More American Food History

In my food research project, I am currently reading Something From the Oven by Laura Shapiro, and it's simply fascinating to me.  Shapiro is talking about American cooking in the 1950s, and the trends that define the era.  I'm not finished yet, but so far the trends are:

*  manufacturers who have all sorts of money invested in equipment to produce processed & packaged foods leftover from the war, and their attempts to convince American housewives to buy these bizarre food products--without, of course, condescending to actually consider what housewives might be thinking or what they actually want

*  the emergence of early women humor writers--the first women publicly willing to admit that ironing their husbands shirts while wearing high heels and pearls really isn't a fulfilling lifestyle

*  women's magazines producing dreadful recipes and articles in order to please advertisers

*  great numbers of women were in the workforce already (no matter what we like to pretend about the era), and the dual incomes were contributing greatly to the post-war prosperity, which afforded families better food choices

*  Poppy Cannon:  the woman responsible for "The Can Opener Cookbook," and perhaps the only person in existence to ever think of dousing Libby's Vienna sausages with brandy, setting them on fire, and still expect someone to eat it

It's been a very entertaining--if somewhat frightening--book, but I have had to stop reading it before bedtime after a few Spam-related nightmares.  Not to frighten you--and it will be best to not read this right before dinner--I do have to share a few memorable processed foods that manufacturers tried to persuade American housewives to try:


* canned bacon
* Tatonuts (some sort of "new potato tidbit")
* canned deep-fried hamburgers
* canned fruit gelatin
* powdered wine, sherry, and port
* ham sticks
* eggplant sticks
* dried lima bean sticks
* and several Spam-like substances:  Treat, Mor, Prem, and Snack.  Mercifully, I don't think any are still available for human consumption......