if possible. Thanks so much for sharing. Take care 😁👍.
Mother would make the 1st recipe with bulk sausage, too. If she made it for supper, which she frequently did, she called it, farmers supper. It was the best!
We had a small dairy farm, & daddy raised crops as well. He also worked as a carpenter in town, so he was a busy man!
We also had a large garden, & ALWAYS had FRESH veggies! In late summer, Nana & grandma would come out & help mother can/freeze the veggies. We would also slaughter a cow in the fall, so we always had food. Mother told of one time tho, when we ran out of meat, & had only the vegetables in the freezer, to eat for the winter. I don't remember that. ❤
When you make potatoes or rice or pasta, make extra. You can always freeze it if you want. You can also make baked potatoes in the slow cooker, so you don't have to babysit them. I would add cheese to the first meal. yummmm! The potato biscuits would be great with cheese ( like mozzerella) mixed int the dough or in the middle before cooking.
Thanks for sharing your cooking and your memories with us. Expiration dates are overrated. Look at it sniff it everything looks good we’re still eating it! One thing you don’t hear about them making that often during the depression era was tortillas it seems like they would’ve eaten a lot of tortillas because flour and water is that all it takes but I don’t see a lot of that. Please keep making a series I love it
The Hispanic culture was not as widespread through the US back then. Less travel or movement for most families.
Not food related but relevant: I went with a younger friend to visit his grandmother (in the hospital). She was, or course, wonderful. She wanted to give my friend a large tin (the size you'd get popcorn in), he popped the lid and politely declined. The tin was filled with random bars of (unused) soap. I immediately understood why she had saved bars of soap, whereas he wouldn't have had a clue. She offered and I accepted the gift. Many years later I went through a very rough patch, broke as broke can be, I wound up using every last bar of soap out of that tin. I even grated some bars to use as laundry soap (since I could no longer afford to buy laundry detergent). Thanks grandma, you got me through a very rough patch, exactly as intended.
Your memory brought tears to my eyes. It was so very kind and wise of you to accept her gift! I'm sure it brought her much joy! I've learned that our elders always have lessons and wisdom in abundance if we're willing to listen.😊
My gramma saved slivers of soap that she'd put away for 'hard times', then she'd melt them down a bit, pour it into a butter dish, and cut into 2 'bars'. She also taught me how to grate them & mix with a bit of water for laundry detergent. I was young and politely told her that I didn't think I'd ever need to know that. She just smiled because she knew that 1 day I would indeed need to do it, too. Tu for sharing! It brought back good memories!
Your bread recipe making five loaves of bread sounds like what my grandmother used. She would bake a large amount of bread once a week. Nothing went to waste. The stale bread was cubed, put in a bowl, buttermilk poured over it and served for Sunday supper.
I love the homestead breakfast! The first thing I thought was "burrito time! Also, I make crepes with an identical recipe. When my kids were little, they'd have them as a special treat breakfast with a thin layer of Nutella rolled with banana or strawberry slices. Then, I added a very light coasting of powdered sugar, once rolled. Heavenly!
For the French Toast, that's the way my mom always made it, except a much lower ratio of milk to eggs, and the vanilla is the *secret* ingredient. That's why it doesn't need the sugar/cinnamon that so many use in their recipes.
My favourite homemade bread recipe is a no-knead recipe and it’s very easy to make when you’re short on time! 3 1/2 cups of flour, 2 tsp instant dry yeast, 1 tsp salt, optional is 1/8th cup of sugar, or you can add herbs for a savory flavour. Then 1 1/2 to 2 cups of warm water, mix it up and let it rest for a couple hours or overnight. I like to leave it overnight because in the morning then you have fresh bread! After it’s proofed plop it out of the bowl, cover in flour and turn it a few times to make it less sticky. Put the dough into whatever you’re baking it in and then preheat the oven (this gives the dough a little more time to rest) and then bake at 450 for 30 minutes. For a great crust put a little dish of water in the oven to create steam. Not everyone is gonna want to make their own bread and that’s totally fine! But if you do I recommend adding this recipe to your belt because I use it constantly! Any bread that is leftover or becomes stale is perfect for French toast or you can make your own breadcrumbs with it
I've known people who bake the bread dough in a crock pot. Only drawback is no beautiful brown crust but it sounds like a great way to cook without heating up the kitchen
Tu for this recipe! Arthritis is making kneeding more difficult, but I miss always having real bread! I'm definitely going to try this!
