In the early 1930s,
a severe drought led to devastating dust storms
throughout the Southern Great Plains of the United States. The storms affected parts of
southwest Kansas, northeast New Mexico, southeast Colorado,
and the panhandles of Oklahoma and Texas in an
area that would come to be known as the Dust Bowl. The lack of rain made
farming difficult, and the Dust Bowl residents
became desperate for food. People had to make
do with what they had available and focused
on nutrition over taste to make some creative cuisine. Today, we're looking
at what people ate to survive in the Dust Bowl. But before we get started,
be sure to subscribe to the Weird History channel. And let us know in the comments
below what other food topics you would like to hear about. OK, let's take a look at some
Dust Bowl cuisine, where people thought the end of
the world was at hand when all traces of the day
disappeared at 4:00 PM. [MUSIC PLAYING] If you live in a certain
part of the United States, you've undoubtedly
seen tumbleweeds roll by on a windy day. You've probably never looked at
a tumbleweed and thought, hey, there goes lunch. Almost nothing grew in the
devastated fields of the Dust Bowl, except for weeds. Tumbleweeds and common edible
weeds like lamb's quarters thrived as other crops perished. Tumbleweeds could
also be consumed raw, cooked like your
favorite greens, or as an ingredient in soup. You won't find
that one on Noodles and Company's secret menu. Out of desperation, families
brined and canned the weeds to store for winter. It's not exactly Green Giant,
but at least it was edible. Canning was crucial to survival. Nearly 4,000 community
canning kitchens tried to provide food
to struggling families. Thanks to the efforts of the
Ball Canning Corporation, families learned the
special canning skills they needed to preserve food
during this difficult time. [MUSIC PLAYING] During the Great Depression,
nutritionists emphasized the importance of milk, so
it became a common ingredient in recipes from the period. One bizarre example of
this is the strange case of popcorn with milk. Unlike popcorn at movie
theaters today, popcorn was affordable for families hit
hard by the Great Depression. Instead of taking out a
second mortgage to buy a bag of the delicious popcorn, you
could often get one for only $0.5 to $0.10. Adjusted for inflation,
that's about $1 to $2 in 2021. Instead of slathering the
popular snack in butter, hungry individuals
poured milk onto the corn and consumed it as a meal. It wasn't even for breakfast. Popcorn with milk became
a dinnertime staple as the main course. One could argue the
meeting of popcorn and milk might result in a soggy mess,
but it was just another meal borne out of necessity. [MUSIC PLAYING] The taste of various foods
wasn't a huge priority for many Dust Bowl residents. Food had to be
cheap and filling, so people developed
recipes with that in mind. The results were concoctions
we likely wouldn't even consider eating today. Take the case of corned
beef lunch and salad-- this monstrosity was a volatile
mix of canned corn and peas combined with gelatin,
lemon juice, and vinegar. The dish was one of many
similar recipes from the era. In his book, A Square Meal-- A Culinary History of the Great
Depression, author Andy Coe called the dish "wrong
in every way possible." It may not be gourmet,
but at least it's not meatless meatloaf
or [BLEEP] shingle. [MUSIC PLAYING] Marmalade is a fantastic
breakfast treat. Unfortunately,
the oranges needed to make it were scarce
in the Dust Bowl. Author and English professor
Mildred Armstrong Kalish lived through the Dust Bowl. In her book, Little
Heathens, she describes how her family
preserved food on their farm. Kalish recalled that oranges
and bananas were a rare treat. They depended on
what was growing, so berries and carrots
were the order of the day. Since most folks lacked the
citrus to make marmalade, they substituted
carrots to make jelly. Kalish described it in her book. "With oranges and
money in short supply, there was no way we could
make orange marmalade. But we did grow
marvelous carrots. When combined with just
one orange and some honey, they always made a
very tasty marmalade." The recipe only uses
2 cups of raw carrots and a single large orange. And it was apparently delicious. She goes on to tell readers that
she never preserved the jelly, because they ate it too fast. And if they
discovered mold, they wouldn't throw the jelly away. Instead, the kids just
scrape the mold off the top half inch of the jar
and ate the jelly anyway. [MUSIC PLAYING] When cooking oil
was in short supply, people substituted bacon
grease for their cooking needs. In addition to her
marmalade recipe, Armstrong spoke at
length about the benefits of bacon drippings in her book. She cooked with it constantly,
referring to it as her family's "Tuscan olive oil." Sometimes her family
drizzled the delicious grease over bread, eggs, or
seasonal vegetables. It also goes great with beans. Where is that steamable
frozen broccoli dripping with bacon grease? Many people who lived
through the Depression passed on the value of saving
