Pan fried bologna - Depression era food

[Chud]

Growing up in the 70's my Grandma used to always cook up slices of bologna for lunch and I thought it was a treat. I never really thought about it until I saw Cinderella Man in the mid 2000's, but once I saw that scene where bologna was the only meat they could get, and they cooked it up in a skillet, it made perfect sense.

It's the same reason why Grandpa always made sure the he ate the heels from the loaves of bread so that his kids and grandkids could still have the best part of the bread.

Anyone else have some post-depression era odd food eccentricities they remember from their parents or grandparents?

[furtherpale]

My grand parents used to tell of having "bread and dripping" as a treat during the depression... Not realising it was because no one could afford meat...

[Mark Davis]

We ate fried bologna sandwiches all the time when I lived in Oklahoma.

You had to pop the bubble in the middle as they cooked and cut the edges.

My parents said they ate onion sandwiches during the deoression.

[Larry F]

We had bread cut up into small pieces and put into a bowl of milk. I'm sure this served a dual purpose, of getting by on the last of a paycheck, while also have the adventure of eating what our parents ate as children during the Depression. We also had treats of popcorn and milk.

[w3stie]

Originally Posted by furtherpale

My grand parents used to tell of having "bread and dripping" as a treat during the depression... Not realising it was because no one could afford meat...

... or butter.

[sixstringbastard]

In Pittsburgh it's called fried jumbo

[soulman969]

My grandfather was Dutch and grew his own horseradish and used it to make horseradish and onion sandwiches. Makes my eyes water just thinking about it.

[1293]

Originally Posted by Chud

It's the same reason why Grandpa always made sure the he ate the heels from the loaves of bread so that his kids and grandkids could still have the best part of the bread.

Uh, the heals are the best part of the loaf.

[ZZRyder]

My grandparents were also bread and dripping people and whenever I asked my Grandmother what's for dinner her answer was 'Bread and duck under the table".

[Chud]

Originally Posted by 1293

Uh, the heals are the best part of the loaf.

I enjoy them now, but as a kid you couldn't pay me to eat the heels.

[trev333]

I was standing out on my front veranda with my old Dad once and I spotted a pair of green/red King Parrots feeding in the long grass nearby...

hey!.. Dad check out those nice Kingies.....

"Oh, good eatin' those buggas" was his casual reply...

WTF!! you guys ate Parrots as kids?...

"oh yeh... Mum used to send us out as kids and we'd catch 30-40 little parrots in nets.. hard work cleaning those ones for the pot.. what ever we could get..that's why the Kingies were better.. they were bigger and you didn't have to catch as many....or a few Tealies (ducks)."..... they carried small bore shot guns or 22 short rifles...

"Beautiful eating".....he said with a dreamy glazed over look in his eyes and a smile....

it was a surprise as he'd never told us those "small bird eating" stories about his farm days when we were kids,...

nice to know they're good tucker though...;)

[Guitardvark]

yay we used to eat moms special burnt weeenie sandwiches...it was depressing food indeed. All I remember dad and grandpa talking about was after WW2 and they never wanted to see a dead chicken on a plate ever again. My dad is now 75 and still wont eat chicken. Ive been fortunate and not had any traumatic events in my lifetime. None I didn't sleep thru anyway

[Nick JD]

Fried Luncheon is a delicacy where I grew up.

[hekawi]

Originally Posted by Larry F

We had bread cut up into small pieces and put into a bowl of milk.

we had something similar all the time. instead of bread, it was dry cornbread crumbled into the milk. i still have a hankering for it now and then.

[trev333]

same here .. fried luncheon or fried kabana,etc... was a favourite around here too..

never thought of it as.. "poor food"...you'd often eat it for a taste...even when you could afford better... ;)

[ZZRyder]

Seeing various things "crumbled into milk" reminds me of the only dessert we had as a kid a bowl of rice with milk and raw sugar sprinkled on top.

[DonMI6]

Bread & dripping for my folks as well. Both were farming families & they had produce of their own, but I know wild rabbit was the main meat. Catchin' em was the kids job.

[Tonetele]

I was born in 1956- never had a steak till Iwas 17. Still ate a healthy, mostly vegetarian diet, and was fit as fiddle through sports and after ( and before) school jobs.Most Aussies at the time were not wealthy enough to eat meat more than 2-3 times a week.

[TeleKato]

Yup, bread-and-gravy was what my grandma called it, and we had it anytime we had a meal with a roast (i.e., not your 'steak-cut' of meat). I'll still have it today when SWMBO isn't looking (white bread with gravy is not a healthy food according to SWMBO). We also had fried bologna ... grandma would score the edges so it would lay flat in the pan.

It occurs to me that a lot of great foods derive from cultures or times when meat was scarce. Asian dumplings (or the East European version that used cabbage leaves as the covering) ... PoBoy sandwiches (so much bread, so little meat) ... hell, even sushi rolls (there's hardly enough meat in two rolls to give it taste, but eat two rolls and you're filled, at least I am).

[Boubou]

Yeah I remember the bubbled in the middle, cut around the edge , fried bologna, yummy

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