- 7 weeks ago
Looking for ways to save money in the kitchen without sacrificing flavor? In this video, Nicole makes 10 Great Depression–era recipes that prove resourceful cooking can still be delicious nearly a century later. From pantry staples to clever substitutions, she shares thrifty tips and techniques inspired by home cooks of the 1930s — all while whipping up comforting, old-fashioned meals that stand the test of time.
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00:00The Great Depression brought about a lot of hardships and financial struggles, but it also brought about a lot of ingenuity and resourcefulness, especially when it came to cooking in the kitchen.
00:09I have found 10 of the best recipes that came from the Great Depression area.
00:14Some I incorporate still into my normal cooking.
00:18Some are going to blow your mind, but I promise them all to be delicious.
00:22So here we go.
00:22First thing I'm going to make is probably the most popular dish that came from the Great Depression, and it is known as Hoover Stew, thanks in part to the president at the time.
00:32A pack of hot dogs could feed a family probably at least two meals, and I'm going to guess that back then it was around a dollar for a pack.
00:38So a lot of recipes that incorporate a hot dog, and I've never met a hot dog I don't like.
00:43Hoover Stew is like similar to like a goulash.
00:47That's all the prep.
00:48Now we just put it all together.
00:49We always have some bacon grease on the counter, so you would never throw anything away.
00:54If you cooked anything that rendered out fat, you would save the fat and use it in another bit of cooking.
00:58The hot dogs have fat in them, but I'm going to start by sautéing the hot dogs because it's just going to carry flavor.
01:05If you don't have a lot of ingredients, you've got to maximize the flavor with each ingredient.
01:09And so if we get some color on these hot dogs, caramelization, flavor.
01:14This already looks good.
01:16Water's boiling.
01:16Salt was and still is cheap, thankfully.
01:21But you didn't find a lot of like other condiments or spices.
01:25You still can find pasta for a dollar though.
01:27Just going to cook the whole pound because we're making this for an army.
01:31So now we've built all this flavor at the bottom of our pot, and I'm going to go in with the tomatoes first because it's going to lift up that flavor from the pan.
01:38See, just like that, that pot is clean.
01:40Dried herbs were and still are pretty inexpensive also, so you can go into your pantry and flavor this up however you like.
01:46My way, I'd probably add in something like Cajun seasoning, maybe like some fresh herbs, parsley, something like that.
01:53But I'm going to kind of stick to the old school way for the most part.
01:57And then beans.
01:59When I did my episode on dirt cheap dinners, I also told you that beans are a great way to kind of stretch a meal.
02:06And because they're really substantial, they fill you up for definitely not a lot of money.
02:10But they also have added fiber and protein.
02:12All right, and then a can of corn.
02:13My grandmother grew up during this time, and she, for her whole life, cooked like this.
02:17All of these recipes, because of the minimal ingredients and lack of complicated cooking processes, are going to be really fast.
02:26So besides being cheap dinners you can incorporate into your weekly routine, they're going to be like fast 30-minute meals you can also.
02:33And I'm saving for some sweet endings.
02:36Okay, we've got like a couple blow-your-mind desserts.
02:40Drain it and add it in.
02:42See, that is a full pot.
02:45So I would cook this for like a few more minutes together just to bring those flavors in.
02:50And that pasta quickly absorbs all that liquid that was in there.
02:53If I was doing this at home, I'm very tempted to add in some butter, although butter wasn't super cheap back then.
03:00Even a little, like, Parmesan cheese.
03:02But it definitely needs a little salt and pepper, and that's what we're going to do.
03:04And now I feel like I'm going to add the rest of those tomatoes.
03:07Now we're looking more like a stew.
03:09Now let's dish it up.
03:11Listen, this is a comfort meal, and I can already tell you my kids would eat this.
03:14They might look at me a little funny.
03:16They will eat it, and they will like it.
03:20Simplicity.
03:22Definitely a good move to saute the hot dogs before adding everything in.
03:25I mean, it's comfort food.
03:26It's kind of like eating a warm hug.
03:29If you've got money in the bank, you could take this and zhuzh it up with like some, you know, sausage and more veggies.
03:35Fresh veggies if you want.
03:36But otherwise, if you're waiting on the next payday, give this one a try.
03:40This next meal is known as poor man's meal.
