Party planning tips Historic food prices 1900s 1910s 1920s 1930s 1940s 1950s 1960s 1970s 1980s 1990s Australia: 20th century foods by decade United Kingdom: 1950s-present

Have questions? Ask!

• Fashionable Foods: Seven Decades of Food Fads, Sylvia Lovegren [McMillan:NewYork] 1999
  ---excellent for social context, commentary, & selected recipes: 1920s-1980s
• Century in Food: America's Fads and Favorites, Beverly Bundy [Collector Press:Portland] 2002
  ---good for popular fads & brands
• The Food Chronology, James L. Trager
  ---new food introductions, restaurant openings, cookbooks, technological advancements & company news
• Leite's Culinaria Dining Through the Decades

If you want to identify period recipes, menus, table settings & decorations
This is the fun part! It's also time-consuming and labor-intensive. You need primary resources. These are:

Cookbooks

Period cookbooks are the best sources for authentic recipes, menu suggestions, table settings and serving tips. Unfortunately, most public libraries do not own old cookbooks. Ask your librarian for help. Period cookbooks can be identified with the Library of Congress catalog and state or city library catalogs. Your librarian can help you identify nearby libraries with historic culinary collections or try to borrow them.

Magazines

Reader's Guide to Periodical Literature, Wilson
The librarians at your local public library can help you with this. Use the subject headings "menus" "meals" and "dining" to locate articles printed in popular magazines such as the Ladies Home Journal, Family Circle, Good Housekeeping, American Home, Better Homes and Gardens, and Southern Living. Your librarian can help you obtain the articles you need. Even better? Find a library that owns these magazines for the decade you want. Browse them for recipes, food ads, table decorations, and party tips.

Local newspapers

Did your local newspaper run a food column that decade? If so? Perfect. Most included reicpes.

Restaurant menus

Use the Los Angeles Public Library's digital menu collection to identify what was served in all types of restaurants during the decade in question. Search by date (192*, 195*). Most of these menus are from California, but the food was also served in New York and other major metropolitan areas. If you need menus from a specific place and time (1900 Atlantic City? 1945 Nashville?) contact the local history section of that city's library. If you need menus for specific type of restaurant (Railroad dining car? Harvey House? Drive-in movie?) we can help you find dedicated books, museums and historic societies.

• Cookbooks (online primary sources)
• Home menus
• Restaurant menus
• Fair fare
• Picnic menus
• School lunch box suggestions
• New food introductions
• Popular USA brands
• Need to make something for class??!

2. Science & Technology
Advances in transportation, food preservation, and home storage began to equalize local food availability and lessen dependence upon seasonal variations. Electricity was introduced to homes beginning with urban areas. Electric appliances (refrigerators, stoves) were introduced but not generally found in homes until the 1930s. About Domestic technology

3. Home Economics & Nutrition Science
The Home Economics movement of the late 19th century continued full-force in the 20th. College women studied the science of cookery and applied their knowledge to improving the nutrition and health of their families. Some of these women became social workers who advocated for the poor. They established soup kitchens and classes for new immigrants and low-income homemakers. Many visited tenement homes and worked one-on-one with families. Social workers/nutrition experts taught their students practical skills regarding cooking safety, sanitation, nutrition, and marketing. About Home Economics.

4. Company
New products flooded the American markets. Corporate giants such as the National Biscuit Company (Nabisco), Campbells, Swift, General Mills, Quaker Oats, Kraft, Jell-O, and Hershey's provided products, "invented" recipes and created a steady demand for a wider variety of foods.

5. Government intervention
Food & Drug Act (1906),

Popular cookbooks

• [1900] Enterprising Cook/Enterprise Manufacturing Co.
• [1903] Settlement Cookbook/Kander
• [1905] Los Angeles Times Cook Book/LA Times
• [1909] Good Housekeeping Woman's Home Cookbook/Curtis

Home menus
Daily menus are served by month or season, reflecting historic pre-mass refrigeration techonolgy practices. Meal names reflect the shift from taking the main meal at midday to evening. Lunch replaces dinner. Dinner replaces supper.

[1901]
"September
Sunday
Breakfast Melons, sago, vegetable hash, broiled veal cutlets, fried tomatoes, coffee. Dinner Broiled prairie chicken, baked sweet potatoes, green corn, cauliflower, plum sauce, cabbage salad, peach pyramid, ice cream, coffee. Lunch Sliced ham, biscuit, baked pears, cake, tea.

Monday
Breakfast Cream toast and fruit, prairie chicken stewed, fried potatoes sliced tomatoes, coffee. Dinner Roast beef, potaotes, green corn, egg plant, succotash, watermelon, cake, cheese, wafers, and coffee. Supper Cold sliced beef, French potatoes baked apples, cake and tea.

Tuesday
Breakfast Fruit, hominy, buttered toast with hash, corn fritters, cookies, and coffee. Dinner Soup, vegetable, chicken pie potatoes, Lima beans, onions, slaw, baked custard, cake, oranges, nuts and coffee. Supper Rolls, dried beef, sliced tomatoes, peaches and cream, cake and tea.

Wednesday
Breakfast Fruit, rice, Sally Lunn, broiled chickens, cucumbers, coffee. Dinner Boiled beef with potatoes, turnips, geeen corn, pickled beets, apple pie, fresh fruits, cake, nuts, coffee. Supper Biscuit, sliced beef, sliced toamtoes, grapes and peaches, cake, tea.

Thursday
Breakfast Fruit, sago, hot muffins, fried chicken and fried cabbage, jelly, tea. Dinner pea soup, veal pot pie, Lima beans, carrots, corn, peach meringue, cake, fresh fruits, coffee. Supper Vienna rolls, pressed chicken, currant jelly, baked apples, cake, tea.

Friday
Breakfast Fruit and oatmeal, broiled ham, poached eggs on toast, cucumbers, coffee. Dinner Baked fish, boiled potatoes, baked onions, egg plant, cabbage salad, ice cream, peaches, grapes, nuts, coffee. Supper Cold tongue, soda biscuit and hominy, sliced tomatoes, fruit cake and tea.

Saturday
Breakfast Nutmeg melons, sago, broiled mutton chops, fried potatoes, crurant jelly, coffee. Dinner Soup,r oast pork, apple sauce, mashed potatoes, creamed cabbage, stewed corn, beet pickles, peach cake with whipped cream, cheese, wafers, coffee. Supper Sliced pork, tea rolls, banana fritters, fruit cake and tea."
---Woman's Exchange Cook Book, Mrs. Minnie Palmer [W.B. Conkey:Chicago] 1901 (p. 505-506)
[What is sago?]

[1908]
"Menus for a Week in in the Spring

Sunday
Breakfast Grape Fruit, Cereal, French Omelet, Rice Cakes, Maple Syrup, Coffee. Dinner Oysters on the Half Shell, Olives, Radishes, Roast Veal with Dressing, Mashed Potatoes, Fried Egg Plant, Edive Salad, Rhubarb Pie, Cheese, Black Coffee. Supper Baked Bean Salad, Devilled Eggs, Whole Wheat Bread and Butter, Lady Baltimore Cake, Custard, Tea.

Monday
Breakfast Cereal Cooked with Dates, Scrambled Eggs with Parsley, Creamed Potatoes, Toast, Coffee. Luncheon Potato Cakes, Cold Veal, Corn Bread, Cookies, Orange Marmalade, Tea. Dinner Cream of Potato Soup, Broiled Steak with Parsley Butter, Baked Potatoes, Asparagus on Toast, Young Beets and Beet Green Salad, Poor Man's Pudding.

Tuesday
Breakfast Oranges, Cereal, Finnan Haddie, Watercress, Popovers, Coffee. Luncheon Veal Olives, Baked Potaotes, Boiled Rice, Maple Syrup, Tea. Dinner Tomato Soup, Olives, Gherkins, Braised Veal Cutlets with Currant Jelly, Parsnip Fritters, Sweet Potatoes, Asparagus Salad, Sliced Pineapple, Cake, Coffee.

Wednesday
Breakfast Evaporated Apple Sauce, Cereal, French Olive, Wheat Muffins, Coffee. Luncheon Clam Chowder, Brown Bread and Butter, Pickles, Gingerbread, Tea. Dinner Cream of Asparagus Soup, Filet of Flounder, New Potatoes with Parsley Butter, Stewed Tomaotes, Lettuce Salad, Cottage Pudding, Coffee.

Thursday
Breakfast Oranges, Cereal, Eggs a la Caracus, Rice Cakes, Coffee. Luncheon Hamburger Stead, Baked Potatoes, Lettuce with French Dressing, Raisin Cake, Baked Rhubarb, Tea. Dinner Vermicelli Soup, Radishes, Pickles, Pork and Parsnip Stew, Pineapple Shortcake with whipped Cream, Black Coffee.

Friday
Breakfast Evaoprated Apricots, Stewed, Cereal, Broiled Mackerel, Watercress, Wheat Muffins, Coffee. Luncheon Creamed Codfish, Boiled Potatoes, Pickles, Apple Sauce, Cake, Tea. Dinner Cream of Celery Soup, Broiled Shad, Creamed Potatoes, Oyster Plant, Endive Salad, tapiocal Puccing with Meringue, Coffee.

Saturday
Breakfast Bananas and Oranges, Cereal, Ham and Eggs, Graham Gemn, Coffee. Luncheon Frizzled Beef, Cream Toast, Currant Tarts, tea. Dinner Split Pea Soup with Croutons, Pickles, Pot Roast of beef, Browned Potatoes, Creamed Turnips and Peas, Lettuce with French Dressing, Cabinet Pudding, Black Coffee."
---New York Evening Telegram Cook Book, Emma Paddock Telford [Cuples & Leon:New York] 1908 (p. 207-209)

Restaurant menus
Use the digital menu collection uploaded by the Los Angeles Public Library to identify period menus [Search date 190*].

Worth noting: Horn & Hardart automats launched in Philly 1902 & the first American pizzeria opens in NYC. It won't however, be until after World War II decades that mainstream Americans embrace this ethnic specialty.

Fair fare

• 1901 Pan American Fair, Buffalo NY
• 1904 Louisiana Purchase Exhibition, St. Louis
  Americans are fascinated with fair food, especially the items attributed to the 1904 St. Louis Exposition. The truth? Most of the foods attributed to this fair existed long before 1904. What these foods have in common is that they were mass marketed at the St. Louis fair. That is why 1904 holds a special place in the American gastronomic chronology. Foods commonly associated with the this fair are: ice cream cones, hamburgers, puffed rice, Dr. Pepper, iced tea, Texas-style chili, & peanut butter. Recommended reading: Beyond the Ice Cream Cone: The Whole Scoop on Food at the 1904 World's Fair/Pamela J. Vaccaro.

New food USA introductions

1900 Wesson Oil, Hershey bars, Hills Bros coffee
1901 Cliquot Club Ginger Ale, White Rose Ceylon Tea, NECCO Wafers (candy)
1902 Barnum's Animal Crackers, Presto self-rising cake flour, Salada Tea, Karo Corn Syrup, NECCO Conversation Hearts
1903 Canned tuna
1904 Banana Splits, Swans Down Cake Flour, Campbell's Pork & Beans, Frnech's Cream Salad Mustard, Dr. Pepper
1905 Heinz Baked Beans, Hebrew National frankfurters, Royal Crown Cola, Ovomaltine (renamed Ovaltine)
1906 Planters Nuts, Hot dogs (name, not the actual food), Post Toasties, A-1 Sauce, hot fudge sundaes, Kellogg's Corn Flakes
1907 LeSeur peas, Hershey Kisses, Canada Dry Pale Dry Ginger Ale
1908 Tea bags, French Dip sandwich, Hershey bars with almonds
1909 Melitta drip coffeemaker, Idaho Spud Bar (candy)
SOURCES: The Food Chronology/James L. Trager [Holt:New York] 1995, The Century in Food: America's Fads and Favorites/Beverly Bundy [Collectors Press:Portland OR] 2002 & Candy: The Sweet History/Beth Kimmerle [Collector's Press:Portland OR] 2003

Popular USA brands
...primary evidence confirms national brand advertising was not yet a standard practice

Advertised in the Washington Post, January 7, 1900:
Pillsbury's Best Flour, Atmore's Plum Pudding, Mrs. Well's Tomato Ketchup, Eagle Brand Condensed Milk, Uneeda Biscuits (National Biscuit Company), Campbell's soup, White House coffee, Colman's English Mustard (genuine)

Advertised in the Washington Post, July 2, 1905:
Borden's Evaporated Cream, Armour's Potted Ham and Tongue, Quaker Oats, Armour's Corned Beef

Advertised in the Washington Post, December 26, 1909:
Jello, Marshall's Kippered Herring, Senate Brand Coffee, Swift's Premium Hams, Eagle Milk (can), Royal Baking Powder, Rumford Baking Powder, Davis' Baking Powder, Lowney's Cocoa, A & P Jams, Fig Newtons (National Biscuit Company), Minute Tapioca, Campbell's soups, Nonesuch Mincemeat, Heinz's Best Quality Mincemeat, Hecker's Buckwheat, Hornby's (H-O) Buckwheat B&O Molasses

Need to make something for class? Fantastic!!! We recommend...

