1930's-1940's foods?

SunBear22

Hello knotties. I have been all over google and even Yahoo! Answers looking for suggestions on food from these time periods, and I'm not really getting the types of ideas I was looking for. I am mostly getting back finger foods and seafoods. I'm not a big fish person, or seafood person so those are kind of out of the question. We are having a sit-down meal, so I would like to do more than just finger-type foods. I was thinking about maybe vegetable soup, fresh bread and some type of veggie.

What suggestions do you guys have? Nothing too fancy, but something that would have been cooked at home?

mica178

Did you check out:

http://www.foodtimeline.org/fooddecades.html

You have to recognize that you named the decades that spanned the Great Depression and WWII, so these were times of food rationing, and food would be very simple and might not be especially recognizable as 1930/1940s food.

dizzinea

hmmm deviled eggs, um get  out some old cookbooks, they should have some old fashioned classic ideas

Sue-n-Kevin

I agree with the prior posters. There was food rationing during WWII, and the 1930's were well, foodless, for some.

My first thoughts:

meatloaf and mashed potatoes
jello molds were HUGE
mac & cheese
Kielbasa & saurkraut

I have a cookbook that was "updated" in 1971, LOL. Here's what it has (it's the Culinary Art Institute cookbook which has a ton of old recipes)

I checked your bio and see you are getting married in September 2012. Here are some "sample" September dinners from that cookbook:

-Roast Chicken with stuffing, mashed potatoes, Pumpkin Pie.
-Veal and Pork en brochette (in other words, "city chicken" or "mock chicken legs"), baked sweet potatoes, creamed fresh peas, cinnamon apple salad
-Rump roast of beef, franconia potatoes (peeled, parboiled potatoes that are placed in the pan with the beef and cooked), green beans, Apple Charlotte
- Veal Scallpine, whipped mashed potatoes, peas, old fashioned tarts
-lamb chops, creamed potatoes, fried summer squash, banana tapioca cream
- Chicken a la King, buttered peas, pear salad with french dressing, apple pie
- planked steak (no idea what this is), with Duchess potatoes, baked tomatoes with mushrooms, black walnut pie
-glazed lamb roast, parsley buttered potatoes (my mom used to make this all the time), creamed swiss chard greens, maple nut pudding
- Roast tenderloin of beef with mushroom sauce, stuffed baked potatoes, breaded eggplant, waldorf salad, pumpkin chiffon pie

Hope that helps.

TurtlesAllTheWayDown

In the 1930s, people were big on family dinners on Sundays. (This is still done in the UK.) When possible, they'd have a roast chicken with sides - dumplings, potatoes, vegetables, gravy. (Then they'd use the leftovers for sandwiches and the bones for stock.)

I think if you did a 1950s theme you'd have more recognizable period foods.

SunBear22

In Response to <a href="http://forums.theknot.com/Sites/theknot/Pages/Main.aspx/special-topic-wedding-boards_food-cakes_1930s-1940s-foods?plckFindPostKey=Cat:Special%20Topic%20Wedding%20BoardsForum:23Discussion:bfe581ba-23a8-4f48-9f14-7e20250e0a36Post:512de71a-2d6c-431c-90e4-c7f9f5305ab2">Re: 1930's-1940's foods?</a>:
[QUOTE]I agree with the prior posters. There was food rationing during WWII, and the 1930's were well, foodless, for some. My first thoughts: meatloaf and mashed potatoes jello molds were HUGE mac & cheese Kielbasa & saurkraut I have a cookbook that was "updated" in 1971, LOL. Here's what it has (it's the Culinary Art Institute cookbook which has a ton of old recipes) I checked your bio and see you are getting married in September 2012. Here are some "sample" September dinners from that cookbook: -Roast Chicken with stuffing, mashed potatoes, Pumpkin Pie. -Veal and Pork en brochette (in other words, "city chicken" or "mock chicken legs"), baked sweet potatoes, creamed fresh peas, cinnamon apple salad -Rump roast of beef, franconia potatoes (peeled, parboiled potatoes that are placed in the pan with the beef and cooked), green beans, Apple Charlotte - Veal Scallpine, whipped mashed potatoes, peas, old fashioned tarts -lamb chops, creamed potatoes, fried summer squash, banana tapioca cream - Chicken a la King, buttered peas, pear salad with french dressing, apple pie - planked steak (no idea what this is), with Duchess potatoes, baked tomatoes with mushrooms, black walnut pie -glazed lamb roast, parsley buttered potatoes (my mom used to make this all the time), creamed swiss chard greens, maple nut pudding - Roast tenderloin of beef with mushroom sauce, stuffed baked potatoes, breaded eggplant, waldorf salad, pumpkin chiffon pie Hope that helps.
Posted by Sue-n-Kevin[/QUOTE]

<div>
</div><div>This really helped! Thank you!</div>

SunBear22

I had been on foodtimeline and tried finding more recipes from then (I hadn't gotten around to physical cookbooks yet). Food timeline showed mostly fish, and mentioned rationing but then went on to talk about fancy cocktail foods. I was looking for ideas for home-cooked, Sunday dinner type things. We were initially going to go for a 1950's theme, but the 1930's is so wonderful to me, so beautiful. We may do some considering still.

Thanks girls!!

Sue-n-Kevin

Glad to help. If you want any of the recipes, just PM me.......I'm a foodie and I buy recipe books like other women buy shoes!

Adrini76

My grandmother grew up in the 30's and was a young woman in her 40's. She SWORE but a big medium rare pot roast (not a good cut but cooked for hours)and always said she had made it all her life. It does not seem to fit but she told us over and over she made it from day one. 

kimmievj

dumplings, potatoes, sandwiches and eggs sound really good )