Depression Era Foods Article Mock Apple Pie Best Comfort foods

Depression Era Foods and Stories from The Past

 

Recently I had the pleasure of hosting my show with Margaret and she was born in 1925, so she does remember some of the foods that her mom made during that time.  She remembers Roosevelt saying that he would put a Chicken in every pot.  Her mother was a chef and her dad just liked plain old food, as she called it.  He added Ketchup to everything he ate.  Her dad was a mechanic and her mom worked in the airplane factory plant during WWII like Rosie the Riveter.  The year was 1929, the crash of the stock market and our banks.  This was the beginning of the great depression, which lasted in this country until the beginning of WW11.  There were like 25 percent of Americans out of work and I don’t know what number of family members that went hungry from that era.   Thousands of them.  However Margaret’s dad made sure there was plenty of food on the table like chicken, fruits and vegetables.  Her mom would make Chicken Fricassee and she remembers her making creamed peas over toast, and adding canned tuna with it.  She remembers the Vegetable Gardens in front yards and neighbors sharing and working their gardens.  People canned their bounties that they grew in the gardens.  Some families ate better then others, depending on whether they had a job or not.  My mom was born in 1925 as well, and my grandfather was a chef and ran a speakeasy, which they lived on top of, before the Italians moved in, and burned him out.  So he went to work as a mechanic.  She said she could remember going to bed hungry and watching the soup lines and men away from their families trying to find work where they could.   She said she remembers eating a lot of spinach and when she grew up she said that she would never eat spinach again.  That part stayed with her.  If anything had spinach in it, she wouldn’t eat it.  My father lived in Tennessee on a farm with 15 siblings.  They grew their own food and traded for goods at market.  They would cook mush with chicken in it; we call that Polenta today.  They would hunt on the mountain for extra meat.  They didn’t have money, but they had whole milk and made there own butter in a churn.  My granddad would sell a hog at market to buy shoes for the kids in the winter and by the time spring came, they wore shoes with cardboard soles.  They went barefoot in the warm months and maybe that is where the term bare foot and pregnant came from?  My grand mother wore my grand dads worn out shoes because she didn’t have a pair of shoes herself until my mom bought them for her.  She would grow a garden and put up creamed corn, cabbage, sauerkraut, and make mocked Apple Pie, which is a recipe that really came from the chuck wagons that used crackers for the pie.  This pie really does look and taste like fresh Apple Pie but there is not an Apple to be found in it.  I interviewed some friends, Midge and Denny Seymour, while I was in DC. Midge says that her background is Italian and her dad was a head of the Ninth Ward in Chicago and that she never wanted for anything during the depression.  They lived in the Ward with all her Italian family around them.  She said that they had chicken and pasta, all home made with her spaghetti sauce. She would watch them make all the homemade breads.  Sounds like it was wonderful for her.  She made me want to be there with her.  I do have a funny story to tell you about Midge. When she would make her spaghetti sauce she would have to put it in the back of her station wagon after she made it to keep her kids from taking their breads and dipping it into the pot and eating half the pot before she got her dinner ready.  Then there is Denny who has a different story. He remembers eating a lot of organs like the tongue, kidneys, sweetbreads, liver, and onions.  He ate lots of Peanut Butter and Jelly sandwiches.  He also remembers the vegetable gardens.  He also remembers Al Capone and that he was like the Robin Hood of that time.  I have a friend, George who says that his Uncle worked for a hotel in town and that he used to be the runner for Al Capone. His uncle loved the running part because he got big tips from Mr. Capone, however the hotel told him since he was getting big tips from Mr. Capone then he could basically get paid from him.  His tips were bigger then his salary. Whatever Al took he always shared part of with the people, but I know he did keep some for himself.  My Aunt Ene says that they lived on a farm in Hockley, Texas, and that they always had food to eat because they raised their own foods and meats.  They would share the meats with other families.  They canned a lot and ate pickled tongue.  She didn’t have money but had a lot of hand me downs to wear.  She says that she still enjoys a good hand me down.  My mother-in-law remembers eating scrambled eggs with calf brains and that is a dish that my dad loved as well.  I used to watch him make it as a kid, but I never let that dish pass though my month.  My mother-in-law remembers getting just an orange and nuts for Christmas and that made them very happy.  I want you to give these recipes a try from the depression era and there are a lot of them.  My favorites are the Rice and Bread Puddings.  I hope you have enjoyed this article on depression foods and remember how lucky we are to be living in this great nation of ours and hearing some of these stories. I think of how lucky we still are and how far we have come.  Some of the folks I interviewed feel like we are a spoiled nation and that we have too much.  They feel like they had the best generation and lived in the best of times.  However they also remember their parents saying I just don’t know what this generation is coming to!  My mother and father said the same thing.  I laugh about it the same way my parents laughed at theirs.  I believe that the best times are ahead of us and that our young will show us the way to their future, and it will be a brighter, smarter and safer generation.  However that said, I wish them luck with all their cooking adventures and go to the Apple store and buy my first cookbook, MadJon Holiday at http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/madjon-holiday/id520208369?mt=8 and make some holiday memories of their own.  Email me at madjon51@aol.com with any storiess and recipes from a era gone by and I wish you Happy trails to you until we meet again.

 

Mock Apple Pie                       

2 cups water                                                    

 

                       

1 cup white sugar

                               

2 tsp. cream of tartar  

 

30 buttery Ritz Crackers

 

1/2 tsp Cinnamon

 

1/4 tsp Nutmeg

 

2  ready made Pie Crust for a 9" Pie

 

 

1 cup crushed Ritz crackers

 

1/2 Cup packed Brown Sugar

 

1/2 tsp Cinnamon

 

1/3 Butter, mwlted

 

 

 

 

 

            

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees.
2. In a saucepan over medium high heat, combine the water, sugar and cream of tartar; nutmeg, cinnamon and bring to boil.
3. Drop in whole crackers and boil for 5 minutes. Pour mixture into pie shell.
4. Mix together the crushed crackers, brown sugar, cinnamon and butter; sprinkle over pie filling.
5. Bake for about 30 to 40 minutes or until the pie is golden brown.