American Culinary Dominance

The advertisement below dates back to 1964.

This was a time when home freezer ownership was becoming commonplace.  At least it was in our household.  I clearly remember the big, upright Sears Frost Free Coldspot  freezer prominently ensconced next to the ancient beer fridge in the basement laundry room.  

That freezer was a godsend as it allowed mom to freeze seasonal fruit, berries, homemade applesauce and her delicious baked goods.  We'd stock-up on bakery from the day-old bread store and all manner of grocery sale items that could stand freezing found their way there.  Amazingly, that freezer was still running when I bought my first house in 1984 and it was moved into my basement laundry room where it delivered years of maintenance-free service before the power company offered me a $100 savings bond to haul it away. 

Anyway, back in the mid 1960s the market for TV dinners and convenience foods, including frozen pizzas, was expanding and naturally, Chef Boy-Ar-Dee dipped their toe in the market.

Ironically, I have no memory of a frozen pizza served our household; although we could get carryout from a local pizzeria on rare celebratory occasions.  Chef Boy-Ar-Dee was a major player in the convenience meal niche and having dominated the boxed pizza kit sector the Chef brought to market a premade frozen pizza.  Simple cheese or sausage and cheese. 

Clearly the advertising is targeted to teenagers and their parents touting the frozen pizza as the ultimate party-perfect food; freezer to table in minutes.

Notably, this was the peak of Chef Boy-Ar-Dee as an independent company.  In 1966 the brand was acquired by American Home Products; a national leader in convenience food offerings.

I have to say, the pizza pictured is not very appealing.  There, again, frozen pizzas were a novelty in 1964; and after sixty years of culinary evolution they now command their own territory in the frozen foods section of a grocery to accommodate the selection.  That's impressive progress for sure. 

I should add that I have admittedly become a pizza snob; and make my own sourdough pizza and bread dough.  I make pizza sauce made from San Marzano tomatoes grown - not in the rich volcanic soils in the shadow of Mount Vesuvius - but in marginal Door County soil in the shadow of Brussels Hill.  

And I'm rather adept at it. 

 

 

Makes My Teeth Ache

This is an interesting bit of breakfast cereal lore that dates back to the mid 1960s.  Post Sugar Sparkled Rice Krinkles and their animated mascot, an Asian boy named So-Hi (because he was ''so high").  I missed-out on this opportunity as this cereal wasn't part of our household line-up; nevertheless, each box included the So-Hi Rickshaw Racer.

For the time it was rather nifty; including easy-to-assemble parts featuring a tiny figure of So-Hi pulling a two-wheeled rickshaw.  The kit included some string and a small plastic bucket which functioned as a counterweight.  Tie the string to the rickshaw, put a coin in the bucket, hook it over the edge of the kitchen table and let the weight drop.  The falling weight would cause So-Hi and his rickshaw to zip across the table at high speed.  Fun stuff and you were always one box away from a replacement once it broke.

At the time Madison Avenue didn't have any of today's qualms about cultural tropes like gongs, a broken-English accent, conical hats or rickshaws. So-Hi was intended to be a fun and lighthearted replacement for an unsettling clown mascot dating back to the 1950s; he even had a role as a regular character on Linus the Lionhearted, a Saturday morning cartoon show funded entirely by General Foods (Post) where the characters were literally cereal mascots.

Naturally, this era used cultural characters to foster instant identity.  Frito Lay had the Frito Bandito, Pillsbury used Funny Face drink mixes with flavors like Injun Orange and Chinese Cherry.  Post had So-Hi.

Post eventually retired So-Hi realizing that Rice Krinkles didn't need the baggage of a clown that creeped-out children or a mascot becoming a textbook example of racial stereotyping.  In 1971 they repurposed their puffed-rice operation and launched a licensed and inoffensive mascot; Fruity Pebbles.  Fred Flintstone and Barney Rubble became pitchmen for sugary children's breakfast cereal.

 Now you know the rest of the story. 

American Culinary Dominance

The TV dinner represents a major shift in our 20th Century lifestyle - the moon shot  moment the aluminum-plated frozen meal met the living room.  To be clear, I haven't had a TV dinner in more than five decades; however eating in the living room persists as a cultural shift.

Believe it or not, this uniquely American gastronomical contribution to our rich culture heritage has an origin story involving C.A. Swanson & Sons.  Seems that following Thanksgiving in 1953, the company found itself with 260 tons of unsold frozen turkey sitting in ten refrigerated rail cars.  

Gerry Thomas, a Swanson salesman, inspired by the tiered aluminum trays used by airline commissaries envisioned a complete frozen meal that could be heated and consumed smack dab in front of a television.  In 1954 Swanson launched the TV Dinner and sold 10 million turkey dinners that year.  The original price was 98 cents. 

