According to Elizabeth Driver’s Culinary Landmarks: A Bibliography of Canadian Cookbooks, 1825-1949, it is stated that this book was written around 1935, putting its publication right in the middle of the Great Depression, a time when many Canadians were unemployed, and people were looking to save money in whatever ways that they could.  During this time, more women began to look for work, and the number of employed women in Canada increased by approximately 20%.

This cookbook frequently discusses the cost of food and saving money on food purchases, further emphasizing the fact that it was written during the Depression. On the first page of the book, they state that Red & White stores provided customers with “food products that represent the best qualities at the lowest possible prices”. Additionally, this page also includes some images of various Red & White products, along with the message, “Choose Red & White Products for satisfaction and economy – the quality is always higher than the price”. The cover of the book also includes two white pillars containing a variety of different words that the company presumably wanted customers to associate with Red & White Stores. Some of these words include “economy”, “quality”, “dependability”, and “security”, indicating that the Red & White stores were trying to promote to their customers that their products were affordable, but also of good quality. Since the cover and the first page of the book so strongly promote the idea of saving money, it is clear that this is something that the Red & White store felt was an important selling point to their customers, and also that thriftiness was something that was valued by society at this time.

In Denyse Baillargeon’s book Making Do: Women, Family and Home in Montreal During the Great Depression, she describes how families had to be very careful with finances, stating that nothing could ever be wasted and that every penny counted when it came to money. Women were interviewed as saying that rent was the first priority, followed by electricity. Only after these expenses were paid would money be put towards food. Clearly, it was important for food to be cheap, which is likely why the Red & White Cookbook put such strong emphasis on the low prices of their products.  

When women were buying food, they found ways to purchase it as cheaply as possible. Baillargeon discusses how families would rarely have fresh fruit, and would consume only a few types of vegetables. Potatoes were a staple in the diets of this time, as they were one of the cheapest foods that one could purchase. This idea is demonstrated in the Red & White Cookbook, as there are numerous potato recipes, and potatoes are often used in places where they would not be used today. For example, the recipe for doughnuts contains potatoes, eggs, flour and sugar. There is also a recipe for “School Girls’ Special”, which is comprised of a mashed potato mixed with coconut, chocolate, nuts, and powdered sugar.

The 1930s was also the time period when chain grocery stores were starting to open in Canada, which made shopping for food more convenient. These stores gave customers the option to purchase a wider variety of products, including canned goods and prepared items. Although stores in the Red & White grocery chain were run by independent owners, being part of a chain allowed them to provide these benefits to their customers. It is clear that these products were being heavily promoted at the time, as many of the advertisements in the Red & White Cookbook are for processed foods. For example, there are advertisements for canned vegetables and canned fish, which were likely cheaper than purchasing fresh varieties of these foods. The advertisements for these products also relate to the Great Depression, as they are promoted with phrases like “the most nourishing and delicious at lowest cost”, making them more appealing to cost-conscious consumers.

Clearly, this time period had a strong impact on the content of this cookbook. The plentiful advertisements present in the book are frequently promoting foods at lower prices, which would be popular with consumers during the Great Depression. They also use many packaged products in the recipes throughout the book, which was likely because these products were just beginning to become popular with consumers as the grocery store became more common in Canada. Overall, it seems that this cookbook would have been in line with the societal and consumer attitudes of the time.