Here's an excerpt from the introduction:
But not until the end of World War II did the food industry take aim at home cooking per se, rapturously envisioning a day when virtually all contact between the cook and the raw makings of dinner would be obsolete. By the 1950s, magazines and newspapers were conjuring scenes in which traditional, kitchen-centered home life was being carried out in perfectly delightful fashion without a trace of traditional, kitchen-centered home cooking. The table was set, the smiling family was gathered, the mother wore a pretty apron, and the food was frozen. Or dehydrated. Or canned. Or prepared from what women were calling a "ready-mix." Do women like to cook? That is, are there any good reasons to cook from scratch, apart from habit, sentiment, and the family budget? The question had never emerged before, but, suddenly, thanks to all the new products, there was a glimmer of space between women and cooking, just enough to invite reflection. Do we like to cook? Is it important to cook? Before the question could even be asked, it was answered with a powerful "Not anymore. The ones speaking up so convincingly were the advertisers.
That moment when the burgeoning food industry confronted millions of American women and tried to refashion them in its own image is the one I explore in this book. It was an encounter that took place chiefly in middle-class homes; for this reason, the book focuses almost exclusively on middle-class women. But if they were the first to engage with the new concept of convenience foods, this was an event that would have overwhelming consequences for the entire nation. The 1950s were a turning point in a process set in motion half a century earlier, back when women discovered caned soup and Jell-O and found out how wonderfully easy they were to prepare. Cooking was genuinely laborious in the 1890s, and such shortcuts had an impact we can hardly imagine today. Once innovations like these settled into place, home cooking would never be the same, not just because the food began to change but because as it changed, Americans began to think differently about eating. Factory conditions imposed strict limits on the sensory qualities possible in packaged foods, making htem predominantly very sweet, very salty, or very bland. The more such qualities were reflected in a family's home cooking, the more acceptable they became - so much so that in the worst of the nation's cooking, even dishes made from scratch paid homage to factory flavors. During the first decades of the twentieth century, millions of American palates adjusted to artificial flavors and then welcomed them; and consumers started to let the food industry make a great many decisions on matters of taste that people in the past had always made for themselves. The marketing innovations that would make junk food and fast food a way of life were still far in the future. But by midcentury, when the food industry launched its massive campaign against traditional cooking, manufacturers and processors had every reason to believe that they could lure a critical mass of the population away from conventional meals and into gustatory realms hitherto unexplored.
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About 1/4 the way through the book, Shapiro has made a few things clear, which I think give a little insight into the lives of the Ladies.
- Much of the unappealing recipes that we see in the cook book that have cottage cheese, canned soups, and other highly processed key ingredients were very likely driven by the food industry. Shapiro mentions several times how various food sections of magazines and newspapers often ran articles and recipes developed by the food manufacturers themselves. The degree to which those recipes were used is a little hard to gauge.
- It seems that the constant pounding of advertising likely broke down a woman's (because it was by and large women) resistance to these processed foods.
- Many processed and packaged foods were not new. Pancake mixes, gelatins, canned soups, etc were quite well established in family kitchens by the time 1951 rolled around.
- Women were often reluctant to use short cut foods because they felt that it took away from their cooking. While women did spend a LOT of time preparing meals and cleaning up after meals, they reported that cooking was not something they dreaded or didn't want to do (as opposed to other household chores). This is something I can identify with. There was pride in food, and short cuts, or even worse mixing together cans and heating them in the oven did not feel like cooking and nourishing the family. Though a TV dinner was acceptable to feed the children quickly before company came over or to eat alone if everyone else was away, presenting meals consisting of pre-mixed and short-cut food to family (much less company) would have almost been shameful.
- Shapiro talks a little bit about cookbooks like our cookbook assembled by the Ladies of Zion. Recipes gathered there were understood to say something about the person who supplied them. Even if the recipe wasn't necessarily one that one of the Ladies would make regularly, it was a window onto how she thought she should be cooking and probably said something about how she wanted to be seen.
- Food companies failed and failed again in trying to develop foods that people would buy. Different canned foods had become very common and the poor texture and muted, over-salted, and over-sweet flavors became accepted to a point. Though convenience foods were convenient and most families had some of them on hand, the quality was rarely good enough to build a big market. So with each new food, food companies would develop and distribute many different recipes with glowing "reviews" about them and their benefits though likely, the recipes were rarely made in homes.
- Where things started to turn is when food companies realized that women didn't want to give up all of the work and creativity involved in cooking. When a balance could be reached between opening cans and packages yet still requiring some creativity and nominal work, processed food began to gain a foothold.
This all gives me an increased appreciation for the Ladies. Yes, there were some rather appalling recipes submitted (I am dreading getting to the salad section), but the motivations the Ladies felt are much the same as my own. They wanted to put a delicious, and pleasing meal on the table in front of their friends and family. They took short cuts when they had to, but generally preferred to make things from scratch.
I still don't understand why there are so many cakes in the cook book, and why cake seemed to be such a big thing then.
Pie > Cake
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