• Brownies
• Divinity fudge(with Kayro brand corn syrup)
• Devils food cake
• Lady Baltimore Cake
• Senate Bean Soup
• Club Sandwiches
• Shrimp Cocktail

• Home cooking & family entertaining
• World War I: civilian fare
• Soldier rations
• Picnic menus
• School lunch box suggestions
• Popular American brands
• new American food introductions

Recommended reading: Fashionable Foods:Seven Decades of Food Fads, Sylvia Lovegren & Leite's Culinaria.

About the 1910s in America:
What people eat in all times and places depends upon who they are (ethnic, religious heritage), where they live (urban centers, rural outposts) and how much money they have (rich have more choices than poor). Which means? In the USA during the 1910s newly immigrated Italian families ate very different food from South Carolina plantation owners, West Virginia coal miners, Chicago businessmen and San Francisco Chinese. In addition to these general differences, the 1910s experienced World War I. During this period some foods were diverted to feed the soldiers. Civilians living at home faced scarcity and rationing. Then, as today, the rich people could still afford to eat the finest foods and dine in the nicest restaurants. The working class and poorer people faced daily challenges of putting food on the table.

Home cooking & family entertaining
Typical upwardly-aspiring Anglo-American middle class families in the 1910s took cues from meals suggested by period cook books. Technology was moving quickly; foods were readily available, in and out of season. World War I imposed unexpected challenges. Here we catch early glimpses of American discomfit reconciling traditional Old World dishes (read: heritage) with newly formed alliances (read: opportunity). Most American print sources proclaim culinary nationalism (aka the 'melting pot') was summarily celebrated and embraced. For the unity of the country. How else to explain Lasagne with American cheese and Chop suey with American hamburger? Despite the fact mainstream print sources opted against reporting what was really being stoically served by the matriarchs of our immigrant families, the famliar table remained.

• [1912] Mary Frances Cook Book/Jane Eayre Fryer
• [1914] Neighborhood Cookbook/Council of Jewish Women
• [1915] Panama Pacific Cook Book/Exposition fare
• [1918] Boston Cooking School Cook/Fannie Farmer
• [1919] Hotel St. Francis Cook Book/Victor Hirtzler
• [1919] Italian Cook Book/Maria Gentile

World War I: civilian fare
(rationing & "making do" was NOT a new concept in the 1940s)

• War Time Cooking/Pinkham
• Foods That Will Win the War/Goudiss & Goudiss
• War Time Cook Book/Royal Baking Powder
• Wheatless Wednesdays
• Quest for Food Substitutes/Armstrong
• Sow the Seeds of Victory/National Archives

Notes from U.S. Army archives: I & II. Army bread baking. Doughboy Cook Book, Great War Society (modernized recipes with historical commentary) Compare with British & German ration.

Popular American brands
Grocery/food ads in city papers sometimes included brands. Many foods were still sold in bulk; company connection was not advertised. The concept of "nationally branding" was a rarity in these days. Only the largest companies (willing to spend big bucks for advertising) went that route. Among the national leaders were the National Biscuit Company (now Nabisco), Campbell's, Armour, Coca Cola, Jell-O, Royal, Dole, and Baker's (chocolate, coconut). Most grocery store food ads promoted the product, not the company or brand. Fresh produce ads in the 1910s highlighted point of origin (California figs, Florida oranges, Jersey tomatoes, Baltimore beans, Maine Sugar Corn, Celyon Tea). Same as today!

[1910] groceries advertised by Simpson Crawford Co., in the New York Times, January 2, 1910: New Pack California White Asparagus (cans), Royal Stuart (canned: orange marmelade, pereserved whole fruit, strained honey, salmon steaks, sardines, tomato catsup, small green tender beans, apricots, red raspberries, peaches, pineapple, asparagus, pickles), Cameron Fancy Fruit (cans, in heavy sugar syrup: peaches, apricots, macaroni, coffee,), Del Monte (green gage, egg plums), Bevan's (table raisins), Dunbar's Okra (cans), Pinard's (canned spinach, carrots, asparagus), Waverly coffee, Quaker (oats & corn flakes).

[1915] groceries advertised by Macy's (department store) in the New York Times, August 22, 1915: Red Star Lunch Chocolate, Lily White gelatine & grape juice, Wesson's Oil, Holbrook's Malt Vinegar, Tiger brand white wax cherries, Crosse & Blackwell's Scotch Oatmeal, Red Star Hams, Duffy's Sparkling Apple Juice

[1918] groceries advertised by Macy's in the New York Times, March 17, 1918: Ballard's Graham Flour, Goodman's freshly baked Tea Matzohs, Manishewitz Matsoths, King-Ko brand California seeded raisins, Curtis Supreme California Ripe Olives, Van Camp's Pork and Beans with Tomato Sauce, Lily White (molasses, tomatoes, kidney beans, concentrated soups), Del Monte California Spinach, Duco Red Beans,

What could be purchased in self-service grocery stores? Grocer's Encyclopedia/Artemas Ward (no brand names). About Piggly Wiggly & Fox's (Alaska)

New American food introductions & related events

[1910] Hydrox "biscuit bonbons" are introduced by the Loose-Wiles Biscuit Company, Aunt Jemina Pancake Flour is sold throughout the United States

[1911] Battle Creek, Mich., plans produce cornflakes under 108 brand names, but Kellogg's and Post Toasties lead the pack, Crisco, introduced in the spring by Cincinnati's Protor & Gamble, is the first solid hydrogenated vegetable shortening, Mazola salad and cooking oil--the first corn oil available for home consumption is introduced by E.T. Bedford's Corn Products Refining Company, Domino brand sugar is introduced by American Sugar Refining Co., the first canned chili con carne and tamales are produced in San Antonio, Tex. by William Gebhardt.

[1912] First self-service grocery stores open independently in California, California Associated Raisin Co (later renamed Sun-Maid) starts, California Walnut Growers (later renamed Diamond Walnut Growers) starts, Ocean Spray Cranberry Sauce is introduced by the Cape Cod Cannery Co., Morton's Table Salt is introduced, Hellmann's Blue Ribbon Mayonnaise is introduced by German-American New York delicatessen owner Richard Hellmann, Prince Macaroni Co. launched, Oreo Biscuits & Lorna Doon cookies introduced by National Biscuit Company, Whitman Sampler introduced by Philadelphia's Whitman Chocolate Company, Royal Crown Ginger Ale introduced

[1913] Quaker's Puffed Rice and Quaker's Puffed Wheat introduced, Peppermint Life Savers introduced by Cleveland, Ohio, chocolate manufacturer Clarence Crane

[1914] First electric refrigerato is introduced for commercial use, but it's not until after World War I that the miracle machines are widely avaliable, Campbell's promotes its soups as recipe ingredients to help much-burdened homemakers, Lettuce, asparagus, watermelons, cantaloupes, and tomates grown in California's irrigated fields are transported 3,000 miles away in refrigerated railcars, George Washington Carver's experiments prove the value of peanuts and sweet potatoes in replenishing fertility, The Reuben sandwich is created at Reuben's Restaurant in New York City (claim disputed), Tasty Baking Co., is founded at Philadelphia....and idea which...might revolutionize bakery retailing: individual-size cakes prewrapped at the bakery instead of cakes baked in slabs which storekeepers had to handle, Large-scape pasta production begins in the United States, which has imported almost all of its macaroni and spaghettim from Naples but which has been cut off from Italian sources by the outbreak of the European war. Italian-American pasta maker Vincent La Rosa and his five sons start a company at Brooklyn, NY., Brooklyn-born trader Clarence "Bob" Birdseye, 20, pioneers fish freezing, Van Camp Seafood is founded by Indianapolis packer Frank Van Camp, whose father, Gilbert, began packing pork and beans in 1861, 1Mary Janes--individually wrapped penny candies that combine molasses with peanut butter--are introduced

[1915] Corning introduces Pyrex baking dishes, Cortland apple is created in upstate New York by crossing a Bert Davis with a McIntosh, Kellogg's 40% Bran Flakes are introduced, The Singapore Sling is invented [cocktail]

[1916] Streit's matzohs introduced by New York entrepreneur Aaron Streit, Coca-Cola adopts the distinctive bottle shape that will identify it for years, Nathan's Famous frankfurters established in Coney Island, N.Y.

[1917] French Sardine Co. (later renamed Starkist Seafood) established, Del Monte's canned fruits and vegetables advertised nationally, Clark Bars introduced by Pittsburgh's David L. Clark

[1918] Ronzoni brand pasta founded, Old El Paso brand Mexican foods established in New Mexico

[1919] Fleischmann Co. lauches a national advertising campaign to urge housewives to buy bakery bread instead of baking at home, Eskimo Pie begins as the "I-Scream-Bar," Nestle introduces the Nestle Milk Chocolate Bar
---SOURCES: The Century in Food: America's Fads and Favorites/Beverly Bundy & The Food Chronology/James L. Trager

• Speakeasy fare & Great Gatsby dining
• Home cooking & family entertaining
• picnic fare
• School lunch box menus
• popular foods & snack fare
• advertised brands
• new American food introductions

1920s America was an facinating time for food. When else would it be possible to juxtapose Prohibition (popular no alcohol sentiment co-existing with underground speakeasies), exotic culinary experimentation (Chinese food was popular), opulent wealth (Delmonicos & 21), extreme poverty (tenement kitchens), social nutrition movements (home economics & Ladies Aid Organizations) and vegetarian alternatives (Dr. George Washington Carver was creating recipes for mock chicken made from peanuts).

What effect did Prohibition on American the food and dining habits in the 1920's?

"When Prohibition went into effect in America on January 16, 1920, it did more than stop the legal sale of alcoholic beverages in our country...[it] increased the production of soft drinks, put hundreds of restaurants and hotels out of business, spurred the growth of tea rooms and cafeterias, and destroyed the last vestiges of fine dining in the United States...Hotels tried to reclaim some of their lost wine and spirit profits by selling candy and soda pop The fruit cocktail cup, often garnished with marshmallows or sprinkled with powdered sugar, took the place of oysters on the half shell with champagne and a dinner party opener....The American wine industry, unable to sell its wines legally, quickly turned its vinyards over to juice grapes. But only a small portion of the juice from the grapes was marketed as juice. Most of it was sold for home-brewed wine. Needless to say, this home brew was not usually a sophisticated viniferous product, but sales of the juice kept many of the vineyards in profits throughout Prohibition. Prohibition also brought about cooking wines and artificially flavored brandy, sherry, and rum extracts. Housewives were advised to omit salt when using cooking wines, as the wines themselves had been salted to make them undrinkable...Some cooks gave up on alcoholic touches, real or faux, altogether...The bad alcohol, the closing of fine restaurants, the sweet foods and drinks that took alcohol's place, the artificial flavors that were used to simulated alcohol, all these things could not help but have a deletrious effect on the American palate."
---Fashionable Foods: Seven Decades of Food Fads, Sylvia Lovgren [MacMillan:New York] 1995 (p. 29-30)

"Prohibition, with its tremendous impact on the eating habits of the country, also had a great deal to do with the introduction of Italian food to the masses. Mary Grosvenor Ellsworth, in Much Depends upon Dinner, (1939), said this about Prohibition and pasta: "We cooked them [pastas] too much, we desecrated them with further additions of flour, we smothered them in baking dishes and store cheese. Prohibition changed all that. The Italians who opened up speakeasies by the thousand were our main recourse in time of trial. Whole hoards of Americans thus got exposed regularly and often to Italian food and got a taste for it. Now we know from experience that properly treated, the past is no insipid potato substitute. The food served in the speakeasies--with Mama doing the cooking and Papa making the wine in the basement--was not quite the same as the food the Italians had eaten in the Old Country. Sicilian cooking was based on austerity...But America was rich, and protein rich country, and the immigrants were happy to add these symbols of wealth to their cooking--and happy that their new American customers liked the result. Meatballs, rich meat sauces, veal cutlets cooked with Parmesean or with lemon, clams ctuffed with buttered herbed crumbs, shrimp with wine and garlic, and mozzarella in huge chunks to be eaten as appetizer were all foods of abundance, developed by Italian-Americans..."
---Fashionable Foods (p. 37-8)

What kind of impact did Prohibition have on American cookbooks in the 1920s?
Some continued to list recipes calling for small amounts of beer, wine and liquor as ingredients, others whistfully noted substitutions, still others omitted the ingredient completely. Grape juice is sometimes used instead of wine. There also seems to be an increase in the use of extracts (vanilla, lemon, almond). Extracts are alcohol-based flavorings. We checked several cookbooks for fruitcake and welsh rarebit recipes (these traditionally include small amounts of alcohol). This is what we found:

Every Womans Cook Book, Mrs. Chas. F. Moritz [Cupples & Leon:New York:1926] devotes several pages of its beverage chapter to making wine at home. Here the 1920s cook found instructions for blackberry, strawberrry, grape and cherry wine, sherry, sauterne and plum liquor and home. These wines were generally fermented for 10 days. We have no idea how strong (% alcohol) they would have been. This book also has a recipe for brandied peaches (without brandy), claret punch (with 1/2 gallon of claret wine). (p. 616-619), and Welsh rarebit (1/2 cup cream, ale or beer). (p.631)

The 1923 edition of Fannie Merritt Farmer's The Boston Cooking School Cook Book, lists 2 tablespoons brandy in a recipe for rich coffee cake (p. 637).

