Great Depression Meals, make them today, enjoy and save yourself money. During the economic depression of the 1930s people learned to make food and a buck stretch. You might be surprised to know that there are some meals that you can still make today. These meals aren’t ketchup sandwiches but truly tasty menus that will still help you stretch a budget.
Here are 5 Great Depression Meals You Can Make Today
I remember my dad making chipped beef on toast. His family was hit hard during those times and meals like that were passed down through time. I swear my grandma could make plain ‘ol beans taste like Heaven.
I hope you find a recipe or two that you remember or want to make.
Great Depression Meals #1
Ham Hocks & Beans – Not just a great Southern recipe but one that you can make on the cheap. We always served this with warm corn bread. This mean is even better the next day!
- 1 lbs of dry pinto beans
- 4 or 5 smoked ham hocks
- 1 large yellow onion, chopped
- 2 – 3 teaspoons of black pepper
- 1 bay leaf (optional)
- Salt to taste
- Wash the beans (you don’t have to soak them overnight with this method)
- Put the beans, ham hocks, chopped onion, pepper and bay leaf in a large stock pot and cover with water.
- Bring to boil and then turn down to a low simmer.
- Cover and let simmer low for several hours.
- Stir and check often – you may need to add a bit more water, but only enough to keep everything covered
- Beans will be tender and the sauce will thicken up.
- Break up the meat into the beans and serve in a bowl with warm corn bread.
Clara’s Kitchen: Wisdom, Memories, and Recipes from the Great Depression
Great Depression Meals #2
Chipped Beef on Toast – I have to tell you my dad called this Sh*t on a Shingle; didn’t sound too appetizing like that. But this is a tasty meal that is very filling. Pair with with a veggie from the garden for a full meal.
- 8 oz dried meat (chipped beef like Hormel or Armour)*
- 2 Tablespoons of butter
- 4 cups of whole milk
- 4 Tablespoons of all-purpose flour
- Salt and Pepper to taste
- Toast, Biscuits or Baked Potatoes
- Melt the butter in large skillet over medium heat
- Add the chipped beef until it softens a bit
- Whisk in the milk and flour
- Turn up the heat and whisk until boiling
- Turn heat to low simmer and whisk until gravy thickens
- Salt and Pepper to taste
- Serve over toast, biscuits over a baked potato
*You can make this with cooked ground beef or bacon instead of the chipped dried beef.
Back to Basics Great Depression Cooking
Great Depression Meals #3
Warm Rice with Milk & Sugar – I didn’t learn about this one until I was living in Kansas back in the early 90s. It is a filling breakfast and quick to make up. It goes a long way. I preferred it with rice from the night before. No real measurements here.
- Cooked Rice, about 1/4 – 1/2 your bowl, warmed
- Milk, amount is really to your taste
- Dab of of butter (optional)
- Sugar to your taste, you could use honey if that is available
- Combine ingredients in a bowl and enjoy like you would oatmeal or cream of wheat.
Great Depression Meals #4
Potato Pancakes – this is something I remember my other grandmother making and talking about them from her childhood. Meat was not always around and certainly not always affordable. Potatoes were easy to grow and affordable to buy. There are lots of potato Great Depression meals. I like the mashed potato version.
- Leftover mashed potatoes (about 2 cups)
- 1 large egg
- 1/4 cup of all-purpose flour
- 2-3 Tablespoons of bacon grease or other oil for frying
- Mix together the potatoes, egg and flour
- The batter should be pretty stiff, not like regular pancake batter
- Melt the grease or oil in a skillet on medium heat and let the skillet get good and warm
- Making heaping spoonfuls of the batter and add to the skillet
- Mash the batter down with a fork or spatula
- Cook until browned and then flip
- Once both sides are brown transfer to a paper plate or paper towels to soak up the grease
- Serve with syrup, gravy, applesauce or just buttered
You can certainly put spices or herbs in the batter to make them more savory and flavorful.
Great Depression Meals #5
Hoover Stew – I have seen many variations of this Depression Era “stew” so don’t be married to the ingredients. You can substitute using what you have in the house or garden already. If you don’t use canned veggies you will want to reserve some of the pasta water for cooking the stew.
