Depression Cooking

[Bayou Blaster]

A 93 year old cook and great grandmother, Clara, recounts her childhood during the Great Depression as she prepares meals from the era. Learn how to make simple yet delicious dishes while listening to stories from the Great Depression. Enjoy :)

http://www.youtube.com/user/DepressionCooking

[Loshali]

I saw that video the other day. Man, she loads the fat and butter onto the food. Unfortunately when TSHTF thats going to be scarce, since most people wont be butchering their meat nor have a milking animal to make butter. The stews and soups will be more plentiful though, because they can last for more than one meal or be stretched just by adding a potato. Lots of common sense stuff. Good video.

Loshali

[herbalpagan]

A nutritionist explain something to me that made a lot of sense. When people are in a daily hard work situation, such as you would find feeding yourself and heating your home through hard labor (homesteading, off grid living, depression conditions), a person expends a lot of calories. There is no sitting around doing nothing but watching tv and playing video games. The kids helped or went outside to play and run around. The adults had to do a lot of continuous labor intensive work. Exercise was plentiful. When you do that, you can add on a bit of fat and butter without it being hurtful. When you are having your own animals, such as even a single dairy cow, you get those things in plenty. They are more available than one would think.
Now a days, with more modern methods, we can have more healthy foods that we grow ourselves, almost year round in many places...so we might not need as much fat. Although, fat does have it's purpose. Now, we know more about seasonings (herbs and spices) and may forgo so much salt as old recipes.
The nutritionist also went on to say that we know more about food preservation methods now, so we can preserve in a healthier way. In the way,way old times, a lot of herbs, such as dill and fennel, were used to disquise food that was "going bad" and to aid with the digestion problems that would happen from eating such food.
I really don't think we will have to worry about our waist lines if we stay active and use up the calories that we take in. I find some of those depression era foods to be some what bland, so I'll be happy to experiment with them using herbs and such from my own garden....although I think I will draw the line at eating salt pork! lol

[Village Idiot]

Herbalpagan (of which I am too! You should see the big nature pentagram on my handmade shirt i'm wearing), when I was pregnant with my last son, I had horrid hyperemesis (vomited seemingly constantly). Fish chowder was one of my comfort foods, being the decendant of fishemen and living on this island and all. I make it by sauteeing a big chunk of salt pork in the bottom of a stockpot then cooking the onions in it. I pull out the pork and sucked that mutha dry. Something about being sick and preggers made me want that nasty chunk of salty fat so bad! I can remember my husband being completely grossed out when he caught me!

I too saw these links from a different message board and loved Clara. My grandmother remembers the poor people eating lobsters and burying the shells out back so no one would know that they were so broke they had to eat the bugs that were so plentiful they often washed up on the beach. Clams and mussels too, and lots of fishcakes (which my mom still won't touch). She tells me stories of saving tea bags to use multiple times and making ketchup soup (ketchup and hot water). Seeing those videos make me really want to spend some time videotaping my own grandmother andher stories before it's too late.

[Brosia]

VI your post brought me back momories of my own grandma.... she ALWAYS used her teabag twice, and I remember her stories of ketchup soup.

[herbalpagan]

Village Idiot - PM me!
I was horribly sick when I was pregnant with my middle daughter and all I craved was seafood! I absolutely HATE seafood, but the dr told me it was my body's way of getting the most nutrients possible in me since it got thrown up so fast. I remember people talking about how lobsters weren't always considered a choice food too. lol
My mother-in-law told me that they had salt pork a lot during the depression, as well as beans. My grandmother always stockpiled food and somehow managed to keep her sugar and flour bin full through the depression and the wars when they rationed. My father figured she traded something else she had hoarded.
I've been known to use tea bags twice, though I've found it's just as frugal to use loose tea.

[Applejack]

U tube on post one is really good on depression cooking.

[SurvivalFacts]

A nutritionist explain something to me that made a lot of sense. When people are in a daily hard work situation, such as you would find feeding yourself and heating your home through hard labor (homesteading, off grid living, depression conditions), a person expends a lot of calories. There is no sitting around doing nothing but watching tv and playing video games. The kids helped or went outside to play and run around. The adults had to do a lot of continuous labor intensive work. Exercise was plentiful. When you do that, you can add on a bit of fat and butter without it being hurtful. When you are having your own animals, such as even a single dairy cow, you get those things in plenty. They are more available than one would think.
Now a days, with more modern methods, we can have more healthy foods that we grow ourselves, almost year round in many places...so we might not need as much fat. Although, fat does have it's purpose. Now, we know more about seasonings (herbs and spices) and may forgo so much salt as old recipes.
The nutritionist also went on to say that we know more about food preservation methods now, so we can preserve in a healthier way. In the way,way old times, a lot of herbs, such as dill and fennel, were used to disquise food that was "going bad" and to aid with the digestion problems that would happen from eating such food.
I really don't think we will have to worry about our waist lines if we stay active and use up the calories that we take in. I find some of those depression era foods to be some what bland, so I'll be happy to experiment with them using herbs and such from my own garden....although I think I will draw the line at eating salt pork! lol

I completely agree with this statement that during harsh times the requirement of calories obviously increased since there is more manual labour done by people. Physically intensive work is required whenever there is shortage of food, argicultural scarcity, famine and droughts, etc. However, if the similar eating habits creep into our habits when the times are favourable - it can be obviously unhealthy. Long story short, your carb and fat intake should be proportionate to the amount of physical activities you are doing. In fact, in our daily lives, a low carb diet is what suits us the best. You can give these recipes a try if you want to decrease your carb intake, without compromising on the taste of the food!.

[Yenix]

VI your post brought me back momories of my own grandma.... she ALWAYS used her teabag twice, and I remember her stories of ketchup soup.

Oh yeah. How I hated the second timer...
There are some kinds of tea, that you can use twice, but not the one I remember.