@@branwen8009 Ah well I have found recently adding the yeast, a bit of sugar, and hot water then letting that rest covered for 10 minutes to create a yeast cake first makes a fluffier much better texture. Add the yeast cake to the flour and salt and then add the water, the results are very worth the extra step
On my side of Colorado Our potatoes are $5.99 for a pound and eggs are $4/$6 a dozen. I grew up with a survivalist father who his grandfather lived in the depression there is a lot of recipes they handed down to me and now I can as much as I can and dehydrate as well as I am growing my own potatoes and garden. Putting together a cook book for my daughter
Also live in Colorado. A garden and a few chickens can keep us going a long time. Potatoes are the best crop because you can start them in March and beans can be grown in a sunny window.
Can't believe how expensive it is out your way. Always heard it was a utopia in CO...😮
In Northern NY, the price for 1 dozen large eggs at Walmart is $1.24. My Irish Gran was born in 1909. I learned to cook all of these recipes from her. She cooked the eggs separate from the potatoes/bacon. She also made tomato soup spice cake. Also she would stack the crepes layering a thin layer of old fashioned Hershey’s bittersweet chocolate frosting in between. It was almost like a layer cake.
Tomato soup spice cake?! That sounds really good! I make a warm spice tomato chutney that my gramma taught me. Would you mind sharing that recipe? 😊
I love making breakfast scrambles. I'll dice up my potato and cook them up in my air fryer to get that crispy texture and use them over the next few days. We also love adding ranch style beans to ours, adds a yummy flavor. And we'll do whatever breakfast meat we have on hand. Keeps us full practically all day.
I am glad you enjoy trying out these recipes. Clara was certainly a youtube star. I treasure both my grandmothers' cookbooks, from early 1900' s through WWII.
Thank you! My parents were both kids in the Depression so I actually grew up making this. One of my kids will *only* eat eggs this way. Or with leftover beef or pork or ham. My Dad said his breakfast was sometimes just stale bread torn up in milk with a sprinkle of sugar if they had it. Mom said her dessert was normally cooked white rice in a bowl like cereal with milk, cinnamon, and a sprinkle of sugar if they had it. We grew up with the rice and loved it, as do my kids.
I'm a 54yo granddaughter and daughter of coal miners from SW PA. (I'm now singing with Loretta in my head! Lol) Coal miners never had much $ and owed most of it to the company store, (Change of songs Here! Lol)so we relied on gardens, bees for sweetner, foraging for greens and mushrooms, hunting, fishing, and a pen of rabbits! Our neighbors kept chickens, so we were able to trade honey & comb for eggs, and sometimes rabbit for chicken. We were fortunate to live at the far end of a rural town bordered by acres of woods that was like part of our grocery store.We only bought staples, like flour, salt & spices, coffee, milk and rice. That was a really long story to get to the point that I grew up, as did my children, eating cinnamon rice & and milk, usually as a breakfast with a hard boiled egg on the side.😂My children were raised on an off grid homestead so I continued to cook frugally, from scratch, as Gramma & Mama taught me. I feel that I was really lucky because I grew up in a home with both my parents and my grandparents. I learned so many skills like growing herbs and making medicinals, baking, jam & jerky making, canning and so much more from my Gramma while my mom worked! One of my daughters is continuing the tradition while her younger sister has said 'There is no way I'm doing that much work!' All I know for sure is if anything truly bad happens in this world, we'll be able to survive!(And now Hank Jr has entered the room!😂😂😂)
I live in North Georgia. Even though I live in North Georgia, I would classify it as a suburb of Chattanooga TN. To get to my house, you get off the last Exit on I-75. I have only lived here for 4 years. I was raised in South GA. About 1 hour north of the FL Line. But the area I was raised is desperate for factory type work. It is mostly a farming community that what is my dad did to make a living.
However, my husband worked at a local factory, and it closed down. Since my husband had been there for 15 years, he was transferred. So we moved here to North GA. 12 large eggs are $1.70 at my local Walmart.
Tattie scones are an integral part of any Scottish cooked breakfast. You can buy them in the supermarket. Ours are thinner and don't always include the egg but apart from that, exactly the same. Perhaps Scots brought the recipe with them when they emigrated over to you guys. Also, French Toast is never sweet here - it's cooked plain and folks can add any toppings they want. I was more used to it as a savoury dish as a kid.
I ‘m American and I never made French toast “sweet“ when I was growing up, and still don’t do it today. I don’t know why people like it so sweet like that! The only sweetness in mine comes from the maple syrup I put on it, and sometimes a dash of powdered sugar.
My recipe it’s pretty much just like the one that she made here.
My grandfather used to make us something he called flitters and Tators . Flitters were made with just flour and water and they looked just like your crapes . And potatoes were very small cut up potatoes. WE LOVED THEM!!♥️
My mom would make flitters and fried potatoes with pinto beans when we didn't have enough stables for cornbread or a big pan of biscuits. She would also do flitters for pancakes for something sweet we would put syrup on it.
