# Could you stomach these Great Depression meals



## TNHermit (Jul 14, 2005)

http://thesurvivalmom.com/2011/12/29/could-you-stomach-these-great-depression-meals/





With all the talk about food storage and growing our own food, I did a little digging around to find out what some people ate during Americaâs Great Depression of the 1930&#8242;s. Surprisingly, a few of these were made by my mother and grandmother, traditions, Iâm sure, from a more frugal era. I still have a soft spot for Chipped Beef on Toast! How many of these are familiar to you, and do you have any others to add to the list?
Milk toast
Chipped beef on toast
Cucumber and mustard sandwiches
Mayonnaise sandwiches
Ketchup sandwiches
Hot milk and rice
Turtle/tortoise
Gopher
Potato soup â water base, not milk
Dandelion salad
Lard sandwiches
Bacon grease sandwiches
Sugar sandwiches
image by Tony the Misfit

Hot dogs and baked beans
Road kill
One eyed Sam â piece of bread with an easy over egg in the center
Oatmeal mixed with lard
Fried potatoes and hot dogs
Onion sandwich â slices of onion between bread
Tomato gravy and biscuits
Deep fried chicken skin
Cornbread in milk
Gravy and bread â as a main dish
Toast with mashed potatoes on top with gravy
Creamed corn on toast
Corn mush with milk for breakfast, fried corn mush for dinner
Squirrel
Rice in milk with some sugar
Beans
Fried potato peel sandwiches
Banana slices with powdered sugar and milk
Boiled cabbage
image by Blue Mountains Library

Hamburger mixed with oatmeal
American cheese sandwich, âAmericanâ cheese was invented because it was cheap to make, and didnât require refrigeration that may or may not exist back then.
Tomato gravy on rice
Toast with milk gravy
Water fried pancakes
Chicken feet in broth
Fried bologna
Warm canned tomatoes with bread
Butter and sugar sandwiches
Fried potato and bread cubes
Bean soup
Runny eggs with grits
Butter and grits with sugar and milk
Baked apples
Sliced boiled pork liver on buttered toast (slice liver with potato peeler)
Corn meal mush
Spaghetti with tomato juice and navy beans
Whatever fish or game you could catch/hunt
Tomato sandwiches
Hard boiled eggs in white sauce over rice
Spam and noodles with cream of mushroom soup
Rag soup: spinach, broth and lots of macaroni
Garbanzo beans fried in chicken fat or lard, salted, and eaten cold
Popcorn with milk and sugar â ate it like cereal
Lessons learned from this list? Stock up on ingredients for bread, including buckets of wheat. Bread, in some form, is one of the main ingredients for many of these meals. Second, know how to make different types of bread. Next, have chickens around as a source for meat and eggs, and if possible, have a cow or goat for milk. Another lesson is to have a garden that will provide at least some fresh produce, and plant fruit trees and bushes. Finally, donât waste anything, even chicken feet!


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## tailwagging (Jan 6, 2005)

hubby was raised by his grandma so he use to/does like Mayonnaise sandwiches Ketchup sandwiches and Chipped beef on toast
i eat 
Hot milk and rice
Sugar sandwiches
Hot dogs and baked beans
One eyed Sam
Ketchup sandwiches
Fried potatoes and hot dogs
Onion sandwich
Cornbread in milk
Toast with mashed potatoes on top with gravy
Corn mush with milk
Rice in milk with some sugar
Beans
Boiled cabbage
Fried bologna
Butter and sugar sandwiches
Bean soup
Runny eggs with grits
Butter and grits with sugar and milk
Baked apples
Corn meal mush
Tomato sandwiches
Hard boiled eggs in white sauce over rice
Rag soup
Popcorn with milk and sugar (George Washington use to eat this for breakfast)

I AM willing to try SOME of the others too
thanks for posting this


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## TacticalTrout (Jan 7, 2010)

My grandmother used to feed us chipped beef on toast...I always loved it. Milk and rice was another staple item. I've never done the milk toast thing, but I think it's popular here in Arkansas if there is a threat of winter weather as all of the milk and bread leaves the store shelves. 

There are a few other items on the list that I enjoy and plenty more that I could stomach.


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## Cyngbaeld (May 20, 2004)

I've eaten quite a few of those and some I still eat. Some others that mother cooked I never could bear, like dried lima beans with fluffy white dumplings. Blech. I also won't eat dried black eyed peas, no matter how you cook them.


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## Rocktown Gal (Feb 19, 2008)

Love chipped beef and gravy over toast

I eat...

Mustard and sugar sandwiches
Tomato and mayo sandwiches
Baked apples
Fried Bologna
Butter sandwiches
Bean Soap

and others not on that list


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## wormlady (Oct 8, 2004)

That is a great list TNHermit.

Mom and Dad ate that way when they were growing up. He still eats tomato sandwiches most days in the summer.

The only thing on that list that doesn't appeal to me is a lard sandwich. Oh, roadkill doesn't sound great - depends on how 'aged' the critter is.

I have a cookbook called 'Stories and Recipes of the Great Depression'. I have Volume 4 and would love to find the rest. So many great tips for surviving very lean times.

Hope you fare well during this ice storm TN Hermit!


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## shawnlee (Apr 13, 2010)

Having gone without food for several days before in my life......I can tell you in that state of mind I would have cut off a finger for one of those meals listed above.......


Take the worst preps you might have, atleast the most undersirable and go 3 or 4 days without food and see how your outlook on that prep will change.....actually it will change your entire outlook on food forever as most have never gone that long without food.

Believe me you will consider and try almost anything...even non food items will be considered worth a try.......even knowing there is no food value in it at all, in that state it would be better to just fill the gut, no matter with what.

Unfortunatly I knew very little about survival back then, tried grass, leaves and even a few sheets of paper....anything to fill the void in the gut........maybe some people have less of a survival drive than others and do not get so desperate to eat anything to stay alive...not something just anyone you sit down and talk to can relate with or understand.

But a look at some of histories documentation about what people will do to survive, I can only guess that it will affect most in the same way it did me.........I can not even imagine 200,000 starving people in a city in that frame of mind...I do not believe words exist to describe how horrific and dangerous of a situation it would actually be.


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## oth47 (Jan 11, 2008)

The way I grew up,anything on that list was a luxury..


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## notbutanapron (Jun 30, 2011)

I will eat anything that won't kill me. And even will eat things that kill me if I can manage it smaller amounts than will actually kill me. Or cooked in a method that won't kill me.

Life's too short not to eat everything.


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## Bret (Oct 3, 2003)

Tallpines' meaty ham bone from Christmas is sounding better and better.


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## Steve L. (Feb 23, 2004)

I eat/have eaten about one third of them, and certainly would eat another third.


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## Sonshine (Jul 27, 2007)

Let's see, from that list we have had:

Hot milk and rice 
Potatoe soup with water (mom would add onions and butter or shortning)
hotdogs and baked beans (beanie weenies) I still fix these
sugar sandwich (we did it on toast though)
one eyed sam
fried potatoe with hotdog
cornbread in milk (usually buttermilk)
gravy and bread (usually biscuits)
toast with mashed potatoes and gravy
squirrel (fbreaded and fried like chicken)
rice in milk with sugar (still like this for something sweet now and then)
beans
boiled cabbage
hamburger mixed with oatmeal
american cheese sandwich
toast with milk gravy
fried bologna (Dad called it tube steak)
butter and sugar sandwich
bean soup
whatever fish or game you could catch (usually rabbit, squirrel or catfish)
tomato sandwich (I love these)

Guess my parents learned well during the depression. It's meals like these that kept my family from going hungry.


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## AngieM2 (May 10, 2002)

I've eaten a lot of the list, too. Started with my Grandmother that raised 5 on a small budget.

But several of them are almost treats, and just plain good country food.


