Post your grans Depression Era recipes

[Dee]

1.

Depression Era Rabbit Stew

 

1 Rabbit

Cold water

1 ts Salt

Hot biscuits

2 tb Flour

1 c Milk or cream

Salt and pepper to taste

 

 

Cut up the rabbit and place in a kettle. Cover with water, add salt and boil till tender. Break open hot biscuits and put them on a platter; put on each one a piece of rabbit. Make a paste of flour and a little milk, stir into pan drippings and let boil a minute. Add the milk, season and pour over the rabbit. Serve at once.

 

 

2. My grandfather use to shoot pigeons and my grandmother would clean and dress them and cook them as you would cook roast chicken. My grandparents grew their own vegetables so they would put the pigeons along with some carrots, potatoes and onions in a very large roasting pan and let it cook in the oven all day. 6 birds and veggies fed their 16 children with no mouths going hungry.

My grandfather also bought milk and wheat from a farmer and he made cheese from it and the kids always had cold milk waiting for them after school along with some of grandmas wheat ground sugar cookies that she made with what little sugar my grandparents bartered.

My grandfather also grew many tomatoes and my gran would make sauce for her wheat pasta spaghetti that she made. They had wild blueberry bushes in their yard and pear and apple trees which supplied them with canned fruits throughout the year.

 

Depression Era Fried Rabbit

 

1 Rabbit

Salt and pepper

Flour

1 tb Butter

1 tb Lard

 

 

Cut the rabbit into pieces and rinse quickly in cold water (do not soak). Season the meat, roll in flour to cover. have the fats very hot in the skillet, put in rabbit. Cover and let the rabbit get very done before browning the other side. A rabbit fried in this way will smell almost as nice as it tastes

 

Poor Man's Bread

 

 

 

1 cup flour

1 teaspoon baking powder

Water

 

 

Stir in enough water to make a batter and pour into greased skillet.{ use a cast iron skillet. Fry until brown on each side like a pancake. Taste great with homemade butter and jam.

 

 

Quick, Muffins

 

 

1/2 cups of flour

2 1/2 teaspoons baking powder

1/4 teaspoon salt

2 teaspoons sugar

1 egg

1/2 cup milk

1/4 cup of butter or butter substitute

 

Mix into a bowl the flour, and baking powder, salt, sugar and egg. Add milk, pour gradually into the bowl with other ingredients, beating with a fork as it is added. When the mixture is smooth, add butter or butter substitute melted. Beat until the dough is smooth and creamy; this takes but a moment. Grease the tins and only fill them half with the batter.Place in hot oven 400 degrees F. Bake 25 Min.

 

 

Sweet milk Doughnuts

 

 

2 tablespoons fat

1 cup sugar

1 egg

1 cup sweet milk

4 teaspoons baking powder

1 teaspoon salt

1/2 teaspoon cinnamon or nutmeg

3 to 4 cups of flour { just enough to make a soft dough }

 

Cream fat,add sugar, add milk and well beaten egg. Add 3 cups flour mixed and sifted with dry ingredients, then enough more flour to make dough just stiff enough to roll. With knife, toss about1/3 of dough onto a floured board, knead slightly to make smooth. Roll to thickness of about 1/4 inch. Use flour spatula freely to prevent dough from sticking to board. Cut with floured doughnut cutter. Fry in deep fat about 2 minutes. They should come quickly to the top. Brown on one side, turn and brown on the other side. Turn but once. Drain over fat and then on absorbent paper. When partly cool, or just before serving, sprinkle with powder sugar, or frost with favorite frosting.

 

 

My grandfather also use to fish as bass and sunfish were plentiful among the lakes near his home. This provided sources of protein for his family.

 

During the butchering season where my grandfather got his milk and wheat from, he always got the head of the butchered pig along with the feet and if he was lucky the farmer might give him fresh ham from a pigs leg and of course he always got the cows head, neckbones and the leftovers that the farmer didn't want- for trading pears with him. My grandmother would cook up a storm and she scraped all the meat off those bones of the animals after they were cooked and she would can the meat.

She also cooked the bones of the animals and made soups and stews to serve her family with a few loaves of home made bread.

She had access to many eggs because they had chickens so the kids really never did get hungry. My grandfather also had grapevines so he would share with the famer.

 

Anyone that came to my grandparents door were fed a hearty warm meal and were given a bag with sandwiches, fruit and cookies when they left my grandparents home. My grandfather lost his business and he almost lost his home until my aunt and uncle bought it from him during the depression. He made sure his employees had been paid before he paid himself. He always knew that God would provide for him and his large family and God did...

 

 

[Guest Guest]

I have 2 Depression day cookbooks and heres a recipe from one of them.

