topic Re: Great Depression Cooking in SmorgasBoard

Great Depression Cooking

AndrewF — Mon, 06 Jul 2026 00:32:08 GMT

Part of developing a budget and sticking to it is the food.

As Dave Ramsey likes to put it, eating out is a luxury expense and it's for entertainment.

I'm constantly amazed when people tell me they eat out every night or they make "anyone could have done this....it's a box of macaroni and hamburger" and that's the extent of their cooking skills.

I took Home Economics as an elective back in the 90s in middle and high school. It was one of the most practical lessons I've ever had.

When you apply yourself, you can feed two adult men for half of what the federal government calls the "Thrifty Food Plan", at the regular grocery store, and not be deprived.

Applying yourself means cook in large batches, waste nothing (eat leftovers until they are gone! do not let them spoil!), coupon, shop around sales, base things on pantry staples, and the budget will mostly work itself out.

Even in 2026 when everyone else is screaming about inflation, I've resorted to making meals that last for 2-3 nights.

Jeffrey Eisner and Pressure Luck. Cookbooks from the 1970s. Recently I've been diving into Depression-era baking.

My new boyfriend said why don't we get chocolate chip cookies, and much to my horror they were 'Chips Ahoy!'.

I told him if you like stale cookies with 47 ingredients in them, toss it in the cart, but I can make better cookies at home. The first batch costs more because you need pantry staples, the marginal costs from there are a few dollars a batch for the chocolate chips.

After getting back into cooking again, Depression recipes came to my interest. I want to make "Wacky Pie" which is basically a chocolate cake that leans on vinegar and baking soda and avoids dairy (expensive in the 30s, and rationed during the war).

Right now I have a tomato soup cake in the oven. I'm cheating a bit, I'm going to make a cream cheese frosting for it and frost it after it cools.

My mother said that her aunts and uncles would make cakes and then not frost them and she had no idea why.

I said "Because they had to survive the 1930s when everyone was unemployed and there was no money. In the first wave, people who went bankrupt jumped out of their office windows, then in the second wave, the people who made it past that had to hunker down and live on a shoestring budget for over 10 years until the war heated up the economy so much that everyone had a job again."

That sort of pain sticks with you. The bankruptcy ripped all pretentiousness out of my soul. It made me grateful for no longer having debt, it made me more careful with money than I've been in my life.

The 19 year old version of me from 2003 that once overdrafted a bank account deliberately so he could have pizza and an xbox one weekend is finally laid to rest.

Some people are just naturally good with money, others are horrible and never learn, and go from one frying pan to the fire, and they never learn. They're always in debt. They file bankruptcy and 2 years later they're going "How soon will I have 14 credit cards? Can I barely get approved for a house? Everyone pays 14% on a car loan, right? Maybe I should too!"

I at least learned something. I learned what it's like to not mind your business. They send the car hauler out. You're trying to hide the car for a few more days and stay one step ahead of the repo man, then they get it and you're in a clunker that seems to always have another mechanical failure.

I'm not driving anything right now. And I decided I don't ever want to reek of that particular brand of desperation again.

It's sort of amusing how low your food budget can be when you try. You can even work cakes and cookies into it and not exceed $300 a month if you really want to.

Most of the problem is not income-related. It's covetousness and laziness and lack of thrift.

The rent is very high here and people have perfectly functioning kitchens, and every evening like clockwork, all the doordashers show up with convenience food, which is twice as expensive as going to the restaurant in person.

I will admit that every once in a while I like to eat out, but not often. And I like simple things when I eat out. I found a Jewish deli a few blocks away. That was a pleasant surprise.

Re: Great Depression Cooking

AndrewF — Mon, 06 Jul 2026 04:02:45 GMT

Okay, the tomato soup cake came out great.

Very moist.

If you like carrot cake, you're going to love this.

Don't forget the cream cheese frosting.

(And yes, that does need powdered sugar as opposed to the granular, if you've never baked anything before.)

I haven't baked a cake in over 15 years.