03:43This one came from Miss Clara on YouTube in her depression cooking.
03:50If you've never seen her videos, they are just so sweet.
03:53You just feel like you're at home, and she is your great-grandmother.
03:56Welcome to my kitchen.
03:57I'm Clara.
03:58I'm 91 years old.
03:59Another meal made with hot dogs.
04:01However, this one also has potatoes and onions.
04:04She's who I saw like cut the hot dogs really thin.
04:07I mean, my grandmother used to put hot dogs in scrambled eggs.
04:11I have made that video before.
04:13You should go check it out.
04:13But so she peeled the potato.
04:15Also, I'm doing it like they do.
04:17Okay.
04:17This is how also how every grandmother cooked.
04:19She said they didn't have things like cutting boards.
04:22So they just cut everything in their hands like this.
04:24I feel like she kind of cut her potatoes kind of like smallish.
04:28This kind of hurts your wrist.
04:30It's starting to make a little sense.
04:31Or maybe I need this kind of exercise with my hands.
04:33I don't know.
04:34I don't know if I should stop or keep going.
04:40You get the point.
04:42All right.
04:42And then onion.
04:44And I put onion in everything.
04:46Now we just fry it all up together for the ultimate poor man's meal.
04:50She starts with a little oil.
04:52The onion and the potato.
04:55She's going to cook this down like this until the potatoes soften.
04:59And then we'll add on the hot dogs.
05:00So I'm sort of burning these potatoes.
05:03I want to stick a little bit.
05:05That's okay.
05:06Because what did we just do right here?
05:08Make a little flavor.
05:09So I'm going to add a little water to just lift that up and then kind of steam the potatoes to cook them.
05:15The best time to get flavor into your starches, whether it be potatoes or pasta, is while it's cooking.
05:19Because it needs to absorb in.
05:21If you just wait and season at the end, the salt just sits on the surface.
05:24All right.
05:25The water's evaporated out.
05:26Now I'm going to add in the hot dogs.
05:28And I think once all this is heated through and cooked, we're done.
05:31I just remembered.
05:32She added just a couple little spoonfuls of marinara sauce.
05:39I just have some leftover pizza sauce in the fridge.
05:43So this is what I'll use.
05:44Because we're resourceful.
05:46I guess that's a good way to incorporate some extra flavor.
05:49Let's dish it up.
05:50It's like one of those meals I feel like that you would make like if you're sick or you just like want something comforting.
05:57Which I think was the goal of all these depression meals.
06:00I love like the way like the starch from the potatoes has cooked down and it's kind of made it like kind of creamy.
06:05I love this.
06:11That hot dog has just like lent like the perfect salty like savory note to this.
06:17The potato is creamy and those onions are just like melted down.
06:21That little hint of tomato sauce at the end brings it all together.
06:26And look at the amount of food in here.
06:29That was three hot dogs and two potatoes and one onion.
06:32Do the math on that but per serving, is that like two bucks or something?
06:37I'm really grateful for Clara's recipe.
06:40This next one is a childhood favorite of mine that my mom used to make all the time.
06:45I'm beginning to think maybe we were financially strained and I didn't know it.
06:50I'm making classic egg drop soup.
06:52You know you don't think about this one because you just have it like if you go to a Chinese restaurant.
06:56Why not make it at home?
06:57You're just going to start out by chopping a little bit of green onion.
06:59Back then people would have not wasted anything.
07:02So if they cooked a chicken, they had their own broth.
07:04If you make your own stock and you always have eggs on hand, this meal is basically free.
07:09Some ground ginger.
07:10Ginger is super inexpensive so you could do fresh here as well.
07:13But the potency of the ground ginger, a little bit goes a long way.
07:16A little salt.
07:17And that's our broth.
07:18Before I heat up the broth, you want to start with it cold.
07:21I'm going to take a little bit out and whisk it with a little cornstarch.
07:24This is going to help thicken the soup later.
07:27You always want to dissolve cornstarch in colder water, colder liquid.
07:31If you add it to hot liquid, it just clumps up.
07:33This can be heating up.
07:35And then egg drop soup.
07:36You got to have eggs.
07:37Okay, so I'm just going to whisk together some eggs and egg yolks.
07:41If you add egg yolks a little bit separately, it kind of makes the soup a little bit richer.
