# The Depression menu **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [April 14, 2020, 12:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-depression-menu/851735 "2020-04-14T00:43:39Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Colibri](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/colibri/32/1841_2.png) [@Colibri](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colibri)\ **Post date:** [April 14, 2020, 10:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-depression-menu/851735/41 "2020-04-14T22:52:57Z")
> [@Try2B\_Comprehensive](#): > > ETA: Could be wrong about possums being varmints. If it raids your henhouse for the eggs, it’s a varmint. ---
**Author:** ![Try2B\_Comprehensive](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/try2b_comprehensive/32/65_2.png) [@Try2B\_Comprehensive](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Try2B_Comprehensive)\ **Post date:** [April 14, 2020, 11:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-depression-menu/851735/42 "2020-04-14T23:06:13Z")
Do possums do that? I have hardly ever crossed paths with one. ---
**Author:** ![Colibri](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/colibri/32/1841_2.png) [@Colibri](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colibri)\ **Post date:** [April 14, 2020, 11:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-depression-menu/851735/43 "2020-04-14T23:15:22Z")
> [@Try2B\_Comprehensive](#): > > Do possums do that? I have hardly ever crossed paths with one. [They sure do.](https://www.theselfsufficienthomeacre.com/2013/02/possum-in-the-hen-house.html) They kill adult chickens too. ---
**Author:** ![Siam\_Sam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/d78d45/32.png) [@Siam\_Sam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Siam_Sam)\ **Post date:** [April 14, 2020, 11:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-depression-menu/851735/44 "2020-04-14T23:33:09Z")
> [@Colibri](#): > > If it raids your henhouse for the eggs, it’s a varmint. Huh. So I’m a varmint. ---
**Author:** ![TriPolar](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tripolar/32/3008_2.png) [@TriPolar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TriPolar)\ **Post date:** [April 14, 2020, 11:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-depression-menu/851735/45 "2020-04-14T23:36:34Z")
Possums will eat just about anything, and that’s why they taste bad. If you catch one alive keep it in a cage for a month and feed it fruit. That’ll fatten it up and do wonders for the flavor. ---
**Author:** ![Try2B\_Comprehensive](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/try2b_comprehensive/32/65_2.png) [@Try2B\_Comprehensive](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Try2B_Comprehensive)\ **Post date:** [April 14, 2020, 11:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-depression-menu/851735/46 "2020-04-14T23:40:07Z")
I learn all kinds of stuff on here. Thanks, **Colibri**. If we eat that, we might as well eat rats, or mice. No thanks. Though I can vaguely remember seeing mouse recipes from ancient Rome. They would slice them open and gut them, stuff them full of herbs and then carefully sew them back up. Place the prepped mice on a tile and put it in an oven. Bon appetit! But good grief, only if I get truly desperate. ---
**Author:** ![TriPolar](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tripolar/32/3008_2.png) [@TriPolar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TriPolar)\ **Post date:** [April 14, 2020, 11:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-depression-menu/851735/47 "2020-04-14T23:43:12Z")
Mice!? How gauche. I won’t eat any rodents smaller than a guinea pig. ---
**Author:** ![VOW](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/vow/32/3043_2.png) [@VOW](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/VOW)\ **Post date:** [April 14, 2020, 11:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-depression-menu/851735/48 "2020-04-14T23:55:49Z")
Beans. Beans, beans, and more beans. I have a kazillion bean recipes, PM me. When I make navy bean soup, I started a tradition of making Malt-o-Meal muffins to accompany the soup. Now, I’m not allowed to make navy bean soup until I have checked the pantry to see if there is a box of Malt-o-Meal. I LOVE mixed bean soup! I call it 99-bean soup. I don’t care for limas. My sister and I would threaten to move out of the house when Momma would cook up a pot of butterbeans for her and Daddy. The air would be ripe for days. If ou live near an Asian market, go buy some Kombu dried seaweed. A two-inch piece soaked with, then cooked with a pot of beans makes them more “digestible.” You can find Kombu at health food stores, but it will cost you a LOT more money. Pinto beans and black beans cn be cooked with a Mexican herb Epazote. Find it at a Mexican market, it may be located with the teas. Good old beans! ~VOW ---
