Depression cooking

I bet her grandson who encouraged her to do this is gay.

Cornbread is delicious and easy to make. I will put a recipe at the link.

I know you're kidding and don't think it can happen to you but it can happen to you.

More bad years ahead? I can’t take it anymore.

Yep, r2. Beans and cornbread. Although, we always ate ours unsweetened.

I always keep jarred pasta sauce and pasta in the pantry. I like to put meat in my spaghetti sauce but if you add enough spices you can use pasta sauce without meat and that is a cheap meal. When I am broke I always buy a carton of eggs because you can eat those in so many ways.

I loathe sweet cornbread. Do they even still make Dixie Lily ? Thats all my mother ever used. Beans,rice and cornbread was on our table 3-4 times a week as a kid. Never any meat either. We'd fight over the fatback (if there was any ) used to season the beans. I couldnt eat beans for years after I left home.As a poor young gayling I used to buy a bag of chicken quarters,a bag of potatoes ,eggs and a loaf of bread and could eat off it for 2 weeks. Yeah,you got sick of it but it beat being hungry. During one stretch I lived off Ramen noodles for a month.10 for $1 . It was that or sit in the dark. Kids these days have no idea what it was like .Not one of my nieces and nephews have ever known how to sacrifice or do without. Coincidentally they are all spoiled selfish people.

How old is this? My Aunt just died at 90 and high school would have been in 1946.

How did this woman quit high school during the Great Depression?

When times are tough I cook Hamburger Helper minus the hamburger. I know Ellen disapproves.

[quote]How old is this? My Aunt just died at 90 and high school would have been in 1946.

[quote]How did this woman quit high school during the Great Depression?

This lovely lady was named Clara Cannucciari and she passed away in 2013 at the age of 98.

Nothing worse than sweet cornbread, disgusting stuff, and corn is mostly GMO so go organic if you make it.

I still love beans, we grew up poor and one chicken can be many meals, Roast (little eaten) with vegetables and rice, chicken salad, chicken soup etc. A chicken can take you a long way with vegetables. Chinatown SF got me through college at Berkeley.

I put butter and honey on my cornbread.

I'll show myself out......

That sweet lady is the Nana of my dreams! Sorry to hear she passed away. I would have loved to be her grandson.

A pack of hot dogs and a carton of eggs can go a long way. Franks and beans, hot dogs and scrambled eggs, cheap ramen with a hard boiled egg. Get some cheap bagged salads and baby carrots and balance out the processed stuff. Agree with pasta and jarred sauce with powdered parm- you can doctor up the sauce with spices. It’s cheap to make your own bean and cheese burritos with canned pinto beans, tortillas and Kraft singles. Bulk bagged fruit is cheap too. A bag of apples and some peanut butter is a good snack, and you can have toast and peanut butter for breakfast. Frozen preformed hamburger patties are cheap, too. That, cooked and crumbled with some frozen mixed vegetables, served with tortillas is a good meal too. All cheap eats that got me through college and the lean years right after. Drink cheap stuff too like water and tea made from bulk tea bags or instant coffee. Clip coupons and check circulars.

R13 you can make your own sauce cheaper than the jar, no need to doctor, create.

Kraft singles are vile and not so cheap. Use real cheese.

R6, r10…

I never thought I’d encounter fellow unsweetened cornbread eaters. Most people think I’m an alien for liking it. I use grandmother’s handwritten recipe from I don’t know when to make it, in my iron skillet of course.

I loved Clara, I've seen all of her videos. She quit school because even between her and at least one sister she claims they didn't even have decent clothes to wear. They were poor!

I watch a lot of cooking shows online, many non-pro home chefs who often make simple country dishes that working class people eat, many of them delicious and flexible as far as the ingredients. Learn to cook beans, cabbage and squash. They are always low-priced and available.

Hint: None of this involves DoorDash, Uber Eats or not knowing how to shop at a grocery store!

There's always fasting.

Check out Emmy Made in Japan. She has a whole series on recipes from hard times. (She also made a series of prison recipes-her stomach must be made of iron).