- 16 oz package or box of noodles (macaroni, spiral or similar are best)
- 2 cans of stewed tomatoes, do not drain
- 1 package of hot dogs
- 1 can of corn, peas or beans, do not drain
- Cook your pasta until it is just about done, but not all the way
- Slice your hot dogs into rounds (thinner if you’re feeding more people)
- Put the cooked pasta and hot dog slices in a pot with the remaining ingredients
- Bring to a boil then simmer low until the pasta is finished cooking and the whole pot is heated
Want more? Here are some links I think you’ll enjoy!
- Food Storage Moms – Great Depression Meals-Are We Eating The Same Meals Today?
- Melissa K Norris – Podcast #45 Great Depression Era Money Saving Tips w/ Potatoes
- The Survival Mom – Could Your Stomach These Great Depression Meals?
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Hamburger hot dish
1#hamburger browned with one medium onion
1# macaroni, cooked slightly less than al dente
2 cans diced tomatoes or 1 1/2# diced fresh tomatoes
Salt and pepper to taste
(I add about 3/4 pound of shredded cheddar cheese) stir all ingredients together and bake in 9×13 baking dish for 30-45 minutes. Serves six hungry adults. You can add 2 cups peas, mixed vegetables or corn (my favorite).
What temperature do you baked this at? Thank you.
Not my recipe, but I always bake casseroles at 350*. 🙂
Mumm sounds good will have to try these recipes
Oh my goodness do I remember warm rice for b’fast… we just loved it ! My mom would put raisins in & a sprinkle of cinnamon. I always made this for my kids too… such a nice change from eggs. We didn’t grow up with boxed cereal and I never gave my kids cold boxed cereal, just nothing to it, isn’t good for them and it doesn’t hold off hunger as well as a good wholesome meal. My dad loved chipped beef… but ours was always made with ground beef.. another meal that my husband & kids loved too. Beans … oh my gosh, everyway you can imagine & another favorite of my family too.
Thanks for sharing the memories
I just found this page while searching for frugal recipes. I’m almost 53, so not a depression-era person. Growing up, we always had rice with milk and sugar, eating it like cereal. I was 19 years old before I realized people ate it for dinner as a side dish! I was out for dinner with friends in college, and they looked at me like I had three heads when I sprinkled sugar on my rice. I thought they were insane when they just ate it as it was served!
I grew up on a farm, so we grew most of our food.
Welcome CeCe!
My favorite way with rice, too. One day after cleaning my cupboards I found red and green glacé cherries and put thes in just before serving. Yummmm….or do my husband and two boys, daughter and son-in-law (he was from India) and their son and daughter thought it was fabulous. Expensive to do over unless you do those yourself or get them on the mark down shelf,
I never gave my kids cold cereal I had hot food ready every day. I would make hobo butter and home made jelly to put on hot biscuits and muffins. Still today I do this and my kids are older one has kids now. The younger generation has lost the want to do at home and when this country is in hard times again we older ones who were thought will be in big demand for the TV watching sofa warmmers who never thought it’s wroth was going to be needed. I’m glad to say I’m not worried
What is the recipe for hobo butter? I’ve looked on the net and I haven’t found it. Please let us know!
I think she meant homemade butter that is done in a mason jar (shaking it). But I’m not 100% sure, I am not familiar with that term.
I grew up on these meals! And so did my kids, we still enjoy them.
Growing up in Wisconsin, we would frequently have rice and milk for lunch, but with maple syrup. We had a mess of maple trees around our property and my dad would tap them every spring to make syrup.
I also grew up with potato pancakes. It was one of the staples at my church’s annual pancake and sausage supper. The only difference was using raw grated potatoes instead of mashed potatoes. They cooked up just fine and gives the pancakes a different, but good, texture. Again, with that maple syrup. I occasionally take them for breakfast at the school where I teach. My students get a kick out of the idea of potato pancakes and want to try them.
I now live in Honduras, been here for 25 years. Red beans are a staple. My wife will cook up the beans with beef, often ribs or another cheap cut with bone. You let it cook in the beans until the meat wants to fall off the bone. Then she might throw in something like potatoes or green bananas. This is usually a Sunday lunch in my house.