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## mekasmom (Jan 19, 2010)

I like a bunch of those things. I never tried gopher though. I'm not sure what gopher's eat? Would they be gross tasting? fishy? or what?

Toast with gravy (SOS) is wonderful. Unfortunately, it is high carb though.


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## 7thswan (Nov 18, 2008)

That's an amazing list. I have had many of the things listed. My fathers side of the family ate these,mom cooked things my dad liked. I suspect they have gone thu hard times, my dad mentioned that mygreat grand ma traveled across country in a covered wagon.


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## EDDIE BUCK (Jul 17, 2005)

Dang,no fatback or sow belly on the list.I was more well off than I thought.A lot on that list I'd call a luxury right now, and fried fatback and biscuits is right up there with steak and seafood among my favorites these days.


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## ginnie5 (Jul 15, 2003)

never tried gopher but grew up eating most of the others. cornbread and milk was a favorite of my Grannie's! They also ate turtle, ****, and possum. Squirrel/rabbit was a staple. Sugar biscuits are still a favorite as are mayo sandwiches. I love rice with sugar too. add a piece of fatback to any of them and you have some good eating! Beans.....well let's just say any day I cook beans of any kind is a good day according to my ds. So if we had to go to those meals it wouldn't change a thing!


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## wogglebug (May 22, 2004)

mekasmom said:


> I'm not sure what gopher's eat? Would they be gross tasting?


They eat what rabbits eat, and would pretty-much taste like other vegetarian rodent-relatives (such as rabbits and squirrels) taste.

They're small packages, though. They are ground squirrels, and squirrel-sized - about half-a-pound live weight. You'd get a much better feed from woodchucks/groundhogs/marmots.


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## Shrek (May 1, 2002)

From your list these are the ones I have and havent done in my life and many I still do and enjoy today.

Milk toast-- Yes I have

Chipped beef on toast---My father introduced me to "SOS" as a child and I still enjoy it 3 or 4 times a month.

Cucumber and mustard sandwiches --No but my father turned me on to sliced tomato and onion sandwiches like they ate in the 30s.

Mayonnaise sandwiches---No but I still eat peanut butter and mayonnaise

Ketchup sandwiches--- No but I have eaten Ketchup nuked onto dried butter ramen noodles the day before payday for supper

Hot milk and rice--- Yes at least once a month especially in winter since the 1970s when my father ressurected it for Carter's depression.

Turtle/tortoise---Yes a few times when we caught a turtle while catfishing and my father would make a soup or chowder.

Gopher--No but have eaten baked grain fed possum three times in my life. Once when my grandfather and father grained one out to show me how they did it in the 30s and twice since to gross out friends.

Potato soup â water base, not milk---Yes when I first moved out on my own

Dandelion salad--- Yes every Spring. I also eat skillet wilted polk greens

Lard sandwiches---No but often made a meal of bread and margarine which is close
Bacon grease sandwiches---Sort of. I often dip bread in the skillet drippings left over from cooking cured and smoked ham or bacon

Sugar sandwiches---Yes if a slice of bread or toast with a teaspoon of sugar sprinkled on it with breakfast or a cup of coffee counts. I have had that a few times a week as long as I can remember.


Hot dogs and baked beans-- Of course . Now I even keep single serving cans of it in the pantry and my road stall kit. They call em Beenee Weenees .

Road kill---Yes once but the roadkill was a spiked buck with suicidal tendencies that jumped in front of my truck on my way to school , died instantly, ruined my grill and radiator, ticked me off because I only had liability coverage so I threw it in the bed, limped the truck home and my father let me play hookie to dress it even though technically it was an illegal "drive hunt " kill but it was deer season and after dawn and it was a bad day for me and he figured since the carcass was still warm we might as well have some tenderized venison to show for the damage he had to pay out of pocket for 

One eyed Sam â piece of bread with an easy over egg in the center---Yes. Still do on occasion.

Oatmeal mixed with lard---No but I often make oatmeal griddle cakes heavy with butter and light on water.

Fried potatoes and hot dogs---Yes on occasion since the Carter depression/recession.

Onion sandwich â slices of onion between bread---Yes see the tomato and onion sandwich above.

Tomato gravy and biscuits--- Yes. Thats one of my favorite "special day" breakfasts but I like a dash of hot sauce in the gravy and cathead biscuits.

Deep fried chicken skin--- Yes I usually seasoned and deep fried the chicken skins for snacks when my ex made "healthy" skinless chicken meals.

Cornbread in milk---Yes but only with cold butter milk and I still do when I got a piece of cornbread left over.

Gravy and bread â as a main dish---Yes I do but only with reheated red eye gravy made after frying off cured ham, bacon or jowl.

Toast with mashed potatoes on top with gravy--Yes but only with red eye gravy

Creamed corn on toast---No haven't had that yet

Corn mush with milk for breakfast, fried corn mush for dinner---Yes I have it quite often using cornmeal mix.

Squirrel---Yes I like fried squirrel quarters and eggs for breakfast. Rabbit too.

Rice in milk with some sugar---Yes. next best thing to rice puddin

Beans---Yes. I always have a pot of Pintos in the fridge
Fried potato peel sandwiches---No not sandwiches but whenever my mother or ex had me peel spuds I would peel the skins into water so I could skillet fry them as skin chips.

Banana slices with powdered sugar and milk---Yes that is one of my favorite easy peasy breakfasts.

Boiled cabbage---Yes I like boiled cabbage wedges as a solitary meal because it give me "southern hemisphere winds" that offend even my dogs 

Hamburger mixed with oatmeal---Yes I have used hamburger when I didn't have any seasoning bacon ends and pieces.

American cheese sandwich, âAmericanâ cheese was invented because it was cheap to make, and didnât require refrigeration that may or may not exist back then.--Yes I often make myself a cheese jam sandwich by taking a slice of bread and jammin it between two slices of bread on my way out the door 

Tomato gravy on rice---Yes . When I do I call it fixing myself "shrimpless creole" 

Toast with milk gravy---Yes but the milk gravy has to be sawmill gravy seasoned.

Water fried pancakes---Yes I have if that mean water instead of milk in the mix.

Chicken feet in broth---No

Fried bologna--Yes I like it bestif its a 1/2 to 3/4 inch thick steak slice. Anything thinner is okay but needs to be on a sandwich or biscuit.

Warm canned tomatoes with bread---Sort of. I enjoy home canned tomatoes in a bowl and bread to wipe up the juice.

Butter and sugar sandwiches---Yes but only open face. bread on both sides overpowers the butter and sugar.

Fried potato and bread cubes---No

Bean soup--- Yes I love navy bean soup

Runny eggs with grits---Yes 

Butter and grits with sugar and milk---Yes

Baked apples--- Yes

Sliced boiled pork liver on buttered toast (slice liver with potato peeler)---No I don't like boiled liver but I enjoy thin sliced fried liver on toast.

Corn meal mush---Yes

Spaghetti with tomato juice and navy beans---No never tried that mix

Whatever fish or game you could catch/hunt---Yes sometimes 7 or 8 days a week 

Tomato sandwiches---Yes if I have maters and bread but no onions

Hard boiled eggs in white sauce over rice---No

Spam and noodles with cream of mushroom soup---Yes also enjoy fried Spam cubes and mac and cheese.

Rag soup: spinach, broth and lots of macaroni---No

Garbanzo beans fried in chicken fat or lard, salted, and eaten cold---No

Popcorn with milk and sugar â ate it like cereal---Yes. I went through two tins of Carmel Christmas corn that way last year.


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## Cindy in NY (May 10, 2002)

I've eaten a lot on that list. Chipped beef on toast was considered a Fancy meal at our house!


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## chickenista (Mar 24, 2007)

But you want to get your gophers, ground hogs etc.. in spring or summer.
Late summer and fall they are very greasy as they are piling it on for winter.
Very greasy.