The President's fruit cake listed in Mrs. Peterson's Simplified Cooking, American School of Home Economics [Chicago, IL] 1926 (p. 185) lists grape juice as an ingredient, no mention of alcohol.

"Brandy used to be a common addition to fruit cakes. The taste cooked out, but it gave richness to the cake, and probably added to the keeping quality. In the recipes here given, cider, lemon juice or other fruit juice is substituted for it."
---Everybody's Cook Book, Isabel Ely Lord [Harcourt Brace:New York] 1924 (p. 139)

About speakeasy dining & liquor

"Speakeasy...Also "speak." A term popular during Prohibition to describe an establishment selling illegal alcoholic beverages. In order to gain entrance, you had to speak in a low voice through a small opening in the back door and tell the attendant inside who it was who sent you to the place. The term itself (which dates in print to1889) may derive from the English "Speak-softly-shop," an underworld term for a smuggler's house where one might get liquor cheaply, its usage in this sense haveing been traced back to 1823. But with the onset of Prohibition in America, speakeasies sprang up overnight, sometimes in shabby sections of town, but often in the best neighborhoods, and many of these establishments were actually fine restaurants in their own right. New York's "21" club was a speakeasy during this period and had two bars, a dance floor, an orchestra, and diningrooms on two floors...French diplomat Paul Morande, visiting New York for the first time in 1925, reported his experience at a speakeasy: "...the food is almost always poor, the service deplorable."
---The Encyclopedia of American Food and Drink, John F. Mariani [Lebhar-Friedman:New York] 1999 (p. 307)
[NOTE: check this book's entry on Prohibition for additional details].

"For one speakeasy with pretensions to any sort of elegance, there were dozens of drab cellar or tenement bars where no mone or thought was wasted on decor. When a speakeasy of some standing as a restaurant as well as a bar emerged, such as that well known New York repair, still legitimately flourishing, Jas and Charlie's 21 (sometimes referred to as "The Twenty-One Club," although it never had official club status), it was because discreet official protection had been guaranteed to it which made the investment gilt-edged."
---Eating in America: A History, Waverly Root & Richard de Rochemont [Morrow:New York] 1976 (p. 398)

"Salty hams and pretzels were offered at free lunch counters to whet customers' thirsts"
---American Heritage Cookbook: Illustrated History [American Heritage:New York] 1964 (p. 357)
[NOTE: this practice descends from the Old West.

What kinds of drinks were served?
That, of course depended upon the "quality" of the establishment. Speakeasys catering to wealthy clientele likely offered the same fine wines and mixed drinks that were available prior to Prohibition. Other establishments sold "bathtub" gin. We recommend: Drinking in America: A History, Mark Edward Lender and James Kirby Martin [Free Pres:New York] 1982.

One of the best sources for period cocktail recipes is Tom Bullock's Ideal Bartender (c. 1917). This book was recently repinted as "173 Pre-Prohibition Cocktails" by Howling at the Moon Press. According to this source, champagne was very popular. Fannie Farmer's Boston Cooking School Cook Book [1918] offers a small selection of popular drink recipes, including one for champagne punch.

1920s menus

Speakeasy menus & Great Gatsby Dining
The menu you seek depends upon the type of speakeasy you hope to recreate. The finest New York clubs (Twenty One, Stork, Embassy, Simplon, Surf, Yale, and 51 1/2 East Fifty First) all served meals comparable to the best hotels. The speakeasy of the *common man* served less than stellar food. The draw, obviously, was the booze...which (by many accounts) wasn't all that good either. Wealthy young people often skipped the stuffy hotel restaurants, preferring to patronize new Chinese food restaurants and trendy cafes.

Two of the best sources for learning about 1920s American restaurant dining are:

1. Fashionable Foods: Seven Decades of Food Fads, Sylvia Lovgren [MacMillan:New York] 1995 ("The Twenties," pps.1-40 )---excellent overview of popular foods & fads
2. America Eats Out: An Illustrated History of Restaurants, Taverns, Coffee Shops, Speakeasies, and Other Establishments, John Mariani [Morrow:New York] 1992 (p. "Joe Sent Me," pps. 89-103)---includes pictures

If you are trying to recreate the menu/ambiance of a speakeasy on par with the famous "21 Club" ask your librarian to help you find these books:

• 21 : Every Day was New Year's Eve : memoirs of a saloon keeper , H. Peter Kriendler, with H. Paul Jeffers. c1999.
• "21": The Life and Times of New York's Favorite Club, Marilyn Kaytor (includes some menus & recipes)
• 21 Cookbook: recipes and lore from New York's fabled restaurant, Michael Lomomaco with Donne Forsman. c1995.

Need menus?
Use the Los Angeles Public Library's digital menu collection to identify what was served in all types of restaurants during the 1920s. Search by date (192*). Most of these menus are from California, but the food was also served in New York and other major metropolitan areas.

The Waldorf-Astoria, New York City

"With the passing of the war, America settled down to begin an era of onrushing prosperity. But it was also the era of Prohibition. I glance into menus, from 1921 on: Menus for dinners to honor such figures as Charles M. Schwab...Another significant change was evident in this era, as my menus show. The banquets became less sumptuous--more, shall I say, utilitarian? Certainly, the courses had been pared down. For instance, a dinner in February, 1924, for President Coolidge. (Note the "Appolinaris" and "White Rock" but no mention whatever of any wines or liquors.) Here is the menu:

Sample Great Gatsby-era menus offered recently by restaurants & caterers: I & II

Home cooking & family entertaining
What did average Americans eat in the 1920s? Food historians tell us we had a sweet tooth, a taste for the exotic, and a well-developed sense of ordered creativity. Translation? Fruit cocktails, Pineapple upside-down cake and Jell-O molds. Tea sandwiches, fancy salads, and chafing-dish recipes were also "in." City kitchens were wired with electricity meaning foods could be safely refrigerated at home. General Electric (and other companies) published cooking brochures touting frozen foods and safe meat storage.

Conversely? Modern vegetarianism also began the 1920s. Peanuts were promoted as healthy protein alternatives to animal meat. Raw foods were likewise promoted. Ladies Aid Societies and Domestic Scientists worked hard to introduce balanced, nutritional meals to poor, laboring people and help newly arrived immigrants adjust to American markets.

Need recipes & menus?

• [1920] Breakfasts, Luncheons and Dinners: How to Plan Them/Mary Chambers
• [1922] Good Housekeeping's Book of Menus
• [1924] Mrs. Allen on Cooking, Menus, Service/Ida C. Baily Allen (p. 20 offers daily home menus. Selected party menus below)

Mrs. Allen's party menus

A Spring or Summer Company Dinner
Swedish Leaf
Jellied Tomato Cream Bouillion Toasted Crackers
Roast Duck Broiled Potatoes
Carrots and Peas
Radish Roses Salted Almonds
Potato Biscuits Butter
Raspberry Mousse Little Decorated Cakes
Black Coffee

[Suggested table decorations: Daffodils, pussywillows, and individual pots of white or yellow crocuses to bear the place cards.]

A Winter Company Dinner
Shrimp Cocktail
Chicken Soup with Noodles
Crown Roast of Lamb Mashed Potatoes
Peas
Entire-Wheat Rolls Butter
Pickled Peaches Celery Hearts
Steamed Marmalade Pudding Hard Sauce
Black Coffee

(If desired omit the cocktail and add a salad, as French artichoke canape or Jane Oaker.)

[Suggested table decorations: White narcissi, pink carnations, asparagus fern, and individual old-fashioned bouquets of the two made up with a carnation in the centre surrounded by the narcissi, then with violets.] (p. 874)

"Parties
Party refreshments may be served buffet style as described for formal afternoon tea. In this case, the menus described for club refreshments may be used. If, however, the party is of such nature as to call for the formal service of a late evening supper, the guests seated at the table, or served buffet style, menus of the following type may be used.

Menus for Party Suppers
Hot or Jellied Consomme Bread Sticks
Chicken a la King
Cream Cheese Sandwiches Brown Bread Sandwiches
Olives Salted Nuts Candied Ginger
Nuts and Date Salad Mayonnaise
Strawberry Bavarian Cream Little Pound Cakes Russian Wafers
Coffee

Chicken Broth Whipped Cream Rolls
Crabmeat Croquettes Peas Brown Bread-and-Butter Sandwiches
Jellied Tomato and Pimiento Salad Olives Celery Hearts
Nesselrode Pudding Macaroons
Coffee

Fruit Cocktail or Strawberries in Halves of Melons
Jellied Tongue Harlequin Salad
Buttered Baking-Powder Biscuits
Olives Salted Nuts
Biscuit Tortoni Angel Cake Squares Bonbons
Iced Coffee" (p. 883-4)

Appetizers & hors d'oeuvres
The following list is culled from Mrs. Allen on Cooking, Menus, Service, Ida C. Bailey Allen (c. 1924), Chapter IX: "Foods that begin a meal" (p. 103-118)
Canapes, hot and cold, cocktails (fruit, oysters, clam, lobster, crabmeat), relishes (olives, pickle, radish roses, plain/stuffed celery, pickled pears or peaches, salted nuts). Cold canapes include caviar, sardine and anchovy, Indian (chutney-based), smoked salmon, and stuffed eggs. Hot canapes include oyster toast, shrimp or lobster toast and mushroom toast. Other savoury appetizers: sardines in aspic, stuffed pimientos, Swedish loaf, anchovy toast, jellied anchovy moulds, salmon and caviar rolls, finnan haddie shells, and savoury cheese balls.

Fannie Farmer's canape recipes from the Boston Cooking School Cook Book [1918] are almost identical to those offered in her 1923 edition.

Buffet suppers from Mrs. Wilson's Cook Book, Mary A. Wilson [J.B. Lippincott:Philadelphia] 1920

Buffet supper

No. 1
Salted nuts, celery, tuna fish a la King, asparagus salad, Russian dressing, ice cream, cake, coffee

No. 2
Olives, pickles, chicken salad, apple jelly, rice croquettes, ice cream, cake, coffee

No. 3
Olives, radishes, baked ham sandwiches, potato and celery salad, ice cream, cake, coffee.

Popular foods and snack fare
Serving a large crowd on a low budget?We suggest:

Molded/fruited Jello-salads, fruit cocktail, sliced pineapples & bananas (maraschino cherry ok)
Deviled eggs, celery, olives, pickles, salted nuts (almonds, pecans, peanuts, filberts)
Bread sticks, Parker House rolls, saltine-type crackers, potato chips
Caesar salad, Waldorf salad
Finger sandwiches...peanut butter & jelly, ham, turkey, chicken salad, tomato, egg salad, cream cheese
Fried chicken, baked ham
Pineapple Upside down cake, angel or devil's food cakes, ice cream & chocolate sauce, chocolate pudding. Canned peaches work well.
Beverage service:
Shirley Temples (ginger ale with maraschino cherry juice, decorated with afore mentioned cherries), Ginger Ale, Coca-Cola, Kool-Aid, Lemonade, punch, coffee, cocoa & Orange Pekoe tea

Which American brands were popular in the 1920s? Advertisements are a good place to start.

WOMEN'S MAGAZINES & NEWSPAPERS

American Cookery Magazine, Boston Cooking School Magazine Company, Boston Mass., May, 1925:
Rumford Baking Powder,Cream of Wheat, Kellogg's All-Bran, Walter Baker Chocolate, Slade's Spices, Cox's Instant Powdered Gelatine, White House Coffee, Comet Rice, Junket, Malt Breakfast Food, Jell-O, Virginia Dare Butterscotch Sauce, Knox Gelatine, Lea & Perrins Sauce, Gold Medal Flour, Royal Baking Powder

Woman's Home Companion, September, 1929:
Campbell's Tomato Soup, Post Grape Nuts, Libby's Evaporated Milk, Aunt Jemima Pancake Flour, Heinz Tomato Ketchup, Cocomalt (chocolate flavor food drink), 3 Minute Oat Flakes, Armour's Star Ham, Sunkist California Orange Juice, Fleishman's Yeast, Gulden's Mustard, Sanka Coffee (caffeine-free), Knox Gelatine, Eagle Brand Condensed Milk, Minute Tapioca, Snowdrift (canned fat product for cooking), Beech-Nut Peanut Butter, College Inn Chicken A La King (can), Underwood Deviled Ham, Ovaltine, Sunshihe Crackers, Cookies & Cakes

[Morristown NJ] Daily Record newspaper, May 1-15, 1922:
Kellogg's Corn Flakes, Triscuit crackers (Nabisco), Crisco, Shredded Wheat, Argo Corn Starch, Beech Nut Gum, Nabisco Assorted Sugar Wafers, Goodman's Noodles, Sunkist Juicy Oranges & Lemons, Swift's Bacon, Wheatena

ADVERTISING COOKBOOKS
Duke Univeristy has uploaded several company advertising cookbooks from the 1920s. They are no longer protected by copyright. You can use these books to download actual recipes and pictures of the product. Check out: Jello, Fleischmann's yeast, (yeast) Minute Tapioca, Junket,Blue Ribbon Malt Extracts, Jelke Good Luck Margarine, Sunshine crackers, Maxwell House coffee,Calumet Baking Powder, Dromedary Products(figs, coconut, grapefruit etc.), and Sunkist fruit(oranges, grapefruits),

Story of a Pantry Shelf, Butterick Publishing Co., 1925. Popular American brands and their histories.

