Poorman's Meal (Depression Era Recipe) - Busy Mom Recipes (2024)

FAQs

What did poor people eat during the Depression? ›

Many cheap foods still common among the poor today made their debut during the Depression: Wonder Bread (1930), Bisquick (1931), Miracle Whip (1933), and Campbell's Cream of Mushroom soup (1934). Ragu spaghetti sauce, Kraft mac-n-cheese, and Hormel Spam all appeared during the Roosevelt Recession in 1937.

During the Great Depression, corn meal was one kitchen staple that was typically easily accessible and cost-effective. To utilize this ingredient during hard times, home cooks began making Johnny cakes, a Northeastern bread that became particularly popular during the Great Depression.

Potatoes were also inexpensive and used extensively. Some meals even used both. One of these meals was called the Poor Man's Meal. It combined potatoes, onions, and hot dogs into one hearty, inexpensive dish, which was perfect for the hard times people had fallen on.

On Sundays, Clara's family would eat a "Depression breakfast," which included sugar cookies and coffee. To make the sugar cookies, beat three eggs in a bowl and mix them with three-fourths cup of sugar. Add about one and a half cup of flour and mix well until you can't see the flour anymore. Then, add a pinch of salt.

Big families could be fed with soups from leftover meats, beans, and home-grown vegetables. Homemakers made many varieties of soup from available foods. The results included split pea, chicken-rice, potato-onion, bean, hamburger, and all vegetable. Dumplings were a filling addition to complement the soup.

Almost all farm families raised large gardens with vegetables and canned fruit from their orchards. They had milk and cream from their dairy cattle. Chickens supplied meat and eggs. They bought flour and sugar in 50-pound sacks and baked their own bread.

The history of soup kitchens in America can be traced back to the year 1929 with the effects of a growing depression. When soup kitchens first appeared, they were run by churches or private charities and served mostly soup and bread. Soup was economical because water could be added to serve more people.

You'll find some recipes in Clara's book that you'll immediately recognize including swiss chard with garlic, eggplant parmesan (made not with Parmiggiano Reggiano but Pecorino Romano), dandelion salad, “Sunday bread”, minestrone, fried smelts, and sponge cake – all Italian American staples.

Again, while fresh produce might be best, youre on a budget. You will want to purchase cheap foods that are filling! Oatmeal, rice, beans, bread, and other starches are filling and will keep you full until your next meal.

Which vegetable is known as poor man's vegetable? ›

Those were the days when brinjal was called “the poor man's vegetable,” since it was available in abundance and was cheaper in the market when compared to other vegetables. Potato, called the king of vegetables, was dominating the market.

Meatloaf became a staple during The Great Depression

Meatloaf allowed families to stretch the small portions of food they had, especially protein, into a meal that would otherwise be consumed quicker.

During the Great Depression, cooking meatloaf was a way for families to stretch the food budget by using an inexpensive type of meat and left-over ingredients.

Depression Cooking is a zine of easy recipes designed to make mealtime a little easier, in the no-nonsense sense of the word, for depressed humans like me. It demonstrates one of the many lessons that I've learned during COVID: that we can care for one another without being physically present.

To save money, families neglected medical and dental care. Many families sought to cope by planting gardens, canning food, buying used bread, and using cardboard and cotton for shoe soles. Despite a steep decline in food prices, many families did without milk or meat.

Soup kitchens and bread lines were methods of feeding the neediest people in the country during the Great Depression. Run by charities, private companies, and the government, many soup kitchens and bread lines served thousands of people a day.

Barley, oats, and rye were eaten by the poor while wheat was generally more expensive. These were consumed as bread, porridge, gruel, and pasta by people of all classes. Cheese, fruits, and vegetables were important supplements for the lower orders while meat was more expensive and generally more prestigious.

With no job and no savings, thousands of Americans lost their homes. The poor congregated in cardboard shacks in so-called Hoovervilles on the edges of cities across the nation; hundreds of thousands of the unemployed roamed the country on foot and in boxcars in futile search of jobs.