Food, like fashion, goes in cycles.
Good quality knives, the ”Joy of Cooking” cookbook, apple pie and Betty Crocker never go out of style.
But whatever happened to hamburger presses, fondue pots and beef Wellington?
Why do some things last and others fade?
”Food products with staying power are basically good ideas created by companies that stay tuned to consumer wants,” says Martin Friedman, editor of Gorman`s New Product News, an industry publication that reports on new products. ”These are companies that keep revitalizing their product.”
Consumers and lifestyles change, according to Burt Wolf, a New York City food writer and consultant whose cooking program appears on cable television. ”In the 1970s and early 1980s, the food processor was the hottest piece of equipment in the kitchen. Everyone was cooking. It was chic.
”Today, it`s the telephone and supermarket. You order out for home delivery or assemble a meal from the supermarket deli, the frozen food aisle and the carryout food shop.”
Though the days of the square eggmaker, hypodermic needles designed to inject liqueur into strawberries and fat mops (brushes advertised to degrease chicken stock) have vanished, there always will be new ideas and new junk to take their place, according to Wolf.
”The good ideas will stay. It`s just part of the cycle.”
So, for fun let`s play the game of whatever happened to:
GOLDEN GLOW SALAD
Did that jiggly square of crushed pineapple, shredded carrots and lemon-flavored gelatin die a natural death from neglect? No way. Golden glow salad, alias golden or sunset salad, is alive and well, says General Foods Corp. spokesperson Donna Roberts. A consumer favorite, the salad was developed in the mid-`20s by General Foods` home economists. The original recipe called for sugar, although the sweetener was later dropped in the `40s because the salad was too sweet. Chopped pecans, olives and green peppers were suggested as additions to the salad during the `50s and `80s.
JIFFY POP
Despite inroads made by stove top poppers with stirring handles, hot-air popcorn poppers and microwave popcorn, Jiffy Pop, the original popcorn-in-the- pan and, for its day, a unique concept in packaging, still is enjoying customer loyalty. Developed as popcorn in a cooking/serving container by inventor Fred Mennen, Jiffy Pop was introduced in 1958 by the now defunct Mennen Food Products Co. of LaPorte, Ind. Four years later, American Home Food Products Inc. purchased Mennen and made a few packaging changes to enhance the look of the container. In 1987, a microwave version of Jiffy Pop was introduced.
BEEF WELLINGTON
”That was a travesty of putting food together,” says Marion Cunningham, the California-based food writer who updated the ”Fanny Farmer Cookbook.”
Referring to the pastry-wrapped beef entree, she says, ”All the cooking teachers in the late `60s were teaching it. Now, we`re ashamed. You had twice- cooked meat, a wet mushroom layer and wet, soggy pastry. Today, we`re texture-conscious. And that recipe had no texture.” Still, beef Wellington can be found on a few restaurant menus where beef is king and on the tables of home cooks who want to hone their pastry-wrapping skills.
MADAME LIANE KUONY
The dynamic, outspoken chef who began the Postilion restaurant in her home in Fond du Lac, Wis., in 1950 and is the driving force behind the Postilion School of Culinary Arts is just as busy today as she was in the `70s and early `80s when food writers and food magazines turned to her for opinions and knowledge on all things culinary. She still teaches and oversees her restaurant and the distribution of a line of condiments under the Postilion name to gourmet shops around the country. Chefs as well as hobbyist cooks reserve months in advance for her rigorous 100-hour, two-week cooking and pastry classes.
LIPTON`S CALIFORNIA DIP RECIPE
The sidekick of potato chips and crackers in the `50s still is going strong. ”The creaminess of the texture, the richness of sour cream gives it a mass appeal,” says Cunningham of the recipe, which combines Lipton`s Onion Soup mix with sour cream. ”And it`s fast-just two ingredients.” A California homemaker developed the recipe in 1954 and sent it to the Thomas P. Lipton Co. Although the salt content in the soup mix was reduced in 1983, the dip recipe remains the same. Aficionados have taken to adding raw vegetables or seafood to the dip over the last five years, says Janet Thompson Heim, a Lipton spokesperson.
RICE KRISPIE TREATS
That gooey marriage of cereal, butter and marshmallows continues to thrive. ”People perceive them as a healthier alternative to a candy bar,”
says Crawford Smith, owner of Tillamook Country Confections of Bay City, Ore. His company manufactures similar prepackaged 2-ounce bars which are sold at convenience stores nationwide. The recipe from Kellogg Co. dates to 1940. It was developed as a way to use the cereal, says Kellogg kitchen supervisor Donna Kwirant. ”The original recipe called for butter and vanilla extract. The extract was dropped a few year later. We felt it didn`t need it. When margarine came into popularity in the `40s and `50s, we gave the consumer the option of using either. It is our most popular recipe. We put it in every brochure. Consumers won`t let us drop it.”