The serving size of protein needed by an average person is 4-6 oz a day. That is the equivalent of a deck of cards or the palm of your hand. And that's for the ENTIRE day, not just per meal. So it's obvious that we eat more protein than we need. A 12 oz steak is ridiculous, as is a gimongous porkchop or three big chicken breasts. Those could be spread out over 3 days and give a person all the protein he needs. Cheap carbs are potatoes (still cheap), flour (not commercial bread, which is expensive now), oats, cornmeal, rice. Beans are a cheap source of protein. It's still easy to get a can of beans for 50-75 cents, and that can has 3 days of protein in it. Beans with any sort of grain will give a better quality of protein and the meal will be filling. So a depression meal to me would be beans and rice, a peanut butter sandwich on whole grain bread, cornbread and beans, a 2 pound pot roast, where the first two days, you get one slice of meat with your potatoes, carrots, vegetables, and after that the meat is all minced to use as the basis for soup to which you can add frozen mixed vegetables (75 cents), a can of tomatoes (50 cents). That soup can be eaten with whole grain bread or potatoes or rice. You will have enough soup for 3 or 4 meals, so you can freeze some or all of it for a the future. Making an Italian tomato sauce and then adding 1 pound of ground beef or turkey Italian sausage will give you the equivalent of 3 meals - you can serve it with pasta one day, over rice another day, in a sloppy joe or over grits (polenta) the next day. Lots of fruit goes wasted. Walk around your neighborhood and see if people have cherry trees, plum trees, apples or other fruits that they aren't picking . If you see people outside of those houses, you can ask (politely) if they're planning to pick all their fruit. Most will say no and offer to let you pick some. . Most people are happy to get rid of it.

[quote]A chicken can take you a long way with vegetables. Chinatown SF got me through college at Berkeley.

You had to cross the bay for cheap groceries?

I lived in SF and crossed the Bay to go to school.

[quote]It's still easy to get a can of beans for 50-75 cents

$1.59 generic at my Safeway.

[quote]frozen mixed vegetables (75 cents), a can of tomatoes (50 cents)

$3 for store brand mixed vegetables, $1.49 to $5.29 for tomatoes.

I’m not saying eating cheap isn’t possible, but inflation has done a number on groceries recently.

[quote]Walk around your neighborhood and see if people have cherry trees, plum trees, apples or other fruits that they aren't picking . If you see people outside of those houses, you can ask (politely) if they're planning to pick all their fruit. Most will say no and offer to let you pick some. . Most people are happy to get rid of it.

What sane homeowner would allow a stranger to come on their property and engage in activities that might lead to injuries and claims against their insurance. One needs to make sure contractors are properly bonded and insured, but someone you've never seen before wants to poke around or climb your trees?

You sound a bit too sanctimonious, r19. Or gullible.

R23, the original site’s down now, but New Orleans used to have a community map of fruit trees in public spaces. There are still other places to look online for public fruit trees.

Just checked Walmart website for canned beans (because it's a national chain) . All store brand beans from pinto, black beans, garbanzo beans, kidney beans, 78 cents a can. At the same site 12 oz "steamable" mixed vegetables 84 cents. Walmart great value diced tomatoes, 79cents a can. I'm sure most stores with better service are more expensive, but in my area (the west) WINCO stores match Walmart prices or are even cheaper. Grocery Outlet stores are also cheap for these kinds of products. Depending on your budget, there are cheap alternatives available in most communities. But I can't imagine going through more than 5 or 6 cans of beans in a month, so even at a more expensive price, we're talking about maybe $8 or $9 dollars. If you're a vegetarian and this is a staple for you, then perhaps 12-15 cans a month at $18- 22. A ten pound bag of white rice is about $8, and some brands of brown rice are about the same . A 5 pound bag of potatoes is $4 for reds or whites, 1.75 for russets. Meat is more expensive, but chicken leg quarters are often on sale for less than $1/pound. Many kinds of pork (usually chops) are frequently on sale for less than $2/pound. Fish is expensive. However, sometimes with savvy shopping, you can fine a whole frozen salmon for $4/pound. Beef is rarely less than $3/pound, and more commonly cheaper cuts are still at least $4/pound. So for the budget-conscious, these cuts have to become more of "condiment" than the main show of a meal. When buying fresh vegetables, you have to be somewhat conscious of what is in season. It used to be that asparagus was only in season from March - June in most parts of the country and anything bought outside of that window was going to be exorbitant - but now, Mexican producers are growing it in high mountain valleys almost year round, so the price rarely skyrockets. Oranges and grapefruit are in season in the winter. Apples in the fall. Peaches, plums, and cherries in the middle of the summer, along with sweet corn, green beans and tomatoes. Melons in the late summer. People who crave these foods at other times of the year will pay a premium. Farmers also try to time their crops to demand. Cabbage prices will plummet around St. Patrick's Day for instance.