07:45Our flavorful broth is going.
07:47And now I'm going to whisk in our little slurry here.
07:50So you want this to be back up at a boil because you want that water to be circulating.
07:54So when you drizzle in the egg, it immediately cooks and kind of forms little ribbons in there.
07:59I was actually supposed to put the cornstarch in after the eggs, but I think it's all going to be fine.
08:05Let that cook for just a couple minutes.
08:06I'm going to stir in the green onions.
08:08The eggs cook immediately when they hit the boiling broth.
08:12So basically it's done at this point.
08:14Let's serve it up.
08:15Can you all believe how easy that was and how few ingredients?
08:18I mean, it looks just like the restaurant kind of.
08:22Mmm.
08:23What's the bite?
08:25This is a depression dinner that's making me very happy.
08:27Those eggs are just like noodles.
08:29If you've never had this, it doesn't taste eggy at all.
08:33That broth is so flavorful.
08:35This will also probably cure any cold.
08:37So remember this in cold and flu season.
08:39Yes, they did eat fresh meat back in the depression, but you've got to know how to make it stretch.
08:45The recipe I found is actually called potato pancakes, but they're stuffed with ground beef.
08:50And this is the ultimate recipe to stretch the ground beef.
08:53The whole recipe just calls for a half a pound.
08:55Grated onions.
08:56So we're making almost like a little meatball mixture to go inside.
09:00Then a little bit of garlic egg.
09:02A little salt and pepper.
09:04Mix that up and then add in a little breadcrumbs.
09:06Obviously you would have used your stale bread, dried it out, and used that for your breadcrumbs.
09:13I knew you would have.
09:14There's just lots of different versions of like meat patties.
09:17So while this particular recipe isn't directly from the Great Depression, it's the same concept.
09:23So then we're going to take our potatoes and shred them up.
09:26If you were making this at home and you're not as worried about the cost,
09:29you could always do this with shredded hash brown potatoes.
09:32Squeeze some of that water out.
09:34That way your potato pancakes get crispy on the outside.
09:37So to this I'm going to add in some baking powder and some regular flour.
09:41I want the flour to kind of soak up some of the moisture in the potato.
09:45Season it up.
09:46And then an egg to hold it together.
09:48And we just mix this all together.
09:50That's it.
09:50Now we just fry them up in the skillet.
09:54Oil.
09:55You've seen me make the smashed tacos with the raw beef going on the tortilla.
10:00Same concept.
10:02But it's going to be cooked in the potato.
10:05These are going to be thin.
10:06I mean, they're pancakes.
10:07It's not like a big stuffed burger.
10:09These might be slightly larger than what's typical,
10:11but I'm thinking of dinners and not like appetizers.
10:15And then we take our meat mixture, place it down in.
10:18And you want to go almost to the edges.
10:20And then you do another layer of potato on top of that.
10:23It's like a little surprise inside.
10:25All right.
10:25So now we just cook it until it's all crispy and cooked through on the first side.
10:29Flip and then we keep going.
10:30Oh, that's good looking.
10:31And this is substantial.
10:32I mean, that's a substantial portion.
10:34Pop these out, keep frying, and dinner's done.
10:38This is only half of half of the recipe.
10:40That is a good depression dinner right there.
10:42I feel like I'm going to eat it like I would a Waffle House hash brown.
10:46Oh, that is so crispy on the outside.
10:50Mmm.
10:51How have I never heard about this before?
10:53This recipe has been hiding, and I will be the one to bring it back.
10:57I know it's not meant to be burgers and fries,
11:00but it is, like, just the perfect bite of that.
11:03The potatoes are cooked perfectly salty and crispy around the edge.
11:07The meat is so tender, and you get plenty of it.
11:09Even though it was, like, a tiny portion, it feels like a meaty bite in there.
11:14I mean, look at that.
11:15I mean, this is the one I was least excited about, but it might be the winner.
11:18This is eggs with peppers and potatoes.
11:20This is another one that my mom makes on the regular basis,
11:24probably at least once a month,
11:26and it's just the meal that you make when you just don't want something, like, super heavy but full of flavor.
11:31Now, this one does incorporate some vegetables,
11:34but these were very inexpensive back then still.