FONDUE POTS
”They`re coming back,” proclaims New York City food consultant Barbara Kafka. With no money for household help, demanding jobs and a baby, young couples today are staying home hosting casual, serve-yourself meals. Fondues are back in vogue. What`s going into the pots are hot dips, aioli dips or Provencale sauces. Says Kafka, ”We won`t be going back to recipes such as cheese fondue or meat fondue with rich sauces such as bearnaise. They`re too heavy.”
PRESSURE COOKER
The versatility of the microwave oven puts this heavy pot out of commission, claims Kafka. ”Besides, no one cans in huge quantities anymore.” Chuck Williams, owner of William-Sonoma stores, disagrees. ”Technical improvements and consumer education have forced manufacturers to redesign the pressure cooker,” he says. ”The new ones are easy to use, loaded with safety features and come with interesting recipes. No one has to worry about flying lids anymore.”
BLENDER
The generation raised with the food processor is discovering this vertical friend and will use it in tandem with the processor, say Kafka and Williams. And the chrome blender, a style popular in the `30s and `40s, is returning. In 1985, Waring Products introduced the anniversary model of its 1935 classic Waring Blendor. It features only two speeds.
HAMBURGER PRESS
When the home freezer craze hit in the `50s, everyone bought presses, 10- pounds of raw hamburger and spent Sunday evening making dozens of skinny patties sandwiched between freezer paper. The wooden, moon-shaped press is buried now thanks to burger lovers` yen for fresh, thick, hand-shaped burgers that won`t slip through the grill.
CROCK POTS
Gone forever unless manufacturers develop recipes longer than five hours. ”The people who use them, working people, work about 8 to 10 hours,” says Kafka. Foods cooked by slow cooking methods tend to fall short in the texture category, agree Cunningham and Williams.
GRAHAM KERR
The Galloping Gourmet charged into our living rooms in the late `60s with his chatty style, home cooking techniques and open wine bottle. After a 1971 auto accident, Kerr and his wife, Treena, found religion and gave up many of those rich delights for healthy food and a low-key lifestyle of teaching and ministry in Colorado.
WELCH`S FUDGE BAR
It came wrapped in royal purple paper with black and gold trim. It cost a nickel in 1953 and was the clandestine substitute for milk at school. Developed in 1948 by the James O. Welch Co. of Cambridge, Mass.-makers of Sugar Daddy, Sugar Babies, Pom Poms and Junior Mints-this all-fudge bar enjoyed more popularity on the East Coast. Lack of cross-country distribution and a buyout by National Biscuit Co. (now Nabisco Brands), plus changing consumer tastes, contributed to the bar`s retirement.
ANTOINETTE AND FRANCOIS POPE
These Chicago television food stars, cookbook authors and cooking teachers opened the Antoinette Pope School of Fancy Cookery in 1930. In 1951, they made their television debut on the ”Creative Cookery Television Show,” a first for males in an area dominated by female home economists. Francois died in 1971. Antoinette, retired since the 60`s, resides in Chicago.
2-CUP STOVETOP ESPRESSOMAKERS
Electric coffeemakers put this one out to pasture. ”Thanks to technology, the electrics are easier to use and the prices are reasonable. There is so much competition in this category plus so much available in coffee beans, it is a buyer`s market. Finding or making a good cup of coffee these days is easy,” says Williams.
TOMATO SOUP CAKE
Honest, you`d never know there was soup in this spice cake. The recipe developed by Campbell Soup Co. in 1925 still reigns. In the `50s, consumers who wanted to save time were told they could use a spice cake mix and utilize the soup as liquid, according to a Campbell`s spokesperson. Microwave instructions were added to the recipe in the `80s.
FANTASY FUDGE
The folks who know nothing about the soft-ball test (as in candymaking)
keep this chocolate fudge recipe alive. According to Maryann Bilik of Kraft Inc., fantasy fudge, which calls for marshmallow creme, is fast, easy and fail-proof. ”The product was introduced in 1959. So was the recipe. Other than widening the mouth of the glass container in the early `80s, nothing about Marshmallow Creme has changed. The formula is still the same.”
BOSCO
A new advertising campaign is the only thing that changed when Jerry Shulman, executive vice president of Bosco Products Inc., bought the company from Corn Products Corp. International of New Jersey in 1986. Shulman sparked up sales and national distribution with more advertising. He also changed the container from glass to a plastic squeeze bottle. The formula, which dates back to the early `50s, remains unchanged. Due out in 1989 is a chocolate drink in asceptic packaging and a pudding. ”The market for chocolate is stronger than ever,” says Shulman.