Naturally, this coincided with the launch of the space race and all things aluminum and before too long menu offerings included entrees like fried chicken, Salisbury steak, meatloaf and eventually a fourth compartment featuring a dessert such as a brownie or fruit cobbler.  Swanson ditched the 'TV Dinner' name from their packaging by 1962; nevertheless, just like Kleenex tissues the name stuck as part of our vast genericized American cultural lexicon.

With the proliferation of microwave ovens, by the mid 1980s plastic and paperboard packaging conspired to deliver your frozen gourmet feast in less than ten minutes!  

Sure, I'm being modestly snarky because I'm a food snob but I admit that this mash-up of industrialization and frozen food technology was a boon to working families struggling to get dinner on time and on the table.  Trust me, I've eaten my share of frozen Banquet turkey pot pies served at the temperature of molten lava on the surface of the planet Mercury.   You might have too.

Anyway, the Chopped Sirloin of Beef (hamburger) swimming in a ubiquitous brown gravy highlighted a partnership between Swanson and Pepperidge Farm featuring a blueberry muffin in the fourth compartment thus elevating the culinary experience to the level of festive celebration.  Mad Men advertising brilliance!

Between you and me the inclusion of crinkle-cut fries and buttered peas is a monument to the pinnacle of American industrial processed food know-how, sodium content and poor food pairings.  The birthday candle and even the smiling cat screams domestic tranquility.

Dammit; this is the Right Stuff.  This is what Made America Great!  

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Serving Suggestion

Molly Bee was an American country music singer and guitarist famous for her 1952 recording of the early perennial "I Saw Mommy Kissing Santa Claus" and as Pinky Lee's sidekick on The Pinky Lee Show. 

Here she is pitching frozen hamburgers.

I ate my share of these growing-up in the 1960s and can vouch for the excess fat and shrinkage of these frozen hockey pucks.

Further evidence of the menu wasteland of my childhood; and prescient of the culinary renaissance that would emerge forty years later....

Homemade?

In the unlikely event that you have any doubts about the wasteland of culinary underachievement in the 1960s there is this.

And it's passed-off as homemade.... 

A Bad Stretch

When I was growing-up carry-out pizza from a real pizza parlor was a treat.  A very rare treat.  As a matter of fact I have an acquaintance that once told me he never had pizza until he was in high school or college or some such thing.

Since we got our brick oven, pizza around here has been raised to an art-form.  For the spring semester I'm teaching another round of pizza-making classes.

Admittedly, I have become a pizza snob. 

In the 1960s there was a time that this culinary hideousness found its way under our roof.

Just like those ancient times before kettle grills there was burnt and ash-covered chicken.  Frequently raw in the center.  For pizza it was a particularly bad stretch.

 

Big Ticket Fast Food

Yesterday I published some of musings centering-upon the inexplicable dichotomy of spending behavior and the economic outlook of American consumers.  A puzzling difference in perception versus reality.  Today I'll take one more swing at the subject and how erroneous information plays a role.

A year ago some dude visited a McDonald's in the town of Post Falls, Idaho and ordered a specialty double quarter pounder, large fries and a large soft drink.  The heart attack in a paper bag set him back $16.10.  Naturally, the millennial posted the receipt on TicTok. 

Inasmuch as millennials obtain much of their news and valuable information on TicTok the video went viral.  Following a brief hiatus the video has returned from the grave following the release of a quarterly revenue report by McDonald's.  Naturally the tabloids, conservative media sites and social media in general are peddling a narrative of inflation spreading like a raging wildfire including the myth that a Big Mac now costs almost $20.  This fast food price debacle is all a consequence of Biden's hamfisted mismanagement of the economy.  Yes, it is his damn fault.

I'm smart enough to know that the Idaho dude's Highly Caloric Happy Meal was a limited edition double quarter pounder "smokey" BLT novelty item with large fries and a large Sprite.  $16 just so happens to be the price of admission.  

This is a Big Mac

A modicum of searching reveals that the national average price of a Big Mac is $5.58; up from $4.89 or 69 cents since Biden arrived at the drive thru.  That's an increase of about 10 percent, a completely different menu item and nowhere close to $16.  The most expensive Big Mac can be found in Switzerland.  But I digress.

McDonald's is a vast multinational business that constitutes the largest fast food restaurant chain on the planet.  They serve more than 69 million customers every day in more than 100 countries from more than 40,275 outlets.  Employing 1.7 million McDonald's is the second largest employer in the United States.  Only Walmart employs more people.

I happen to believe that they have the pricing and marketing of burgers figured-out better than anyone.  For the love of God and all that is holy, the president of the United States does not set the price of a Big Mac any more than a gallon of gasoline.  Sheesh.

In closing I wish to share three relevant observations: 

• TicTok is a waste of valuable bandwidth.  It allows Communist Red China to spy on you and steal your data.  Use it at your own peril.
  

• McDonald's reported a third quarter revenue increase of 14%.  As a result, its net income soared by 17 percent to $2.3 billion.  That is called capitalism, folks.  And largely explains why I am a shareholder. 

• If you rely on the social media cesspool for your economic data you may be a moron.