What did people eat during the Great Depression?
Even a cursory look at the Post-Gazette archives turns up heartbreaking stories of families desperate for sustenance. Where people did hold it together, it was use up, make due, wear it out — even if it meant your arteries. No scrap of food was wasted, even things that today would cause us to say, “What the . . . ?” And homemade was de rigueur. “During the Depression and until the end of World War II, our family enjoyed what my younger brother, Jack, named ‘Piggy Butter,’ ” writes Pat Trapani of Verona. “My mother took scraps of pork fat, cut them into very small pieces and fried them until they were dark brown and very crispy. She refrigerated all in a tan ceramic jar that had an attached lid. When all had solidified into a white lard mixture with bits of crispy pieces, we spread it on white bread and salt and peppered it. We did not have it often, and it was considered a treat. “I don’t know if the pork scraps were given to us by our generous butcher, Mr. Zalewski, or my mother had
