20 Delicious Foods For The Poor In 1927 

Most of the stuff on this list is stuff i grew up on in the 80's and still eat today. A glass of butter milk and piece of savory cornbread make a great snack. We cook a big ole pot of beans seasoned with bacon fat at least twice a month. We use lard for baking and frying almost daily. Hell just about every one i know eats the stuff on this list today. It's kinda crazy that poor peoples diets haven't changed much in 97 years.

It amazes me that families today have trouble living on a budget. When I was a young mother I actually worked out a MONTHLY menu to use every morsel available. I also took a calculator to the grocery store and compared prices diligently. More families should use these practices.

The late, lovely Clara remains a treasure on RU-vid and beyond.

My dear grandmother used to take the remaining pie dough from her magnificent pies & she’d roll the scraps out & sprinkle cinnamon & sugar over the amazing dough, roll it up & slice into bite-sized pieces. Baked them & there were never enough. We usually only got these on holidays & so everyone had a cinnamon treat before the meal was served. I still do this today in her memory.

I grew up eating all of these, as my parents were products of the Depression. And I still eat all of them. My family especially enjoys our baked goodies❤

Spam is very popular in Hawaii. It is even sold at McDonalds there.

We got 5 cents allowance a week. My oldest brother and i split the popsickle in half. Then hed get baseball cards wed divide and trade them. Then the big piece bubblegum wed split. All to make it go fartherand it did

when money was tight, mom would take canned bake beans, a package of hot dogs, sliced, and on onion and bake the crap out of it. we did not know they were broke, and we loved it.

Twinkies, 2 for 5 cents wasn't extremely cheap in the 30's. I grew up in the 60's and always found it hard to believe when my mom told me that they used to cost a nickel - in the 60's they were 12 cents. Now they're 10x or more as expensive and the package is smaller. Some say they're not as good and maybe they aren't but they are still a favorite of mine.

Yes, those bean sandwiches were so good. I still eat them with slices of onion. Yuuumy!!! God bless you from grandma Katie in Oregon

Beans, greens and cornbread made for a hearty dinner when money was low... We grew our greens and beans in the garden...

OMG thank you for the memories my grandmother's both cook all that stuff when they watch us grandkids. 😢

Some of yall are going to starve when the sh!t hits the fan. Many of our recipes were passed down from our enslaved ancestors. Im sure other peoole at it too. We ate everything on the pig or starved. I dont eat it anymore but I still know how to make it. Scrambled eggs and pig brains, head cheese, boiled pig tails, ears, feet and snoots, ox tails, chitlins, hog maws, liver and onions, chicken gizzards. We rarely ate meat in the 70s. It was used for seasoning. Fried cabbage and ham hock, pinto beans and ham hock, greens and ham hock, fried corn wth bacon grease. Every meal had cornbread. Whatever cornbread was left over in the skillet, it went into the freezee for cornbread dressing for thanksgiving and Christmas. Bread and biscuits were homemade. Chicken and dumplings were a treat. We had a huge garden. We canned the fruit and veg so we coukd eat in the winter. You ate the bones and skin when salmon patties her made. Desserts were homemade. Water pie was baked once a month. Chess pie is similar to buttermilk pie.

When i was 12 my cousin sent me with a CANTHOOK to a hermits cabin to have him make a new handle for it. There was a spring coming out of the side of the mtn the water pipe emptyed into a woodn box with a divider. On one side were 2 bottles of coke and the other side a gal jug of butter milk all 3 ICE CCCCCOOOLLLDDD

Sounds like they're all things I eat now and grew up on. Beans and cornbread !!

I’m a fish and chips girl 🐟🐟🍟🍟

The Depression happened from 1929 to 1939. My father was born in 1927 his brother 1921. Their father who was forced to drop out of the fifth grade to work as a child, who was born in 1899, was a simple carpet salesman during the Depression and they didn’t starve. Mom was born in 1931 and her family didn’t starve and were considered Middle Class. Everyone suffered during the Depression. “Delicious foods for the Poor” sounds as usual insulting added to the demeaning names the Poor are called! Middle Class, or upper Middle Class as they were called also suffered from the Depression. I don’t think the Rich had a great time of the Depression either. I don’t think the Poor and those others who suffered walked around saying boy what little we could buy to was especially delicious. They were just glad they weren’t starving to death! I’ve heard it said today that something like Mac and cheese and eating Ramen is considered “Poor food”. Pretty darn demeaning. Today with Middle Class constantly complaining about food prices, who’ve never gone a day hungry no one says the food they eat is “delicious”. They should be grateful they’re eating.

