Meatballs & Dumplings 1930 Depression Era Recipe


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Meatballs & Dumplings 1930 Depression Era Recipe I know… this is called Meatballs & Dumplings, but it’s more like a cross between a Hamburg Steak Recipe, …

46 replies
  1. Breanda Wittman
    Breanda Wittman says:

    I had to subscribe love show and the era of cooking. My Dad would talk about growing up during the depression with 16 kids.
    Thank you so much ๐Ÿ–๏ธ๐Ÿ‘Šโœ๏ธ๐Ÿ’ž

    Reply
  2. James Davison
    James Davison says:

    you know i like flavor ,zest , pop , wow , but there are the nights I can come home fry a burger plain meat salt , pepper , put on bun slight squeeze of mustard simple mac cheese out of blue box done , and be happy, not often , sometimes plain simple works

    Reply
  3. Michael Riley
    Michael Riley says:

    Years ago when I was in the Army Reserves, we had a Friday night meal of pasta and sauce, except that to keep the pasta warm, the cooks left it in the water. So we had starch soup with sauce. When the CO stood up to start the night's briefing, the first thing he said was, "We will never have that again." Good times.

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  4. Op2misstyk
    Op2misstyk says:

    My family is from Northern India and we do use dumplings in certain dishes. Love them definitely a childhood favorite. My mom always jokingly said there were about 10 recipes and they circulated the globe ๐Ÿ˜ŠStay safe and healthy everyone.

    Reply
  5. Bean Muncher22
    Bean Muncher22 says:

    I tried this recipe and it worked super well but advice for anyone who is going to try it: the pattys do tend to fall apart when you try to flip them so be careful the first time you flip them but other than that have fun itโ€™s an easy yet delicious recipe!

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  6. littleblackpistol
    littleblackpistol says:

    Generational tastes aside, it's very possible spaghetti noodles were manufactured differently in those days and did actually require a long boil time. We do live in an age of perfected convenience foods (as in perfected for convenience, not quality) and much is very, very different from its ancestral form. Even fruits and vegetables are constantly being perfected for easier peeling or cooking. would not suprise me if spaghetti noodles were harder, thicker, and made to a slightly different recipe back then and the one we get now were designed for a short cook time because of modern obsession with time-saving and unwillingness to spend time cooking real food.

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  7. silverisss
    silverisss says:

    Wouldnt it be funny if we laugh at spaghetti being boiled for 40mins but noone actually trying it, and it would turn out to be the best spaghetti anyone ever did since 30's

    Reply
  8. Joseph Teller
    Joseph Teller says:

    Well… certainly not kosher (one does not use milk or cream or butter with beef)….

    Strange that the beef is not cut more. The depression era cooking my grandmother did always included putting things like eggs, chopped onion, chopped peppers, chopped zucchini into the beef to make it go further.

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  9. G Yost
    G Yost says:

    This looks very appetizing to me. I lived with my grandparents as a child. My grandparents were married in 1927. I thought everybody's "mom" cooked for them like my grandmother did for me. My kids certainly enjoy the recipes she taught me (and my wife likes that I love to cook).

    Reply
  10. Charles Krause
    Charles Krause says:

    I think these videos, and these times, are really teaching us all something we forgot: food doesn't need to be trendy, expensive, complicated, flashy, off the shelf convenient, or made with ingredients that are 30 seconds old, or grown in an artisanal meadow ( :p ), in order to be filling, flavorful, nutritious and happy-making. Simple, well-executed, flavorful, filling, and nutritious is all you need. I think that lesson is being learned more broadly than in food. Covid-19 is a tragedy, and I do not want to downplay that – but the silver lining to this horrible cloud is that we're learning that not only can we "make do" with less, and a simpler life, we can be happy doing so. It will be interesting to see how much of that sticks when the crisis is over.

    Reply
  11. Emily Bilbow
    Emily Bilbow says:

    My grandmother used to make something that was a cross between a hamburger and a meatloaf… she made them quite often… she added bread crumbs and veggies to extend the meat… she had 5 kids… Iโ€™m glad you showed that itโ€™s fine to use products after their best by date… just smell them and use common sense…

    Reply
  12. shasbucks
    shasbucks says:

    Thanks Glen, during the extra time at home our cooking repertoire and language is evolving thanks to you.
    It's hard to put into words just how much these recipes are helping us out. You're the best.

    Reply
  13. Linoleum Fleur
    Linoleum Fleur says:

    we can get ground beef pretty cheaply at a local gricery store… at least until we aren't allowed to cross county lines.

    but I also stocked up on some cheap fully cooked chicken breasts… so I'm wondering how I can adjust the recipe that way… chicken and dumplings sounds like great comfort food!

    edit:
    OMG! DUMPLING CURRY! Definitely making this this week!

    Reply
  14. Uwe Schroeder
    Uwe Schroeder says:

    Love those "let's debate the dish" sessions at the end. Gives you more ideas what to do with things. After 40 years of cooking almost daily I do have a pretty good feel for what would work in a pinch, but listening to you guys debating the dish yields another pairing idea every now and then. Way too few people really cook these days – most just follow recipes.
    If there's one thing really good about this entire staying at home business, I do hope that we have a big increase in households getting back to cooking. That would not only help the people, but it just might improve supermarkets – less factory packaged stuff and more real ingredients.

    Reply
  15. Jenny Nobody
    Jenny Nobody says:

    I think a series about those dishes which have flipped to "rich" foods would be cool. I'd love to know the price difference between then an now! (accounting for inflation of course)

    Reply
  16. Shelly M. Barton
    Shelly M. Barton says:

    Did the original recipe say butter or oil for frying? I wonder if the budgeted amount of butter per week was due to lack of availability in 1930 s of other oils? Lard and butter might have been more common than some of the refined corn, or vegetable oil? What do you think?

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  17. Chris Bruinsma
    Chris Bruinsma says:

    One of my favorite childhood foods is chicken and dumplings…….something about the drop dumplings soaking up the chicken fat on top….and the thickened chicken soup into a gravy………dang…….hmmm….I have some chicken thighs in the freezer that need to be used up……i'm going to be miserable after eating my fill of that….and it is warm outside

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  18. BarneyRubble
    BarneyRubble says:

    I would make it just as you did… according to the recipe.
    Then I would add stuff… lots of garlic powder to the meatballs… I like the cream instead of milk in the dumplings… my aunt would use cream or half and half in place of milk in many recipes. ๐Ÿ™‚

    Reply

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