R14 a jar of Ragu costs $1.96 at Walmart. The average price for a pound of tomatoes is $1.90 and a can of tomato paste is $1.49 plus you need garlic, olive oil and water and spices, at a minimum, to make a sauce homemade. So no, it's not cheaper to make your own sauce.

I happen to like Kraft singles and for making burritos, eggs, grilled cheese, and depression cooking I would prefer to use something that melts, not a brick of cheese. YMMV.

Ragu is sugar water, garbage sauce and Walmart is a garbage dump to shop in.

But if you like Kraft plastic then your taste is perfect for Ragu.

R27 What is a healthy, inexpensive sauce alternative?

Sauce opinions aside, making pasta with tomato sauce the regular way, then pouring it into a casserole dish and baking it really elevates it. You know how spaghetti or whatever pasta is always better the next day? Baking it achieves this and beyond. I learned this a long time ago from another Datalounger and I won't eat the regular way anymore.

Ad for sauce, how I do it is I usually put a little oil in my cooking pan, get it hot and fry chopped garlic (or use the jarred minced garlic or use chopped onion) and red pepper flakes for just a minute to flavor the oil, then I add my 'meat', in my case I usually use a crumbled meat substitute, but once in awhile I use extra lean ground beef (my point is I don't use the kind that you have to drain the fat). If it starts to get a little dry I add some pasta water I reserved from boiling the noodles. Once I have the meat finely crumbled as is my preference, I add the pasta sauce, cook for a minute, then add the cooked pasta and mix well.

If I have some fresh Parmesan I will grate that into it. I get my fresh Parmesan at ALDI, it’s much cheaper and it’s the same thing. Then I pour it into the casserole dish and bake at 400° until the aroma fills the house, around 25 minutes. You want to see it bubbling up from the bottom of the dish, then it is done. Even if you don’t do anything else differently, just bake it sometime and see for yourself.

As*^

This is chilling.

Don’t cook when you’re depressed…It doesn’t turn out well.

Why would a 91-yr. old have a teen grandson? Wouldn't her grandkids be in their 40s?

R33 I believe any teens mentioned were her great grandchildren at the time.

Mad respect to Clara, another YouTuber introduced her to me years ago. She's quite a legend.

[quote]Sauce opinions aside, making pasta with tomato sauce the regular way, then pouring it into a casserole dish and baking it really elevates it.

Yeah, elevates it to "Crucified pasta".

The Frank Lutz thing is true - HOWEVER - there's really not much Joe Biden can do, or could have done about inflation. He didn't create COVID and supply chain issues, he didn't start the war in Ukraine, he didn't give away money for free as the FED has done for the past 12 years, and he didn't give a massive tax break to the rich during a time of low inflation and prosperity when it wasn't needed, and became an inflation accelerant. To me, the biggest issue is the price of oil, because that affects everything. Because we no longer live in local economies, but in national and international economies, every product we buy, whether food, appliances, or toiletries is brought via trucks, and if it is costing them twice as much money to bring it, that is going to affect the price of every single product. When the source of 1/4 of the oil in the world is not getting its oil out into the marketplace because of the illegal actions of its president and resultant boycotts of its products, absent an equal drop in demand, the price of the remaining 3/4 of the oil produced by the remainder of oil-producing is going to sky rocket. Biden has suggested temporarily eliminating the gas tax, which would lower the price of gas about .30-40 cents a gallon, but that is still far more expensive than US consumers are used to paying. Many of us who have high mileage per gallon vehicles or electric vehicles have known about the danger of relying on oil, a finite resource, and are not suffering from these high prices as much as others. However, it's useless to say "I told you so" to the millions of Americans and others around the world, to whom the most gas-guzzling vehicles like large and heavy SUVs have represented freedom and power for several decades. Now for many, those vehicles represent very expensive paper weights sitting in their garages or driveways because they can't afford the gas to drive them very far, and they are probably still paying off their car loans on those vehicles. If it were up to me, I'd insist that businesses that can operate remotely should return to that model until the oil crisis resolves, because commuting is ridiculous under the present circumstances. Sadly, as happened during the 2008 housing crisis, this is also going to affect people who, desperate to cash in on rising house prices or simply to be able to buy a house, have been buying houses in geographically remote areas, where there is no public transportation, and a vehicle is the only way to get to school or to shop.

