Random Easy, Economical Recipes From Great Depression (13 items)

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  (#1) Stone Jar Molasses Cookies

  From General Foods Cook Book (1932) by General Foods Corporation Consumer Service Department:

  • 2 1/2 cups sifted flour
  • 2 teaspoons Calumet Baking Powder
  • 1 teaspoon ginger
  • 1 teaspoon salt
  • 1 cup molasses
  • 1/2 cup butter or other shortening
  • 1/2 teaspoon soda

  Sift flour once, measure, add baking powder, ginger, and salt, and sift again. Heat molasses, remove from fire; add shortening and soda. Add flour gradually, mixing well. Chill. Roll very thin on slightly floured board. Cut with floured cookie cutter. Bake on greased baking sheet in moderate oven (350 F) [for] 10 minutes. Remove from pan carefully. Cool. Store in stone jar. Makes 3 1/2 dozen cookies.
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  (#2) Scalloped Apples

  From Magic Chef Cooking (1935) by Dorothy Esther Shank:

  • 6 medium apples
  • 1/4 teaspoon cinnamon
  • 1/4 teaspoon salt
  • 1 tablespoon lemon juice
  • 1/4 cup water
  • 3/4 cup brown sugar
  • 1/4 cup flour
  • 1/3 cup butter [plus more for buttering dish]

  Pare, core, and slice the apples. Place in a buttered casserole and add the cinnamon, salt, lemon juice, and water. Work the sugar, flour, and butter together until crumblike in consistency. Spread this over the apples and bake at 400 F for 30 minutes.

  Yield: 6 servings.
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  (#3) Moussaka (A Greek Recipe)

  From The Whole-Family Cook Book (1931) by The Parents' Magazine:

  • 1/2 pound of macaroni
  • Salt to taste
  • 1/2 pound of Hamburg steak or leftover meat
  • 1 small onion
  • 1 cup tomato sauce or 1 small can tomato puree
  • 1 1/2 cups white sauce

  Cook the macaroni in plenty of boiling salted water. Drain well and put a layer in the bottom of a well-buttered baking dish, then a layer of the ground meat [that] has been mixed [with] chopped onion and the tomato sauce, seasoned with salt, and browned in a little good fat in a frying pan; then a layer of macaroni; and so on until full. Pour over the white sauce, sprinkle liberally with bread crumbs, and bake about [45 minutes].
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  (#4) Mulligan

  From Most for Your Money Cookbook (1938) by Cora, Rose, and Bob Brown:

  This American specialty of tramp jungles cannot be reduced to one recipe, for its ingredients depend on what you've got, its mixture on the artistic inspiration of the cook, and the time required for cooking entirely on the hunger of the eaters-to-be.

  Here's a sample, however, based on the take of a lucky day:

  • 3 pounds of meat scraps
  • 1 bunch carrots
  • 2 onions, sliced
  • 1/2 cabbage, shredded
  • 1 pound potatoes
  • Salt and pepper

  Start the meat cooking, then add the vegetables, stirring occasionally so the potatoes, which sink to the bottom, won't stick there.

  The word Mulligan is American slang, which the dictionary says is obscure in origin, but it seems probable that it's the knight of the road's mocking abbreviation of the millionaire's Mullingatawny, a chicken and curry soup, which is no better than a jungle Mulligan after a successful raid on a hen roost and a farmer's field.

  The addition of dumplings makes it equal to any dollar-a-plate stew at the Waldorf. Everything goes into it to make the savor irresistible, especially such sauces as the oil from a can of sardines and the liquid from bottles of pickles and olives.
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  (#5) Dutch Baked Chicken

  From Pennsylvania Dutch Cookery, Their History, Art, Accomplishmets, Also a Broad Collection of Their Food Recipes (1935) by J. George Frederick:

  • 3 young, fresh chickens
  • Salt
  • 1/8 pound of flour
  • 1-2 eggs
  • 2 1/2 cups of bread crumbs
  • 3 pounds of lard for frying
  • 1 lemon for garnishing

  Preparation: The chickens are [slain], dressed, washed, dried, and prepared at once. Cut the chickens in half, salt them, dip them first into flour, then in beaten egg, then in bread crumbs. The lard is heated in an iron pot or kettle and the pieces of chicken placed into it carefully, one at a time, so as not to cool the fat too much, and [so] the crumbs [will] not fall off. Bake them to a nice brown color. After the crust is hard, let them cook more slowly until well done. Then put on paper to drain, strew fine salt over the pieces, and put on a platter, after which they may be garnished with lemon slices.
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  (#6) Creamed Dried Beef (Sh*t On A Shingle If Served On Toast)

  From The American Women's Cookbook (1939) by Ruth Berolzheimer:

  • 2 tablespoons butter or other fat
  • 2 cups milk, [divided]
  • 1/2 pound dried beef
  • 4 tablespoons flour
  • Pepper
  • 1 egg, [well-beaten]

  Place the butter or other fat and 1 1/2 cups of milk in a small frying pan. When hot, add the beef, shredded. Cook 3 minutes. Rub the flour smooth in [remaining] 1/2 cup cold milk, add a dash of pepper, and stir into the beef. As soon as it thickens, draw the pan back, simmer 5 minutes, add the well-beaten egg, and serve at once. The hot gravy will cook the egg sufficiently. The egg may be omitted.
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  (#7) Bitki (Russian Meatballs)

  From Sunset All-Western Cook Book (1933) by Genevieve A. Callahan:

