Customer Reviews

Depression Era Recipes

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

Quite frankly, I found this a little disappointing. Flipping through the pages, there is nothing to indicate that these are recipes from a time of such hardship, apart from the few little snippets at the bottom of some of the pages, giving some fact about the 1930s. A recipe for Banana Cream Pie surprised me. Glad to know that bananas were easily and cheaply obtainable - as I suppose they must have been, as this is apparently a depression era recipe. The book could have been so much better with just a few embellishments - such as the occasional picture, or interesting and useful facts about life during the Depression, such as average wage, cost of eggs or milk or basic staples. There were no substitute dishes - along the lines of "mock - whatever" True, the recipes are simple, without enormous lists of ingredients, but the book lacks flavour. The "Farmer's Wife Cookbook" has a lot of the elements that could have improved this book.

As a child of the depression, it was a way of remembering what the women of that era had to do to feed families often larger than those of the 21st Century -- families of farmers fared much better that those in the industries (which often became defunct) and for white-collar workers when there was no money to pay their wages. We "murdered through", we thrived, we learned serious lessons to do more with less, and to substitute. Would not want to repeat the depression era, but feel very fortunate recipes were concocted to get us through it with a smile on our face.

Anyone who is into History will like this cookbook. Many of the recipes don't look appealing but it contains a lot of interesting facts about lifestyles in the 30's.

I enjoyed the nostalgia the book provides very much and appreciate the author's endeavors, but was a little dissapointed with the recipes themselves. I was hoping to find a book full of dirt-cheap recipes (under $4 per recipe) I can cook for my family. I found 6 recipes for veal, one for pork loin, and several for large cuts of meat (which amounts to expensive). Several recipes called for more than one type of meat which raises the cost of the recipe and there were several entertaining yet not-so-practical recipes for such meats as squirrel, racoon, rabbit, and one for pork neck. This was a wonderful trip down memory lane, but not the practical guide I am looking for.

The Depression Era Cookbook will cause depression if you purchase it. It is obviously a self published cookbook with common recipes available most anywhere. Nothing new or interesting here. Many self published cookbooks done by church groups for fund raisers have much better recipes than this poorly written book. Save your money during this depression!

Have you ever heard of Mock Cherry Pie. I remembered my great grandmother talking about this pie. In the depression women made their mock cherry pie out of cranberries and raisins to substitute the cherries that they didn't have. Can't find Logan Berries then use blue berries because they are Logan Berries. In the depression days people went to the woods to gather their berries for cooking. They made soups from nothing, and this book will tell you how to make your own chicken with dumplings, chuck wagon stew, old fashioned beef or pork pot pies using biscuit dough. In our bad economy this is a good book to have.

I was hoping for more recipes like the ones I all ready have. The book was interesting but not sure I want to make any of the recipes however a good book to have in case I ever want to make Possum, or Raccoon.

Not a big fan of spiral, but my main point: the Depression Era is just that - the late 20s through middish 30s. Not all people had to subsist during that time and foods/recipes were still changing for many reasons. IF the title and info had specified that only subsistence and substitute for the reason of subsistence recipes were included, I would agree the book was, by default, misleading. On the bright side, MFK Fisher wrote a lovely book about food in a later era of somewhat similar difficulty - one which I highly reccommend! (But then, If she wrote it, I reccomend it - none of her's has dissappointed)!

Shows just how things can be made on a really tight budget. And the meals are really good.

I gave this as a gift to my mother, who grew up in the Depression. She enjoyed it and remembered some of the items in it. The construction of the book was poor and she had to reinforce all the holes to keep the pages from tearing out.