11:38And then I saw in Miss Clara's videos that she used to bring this to lunch at school.
11:43She said all the kids wanted her lunch.
11:45So I'm just going to cut my potato, and you want it kind of, like, thinly sliced
11:49because it just cooks in a skillet.
11:50You don't boil it or anything.
11:52My mom always just used green bell pepper.
11:54It's also the least expensive, but I love the flavor of both in here and onion.
12:00I think you could get by with these meals that I'm making today.
12:03I feel like I could say $20, definitely less than $30.
12:06So this is, like, a hearty meal for two people, let's say.
12:10So you can determine how many eggs you want to add based on how many people are eating.
12:13So I'm going to have these already beaten up, and then we'll just add it all in in the skillet.
12:18This one starts with a little oil.
12:19This is another good time.
12:20You could use the bacon fat or whatever fat you like.
12:24I'm just going to cook your peppers, onions, and potatoes until the peppers are really soft
12:28and the potatoes are tender.
12:29I'm going to go ahead and season with a little salt.
12:31Of course, it's going to flavor the potatoes and everything,
12:33but it's also going to help these veggies soften.
12:35So once it gets going, I'm going to turn the heat down a little bit and cover it.
12:39This way, it allows those veggies to kind of steam, and it keeps the moisture in there
12:43so the potatoes don't stick to the bottom like they did earlier.
12:4510 to 15 minutes, stirring occasionally.
12:48Now, you can see how soft the potatoes have gotten.
12:51Season it with a little more salt and pepper.
12:53And now we just add in the egg.
12:54And it's going to cook fast because everything is so hot.
12:58The egg just kind of scrambles in there, kind of blends in with some of that creamy potato.
13:03I mean, you know, let me go ahead and disclaimer.
13:04This is not the prettiest of meals today.
13:06I feel like you're judging this book by its cover, and I don't want you to do that.
13:11My mom serves this up drizzled with ketchup,
13:15and it is the only time it has been acceptable to put ketchup on eggs, in my opinion.
13:21I prefer a little hot sauce.
13:23I'm sure they had ketchup and hot sauce back then, right?
13:25Can you believe how tender that potato cooked?
13:27And with those peppers and onions, and the eggs just kind of, like, blend in.
13:31Mm-hmm.
13:38Sort of, like, reminds you of, like, a breakfast hash, almost.
13:42You're going to love this one.
13:43You want to know ingredients that are cheap but also hearty?
13:48Cabbage and noodles.
13:50And that is the name of this dish, cabbage and noodles.
13:53It actually goes by a traditional name, Haluiski.
13:57In addition to things like potatoes and onions, cabbage is also very hearty because it lasts for a really long time.
14:03It's super cheap, easy to grow.
14:06So I am shredding it, and then it will sort of, like, blend in with the noodles.
14:11So it's a way to kind of add nutrition to, like, a not-so-nutritious plain old pasta.
14:16And, of course, onion.
14:17The onion is going to melt right into everything else.
14:21This recipe calls for a lot of butter, but to save money, you could use the fat that you have stored on your countertop, i.e. bacon grease.
14:30So I'm going to get this going.
14:31You also want to bring a pot of water to a boil for the pasta, and then we'll combine the two things.
14:35A little salt to help soften those.
14:37I just like to give those a little head start, and then we'll add in the cabbage.
14:40Plus, the smell of onions cooking in bacon.
14:42A plus.
14:45All right, so you want to cook this down until it's super tender, but you're not really looking for color in this traditional recipe.
14:52However, if you're really wanting to maximize the flavor, I would try to get some caramelization on this.
14:58So this will cook down about 10 minutes.
15:00The noodles will cook about 5 minutes.
15:02When the cabbage cooks down, of course, it's, like, buttery, tender, especially mixed with those onions.
15:08But it also kind of has, like, a subtle sweetness to it.
15:11Now for the butter.
15:13Let this all melt together with the hot pasta.
15:16Taste for seasoning.
15:19It's another good one, y'all.
15:20It's another good one.
15:22All right, so now a little more butter.
15:24And then into the oven, low temperature, about 300, just until everything kind of comes together and it might lightly brown on top.
15:31A lot steamy, delicious, comforting.
15:33I feel like you don't even have to do the oven step.
15:35You could just, like, let it, the cabbage kind of smother a little more on the stove.