Need to make something simple and interesting for class? We recommend Ice Box Cake!

New American food introductions:
[1920] Boysenberries, La Choy Food Products, Baby Ruth & Oh Henry! candy bars,
[1921} Land O'Lakes (brand butter), Betty Crocker (General Mills), Eskimo Pie (ice cream novelty), Chuckles (fruit jelly candies), White Castle (fast food chain), Bickford's Cafeteria (family food chain), Lindy's (NYC restaurant famous for cheesecake), Sardis (NYC restaurant of the stars)
[1922] Clapp's Vegetable Soup (first commercially prepared U.S. baby food), Pep (breakfast cereal), Mounds & Charleston Chew (candy bars)
[1923] Pet Milk (canned product), Macoun apples, Welche's grape jelly, Popsicles, Reese's Peanut Butter Cups, Yoo-Hoo chocolate drink, Sanka Coffee
[1924] Caesar Salad, Wheaties (breakfast cereal), Bit-O-Honey (candy bars), fruit-flavored Life Savers, Beech-Nut Coffee, Stouffer's restaurants (NYC)
[1925] Mr. Goodbar (candy bar)
[1926] Good Humor (ice cream novelties), Safeway & IGA (supermarket chains), Hormel Flavor-Sealed Ham, Liederkranz cheese, Milk Duds (candy)
[1927] Lender's (bagels), Gerber's (baby food), Pez (breath mint/candies), Mike & Ike (coated fruit-gel candies), Kool-Aid (powdered drink mix), homogonized milk, Marriott's Hot Shoppes (chain restaurant)
[1928] Progresso (brand foods), Nehi (orange beverage), Velveeta cheese, Peter Pan Peanut butter, Butterfinger (candy bars), Barricini Candy (NYC)
[1929] Po'Boy sandwiches (New Orleans), Columbo Yogurt, Oscar Meyer wieners, Karmelkorn, 7-Up
---SOURCE: The Food Chronology, James Trager [Henry Holt:New YOrk] 1995 (p. 426-460)

• Soup kitchens & penny restaurants
• New Deal food programs
• Family dinners
• Party menus
• Formal dinner menus
• Gourmet foods??!
• World's Fair Fare, NYC 1939
• picnic menus
• school lunch suggestions
• airline foods & Hindenburg dining
• popular American brands
• new food introductions

In times of famine, war, and extreme hardship people have been known to eat things they might not consider during "normal" times. According to the food historians, the Great Depression was not such a period. Why? There was an ample, inexpensive food supply. People struggling to make put food on the table had the option of purchasing lesser grades of meat (chuck instead of sirlion beef), cheaper cuts of animal (heart, brains, feet), and manufactured substitutes (Crisco instead of butter). Folks who needed help were served by private soup kitchens and government programs. These services were in place throughout the country. This was a decade of cutting back; not starvation.

"Though the depression did not have any immediate impact or obvious effects on American cookery--the food sections of popular magazines never mentioned the terrible plight of many of their readers and only occasionally ran a feature on economical meals--still the effects were there, subtle but pervasive...when, and if, Americans did eat out in the 1930s, it was much more likely to be at an inexpensive place, serving familiar, American food, than at a fancy restaurant. And those Americans were much more likely to order coffee or a sweet, inexpensive soft drink rather than unfamiliar and expensive wine to wash down their food. The Depression also changed the way many Americans entertained at home. Except for the upper echelons of society, most families were now maidless, which made grand, formal dinner parties impossible. Instead, hostesses gave luncheons, teas, and cozy Sunday Night Suppers around the chafing dish...The Thirties aslo ushed in an era of women's clubs--whether dedicated to charitable activities, gardening, or the fine art of bridge--perhaps as a reaction to the individualistic Twenties, perhaps as a kind of atavistic huddling together against the harsh realities of the new age. And what was eaten when the clubs got together...was women's food: dainty, light, frothy, sweet, creamy, and decorated...But weren't many Americans starving in the Thirties? Not really. There was hunger, of course, but it was primarily concentrated in the poorest rural areas...And while Dust Bowl housewives might have had to make their bread inside a drawer to keep the drifting dust out, at least there was bread. Relief agencies and make-work jobs helped some of the worst off, and low food prices made everyone except the food companies happier. Sugar prices, too, were low, and in the Thirties Americans consumed more sugar per capita then they have done before or since..."
---Fashionable Food: Seven Decades of Food Fads, Sylvia Lovegren [Macmillan:New York] 1995 (p. 41-44)

"...while the Depression brought bread lines, soup kitchens, hoboes begging for food at middle-class doors, and thousands of hungry families in devastated parts of rural America, starvation was unheard-of. Persistent hunger was more common, but it was localized, affecting mainly marginalized populations who played a small role in politics or the marketplace. After the initial dilocation, when local and private relief agences were bankrupted, enough federal and state resources seem to have been mobilized to provide enough relief and/or jobs to head off serious threats to the nutrition of most of the poor and unemployed, particularly in the cities. In any event, there is no indication, in mortaility and other statistics, of an overall deterioration in the health of the nation. Falling food prices seem to have helped. Studies of low-income families in five northern industrial cities during the tough spring of 1933, when the nation's economy was in ruins, presented a bleak but by no means horrendous picture. Those whose incomes were over three dollars per person per week (not a handsome amount) consumed an average of over 3,000 calories per adult male per day. Those with incomes of two to three dollars per person per week still averaged 2,800 calories per adult male per day while only those on the very bottom, the relatively small proportion living on less than two dollars per person, lived near the margin of hunger, averaging 2,470 calories per day. Even in southern mill-towns...the poorer workers still ate better than their counterparts of twenty years earlier. While they did cut back on meat, fowl, fish, and fresh fruit, they still ate adequate amounts of vegetables, freshe and canned...This does not mean that the Depression did not scar Americans. Whether hungry or not, economic hardship was ever-present in most Americans' minds: they either experienced it, feared it, or were concerned about others living through it. But unlike the food crises which used to rack the pre-industrial world, this one took place among food surpluses, not shortages."
---Revolution at the Table: The Transformation of the American Diet, Harvey Levenstein [Oxford University Press:New York] 1988 (p. 196-7)

A survey of 1930s American cookbooks is full recipes that may appear strange/interesting to us today. These were completely "normal" back in those days. We know they were "normal" because the same recipes appear in books published in previous decades. The following recipes were included in Aunt Sammy's Radio Recipes Revised, Bureau of Home Economics, U.S. Department of Agriculture [1931]: baked bean sandwiches (mashed to a paste and served on brown bread), beef loaf (aka meatloaf), fresh beef tongue (considered a delicacy!), liver and bacon (favorite from the "Old World"), ox tail stew (a French treat), scalloped cabbage and apples (a German recipe).

SOUP KITCHENS & PENNY RESTAURANTS
1930s soup kitchens were run/funded by charitable organizations (religious groups, Ladies Aid Societies, Salvation Army etc.), community service groups, government agencies, companies, and private individuals. They relied on volunteers and donations. Depression-era Brooklyn soup kitchens most likely served different food from those in Cleveland, Houston and Bakersfield. This would have reflected the local tastes and available produce. Many other countries experienced Depression circumstances during the 1930s...their soup kitchen menus could have been altogether different.

During the Depression (as is now) food/soup kitchen cooks were experts at maximizing whatever they had on hand to serve that night. What they served, and how they served it, depended upon the facility (how big was the kitchen?), local support (food donations?), and the number of people who needed help (how far to stretch?). Sometimes the best soup kitchens could do was dole out bread and and coffee. Sometimes they could offer other foods (cakes, cookies, casseroles) donated by local charitable organizations, grocery stores or restaurants. More fortunate people where encouraged to grow "charity gardens" so that the soup kitchens could offer fresh fruits and vegetables. The most notorious of American soup kitchens was funded by Al Capone, in Chicago. According to the papers, his consitutents ate better than most.

Food notes from the New York Times:

"Soup kitchens and the missions state that they can always get meat scaps and day-old bread, frequently for nothing and always for very little, but the vegetables that make up the bulk of the soups and stews which they serve are few and far between, and those they can afford are poor and stale. Arrangements are being made to have baskets at the Grand Central and Pennsylvania Station to recieve contributions of fruit and vegetables brough in on trains."
---"Urges Charity Gardens'," New York Times, April 14, 1932 (p. 18)

"Three meals are served each day, including Sundays. Breakfast consists of coffee and a sweet roll, and dinner and supper of soup, bread and coffee, with a second or third helping permitted."
---"Capone Feeds 3,000 a Day in Soup Kitchen," New York Times, November 15, 1930 (p. 4)

"Dozens of jobless men today received food from "soup kitchens" as the city opened temporary commisaries to care for hungry families. Mayor Hoan, a Socialist, ordered the old policy armory kitchen thrown open tomorrow as a municipal kitchen. Temporary headquarters gave bread, milk, cheese and coffee to the hungry today."
---"Milwaukee opens Soup Kitchens'," New York Times, March 6, 1930 (p. 24)

"...families will be supplied with tickets entitling them to soup, and probably bread, every day. The meat and vegetables will be donated by other members of the district, and the funds to operate the kitchen have already been provided."
---"15th A.D. to Install a Soup Kitchen," New York Times, February 21, 1933 (p. 21)
[NOTE: the 15th district was considered a wealthy neighborhood. That it was installing a soup kitchen for its residents was a sad sign of the times.]

About Chicago's bread lines & food kitchens.

Why soup?
Throughout time, in almost every culture and cuisine, soups and have been the primary foods consumed by people with not much money. It is economical (can be composed of whatever the cook has on hand that day...can be stretched to feed more by adding liquid), simple to cook (one large pot, does not require much in the way of fuel/cooking appliances/utensils), easy to serve (requires only a bowl/cup and a spoon, in a pinch it can be sipped without a spoon) and requires minimal clean-up. Bread also has a long history of filling empty bellies during the worst of times.

Penny restaurants
"Penny Restaurants" were subsidized by social service organizations. The point was to provide good, hot meals to unemployed folks too proud to accept charity.

"Manhattan's newest mid-town penny restaurant is doing a rushing business...Ont he two upper floors there is a sevice change of three cents a meal, and a chance to sit down at the gleaming white tables after the diners have collected the items of thier meal cafeteria fashion...But it is on the ground floor that the penny meal plan devised by the Bernarr Macfadden Foundation is seen in its full benefits for the white-collar worker whose self-respect will not permit him to beg so long as he can find occasional work. Of such men and women there are many thousands in New York City today who obtain an occasional day's work that enables them to keep going...the Free Food Ticket Fund Committee...works in conjuction with with the penny restaurants. Mrs. Sprague said that in the las few weeks donations enough to provide 75,000 five-cent meals had been received. The organization hopes to provide 2000 meals a day for 250 days, which will require a fund of $25,000. Seventy-five per cent of the patrons of the penny restaurants are unemployed, it is estimated. At one cent an order the diners may obtain soup, cracked wheat, steamed cornmeal, steamed oatmeal, steamed hominy grits, bread pudding, stewed prunes, stewed raisins, honey, milk, tea, raisin coffee, black coffee, whole wheat doughnut, two slices of whole wheat bread or whole wheat raisin bread. For five cents...it is possible to obtain a filling lunch, for with soup, pudding and a beverage, accounted for at three cents, and order of creamed codfish on toast may be had for two cents more. Omit the pudding or the beverage, and your nickel will buy one of the three cent orders; a meat cake, fruit salad, half a grapefruit, sliced peaches, a whole wheat crumb cake, lettuce and tomates, tuna fish salad. To those who hadn't a nickel, a total average for 1200 five-cent meals have been served without charge daily at the five penny restaurants now operating in New York City. The total number of meals now being served in these restaurants averages more thean 10,000 a day. Today persons in need of one of these nickel meals must go to one of the 90 welfare organizations scattered about the city for a ticket. As some of these needy ones still have sufficient pride to dislike applying for charity in any guise, it is hoped by the penny restaurant managers that the city welfare department will soon see fit to relsease a license to permit applicants for tickets to sand in line near the mid-town restaurant, waiting their turn when a generous passer-by makes possible, by a donation of $1, for 20 of these men to eat. From 500 to 800 men have been in the Forty-third Street twice daily, satisfied to wait an hour or more on the street for the pot-luck that will come to them in the crowd, a way of getting a meal ticket without asking sometone for it... Why is the City Welfare Department holding up the license forr this line? According to the best explanation obtainable, it is thought at City Hall that it "does not look well" at this time for such a line to be seen in a mid-town street." "At this time" may be interpreted as covering vaguely a preelection period, during which Tammany would have the city wear as fair a face as possible. Thrusting a congregation of hungry men into the public eye twice daily, even on such an unfashionable thoroughfare as Sixth Avenue, is not precisely the best possible advertisment for the merits of the incumbent administration."
---"Penny Cafes That Pay Way With Hearty Nickel Meals Give Heart to Unemployed," E.C. Scherburne, Christian Science Monitor, July 14, 1933 (p. 1)

NEW DEAL FOOD PROGRAMS

• CCC camp menus: Heyburn State Park (Idaho) & Camp Sawyer (Wisconsin)

FAMILY DINNERS: 1931
The following menus are extracted from Aunt Sammy's Radio Recipes Revised, Bureau of Home Economics, U.S. Department of Agriculture [Government Printing Office:Washington] 1931

"Dinner menus for February
Scalloped oysters, five-minute cabbage, pickled beets, jellied fruit; Lima beans in tomat sauce with crisp bacon, mashed rutabaga turnip, lettuce with tart dressing, fruit, chocolate drop cookies, roast beef, Yorkshire pudding, scalloped parsnips, turnip greens, pickled cherries, Washington pie..

