The Eternal Struggle
What should we eat for dinner? Why is this such a stressful question? It’s easy to think that the problems we encounter in our modern lives are caused by modernity. Surely in the past, when they cooked every meal, this was much simpler…
Planning meals, day in and day out, is a bugbear to most women, yet it doesn’t need to be if you tackle it in the right spirit.”
Good Housekeeping Cook Book 1944
Nope, not even close. The above quote is only one of many. The majority of menu planning sections start with explaining how to make menu planning fun, and less of a chore. Each has their own description of what is “needed” in a meal but invites us to use creativity. The “us” here is the housewife, by the way. These sections are written with the assumption that the reader is a married woman, probably with children. There are some that deal directly with the single woman or the couple without children. However, this is usually relegated to a section – towards the back of the book.
The Essentials of Health
Dealing exclusively with 20th century cookbooks, there are some things these lists have in common. These cookbooks extol us to think of the whole day, rather than merely the dinners. They give varying amounts of different foods that should be included each day. Include moderate the amount of meat or eggs you eat and they believe that children should consume a great deal of milk. Seriously, they ask for kids to have a quart a day. This can be cooked into dishes, but the rest is drunk. Beyond that they say things often said today. “Too much sweet food should not be included” (American Woman’s Cookbook 1940). “At least one green or yellow vegetable, raw occasionally, and one other vegetable should be included each day.” Recipes for Two 1947. The major departure is bread. They want whole grain bread to be served every day, often more than once. This does not mean that we cannot learn from their basic layout.
Basics of the Day
It is considered a good idea to have some form of citrus at breakfast. Not orange juice (loaded with sugar), but an orange or other citrus. If you have a fruit juice it should be around half a cup, not a large glass like today. They even point out that it could be a tomato prepared various ways. In addition, Recipes for Two (1947) tells us to include cereal (hot or cold) or a protein dish and “breadstuff.” 1911’s Scientific Cooking with Scientific Methods would have us have cereal as well as a protein dish.
Breakfast Suggestion Scientific Cooking with Scientific Methods 1915
Baked Apples
Oatmeal with Cream and Sugar
Broiled Ham Eggs
Baking Powder Biscuits
Coffee
The Rest of the Day
Lunch and Dinner you need to eat the remainder of the recommended foods. They want…
– Meat (usually at dinner)
– Egg or other protein dish (meal not including meat)
– Two Green or Yellow Vegetables (cooked or raw)
– Starch Vegetable or Rice (this is often potato, but opinions differed on the necessity of this.
– Whole Grain Bread (Rolls, Slices of Bread, Biscuits, etc.)
Any vegetable left over after your sides should be prepared in a salad.
Adding Interest
Another aspect is color and texture. There is something dispiriting about a plate full of off-white food. The very reason they put parsley on a plate at restaurants is to have contrasting colors to please the eye. When planning a meal we choose sides that contrast the main in color. Then we address texture. Some foods are soft, others chosen for their crispness. By Contrasting colors and textures, we get a more eye and mouth pleasing meal.
“If nutrition is to be successfully applied, the homemaker must be able to prepare delicious food which appeal to the eyes and nostrils as well as to the taste buds.”
Let’s Cook It Right 1947
Then we arrive at balance. A plate full of rich, heavy foods will weigh us down. Also, a plate with foods all of the same note will make the whole meal feel dull. For instance, I serve a 1936 recipe for Macaroni and Cheese (delicious) with a Apple, Celery, and Coconut Salad. Soft, yellow Mac and Cheese contrasts in color and texture with the salad and the citrus of the dressing cuts the heaviness of the cheese. Having contrasting flavors will help you appreciate each part more.
Why Does it Matter?
Apart from the lesson in history, why do we care what they ate in the first half of the 20th century? Because more care was taken in what we put in our bodies as food. Today we serve a main, and maybe a side, not a full meal. And, of course, each meal exists in a vacuum. We aren’t trained to think about the day’s intake of food as a whole. We only think about what’s for dinner, what’s for lunch? This way of looking at meal planning makes us step back and look at our entire day’s nutrition.
Cooking for Two
And for those, like me, who aren’t a family of four, there are adjustments that make cooking for two possible. The biggest problem here is food waste. Either we have the same meal and its leftovers for half the week, or we end up throwing out perfectly good food.
The important thing here is to plan the week’s food (at least on a basic level) and scale down recipes. Old cookbooks usually tell you how many people their recipes are meant to serve (6 is normal). This means we divide by half or thirds, depending on ingredients hard to divide. If a recipe calls for 2 eggs, then cutting to a third would be difficult, but halving would work great. Plan meat meals with individual cuts, like pork chops, chicken breasts, or steak. If you want to do a roast, plan meals out of the leftover meat – pies, casseroles, soups, etc. When buying vegetables that don’t come individually, plan several dishes with them for variety.
I will do another blog devoted entirely to cooking for two, but this should get you started.
See you next week when Mom starts her series on Spinning Yarn…