The subtitle of this book is “A Culinary History of the Great Depression”, which is what tempted me to read it. I was assuming that there would be recipes. Well, you know what they say about the word “assume”. There are a several recipes from that era, very few of which I would want to try. Most of the book actually talks about what people ate, or in many cases didn’t eat, in the lead up to the Depression, as well as what was available for them to eat during the Depression. Much of the book also describes how food assistance was provided for those who most needed it. Or not.
Early in the 20th century, the science of nutrition was just beginning to understand the importance of what people ate, as opposed to them just eating something. America had fed much of the world during WWI, but a number of people were starting to fall through the cracks, which got exponentially bigger when the Depression hit. For some people, just eating something was a challenge; nutrition was not a consideration. The field of Social Work was also still learning the best ways to assist people in poverty, and were having an uphill battle convincing politicians to change their “tried and true” methods. Sadly, most municipalities basically tried to push the responsibility onto someone else. And, of course, if you were out of a job during the Depression, it must be your own fault!
Another field that was starting to gain visibility was Home Economics. While those words, for many of us, have vaguely unpleasant memories of high school classes, home economists were an important factor in helping to conserve food during WWI. In addition, they helped educate housewives about nutrition, food preparation and storage, and helped manufacturers produce healthier products. What we saw in high school was a pale shadow of how important this field could be, and in some cases, still is, for food manufacturers. Every recipe printed on product packaging, or next to a coupon in a ladies’ magazine, was probably created by a home economist.
If this was your family, how would you research them? My grandparents lived through the Depression (my parents were small children). My mom has told me that her parents for some reason were running a small restaurant, slept on the tables at night, and ate mostly onions (which were cheap and readily available). I never thought to ask Dad, or his parents, how they got through. I do know that my paternal Grandmother had a huge garden until she died. While I don’t remember her doing much canning, I know she froze much of what she didn’t give away. There may have still been a few things my grandparents ate that had their genesis in the Depression years. You can find several websites that say they have depression era recipes, (https://www.tasteofhome.com/collection/depression-era-recipes and https://insanelygoodrecipes.com/depression-era-recipes, for example) but I don’t know how authentic they are. If you have any cookbooks from that era, those could be interesting.