R36 Good point about continuing to work remotely, as I thought we were evolving by embracing that. For the record, I did not make that post to drag your president. I understand monetary policy, and fully realise that inflation is world-wide, and that it picks up momentum like a steam roller. Your Federal Reserve is meant to be wholly independent from the Office of the President (despite Trump's best efforts to meddle, and keep interest rates low, when other experts said otherwise.)

Sadly, I believe many Americans overestimate the power President Joe Biden can wield, or any other American president for that matter, insofar as the economy is concerned.

I live in the US, and can attribute much of the increased food cost to supply and demand, and there are huge shortages in the marketplace according to farmers. Not only have there been nearly 10k heads of cattle down, but also these suspicious fires in meat and other food processing plants have drastically reduced supply. This coupled with a worldwide grain shortage is what is specifically affecting the cost of animal feed.

Even chicken feed is dramatically more costly. What we're paying to feed our horses and chickens is bonkers. We're not farmers, yet many here in the US and Canada say we will see $12 dozen eggs by next year, on account of many getting out of egg farming altogether. This will create fewer eggs over time. I hope I'm mistaken.

R35, you don’t have to boil it until it is completely cooked all the way through. It'll still taste good if you do, but if you're very sensitive about overcooking, just boil the pasta until it's 3/4 done, or whatever is your preference, before baking. I've never had this turn out 'mushy' or anything.

Anyway, this is the Depression Cooking thread, not "Let's be Greg"!

Excellent post, menluvinguy.

My mother lived through the 1930s Depression as a child. She was still cooking cheap food when I was a kid in the 1950s/60s.

Some highlights: Creamed tuna on toast, creamed beef on toast, hamburger upside down pie with thick Bisquick layer, hot dogs sliced into baked beans, canned string beans (limp and soggy, made me gag), chicken and dumplings cooked in pressure cooker, stew, Spam on white bread, and to be sure we were healthy, a daily teaspoon of Cod Liver Oil (more gagging). Her specialty and my favorite, fried chicken and home made French fries.

I'd wad up my string beans in a napkin because we could not leave the table until we cleaned our plates because children were starving in India. There was no soda, candy, chips, and very little fast food. Portions were not large and I was skinny through my 40s.

Grew up listening to my maternal grandparents' stories of Depression-era living.

Poors would beg for others' leftover meat grease so that they could have a taste of beef or pork flavoring for homemade beans and soups. Later others got smart and used the cheap fat for potatoes and bread.

Avocados were called, "poor man's butter." Nuts were once considered decoration.

Weeds like dandelions were an excellent source of nutrients. Clara and other Depression kids gathered the edible varieties for salad, or to be cooked with onions and pasta or rice.

Buy huge plastic buckets of reconstituted food from Sams or Costco.

Depression food, not End Times food.

I can remember my dad, now 70, kind of a Mr. Rogers type, boiling egg noodles, draining them, mixing them in the pan with a pat of butter and generous sprinkling of black pepper, then adding a can of cream of chicken soup to that, to make sort of creamed noodles. He added some milk to reconstitute it a little, but it was definitely a noodle dish, not a soup dish.

Make sure your dishware is cheap...

R44, made me think of my mother's casseroles. Cream of mushroom soup with noodles and maybe canned peas and maybe some ground beef. Casseroles were a staple.

R45, that's wonderful dishware. My grandmother had green Depression glass dishes.

This isn't Depression cooking but there are a lot of recipes that my Depression era mother made in the 1960s.

Many are delicious.