 

Grandmother's Sandwich Spread

 

1 c molasses, 1/2 c butter, and 3 eggs beaten. Add butter to molasses and heat to boiling point. Add eggs and cook until thick.

[Dee]

Great Depression Recipes

 

During the Great Depression, money was scarce. Few funds were available to most families for purchasing groceries. As a result, most families had to have one resourceful cook to make use of the meager goods. In my own family, my grandfather had a favorite recipe leftover from his childhood during the Great Depression. It was a staple in his childhood diet, and something that he ate occasionally as an adult. The recipe was called Cemetery Stew, and was a great recipe for a budget. It was the best substitute he could find for "real" cereal.

 

Cemetery Stew

 

2 slices of white bread, torn into bite-sized pieces

 

1 cup milk

 

(sprinkle of sugar if you have it)

 

Mix ingredients together and enjoy like a bowl of cereal.

 

 

[rockncook]

My grandmother used wild squirrel. She'd fry it for breakfast or boil it and make salad with it (like tuna salad) for sandwiches.

 

She, umm, still uses it when she can find it wild. I remember being 8 years old and the whole family going out to the lake. We had hamburgers and hot dogs, but they weren't done yet so she made me a sandwich and told me it was baloney salad. After I ate it she told me it was squirrel. I was icked out at the time but now I"m thinking..."that's pretty darn frugal!"

 

Mommy of 5

[Becca_Anne]

Around here squirrel, rabbit, deer, etc are still eaten. We all consider that merely country cooking. Fried squirrel is ok............every 5 years or so! I keep thinking they look like rats and it makes me nauseated!

We love fresh fish and fried deer meat at my house. We're having trout for supper tonight that my husband caught last week! Yum!!

 

mommafitz

[Guest Guest]

My Dad said that they got mighty tired of lard sandwiches as a boy. Many times at school they'd have that and an apple with water for lunch. (Can you imagine today's kids with that??? LOL)

 

They didn't like it much until they looked around one day and saw some kids had nothing but plain bread.

 

Cornmeal mush was something they had so often that he refused to eat it as an adult.

 

He was surprised to find that my Mom's family added milk & sugar to it, like hot cereal. He liked it, that way. Apparently with 13 kids they had to eat it plain.

 

The early years of the family probably explains why all my female Amish relatives grew up to be good cooks, heavy on the sweets!!!!

[redhenfarm]

I'm going to have to ask my Mom about this. I just vaguely remember her saying they didn't have it too bad because they lived on a small farm with their own cows and garden. I do know Grandpa had to travel to find jobs in various mills and was gone at times while the family stayed on their land. I do remember Dad saying he hated some of the potato soup his Mom made because it was so watery and maybe it was because they didn't have milk and butter in the city like Mom's family had out in the country.

Jan

[Guest Guest]

I've heard stories about the depression but it seems my grandparents made it through without too many problems as my grandfather was a Master Diesel mechanic and was able to barter his skills with a lot of farmers, etc who needed their tractors to work. My grandmother was a great cook and a favorite back then was the shepherds pie....which I still love today...consisting of a layer of seasoned ground beef/chicken/pork covered with a layer of creamed and kernel corn and topped with mashed potatoes!

[jillg]

Why haven't I seen this before? Too many darn threads hiding from me.

[mk7925]

My mother would often make depression foods for us. They were her "comfort" foods. I still do a couple of hers today.

 

Fried cabbage

Coarse chop a head of cabbage

Fry in skillet with a tablespoon bacon grease

 

Make a simple yeast bread

I sue my favorate white bread recipe:

 

3 cups flour

1 t salt

1 T sugar

1 package yeast

1 cup warm water

1/2 cup dry milk powder

1 T butter

 

Mix and let rise

 

Do not use a pan, use almost like pizza crust. Make into individual crusts (About three or four each) Bake in hot oven. Will puff up and then fall slightly. Cut in half. It is like pita bread.

Spoon cabbage in pocket. It is simple and good.

 

Depression Stew

 

Small amount of ground beef

3 cups water

onion

1 beef bullion cube

3 large potatoes cubed

1/2 cup macaroni

 

Brown beef and onion in skillet

Add to p9ot of water and add bullion cube

When boiling add potatoes

Boil for 12 minutes and then add macaroni.

 

Boil until macaroni is al dente. I can make only one bowl of this and it is very filling. You don't need a lot of meat just a taste.

[Guest Guest]

Us Pollocks make a version of your fried cabbage...we make it every New Year's Day...

 

I fry chopped bacon, until crisp, remove it from pan...in bacon grease I put in chopped onion and a little minced garlic and saute the onions until done...then I throw in the shredded cabbage, add some salt and pepper and cook until the cabbage is wilted. Before serving I throw the bacon bits and mix that into the cabbage...

 

Yummmmmmmmmmm...