"Dinner menus for April
Cheese souffle, spring onions on toast, browned parsnips, olives and radishes, rhubarb Betty, pork chops, savory cooked lettuce, parley potatoes, chili sauce, jelly roll; fresh beef tongue, wilted dandelion greens, fried potato cakes, banana pudding...

"Dinner menus for July
Cold sliced meat, potato salad, rolls, peaches and cream, iced coffee, tea, or chocolate; fried or broiled chicken, new potatoes, peas, currant jelly, strawberry ice cream, vanilla wafers; broiled ground beef on toast, lima beans, fried tomatoes, Spanish cream...

"Dinner menus for October
Scalloped onions and peanuts, spinach, hot biscuits, catsup, lemon pie; cold boiled ham, succotash, carrots, cold slaw, green tomato pie; cream of vegetable soup, oven-toasted bread, grated cheese and lettuce salad, apple sauce, hot gingerbread; roast chicken, mashed potatoes, Brussels sprouts or some other green vegetable, crabapple jely, peanut-brittle ice cream, sand tarts..."

FAMILY MEALS: 1935
The following menus are extracted from Ida Bailey Allen's Cooking, Menus, Service, [Garden City:New York] 1935

Breakfast (fall menus) (p. 20-21)

1. Stewed prunes, corn flakes and milk, boiled eggs, toast and butter, coffee, milk.
2. Oatmeal cooked with dates, top milk, bacon, muffins and butter, coffee, milk.
3. Pears, cracked wheat, top milk, creamed codfish on toast, coffee, milk.

PARTY MENUS

"Club Party Menu
Ice cream or punch, small cakes or sandwiches, coffee, butter balls, petit fours, mapel meringue cookies.
"Chinese Supper
"Chicken soup with noodles, Chicken Chop Suey, Chinese rice, egg foo yung, tea rolls, preserved kumquats, tea.
"Cocktail Parties
Beverages: tomato juice cocktail, Dubonnet and sherry, ice cubes, charged water, ginger ale, burbon, rye, and Scotch whiskey. Planner of hot appetizers: sardine snacks, rolled toast with mushrooms, rolled toast with asparagus, cheese puffs, deviled olives, chicken livers in bacon blankets, crabmeat or lobster, small canapes, sausage snacks or cocktail sausate in snack holder. Platter of cold appetizers: rainbow rye bread appetizer, canapes of smoked salmon, stuffed celery stalk with crabmeat, caviar sandwiches piped with cream cheese, rolled sandwiches, filled with mock pate de foie gras or any spread, dried beef snacks.
"Afternoon Tea or Coffee
Shrimp aspic with Thousand Island Dressing, Sally Lunn, Himmel Trote or caramel tea rolls, poppyseed roll, coffee.
"Children's Supper Party
Bouillon, croutons, chicken timbales or mousse, mashed potatoes with parsley, jellied oranges, bread and butter sandwiches or orange and nut bread or butterscotch toast, sunshine cake, vanilla ice cream, daisy cream candy.
"Children's Birthday Menus
Creamed chicken, animal shaped sandwiches, milk or orangeade, birthday cake with candles, junket custard or chocolate rice, marshmallows or date and walnut bonbons.
"Washington's Birthday Luncheon
Halves of oranges, with Maraschino cherries in center, chicken a la Maryland, with drum sticks, southern sweet potatoes, Virginia corn bread, cherry salad, Boston brown bread, chcoolate log cake (cocoa roll), nuts, raisins, coffee, Washington punch.
"Saint Patrick's Day Party
Halves of grapefruit with green Maraschino cherry in center, olives, celery and nuts, cream of spinach soup with shamrock shaped toast, pork chops with apples, onions and green peppers, O'Brien potatoes, clover leaf rolls, shamrock salad with Irish dressing (Vinaigrette), salted wafers, Erin Ice (Creme de Menthe ice) or blanc-mange, with a bit of "Ould Sod" (grated sweet chocolate), potato chocolate torte, mint wafers, tea."
---The Settlement Cook Book, Mrs. Simon Kander [Settlement Cook Book Co.:Milwaukee WI] 1936 (p. 608-616)

FORMAL DINNERS
You will find dozens of elegant dinner menus from the 1930s online, courtesy of the Los Angles Public Library. Many of these menus were composed for black-tie type events. Search date 193*

GOURMET FOODS??!

The Great Depression was truly a difficult time for most Americans. Money was scarce and food was precious. On the other hand? We find evidence of fancy foods and complicated recipes in this period. Not everyone was standing on soup kitchen lines. Many conservative, farsighted *well-to-do* and middle class folks were wise enough to keep money stashed in other places besides the stock market and banks. They continued to prepare fine food, patronize high-end restaurants, and take cruises featuring opulent multi-course dinners. Please note: this was a very small percentage of the population.

Magazines and newspapers are the best reflection of popular foods connected with a specific period and place. They focus on trendy, popular fare made with readily available ingredients. Magazines targeting the wealthier classes offered ads for higher end products. Today we might call some of these "gourmet." Newspapers are best for locally available products (food ads) and sample menus (published by society columns and restaurants). Your local public librarian can help you identify nearby libraries owning these old sources. You will need to check them yourself...ads are not generally indexed or online.

The following menus were published in the Ladies' Home Journal, August 1932:
"Sunday Midday Dinner: Corn soup, Fricasseed Chicken with Brown Rice, Broiled Tomaoes, Avocado-and-Lettuce Salad, Blueberry Pudding, Cream or hard sauce, Iced Tea or Black Coffee.
Monday Luncheon: Hot Toasted Hamd-and-Cheese Sandwiches, Sliced Peaches and Cream, Cookies, Egg Lemonade or Milk.
Dinner: Iced cantaloupe, Kentucky Succotash Garnished with bacon, Hearts of Lettuce, French Dressing, Toasted Wafers, Creamy Rice Pudding Frappe, Tea, Coffee." (p. 32)

"Wednesday Dinner: Cocktail of Mixed Melon Balls, Minute Steaks, French Fried Potatoes, Sauteed Mushrooms, Buttered Summer squash, Vanilla Junket with Raspberries, Coffee or Iced Tea...
Saturday Luncheon: Chilled Tomato Cocktails, Salmon Loaf, Molded Potato Salad, Hawaiian Coleslaw, Olives, Spiced Sekel Pears, Water-Cress-and-Lettuce Sandwiches, Buttered Nut Bread, French Peach Pie, Hot Coffee, Grape-Juice Lemonade, Milk." (p. 38)

Menus from the S.S. Aleutian, sailing Alaska's Inside Passage, 1932: 1, 2, 3 & 4.

POPULAR AMERICAN BRANDS

These items were advertised in Good Housekeeping, December 1930:
Franco-American Spaghetti (can), Armour's Star Ham (bagged, not canned; includes recipe: Fixed Flavor Star Ham Omelet), Junket (Vanilla, Orange, Chocolate, Raspberry, Lemon, Coffee), Fleischman's Yeast (promoted to mothers as health food during pregnancy), Baker's Cocoa (promoted as health food for children), bananas (Banana Growers Association: promoted as health food for children), Del Monte Tomato Sauce (can), Land O'Lakes Sweet Cream Butter, Uneeda Bakers Fruit Cake (National Biscuit Company), Gerber's Strained Vegetables (vegetable soup, spinach, carrots, prunes, peas, tomatoes, green beans), Heinz Mince Meat (glass jar), Bere Rabbit Molasses (can), Steero Cubes (bouillon cubes), Richardson & Robbins Plum Pudding (can), Ovaltine (promoted as health food for children), Del Monte peaches (can), Wrigley's Double Mint Chewing Gum (peppermint flavor; promoted as an inexpensive beauty aid), Gulden's Mustard (glass jar: with recipe for Savory Beef Rolls), Wheateana, GWashington Coffee, La Choy food products (sprouts, soy sauce, kumquats, water chestnuts, chow mein noodles, cub kum, cooked rice, brown sauce, bamboo shoots, sub kum chop suey), Ballared Pancake Flour (box mix), Pillsbury's Pancake Flour (box mix; promoted as a "modern kind of pancake"), Diamond Walnuts (with recipes for Velvet Fudge, Diamond Chicken Soup, Cheese and Walnut Roast), Ralston Whole Wheat Cereal, None Such Mince Meat (box), Knox Gelatine, Gold Medal Cake Flour ("Soft as Silk": promoted as correcting common cake baking mistakes).

Ladies' Home Journal, August 1932:
Kraft Mayonnaise (glass jar), Crisco (can), Campbell's soup (canned: asparagus, bean, beef, bouillon, celery, chicken, chicken-gumbo, clam chowder, consomme, julienne, mock turtle, muligatawny, mutton, ox tail, pea, pepper pot, printanier, tomato, tomato-okra, vegetable, vegetable-bee, vermicelli-tomato), Heinz Cooked Spaghetti (can), Knox Sparkling Gelatine (box), Colman's Mustard (canned: powdered mustard), Wesson Oil (can), Sanka coffee (can), Welch's Grape Juice (glass bottle), Pet Milk (canned: for creamy human desserts, not animal's food!), Hires Root Beer (box: extract to make 8 bottles), Cliquot Club Ginger Ale (bottles), Kellogg's Rice Krispies (box), Cream of Wheat (box), Chase and Sanborn's Coffee (can), Libby, McNeill & Libby's Corned Beef (tin: "Grand for Picnics!")

Good Housekeeping, September 1936:
Crisco, Campbell's Soup, Chase & Sanborn coffee (bag), Franco-American Spaghetti (can), Sanka coffee (can: caffeine-free coffee), Armour and Company (canned: Star brand corned beef hash, beef and noodles, spaghetti and meatballs, chile con carne, tamales), Royal puddings (box: chocolate and vanilla), Ovaltine (Swiss-food drink), Sunkist California Lemons (fresh), Kellogg's Kaffee-Hag Coffee (canned: "Saves Your Nerves"), Royal gelatine (box: "Quick Setting"), Sterling International Salt (box: "Steam-sterilized), Tender Leaf Tea (box: loose tea), Swift's Premium meats (ham & bacon), National Biscuit Company's Ritz Crackers (box: "Try Ritz...they're marvelous alone...and see how they improve appetites for salads and vegetables), Wesson Oil (can), Pet Milke (canned & irradiated), Gerber's baby foods (canned: vegetable soup), Kraft cheese (foil packets: American, Philadelphia Cream Cheese, Old English), Gold Medal flour (paper bag), Underwood Deviled Ham (can), Heinz Strained Foods (canned: for baby--strained vegetable soup, peas, green beans, spinach, carrots, beets, prunes, cereal, tomatoes, apricots and applesauce), Nehi Carbonated Orange Beverage (bottle), Kellogg's Rice Krispies (box), Morton's Salt (cylindrical cardboard container: "When It Rains It Pours" logo), Land O' Lakes Butter (1 pound, 4 foil-wrapped sticks).