Always loved the beef on toast I made it with leftover roast beef that wouldn’t really feed one person much cut it fine made a cream gravy with it! Yum. My mom made the bean soup?stew we all enjoyed it! I am younger but we grew up on these food s too in Canada
We called it chip beef on toast. Now grown not only up but old, I put in like a cup of sour cream at the end of the pan gravey…Yummm gives it such a good flavor, not as bland…
Do you perhaps have a version using the Instant Pot for these dishes? I just got one and am still learning how to use it.
I don’t, but that’s a great idea.
This is really interesting – some of these sound so strange but as an Irish woman I completely recognise at least two – #4 is an Irish speciality called boxty! Delicious. Must’ve been an immigrant dish.
#3 is a kind of adaptation of classic British (and Irish) dessert called rice pudding but usually the rice would be cooked from scratch in the milk and sugar making a kind of custard. Very rich and creamy.
My Nan made rice pudding at least once a week. We would stir in a teaspoon of jam to add to the flavor.
Instapots are great, but old fashioned recipes need to be cooked the old
fashioned way 💕
I agree and disagree. I think we can use them and adapt them as needed.
Pressure cookers were used a lot back then. Same thing.
I remember chipped beef but also had creamed tuna on toast. A can of tuna packed in oil back then, hard boiled eggs chopped, and can peas in a milk gravy and served on toast. I loved it. I was just thinking about it the other day.
This sounds DELICIOUS!
My mother did the tuna thing but she also did curry tuna
I absolutely love these ideas, I remember many of them, and I very much appreciate your reminding me of these simple but delicious meals!! God bless you!
With the ham hock and beans, you need to add some cumin, to give it some flavor. Probably about 1 tsp of the seeds should doit.
Add a tsp of dried oregano and a chopped clove or two of garlic- it’s wonderful all together !!!
My grandmother used to make what she called poor mans bread,she would mix flour water pepper salt and a little bacon grease make a batter pour in hot oil fry
I grew up in the 1950s in the USAF and my dad and mom made S O S as well as something. My dad called target paste and peas, that is creamed tuna and peas!
My grandmother made that for me over pasta or rice!
Spam and eggs. Macaroni and cheese with Spam. We have 6 kids, and everyone loves it. Cheap, Cheap, Cheap.
For the potatoe pancakes I use finely diced onion, and turnip to add extra flavour. My mom and my gramma did it and so do my daughter and son. I usually put some leftover turnip in ice cube tray then transfer it to freezer bags. When I am ready to make the pancakes I simply take out one cube for pancake.
Love it!
This notion of there being any “leftover” mashed potatoes always makes me smile, even more so during the Great Depression. Surely they were so darned hungry that there was never any food left over!? Nice piece though, sometimes the simple meals are the best.
I grew up eating these in the 50’s and 60’s. Didn’t think about til my daughter said she wanted to learn to cook depression meals as they have less ingredients. So I looked up some. My grandmother must have cooked these because my mom was born in the depression. I have fed these to my family too except the Hoover stew! My daughter couldn’t believe the same recipes!! Thank you.
I hear this a lot. <3
These recipes are so neat! My family family laughed because we already eat the first four things. Tonight I made the Hoover stew to see if anyone liked it. Not bad. We might have that again. We have the other recipes fairly regular. Thank you. Guess I learned from my parents. They grew up in the depression
I learned growing up with my grandmother! 😀
Grandma made depression spaghetti when I was growing up ,after my mother started making it we called it Catholic spaghetti because we ate it on Friday during lent .
Boil spaghetti till done, drain and rinse w/ cold water
Bring to slow boil, 46 oz can tomato juice,
Tbsp butter
1/2 lb Colby cheese, diced
Salt, pepper to taste
Slow roll boil juice while adding cheese handful at a time , stirring till all melted, turn burner off and add spaghetti, stirring and pulling built up cheese off spoon, returning it to pot, let cool 10/15 min
Not one child in 5 generations hasn’t grown up eating this, and now makes it for they’re own family.