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## larryfoster (May 15, 2009)

I've eaten quite a few things on the list and still do.

One thing that I miss that we ate at grandma's was Coffee Soup

Big slice of homemade bread in soup bowl, covered with cooked coffee and sugar on top.

It was wonderful but a wonder that any of us had any teeth


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## ovsfarm (Jan 14, 2003)

I've had a lot on the list, but no gopher - we have groundhogs around here. One other thing not on the list that I loved when I was a child and Granny fixed it for me, was a black walnut sandwich. Nothing but bread, black walnuts and a little salt. Sounds awful to most people now, but I loved it.


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## tallpines (Apr 9, 2003)

Sounds like some mighty fine eating there!

Some of it is outright "comfort food" like Gramma use to make.


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## GrammaBarb (Dec 27, 2012)

Hi Folks,

My parents lived through the Depression, and I can remember my mother making "Depression Gravy" for dinner----a bit of hamburger boiled in water, and poured over mashed potatoes. I have also had a few of the foods on the list, and a few not on it, like porcupine liver or horse. Horse is actually pretty good, if you didn't know the animal before...

It is truly amazing what we will eat when hungry, but in a society where Spam is now a pricey delicacy, anything is possible.....

Interesting thread!

Barb, thankfully eating spinach lasagna for lunch.


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## kasilofhome (Feb 10, 2005)

Well, now you know some of what I grew up with and server reg.


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## Ann-NWIowa (Sep 28, 2002)

How about flour gravy -- brown the flour in a skillet and then add milk & water to make gravy. It needs lots of salt and pepper but it does fill a person's empty spots. Gravy would be served over whatever was available. Could be potatoes, rice, bread, biscuits. 

I've had a good many of the items on the list. Bread and milk or milk toast are two that I can't abide.


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## whiterock (Mar 26, 2003)

NOt sure what you mean by chipped beef on toast, but after Sunday roast, Monday would be remains of roast cut up small in gravy served on bread, not toast most often.
Many of the things on the list I ate or eat, parents married in early years of depression.
ED


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## mnn2501 (Apr 2, 2008)

Chipped beef on Toast (otherwise known as "S on a shingle")-- its whats for dinner tonite.

I have eaten a number of things on the list: Mayo sandwiches, haven't had one in 40 years or so.


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## City Bound (Jan 24, 2009)

a lot o those foods are good. bacon greese on bread is good. I ate catsup sandwiches as a kid. Potato chip sandwiches also. Lettuce and mayo on bread is good.


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## City Bound (Jan 24, 2009)

chicken a'la king is an old recipe also. It is just pea, carrots, and chicken pieces mixed with cambells cream of mushroom soup layed out on toast.


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## Kmac15 (May 19, 2007)

It is DH's birthday tomorrow. Now I have shrimp ( dad shrimps) fish (DH fishes) and lamb (we raise them) in my freezer, What does he want for his B-day dinner..... navy beans with mashed potatoes and cornbread. It's his favorite dinner and he said he wants something that he can't get any day of the week LOL


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## celina (Dec 29, 2005)

to all you sugar on bread..mom used to do a slice of bread spread with sour cream and dusting of brown sugar...lol.....she said it was a dressed up version of what she grew up on...


cuke and mustard sandwhich and tomatoe sandwhich were faves and still are!!!!


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## 7thswan (Nov 18, 2008)

Every summuer I eat cucumber and mayo sandwiches,never had it with mustard instead.I'll try it.


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## Txsteader (Aug 22, 2005)

I've also eaten alot of those foods and still do. 

I've read about people eating lard sandwiches and always fell terribly sorry for them. I'd have to be literally starving, I think, before I could swallow it. **shudder**


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## scooter (Mar 31, 2008)

Whenever us kids were sick when we were little, Mom always would feed us warm milk toast. It seemed to agree best with our stomachs.


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## MO_cows (Aug 14, 2010)

"Could you stomach these"????? That is an insult to some of the items on the list. There are some good eats on there! Cornbread, bread or rice with milk and a sprinkle of sugar, that was just the forerunner of breakfast cereal. And creamed chipped beef on toast, that is some hi falutin' dining right there. Mmmmm, makes me want some.

I can't get excited about a lard sandwich or a fried gopher, but yes, if times were tough and that's what we had available to eat, it would be eaten. 

One of my favorite stories from Laura Ingalls Wilder was when they were at Plum Creek and had no cash money until the crops came in. So their protein for the summer was fish. Every day. Every meal. For months. Fish. And did Laura write, I am so sick of fish, I'll never eat fish again!!?? No, she complimented her father for being so clever to set up the fish trap, and her mother for preparing the fish so many different ways. We could all use a little more of that attitude and a little less "ewwww" over things we aren't familiar with or think we are too good for.


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## Tiempo (May 22, 2008)

Txsteader said:


> I've also eaten alot of those foods and still do.
> 
> I've read about people eating lard sandwiches and always fell terribly sorry for them. I'd have to be literally starving, I think, before I could swallow it. **shudder**


Back home in England we would have dripping sandwiches, which is the same but beef fat, and bread fried in bacon grease is delicious, especially with fried eggs


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## MoTightwad (Sep 6, 2011)

Biscuits with lard and wild onions or garlic, Gravy with flour browned and then water to make the gravy with hard biscuits. Lots odf those things on the list are very familiar with me. School lunches were often biscuits with lard and some molasses or sorgam, whichever you call it


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## AverageJo (Sep 24, 2010)

Nothing on that list I couldn't eat. Many of them are quite delicious. But then I've eaten a lot of things NOT on the list... alpaca, horse, snake, frog legs, octopus, squid, alligator, brain, and, yes, even eye balls! Those were the grossest. One of our farm customers gets all our chicken feet and makes their broth with them. Might just have to try this.


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## WoolyBear (Nov 9, 2011)

Ok I'm confused. I thought everyone ate most of what was on that list at one time or another.
One eye sam - our version of this is, piece of bread with center cut out with a glass. Fry the bread on hot griddle with a bit of bacon fryings. Add the egg, cook, flip over, cook other side. And then...... we pour some honey over it. We call it a "honey egg" and DD can't get enough of them, lol.
Road kill - usually a deer that we know is a fresh kill.
My mother always like a fresh radish sandwich. DH likes to eat turnips like an apple. 
When DH was growing up, he did a lot of trapping raccoons and muskrats. His family regularly had roast raccoon on Sundays. First year that we were married I tried making muskrat, but it was too musky smelling for either of us to try it. 
We've eaten turtle several times. 
Fried corn meal mush is called pon haus around here. I love it fried crispy and covered in syrup.
Like I said before, I always thought most of that list was regular food. If it's not regular food what are the regular folks eating???


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## Forerunner (Mar 23, 2007)

:yuck:


Cain't we just order out pizza ?


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## Annsni (Oct 27, 2006)

Make sure you watch Depression Era Cooking with Clara on YouTube! I've decided she's my grandmother. I LOVE her!


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## thesedays (Feb 25, 2011)

Those don't sound (or probably look) any worse than some of those Weight Watchers recipes from the 1960s! 

:help:


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## Ode (Sep 20, 2006)

When I was a kid, we would make toast in the morning by frying thick slices of homemade sourdough bread in bacon fat after the bacon was finished. Spread with homemade strawberry or blackberry preserves, it was delicious!!! Other times we would make toad in a hole...the same toast, but a hole cut out and an egg cooked in it.