@@SuzieQ-lw2kp and I bet it was delicious 😋
My grandma made glitters also.
I must be the odd one here. We never had "sweet" french toast. We had it exactly as you made it. It was topped with butter and syrup, that was the sweetness. I have never made french toast with sugar in the mixture. I would think they would be awfully sweet especially topped with syrup! We had Potato pancakes instead of scones. Both of my Grandmothers lived through the Depression, so that style of cooking is all we really knew. We had potatoes and bread with every dinner growing up. They were always a staple on the dinner table in some form or another. I'm 63.- Looking forward to what you make next!- Good video.
You're not the odd one. I grew up with French Toast with no sugar added to the batter. Butter and syrup was used to sweeten it. I agree with you that it would be more of a dessert and less of a breakfast if you added sugar, but to each his own. When I make French Toast now, I add cinnamon to the batter and a dash of nutmeg, but never sugar.
And we scramble the left over mixture.
My grandma used to make "fried bread" using home made, home sliced bread and to make it fry evenly place a thinish, foil wrapped brick atop while it fried. After she moved into town, she did store bought bread and didn't need the brick and only did homemade as a special treat. As far as people criticizing you for not making your own bread, ignore. Depression era farm women had no choice if they wanted bread and they had to spend a lot of time in the kitchen and the house working with other foods anyway. Going to try your recipes. Oh, btw mashed potatoes added to any bread makes it rise better at least with yeast.
Great video. Brings back memories of my childhood. BTW, I always keep a cooked potato on hand for breakfast. I'll pierce a potato with a fork 3 or 4 times. Place it in a covered microwaveable container (I use an unsealed microwavable zip bag) and nuke for about 3 min give or take 15sec. Leave it in your fridge overnight and its ready to go when you are. Makes the crispiest home fries. 😇
Those potato scones look good, I need to try them.
Mom would make potato pancakes with left over mashed potatoes.
She' add an egg, ¼ to ½ cup flour, and some baking powder maybe a tsp or two.
Fry them up like regular oancakes and top with preserves or maple syrup.
In my family we add an egg and some flour to left over mashed potatoes and some chives or finely chopped celery, or dried parsley, add salt and pepper and form them into patties and fry them until golden, good savory little side dish.
@@hannakinn oh that sounds good as well. I just love potatoes, they are so versatile.
I got a whole bunch of sweet potatoes from the Food Bank recently. Wonder if that works as well.
My mom always made German pizza, when we went tent camping with 9 kids and my mom and dad. It's similar to your egg scramble, but she layered sliced potatoes and spam, then added the scrambled eggs and shredded cheese. That was in the 70s, and is still my brothers and sisters most talked about and favorite meal. Cooking it on a camp fire, in huge cast iron fry pans, also added to the flavor. I don't make it often, but if I do, I use frozen hash brown potatoes. It's fast and easy and can be baked in the oven. People either love or hate spam. But it adds a unique flavor that can't be substituted
My mother grew up in Ireland (I live here still) and she said rationing was awful. She was a food hoarder too and had a small back bedroom filled with long-life milk and tins of food of all kinds and bags of sugar and salt etc
The potato scones are very like Irish potato bread or cakes with some changes. Flour, eggs and potato mixed together and fried is always gonna be delicious (I'm biased because I'm Irish but I'm not wrong either 😊)
I remember having crepes , we thought we were getting dessert. Mom filled them with her homemade strawberry jam and whipped cream.
The recipe you used for the scones, instead of adding more flour you could make potato pancakes. My mom made them when we had left mashed potatoes.
Good job!!! I was thinking that the first one would make a great burrito filling as well. Lol.
In the UK we don't sweeten French toast. We just use eggs milk salt n pepper for the egg mix, and soak and cook as usual. We eat it with hp brown sauce or ketchup. I was in my mid 20's before trying sweet French toast!
Regarding your commentary on the griddle biscuits: I agree. In fact, it appeared to me that if you baked them next time, like you talked about, and in a rectangular baking sheet, you could then cut them into squares that could be used as sandwich bread since you mentioned how easily they pulled apart. I used to do that with a weekly pan of focaccia bread that was as versatile as these griddle biscuits look.
I’m so fascinated by those fried scones being so flaky/tender! What a wonderful surprise to bite into the fluffiness even tho it’s got potato in there!!
I might try that bc we barely use our oven and I like to use a griddle or something on the top of the stove. ❤
Thank you . I can't tell you how much I enjoyed this video. It brought back so many delightful memory. I'm retired now , but recall my mother and aunts getting together on weekends They'd cook and bake, laugh and tell stories. It was great fun as a child.