Hamburger helper

Tuna, onion, cannellini beans, olive oil, lemon juice, salt, pepper, oregano. Staple in my house during the 70’s.

fallingfruit.org for local fruit tree and herb sources

James Beard and Sam Aaron wrote [italic]How to Eat Better for Less Money[/italic]. See if your library carries it. I have the old version. An updated version was published in 1970. I didn't cook all the recipes from it. I just read for ideas on how to improve my cooking without raising my budget. I also read cookbooks to improve my preparation of cheaper cuts of meat.

I prefer Kraft singles on my burger...it's made to melt and be delicious.

Bougie cheese on burgers is so....bougie. It's a hamburger; it isn't supposed to be fancy, just delicious.

I don't know where you buy meat for 99 cents a pound but it sure as hell isn't in Seattle....not even at Grocery Outlet.

^ I have heard of people in another village who had beans once...such good fortune!

Pancakes with Karo corn syrup. Make your own Sun tea.

R29 NO, just no. It uses up leftovers but it does not elevate it in any way, shape or form. But it is depression cooking in that the idea of your baked pasta is depressing.

R35 but would you agree his mushy baked pasta is depressing?

[quote]Kids these days have no idea what it was like

I don't want kids these days to know what it was like to have nothing to eat but beans or ramen. In my case, it was nothing to eat but saltines and margarine, some days. Who would want that for anyone? It doesn't build character. Poverty does not create a better, more moral, more productive person.

Here's my go to cookbook for hard times.

Mom one said eat a margarine sandwich when we complained about something to eat. It wasn't bad. You could put sugar on it too.

She also shared a mixtof cocoa powder and sugar as a treat and snuff alternative from her childhood.

And i do think squished banana sandwiches were from then. A banana would make like 6 sandwiches. Now we ate those all the time.

Just walk into a fancy supermarket, load up all the stuff you want and walk out! no need to pay!

[quote] I happen to like Kraft singles and for making burritos, eggs, grilled cheese, and depression cooking I would prefer to use something that melts, not a brick of cheese. YMMV.

Monterey Jack cheese melts well, tastes good, and comes in slices.

Ragu jar sauce has the most sugar out of all the jar sauces.

I would recommend Classico brand jar sauce. For the price, that's my favorite.

I like Prego as well, but Prego has more sugar than Classico.

This is so depressing. I don't spend a lot on food but I can't imagine eating some of these.

Also cheap are savory steel cut oats from Aldi, lentil stew, onion soup, virtually any pureed vegetable soup, pizza, crepes, pasta primevera or carbonara, omelets, fried rice, stir fries, meat loaf, salmon cakes,,rotisserie chicken, risotto, burritos, peanut butter sesame noodles, yogurt shakes, homemade red beans and rice..

My version of the Hamburger Helper is Mince and Tatties, with or without the Neeps: Use plenty of onion sautéing the beef, or better yet two shallots and some garlic. Add carrot, celery, leeks, mushrooms, peas, or whichever you prefer.

Cover beef & veg with enough water, an inch or two as a a guide; add a Bay Leaf, two or three Tablespoons Worcestershire, five or six teaspoons of gravy granules, bouillon, (I use Better Than Bouillion), and six teaspoons cornflour/starch (No cornflour if using gravy granules, or similar instant gravy) Bring to boil, and simmer, adjust viscosity, salt as you like; add freshly ground pepper. Maggi, or soy sauce can bump up the umami if needed. If the mince is lean, add butter.

Serve over boiled, steamed, or microwaved potatoes, turnips, or swedes, cut into small enough bites to fit several on a fork or spoon. Additionally, one can serve over mash, or fried potatoes and neeps.

I think there are three stages in poor college cooking: 1) ramen, 2) rice dishes, 3) pasta. After pasta, you’re usually well off enough to afford vegetable and meat.

I love watching Allison Roman on Youtube, and she makes a very inexpensive dish called Dilly Bean Stew which is mostly onions, canned beans and cabbage. It is delicious and cost effective. Just be creative with inexpensive ingredients and stop thinking you can't cook, you certainly can.

"... boiling egg noodles, draining them, mixing them in the pan with a pat of butter"

I did this and added a can of sausage gravy and a can of chopped mushrooms. Stroganoff!