15:39Each bite of pasta is going to have the cabbage and onions, like, naturally in it because it's all kind of cut the same shape.
15:51I almost feel like this is another one of those, like, sick day meals because it is so just, like, cozy.
15:57The onions, like, have melted into this.
15:59They haven't caramelized, but they've gotten kind of sweet in there.
16:02Cabbage is tender.
16:03There's absolutely nothing wrong with this meal.
16:06We know bread was cheap.
16:08Bread still is cheap.
16:09But also a lot of people just made their own bread.
16:11So yesterday I made this bread.
16:14We've got a great, easy recipe.
16:16You can make it in the Dutch oven.
16:17All you need, flour, a little salt, water, and yeast.
16:21But using bread is really how you stretched your meal and made people full.
16:26These next recipes are kind of two for one.
16:28I'm going to do both at the same time.
16:30And one of them was one of the first things I learned to cook.
16:33So I'm doing creamed, chipped beef, otherwise known as on a shingle.
16:40The other one is called hard times tuna or cream tuna or tuna on toast, which I happen to love.
16:46And I'm not lying when I say I had it for lunch yesterday.
16:49So you want this to be toasted while you make everything else.
16:53Dried beef.
16:54Again, a little bit goes a long way.
16:56And chop it up finely.
16:58And then we're just making like a white gravy.
17:00And then I do my tuna a little bit different.
17:03Let me show you.
17:03So the first one is probably the way you're most familiar with.
17:07You make a roux first.
17:09Melt the butter with a little flour.
17:11Equal parts.
17:12Cook that down a little bit and then whisk in your milk.
17:14You can always add more.
17:15You'll know how thick your gravy is going to be once it starts to simmer again.
17:19But I like to just kind of gradually add it in while whisking.
17:22In this pot, this is one of the first recipes I learned to make.
17:25And instead of flour, I'm going to use cornstarch.
17:28There used to be a recipe when this stuff came in a box on the side, and it was just called medium white sauce.
17:35And my mom, whenever I decided I wanted to start cooking, she's like, oh, you can make this.
17:40Follow this recipe, and then we'll serve it with tuna and toast.
17:46And I crave it.
17:47It's so good.
17:48I'm going to go ahead and add some cold milk to your saucepan, and then you're going to want to whisk in your cornstarch while it's cold,
17:54because cornstarch is different than flour.
17:56So it needs to dissolve in cold liquid first.
17:59And then I go ahead and add my butter in, and the butter kind of melts into it as it comes up to a simmer.
18:04So same ingredients, basically just a little different procedure.
18:08All right, so it's rich and creamy.
18:11Now I'm going to stir in the beef.
18:12The beef is going to act as our salt.
18:15And for a little kick, a little cayenne pepper.
18:17Creamed, chipped beef, ready to go.
18:22You don't need to add salt.
18:25Keep that warm there while we finish this one.
18:27And you'll just see the butter start to gradually melt into the milk, and then the whole thing will start to thicken together.
18:33This one you will season with salt and pepper.
18:35Just the most simple white gravy.
18:38Going to serve up the tuna first, toast, then the tuna, straight from the can.
18:43You could just stir it in like the beef, but this is just the way I always used to do it.
18:47And then you just pour your sauce right on top.
18:50The bread soaks up this gravy.
18:52And it's a knife and fork situation at this point.
18:58I love it.
19:00If you like things like tuna noodle casserole, you're going to love this.
19:04There's really, I mean, there's nothing not to like.
19:06Now, how about a little SOS, as they say.
19:10The toast being the shingle, you know.
19:13I already can tell you what's not to like.
19:15Well, that's a perfect bite.
19:16It just, like, happened so easily.
19:20That one is really rich.
19:23While you might think, like, canned tuna is a strong flavor, the flavor here is a little bit stronger.
19:28So, you could get by with just using a little bit of that dried beef.
19:33Because the flavor is pretty intense.
19:35Strong in a good way, but it makes me kind of want, like, a glass of wine to kind of cut through that richness, you know.
19:41After dinner, you always want a little something sweet.
19:44So, I'm bringing you two Depression-era desserts, starting with the most mind-blowing.
19:50We're making water pie.
19:53And it actually has flavor in it.
19:55You won't believe it.