  • 1/4 loaf of white bread
  • Milk
  • 1/2 pound of chopped beef or veal
  • Salt and pepper
  • Nutmeg
  • 2 tablespoonfuls of butter
  • 2 onions
  • 3/4 cup of sour cream

  Discard the crust from the bread and set it to soak in as much milk as it will absorb. When it has stood 15 minutes, press out the superfluous milk from the bread using the hands; mix it with the chopped meat, [then] add salt and pepper and an almost imperceptible dash of nutmeg. Form into round cakes and fry in the butter along with finely sliced onions. When the onions and meatballs are well browned, add the sour cream. Let bubble up once or twice, and serve with the sauce poured over the meat balls. If the cream is not sour enough, add the juice of half a lemon.
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  (#8) Baked Stuffed Tomatoes

  From Meals on Wheels: A Cook Book for Trailers and Kitchenettes (circa 1937) by Lou Temple Willson and Olive Hoover:

  • 4 medium-size tomatoes
  • 1/2 cup bread crumbs
  • 2 tablespoons melted butter
  • 1/2 cup store cheese, grated

  Cut off stem end of tomatoes. Remove centers with a sharp knife [and reserve]. Fill cavities with stuffing made from bread crumbs [save some of the bread crums for the top coating], melted butter, and cheese, all of which have been mixed and moistened with some of the chopped tomato centers. Season to taste. After tomatoes are filled, top each with a fine coating of bread crumbs. Place in a greased pan [and] bake in a moderate oven (400 F) for 20 minutes, or until tender but not soft enough to lose shape.
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  (#9) Washington Surprise Fritters

  From Culinary Arts Western Cookery (1936) by Kay Morrow and Hazel Hemminger:

  • 2 eggs, well beaten
  • 1/3 cup milk
  • 2 tablespoons melted butter
  • 1 cup flour
  • 1 teaspoon baking powder
  • 1/2 teaspoon salt
  • 1/4 teaspoon paprika
  • 1 cup canned or boiled fresh salmon
  • 1 cup canned corn, well drained

  To the beaten eggs add the milk and butter. Sift the dry ingredients, add to the egg mixture, and mix well. Stir in the salmon (broken in pieces) and the corn. Drop by spoonfuls into hot fat and fry until golden brown. Drain on unglazed paper. Serve with White Sauce... to which add 2 teaspoons of minced onion, 1 tablespoon of chopped parsley, and 1 chopped hard-cooked egg. Cook about 2 minutes.

  White Sauce:

  • 1 tablespoon butter
  • 1 tablespoon flour
  • 1 cup milk
  • 1/4 teaspoon salt
  • 1/8 teaspoon pepper

  Melt the butter, add flour, and blend until well-mixed. Slowly add the milk and cook until mixture thickens, stirring constantly. Add salt and pepper.
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  (#10) Creamed Sausage Cakes With Scrambled Eggs

  From The Alice Bradley Menu-Cook-Book: Menus, Marketing Lists and Recipes (1936) by Alice Bradley:

  • Sausage cakes
  • Toast
  • 3 ounces cream cheese
  • 1/2 cut hot cream or milk
  • 4 eggs
  • 1/2 teaspoon salt
  • 1/4 teaspoon pepper
  • Bacon curls, crisped
  • Watercress

  Pan-fry flat sausage cakes and place on rounds of toast. Break cream cheese in pieces, add to hot cream or milk, and stir until softened. Add eggs, salt and pepper, and stir over the fire until scrambled soft. Pour over sausage cakes and garnish each with crisp bacon curls and watercress.
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  (#11) Watermelon Pickles

  From The Dundee Presbyterian Cook Book: A Collection of Selected Recipes (1930) by Mrs. A. R. Roberts from the Dundee Presbyterian Church (Omaha, NE) Woman's Auxiliary:

  Soak pared [watermelon] rinds in salt water overnight. In the morning drain in colander, and cook in clear water until tender. Drain again.

  Make syrup of:

  • 1 pint [2 cups] pure cider vinegar
  • 1 pint [2 cups] water
  • 1 pint [2 cups] brown sugar
  • 1 pint [2 cups] granulated sugar
  • 1 ounce cinnamon stick
  • 2 tablespoons (large) whole cloves

  Boil syrup 5 minutes. Add watermelon rinds and boil slowly until syrup thickens.
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  (#12) Sunset Onions

  From The Official Cook Book of the Hay System (1934) by Esther L. Smith and William Howard Hay:

  • 4 large mild onions
  • Milk to cover onions
  • 4 egg yolks
  • [Celery salt]
  • 2 tablespoonfuls chopped parsley

  Simmer onions in milk until tender. Remove from pan. Beat egg yolks and add to milk; cook over hot water until smooth. Season with a pinch of celery salt. Pour over onions and serve hot. Garnish with chopped parsley.
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  (#13) Illinois Baked Soybeans

  From Let's Use Soybeans (1931) by the Department of Home Economics, University of Illinois:

  • 3 cups cooked soybeans
  • 3/8 teaspoon mustard
  • 1 teaspoon salt
  • 1/8 teaspoon pepper
  • 3 tablespoons molasses
  • 1/2 cup boiling water
  • 1/2 cup chili sauce
  • 1/4 pound diced salt pork

  Combine thoroughly, in a baking dish, all the ingredients except the salt pork. Cook the salt pork in a frying pan until delicately browned. Add the melted fat [from the salt pork] to the beans and place the squares of pork on top. Bake at 350 F for 105 minutes to 2 hours.

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