Great Depression Cooking - Poorman's Feast

welcome to my kitchen I'm Claire I'm 93 years old and today we are making Mir from the depression [Music] today we're making a 3-course depression now this is a very rare for the depression left once in a while we get a break Sunday a little special cuz we'll have nice to eat with our children and we have to have the lentils because they're not expensive and they're nourishing and they're good for you well hold on lentils in here cuz we're gonna make a lot of carrot left over for another day put them all inside and we'll put water in here I'm gonna make what rice after the lentils are cooking sometimes it was pasta sometime with rice say I liked it better with her rice but taking a while to cook so we'll just forget about it for a while we had a stove that we would all sit around her to keep warm the front of us would get water the back would freeze then we turn around we turn our chairs around there those were the good old days before we had a radio we would well we'd go up in my aunt's house and they used to get these romances books that's some days to pass around and they'd buy 2/3 of them and then we'd all sit around listen to the story that was our entertainment my aunt usually did the reading she was a good reader and just about it was very cold and very to go to her house we had to dress up real warm and we gets there she'd have something to drink something warm and we'd be real happy that would that made the day the water exactly is your dry it up they need a little more cooking so we're gonna put a little more hot water it now when this boils in the rice but a cup of rice lentils are ready they're cooked so now we put it in the rice and make that cook until the rice is cooked and they're done nothing in here bugs or anything there's nothing in there there's a bugs or anything because we got to see if the rice is okay it's okay Marie water will evaporate we'll put the rice also wait till it boils and I'll throw in the rice gonna have enough rice for me now it's boiling so let's go in the race gonna be a big pot of rice a cup of forever rice with the cover on and let that boil until it cooks and we'll have to wait a while oh what a make the steaks will have steaks with the rice not together but eat them together this is a recipe my mother used to make special occasions goes very good with the lentil soup and then you have a piece of meat and gelatin you're all set for a nice meal take some olive oil put it in the dish and softening it so I could get the juice out of it some lemon put it in with the olive oil we've both halves of the lemon and the olive oil mix it up with the olive oil looks like it's almost done so I shut off the gas and let it simmer down by itself it's a cover on him wait it'll be fine I put some black of breath now take the meat snatcher eat it with some lemon juice and oil okay this is ready to fry put olive oil in the frying pan turn on the heat now I'm going to fry the meat now we frighten me to Suzette's try to put it in here in this sauce and lemon juice and that that'll be done if we ever get there because very expensive and Ritter for us so it was a big treat one we had a meat was very soon not thick at all you didn't know what six months when we were sick we'd seen like meat with the lemon juice so we sometimes we faked being sick so we'd get some lemon juice that happened many times my mother call it ashes ah she's okay nothing's wrong with her it's helpful so we'd have to get out of bed live a normal life that's how bad the Depression was isn't it out of the pan putting it in the lemon juice mixture on the kids long at all you miss definitely delicious me then marinate for a while and that's ready to eat the last thing when you would make to sell it and then your meal is ready to eat I like to just use my hand but sometimes I have to use a knife you use a lot of olive oil but it's good for you we add salt and pepper to the cellar lemon juice we use the lemon from before too for the salad I like to add a little bit of oregano in my salad you don't have to if you don't like oregano just salt pepper and oil it's enough then you mix it with your hands that's the best way now the cellar is ready the meat is ready and our rice and lentil is ready so it's time to eat man's meal is complete without bread so here goes the bread that but we made a poor man's piece lentils and rice meat with lemon juice and tagging bread and you're all set thank you for listening [Music] [Music] you

Channel: Great Depression Cooking

Views: 4,612,288

Keywords: Great, Depression, Cooking, cute, stuff, Clara, Cannucciari, inexpensive, meals, Chris, Old, Lady, Recipe, Food, delicious, dish, 93, nonagenarian, viral, video

Id: UXpouL9Q1iY

Length: 7min 46sec (466 seconds)

Published: Mon Feb 23 2009

Reddit Comments

[u/[deleted]]

This is actually really interesting. The best part of it is her throwing in little things about her life during that time, like the little stove they all sat around.

It's very heartwarming.

[u/skatanic]

Love watching this sweet lady cook! Only thing I thought was strange was that she added the cooked meat back to the olive oil and lemon juice mixture that the raw meat was sitting in.

[u/nymbot]

"Those were the good ol' days"

[u/nocturnalvisitor]

I understand that lemon juice may have been possibly available in the States as you guys can grow citrus trees in your southern states. But I assume that olive oil would have have been too expensive for those suffering in the Great Depression. I can't imagine olive oil groves would have existed in the USA in the twenties. I'd love to know what cooking oil would they have used back then. Would it have been peanut or corn or sunflower or maybe even rapeseed (I think you call it "canola" over there)?

[u/[deleted]]

I watched every one of these videos a few months ago then found out she died. I cried and wiped the tears with all the money her recipes saved me.

[u/avaslash]

Now known as "college senior" cooking

[u/sebas8181]

Respect to the lady, but honestly that would be an richman feast for millions in my country. Interesting how much can make you a rich man in some places and a poorman in others.

[u/ParmesanQueen]

She's so cute and sweet!

[u/are_videos]

i cant even cook chicken nuggets properly without burning the shit off of them