Women's Home Companion, January 1938:
Campbell's soups (canned: vegetable, bean with bacon, Scotch broth, noodle with chicken), Swift's Premium (ham and bacon), California cling peaches, Delmonte vegetables (canned: peas, asparagus, corn), Del Monte dried fruits (boxed: raisins, prunes, apricots & peaches), Franco-American Spaghetti (canned), Campbell's tomtato juice (canned), Sunkist lemons (fresh lemons/juice), Heinz vinegar (bottles: cider, malt, tarragon flavored malt & distilled, white), Wheateana (box), Wesson oil, Royal Baking Powder, Jelke's Good Luck Vegetable Oleomargarine, Junket Rennet Powder, Crisco

Nationally-known American candy brands circa 1935:
Tootsie pops
Hershey Bars
Butterfingers
Milk Duds
Baby Ruth
Whitman samplers (box of candy)
Lifesavers
NECCOs (& conversation hearts)
Mounds
Milky Ways
Heath bars
Snickers
SOURCE: The Century in Food: America's Fads and Favorites, Beverly Bundy & Candy: The Sweet History, Beth Kimmerle

American food brands introduced in the 1930s:

[1930]
Birds Eye Frosted Foods
Wonder Bread (sliced)
Hostess Twinkies
Mott's Apple Sauce
Snickers candy bars (Mars, Inc.)
French's Worcestershire Sauce
Chock Full o'Nuts chain restaurants (New York City)
Philadelphia Cheese Steak (Pat's)

[1931]
Beech-Nut Baby Foods
Bisquick (General Mills)
Ballard Biscuits (cardboard tube packed refrigerator dough)
Wyler's Bouillon Cubes
Hotel Bar Butter
Tootsie Pops

[1932]
Frito Corn Chips
Skippy Peanut Butter
3 Musketeers (candy bar)
Heath bar (candy bar)

[1933]
Nestle Toll House Chocolate Chip Cookies
Campbell's Chicken Noodle and Cream of Mushroom soups
Kraft Miracle Whip
Tree-Sweet canned orange juice
E. & J. Gallo winery founded

[1934]
Pet Evaporated Milk
Wild Cherry flavor Life Savers
Royal Crown Cola
Carvel (ice cream restaurants)
Ritz Crackers [Nabisco]

[1935]
Adolph's Meat Tenderizer
Kit Kat bar
Five Flavors Life Savers
ReaLemon Lemon Juice

[1936]
Goya brand foods
Waring blender
Betty Crocker (General Mills)
Elsie the Cow (Borden)
Spry (Unilever)
Hungry Jack pancake mix (Pillsbury)
Chunky Chocolate bar
Mars Almond Bar
Fifth Avenue (candy bar)
Orangina (soft drink)
Howard Johnson's restaurant chain

[1937]
Pepperidge Farm Bread
Kix cereal (General Mills)
Spam (Hormel)
Kraft Macaroni & Cheese Dinner
Ragu Spaghetti Sauce
Sky Bar (New England Confectionery Co.)
Rolo (candy)
Smarties (Rowntree candy)

[1938]
Lawry's Seasoned Salt
Mott's Apple Juice
Nescafe (instant coffee)

[1939]
Lay's Potato Chips
Cream of Wheat (5 minute)
Dairy Queen (ice cream stores)
---SOURCES: The Food Chronology, James Trager [Owl Books:New York] 1995 & The Century in Food, Beverly Bundy [Collector's Press:Portland OR] 2002

World's Fair Fare, New York City, 1939

"Consider for a moment the herculean task of feeding 50,000,000 people. Yet that is the number of visitors expected at the New York World's Fare of 1939. Statisticians predict that each visitor will spend seven to seven and one-half hours within the grounds per visit. Since during a period of seven hours the average person eats at least twice, the imagination staggers at the amount of food that will be consumed each day at the Fair. Considering, further, the well-known effect of fresh air and exercise upon the appetite, it is not unlikely that many will eat a third time. Architects planning restaurants figure in acres, dietitians in tons...Comfortably to ffe this multitude is a gigantic undertaking. Eighty restaurants wtih a total seating capacity of 43,200 will be necessary to meet the need...To ally any lurking feat that the cost of eating at the fair may be prohibitive, let it be said that plans have been made to fit every pocket-book. There will be hot dogs and hamburgers; snack bars, sandwich bars, beer gardens. One company will specialize in hot roast beef sandwiches. There will be moderate-priced table d'hote meals and all kinds of dining up to and including the de luxe. There need be no disappointment for those people who can never forget that perfect dish found in a little French restaurant, or those who long to taste again the Rijstaple of the Netherland's far-off and exotic East Indies. Americans in recent years have become fond of dining al fresco, and this prediliction has not been forgotten in the planning of eating places...One of the most interesting, as well as one of the largest, of the restaurants will boast an American cuisine, and to make ordering easy for guests from across the seas there will be waiters fluent in a dozen different tongues...Of importance in the pageant of American food will be that which comes from the sea...for New York can provide some of the finest seafood in the world. Inspite of the profuse offerings of luxuries to be found upon the menus at the Fair, there will be some visitors with less experimental palates...For them there is to be a restaurant where under one roof may be found special local dishes from twenty sections of the United States...The foreign groups will do their part to gratify all types of palates, even the most curious. In fact, it will be possible on the Flushing Meadows to take a gourmet's trip around the world. ...Among the exotic setting will be the Japanese...vistors may consume sukiayki...or the more elaborate feast which is called by the Japanese "banquet food."...In the Italian section there will be two restaurants, the favorite spaghetti to be served inone, and tin the other formal Italian dishes...Perhaps the Swedish and Norwegian smorgasbords might be called the ultimate in snack bars... Rumania hopes to import game; Belgium's offering will include her excellent sorrel soup...There will be Turkish coffee,...hot chile con carne from Mexico. From Greece will come liquors and rare fruits, and an unforgetable delight will be the strawverries from the little Grand Duchy of Luxembourg--strawberries dripping ripe, in Moselle wine. France will serve French food de luxe in an equally de luxe setting...[serving] turbot of sole, souffle au rhum, lobster thermidor, poulet farci en cocotte..."
---"There'll be All Kinds of Food at the Fair," Kiley Taylor, New York Times, January 20, 1939 (p. SM9)
[NOTE: We have a copy of the New York World's Fair Cook Book: The American Kitchen, Crosby Gaige, produced from the regional American restaurant reference above. It contains regional and state-by-state suggested menus with recipes collected from local professional home economists. We can send you sample pages.]

Belgian restaurant menu

• Government intervention (rationing, victory gardens, & nutrition education)
• Military rations
• Rationing in Great Britain
• USO canteen fare
• Menus: restaurant, family & buffet
• Hors d'Oeuvres and cocktails
• Picnic foods
• School lunches (packed by mom)
• Popular American brands
• New food introductions
• Candy bar prices

The 1940s were all about rationing, protein stretching, substitutions, rediscovering "grandma's foods", and making do with less. Home cooks made sugarless cookies, eggless cakes, and meatless meals. Cookbooks, magazines, government pamphlets, and food company brochures were full of creative ideas for stretching food supplies. Why the shortage? Food was needed to food soldiers fighting World War II. Farmers and food manufacturers were tapped to supply growing military needs, thus creating a shortage of foods available for domestic civilian consumers.

Rationing was introduced in the United States by the Office of Price Administration in 1942 as a way to equitably distribute diminishing food supplies. The American government encouraged homeowners to create Victory Gardens, small plots of fruits and vegetables to supplement personal and community food supplies. Nutrition information was also widely disseminated to help home cooks create balanced meals for their families. The National School Lunch Act was passed in 1945, extending Roosevelt's New Deal WPA committment to feeding America's hungry children.

After the war, many new products were introduced to the American public. These "convenience foods" (dehydrated juice, instant coffee, cake mixes, etc.) were the result of military research. Not all of these were embraced enthusiastically, as traditional homemakers preferred to cook "the old fashioned" way once rationed ingredients were readily avialable.

Other countries also faced similar shortages due to World War II. The United Nations created the Food and Agriculture Organization in 1945 to combat hunger around the world.

RECOMMENDED READING
Grandma's Wartime Baking Book/Joanne Lamb Hayes--history notes & modernized recipes
Grandma's Wartime Kitchen/Joanne Lamb Hayes---WWII American cooking notes and recipes
Fashionable Foods/Sylvia Lovgren---food fads by decade
American Decades: 1940-1949/Victor Biondi (editor)

GOVERNMENT INTERVENTION (rationing, victory gardens, food supply, & nutrition education)

• Food rationing book (1942)
• Nutritional posters (1942)
• Victory Gardens, lesson plan, includes background and posters (1941-1945)
• Crop Harvests at Home in America During World War II (includes posters)
• Co-ops help supply war effort, U.S. Dept. Of Agriculture
• 99 Ways to Share Meat, USDA (1943)

MILITARY RATIONS/SOLDIER FOOD

• WWII Army rations/Quartermaster School (includes photographs)
• K rations, MRE's & popular products
• Compare with rations pre & post WWII
• Thanksgiving menu (1944)
• Ship's Service Cafe menu, Guantanamo Bay
• Food at Camp Harmony (Japanese relocation center, Washington state)

RATIONING IN GREAT BRITAIN

• Wartime rationing, British Nutrition Foundation
• Sainsbury's & rationing I & II
  
• The Rationing Challenge, interactive lesson plan & Menuette, card game circa 1945

AMERICAN RESTAURANT MENUS
Los Angeles Public Library Digital Menu Collection, [search date 194*]

AMERICAN HOME MENUS: 1944
These are extracted from the Good Housekeeping Cook Book, New Edition, completely revised 1944 [Farrar & Rinehart:New York].

BREAKFAST (p. 161)

1. Orange juice, choice of cereal, scramble eggs with cheese, whole wheat toast, coffee, milk.
2. Halves of grapefruit, choice of cereal, bacon omelet, tosted English muffins, coffee, cocoa.
3. Strawberries, cream, choice of cereal, poached eggs on toast (with deviled ham), coffee, milk.

BRUNCH (p. 894)

1. Orange juice topped with mint, creamed ham and mushrooms, waffles de luxe, maple syrup, apple butter, coffee, milk.
2. Sliced peaches and raspberries, choice of cereal, Canadian bacon, baked eggs with cheese sauce, brioche, coffee, milk.
3. Chilled honeydew melon, pan-fried sausages, fried tomatoes in cream gravy, cornmeal muffins, coffee, milk.

LUNCH/SCHOOL LUNCH BOX MEALS (p. 846-7)

1. Cream of tomato soup, crackers, raw minced carro and cabbage sandwich (add a little mayonnaise), deviled eggs, soft molasses cookies, apple.
2. Vegetable chowder, crackers, peanut butter and orange marmalade sandwiches, celery, packaged cookies, pear.
3. Salad of mixed vegetables, pimiento cheese sandwiches, hot water gingerbread, banana, milk.

LUNCH/BOXED LUNCHES FOR HARD WORKERS (p. 848-9)

1. Meat loaf sandwiches, spreading cheese and piccalilli sandwiches, celery, peaches, chocolate brownies, milk.
2. Sliced ham and egg salad sandwiches, cottage cheese and pickle relish sandwiches, grapes, fig bars, milk.
3. Liverwurst sandwiches, egg sandwiches on brown bread, cole slaw, mince turnovers, hot cocoa.

CANAPES AND HORS D'OEUVRES (p. 106-116)
Canapes with spreads (avacado, blue and cream cheese spread, hame and olive ), welsh rarebit toasties, cocktail sausages, raw vegetable platter (with Thousand Island dressing or creamy horse radish sauce), stuffed celery stalks.

DINNER/OVEN (p. 277-8)

1. Liver loaf, mashed potatoes, buttered spinach, hearts of lettuce, French dressing, Melba toast, apple-cheese crisp, cream, coffee.
2. Scallopine of veal, boiled white rice, baked pared hubbard squash, cole slaw, whole wheat bread, jellied coffee souffle.
3. Tomato juice cocktail, baked mustard corned beef, scalloped potatoes, buttered Brussels sprouts, rye bread, orange sherbert, coffee.

DINNER/TIMESAVING (p. 870-1)

1. Quick-seared hamburgers, sauteed bananas, buttered spinach, radish salad, French dressing, bread, applesauce, sponge cake, tea, milk.
2. Canned onion soup, canned baked beans, tomato salad with cheese dressing, toasted canned brown bread, canned grapefruit sections in grape juice, coffee, milk.
3. Pan-fried sausages, canned spaghetti with tomato soauce, cold cooked broccoli on lettuce calad, French dressing, rolls, coffe ice cream, tea.

DINNER/WHEN LIVING ALONE (p. 873)

1. Sauteed fish fillets, buttered limas (add some minced onions), radish and cucumber salad, bread, coffee ice cream, canned chocolate sauce, tea.
2. Liver and bacon, buttered asparagus, individual tossed mixed greens salads, sliced peaches, cream, coffee, milk.
3. Tomato juice, sausage cakes, corn on the cob, packaged Melba Toast, pineapple and apple salad, cheese, crackers, coffee, milk.

AMERICAN HOME MENUS, NOVEMBER 1943

"Monday
Breakfast: Tomato juice, ready-prepared whole grain or enriched grain cereal with whole milk, buttered enriched white toast.
Lunch: Panned kidney beans, pickled beets, raisin bread, butter or fortified margarine, gelatine fruit dessert.
Dinner: Meat ball stew, pickle relish, lettuce, nippy mayonnaise dressing, rye bread, butter or fortified margarine, pudding, lemon sauce.
Lunch box: Sliced ham loaf on enriched white bread, peanut butter "pop-u," sandwich filling on raisin bread, cottage cheese, wedge of cabbage, lemon sponge cake.