**Author:** ![salinqmind](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/3ec8ea/32.png) [@salinqmind](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/salinqmind)\ **Post date:** [April 15, 2020, 12:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-depression-menu/851735/49 "2020-04-15T00:13:04Z")
> [@Chronos](#): > > When I was growing up (poor, but Mom was really good at being poor), one common meal in our house was creamed eggs on toast: Sliced hardboiled eggs arranged over a couple of slices of toast, with a white sauce poured over all of it. Amost as cheap, now, a jar of heated up queso cheese sauce, or a can of Campbells cheddar cheese soup. Or any other kind, I guess. ---
**Author:** ![Ukulele\_Ike](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/df788c/32.png) [@Ukulele\_Ike](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ukulele_Ike)\ **Post date:** [April 15, 2020, 12:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-depression-menu/851735/50 "2020-04-15T00:37:18Z")
Cabbage! You can make an ocean of delicious soup with one medium head. Slice onions, chunk some peeled potatoes, sliver or chop the cabbage, chop a handful of fresh dill, combine in a huge pot and cover with water— or chicken or beef stock, if you are a fancy man. Simmer until everything is soft. Salt and pepper. A scoop of sour cream is nice in the bowl, but not essential. My sister adds a can of cream of mushroom soup while the vegetables are simmering. Not something I would do; just throwing it out there. It does add cream and body. ---
**Author:** ![terentii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/terentii/32/212_2.png) [@terentii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/terentii)\ **Post date:** [April 15, 2020, 12:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-depression-menu/851735/51 "2020-04-15T00:41:59Z")
> [@Chronos](#): > > When I was growing up (poor, but Mom was really good at being poor), one common meal in our house was creamed eggs on toast: Sliced hardboiled eggs arranged over a couple of slices of toast, with a white sauce poured over all of it. _Oeufs Gloria_, from _ **On Her Majesty’s Secret Service** _: > **[Oeufs Gloria Recipe](http://jamesbondfood.blogspot.com/2013/06/oeufs-gloriearecipe.html)** > > Oeufs Gloria This is one of the dishes served at Blofeld's Swiss lair Piz Gloria in the On Her Majesty's Secret Service novel. Ing... ---
**Author:** ![dorvann](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/df705f/32.png) [@dorvann](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dorvann)\ **Post date:** [April 15, 2020, 12:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-depression-menu/851735/52 "2020-04-15T00:46:16Z")
If you looking for a source of meat during hard times there is always this book: [https://www.amazon.com/Contingency-Cannibalism-Superhardcore-Survivalisms-Little/dp/1581600259/ref=olp\_product\_details?ie=UTF8&me=&qid=1586911446&sr=8-1](https://www.amazon.com/Contingency-Cannibalism-Superhardcore-Survivalisms-Little/dp/1581600259/ref=olp_product_details?ie=UTF8&me=&qid=1586911446&sr=8-1) ---
**Author:** ![Jackmannii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jackmannii/32/311_2.png) [@Jackmannii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jackmannii)\ **Post date:** [April 15, 2020, 4:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-depression-menu/851735/53 "2020-04-15T04:44:30Z")
> [@TriPolar](#): > > Mice!? How gauche. I won’t eat any rodents smaller than a guinea pig. Guinea pigs are a swell idea for a cheap meat source. _“To help start a home guinea pig farm, Heifer International typically supplies a family with one male and seven females. In just months, such a collection may have doubled in size. Woods says a guinea pig herd consisting of two males and 20 females can sustain itself while providing meat for a family of six.”_ > **[From Pets To Plates: Why More People Are Eating Guinea Pigs](https://www.npr.org/sections/thesalt/2013/03/12/174105739/from-pets-to-plates-why-more-people-are-eating-guinea-pigs)** > > Guinea pigs are popular pets in the U.S., but in parts of South America, they're a delicacy. Some environmental and humanitarian groups are making a real push to encourage guinea pig farming as an eco-friendly alternative to beef. And the animals are... ---
