Making a Profit On Undesirable Food
During the Great Depression one of FDR’s Works Project Administration hired unemployed writers to collect all kinds of interesting stories. Here’s another in our series eating while poor. In the 1930s Restaurateurs on Bowery Street in New York City bought large quantities of undesirable food from butchers and fishermen. This purchasing strategy permitted restaurant owners to give good portions for small sums and still make a good profit. Today we throw away so much usable food. What suggestions do you have for restaurants seeking revenue streams to source and repurpose undesirable food safely and use it to make great tasting affordable meals for a profit?
New England Fish Chowder Recipe
Ingredients
4 pounds fresh cod or haddock
4 medium-sized potatoes
2 slices fat salt pork salt
1 onion
2 tablespoons butter
2 tablespoons flour
2 cups milk
Salt, pepper, and crackers
Directions
Discard skin and bones and cut the fish into small chunks. Pare and slice the potatoes, covering them with water. Slice the fat pork and try out in the frying pan. Slice the onion and fry in the fat. In a chowder kettle place a layer of fish. Season with salt and pepper. Add a layer of potatoes, then the onion and drippings, and so on until all is used. Cover with three cups of cold water or more if necessary. Simmer until potatoes are soft. Blend the butter, flour and milk, and stir in. Season to taste. Add crackers and serve very hot. Crosby Gaige, New York World’s Fair Cook Book (New York: Double Day, Doran and Company, 1939)