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Old 03-04-2009, 12:00 PM
 
Location: Rocket City, U.S.A.
1,806 posts, read 5,691,054 times
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My mother told me stories about how they would ask the butcher for bones..."for the dog". The charge was minimal. There was no dog. They used to boil the bones for marrow, meat and stock...and then a neighbor's dog would get the bone.
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Old 05-04-2017, 08:33 AM
 
Location: Chapel Hill, N.C.
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I came to post this and found it had already been posted 8 years ago. Maybe there are some who would enjoy it now so I'm going to bump this thread. My father would have been 103 yesterday. He died in his sleep when he was only 57. I heard plenty of stories about how hard it was in the depression. I know they had either biscuits or cornbread with every single meal. Most of us can't even imagine.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UXpouL9Q1iY
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Old 05-04-2017, 09:42 AM
 
Location: near bears but at least no snakes
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My late mother grew up during the Depression and it shaped her life forever. Her father died in October, 1929, days before the stock market crashed. They went from living a normal life to surviving poverty.

She learned a lot of frugal ways and never was able to spend money freely. She used to buy food on sale and stock up as if it was going to be taken away from her.

Some of those ways of living, especially the recipes, should be revived by the struggling younger generation, as someone here already said.

My mother cooked frugal dishes like meatloaf, shepherds pie, pot roast, stews, macaroni and cheese (made with Velveeta). Nothing was thrown away. If she cooked meat (an inexpensive cut, of course) the leftovers would be put through the meat grinder to be used in another recipe.

There must have been 101 uses for stale bread. Use it in meatloaf, make French toast out of it, bread pudding, grilled cheese sandwiches, chipped beef on toast. How about melted cheese over Saltines?

We could afford to eat better but once you've been traumatized as Depression era kids were, it didn't matter. (She used to unravel our mittens every year and knit a few more rows from the same skein of yarn to make them bigger!)

However, her mother, a great cook from days on the farm, had kept the family alive by her cooking. She took in boarders and fed them well! Everyone wanted to board at her house because of the wonderful food. So it was possible to have delicious food if you knew how to make it--pies were especially popular.

Last edited by in_newengland; 05-04-2017 at 10:15 AM..
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Old 05-04-2017, 11:41 AM
 
16,174 posts, read 32,382,619 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by 33458 View Post
My mother told me stories about how they would ask the butcher for bones..."for the dog". The charge was minimal. There was no dog. They used to boil the bones for marrow, meat and stock...and then a neighbor's dog would get the bone.
What we know now is that bone broth is actually so very good for us! So much of the Depression molded my family (grandparents and parents). Today's younger generation just has no idea.
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Old 05-04-2017, 01:05 PM
 
Location: Bella Vista, Ark
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My parents were married the first year of the depression. Luckily dad was in college and managed to finish. Mom and all her siblings dropped out of high school even before the crash. I can remember hearing stories about how and what they ate. My step mom was influenced even more by the depression. she was born in 1918, the first one in her family born in America. They worked very hard to make a decent life and lost everything during the 30s. It certainly influenced her life. She had very little education, worked her entire life and was the most frugal person I ever knew: to the degree of maybe even emotionally ill. But on the other hand she left an estate of 3 million dollars and i doubt she ever purchased anything that was not used or on sale.
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Old 05-04-2017, 01:25 PM
 
Location: Cushing OK
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My grandmother raised Mom and my aunt after my Grandfather walked out on them for a new wife. He worked in Hollywood and had lots of money, and got a nice new house. Grandma lived in the same place they'd always lived but to feed the family took a job at the groceery store showing samples of pastries. She made enough to pay her bills and the family eat, but there wasn't a lot of money. My mom grew up with her stews and roasts. A smallish piece of meat with bone and fat attched, some veggies and garlic and onion, boiled slowly all day was how it started. She was a very good cook and could make a few spices just be the perfect top off. She used the tougher cuts of meat, and they were sliced after cooking for the first dinner, then cut up in step sized hunks. More vegies were added, and potators, and they were cooked in pass number 2. Stew could last for more than one day, the rest of the meat rolled up and put with the ice.

When the stew ran out, she'd cut the rest up for hash or soup, more vegies, some rice, and one chunk of meat lasted for a lot of meals. I picked this up from her, and added a few extras, and more seasonings I discovered on my own. Everyone loves my roasts, and think they must be very complicated. And some just don't want to cook something that can't be done within an hour.

But I think as we live in a society where while most don't want to think about it, the rug can be pulled out at any time, and 'circumstances' change very suddenly. I thought I had won first prize with my programming job, until I got let go when the trimmed the staff. And nobody was hiring and my roommate didn't make much. But I discovered that that survival instinct was alive and well in me. I learned that there are never any sure deals, that they all can fail, and its very hard at first. But our ancestors didn't give up but hunker down, and we can too. How to eat well and cheap is a very valuable knowledge, but you have to learn it. It wouldn't hurt the current kids of boomers, now negotiating adulthood, to arm themselves with useful knowledge. Instead of how some are busy chasing the biggest prize, especially those in their twenties would benefit from learning how their great grandparents managed to get five meals out of what they'd use for one. If, or *when* your economic life suddenly hits a sink hole, then you do learn the art of cooking cheap and tasty, but its never a bad time to learn.

And even when our parents had the money to spend on food, they didn't abandon the depression style foods at all, maybe adding a few spices and maybe more meat. And some of the most celebrated meals today began as a what do we have that's edible today sort of thing added to some excellent cooks in a time a long while ago.

Learning how to cook cheap and well is a way to arm yourself against the twists and turns in life you didn't anticipate.

Last edited by nightbird47; 05-04-2017 at 02:03 PM..
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Old 05-04-2017, 01:53 PM
 
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My mother used to make "Hoover sausages" by mashing black-eyed peas and mixing them with sage, black and red pepper, making patties, and lightly frying them.
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Old 05-04-2017, 02:08 PM
 
Location: Bella Vista, Ark
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Quote:
Originally Posted by P47P47 View Post
My mother used to make "Hoover sausages" by mashing black-eyed peas and mixing them with sage, black and red pepper, making patties, and lightly frying them.
actually that doesn't sound all that bad. I am not a fan of black eyed peas but still that isn't a bad way to eat them I bet. It is sorta like a veggie burger.
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Old 05-05-2017, 12:03 AM
 
Location: Garbage, NC
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Beretta View Post
What we know now is that bone broth is actually so very good for us! So much of the Depression molded my family (grandparents and parents). Today's younger generation just has no idea.
I know...I think this is hilarious!

My husband watches/listens to the Joe Rogan podcast. A month or so ago, he was on there talking about these fancy places that he goes to for bone marrow broth, and he went on and on about how good it is for you, and blah blah blah...

I thought it was hilarious!! He's paying like $8 for a small container of "bone broth" in California when us Southern cooks have been making broth from bones for...well, way before I was ever thought of. I would have never thought it was a "trendy" type of thing, lol!
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Old 05-05-2017, 12:06 AM
 
16,368 posts, read 30,128,764 times
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Photo by Peter Engler, LTHforum.com


This is a photo of a 1938 8 cent relief dinner as commonly served in Chicago during the Great Depression.

Home – Greater Midwest Foodways Alliance
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