Great Depression Food
93 years ago today, the stock market crashed. October 24th, 1929, now known as Black Thursday, led to several more stock market slumps and ultimately, the Great Depression. Imagining any time in history, my mind instantly jumps to… BUT WHAT WERE THEY EATING?! Or in this case, not eating. Families had to get creative to fill their bellies. The most bleak recipe I could find was “Hobo Stew” which called for a pinch of tobacco and LINT. Other delicious morsels include: Vinegar Cobbler,Liver Loaf, Mock Apple Pie made with Ritz crackers, Peanut Butter Stuffed Onions, Hot Water Pie, Gelatin Luncheon Salad, and my personal favorite, S.O.S (or Shit on a Shingle, a military staple of canned corned beef in a gloopy, mystery sauce served on toast). I once made my 8th grade students bake an authentic Great Depression Era cake that called for Campbell’s tomato soup in place of oil. Honestly, it was surprisingly tasty! Hey, it wasn’t all bad. Kraft Mac & Cheese was invented in this time and fed a family of 4 for just 19 cents.
In times of need, people came together to share meals at church potlucks, bartered with neighbors, and made friends at home extension classes where recipes and skills were shared. Here, eager mothers learned how to make jams, preserve food, raise chickens, how to gather seeds and grow their own food. Home Economics was a growing field, where experts could share their knowledge of nutrition and savings. There was even a radio cooking show produced by the USDA which featured Uncle Sam’s Wife….Aunt Sammy (now that’s some creative naming). President FDR and Eleanor Roosevelt joined the cause and ate modestly in solidarity, although out of all our presidents, they had the most notoriously bad food. Perhaps due to the fact that they hired an unskilled housekeeper as their White House Chef. However bad the food, his New Deal led to a chicken in every pot and a beer in every glass. His policies fed millions and ended Prohibition. Imagine being poor, depressed AND sober? God Bless FDR. You can read about how Eleanor Roosevelt created 7 1/2 cent meals to help get families thorough the Great Depression here!
If you were lucky enough to live in a rural area, you could grow your own produce, forage for wild berries, fish or hunt. My great grandfather Eugene raised rabbits to eat. Many families picked wild dandelions and served it as a salad. The recipe I’m sharing today is based on a potato soup my great grandma Agnes used to make. You can’t talk about the Great Depression and not mention soup. Soup and bread lines fed the hungriest Americans of the Great Depression. My recipe features a few extra luxuries that may not have been affordable to some in this era, but hey I grew my own green onions, so that’s got to count for something. If you really want to commiserate with people of this era, omit the cheese and substitute water for stock.
One of the most famous photographs from the Great Depression, Migrant Mother, was taken of Florence Owens Thompson who was just 32 years old at the time with 7 children. She traveled with her family through California looking for work on a pea farm in Nipomo. She told the photographer that her family had been surviving on frozen peas from the fields and birds the children could kill. About 3000 laborers and families were living in camps outside the pea farm, many incredibly hungry. Days later after this photo was published in newspapers across the country, The US government supplied the pea-picker camp with 20,000 pounds of food for the thousands of hungry people.
Great Depression Potato Soup
Ingredients
- 8 ounces bacon (chopped)
- 3 pounds Yukon gold potatoes (diced into medium sized cubes)
- 1 yellow onion (diced)
- 7-8 cups of chicken stock or water
- 1 cup half and half or cream
- 4 ounces grated cheddar cheese
- green onions for garnish (optional)
- Salt and pepper
Instructions
- Start by heating a large pot to medium heat. Sauté the chopped bacon until completely cooked. Remove and set aside, leaving the bacon grease in the pot.
- Cook the diced onion in the bacon grease until golden brown. Add the diced potatoes and cover with water or stock. Add a large sprinkling of salt and black pepper. Bring to a boil. Cover and cook for about 15-20 minutes, stirring occasionally, until potatoes are tender. Reduce heat if boiling over.
- Using an immersion blender, food mill or regular blender, blend the potatoes and onions briefly. Just enough to smooth out the soup but too long and the potatoes can become gummy.
- Return soup to the pot with the cream or half and half, cheddar cheese, cooked bacon and any additional water or stock to get the consistency of a creamy soup. Adjust salt and pepper.
- Garnish with chopped green onions.