"Wednesday
Breakfast: Applesauce, corn meal griddle cakes, syrup for pancakes and waffles
Lunch: Bean and barley soup, cottage cheese and prune salad, enriched white bread, butter or fortified margarine, orange slices.
Dinner: Scrambled eggs and carrots with toasted bread cubes, creamed stewed tomatoes, cole slaw, evaporated milk dressing, whole wheat bread, butter or fortified margarine, assorted nuts and raisins.
Lunch box: Mashed potato soup, pimento sandwich filling on cracked wheat bread, peanut-prune sandwich filling on soya bread, grapefruit sections, butterscotch pudding
---Meal Planning Guide, Home Economics Institute [Westinghouse Electric & Manufacturing Co.:Mansfield OH] November 1943 (p. 20-1)

Supper/Buffet

1. Pot of baked beans, frankfurters in toasted rolls, steamed brown bread, mustard pickles, salad of mixed vegetables, raisin and walnut turnovers, tray of assorted cheeses, coffee.
2. Cold sliced baked ham, swiss cheese, peas marinated in French dressing, jellied tomato and potato salad, brown bread sandwiches, frozen chocolate russe, iced tea.
3. Veal paprika, noodles with poppy seeds, string beans, a salad of greens, velvet pie, orange mint julep, coffee.
4. Creamed oysters, eggs and mushrooms, buttered rice, peas, marinated tomatoes and cucumbers, celery, heated rolls, lemon meringue tarts, mints, coffee.
5. Neapolitan spaghetti and meat balls, salad of mixed vegetables, celery rolls in loaf, wine jelly, bran butterscotch refrigerator cookies, coffee.
6. Cranberry juice cocktail (served in the living room), ham and string bean savory, corn bread squares, tossed salad of shredded cabbage, prunes, grapes and orange sections, pumpkin pie, coffee
7. Baked corned beef with mustard sauce, cheesed new potatoes, horse-radish, salad bowl of tomatoes, celery, radishes and mixed greens, soft rolls, buttered and reheated, raspberry-whip cake, coffee.

Casseroles, 1940's style

USO canteen fare
USO canteens were true community efforts. Most of the food was donated. The fare was generally simple (sandwiches, hamburgers, hot dogs, pie, cake, coffee, &c.) and portable. The primary rule was "Have enough."

Below please find general descriptions of USO canteen fare served in two major US urban locations:

"The food here...is donated--some by businessmen, supplying milk, coffee, meat, candy, fruit and so on, and the rest by housewives or clubs, many of which undertake to provide cookies, cakes or pies every week. This is a big-city adventure in small-town collaboration--the center is run exactly on the principle of a small-town church social, in which Mrs. Jones bakes the cake, Mrs. Smith makes the veal loaf, and Mrs. Brown leads the dishwashing committee. The only difference is in size--hundreds of Mrs. Joneses bake cakes for this one. It takes food in sizable amounts. On busy week end found the canteen serving 2300 cakes, 1250 pounds of hot dogs, 1475 hot-roast-beef sandwiches, 1700 pies, 450 pounds of cookies and 525 dozen doughnuts--all contributed. It took 185 pounds of coffee to supply the demand, and in addition the boys drank 300 gallons of milk, which is a favorite tipple in this spot. On the side, they ate seventy-five pounds of popcorn, potato chips and pretzels, 195 dozen ice cream cups, ten cases of oranges, fourteen boxes of apples and 500 pounds of candy...Mrs. Edward J. Kelly, wife of Chicago's mayor, brought a cake to the canteen one day just after Pearl Harbor, and found the volunteer workers were running out of food...she threw her mink coat on a chair, rolled up her sleeves and began working twelve hours a day. As chairman of the canteen, she has a remarkable staff of volunteer helpers, ranging from society matrons to their own maids, contributing maid's day off. It was Mrs. Kelly who contributed what many of the lads regard as the final touch to Chicago's hospitality. Some of the center's guests ate fast and hard, as if not sure where their next meal as coming from. Soemtimes they stashed a spare hot dog in their pockets to eat later. Mrs. Kelly inaugurated a new service. She began packing box lunches for the hungry ones to take along when they left. Service ment stationed in or near Chicago, or in the city on leave, frequently spent the entire week end in the center, taking breakfast, lunch and dinner there. Their choice of diets sometimes startles the woemn behind the counter. There was the yeoman, for example whose favorite breakfast consisted of Swiss cheese on rye with vanilla ice cream. Boys from the RAF never fail to try hot dogs, having read that their King and Queen ate this odd American delicacy when visiting the United States..."
---"Chicago Throws a Party," Saturday Evening Post, July 18, 1942 (p. 62)

"Women provide treats...women's groups send enough home-made cake for each day in the month. Not intended to substitute for the army mess but to offer "treats," the canteen serves, besides cake, sandwiches, coffee, milk, punch and occasionally candy and fresh fruit. The soldiers heartily endorsed the canteen's offerings."
---"14,000 Service Men Guests of Brooklyn USA in Month," Catherine Maher, New York Times, November 29, 1942 (p. D3)

"Whe it's time to serve, bring forth those perennial masculine favorites. If you are having a hot dish, serve cheese frankfurters, tomato rarebit, spaghetti, hamburgers or baked stuffed potatoes. Pile stacks of sandwiches on the table, or spiced bread and a selection of cheeses. Original dishes are appealing since soldires get tired of unimaginative eating, substantial and nutritive though army fare is. Consider distributing your refreshments in individual paper bags. If you can get waxed apper, wratl thick sandwiches in it, together with cake and cookies, paper spoon, and napkin, and any ice cream cup. Pass piping hot coffee separately. You can handle large crowds this way, especially if you have each woman in the community wrap several such food bundles before the party. All the cleaning up necessary is a quick collection of paper bgs, which is just a few minutes' work. For soldiers with a sweet tooth, try Honey Ice Cream or Honey Marshmallows. Hot pie are applause winners, always. Honey Spice Cake is delicious, easy to prepare, and kind to your sugar ration. Even if the boys don't have a lean and hungry look, they never get their fill of good strong coffee and cake. Make the food simple and adequate and the boys wil return to camp pleased with your hospitality."
---Wartime Entertaining, Ethel X. Pastor [Consolidated Book Publishers:Chicago] 1942 (p. 17-18)
[NOTE: This booklet has an entire chapter devoted to canteen entertaining. If you would like us to fax or mail please let us know.]

HORS D'OEUVRES AND COCKTAILS
Suggestions from the Good Housekeeping Cook Book, New Edition, completely revised 1944 [Farrar & Rinehart:New York]:

"Canape spread-your-owns
An informal way of serving a first course of canapes is to arrange several canape spreads each in a small, attractive bowl. Arrange the bowls on a tray, along with individual butter spreads. Put the tray on a convenient table in the living room. Beside it, arrange plates of assorted crackers, with toasted bread, Melba toast, bread sticks, potato chips, celery sticks or, if desired, halves of hard-cooked eggs from which the yolks have been removed and used in one of the spreads. Then let the guests spread their own canapes and fill their own celery sticks and eggs, to be eaten with fruit juice, vegetable juice, or other cocktails. Or if you are having a leisurely meal and can take a little more than the usual time for the first course, bring in your toaster, and toast crisp hot pieces of bread for the assorted spreads in bowls. In fact, you can buy a combination toaster and tray with several dishes designed to hold assorted canape spreads. Such spread-your-owns are excellent too as an afternoon snack, served with tea or coffee." (p. 109)

Spread recipes offered by this book are: avocado, blue and cream cheese, crabmeat, cream cheese and egg, giblet and egg, ham and olive, mock pate de foie gras (made with liverwurst), sardine and egg, sherry cheese, and "spread-your-own," (chopped frankfurters blended with mustard, sour pickles, and mayonnaise). (p. 109-111)

"Hors D'Oeuvres
Hors d'oeuvres, like canapes, should be of such a size that they can be easily eaten in one or two mouthfuls. You may arrange two or three varieties on a tray as an accompaniment to a first course of fruit juice, vegetable juice or other kinds of cocktails, served in the living room before luncheon, dinner, or supper. Frequently one or several kinds of hors d'oeuvres which can be easily eaten with the fingers are arranged on a platter and passed to each guest, at the table, as an accompaniment to the first course of tomato juice, clam juice, or similar cocktail, which is in place at each cover just before or after the guests sit down. If you want something unusual as a refreshment for an afternoon or evening party, a club meeting or afternoon tea--try serving an assortment of hors d'ouvres such as those which follow with a cup of tea or coffee, or with a cooling vegetable juice or fruit juice cocktail." (p. 111-2)

Hors d'oeuvre recipes offered by this book are: apple and salami porcupine, cheese pecans, chicken liver and bacon, cocktail sausages, dried beef roulades, green or ripe olives in garlic French dressing, potato chip snappies (bleu cheese and minced onion spread thinly on potato chips), raw carrot-cheese, raw vegetable hors d'oeuvre platter, salami sandwiches, shrimp (served with cocktail or horseradish sauce), stuffed celery stalks stuffed with cream cheese & crushed pineappe, seedless raisins, minced onion, horseradish, bleu cheese, salmon or any of the above canape spreads), stuffed cheese olives, stuffed olives and bacon, stuffed olives in anchovy butter.

Fruit, fish and vegetable cocktails
"Fruit and fish cocktails are often served in cocktail glasses, designed for the purpose, which fit into bowls holding crushed ice. If these are not available however, or a simple service is desired, sherbet glasses may be used instead. In either case, arrange the bowl or sherbet glass on a small plate, and then place on the service plate at each cover, either just before the guests sit down or immediately thereafter. They oyster fork for the the fish cocktail, or the spoon for the fruit cocktail, should be placed at the extreme right of the silver at the right of the service plate. Juice cocktails such as tomato, vegetable, or fresh or canned fruit juice may also be served in cocktail glasses set in bowls of crushed ice. Or, simple cocktail glasses without the bowls for ice may be used...Many hostesses like to serve a first course of tomato, vegetable, or fruit juice, or other cocktail with or without a few hors d'oeuvres...in the livingroom. The juice cocktail in cocktail glasses is passed, with a small cocktail napkin for each guest, from a tray. A small plate may be placed under each cocktail glass if desired. Then the hors d'oeuvres, one or more as preferred (select ones which can be eaten with the fingers) are passed from plate or platter. In serving such a first course in the living room, the hostess without a maid has an opportunity to slip out and get the main course on the table, while the guests are enjoying their cocktails." (p. 117)

Cocktail recipes offered by this book are: avocado, bouquet (chilled melon balls, bananas, grapes, orange & grapefruit), broiled grapefruit with sherry, chilled honeydew, grapefruit and avocado, grapes in orange juice, halves of grapefruit, melon balls in grapefruit juice, red raspberry and pineapple, cranberry and pineapple juice, grape juice and ginger ale, grapefruit juice and mint, minted orange juice, pineapple and grape juice, pineapple lemon foam, spiced grape juice, clam, crabmeat, crabmeat and avocado, shrimp mayonnaise, clam juice, clam and tomato juice, oysters on the half shell, sauerkraut juice, tomato juice, tomato and sauerkraut juice." (p. 118-126)

New American products introduced during the 1940s:

[1940] Arnold Bread, Red Cheek Apple Juice, Dairy Queen soft serve ice cream
[1941] M&Ms, Cheerios
[1942] Tootsie Rolls packed in US ration kits, Post Raisin Bran, Kellogg's Raisin Bran, Dannon Yogurt
[1944] Chiquita bananas
[1945] Kraft Parmesan Grated Cheese, Welch's Junior Mints, Constant Comment Tea
[1946] Pillsbury pie crust mix, frozen french fries, Ragu spaghetti sauce, French's Instant Potatoes, & Tupperware
[1947] Pillsbury hot roll mix, Reddi-Whip, cake mixes, Lady Borden Ice Cream, Almond Joy, frozen orange juice
[1948] V8 Cocktail Vegetable Juice, Nestle Instant Tea, Minute Rice, Nestle's Quik chocolate milk additive, Cheeto's brand snack foods
[1949] Kraft sliced American cheese, Fritos Corn Chips marketed nationally, Sara Lee Cheese cake
SOURCES: The Century in Food/Beverly Bundy & The Food Chronology/James Trager

POPULAR AMERICAN BRANDS

Brand name foods advertised in Woman's Day, January 1941:
Ritz Crackers (National Biscuit Company), Armour's Treet (canned processed meat product), Dromedary Ginger Bread Mix (box), Gorton's Cod Fish Cakes, Dexo (shortening, canned), White House Evaporated Milk, Gerber's Cereal Food (box), MelloWheat cereal (Ann Page brand), Premium Crackers (National Biscuit Company), Eight O'Clock Coffee (bagged, beans ground in store), Marvel bread (sliced white in cellophane wrap), Hecker's Fream Farina (box), Flako Pie Crust (box, also: Flakorn corn muffin mix and Cuplets cup cake mix), Maltex (box cereal), Beardsley's Shredded Codfish Cakes (can; "Just form and fry"), Heinz Junior Foods, SPAM (with instructions for SPAMburgers and SPAMwiches).