Next up is probably Wacky Cake. Normally I'm not big into things that skip the dairy, but this sounds interesting.

Depression-Era cooks had to figure things out that worked with what they could get and still be something people wanted to eat.

Re: Great Depression Cooking

AndrewF — Mon, 06 Jul 2026 04:28:29 GMT

I also noticed that the corporate food fraud is worse than ever.

Jewel Osco has "fat free" half and half that's just skimmed milk with corn syrup solids and "Open Nature" "Heavy Cream Alternative".

They shove it next to the real stuff where you might accidentally choose it on the app or grab it in a hurry, pay for it, and ruin your food.

Veganism. They should leave that garbage over in the hippy section.

Re: Great Depression Cooking

millionsofmiles — Mon, 06 Jul 2026 06:08:16 GMT

@AndrewF I don't recall anybody asking.

Re: Great Depression Cooking

JoeRockhead — Mon, 06 Jul 2026 12:57:33 GMT

@millionsofmiles wrote:
@AndrewF I don't recall anybody asking.

Oddly enough, I was just wondering the other day if tomato soup cake was actually a real thing. Whammo... here's a thread about it. Who'da thunk it?

Re: Great Depression Cooking

Thomas_Thumb — Mon, 06 Jul 2026 14:26:29 GMT

Makes my shudder to think about it. The horror of eating such a thing.

I used tomato soup for dog bathing to remove skunk spray odor but, otherwise avoid it.

Re: Great Depression Cooking

Vinjints — Mon, 06 Jul 2026 14:28:30 GMT

No tomato soup, as in at all? What about the great tomato soup with grilled cheese? I also take tomato soup, add the right seasonings, throw in some cheese and croutons and get pizza soup. Tomato being a fruit and all, I would think tomato pie moreso than cake, but then that becomes a pizza as well.

Re: Great Depression Cooking

TrapLine — Mon, 06 Jul 2026 14:58:55 GMT

@Vinjints wrote:
No tomato soup, as in at all? What about the great tomato soup with grilled cheese? I also take tomato soup, add the right seasonings, throw in some cheese and croutons and get pizza soup. Tomato being a fruit and all, I would think tomato pie moreso than cake, but then that becomes a pizza as well.

Forgot ... yeah, Tomato soup with grilled cheese. My mother thought this to be a good thing (note back in the 1950s).

Re: Great Depression Cooking

crystal626 — Mon, 06 Jul 2026 15:37:16 GMT

Tomatoes are vile (raw tomatoes actually make me gag) but I'll eat some tomato soup once in a while. I like the Pacific brand organic red pepper & tomato.

Re: Great Depression Cooking

FicoMike0 — Mon, 06 Jul 2026 18:11:20 GMT

Wow @AndrewF , quite a post. I agree about cooking your own food. Much less expensive, better quality, not that hard.

Another thing I'll add, I find myself to be an opportunity shopper. Last week, I was in Meijer and they had 6oz. black berries, 2/$1. Wasn't on my list, but we had black berry pie. We usually come home with a lot of stuff we weren't looking for.

I'll come down against tomato soup. I think chicken noodle goes with grilled cheese. My grandchildren say I make the best grilled cheese. My secret ingredient, garlic salt.

We eat out frequently, at modestly priced restaurants. Here's a tip that helps, drink water. We almost never order soda pop in a resturant. I've never kept track, but I'm sure the savings over time are a lot. Then again, we drink water at home too.

Re: Great Depression Cooking

AndrewF — Mon, 06 Jul 2026 18:34:17 GMT

@JoeRockhead wrote:
@millionsofmiles wrote:
@AndrewF I don't recall anybody asking.
Oddly enough, I was just wondering the other day if tomato soup cake was actually a real thing. Whammo... here's a thread about it. Who'da thunk it?

It is pretty brilliant if you think about it. It tastes nothing like tomato soup because it's buried under so much sugar and spice.