Too hot to make potato salad so I took the crockpot to the porch and cooked whole potatoes, about a cup of water to a crockpot full of potatoes, on high setting…Three hours maybe..took out the done ones and let the other ones cook a bit more. Let ‘‘em cool and dress them with sour cream and mayo et cetera….You could even leave them naked, then refrigerate for later use….

R59 I read th3 White Trash Cooking back in the 90s….The tomato sandwich, homegrown tomato with tons of mayo on white bread, eaten over the kitchen sink, dripping pink, was the most memorable

ElderGays aren't necessarily poor. In fact, a lot of them are in peak earning years.

Address your question to Poors instead. THEY know how to stretch a buck, the cheap cunts.

R62 Muenster also melts quite nicely, and has a mild enough taste to go with almost anything.

Lentils are cheap, have a lot of fiber and protein, and can be made into delicious meals. Lentil soup with no extras other than carrots, celery, and chopped onion (sausage or cut-up hotdogs optional). Lentil salad with sauteed onions and a squeeze of lemon (diced feta optional).

Cheap cuts of meat are now expensive. It’s ridiculous.

It is absolutely easy to eat well on a small budget. Right now, vegetables are still cheap. Eggs are my favorite protein, and beans/lentils & rice is a complete protein as well. People just don’t know what to do with vegetables; it’s kind of sad. Potatoes and cabbage are very cheap and healthful - and delicious with some fat.

And humans don’t need all the calories we think we do, unless we are doing heavy manual labor.

Hotdogs? full of nitrates! you want cancer?!

R75, R74 isn’t saying to eat them every damn day.

Go back to Reddit!

[quote] Cheap cuts of meat are now expensive. It’s ridiculous.

My Safeway advertised whole chickens for 99 cents a pound during this crazy period of sky high food prices. I went and they didn’t have any and the butcher said he didn’t even know about the sale. He suggested I get a $4.99 a lb chicken (😳 a whole rotisserie chicken at Costco is still only $4.99) and ask the manager.

I was prepared to be a full on Karen, but the manager just changed the price and let me have it for 99 cents a lb. 🤷🏻

R49 Your tuna with beans recipe sounds great, and I plan to make it this week.

Not everything thrifty, simple, or frugal needs to have an association with "white trash" cooking, or carry a stigma.

A can of lentils, or even a lentil soup can become a main dish with some onions, curry powder, and rice.

Tartiflette is a nice simple dish. Cutback on the bacon or use crumbled bits to save more money.

Potato Egg Drop Soup. In a small stock pot brown bacon bits with chopped onion, drain grease. Use a little of the grease to then fry cubed potatoes. Combine everything in pot and cover with whole milk. Stir so as not to have milk boil over. Make noodles by stirring together two whole eggs with flour and milk to make thick paste. Drop this into the hot soup. Salt and pepper to taste. I know it's comfort food, but it's filling and delicious, too boot. And inexpensive for the amount of soup this makes. Have it as a side to something healthy.

That is, drop the egg paste by teaspoon into the hot soup to make noodles.

Speaking of lentils and rice, the Middle Eastern dish mujaddara is incredible and not hard to make. Requires caramelized onions.

Tomato sandwiches aren’t trashy.

Need to whip up a dessert in a hurry? Dump a bag of oreos on the floor and eat the oreos off the floor like an animal you piece of shit.

In OP's video...

you can update that with healthier alternatives that are relatively cheap.

Good and Cheap: Eat Well on $4 a Day

The book is in print but the author put the pdf of the book on her website for free.

Thanks, 85.

Brenda's in the kitchen making Sweet Potato Casserole.

Can an Englishman explain Kedgeree?

Brenda again: Spam Casserole

Spam's a tough one to tame. You have to slice/cube it real thin and fry the crap out of it.

For budget cooking, frozen vegetables are your friend.

A portion of starch (potatoes, both sweet and regular have the high nutritional content), a portion of vegetables and some kind of protein on top (a fried/poached egg, feta cheese, some bacon, grilled chicken, a drumstick, a small steak, sausage, a meatball, prawns, steamed fish, tofu) will take you far.

Also, fat is your friend. You need it for your immune system, Butter makes everything taste better and fills up with valuable calories if you’re not eating much.