Good Housekeeping, August 1943:
Heinz Oven Baked Beans (jar), Lipton's Continental Noodle Soup (dehydrated soup mix), Campbell's Soup (tomato, asparagus, Scotch broth, cans), Bosco (chocolate flavored iron supplement combined with milk, jar), McCormick (spices, vanilla, celery salt, tea bags, bottles & paper boxes), Lipton tea (paper boxes), Del Monte foods (sliced peaches, jars & cans), Jell-O puddings (chocolate, butterscotch, vanilla, with recipes), Libby's drinks (tomato juice, pineapple juice, in cans), Nabisco 100% Bran cereal (box), Coleman's mustard (tin), Nabisco Shredded Wheat (box), Wesson Oil (bottle), Sunkist California oranges (fresh product), Kellogg's Rice Krispies (box), Kraft Dinner (now known as Kraft Macaroni & Cheese, box), Kraft Miracle Whip Salad Dressing (bottle), Birds Eye frosted (frozen!) Foods (box), Chicken of the Sea tuna (cans), Chef Boy-Ar-Dee Spaghetti Dinner ("dinner in a jiffy" kit includes sauce, spaghetti & cheese), Gerber's Baby Foods (cereal, box; strained & chopped foods in cans), Coca Cola (6 pack of bottles), A1 Sauce (bottle), La Rosa macaroni (spaghetti, box), B & M Baked Beans, General Mills/Betty Crocker (cake recipe using Wheaties), Underwood Deviled Ham (can), Nestle's Semi Sweet Chocolate (bar & morsels), French's Mustard (bottle), Armour and Company, "Star Brand" (frankfurters, cold cuts, sausages, canned meats, ham, bacon).

Woman's Day, October 1944:
Derby's Peter Pan Peanut Butter (creamy-smooth; includes pictures of open-face peanut butter sandwich combos), Durkee's Vegetable Oleomargarine, Herb Ox Boullion Cubes, Swift's Prem (canned meat product "Ready-to-eat, Prem is top-top meat for summer meals), Brer Rabbit Gold Label Molasses, Chef Boy-Ar-Dee Spaghetti Dinner (packaged kit includes canned parmesan style grated cheese, bottle of spaghetti sauce, box of spaghetti; "Even the children want second helpings...Inexpensive...Time-Saving"), Van Camp's Chili Con Carne (glass jar), Aunt Jemima Ready-Mix Pancakes (box), Comstock Pie Sliced Apples (glass jar), Borden's Wej-Cut Cream Cheeses, Ovaltine, Premium Crackers (Nabisco), Armour's Treet (processed meat product), Heinz Baby Foods (cereal, soup, porridge), Dromedary Gingerbread Mix (includes cookie recipes: Peanut Butter Gingies and Ginger Crispies), Cocomalt (chocolate-flavored mik enhancer with extra calcium), Kellogg's Krumbles (toasted wheat shred cereal, boxed), Derby Hot Sauce, Softastilk Cake Flour (Betty Crocker/General Mills; includes recipe for pink and white Party Cake, Gravy master, Duff's Hot Muffin Mix, Libby's Tomato Juice, Ivory Salt, My-T-Fine Desserts (pudding), SPAM, Clapp/s Baby Foods.

Good Housekeeping April 1947
Nabisco Shredded Wheat, Swift's Veal, Campbell's Soups (Vegetable, Bean with Bacon, Chicken), Crisco (includes recipe for American Beef Pie), Del Monte Corn (includes recipe for Cornpatch Casserole), V-8 Cocktail Vegetable Juice, Kraft cheeses (Velveeta, American, Old English, packed in boxes), Gold Medal Flour (includes recipe for Betty Crocker Golden Dream Cheese Souffle), Karo Syrup (includes recipe for Sea Foam Frosting), Borden's Hemo (fortified vitamin drink), Welch's fruit products (Orange Marmelade, Grape Juice, Tomato Juice, Grape Jelly, Grapelade), Libby's products (Peas, Deep-Brown Beans, Deviled Ham, Corned Beef Hash, Tomato Juice), Campbell's Strained Baby Soups (Chicken, Beef, Lamb, Liver, Vegetable), Birds Eye Frosted Foods (includes recipe for Chili Corn), Spry (pure vegetable shortening, canned), Nabisco 100% Bran, Sweetose Crystal Syrup (glass bottle), Wesson Oil (glass bottle), Cream of Wheat, Temt (canned luncheon meat), Golden Dipt (breadcrumbs), Vermont Maid Syrup, Pillsbury's Best Four (includes recipe for An Pillsbury's Coconut Fluff Cake), Contadina Tomato Paste,

Good Housekeeping, October 1948:
Cream of Rice, Kitchen Bouquet (gravy concentrate), Gerber Baby Foods (liver, veal & beef, in cans), V8 Cocktail Vegetabel Juices, Pillsbury's Best XXXX Flour (with recipe for No-Knead Kolacky), Kraft cheeses (Velveeta, Chantelle, Philadelphia Cream Cheese, Kay Cheddar), Campbell's Strained Vegetable Baby Soup (glass jar), Crisco, Swan's Down Cake Flour, Campbell's Grean Pea Soup, Heinz Baby Foods (strained green beans), Del Monte Fruit Cocktail, Carnation Evaporated Milk, Cream of Wheat, Betty Crocker Vegetable Noodle Soup (dry mix in box), French's Good Luck Pie Crust Mix, Fleischmann's Blue Bonnet Oleomargarine, Kellogg's Corn Soya, Coca Cola (aka Coke), Bisquick, Nucoa Oleomargarine, Libby's Pineapple Juice, Baker's Coconut, Kellogg's Corn Flakes, Kellogg's Variety Pack (Rice Krispies, Shredded Wheat, Pep, Corn Flakes, Krumbles, Corn Soya, Bran Flakes), Swift's Allsweet Oleomargarine, French's Mustard, Knox Gelatine, Ocean Spray Cranberries: fresh (clear bag), jellied cranberry sauce (can) & whole cranberry sauce (can), Ritz Crackers, Chicken of the Sea Tuna, Hunt's Tomato Sauce (can), PictSweet Foods (frozen vegetables, peas & corn, in boxes), My-T-Fine Lemon Flavor Pie Filling, Pompeian Olive Oil, Oreo Cream Sandwich, Gravy Master (gravy concentrate), Morton's Salt, Kraft Kitchen Fresh French Dressing (in botlle), Tootsie Fudge 'n Frosting Mix, Hip-O-Lite (marshmallow creme), Brere Rabbit Molasses, A1 sauce, Underwood Deviled Ham, Heart's Delight Fruit Nectar, Green Giant Sweet Peas (can), Marshmallow Fluff, Jolly Time Pop Corn, Vermont Maid Syrup.

Good Housekeeping, July 1949:
Sunsweet Prune Juice, V8 Cocktail Vegetable Juices, Pillsbury Hot Roll Mix, French's Mustard, Betty Crocker Split Pea Soup (dry mix in box), Campbell's Chicken Noodle Soup & Tomato Soup (cans), Jell-O, Minute Tapioca, French's Worcestershire Sauce, Baker's Coconut (with Snoflake Pie recipe), Kraft Mayonnaise, Karo Syrup (Chrystal White), McCormick Pure Vanilla Extract, Mott's Apple Products, Libby's Tomato Juice, Planters Peanuts, Jell-0 Pudding, Nabisco Sugar Wafers, Dole Unsweetened Pineapple Juice, Franco-American Beef Gravy, Underwood Deviled Ham, Amazo Instant Dessert (instant pudding), Golden Dipt Breading, Kraft Miracle French Dressing

Need to make something for class? We suggest wacky cake or:

Butterless, Eggless, Milkess cake
The original inspiration of Butterless, Eggless, Milkless cake dates back to the Medieval Ages. Spices and raisins were popular ingredients of that time. Great cakes and steamed puddings are hundreds of years old. These recipes were introduced to America by European settlers. Early American cookbooks are full of recipes for spice cakes (aka rich cakes and great cakes). Did you know up until the late 19th century fruit/spice cakes were served as wedding cakes?

Although thrifty pioneer cooks were well versed in "making do," recipes for "Butterless, Eggless, Milkless" cakes begin to nudge their way into American cookbooks during the early years of the 20th century. Why? These ingredients were sometimes difficult to obtain from World War I through World War II, and cakes such as these were often served on family tables. Crisco, salad oil, lard, mayonnaise were the most common substitutions for the butter (fat). Baking powder/soda substituted for the eggs (to make the cake rise) and water (or canned soup) was used instead of milk (liquid). White sugar was also expensive and rationed during this period. Brown sugar, corn syrup, honey and molasses were often substituted. These cakes are found under a variety of names including "War Cake" and "Depression Cake."

"Depression cake. In the March 1989 issue of Country Living, Food Editor Joanne Lamb Hayes assembled a fascinating colleciton of recipes to show "how families coped in the kitchen during the Great Depression and wartime." This sugarless, eggless cake was developed during the First World War. "Sugar, the cheapest and most compact form of energy...was saved for our boys overseas, so creatie cooks learned to use molasses, honey, or corn syrup instead. For scarce wheat, they substituted barley, oats, for corn; for butter they used vegetable oil." When the Great Depression arrived, just eleven years after the Great War, this frugal cake was renamed Depression cake."
---American Century Cookbook: The Most Popular Recipes of the 20th Century, Jean Anderson [Clarkson Potter:New York] 1997 (p. 441)
[NOTE: this book contains a recipe for Depression cake.]

RECIPES FOR BUTTERLESS, EGGLESS, MILKLESS CAKE

[1914]
"Butterless-Milkess-Eggless Cake.
2 cupfuls brown sugar
2/3 cupful Crisco
2 cupfuls water
2 cupfuls sultana raisins
2 cupfuls seeded raisins
1 teaspoonful salt
2 teaspoonfuls powdered cinnamon
1 teaspoonful powdered cloves
1/2 teaspoonful powdered mace
1/2 teaspoonful grated nutmeg
2 teaspoonfuls baking soda
4 cupfuls flour
1 teaspoonful baking powder
1 1/2 cupfuls chopped nut meats
3 tablespoonfuls warm water
Put Crisco into saucepan, add sugar, water raisins, salt, and spices, and boil three minutes. Cool, and when cold add flour, baking pweder, soda dissolved in warm water and nut meats. Mix and turn into Criscoed and floured cake tin and bake in slow oven one and a half hours. Sufficient for one medium-sized cake."
---A Calendar of Dinners with 615 Recipes, Marion Harris Neil [Procter & Gamble:Cincinnati] 1914 (p. 120)
[NOTE: Procter & Gamble manufactured Crisco shortening. This company cookbook shows the home cook how easy it is to incorporate Crisco into everyday recipes, including cakes.]

[1944]
"Butterless, Eggless, Milkless Cake (No Eggs):
1 c. Brown sugar, firmly packed
1 1/4 c. Water
1/3 c. Vegetable shortening or lard
2/3 c. Raisins
1/2 teasp. Nutmeg
2 teasp. Cinnamon
1/2 teasp. Powdered cloves
1 teasp. Salt
1 teasp. Baking soda
2 teasp. Water
2 c. Sifted all-purpose flour
1 teasp. Baking powder
Boil brown sugar, 1 1/4 c. Water, shortening, raisins, and spices together for 3 min. Cool. Add salt and baking soda which has been dissolved in 2 teasp. Water. Gradually add the flour and baking powder which have been sifted together, beating smooth after each addition. Bake in a greased and floured 8"X8"X2" pan in a moderate oven of 325 degrees F. About 50 min., or until done. Needs no frosting."
---The Good Housekeeping Cook Book, New edition, completely revised 1944 [Farrar & Rinehart:New York] 1944 (p. 698)

• Home cooking
• Theme parties
• Dinner menus
• Backyard barbecues
• Picnic menus
• School lunches
• Teen parties
• Restaurant menus (search date: 195*)
• New food introductions
• Popular American food brands

Period cookbooks and magazines tell us belly-filling simple meals prepared from pre-packaged goods were popular in the 1950s. This was a perfectly understandable reaction to recent memories of lean pantries, government rationing, and WWII soldier rations. American companies did their best to convince the "typical" 1950s American homemaker to purchase time-saving appliances and serve her family new convenience foods. Did the average home cook buy into all this convenience? Yes, but not immediately. She also liked to experiment and was intrigued by new flavors and recipes introduced by returning GIs. Welcome to the age of Hawaiian-American buffet. Food of the 1950s is much more complicated than it seems on the surface. We recommend Laura Shapiro's Something From the Oven: Reinventing Dinner in 1950s America.

1950s cookbooks, food company brochures, and popular women's magazines confirm the popularity of tuna