I can still remember my grandma making some depression era meals during the seventies and eighties, because she (and grandpa too!) loved them. First on the list was fried side pork. About 1/2" thick, the slices were dredged in seasoned flour, then fried in a cast iron skillet in lard (home rendered) until brown and crispy. Then a gravy was made with the lard and a little of the leftover seasoned flour along with milk and water. The gravy went over boiled new potatoes. Second was similar sort of, hamburger gravy over whatever starch they desired for that particular meal. The most common were biscuits, toasted bread, potatoes(boiled or mashed), and egg noodles. Another meal was a can of stewed tomatoes heated and served over either buttered egg noodles or macaroni. No seasonings other than salt and pepper, not even cheese. The last one was one they thought of as being a special treat, oyster stew. It wasn't much of a stew really, consisting of milk brought to a simmer then either fresh shucked oysters and their juices added or a can of oysters if there were not fresh available. When the edges of the oysters curled, the milk and oysters went into a soup bowl over a thick slice of toasted buttered bread. A pat of butter was put in the stew and they added freshly ground pepper and a dash of salt.


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## willbuck1 (Apr 4, 2010)

Groundhog is quite edible and much safer than **** or possum which almost certainly have trichinosis.


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## Ross (May 9, 2002)

I draw the line at chicken feet unless its in a Weiner!


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## City Bound (Jan 24, 2009)

Some people have it too good these days and they do not even know it. Reminds me of a neighbor who was crying her eyes out all day because she had to eat soup after sandy hit and trashed our homes. "Had to" like it was abuse. I love soup.


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## Annsni (Oct 27, 2006)

City Bound said:


> Some people have it too good these days and they do not even know it. Reminds me of a neighbor who was crying her eyes out all day because she had to eat soup after sandy hit and trashed our homes. "Had to" like it was abuse. I love soup.


Seriously???????? I wanna smack those people. There are so many around here who are just so stinking spoiled it's incredible.


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## TNHermit (Jul 14, 2005)

How many of ya'all have had the ultimate Rocky Mountain oysters


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## Annsni (Oct 27, 2006)

TNHermit said:


> How many of ya'all have had the ultimate Rocky Mountain oysters


I would have to be starving.


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## vicker (Jul 11, 2003)

I guess I haven't, I've never had them out west. Well, I had' in Texas once.


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## belladulcinea (Jun 21, 2006)

Pinto bean patties dressed up like hamburgers! Yummo! And pork n bean sandwiches. 

I've never had groundhog or gopher, but most of that is good food!


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## soulsurvivor (Jul 4, 2004)

As a kid of the 50s we didn't eat bread very much. Mostly ate biscuits or cornbread. Saved the flour to coat the meat for frying and making gravies. We ate a lot of fried squirrel and squirrel gravy, fried catfish, fried frog legs, fried chicken, fried deer, fried pork and beef. Also had country ham and bacon and canned sausage balls. Tried to have fried liver and onions about once a month. 

Also ate souse meat, pickled pigs feet, chitlins, and lamb fries when we could get them. We ran a dairy and always had fresh milk, cream, butter but we never fooled with making cheese and didn't use cheese for cooking. I didn't know what a pizza was until I went to college.

We had chickens so we always had eggs and fresh chickens to fry. Raised pigs and had pig killings every late fall where all the neighbors would show up with their pigs to join in the fun and render the lard, stuff the sausage casings, salt down and hang the hams and bacon, fry the chitlins, make the souse loafs, and pickle the pigs feet. Beef were less of a ritual and usually had one or two neighbors help with cutting and wrapping the meat and grinding hamburger. 

There was an orchard of pear, plum, apple, cherry trees and we put up fruit and jam every year. Also raised a garden almost year round on an acre next to the house. Always had sweet corn, lima beans, green beans, potatoes, squash, pumpkin, and tomatoes. Early garden was raised in the tobacco plant bed and always had butter lettuce, radishes, peas, and early cabbage. Late garden was turnips, greens, kale, spinach and popcorn.

In the spring and early summer we picked wild blackberries and strawberries at an all you can pick farm. The blackberries were free but we paid to pick the strawberries as we couldn't grow them for some unknown reason. We also bought peaches to can and freeze. In the late fall we gathered sacks of hickory nuts and black walnuts to use for winter baking of cookies and cakes.

We went to the big grocery in town about once a year, usually during the summer to get additional canning supplies of salt and lids. I don't remember us ever buying or using paper products or garbage bags and most all our food containers were glass, not plastic. 

I've had a lot of those meals listed in the depression list but it wasn't how we ate in a normal day. We always had the basics of milk, meat/eggs, vegetables and fruit. Grain foods weren't in a big supply but we never missed them. We bought loaf bread about once a month just as a treat. It wasn't a food we kept in supply. We also bought dried pinto beans a few times a year but it wasn't a regular food on the menu. Pasta and cheese wasn't ever eaten except on rare occasions.


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## TNHermit (Jul 14, 2005)

THanks to Chicken ista I find there is liberal food too.
From Amazon


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## TNHermit (Jul 14, 2005)

> _soulsurvivor_
> Also ate souse meat, pickled pigs feet, chitlins,


We had all this and blood pudding. Egg and bread. crumbled up bread with a soft fried egg mashed in. Brains & eggs . All just the norms back then and you don't think about it. would love some oxtail vegetable soup

I don't even think you can get that stuff. I have a hard time finding dutch loaf and stuff nowdays. Just 50 kinds of ham,roast beef and chicken,turkey


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## PrairieBelle22 (Nov 17, 2006)

mekasmom said:


> I never tried gopher though. I'm not sure what gopher's eat? Would they be gross tasting? fishy? or what?QUOTE]
> 
> I can tell you what my resident gophers eat: tender young corn, broccoli, cabbage, tomato, pepper, ... plants.
> 
> ...


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## springvalley (Jun 23, 2009)

My Mothers favorite depression food was, saving the bread heels and cook that with stewed tomatoes. It was not my favorite by any means. My father also said he took bacon grease sandwiches to school most of the time. > Thanks Marc


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## springvalley (Jun 23, 2009)

soulsurvivor said:


> Also ate souse meat, .


 
I`m not sure what this is, is it like head cheese? > Thanks Marc


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## Annsni (Oct 27, 2006)

springvalley said:


> My Mothers favorite depression food was, saving the bread heels and cook that with stewed tomatoes.


I save my heels for bread pudding!


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## ladybug (Aug 18, 2002)

Most of those are regular fare around here  The one eyed Sam my inlaws used to call egg-in-holes lol. I like fresh tomato sandwiches with salt and pepper on toast


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## newfieannie (Dec 24, 2006)

i haven't eaten gopher or roadkill. i've eaten most of the stuff on the list. most of you wouldn't stomach the stuff i eat even now like cod head stew, cod tongues, seal meat etc. ~Georgia.


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## City Bound (Jan 24, 2009)

Annsni said:


> Seriously???????? I wanna smack those people. There are so many around here who are just so stinking spoiled it's incredible.


 
Yes, seriously. She was crying all day and she was depressed about it for a week. Many people equate eating soup with being poor. I love homemade soup.


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## Maverick_mg (Mar 11, 2010)

7thswan said:


> Every summuer I eat cucumber and mayo sandwiches,never had it with mustard instead.I'll try it.


That's how we ate them too. 
We also used to slice tomato and cucumber and soak them in vinegar with onion, salt and pepper and eat it as a salad. 
To this day I still eat mashed potato sandwiches and my winter staple food is canned tomatoes, that I can, heated up with butter and eaten with bread. 
It's crazy to see all the meals I had growing up and still eat was considered poor food.


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## Annsni (Oct 27, 2006)

City Bound said:


> Yes, seriously. She was crying all day and she was depressed about it for a week. Many people equate eating soup with being poor. I love homemade soup.


Wait - it was homemade soup???????? Even canned soup is a great blessing when you're hungry and want a quick eat! 

Spoiled, I tell you. SPOILED!!!!! :flame:


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## naturelover (Jun 6, 2006)

The parents were young adults during the great depression and all of the foods on that list were standard fare for them then and during and after WW2 and even common for them when they were in their 90's. I've had all of those foods many times except I've never eaten road kill and gopher. I still eat a lot of the stuff on that list, and like Newfieannie have eaten some pretty strange seafoods that we consider delicacies but other people might turn their nose up at.