19:55So, you take your water and you pour it directly into the crust.
19:59Then, mix together some flour and sugar.
20:03This is going to thicken the water.
20:05Then you sprinkle this over the water.
20:06You don't stir it in.
20:08You just trust the process.
20:10Can you imagine being the inventor of this?
20:12Put in a little vanilla.
20:13And then you place five pats of butter on top.
20:17It's five tablespoons of butter, but it has to be in five pieces.
20:20Not six or seven.
20:22Six, seven.
20:23And you tell I have a middle schooler.
20:25My gosh.
20:26I'm going to place this on a baking sheet just for insurance.
20:29And then it just bakes at 400 degrees for about 25 to 30 minutes.
20:33All right, water pie is boiling like water does.
20:36I know, you're not thinking it's going to work.
20:38But what has happened is that that flour and sugar mixture has cooked.
20:43So, it's basically like if we cooked that mixture on the stove and it comes to a boil,
20:47it's going to thicken.
20:48But now, as it cools, it's going to firm up.
20:52And then it will become sliceable.
20:54So, this has to cool, like, for hours, like, completely.
21:02It's perfectly sweet.
21:04It doesn't have, like, its own specific flavor.
21:06Like, it's not lemon or strawberry.
21:08But if you added just, like, even a garnish of that, it would take that on.
21:12And then the little buttery goodness that sits on top but also in the crust,
21:18it just balances it out.
21:19It's rich but also sweet but also light.
21:22I got one more final trick.
21:24Have you ever heard of wacky cake?
21:27This is a recipe we have at All Recipes.
21:29It is known to have been created during the Depression.
21:32And I like the description of this recipe.
21:34It is the brainchild of the Depression era when ingenious cooks developed a cake
21:40that could be made without expensive and scarce ingredients.
21:44So, without butter.
21:47And this also has no eggs in it.
21:49Okay, so I'm going to whisk together the dry ingredients,
21:52which is just a little bit of flour and some sugar,
21:54some cocoa powder,
21:55and baking soda we know is one of the few things that's still very inexpensive.
22:01Always a little salt when you're baking things that are sweet.
22:05All right, give that a whisk.
22:06It says to sift it, but I just never do.
22:10I never do.
22:11I'm a rebel like that.
22:12Then it says to make three depressions into this flour mixture.
22:18Into one of them, we're going to put oil.
22:21So, always just like whatever the inexpensive oil was.
22:24And then apple cider vinegar into another one.
22:27This is somehow, some way, if you understand chemistry,
22:32can replace the egg part in here.
22:35Don't ask me how.
22:36I don't know.
22:37And then a little vanilla extract into the third.
22:41Now, we pour water over the whole thing.
22:43Now, you stir it together with a fork.
22:45Oh!
22:46Do you know you don't even have to dirty a bowl for this recipe?
22:48You're just supposed to mix it all in the pan.
22:50It did say to put it in an ungreased baking pan.
22:53But you can see how it's kind of bubbling already.
22:56The egg is normally one of the leavening agents.
23:00So, the combo of vinegar and baking soda together is doing that.
23:03It's so easy.
23:05You bake it at 350 for about 30 minutes.
23:0730 to 40.
23:09It's wacky, but it works.
23:11Of course, you're going to want to let it cool a bit.
23:14But that is probably one of the easiest chocolate cakes or cakes, period,
23:18that I've ever made.
23:19You should really wait longer, but let's not rush it.
23:25It looks and feels, like, super moist.
23:28You could make, like, a glaze or an icing for this,
23:31but I'm just going to keep it simple.
23:34I mean, it's so tender.
23:35Mmm, that's delicious.
23:40It has great chocolate flavor.
23:41It's not overwhelmingly rich and chocolatey,
23:44but, like, it's perfectly chocolate.
23:47I don't know.
23:48I like how it kind of formed a little, like, sugary crust along the top.
23:52It might be wacky in its prep method,
23:55but nothing wacky about the taste.
23:57I think we've ended on a perfectly sweet note.
24:01As you can see, a lot of delicious creations happened during the Depression,
24:05despite the hardships.
24:06While grocery prices are the way they are,
24:08I think it's a great challenge to try to, you know,
24:11feed your family like this for a week.
24:13I don't think you'll be disappointed.
24:15I don't know.
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