bacon grease for later use to their children. There are still plenty
of recipes and people online who swear by the
versatility of the grease today. [MUSIC PLAYING] While you probably wouldn't
eat the little yellow flowers today, dandelions provided
an unlikely food source during difficult times. Dandelion salad was
one such recipe, and it was easy to make. It started with picking
plenty of dandelions, then you'd cut the flowers
and roots off the plant. After discarding
the dead leaves, folks rinsed the fresh ones
with water to remove dirt. Sometimes the leaves were
soaked in clean water or blanched to get
them ready for a meal. The salad would
be tossed together and sprinkled with lemon
juice, olive oil, or salt. It ultimately created a nutty,
slightly bitter-tasting meal that probably went well
with bacon or cheese. [MUSIC PLAYING] Casseroles were a common
dish in the Dust Bowl. Casseroles were ideal as
a vehicle for nutrition in a time when food was scarce. But when we say
"casserole," we're not talking about baked ziti. Instead, casseroles were a
jumble of nutritious and cheap ingredients. Many of them included a sauce
made of flour, buttermilk, and salt. This white sauce
found its way into many recipes from the era,
especially casseroles. One of the worst
offenders was probably spaghetti with white
sauce casserole. This nutritional
nightmare involved mushy and overcooked spaghetti
noodles, boiled carrots, and the dreaded white sauce. Cooks baked the
mixture in a tray until it was bland
and ready to eat. The dish wasn't supposed
to have much flavor or get your family
excited about dinner. But does anyone get
excited about casseroles? Take a minute to discuss
that among yourselves. [MUSIC PLAYING] Everyone loves a slice
of cake once in a while. But what do you do
if you don't have the ingredients to make one? You improvise. People didn't let the lack
of eggs, milk, and butter stop them from baking cakes. Instead, they used a blend
of spices, flour, and sugar to make a unique dessert. Water served as a
milk substitute, while baking powder
and vegetable oil replaced eggs and
butter, respectively. Unlike other Dust Bowl
recipes, this Depression cake was quite good. Despite being granted
a patent in 1935, instant cake mixes
didn't really take off until after the
Second World War. So these cakes were
a good alternative during a rough time. [MUSIC PLAYING] Protein is an integral
part of everyone's diet. Jackrabbits filled
this role admirably for Dust Bowl residents. A meal of jackrabbit,
biscuits, and beans was almost a staple meal. In an area where virtually
nothing was bountiful, jackrabbits were the exception. The rabbits thrived in the
warm, dry weather and hunting the rabbits served
a dual purpose. The first was to provide an
essential source of food. The second was to
prevent the rabbits from eating any of
the few crops that grew in the harsh environment. Farmers even had a clever
name for the critters-- "Hoover hogs," after
the president they blamed for causing the Great
Depression in the first place. [MUSIC PLAYING] Pickling has been a
means of preserving food for thousands of years. So it would make sense
to prepare for hard times by preserving as much
food as possible. And that's what people living
through the Dust Bowl did. People pickled berries and
other fruits during the summer. The storage-friendly fruits
could be bartered or canned for special occasions. Pickling fruits is a pretty
straightforward dinnertime activity, just simmer
whole or sliced fruits in a syrup made with
vinegar or lemon juice. Afterward, you've got
a healthy portable food that'll last for a while. [MUSIC PLAYING] Breakfast during the
Depression was a unique affair. Along with potato pancakes
and milk Milkorno, cornmeal mush was one
of the several breakfast foods popular among
Dust Bowl residents. While it's not as strange
as some other options, it's not something most of
us think is a breakfast food. Similar to polenta,
cornmeal mush can be made by boiling
any grind of cornmeal in water until it thickens. It has a mildly sweet
flavor and could be eaten with milk or
fried for other recipes. The result was a surprisingly
tasty and robust dish that helped keep people
fed in times of great need. [MUSIC PLAYING] In other parts of the country,
soup kitchens and bread lines helped feed the country. But soup especially
became an essential part of the Great Depression diet. They were especially
important in the Dust Bowl. Soups made from dried beans or
peas became a household staple. A typical recipe might call
for 1/2 a cup of pinto beans, 1/2 a cup of black-eyed
peas, and whatever veggies were available. People used flour and
water to thicken the soup and often kept a pot of soup on
their stoves around the clock. Eating soup was another way
of getting plenty of nutrition quickly and helped the
people of the Dust Bowl survive their
devastating predicament. Would you ever try any
of these Dust Bowl foods? Let us know in the
comments below. And while you're at it, check
out some of these other videos from our Weird History. [MUSIC PLAYING]