Lard sandwiches are not too bad with salt and pepper on them, and bread fried crispy in lard or bacon fat then topped with jam is to-die-for delicious. :thumb: 

Something that dad used to get up and make in the middle of the night. Patties made out of left over macaroni and cheese, eggs and you name it, literally anything else that was a left over in the fridge. Mixed together and formed into patties then fried in lard in the skillet, and topped with a bit of ketchup. It was really good.

.


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## Txsteader (Aug 22, 2005)

Tiempo said:


> Back home in England we would have dripping sandwiches, which is the same but beef fat, and bread fried in bacon grease is delicious, especially with fried eggs


Oh yeah, I could eat most anything fried in bacon grease.


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## pamda (Oct 14, 2004)

I can not swallow any type of bread with milk on it..too slimy..but I will try anything once..


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## pamda (Oct 14, 2004)

bread fried crispy in lard or bacon fat then topped with jam is to-die-for delicious. :thumb: 

Something that dad used to get up and make in the middle of the night. Patties made out of left over macaroni and cheese, eggs and you name it, literally anything else that was a left over in the fridge. Mixed together and formed into patties then fried in lard in the skillet, and topped with a bit of ketchup. It was really good.



Yummy to both


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## Liberty'sGirl (Jul 7, 2012)

My dad taught us to eat rice with milk and sugar. His family also ate radish sandwiches. (Yum!). Dad also ate milk with popcorn, not my cup of tea so to speak. Popcorn is almost a family staple. Both of my parents came from farm families so they had more than most. My dad said the Depression didn't affect them as much because of that.

Hubby's family ate Egg-in-a-hat, same as the other egg in bread recipes here.

I would have to be very, very, very hungry to eat beef tongue. Had it when I was a kid and we didn't have much.


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## City Bound (Jan 24, 2009)

Annsni said:


> Wait - it was homemade soup???????? Even canned soup is a great blessing when you're hungry and want a quick eat!
> 
> Spoiled, I tell you. SPOILED!!!!! :flame:


 
no she ate canned. god forbid she had to eat homemade, to her way of thinking it would make her poorer then poor if she had to eat homemade.....that would make her too poor to even afford soup. 

She got angry and told her husband not to make anymore soup and instead she drove to take out places to buy take out. This was going on when we had a tristate gas crisis and many of us were rationing our gas and drilling gas tanks of totaled cars to get gas or our generators. It was a big thing or her to eat soup, very traumatic.


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## Annsni (Oct 27, 2006)

City Bound said:


> no she ate canned. god forbid she had to eat homemade, to her way of thinking it would make her poorer then poor i she had to eat homemade.....that would make her too poor to even afford soup.
> 
> She got angry and told her husband not to make anymore soup and instead she drove to take out places to buy take out. This was going on when we had a tristate gas crisis and many of us were rationing our gas and drilling gas tanks o totaled cars to get gas. It was a big thing or her to eat soup, very traumatic.


*shaking my head*

I just was talking to our missions pastor as I put together some media for him to use in his report on his most recent missions trip. I saw pictures of young girls - YOUNG girls - who live in a Central American dump and were sold to the garbage truck drivers for sex so that their family would have first dibs of the contents of the truck for food. He went down with a team to help get the girls out of there, get an education and a chance at a life.

And this loser was upset about a freaking can of soup??????????


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## texican (Oct 4, 2003)

chipped beef on toast? My pa would wrassle a grizzly before eating it.... had it wayyyyyy too often in Korea. He didn't call it cbot... it was ----ake on a shingle. (if you getteth my drift)


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## primal1 (Aug 22, 2003)

my parents were german and brit and both had war time cooking favorites.. mom just recently told me she has a great spiced bacon fat recipe. I am pretty sure i have had variants of most of list and am totally ok eating anything.. some of the list i eat regularly i think.
Is chipped beef the same as yummy corned beef? this thread makes me hungry!


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## WoolyBear (Nov 9, 2011)

Primal1 chipped beef is a salt cured, air dried chunk of beef that is then sliced paper thin. I buy the esskay or knauss brand. Slice/dice it up in little bits. Fry in the skillet with a tablespoon or 2 of butter until it's edges start to curl. Stir in a tablespoon of flour, and cook for a few minutes. Add milk, stir until it thickens. Serve over toast. Thus the name ---- on a shingle.


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## primal1 (Aug 22, 2003)

never had it but i will so keep an eye out for it, i'd make a meal of that in a heartbeat
Thanks for clarifying!


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## willow_girl (Dec 7, 2002)

I remember my mother telling me about the lard sandwiches she ate as a child. Usually the subject came up when I complained about something on the dinner table ...

When they were lucky, there was a bit of sugar to sprinkle on the lard ...


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## goodshephrd (Feb 21, 2010)

I grew up on a lot of those meals. And still make some today.


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## Marilyn (Aug 2, 2006)

When we eat rice with milk now, it's brown rice with hot milk, a little cinnamon and honey. What a treat!

Another treat are those chicken feet that have been mentioned. The first time I was exposed to "processing", my friend showed me how to skin the feet to use in making stock. Now I always use them as that stock was the most flavorful stuff I had ever eaten.


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## Narshalla (Sep 11, 2008)

I don't eat bananas (allergic) but everything else on that list is fair game, and I wouldn't consider it in any way bad to _have_ to live on that diet.


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## Tiempo (May 22, 2008)

City Bound said:


> no she ate canned. god forbid she had to eat homemade, to her way of thinking it would make her poorer then poor if she had to eat homemade.....that would make her too poor to even afford soup.
> 
> She got angry and told her husband not to make anymore soup and instead she drove to take out places to buy take out. This was going on when we had a tristate gas crisis and many of us were rationing our gas and drilling gas tanks of totaled cars to get gas or our generators. It was a big thing or her to eat soup, very traumatic.


Makes me wonder if she doesn't have some deep bad associations to it from childhood, emotions already running high after the storm then that put her over the edge a bit  Ya, know, that there was more to it than soup, but that's just how it came to the surface?


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## Txsteader (Aug 22, 2005)

texican said:


> chipped beef on toast? My pa would wrassle a grizzly before eating it.... had it wayyyyyy too often in Korea. He didn't call it cbot... it was ----ake on a shingle. (if you getteth my drift)


LOL, that's what my Daddy called it, from his WWII days on a frigate in the Pacific. He'd cook it occasionally when I was a kid. The only thing I didn't like was the mushy texture of the toast.


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## Txsteader (Aug 22, 2005)

Chicken feet.........I recall the time DD was around 10 y.o. and she and I went to visit my MIL. DD said, 'MMM, something smells good! Whatcha cookin' Granny?'. When my MIL lifted a chicken foot out of the pot, you'd think the Devil himself had appeared. DD got a look of absolute horror on her face and went running out the front door.

Granny and I laughed so hard, I thought I was gonna pee my pants. :hysterical:


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## City Bound (Jan 24, 2009)

One eye sams are good. I eat them for breakast almost every other day. I put a little catsup on them. I call them ______ mc'muffins, and put my first name in the blank.

Good stuff.

Beans on toast is good also. Pickle perogies are good also.


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## Groene Pionier (Apr 23, 2009)

We have a somewhat different food culture here. I ate a lot of things on that list except for. the road kills, gophers (thought that was Sesame street) and some things like that, I still eat a lot of things what you wrote in that list. 
My father told me they had rabbits and chickens on small balconies in the cities and every couple of months mysteriously a rabbit or chicken was 'gone'. My parents are from the end of WWII and they have brought up with very simple food. My grandmother made an omelet from 2 eggs and a lot of milk and they ate with it from a family of 6. They got a couple slices of bread and then had to divide the egg on those slices. If they put too much on to one sandwich they ate the last slices just dry. 
Potatoes, were saved in the fridge for a week or so and then they baked them with some fat and that was dinner. Almost nothing was wasted. 
That is what we do as well: one or two times a week we have leftover night. Leftover nights can be the best meals of the week, just with a touch of creativity, you make another fantastic dish.