Mother told us of also eating horse meat during the depression, and Grandpa making bathtub beer . I’d go for the beer, but no way the horse!
My parents grew up during the depression and many of the recipes are familiar. I remember horsemeat being sold in the Grand Union in a white box with a red tape around the middle, no other markings or wording.
Love all of your “Cheap” and “Depression” meals. The “Ham Hocks and Beans” you posted a while back. I love them in the Winter as comfort food and they’re also great cold (surprise) for summer picnics. The “Rice and Milk” dish, my Gram used to make us when we were kids. She called it “Rice Soup” but she added raisins making it even more special to us. Thanks for all the good stuff that you post everyday. Brings back lots of great memories and saves me money.
These comments are making me hungry, I’m cooking all these this week for my family of 5!!!! thanks!!!
Awesome! Hope everyone loves them!!!
Thank you for these recipes. Currently I stock a pantry box in our community. I especially like the Hoover Stew. I will try to compile some meal kits with recipe. I frequently used the other recipes for potato pancakes I did add onion powder and parsley flakes, chipped beef was a favorite of my kids, and rice and rice pudding are mine. We also had a favorite of corn pancakes, pork and beans and sliced hot dog. My kids called this “dimes” because my slices were so thin.
Macaroni and Milk :
A box of elbow macaroni
1 stick of butter
Milk
Salt
Pepper
Macaroni boiled in water to soften
Drain water when done replace with milk
Heat milk and macaroni
Add butter, salt and pepper to taste
Serve in a bowl
I grew up with this cheap and delicious meal.
Some of the recipes you listed sound delicious. I’m not sure about the rice one. I am half Japanese .so adding sugar and milk to cooked rice sounds a little weird to me. I grew up in Texas; So beans and ham hocks is a very common meal.
I’ll tell you the first time seemed really weird to me but I assure you, it is delicious!
Having been raised by parents who grew up in the Great Depression, I learned so many ways to stretch food. I was also raised on a farm and we raised our own meat (beef, pork, poultry, rabbit). We also fished in the river and hunted deer and elk. Our garden what huge and we put up the meat and veggies. Our farm was in an area that was not very good for fruit so we purchased fruit in the area. We also foraged for wild fruit. We ate really well all year long and I never knew we were poor! Now I realize that we didn’t have much in the way of money but always food!
So the thing that I still use pretty consistently is “creamed” anything. Mom made a white gravy (flour, fat and milk) and we had creamed peas and new potatoes, creamed asparagus – served on toast or biscuits, hamburger gravy, tuna gravy, sausage gravy. It was a way to make a little bit of meat or veggies stretch to feed a family of 8 with 2 growing boys!! We also frequently had people (neighbors) stop in right at dinner time and mom whipped up a pan of gravy to go on the potatoes or took the potatoes she had already cooked and creamed them with peas to stretch them out.
Eggs are probably the least expensive foods on the market today. They are very versatile and not just for breakfast.
Leanne,
I agree, eggs offer so much nutritionally and in the variety of things you can make. They are even better if you can get them from your backyard!
Sounds like you got a wonderful education from your parents!
Oh how I love creamed peas and new potatoes!
My dad always made Eggs a la Goldenrod Easter morning with the abundance of hard boiled eggs. Of course, sometimes it was very colorful as the dye would sometimes seep through a crack in the shell. We weren’t fancy and just called it Creamed Eggs on Toast. Comfort food!
Oh that sounds delicious – definitely comfort food!!!
My cousin told me that when her dad lost his job in the oil field during the Depression, the family had to move out into the woods and live in a tent. Pancakes were all they had to eat. I don’t know how long they were out there, maybe a few weeks until they found an abandoned farmhouse to live in, and worked out a deal with the farmer who owned it. They loved each other and survived. Their oldest son became a decorated sharp shooter in WWII and took care of his parents until their death. They had good values.
Adding chopped onions or grated garlic to potato pancakes might make them less boring
Oh yeah, and herbs help too.
Chipped beef on toast– My first stepfather made it with leftover Thanksgiving turkey. It was wonderful. you can also make it with roasted turkey spam.
I have never had either of those… but that sounds pretty yummy!!