All these food looked good!😊

Pepperidge Farms bread is still expensive. I noticed breads have dropped the high fructose corn syrup as an ingredient in the last 5 years.

My Father would make "Clabbered Milk" by putting a big bowl of Buttermilk covered w/a towel on top of the fridge for 2-3 days; then he would salt and pepper it and grab a spoon and.....

And all of this done on wood-fired stoves!

Armadillos were referred to as “Hoover Hogs”, NOT rabbits!

Great info🤔👍

I like how in 2024 we're all here wondering how to prepare I know I'm not the only one

Chicken feet are considered a delicacy in some places

19:15 I grew up about five blocks from Neptune Beach. I never knew that popsicles got their start in Alameda.

Tbh all this sounds delish and most of it i still eat

The Great Depression began in 1929. In fact, 1927 was in the height of the quite prosperous, roaring 20s.

And I just love the advertisement before all of this telling you to drink “warm ice water”

My husband was an attaché in Bangkok, Thailand. We were invited to the King’s birthday party where each couple attending was presented with a can of “Royal Spam.” We still have it. What a glorious memento! Needless to say, that can will never be opened… just a reminder of our two years in Thailand. That’s ok with me…Have you tasted that stuff? Blessings 27:28

I’ve had all these at my Mamaw’s, and I still make some of these.

as my birth there are no meal from family that I rember from age 2 to age ten. I only think of how poor we were the struggles like the time we are food shopping and mother's pocket book was stolen by they cut the straps she did not know until try to pay and she only had the straps. Us little kids left hungry. The paycheck was gone. then we were 4 children.

Am I the only one going through this list thinking this is just how Latinos eat 😂 like beans on bread? Torta. Cracklings? Chícharons.

DEPRESSION ERA FOODS : @00:30 : BUTTERMILK @01:53 : BEANS @02:54 : BREAD ; JOHNNY CAKE ; CORN BREAD @05:27 : MEAT : MEATLOAF ; SQUIRREL ; RABBIT; VENISON LOAF @08:05 : CHICKEN : CHICKEN FEET @09:08 : DANDELION SALAD @10:15 : HEARTY SOUPS @11:55 : POTATO CANDY @13:10 : PIES : CHESS PIE @14:28 : DEPRESSION CAKES : SURPRISE CAKE : WACKY CAKE @15:48 : HOSTESS TWINKIES @17:25 : FIVE CENT TWIN POPSICLE @19:25 : SPAM @21:13 : PEANUT BUTTER @22:05 : PEPPERIDGE FARM SOFT WHITE BREAD @23:20 : TOLL HOUSE CHOCOLATE CHIP COOKIES @25:15 : BIRDS EYE FROZEN FOOD @27:24 : CRACKLINGS @28:05 : COFFEE @28:50 : KRAFT MACARONI AND CHEESE

BUTTERMILK: It ain't just for poor folk no more💲💲

I may be wrong, but the Depression didn't start until 1929.

When I was a kid our family ate many of these things.We ate a lot of wild game that included squirrel, rabbit, raccoon, pheasant, grouse and woodcock. I grew up in the 50's-60-s on a farm. We raised our own beef, pork and chicken. We had our own eggs,milk and cream. We had 3 milk cows that me and my sister milked 2 times a day. My mother made butter and cottage cheese. My mother saved newspapers to wash windows, we had a wringer washer and hung out the wash. in the winter we hung the clothes in the cellar. We had a wood-burning furnace that keep the cellar warm and dry. Our house didn't have central heating. The second floor got heat that rose up the stairs. It got cold up there. My sister and brother and me slept up there. We worked hard and it was a good life. Now days people can't do anything unless a DIY on their computer tells them how.

The Great Depression didn’t start until 1929, when the stock market crashed.

Pepperidge Farms is expensive, you said so in the story. How could poor people afford it.

You do realize that the Great Depression didn't start until after October, 1929, not 1927, right?

It's good that poor people figured out ways of disguising refuse that would have otherwise fed animals and fed their families instead.

Beans and sweet potatoes are still cheap and nutritious, as well as delicious.

Thank you. I like history.