We don't/didn't have the meat you are talking about but we had a lot of corned beef. Not sure if you know it, but we ate a lot of corned beef pasta salad and fried corned beef slices


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## City Bound (Jan 24, 2009)

Tiempo said:


> Makes me wonder if she doesn't have some deep bad associations to it from childhood, emotions already running high after the storm then that put her over the edge a bit  Ya, know, that there was more to it than soup, but that's just how it came to the surface?


She grew up in a decent home that was not short on cash or food. A good deal of people seriously associate soup with being poor. I don't get it, but they do. Just like some people associate being poor with buying store brands at the supermarket and buying clothes from walmart or sears. 

I listen to people and try to observe them being natural and these are attitudes that are becoming more common, especially with younger people. Another common thing with young people is that they want everything now rather then work towards it. They buy a house and it has to be top of the line rather then a fixer-upper that takes ten years or a lifetime to get up to snuff. They also want a top of the line car fresh from the actory rather then a second hand one.


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## Annsni (Oct 27, 2006)

City Bound said:


> She grew up in a decent home that was not short on cash or food. A good deal of people seriously associate soup with being poor. I don't get it, but they do. Just like some people associate being poor with buying store brands at the supermarket and buying clothes from walmart or sears.
> 
> I listen to people and try to observe them being natural and these are attitudes that are becoming more common, especially with younger people. Another common thing with young people is that they want everything now rather then work towards it. They buy a house and it has to be top of the line rather then a fixer-upper that takes ten years or a lifetime to get up to snuff. They also want a top of the line car fresh from the actory rather then a second hand one.


Totally agreed. Instant gratification doesn't bode well for the future of this generation. 

I wish some of those who associate things with being poor would read the book "The Millionaire Next Door". We buy store brands, I do Swag Bucks and we use our chicken 3x before it goes in the trash (roast, pot pie and chicken soup). I shop thrift stores and sales, make my grocery list and menu plan according to what is on sale - yet we have a 42' sailboat. We're definitely not rolling in dough but we have been careful with it and save where we can, enjoy some fun things and cut where we can. We have a big sailboat - but prepaid phones and not one of them is an iPhone (yet - I'm earning Swag Bucks to get Paypal to be able to buy an iPhone with Virgin Mobile).  It's a choice but one needs to change their mindset to be able to make choices that make sense.


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## Ann-NWIowa (Sep 28, 2002)

Since when has it been shameful to be poor? The hard fact is if (when?) SHTF people with "rich" attitudes who refuse to eat "poor" will not be around for long. I'll admit I'd have to be starving to eat soggy bread but I would eat it. Same way with hominy (which I loath) -- I'd eat it if that was all that was on the table.


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## City Bound (Jan 24, 2009)

ann-nw, I do not know, but there are lots of people who rather be poor but not look poor to other people, so they dress to impress and create a wealthy facade, but they are poor underneath the lie.

Annsi, you sound frugal. If you want a boat, then you juggle the budget and cut cost where you can cut cost, like a cell phone.


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## Annsni (Oct 27, 2006)

City Bound said:


> ann, I do not know, but there are lots of people who rather be poor but not look poor to other people, so they dress to impress and create a wealthy facade, but they are poor underneath the lie.


I believe that is the vast majority of the people out here on Long Island. I really wonder how some of these young couples can afford million dollar houses, BMWs and stuff. Yeah - I know there are a few who can but this many? I'll bet MANY are deep in debt. 

We have debt because of my daughter's college education. She took loans, got scholarships and stuff but Adelphi is not cheap. So we have her college debt. Otherwise, the house, cars and boat are all paid off. No credit card debt. These few weeks now we're kind of on austerity because we just paid our property taxes so meals are more simple and we're not eating out. We live within our means. But I really don't think that the majority feel the same way. It's their choice to live this way but the dearth of bankruptcies and stuff really speak volumes.


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## City Bound (Jan 24, 2009)

Long island has insanely high taxes. 

Well about those people with fancy cars and million dollar homes, the more money you have the more you can leverage yourself. Some rich people are two paychecks away from being poor, but they look rich because they can get higher credit limits then the rest of us.


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## Annsni (Oct 27, 2006)

City Bound said:


> Long island has insanely high taxes.


Yep - it makes me cry each time I have to pay the bill. I try to set aside what we need to each month but I can't always do that so we use our income tax return to pay the final payment on the town taxes. I don't mind paying the village taxes so much because they are great around here and we have our own police force as well as highway dept. They are really responsive and very helpful when needed - much more "handy" than Suffolk, although with a big thing, I'd want Suffolk here too.


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## AmberLBowers (Nov 28, 2008)

Mmmm, I was raised on 95% of that and still fix them for my family. DH and I are only 33 and 31 and our oldest is only 9. I guess that is the blessing of growing up in the hills of the deep south. DH and I are eagerly awaiting the summer and daily tomato and onion sandwiches straight from the garden.


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## Bettacreek (May 19, 2012)

Milk and butter noodles
Chicken/ground beef gravy, YUM! Quarter pound of meat turned into one dinner and lunch and a snack for a full family.
Chicken and waffles (goes with the chicken gravy)
Sugar bread
Cinnamon sugar bread, double yum
Mustard and cheese sammiches!


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## Bettacreek (May 19, 2012)

City Bound said:


> Some people have it too good these days and they do not even know it. Reminds me of a neighbor who was crying her eyes out all day because she had to eat soup after sandy hit and trashed our homes. "Had to" like it was abuse. I love soup.


Probably didn't have as much to do with the soup itself. If I got desperate enough to have to live on soup for awhile, I'd cry too, because of the circumstances. Most soups here are commercial, and short of chicken noodle when sick or tomato soup with toasted cheese sandwiches, I HATE soup, so those are last resort foods for us, and to get to relying on them, I'd cry. Much rather use that bit of meat, turn it into gravy and eat food I LIKE, that's cheaper and more filling, lol.
For real, canned soup, in my family, is one of those things you buy a can or two of once in awhile that get shoved to the back of the pantry and nobody will eat unless it's special circumstances. Why we all always buy that crap is beyond me, but my entire family has always done it. Nice for when something goes terribly wrong... you'll have meals in a can, but it's just not something we eat. Now, road-kill venison? Prime eatins baby!


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## whiterock (Mar 26, 2003)

TNHermit said:


> How many of ya'all have had the ultimate Rocky Mountain oysters


 
Love em myself!


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## newfieannie (Dec 24, 2006)

i can't see anyone bawling because they had to eat soup and that i understand was home made soup too! i grew up on homemade soup and stew and fish. what a feast! not that we didn't have a pantry with everything we ever needed . times like that shove it in your mouth and be thankful you got something. those are people who will be the first to die out in hard times. course i saw many people there fending for themselves too. ~Georgia.


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## whiterock (Mar 26, 2003)

CB, that woman's soup thing could be associated with the soup kitchens set up during the depression. The poor/out of work would line up for blocks as I understand it in the cities to get a small portion of soup that was probably mostly water.


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## Annsni (Oct 27, 2006)

whiterock said:


> CB, that woman's soup thing could be associated with the soup kitchens set up during the depression. The poor/out of work would line up for blocks as I understand it in the cities to get a small portion of soup that was probably mostly water.


It sounds like it was soup in her own home - not someone else serving soup.


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## whiterock (Mar 26, 2003)

Annsni, i'm talking WHY she acted like that. Something in her background associates it with extreme poverty.


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## Bettacreek (May 19, 2012)

But, might have brought back memories? Dunno how old she is. Still, I'm sure it was mostly mental anguish over the entire situation.


