On Jul 27, 11:02*pm, bulka > wrote:
> On Jul 25, 7:31 pm, "Jean B." > wrote:
>
> > bulka wrote:
> > > A new book - stuff harvested from the WPA's America Eats project.
> > > Very mixed. *Not useful, but interesting.
>
> > > "The recipies contained in this book are to be followed exactly as
> > > written. *The publisher is not responsible for your specific health or
> > > allergy needs that may require medical supervision."
>
> > I really enjoyed that book!!! *I have since read one realted book
> > and will order it and another related book. *A good follow-on to
> > this, with recipes, is America Cooks by The Browns. *In order to
> > aid your search, "The Browns" are Cora, Rose, and Bob.
>
> > --
> > Jean B.
>
> I'm about hafway through, into The South Eats. *I start to notice the
> references to canned tomatoes, canned corn, ketchup, oleo. *Even one
> recipie for barbecue sauce, the main ingredient being three bottles of
> barbecue sauce.
>
> What happened to my fantasy that there used to be real food here.
> This is what? 1940? *Pre-interstate highways. *And folks are already
> buying food from factories. *There are stories about home hog
> butchering, as if it were something we all did, a then a recipie for
> okra gumbo with canned vegetables.
>
> I'm overreacting. *I'll assume they mean home-canned. *Probably too
> much trouble to make (or spell) Worcestershire sauce down to the
> farm. *The pieces are a mishmash of contemporay reports, reprints,
> interviews with the old folks, rural and urban, so the chronology and
> geography can get a litte confusing. *Plenty of excuses and reasons
> explanations for me to be wrong.
>
> Still, I'm a cranky, cynical romantic, and bristle at seeing catsup in
> a recipie.
>
> Love

Many of the "factory" foods you are having a problem with (referring
to the 40s) are in those recipe books because they were so new, and
such a novelty, that people really wanted to try them out and find
good uses for them. It was just the times, not a total indication of
what America was eating the majority of the time.

N.