Ground cloves are very very potent and so is cinnamon. But the cloves, especially, I can't smell them now without craving (and I know this is horrible) a kretek cigarette. I used to smoke Bali Hai cigarettes sometimes, just occasionally. Every once in a while the fire would hit a clove and sometimes during a drag and the side of the cigarette would go "POP!"

I'm so glad I stopped doing that even though it was an infrequent habit. The clove ones are even far more addictive than menthol.

I hope to never touch one again, but the smell brings back the memory immediately.

The recipe calls for one egg. Even during the Depression most rural people had an egg somewhere around the farm, right?

The Philippines is a lot like this country used to be (okay, it's next to the equator but other than that). People "doing it for themselves" because nobody else will.

I've heard stories now like, "You grow your own vegetables, you keep animals like chickens and roosters, and sometimes your neighbor who was too lazy to feed himself tries to sneak over in the middle of the night and take what's yours."

To that last part I said, "Some things are just universal aren't they?"

A lot of what we call "old fashioned" or "frugal" is just... how most of the world still lives. Grow it, raise it, make it yourself, protect what's yours.

The Philippines has a version of Social Security they call "SSS", and you can apparently take loans from it with interest. One of them told me they were in debt to SSS and they had to go pay it off.

I thought "Oh my God, a loan, how horrible." It turned out they had to wire SSS like $47.

Re: Great Depression Cooking

AndrewF — Mon, 06 Jul 2026 18:29:36 GMT

@Thomas_Thumb wrote:
Makes my shudder to think about it. The horror of eating such a thing.

I used tomato soup for dog bathing to remove skunk spray odor but, otherwise avoid it.

I used to have a dog named Darla. She lived for over 16 years and I wish I could have another dog just like her minus one thing.

Mom didn't want to walk her so before I could grab a leash and walk the dog, she'd frequently just let the dog out. Now, Darla was very smart and knew cars were dangerous, so that wasn't really a problem, but she loved rolling in poop. Dog poop, Goose poop. Any kind really.

We had geese at one of our homes that was over by a river.

I alway just put on some gloves and put the dog in the bathtub and used the shower wand and my mom's expensive Vidal Sassoon shampoo and conditioner, then I'd comb her and use the blow dryer.

The dog liked being bathed and groomed so I think some of this might have been a behavior because she learned that if she rolled in something that she got a spa treatment when she got back in.

I never had to take her to the groomers because she sat still while I used the hair trimmer on her too.

Re: Great Depression Cooking

AndrewF — Mon, 06 Jul 2026 18:30:48 GMT

@Vinjints wrote:
No tomato soup, as in at all? What about the great tomato soup with grilled cheese? I also take tomato soup, add the right seasonings, throw in some cheese and croutons and get pizza soup. Tomato being a fruit and all, I would think tomato pie moreso than cake, but then that becomes a pizza as well.

For tomato soup to eat I never use a can, I make it from scratch.

Mom was over once when I made it from scratch and she said mine tasted exactly like the room service at the Palmer House in the 1980s.

Re: Great Depression Cooking

AndrewF — Mon, 06 Jul 2026 18:41:35 GMT

@FicoMike0 wrote:
Wow @AndrewF , quite a post. I agree about cooking your own food. Much less expensive, better quality, not that hard.
Another thing I'll add, I find myself to be an opportunity shopper. Last week, I was in Meijer and they had 6oz. black berries, 2/$1. Wasn't on my list, but we had black berry pie. We usually come home with a lot of stuff we weren't looking for.
I'll come down against tomato soup. I think chicken noodle goes with grilled cheese. My grandchildren say I make the best grilled cheese. My secret ingredient, garlic salt.
We eat out frequently, at modestly priced restaurants. Here's a tip that helps, drink water. We almost never order soda pop in a resturant. I've never kept track, but I'm sure the savings over time are a lot. Then again, we drink water at home too.

That's absolutely a good mentality, especially at restaurant prices.

Drinks are the profit center. I noticed at Golden Corral, which is all you can eat, they didn't raise the price of the buffet much in the past 6 years, maybe $1 or something. But the price of the drinks shot up from like $1.99 to $5.99. These drinks cost them pennies and they know that people track the cost of getting into the buffet, not the $4 increase in something that cost the restaurant 10 cents.