My mom was also born in 1944. My dad was born 1927. So lived thru both depression and war time after.
I love these depression recipes and your stories are so inspiring. John must have been a wonderful person. It’s interesting how God puts special people in our lives when we most need them. Lovely memories. Thank you for all your videos.
I'm in SC and a dozen large white eggs are $1.70 at my local Walmart.
An IGA Independent Grocers Association store has a dozen eggs this weekend for just $.99 ! !
I like the cage free Grade A orange yolk eggs such as Happy Eggs & on the high end they can be $7.99 a doz. Sometimes they’re 5 or 6.99 but they also go on sale for 2 doz. for $7! so I’ll grab 2 doz. I’m in SoCal. The other eggs also range from $3.99 for 20 & assorted prices & quantities. My grandma lived thru the depression & the war too but she made everything from scratch. She had an herb garden & chickens, so she could make meals from a few ingredients. She made the best homemade flour tortillas which were added to meals & it made everything super filling. She also taught portion control which everyone was mindful of back then. Not like today’s huge portions 😄. I like a ton of egg on my French toast, no milk & vanilla. I like to serve with banana slices & blueberries. And a coupla slices of Hoffy bacon, which periodically goes on sale for $2.99 for 12 oz. at some markets. That’s my dream version, lol. The first egg dish reminded me of breakfast burrito filling. Wrap in a flour tortilla, add avocado & pico de gallo if desired. Again, my dream version. TFS 💕
My dad made fried potatoes with meat and veggies and called it fried stew,
My mom always saved things that she could reuse, like paper bags, plastic bags, even aluminum foil,
Thank you for awesome videos you put out
Blessings to you and yours
“Fried stew”! I love that name
@@jerripeterson4689 thank you, my dad made the best stew, he would buy extra ingredients so he could make the "fried stew" for breakfast, it is so delicious
This is the first time Ive encountered your channel, and I love it. You have an excellent personality for presentation!
Some thoughts:
1- I agree with cooking the eggs seperate from the potatoes and other stuff, absolutely how id prefer it
2- Ever tried peanut butter on french toast? Its my favorite, and 100% depression era friendly.
3- Skillet method may be due to being able to cook when away from the kitchen; you can use the skillet anywhere you have a fire
4- flipping crepes by hand without burning yourself is a real talent 😅
My mom grew up during the depression and then the war rationing. She grew up on a large farm so they had a lot more food than people that lived in town. Mom did say it annoyed her that the best cuts of the beef and pork from their butchered livestock were legally sold to in town butcher shops so the family was making some income off of the best items when they used to consume that themselves. They grew all of their own grain for flour, oars and cornmeal, they has to buy rice, they had dairy cows, beef cattle, hogs, turkey and chickens (for both eggs and butchering). They had a huge family garden and a big truck garden. There was a big orchard and there were berry bushes. My grandfather made molasses, sorgum and he had bee hives. They had 2 big ponds on their farm one was full of fish like bluegill and catfish and the other pond was a bass pond. They also had berry patches for strawberries. Fields of potatoes, melon patches and my grandfather also grew peanuts. There were pecan and walnut trees and figs, persimmons and fox grapes grew on the farm. It was a wonderful place, unfortunately after my grandparents past away it was left to.my uncle who let it fall completely to ruin and now all the buildings have fallen down and my uncles widow rents out the tillable fields for a little bit of income to tobacco growers. My grandmother used to can, dehydrate and freeze so much food, she had 2 huge freezers on her enclosed back porch chock full of beef, pork, chicken, turkey and fish, and a lot of frozen fruit too. There were big bags of flour, oatmeal and cornmeal in the big pantry. Grandmother bought screens and she'd dehydrate fruits and veggies buy placing them inside of this clean but very old sedan type car she had that had a large amount of glass windows. The farm was in south central Virginia and it got very hot inside that car in the summer. I thought her use of the old car was fairly ingenious and ilthe car honestly didn't look terrible parked down close to the garden. The little dessert pies my grandmother made with dried apples were fantastically delicious. I really miss that farm and my grandparents a lot.
I’m loving this series!
I am with you - biscuits and sausage gravy are the best! This was a wonderful video! Your crepes turned out amazing!
They all look great. Yes I would love to see you cook from Clara's book. Have a great weekend 😊
My Grandparents survived the Depression and wars, recessions and so on. My Mother grew up post war. We grew up canning, drying and eating recipes like this as normal cooking. I never heard the term "poor mans food/recipes/meals" or depression meals until I was in my 30's.
I love that you have these longer videos on YT. Obvs., on TT, you cant have half an hour videos, so I appreciate these!!