barbie gee wrote in rec.food.cooking:

>
>
> On Wed, 17 Aug 2016, wrote:
>
> > Saw it today in the window of my local independent bookstore, then
> > I flipped open today's New York Times and...
> >
> > http://www.nytimes.com/2016/08/17/di...ion-food-squar
> > e-meal-book.html
> >
> > By STEVEN KURUTZ AUG. 12, 2016
> >
> >
> > First paragraphs:
> >
> > In March 1933, shortly after ascending to the presidency, Franklin
> > Delano Roosevelt sat down to lunch in the Oval Office. A gourmand,
> > President Roosevelt had a taste for fancy Fifth Avenue foods like
> > pâté de foie gras and Maryland terrapin soup.
> >
> > His menu that day was more humble: deviled eggs in tomato sauce,
> > mashed potatoes and, for dessert, prune pudding.
> >
> > ?It was an act of culinary solidarity with the people who were
> > suffering,? Jane Ziegelman said. Her husband, Andrew Coe, added,
> > ?It was also a message to Americans about how to eat.?
> >
> > The couple, who live in Brooklyn Heights, are food historians. Mr.
> > Coe?s last book, ?Chop Suey,? was about Chinese cuisine in America,
> > while Ms. Ziegelman told the story of life in a Lower East Side
> > tenement through food in her book ?97 Orchard.?
> >
> > Their new, collaborative work, ?A Square Meal,? which will be
> > published Tuesday by Harper, is a history of American food in the
> > Great Depression. Showing some culinary solidarity of their own,
> > they met a reporter for dinner at Eisenberg?s Sandwich Shop, a
> > tiny, no-frills lunch counter in the Flatiron district that has
> > been in business since the year of the crash, 1929.
> >
> > Ms. Ziegelman, 54, ordered a cream cheese and chopped olive
> > sandwich, while Mr. Coe, 57, had the turkey, mashed potatoes and
> > vegetable medley. When a reporter ordered meatloaf, the couple
> > deemed it fitting for a discussion of Depression-era eating.
> >
> > ?Loaves were very popular,? Ms. Ziegelman said. ?There was peanut
> > loaf, liver loaf, bean loaf. They were made from an ingredient and
> > a cheap thing that stretches the ingredient out. Imagine eating
> > enough peanuts to serve as your dinner.?...
> >
> >
> > More than 100 comments so far.
>
> I heard something about Depression Era cooking on NPR recently, but
> it seemed that the recipes were really bland and sad.
> They didn't want people "enjoying" their rations too much...

John, rationing was during wartime. There was no rationing in the USA
depression, just a lack of funds and jobs.

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