[Sca-cooks] OOP ... Depression Era food

[Georgia Foster]

Of course I hear about Depression Era foods.  I have my grandmother's recipe for tomato soup cake, which she claimed was Depression Era and I never thought to question it.  To this day I still LOVE spice cake.
 
>From age 2 to age 6 I was raised by my Depression Era grandparents.  Almost everything that is 'family' food was sauce over starch, and the amount of protien in the sauce depended largely on the day of the month and the money for food in that particular month.
 
When my mother re-gained custody of us, my family were subsistance hunters and game meat was a large part of our protien consumption.    Our diet was pretty much uniform; some form of wild meat, some form of starch with gravy, some form of vegetable.  That was a long time ago.
 
Yes, there were times when the cost of food was not the prime concern.  During those times, I did experiment with foods from other areas, fed the children fresh fruits and vegetables, and played with food.  The kids were exposed to a wide variety of foods from all around the world. 
 
When my (now ex) husband became disabled at amost the same time I became a student, we used half a pound or less of beef protien in a gallon of spaghitti sauce and pasta for it made at home because two cups of flour and two eggs was 85 cents and a pound and a half of pasta in a bag was $1.35.  Tasted better too, but cost was the driving factor.
 
At this point in my life, I am financially able to manage food in most forms.  I cook period food, and modern food, I play with food and mix old stuff and modern stuff, family traditional food, along with French food, Roman food, Greek food, German food, Irish food, and lots of other ethnic food types.
 
If it comes to the need to minimize on food costs again, I will cut back on the protien in the pasta sauce again.  
 
Cheers
 
Malkin
Otherhill
Artemisia
 
 
 
Jo (Georgia L.) Foster Never knock on Death's door. Ring the doorbell and run ... he hates that.