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The book du jour is Something From the Oven: Reinventing Dinner in 1950s America by Laura Shapiro. The general gist is about the socio-economic tension between two groups selling their notion of food and cooking to American women in an era called the 50s but actually ranging from about 1947-1963.
In one corner we have the food manufacturers pushing processed food and the idea of "liberation from the kitchen." (Shapiro outright accuses them of trying to market army rations - which had been a booming business during the war, naturally - as convenience foods to mothers on the home front.)
In the other corner we have celebrity chefs and manufacturers of cooking staples urging women to explore the post-war boom in both foods and disposable income and consider cooking an outlet or an art form.
As a historian I find her presentation a bit scrambled so far (ob disclaimer: I haven't finished the book; I've just gotten to the point that I want to talk about it) - she rambles back and forth in time a bit, which I never appreciate, and she tends to gloss over some things that I wish she'd talk more about, such as Pillsbury straddling the line between making mixes and urging creativity. (The famous Pillsbury Bake-Off was invented to sell flour and nothing but; mixes did not qualify, not even their own.)
But on the other hand I've already discovered some fascinating facts, such as the existence of Freda de Knight, food editor of Ebony, who trained in Paris with the same teacher and at the same time as Julia Child and who was the go-to muse of the Chicago Tribune food editor. At a time when food was still regionalized and rationing was still in memory, de Knight blended Spanish, English, Italian, East & West Indian, and Southern cooking with aplomb, and introduced Ebony readers to the idea that French food was about the joy of eating well before Julia made it big.
The other thing that really intrigues me is a bread rising technique used by the first winner of the Pillsbury Bake-Off. Unfortunately, Shapiro uses less than a full sentence to describe it and moves on: Mrs. Smafield used a quaint, all-but-forgotten method with her yeast dough: She wrapped it in a tea towel and submerged it in warm water, where it gently expanded until it rose to the surface. (p16, hardback ed.) I have *never* heard of that technique, but now I want to learn all about it - it seems an excellent way of dealing with rising in a house that can be dry and cold.
Later in the book I'll be reading about Lillian Gilbreth's daughter (Lillian has been a heroine of mine since I first stumbled over copies of Cheaper by the Dozen and Belles on Their Toes) and Shirley Jackson's foray into nonfiction writing for women, and it's going to end with the competing forces of Julia Child and Betty Friedan's visions of women in the kitchen. Hopefully I'll be inspired to post about it again... but now I have to take my overdue turn at Sonic.
In one corner we have the food manufacturers pushing processed food and the idea of "liberation from the kitchen." (Shapiro outright accuses them of trying to market army rations - which had been a booming business during the war, naturally - as convenience foods to mothers on the home front.)
In the other corner we have celebrity chefs and manufacturers of cooking staples urging women to explore the post-war boom in both foods and disposable income and consider cooking an outlet or an art form.
As a historian I find her presentation a bit scrambled so far (ob disclaimer: I haven't finished the book; I've just gotten to the point that I want to talk about it) - she rambles back and forth in time a bit, which I never appreciate, and she tends to gloss over some things that I wish she'd talk more about, such as Pillsbury straddling the line between making mixes and urging creativity. (The famous Pillsbury Bake-Off was invented to sell flour and nothing but; mixes did not qualify, not even their own.)
But on the other hand I've already discovered some fascinating facts, such as the existence of Freda de Knight, food editor of Ebony, who trained in Paris with the same teacher and at the same time as Julia Child and who was the go-to muse of the Chicago Tribune food editor. At a time when food was still regionalized and rationing was still in memory, de Knight blended Spanish, English, Italian, East & West Indian, and Southern cooking with aplomb, and introduced Ebony readers to the idea that French food was about the joy of eating well before Julia made it big.
The other thing that really intrigues me is a bread rising technique used by the first winner of the Pillsbury Bake-Off. Unfortunately, Shapiro uses less than a full sentence to describe it and moves on: Mrs. Smafield used a quaint, all-but-forgotten method with her yeast dough: She wrapped it in a tea towel and submerged it in warm water, where it gently expanded until it rose to the surface. (p16, hardback ed.) I have *never* heard of that technique, but now I want to learn all about it - it seems an excellent way of dealing with rising in a house that can be dry and cold.
Later in the book I'll be reading about Lillian Gilbreth's daughter (Lillian has been a heroine of mine since I first stumbled over copies of Cheaper by the Dozen and Belles on Their Toes) and Shirley Jackson's foray into nonfiction writing for women, and it's going to end with the competing forces of Julia Child and Betty Friedan's visions of women in the kitchen. Hopefully I'll be inspired to post about it again... but now I have to take my overdue turn at Sonic.
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