**Author:** ![Colibri](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/colibri/32/1841_2.png) [@Colibri](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colibri)\ **Post date:** [April 15, 2020, 5:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-depression-menu/851735/54 "2020-04-15T05:39:50Z")
> [@Try2B\_Comprehensive](#): > > Though I can vaguely remember seeing mouse recipes from ancient Rome. They would slice them open and gut them, stuff them full of herbs and then carefully sew them back up. Place the prepped mice on a tile and put it in an oven. Bon appetit! But good grief, only if I get truly desperate. Those would have been [dormice](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dormouse) (like the one in Alice in Wonderland), not regular mice. From Wiki: > [@](#): > > The edible dormouse (Glis glis) was considered a delicacy in ancient Rome, either as a savoury appetizer or as a dessert (dipped in honey and poppy seeds). The Romans used a special kind of enclosure, a glirarium, to raise and fatten dormice for the table.[5] It is still considered a delicacy in Slovenia and in several places in Croatia, namely Lika, and the islands of Hvar and Brač.[6][7] Dormouse fat was believed by the Elizabethans to induce sleep since the animal put on fat before hibernating.[8] > [@Jackmannii](#): > > Guinea pigs are a swell idea for a cheap meat source. I’ve had [roast Guinea Pig](https://escapedtoperu.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/10/guinea-pig-on-plate.jpg) several times at fancy restaurants in Cuzco, Peru. It’s my favorite rodent. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![kayaker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kayaker/32/441_2.png) [@kayaker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kayaker)\ **Post date:** [April 15, 2020, 11:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-depression-menu/851735/55 "2020-04-15T11:39:46Z")
> [@Ukulele\_Ike](#): > > Cabbage! > > You can make an ocean of delicious soup with one medium head. Slice onions, chunk some peeled potatoes, sliver or chop the cabbage, chop a handful of fresh dill, combine in a huge pot and cover with water— or chicken or beef stock, if you are a fancy man. Simmer until everything is soft. Salt and pepper. A scoop of sour cream is nice in the bowl, but not essential. I start off simmering just cabbage, then use a stick blender on the pot. Then I add more cabbage, potatoes, and onions. Mmmmmmmm. ---
**Author:** ![ftg](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ftg/32/2801_2.png) [@ftg](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ftg)\ **Post date:** [April 15, 2020, 1:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-depression-menu/851735/56 "2020-04-15T13:26:03Z")
I am reminded of Steinbeck’s _Tortilla Flat_. Supposedly tortillas and beans produces the healthiest kids for very little money. And I don’t think Steinbeck knew about complementary proteins. (I am assuming the tortillas are corn since that is what God dictated they be made out of. I think it’s somewhere in Deuteronomy.) ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [April 15, 2020, 1:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-depression-menu/851735/57 "2020-04-15T13:58:54Z")
Maybe Steinbeck didn’t know about complementary proteins, but people around the world have settled on cheap foods that nonetheless keep folks alive. Some combination of grains plus legumes is a staple pretty much everywhere, whether it be succotash or matrimonia or daal bhat or hummus on pita or peanut-butter sandwiches. For varmints, any unspecified meat served at Gramma’s house was likely to be groundhog, and that was just fine. But there’s a trick to preparing tree squirrels (I think something to do with cutting out a particular gland), and my family didn’t know the trick. Granpap gave a few to Mom once to cook up for the cats, and lordy, when she was cooking them, you had to evacuate the whole block, the stench was so bad. ---
**Author:** ![Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/7cd45c/32.png) [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elendil_s_Heir)\ **Post date:** [April 15, 2020, 6:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-depression-menu/851735/58 "2020-04-15T18:02:58Z")
My father-in-law grew up poor in Kansas during the Depression and to this day doesn’t like potatoes, no matter how they’re prepared, having eaten so many of them as a boy. ---