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## Annsni (Oct 27, 2006)

Honestly, there are a lot of people in the NY are that are just spoiled. I hate to say that but it's true. CB said that she grew up fine - no poverty so it's not like she's having flashbacks or anything.


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## vicker (Jul 11, 2003)

My maternal grandmother lived with us until she passed. She had been a young wife and mother during the depression, in OK. They were poorer than poor and often went hungry. In her last days she talked about it and was very nostalgic for lard gravy, and biscuits. She told me how to make it for her. It was just gravy made from lard. I was young at the time, and thought it weird that she would crave that, and that her memories of it would be fond. I understand it better now . With my father, we once had to leave a restaurant when they served him ice tea in a mason jar. He said he'd had to drink out if those all his life growing up, and was "censored" if he would pay to do it now. Same memories, different reactions to them.


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## Bettacreek (May 19, 2012)

Well, when Sandy hit, there was a woman on the news blaming FEMA for her little kids not having coats. Meanwhile she had an expensive looking coat on herself, not to mention, why wouldn't your kids have coats at that time of the year?


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## City Bound (Jan 24, 2009)

Some people did not have coats because they were washed away in the flood or destroyed. We had sand and mud in our homes. Some people had raw sewage and fish from the sea in their livingrooms, bedrooms, and kitchens.But,we had a coat drive at the emergency shelterand people could take coats for free. 

About the woman and the soup, i have no idea what she was thinking in her unconscious or subconscious, but she is not the only one. People were in the newspaper after sandy complaining how bad their lives had become and they said the same thing she did "we even had to eat soup" like eating soup was rock bottom.

I get the soup line association from the depression, and that may be why people think this way, but this woman is only 49 and she was not in the depression,she was in the disco 70's. 

People are crazy. I know a guy who almost lost his home because he could not afford his bills but still he had to have a new car everytime his old car wore out. I suggested that he buy a decent preowned car, but he said he would never do that because he use to drive used cars in the past and now he is use to the luxery of a new car and he will never go back to used. I use to be sympathetic to his suffering over money troubles, but now I am not.

some people are crazy, and others would rather roller skate to work while eating a lard sandwich to live within their means.


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## sherry in Maine (Nov 22, 2007)

well, what about burnt flour & water gravy? We ate that a few times during some particularly rough times when I was a kid.
Some of those things I still eat, tomato sandwiches, for one.
My mother used to eat ketchup sandwiches. She also ate mash potato sandwiches, but I think because she needed a lunch for work and that's what we had.
Never heard of oatmeal/lard....
we ate potato soup made with water. We ate only potatoes sometimes, because that's what we had, sometimes for a week at a time.


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## manygoatsnmore (Feb 12, 2005)

I've eaten quite a few of those meals! Not all, but I've also eaten quite a few cheap meals NOT listed. Funny thing is, some of those meals are now quite spendy to make. Chipped beef on toast, for example...have you priced a jar of dried beef lately? Or Spam, or even condensed cream of whatever soup?


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## newfieannie (Dec 24, 2006)

very spendy! spam i think is almost 4 dollars. some places more than that. i have a ton of it in my preps. Andrew liked it but i didn't. course if push comes to shove i'll eat it.

i was wondering about the lard being mentioned. i dont think that's a pk of lard you buy at the store.(i definitely couldn't spread that on sandwiches) . i was thinking you must mean the lard from the pig or fatback. grandfather use to have that fried for his sandwiches quite often. i fry my fish with it and put it in beans etc. never without it. i may be wrong though. ~Georgia.


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## OKCGene (Mar 24, 2010)

This is an awesome topic, thanks for posting it.

My parents were born in 1914 and 1916, they went through the Great Depression and WW2 with rationing. They did what they had to do.

Growing up I ate some of those things on the list. For breakfast my Mother made for me, and I loved it, milk and rice with sugar and cinnamon. Beats any cereal.

There is a really big Vietnamese grocery here in town. I sometimes shop there for fresh veggies. They do sell chicken feet and other things that I truly don't think I would ever eat, or at least hopefulll never be in a situation where I might be needy.


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## larryfoster (May 15, 2009)

> chicken a'la king is an old recipe also. It is just pea, carrots, and chicken pieces mixed with cambells cream of mushroom soup layed out on toast.


My wife makes that. She does it a little different and serves on English Muffins

When tomatoes come on in the summer, I eat tomato sandwiches all kinds of ways every day


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## vicker (Jul 11, 2003)

You can't make good chicken soup without the feet


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## Annsni (Oct 27, 2006)

vicker said:


> You can't make good chicken soup without the feet


I beg to differ!! My chicken soup ROCKS!!!!!!


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## newfieannie (Dec 24, 2006)

so does mine and i certainly dont use feet. to the vietnamese chicken feet are a delicasy to me it's cod tongues. depends on the upbringing.

dad was born in 1900. they always had plenty to eat. gf had cows and sheep. we could always get different types of fish . dad had sheep when he and mom got together,a cow etc. i dont remember any chickens.

my brother was born in 30. i remember him saying there were things they didn't have because it just wasn't to be had. i do remember mom mentioned ration books. by the time i came along and was old enough to notice. we lived in the land of plenty for sure. i remember a pantry that was always laden with food. dad was always an excellent provider and i had 3 much older brothers to help with hunting etc. until they went off to college. ~Georgia.


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## vicker (Jul 11, 2003)

I bet y'all soup would be *really* good with feet.


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## katy (Feb 15, 2010)

vicker said:


> I bet y'all soup would be *really* good with feet.


Vicker, they say theirs is already good/great and it probably is, so the feet would simply just make it better ! I'm not sure if anyone actually ate the feet, but I know for sure they are the ultimate for soup stock and flavor, as they are natural gelatin. Gelatin is good for hair and nail growth great nutrition.


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## hippygirl (Apr 3, 2010)

TNHermit said:


> *Chipped beef on toast*
> *Mayonnaise sandwiches*
> Hot milk and rice
> Potato soup â water base, not milk
> ...


I've eaten everything above on a regular basis when necessary. Those bolded I still eat regularly by choice.


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## vicker (Jul 11, 2003)

katy said:


> Vicker, they say theirs is already good/great and it probably is, so the feet would simply just make it better ! I'm not sure if anyone actually ate the feet, but I know for sure they are the ultimate for soup stock and flavor, as they are natural gelatin. Gelatin is good for hair and nail growth great nutrition.


I'm only poking fun


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## Annsni (Oct 27, 2006)

katy said:


> Vicker, they say theirs is already good/great and it probably is, so the feet would simply just make it better ! I'm not sure if anyone actually ate the feet, but I know for sure they are the ultimate for soup stock and flavor, as they are natural gelatin. Gelatin is good for hair and nail growth great nutrition.


Funny story. My daughter took my homemade chicken soup to college and she opened it to put it in the microwave. Her friend (who works as a cook in a nursing home) said "Why does your mom put gelatin in her soup??" He didn't know that you get gelatin from bones and when you well cook a carcass, you will get gelatin. He was amazed at how it changed once it was heated up - and it was delicious.


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## soulsurvivor (Jul 4, 2004)

springvalley said:


> I`m not sure what this is, is it like head cheese? > Thanks Marc


Same thing different name, maybe a slightly different recipe. It was made from pig parts that weren't used for anything else, but mostly the heads with the eyes, ears, brains removed. Always had a pig foot in it to make it thicken up. Boiled and pickled and the bits of meat were formed into a loaf. I remember the neighbors and us were happy to have a loaf or two each to take home. It was kept cold and sliced to eat as a sandwich meat.


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## janetn (Apr 26, 2012)

Isnt it interesting how many of us have eaten those foods. I wonder if it has something to do with us becoming "homesteaders". I doubt many other forums would have the same responses as here.

