Thoughts On Following Recipes

 #334: Homelife

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The current New Yorker has a Margaret Talbot article on the history of 'home-economics' (based on a review of Danielle Dreilinger's “The Secret History of Home Economics: How Trailblazing Women Harnessed the Power of Home and Changed the Way We Live).  Here's one unrelated comment after another:

1. Very funny observations (example: how 'white sauce' was used in the mid-20th century as a go-to solution for guaranteeing good recipes).

2. I especially enjoyed the description of how 'the electric kitchen' was demo-ed in the early-to-mid 20th century: prominent husbands at a community gathering were turned loose with a portable electric range to show how easy everything was.

3. A distant relative of ours, who ended up living with our family in the '20s and '30s, after she'd retired, was one of the first women to receive a PhD in chemistry.  She then taught the subject at a small midwestern college.  Long ago I looked into her career, and was terribly disappointed to find that "Chemistry" was in fact home economics, though she would have studied Chemistry, initially.  What I didn't realize was that, according to Talbot's article, women found ingenious ways to convince men that they should study Chemistry.  That. for example, improvements in health, nutrition, and in-home efficiency were at stake. 

4. Though I'm a notorious ignorer of recipes, this is only because:

a) I'm frugal 

b) I'm usually time-constrained

c) I enjoy working with what's available in the kitchen   

d) Plus, I'm nearly 100% organic, yet have limited access to a wide variety of same.  

All of which points me away from recipes, though the idea of a consensus on what tastes good, or how to get the best out of life, is, I find, inherently worthy of a closer look--and often, adoption.

5. A relative on my mother's side was a dietician by training, prior to marrying.  And we have many of her recipes.  Sometime, I'll inventory the collection (mid-20th century) and see whether she adhered to the 'food pyramid'--something developed by the first home economics experts.  I fear there's likely to be more pleasing than peas-in her recipes.  At least she didn't have corporate brands for shortcuts back then.

6. Doubtless all of us have our little weaknesses when it comes to food.  For me, it's butter on bread.   Luckily, I've avoided the mindless consumption of 'desirable' food, like donuts and cake, thanks to a thorough immersion in what used to be called the "counter-culture": the avocado and cheese sandwich that was superior if it had bean sprouts in it, and definitely so if the bread was brown.