Friday, October 7, 2016

Friday Video: Cooking 101 for the 20th century

Friday, October 7, 2016
Loretta reports:

Someone recently told me that the height of gourmet dining early in his adult life was Trout Almondine, and that reminded me of going to fancy restaurants decades ago, where it did indeed star on the menu.

Most of what’s in the film is strange to me, but then, I did grow up in an immigrant household, in New England, and wasn’t exposed to much of the food that my husband, for instance, grew up with in the South. Of course, watching some of our cooking shows today, the people in the film likely would have been equally puzzled.

I wonder how many of these food ideas traveled from Britain to the U.S. or vice versa. I also wonder how many of us dress to cook in the style of the woman in the first segment. But I do lust for her jewelry. And her dress. And the mid-century dishware.

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2 comments:

Regencyresearcher said...

The first segment with those fancy ways to fix things reminds me if how my stepmother thought dishes should be prepared for company. We were happy to eat the eggs while they looked like eggs. We were a sad disappointment to her. In the forties and fifties all women on TV and in the movies had to be dressed to the teeth even when demonstrating fancy touches for dinner. ladies were supposed to dress up with hat and gloves to go shopping and TV programs showed them with stockings and heels cleaning house. learned some of that campfire stuff at camp but had never heard of cooking eggs in orange peel halves. Then I guess some women decided working around the house in garter belt or girdle and stockings or later panty hose was silly because articles and books were written about women welcoming Hubby home to a clean , shining house, and neat , clean, quiet children looking at least neat and tidy , wearing heels and hose and at best looking ready for seduction. I have always preferred socks and comfortable shoes.

GSGreatEscaper said...

The outdoor cooking segment looked familiar - we used to do the dough around sticks when I went to camp around that same time. Girl Scouts still do the hollowed out orange thing but now we bake muffins inside them. And we seldom cook directly in the fire. Except, some people still do the egg and bacon inside a wet paper bag.

The egg swans were kind of cute altho the pipe cleaners were a bit minimal. Too white - might be more appealing if you used devilled eggs.

 
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