My mom was from England and she had a few different dishes. One was bubble and squeak - cabbage and mashed potatoes fried - good stuff! Dont know where it got the name. She also cooked beans on toast frequently. When I visited England I saw that it was a staple dish. A big treat was cinnamon toast!

Homemade soups - I could easily live off of them with some good homemade bread. As for the spoiled culture we live in, well I see hard times a coming some folks are going to just have to get over being spoiled. They wont have a choice. Reality bites sometimes, and having hissy fits usually dont change a lot.


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## deaconjim (Oct 31, 2005)

My parents both grew up during the Depression, which is why I am quite familiar with many of the items on that list. We often had biscuits covered in what my Dad called Hoover gravy, which was a white gravy made from the drippings left from frying salt pork. He used to tell us that the original Hoover gravy that he had as a boy was made with a different recipe. During the Depression you made it by putting a chicken in a pot and letting it stand for several hours, and then you let the chicken go and warmed up the gravy.


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## City Bound (Jan 24, 2009)

chicken feet make a heaqlthy broth. As was said it is good for you hair and nails, but it is also good for healthy skin and joints.They are rich in collagen.


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## solidwoods (Dec 23, 2005)

Jam sandwich (2 pieces of bread and jam'em together)

What will be needed in the next depression (for those that survive the anarchy) will be the ability to wait in line, work for room and board and learn that stealing can get you gone.
jim

Hey that was post 123,, that was my # in Army Airborne jump school.


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## dkhern (Nov 30, 2012)

great thread really interesting the differences in regional menus or even countries. 

gopher is simply a squirrel that lives underground. skin bout and lay side by side be hard to tell appart

squirrel heads and gravy and bisquets are deleoud. crack the head w/spoon and suck out the brains.

yep people eat chicken feet

my mother was in ca working in airplane plant during ww2 bought turnip greens and grocer cut the greens off into a box. told hin the greens was what she wanted and got the entire box


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## tab (Aug 20, 2002)

Many of the foods listed have eaten, some quite often. A couple others, creamed peas on toast and applesauce sandwhiches, yum. I would have a tough time eating tongue, brains or Spam, makes me have hebbyjeebies thinking about it.
When you cook chicken feet do you skin them? Often my chicken have feet that don't look like anythinh I'd want to cook.


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## newfieannie (Dec 24, 2006)

oh i dont think i'm gonna be cracking any squirrell heads and suckin out their brains any time soon. when my son and his friends are doing their squirrell tournament they wont come near my land. ~Georgia


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## vicker (Jul 11, 2003)

I find it interesting that people's grandmothers were usually the ones who liked the squirrel brains, in my experience, and when I was young many of the older ladies would suck, or crack open chicken bones for the marrow. I've always thought it was because their bodies craved the minerals. I have not seen it in years, but women chewing up the large bones of chickens was a very common thing in my childhood, and many would completely eat the back and necks.
EDIT: And, the feet. It was always the women who loved the feet.


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## terri9630 (Mar 12, 2012)

tab said:


> Many of the foods listed have eaten, some quite often. A couple others, creamed peas on toast and applesauce sandwhiches, yum. I would have a tough time eating tongue, brains or Spam, makes me have hebbyjeebies thinking about it.
> When you cook chicken feet do you skin them? Often my chicken have feet that don't look like anythinh I'd want to cook.



Scald and peel the "socks" off the feet. They come out nice and clean and add a wonderful "texture" to a soup or stock.


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## YuccaFlatsRanch (May 3, 2004)

I tell the pseudo preppers in our church ward who will say - "Oh my husband just hates whole wheat bread" that your husband has never been truly "hungry".

I have been reading a lot about WWII in the Pacific and the books tell a lot about what the Marines ate on some of the islands when the supply ships had been torpedo'd by the Japanese. Not pretty, unless things like moldy rice sound appetizing.


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## Annsni (Oct 27, 2006)

I homeschool and my son is doing American History In Depth with Sonlight and so we're going through The History of US. We just read about some of the Civil War soldiers eating hardtack - and they would dunk it in their coffee to soften it and when they were done eating it, they would scoop the weevils out of the coffee and drink it. Bleck!


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## jwal10 (Jun 5, 2010)

The oven of the wood cook stove was always full of taters.
Breakfast, last nights left over baked taters, fried.
Dinner was the best meal, fresh baked taters. 
Supper was baked taters, sliced thin and milk added, maybe a little cheese or butter and sometimes cornflakes on top.

If you didn't like what the meal was, you got a cold baked tater and you got to wait until the next meal, a warm baked tater.

We always had milk, butter and homemade bread.

bread pudding
stale bread and warm milk
french toast
hamburger gravy
stewed tomatoes and old bread


....James


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## newfieannie (Dec 24, 2006)

james post reminded me of what was in our oven. dried caplin. whenever dad was home .no matter what mom had cooked he would always be roasting caplin. another thing he would do is take the dried salted cod not even soaked and wrap it in several thickness of brown shop paper and lay it in the stove on the hot coals. when the paper burned off the fish was ready.was that ever good with home made bread.

never get any good dried cod now. dad and i would dry our own on nets laying over the fence. be my job to turn them so we wouldn't have sunburnt fish. ~Georgia.


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## newfieannie (Dec 24, 2006)

YuccaFlatsRanch said:


> I tell the pseudo preppers in our church ward who will say - "Oh my husband just hates whole wheat bread" that your husband has never been truly "hungry".
> 
> I have been reading a lot about WWII in the Pacific and the books tell a lot about what the Marines ate on some of the islands when the supply ships had been torpedo'd by the Japanese. Not pretty, unless things like moldy rice sound appetizing.


andrew use to tell me stories too . he said they use to get ringworms because they didn't have fresh veggies . they use to be given lime juice . he said that's why englishmen are called limeys. i dont know if that was true or not. ~Georgia.


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## thesedays (Feb 25, 2011)

newfieannie said:


> they use to be given lime juice . he said that's why englishmen are called limeys. i dont know if that was true or not. ~Georgia.


Yes, some of the earliest bottling and canning was lime or lemon juice, issued to sailors so they wouldn't get scurvy, which is vitamin C deficiency.

I have read about people who lived for weeks or months on a raft after their boat capsized, and didn't get scurvy because if they caught a fish, turtle, bird, etc. they ate the whole thing except for the bigger bones, and this included the eyeballs and adrenal glands which are a repository for vitamin C.


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## Annsni (Oct 27, 2006)

newfieannie said:


> he said they use to get ringworms because they didn't have fresh veggies


Ringworm (not plural) is a fungal skin infection that is contagious. I don't see how veggies have role in getting it.


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## mekasmom (Jan 19, 2010)

janetn said:


> My mom was from England and she had a few different dishes. One was bubble and squeak - cabbage and mashed potatoes fried - good stuff!


I love bubble and squeak fried up in bacon grease with a tiny bit of vinegar poured over it. Yum. It's hard to find someone who makes it really good in the states though. My uncles brought the dish home for WW2 and would make it at grandma's house a lot. I can't do it as well as he could. (My dad wasn't in the war because he was too old and had a heart issue. He was 4f)


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## mekasmom (Jan 19, 2010)

Ode said:


> First on the list was fried side pork. About 1/2" thick, the slices were dredged in seasoned flour, then fried in a cast iron skillet in lard (home rendered) until brown and crispy.


Fatback! I love it. Fatback with mashed potatoes and gravy. It's so good. We actually had it for the Christmas get-together brunch with the family along with other things. My FIL loves it. I think I ate about 8 pieces of it. And, it's low carb too!


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## Hollowdweller (Jul 13, 2011)

I've eaten nearly everything on that list.


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## Nancy (May 14, 2002)

Since I have celiac I now try and grow a lot of potatoes since I can't have the bread. Potatoes mix nicely with so many things, I can grow them myself and I have a fruit cellar/cave to store them in.


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