**Author:** ![Try2B\_Comprehensive](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/try2b_comprehensive/32/65_2.png) [@Try2B\_Comprehensive](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Try2B_Comprehensive)\ **Post date:** [April 16, 2020, 12:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-depression-menu/851735/59 "2020-04-16T00:49:49Z")
> [@dorvann](#): > > If you looking for a source of meat during hard times there is always this book: > > [https://www.amazon.com/Contingency-Cannibalism-Superhardcore-Survivalisms-Little/dp/1581600259/ref=olp\_product\_details?ie=UTF8&me=&qid=1586911446&sr=8-1](https://www.amazon.com/Contingency-Cannibalism-Superhardcore-Survivalisms-Little/dp/1581600259/ref=olp_product_details?ie=UTF8&me=&qid=1586911446&sr=8-1) Well I’m trying to emulate the Depression, not Jamestown. Have you heard the stories? [Here](https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/starving-settlers-in-jamestown-colony-resorted-to-cannibalism-46000815/): > [@](#): > > It’s long been speculated that the harsh conditions faced by the colonists of Jamestown might have made them desperate enough to eat other humans—and perhaps even commit murder to do so. The colony was founded in 1607 by 104 settlers aboard three ships, the Susan Constant, Discovery and Godspeed, but only 38 survived the first nine months of life in Jamestown, with most succumbing to starvation and disease (some researchers speculate that drinking water poisoned by arsenic and human waste also played a role). Because of difficulties in growing crops—they arrived in the midst of one of the worst regional droughts in centuries and many settlers were unused to hard agricultural labor—the survivors remained dependent on supplies brought by subsequent missions, as well as trade with Native Americans. Read the whole article and tell me you don’t agree there have been times even harder than the Depression. At least the Okies started from a point of knowing how to run a farm! The point here is to practice being really, really frugal, as if it is a virtue or something. The Depression is my model for that. People from all walks of life seem to talk of this generation as some kind of American ideal, as if people today should really be more like them if they knew what was good for them- and not some kind of British (literally brain-eating) zombie at Jamestown. Plus, when I read the headlines I get the feeling the fecal matter is hitting the oscillator as I type. Cannibalism might be a good idea for some future COVID-21 menu thread though. Now, dormice? Roast Guinea Pig? I suppose at the end of the day if one is a good enough chef, they can make you want to eat anything. I like the idea of self-fattening, domestic mice better than feral flea-bitten ones, though rodents remain not my first choice. I _am_ trying to expand my mind here, so I’ll, uh, leave it on the table. Interestingly, much about the current situation is met with enthusiasm by my cat. Breed rabbits? Cat says: hell yeah! Same for mice in a glirarium. Stay home from work for 3 weeks to be available to play sting games 24/7? Purrfect. I have read plenty of conspiracy theories about the current headline, but the only one that is remotely plausible is that cats are behind it. Whatever the case, this is not just me whiling away the hours. I’m going frugal in rl. I went shopping for beans the other day and the shelves were depleted. No navy beans, no garbanzos, no black beans IIRC, no kidneys. Still, I picked up 18 pounds between rice, red beans, lentils, the very last 1-pound bag of split peas and a 10 pound bag of pinto beans. I am going to need pinto ideas (VOW are you still reading?) ---
**Author:** ![aruvqan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aruvqan/32/2891_2.png) [@aruvqan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aruvqan)\ **Post date:** [April 16, 2020, 4:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-depression-menu/851735/60 "2020-04-16T16:00:04Z")
> [@septimus](#): > > My wife’s favorite inexpensive meal is rice porridge — it’s healthy, non-fattening, delicious and easy to digest as well as frugal. > > Additions to the rice porridge are coriander (including root), onion plants, black pepper, garlic, a tiny bit of meat, and quite a bit of ginger. The ginger helps clear my sinuses. > > We grow many of the ingredients, but need to buy a little pork at the market. (Sometimes our dogs will gift us one of the neighbor’s chickens but we discourage that!) Juk/congee is a favorite invalide comfort food around here - i do it somewhat traditionally [in a pasta pat, the ones that have the collander insert] i start by simmering a whole chicken chopped up with a chunk of ginger, a large onion, at least a whole bulb of garlic, more westerny a couple carrots and a couple ribs of celery, and when it is finished, I pull everything out and add rice, another onion [chopped this time] a bulb of garlic [also chopped] garlic [chopped] and simmer until everything more or less renders into thickening for the broth. I have by this time pulled the meat off the bones and chopped it and tossed it back in, corrected for salt, added pepper and some 5 spice powder. We normally have at least half a gallon in the freezer in the small chinese take out soup containers. It was one of the ‘lifesaver’ meals during chemo =) > [@Try2B\_Comprehensive](#): > > In an effort to embrace the