Depression Cooking

[livius drusus]

Need to make dinner when all you've got is week-old bread, olive oil and salt? Clara is here to tell you how. She's 93 years old now and blessedly 1st generation Italian-American, so her 50 cent meals look pretty damn awesome. I love her anecdotes, and she dices a mean potato.

Oh, and Dingfod, she also turns off the heat after adding the pasta. They did it during the Depression to save gas.

Great Depression Cooking Ep:1 - Pasta with Peas

I'm really interested in this stuff. For a long time after I began cooking I bought expensive ingredients for individual recipes. Eventually I learned how versatile a reasonable pantry could be. Then I finally learned how to cut costs without losing quality. That was a big step for me because all the entirely quotidian ingredients I knew best from my childhood are fancy imports here.

I'm still in that last phase. My bi-weekly produce delivery and Costco have revolutionized my approach to food budgeting and creativity. It's been challenging, fun and unexpectedly satisfying. I thought I would feel a sense of loss but I don't at all.

I mean, I still splurge on some things (Parmigiano Reggiano, there is no other, so help me God. Costo has it for 10 bucks a pound, though, fully half what you would spend at Whole Foods.) but I've been amazed to find that overall, the flavor and quality of my cooking has dramatically improved. I'm not settling in the least.

[LadyShea]

Really good tips, I am sure, for all of us! Thanks for the heads up

So I watched the breakfast one, she made a very simple sugar cookie dough and formed em into crescents (kind of a biscotti). She said they had bread and coffee during the week and cookies on Sundays!

[Waluigi]

She looks fantastic for 91 years old! This is the perfect thing for singles to watch; simple meals that taste good. I can't believe she chopped the onion right over the pot... she's better with a knife than I am!

[livius drusus]

I know! Did you see how she diced the potato? She started with lengthwise horizontal slices and ended up with squared sticks from which she sliced cubes directly into the pot. I wish the camera had captured her whole process.

[godfry n. glad]

That's how my mother 'chopped' veggies for the pot, too. No cutting board, it was all done in the hand, over the pot.

The title makes it sound like some kind of mental health therapy.

[Waluigi]

Alright, I've now spent my night watching all of these episodes. She's very endearing, and her common sense approach to life reminds me a lot of my Babci.

My favorite line of hers, after discussing how she had to quit high school, or how they had no money, or how hard the Depression was: "but, we survived." What a great attitude.

[livius drusus]

Babci = grandma? She does have a great attitude. She reminds me of my great-grandmother, who lived without indoor plumbing her entire life (she died in 1984), shot rattlesnakes for dinner and always had a twinkle in her eye.

[S.Vashti]

That kitchen reminds me of my grandmother's with the metal bands around the counters and the plain painted cabinets. Until I was in my teens, and then she had the whole kitchen redone, everything new except the stove.

[LadyShea]

My grandma grew up (during the Depression) cooking for her family of 12 on the cotton farm. That was her job from the time she was 8 or so years old. I tried to learn from her, but she never used measuring cups...she used her hands to scoop "about this much" flour or cornmeal or whatever.

We've tried to recreate her recipes, but they're just not the same. At least Clara actually has measurements.

[Waluigi]

liv -- Babci is Polish for grandmother. Sorry, it's all I've ever called her so I don't think before typing it.

Watching videos like this makes me realize I'm a spoiled whiny brat compared to the "Greatest Generation". And I still can't believe she chops everything right over the pot... I'd be making blood stew if I tried that.

[Garnet]

Originally Posted by LadyShea

My grandma grew up (during the Depression) cooking for her family of 12 on the cotton farm. That was her job from the time she was 8 or so years old. I tried to learn from her, but she never used measuring cups...she used her hands to scoop "about this much" flour or cornmeal or whatever.

We've tried to recreate her recipes, but they're just not the same. At least Clara actually has measurements.

This reminds me of my grandmother. She was born in 1895 and she couldn't remember a time when she wasn't cooking. She didn't use measuring cups either. She tried so hard to teach us grandkids how to cook and how to make some of her home remedies but we either couldn't get it or weren't interested.

I have so many regrets about that. She was a granny woman too and while some of the things she did were just superstitious nonsense (like putting a knife under the bed to cut the pain) a good many of her remedies were actually helpful. If I had listened to her about how to care for my skin when I first started breaking out, I wouldn't have the acne scars that I do now. As soon as I started heeding her advice about it, my acne pretty much went from really bad to damn near gone.

*sigh*

[Qingdai]

I know this is a damn old thread, but still depression, amirite?

I found this today on Salon, a local woman making do in the woods. With recipes and such.
An interesting read.
My father, the king of thrift - Scavenger - Salon.com