FLUFFERNUTTER SANDWICHES
The appeal of sweet-salty is what keeps this union of bread, marshmallow cream and peanut butter on the tip of many tastebuds. The name was dreamed up by an advertising copywriter but the sandwich comes from New England, according to Jerry Kirby, vice president of Durkee-Mower Inc., manufacturer of Marshmallow Fluff. The Massachusetts company has been making the product for 70 years. A renewed interest was sparked last March when syndicated cartoonist Garry Trudeau depicted Vice President George Bush in the kitchen making a Fluffernutter while the Iran-contra affair was going on.
MAYPO
The cereal is hotter than ever because it is rich in oat fiber, a quality esteemed lately by health-conscious consumers. The hot, maple-flavored cracked oat cereal that cooks in three minutes was introduced in 1940 by the Shepards family of Vermont. In 1952, they introduced a rolled oat cereal which cooks up in a record-splitting 30 seconds. The company was purchased by American Home Food Products in May, 1988. ”We have no plans to change the formula,” says spokesperson Linda Mulrenan. ”But we want to introduce it to a new generation, those children whose parents grew up eating Maypo.”
ROTARY BEATER
It was replaced with the electric hand-mixer. The electric mixer relies less on strength and experience than does the whisk. It is faster than the wrist and requires less effort, according to cooking expert Pierre Franey.
COPPER BOILER
A $10 mainstay in the `30s and `40s for canning preserves, then boiling socks to squint-white brightness is only seen at auctions, according to Betty Weiss, spokesperson for Chef`s Catalog. This oval-shaped tub-some were lined with tin, others solid copper-had two wooden handles and measured about 24 inches long and 12 inches deep and came with a domed lid. ”Now, if you can find one, you can pay up to $400 for an antique model,” says Weiss.
”Collectors use them to hold magazines.”
MARY MEADE
”Mary Meade was the fictitious name Chicago Tribune food editors wrote under for years,” says former Tribune food editor and wine writer Ruth Ellen Church. ”Back in 1936 when Mary came on the scene, we had six full-time employees who answered letters and telephones from readers. Mary got all sorts of fan mail. Quite a girl.”
BETTY CROCKER
This famous, fictitious person was created 65 years ago by General Mills as a symbol of service. Her looks have changed to keep up with the times. For the first portrait in 1936, New York artist Neysa McMein blended the features of several home service department members and created a motherly image which remained for 20 years. Through the years, artists have changed the part on Betty`s hairstyle, added and removed pearls and redesigned the lapels of her jacket, a nod to fashion`s dictates. She still favors red, however. In 1986, Betty got hoop earrings but has resisted spiking those auburn locks.
VELVEETA CHEESE
Want to feel old? This cheese product introduced by Kraft Inc. is celebrating its 60th birthday. Consumers buy 220 million pounds of it a year, according to Kim Burson, publicity project manager. Keeping tempo with the times, Kraft offered it in convenient slices in 1982 and satisfied the taste for ethnic foods by adding jalapeno peppers in hot and mild varieties in 1984. TOMATO SOUP CAKE
Eight to ten servings
Preparation time: 25 minutes
Baking time: 35 to 45 minutes
2 tablespoons vegetable shortening
1 cup granulated sugar
1 1/2 cups flour
1 teaspoon each: cinnamon, allspice, nutmeg
1 can (10 3/4 ounces) tomato soup (undiluted)
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 cup chopped nuts
1 cup raisins
Frosting:
1 package (3 ounces) cream cheese, softened
1/2 teaspoon vanilla
1 cup confectioners` sugar, sifted
1. Heat oven to 375 degrees. Grease and flour an 8-by-8-inch baking pan.
2. Beat vegetable shortening in large mixer bowl. Beat in granulated sugar; mixture will look crumbly. Combine flour, cinnamon, allspice and nutmeg. Beat into sugar mixture.
3. Combine soup and baking soda and add to sugar-flour mixture. Stir in nuts and raisins.
4. Scrape into prepared pan. Bake until a wood toothpick comes out clean, 35 to 45 minutes. Cool on wire rack 10 minutes. Remove from pan; cool completely.
5. For frosting, beat cream cheese, vanilla and confectioners` sugar until smooth and of spreading consistency. Use to frost top of cake.
This recipe is from Jell-O.
GOLDEN SALAD
Six servings
Preparation time: 15 minutes
Chilling time: Several hours
1 package (3 ounces) lemon or orange flavored gelatin
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 1/4 cups boiling water
1 can (8 1/4 ounces) crushed pineapple in juice
1 tablespoon lemon juice or vinegar
1 1/2 cups shredded carrots
1/3 cup chopped pecans
1. Dissolve gelatin and salt in boiling water. Stir in undrained pineapple and lemon juice. Chill until thickened.
2. Stir in carrots and nuts and pour into an 8-by-8-inch baking pan or individual molds.
3. Chill until firm, about 3 hours. Cut into squares or unmold. Serve with crisp salad greens and mayonnaise, if desired.