spirit of things, I am attempting to make a sort of game or challenge out of being as frugal as possible, as if either it were Woody Guthrie days of the 30s, or I think we are going into a new Depression now and I might as well get used to it. > > On the menu this week was my first ever split pea soup. Made it with ham hocks because there’s bone to simmer and because they are cheap- maybe $3 for 1.5 lbs. They actually have a fair amount of meat on them, and plenty of yummy fat if you are into that, but that meat is rather inconvenient before cooking. Simmer it in a crock pot for 10 hours on low using roughly [this recipe](https://www.fromvalerieskitchen.com/slow-cooker-split-pea-soup/), only liberal quantities of hock plus a little potato, however, and they pretty much fall apart and extracting the bones is a snap. > > The whole thing cost in the neighborhood of $10 for a crock full of meat and [del]bean[/del] pea stew. It would be even cheaper if I grew my own herbs, which I am actually going to do. I already bought the seeds. 🙂 > That’s my example. I bet a lot of clever dopers will have a suggestion or two for what miserly meals to add to the Depression menu. Split pea soup is amazing. [Split Pea Anderson](http://www.peasoupandersens.net) [ANderson is a restaurant in California] they have a vegan version that is amazing, and I think they have the recipe online. I know they sell the soup kit at their store. > [@Jackmannii](#): > > Find the old Euell Gibbons books (I have the series, including Stalking The Wild Asparagus and Stalking The Healthful Herbs) and go rustle up meals made from wild forage. > > I’ve been thinking of picking a mess o’ wild violet greens, which “infest” our lawn. I’ve cooked them up before, and they’re not unlike spinach. Supposedly you can also make violet syrup out of the blossoms. > > If coffee becomes scarce, we can always make our own from roasted chicory roots and suchlike. Blurggh. > > Euell once described silencing doubters by preparing a meal from stuff he found in Central Park, though I would probably be squeamish about wild food harvested in a big city. I remember those books. I have no issue forraging my woods, but I would hesitate too urban areas because of the localized pollution… And it is baby fern season =) > [@Try2B\_Comprehensive](#): > > That corned beef cabbage broth sounds like a great idea. And an excuse to pull cabbage into the discussion. I can’t say I’ve ever made a chart of products at the grocery store arranged by price per calories, or per nutrients. A good Boy Scout would do something like that. But just eyeballing the grocery store, cabbage strikes me as just about the cheapest thing available. I’ve long boiled it with kielbasa + potatoes, onion, carrot, celery, garlic by order of firmness of veggie. Now would be a good time to try something new with cabbage. > > I don’t know about eating varmints. Rabbits, squirrels, possums, eh, my attitude towards those is kind of like the old Hebrews’ attitudes toward shellfish or cloven hoofed livestock. I don’t mean I have an actual religious objection, I just believe that I don’t eat varmints. Hopefully my proactive frugality helps me avoid the future where I am so desperate I change positions on this. There’s raccoons, foxes and coyotes around here- those are also varmints. Prairie dogs too. Maybe it is time to learn to hunt deer, elk, turkey, boar, or rustle up a good fishing spot. Does anyone still hunt goose these days? Maybe a duck if I can find some… > > ETA: Could be wrong about possums being varmints. carnivores are usually worse tasting than vegetarian critters - and city that forrage garbage are worse than country critters. > [@Chronos](#): > > Maybe Steinbeck didn’t know about complementary proteins, but people around the world have settled on cheap foods that nonetheless keep folks alive. Some combination of grains plus legumes is a staple pretty much everywhere, whether it be succotash or matrimonia or daal bhat or hummus on pita or peanut-butter sandwiches. > > For varmints, any unspecified meat served at Gramma’s house was likely to be groundhog, and that was just fine. But there’s a trick to preparing tree squirrels (I think something to do with cutting out a particular gland), and my family didn’t know the trick. Granpap gave a few to Mom once to cook up for the cats, and lordy, when she was cooking them, you had to evacuate the whole block, the stench was so bad. I think it is the anal glands - though when I clean anything, I tend to make sure there are no little glands anywhere [deer have glands at their knee joints as well as anal glands] [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-depression-menu/851735.md?page=2) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-depression-menu/851735.md?page=4)