Depression Era Cooking

[MKS]

I've really enjoyed these stories! More! More! I tried a recipe from cooks.com just called soul food:
DEPRESSION DAY - SOUL FOOD
--------------------------

1/4 lb. fried hamburger
1/4 lb. fried bacon
1/2 c. onion, chopped
1 (15 oz.) can pork & beans
1 (15 oz.) can dark kidney beans
1 (15 oz.) can butter (or lima) beans
1 (15 oz.) can stewed tomatoes
1/2 c. catsup
1/2 c. brown sugar
1 tsp. mustard
1 tsp. salt
1 tbsp. vinegar

Brown bacon and onion. Add hamburger. Drain ALL canned
goods. Add all remaining ingredients together with beef and
onions in baking dish. Mix well. Bake uncovered at 300
degrees for 1 1/2 hours or in a crock pot at low setting 6
hours. (10 x 10 inch square pan.)

I made it in the crockpot & I did not drain the tomatoes or the porknbeans. I also reduced the sugar from 1 cup to 3/4 cup. I think it would be fine with just 1/2 cup for the doubled recipe. It was really good. I doubled it & it made a ton, which is good. I will try freezing some of the leftovers to see if it freezes well. It should. I just made cornbread to go with it. I think it cost about $10 or less to make & we have eaten about 6 servings & still have 8 cups leftover. I guess that is about 6 more servings so about 84 cents per serving. Mmmm.

[seleach]

This sounds good. I would not drain the pork & Beans or the stewed tomatos either.

[Bilby]

Sharon you were born in the same year as my Dad he was April

[MKS]

seleach, Thanks for agreeing with me. It did turn out good.

[Sammi1961]

MKS, that recipe sounds really good!

Sharon, my greatgrandmother had one of those big kind of stoves in her kitchen too. She was always baking cookies. I haven't had a good raisin filled cookie since she passed away when I was 12.

My mom was born in the 30's and up till right before she passed away she was always canning vegetables and pickles and making jams and jellies. My dad and she both hunted so there was always a lot of deer meat. She cut it up herself and even made her own hamburger. They also both fished so there were always all kinds of fish in the freezer. I treasure the last few jars of her jelly because there won't be anymore when these are gone.

[Vrsherren]

@;p me neither!
Dad was born in 1928 and my mom was born in 1930. Both raised to be frugal with everything. Mom taught us how to cook and clean from an early age at Dad's insistance (washing dishes at age 3!). Wasn't too keen on the cleaning but learned to cook whole meals by age 8. Mom was one of those cooks that could eyeball measurements, and that is how I learned. I can still measure 1 tsp salt in the palm of my hand.
I remember coming home from school to that sweet smell of fresh bread. Mom said she, being the oldest (of 9 kids) was the one who did most of the cooking when she was growing up. She had to learn how to kill a chicken, pluck it, dress and cook it by the time she was out of school in the afternoon till her dad came home. Glad I only had to cook the chicken! It smells bad when you pluck the chicken and I hurled the first time so mom sent me inside and I didn't have to do it again.
Gravy & biscuit, or soup was what she had to cook most of the time because there wasn't enough meat to go around. Mom said you can add a lot of different stuff to gravy and soup to make it different everynight.
Really makes you grateful for what we have now!

Vivian

[MKS]

I wish I could do all that stuff. I'm sure if it was really necessary I could learn to pluck a chicken & cut up a deer. That's the problem, it's not necessary. I'd just like to have fresh chicken eggs.

[happymomof4]

I grew up on a farm. We raised beef cattle. We had a huge garden. So I learned to can and freeze all kinds of things. The only things my mom really bought at the store was milk and bread. We got the milk from a farm. My grandmother always made her own bread. My mother never did that.

We would buy cases of chickens at the auction 1 time a year. We would pre them for the freezer. We would butcher our own steer, pigs and deer. My parents sold the farm after I graduated from high school. I miss that kind of life--sometimes.

[Sammi1961]

My mother grew up on a farm with steer, chickens etc. It wasn't an easy life - lots of hard work and since she lived during the depression (was a child then) she learned to be very frugal. They canned food, butchered their own meat, had their own milk and eggs so they never went hungry but they didn't have any luxuries. She was always the one to help her dad with the barn/outdoor chores while her 4 sisters helped their mom. We are a very spoiled society now with everything so easy. We have washing machines, and dryers and all kinds of electric appliances. I remember when I was really young my mom still had a ringer washing machine and then hung clothes out on the clothes line on our porch no matter what the weather. I remember the clothes sometimes being frozen stiff in the cold. What joy it was when she finally got a new washing machine and dryer. I was maybe 7 or 8 I think.

[ellenmelon]

Welcome to FC Artylouie!

I think we call Schultz ‘souse’, was it pickled jellied brine with a few chopped veggies and some leftover meat bits?

What do you mean by slim jims? Iknow the meat kind but the cucumber kind?

Vrsehrren, everyone moans about losing their 401Ks and investments and I only worry about losing our little plot of land and maybe won’t have a garden to live off of. But hopefully that won’t be a real worry.

Our local borough has voted to allow pet chickens. Our outlying farm areas won’t allow the few neighborhoods with giant yards to have them. Something wrong with that picture!