Ice water is free. What really makes me angry is when they try charging soda prices for ice water or want to hand you water in a plastic bottle for $2.99 or something. Like "Okay, you can have water but you're not going to disrupt our profit model."

A family of four ordering drinks at restaurants can typically add up to $20 to the bill before any food arrives.

Re: Great Depression Cooking

AndrewF — Mon, 06 Jul 2026 18:49:31 GMT

@TrapLine wrote:
@Vinjints wrote:
No tomato soup, as in at all? What about the great tomato soup with grilled cheese? I also take tomato soup, add the right seasonings, throw in some cheese and croutons and get pizza soup. Tomato being a fruit and all, I would think tomato pie moreso than cake, but then that becomes a pizza as well.
Forgot ... yeah, Tomato soup with grilled cheese. My mother thought this to be a good thing (note back in the 1950s).

I grilled hamburgers last night.

Half a pound each pre-cook. Season the burgers with seasoning salt, black pepper, and garlic powder. Well-done. Two slices of American cheese (deli, not packaged) when nearly finished cooking, until it melts.

Brioche buns, shredded lettuce, slice of tomato, dill pickle chips, yellow mustard, Duke's mayo, and A1 sauce.

The cheese is very important. American is ideal for burgers because it doesn't split or start running off while you're trying to melt it. The pre-packaged singles are the wrong move because it won't melt the same as deli-cut.

Grocery store food fraud makes cooking burgers something you have to put mental energy into. The American Cheese in packages is not ideal but will melt, but the store also puts "American-style singles" there that have no cheese in them at all. If you ever accidentally grab one, you'll know. It won't melt, it'll just get crunchy.

Deli-style American is good for grilled cheese if you accidentally get some overage from burger night.

You have to read labels now in a way that previous generations never had to.

My cousin keeps trying to make macaroni and cheese in a slow cooker and throws margarine in there instead of genuine butter, and it never comes out right. And my mother repeatedly asks "Did you use butter this time?" and my cousin just says "no" and ruins the macaroni and cheese over and over.

Re: Great Depression Cooking

Thomas_Thumb — Tue, 07 Jul 2026 00:32:30 GMT

@Vinjints wrote:
No tomato soup, as in at all? What about the great tomato soup with grilled cheese? I also take tomato soup, add the right seasonings, throw in some cheese and croutons and get pizza soup. Tomato being a fruit and all, I would think tomato pie moreso than cake, but then that becomes a pizza as well.

I enjoy grilled cheese sandwiches and like pizza but must say no to a tomato soup grilled cheese pie. What a waste of a sandwich.

Truthfully, tomoto soup triggers severe gagging. I'd rather forego eating for days than have that soup. This brings back not so fond childhood memories of no tomato soup, no food. I'd settle for some peanut butter soup but no substitutions allowed.

Re: Great Depression Cooking

AndrewF — Mon, 06 Jul 2026 23:37:32 GMT

@Thomas_Thumb wrote:
@Vinjints wrote:
No tomato soup, as in at all? What about the great tomato soup with grilled cheese? I also take tomato soup, add the right seasonings, throw in some cheese and croutons and get pizza soup. Tomato being a fruit and all, I would think tomato pie moreso than cake, but then that becomes a pizza as well.
I enjoy grilled cheese sandwiches and like pizza but must say no to a tomato soup grilled cheese pie. What a waste of a sandwich.

Truthfully, tomoto soup triggers severe gagging. I'd rather forego eating for days than have that soup. This brings back not so fond childhood memories of no tomato soup, no food. I've settle for some peanut butter soup but no substitutions allowed.

Again, best thing about it is that by the time you're done it tastes more like a carrot or spice cake than anything. If you told me the secret ingredient was canned tomato soup I would have been stunned. I would have just gone, "Oh nice, this is a carrot cake!"

I think that would probably be an exception to the "I hate canned tomato soup!"

