I don't have a photo, but I think I was in my teens before I knew that hamburger didn't come with crumbles of bread mixed into it. Mom would always add bread crumbs to hamburger, meat loaf, etc. in order to get it to go further.
And lots of bread crumbs added to canned salmon, to make fried salmon patties. I didn't like the little backbone circle things in them when I was a kid, only because I knew what they were, but they were perfectly edible.
No pictures, but I seem to recall Pineapple Upside down Beans.... may substitute pineapple with pork.
Maybe it was a Spam casserole. Ingredients: 1 12-ounce can SPAM luncheon meat 1 28-ounce can baked beans (with molasses) 1 20-ounce can pineapple rings 2 tablespoons brown sugar Oven temp: 350 degrees
Boy, Nancy, those fried mashed potatoes sure look good! A dressed up version of just mashed potatoes fried in butter.
I found this interesting link about popular foods down through the years. Take a look! http://www.foodtimeline.org/fooddecades.html#1930s
Interesting link, Bea. I didn't read all of it, but one thing caught my eye. Penny restaurants "Penny Restaurants" were subsidized by social service organizations. The point was to provide good, hot meals to unemployed folks too proud to accept charity. I doubt they were fooled by the penny. I'll look at some of the food later. Thanks.
An interesting thing that I have noticed in several of these depression pictures about the soup lines, and also here in the 1 penny cafe one. All of the people are dressed in suits and ties, nice dresses and heels for the ladies. This just does not go with the usual pictures we see of the depression era........ barefoot kids, and ragged clothes.....which is more what you would expect find in a soup line then people who look like businessmen and their wives, or maybe people who just got out of church.
@Yvonne Smith, it was the only picture I could find of a penny restaurant on the sign out front. Those are probably rich donors standing outside. Btw, I found a typical menu.
Bernarr McFadden was ahead of his time, he was very health conscious. He was a vegetarian, didn't eat processed food, white flour, etc... One of his big penny menu items was pea soup with a slice of whole grain bread. Here is a picture of him in his younger days.
The posh crowd in front of the 1 cent Restaurant may have been the sponsors and people backing it, from the Bernarr Macfadden Foundation. (see window)
I'm not sure how common it is in other areas of the country but one of our favorite day before payday breakfasts that came out of the great depression was plain boiled rice with a little cinnamon or nutmeg, brown sugar, and butter or milk. I still get a craving for it when the weather turns cold.