I'm 62, enjoyed the nostalgic photos. Old timers lamented often about being a "Meat & Potato"men. Not any house hold visited complained, not once. Babies slept in chester dresser drawers.😮

Great Depression (1929 - 1939)

I grew up on lots of these and still eat many of them. I’m 73. This was an age in which underweight was a national problem, in children, especially. During grammar school, teachers in NY had to periodically weigh, measure their students and report the results to NYC Dept. of Health. Underweight children were entitled to free daily bottle milk and a thick round cracker. A problem was children who weren’t necessarily below weight on the chart, but too poor to afford lunch. They came to school hungry, without food. What wasn’t realized was that some children met standards, but were actually growth stunted. My mom remembers sharing her milk and cracker with a friend whose family was poorer than hers. Many children did likewise, especially if one of a number of siblings who didn’t qualify.

Well it was hard times for a lot of people in my community well into the 1950's as the coal mines that fueled our economy were owned by the railroads who were switching to diesel power after WWII and, one by one, four of the five mines that were in and around our town closed. So we ate Depression food well into the 1950's and beyond. My grandmother who was known for her frugalness had her favorite penny meals. One was Social Security soup, made when there was too much month at the end of the money. She would get free chicken necks and backs from the butcher and boil them in a broth with carrots, onions, and celery, then add a box of barley to the mix and salt and lots of pepper. We ate dandelions at supper every spring and early summer.. She would cook up a piece of fatback or bacon in a cast iron skillet and add lower the heat adding some cider vinegar to the fat and deglazing the pan, Then she would pout the hot vinegar over the well cleaned dandelions and garnish with bacon bits, chopped onion or scallions, and sliced hard boiled eggs that had been boiled the night before and placed in the fridge to set. I eat this every chance I get and even taught it to my wife and children. I helped my then ten year old daughter make it and take it to school for "Show and Tell". She made enough for the whole class to try and they loved it. Some of the kids went home and told their families who also remembered when they had it as a kid growing up and more people started eating them again. You mentioned potato candy, but potatoes were also a basic staple in the 30's and well afterwards in my hometown. Mothers would bake them in the morning for children and put the hot potatoes in their coat pockets with a small bottle of salt and pepper. The kids could warn their hands on the way to school by holding the potatoes and the spuds were lunch as well. Potatoes were used in many ways, boiled, baked, fried, made into flour for baking. Ever have a Tastee Cream donut? Potato flour is a key ingredient. My grandmother came up with a delicious potato salad that did not require mayonnaise. She combined thin sliced boiled potatoes with their skins on and left in the fridge before cutting to cool and harden, With chopped celery, thin sliced red radishes, sliced scallions, diced cooked bacon for garnish in a simple oil, vinegar , garlic and salt and pepper dressing and a final garnish of chopped parsley and chopped celery leaves. Served cold. Potatoes could be used in so many ways- hash browns and American fries wih onions, Potato salads, mashed potatoes, diced with hot dogs , carrots, and celery, potato soup with ham hocks. baked potatoes garnished or straight out of the campfire with salt and pepper ,French fries, potato bread, and another one of my grandmother's favorites gnocchi which was a Sunday pleasure. In addition to wild greens there was a lot of wild food in our forests, mushrooms such as morels, frosties, and hens of the wood were plentiful if you knew where to look. Berries such as wild blackberries and dew berries were also plentiful, as were wild onions. People made teas out of sassafras and other roots and plants,, wine out of dandelion flowers, and coffee out of dandelion roots and chicory, Cattail corms could be used as flour and their roots are edible when cooked.

hoover hogs were armidillos

I lived in the Deep South...My step dad loved SOS s hit on the shingles. My grandma would especially for him. My mom learned the recipe ...I hated it. Lard....I hate it! I can smell it by just watching this. It shows how good your videos are 😜 I love Johnny cakes! my Great Auntie would make it fresh every morning...so much for weight watchers😜 My step dad would ask for the gibblets when he would buy chicken ...butchers would usually throw it away. My step grandma would always make most of these because my step dad and aunties and uncles missed it. Thanks ... keep them coming!

During the Great Depression my parents still had enough to eat every day although they were poor.

Try Peanut Butter and Boloney or Onion(or both!) w/mayo Sandwiches.....

Now bones are a damn fad ! And ox tails are $18/pound. Dandelions are banned by HOAs. As a child we always had hearty soup at least once a week. "Surprise soup" or as my darling kid brother called it "Garbage soup" yet in later life he would beg our Mom to make it ! Today, it costs me more to make soup than a can due to the very high cost of electricity where I live and baking bread is costly too.

Love Twinkies....🎩🤗❤️❤️

All delicious dishes.

Wauh yummy 😋

I still eat dandelions. They are great for depression. Especially the roots.