Depression-era cooks had a lot of "You'll never guess what I used in this." stuff.

I made it for just that reason. I don't like tomato soup out of a can. It's like "challenge accepted" then "hey wait, this is like carrot cake...I love carrot cake".

Re: Great Depression Cooking

AndrewF — Tue, 07 Jul 2026 03:09:43 GMT

Instant Pot Swedish Meatballs today.

I made white rice to go with it in my Zojirushi computerized rice cooker. I love that gadget too. Perfect rice all the time and it's stupid easy.

The gravy really does go better with rice than with egg noodles.

I have a bunch of hand mixers I got at Goodwill. Partially in case one ever does crap out I have spares, but it's nice to have 2-3 of them sitting there ready to go for different stages of the recipe.

I use one to whisk the egg and then mix the meatball ingredients so I don't have to do it by hand (I do this with meatloaf too), then one to mix the gravy at the end. You can use a whisk, but it's like why. I like more work, said nobody ever. Plus with the hand mixer you don't have to worry about even distribution of ingredients or lumpy gravy.

Ideally, you mix the heavy cream, tbsp of dijon, and au jus packet in a giant pyrex (carefully) before it ever hits heat, then I like to put in about a cup of the broth and whisk it some more, then toss the butter in the pot and pour the gravy/broth mixture in at that point then use the hand mixer in the instant pot to finish mixing everything (carefully so you don't scratch the bottom!)

You end up with uniform gravy that doesn't have anything separating or burning. then you put cornstarch slurry in. Recipe says 2 Tbsp cornstarch to 2 Tbsp water but I like to do four of each. And blend again for maybe 10 seconds, then put the meatballs back into the finished gravy.

"Jeffrey recipes" tend to use too little cornstarch slurry. I've caught him doing that to soups and things previously.

The gravy from this recipe really stands on its own and I'd have to say if I was utterly broke, rice and the gravy would be good on the hunger pangs.

But with the beef dripping from the meatballs falling in and becoming part of the gravy, I think that's what really sends it over the top.

When I'm cooking this I don't think IKEA from the smell, I think "KMart bistro". They had a meatloaf gravy that smelled very similar (but did not taste anywhere near as good.

If I happen to have leftover gravy from the meatballs, I like to use the overage to make smothered pork chops in the slow cooker. All you really need are the pork chops, and imo, some sliced baby bella mushrooms.

The KMart bistro was one of my favorite "cheap eats" places in the 90s and early 2000s until they closed them. In a bad economic downturn or when the paycheck was light that week, they always had comfort food out and at a very reasonable price, which would be an anachronism today considering how everyone is foodie all of a sudden. Department stores that have restaurant space like Walmart generally don't want to be in an unpredictable food business and want to lease the space instead. Which drives up prices.

First, the local KMart changed the Bistro to Little Caesar's (yuck) then the store limped on for about 10 more years.

I think that after Sears got them that's when that mentality set in. KMart got through the 1970s with ads in the paper about how cheap their fried chicken and mashed potatoes were. By the 2000s, the executives that realized how genius it was to play to that were gone and replaced by the "operational efficiency" types.

The food brings people in and that turns into a cart. Nobody's coming there for the Little Caesar's then by that time you're just another retail box and KMart was already losing on that front to Walmart.

Re: Great Depression Cooking

crystal626 — Tue, 07 Jul 2026 16:08:21 GMT

I'm making Instant Pot chicken thighs today. Figure if I make a few I can have lunch for the rest of the week, just have to heat up some rice and frozen veggies each day.

Don't use the Instant Pot much. I really should use it more.

Re: Great Depression Cooking

TrapLine — Wed, 08 Jul 2026 00:05:36 GMT

@crystal626 wrote:
I'm making Instant Pot chicken thighs today. Figure if I make a few I can have lunch for the rest of the week, just have to heat up some rice and frozen veggies each day.

Don't use the Instant Pot much. I really should use it more.

Remember to leave the light on in the window and a little leftovers in the oven ... just never know when you may have guests