I’m craving a damn popsicle now

I still like creamed tuna on toast!

Sorry but buttermilk is vile! It tastes just like milk that has gone bad. Or like acid reflux. I could never be poor enough to actually get some. No surprise dairies gave it away! Edit: Two responses pro-buttermilk. It obviously has its fans. Maybe you have to have been raised with it. I tried it as an adult and its acidity just tasted of really bad spoiled milk to me. I don't like plain yoghurt either, so there seems to be a thread there. But somehow I find sour cream delicious.

Um the dust bowl/depression started off in 29....the dust bowl part started in 27/28 but the depression kicked off in 29... and I grew up on alot of this stuff and I grew up with great depression poverty..in the 1980s/1990s...i still eat this stuff.. and alot of these dishes are older than the depression..

O.M.W. just realised I live in 1927 and am poor.

The depression started in 1929. The twin pop kid was drinking a soda one HOT day in California and left it outside with its stirring stick and it froze solid over night? Huh?

the was a soup called "skully pot" short for scullery ( kitchen) pot whatever leftover scavenged (veggies, crusts of bread or scraps of meat) to be found, would be thrown in the bubbling pot at the back of the stove a soup that was allways changing never the same

Possible 😁..one can eat very well...even when you broke ❤ from the movie 🎥 To Sir with Love 💞 but true. Money management and meal prepping and planning ❤

I love a lot of these products but not the chicken feet.

Can you imagine? They ate bread and meat, too! Maybe should've cut this down to 10.

The Great Depression began in 1929 not 1927.

True, b. The Depression started in 1930.

Can we just enjoy the video and take note of the foods. If you are hungry, you dont care if the date in a video is 1927 or 1929.

I heard dandelion was brought from Europe as a food.

Specially Pressed American Meats

I wasn't aware of the soup bone and liver truth, my grandparents never explained that part, I would have been more appreciative not so picky.

❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤

The great depression didn't start til late 1929, this is just average food for the reasonably wealthy middle classes

🤔UMMM ... WHO DID THE "RESEARCH" FOR THIS PARODY?

Didn't the Great Depression start after the Stock Market crash in October of 1929?? These foods are from the lower classes who were not benefiting from the Roaring Twenties, as were the upper & higher middle classes!! But the narrator is correct that rural families were crashing after WWI reconstruction in Europe crowded US farm products away from their markets...

There was also a "Vinegar candy 🍬

Nice show. Interesting list however your editor really should get their act together historically speaking. First 1927 was not a part of the Great Depression years which began in 1929. Hoover was not the President in 1927 Coolidge was, also so many of the pictures used were from the 40's & later including modern photos. I wish that the people who put up these kinds of episodes would edit them better and would be mindful of historical accuracy.

🤔 And this was supposed to be the good - old days ?. No thanks you can keep them !!..

Can afford those foods today 😂.

What about Velvetta

Learn history first , depression after 1929

THE GOUT MAKER BEANS YES I AUTOMATICALLY GET GOUT ANYTIME I EAT BEANS DAVID ADAM GRENIS

Spoiler. The Great depression began in 1929. 1927 was the roaring twenties. Read a book.

the great depression was in 1928 in the US. Better lay off the AI and INVEST in people who can DO YOUR RESEARCH!!

Toll house cookies actually started in Maryland in the 1800’s. Learn your history

You don’t seem to k ow crap about what you are talking about

What does "according to Mt Sinai" even mean or have anything to do with food from the depression?

I really thought you'd show some of the recipes of the things you're showing no that's not so it's a one older woman I have watched her before and she showed how to put fix the the poor man's male and it was basically onions potato and hot dogs chopped up and she has some boys over to her house and I don't know she's passed away but I recognized her in the picture there the one in color on channel plaid shirt she wore glasses sometimes anyway I really thought you were going to put some recipes out there even if it was on the list or what not but I didn't watch it till the end it's over for me

Worst ai every watched

Individ...used this stuffed lard it's..pigs fat and it's... factual m...parental, used it's ..too cooked 🍗🍚🍗 poultry, beefs also fished, too don't used lard fats, 🥓🥖🥓 bacons it's haves its oil,

YOU HIT ON MY OTHER THING DANDELIONS ALMOST KILLED ME I'M EXTREMELY ALLERGIC TO EATING DANDELIONS DAVID ADAM GRENIS MAPLETON AVENUE BOULDER COLORADO USA

Couldn’t make it past one min due to the cheesy, annoying old film effect.

I like how this ai is sooo racist and wrong about what it! Talking about