Quick and easy — if not exactly haute cuisine — convenience foods in those brightly colored packages started dazzling housewives during the 1940s. From TV dinners and Jiffy-Pop to Jell-O and Velveeta, these precursors to fast food were welcomed by "too-busy-to-cook" women as another indispensable "mother’s little helper" that freed them from kitchen drudgery. Just Heat It ‘n’ Eat It surveys these fascinating concoctions that became staples of millions of American homes — and remain so today — along with the post-war, space-age culture that created them.
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4 of 5 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Everything you wanted to know about convenience foods but were afraid to ask....,
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This review is from: Just Heat It 'n' Eat It!: Convenience Foods of the '40s-'60s (Paperback)
Although this book is small, it is jam-packed with a historical overview of the convenience food industry and shows, from a sociological perspective, how we have gotten ourselves into this high-fructose corn syrup-mess, the "Super-Size Me" era. The writing is funny and informational, and the full-color ads show a retrospective of America circa 1940-1960. It's a great gift book for anyone interested in food!
8 of 12 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
An instant book about instant food,
This review is from: Just Heat It 'n' Eat It!: Convenience Foods of the '40s-'60s (Paperback)
This should have been a fascinating visual treat of food ads but unfortunately it only half works because it is the wrong size. Amazon doesn't give the dimensions but with a page size of 6.5 inches deep by 5.25 wide it really is just too small to take the two or three ads that appear on at least half the pages. Even the ads that are one to a page seem too small to appreciate the over-the-top graphics and text.Author Adeena Sussman writes some interesting but very generalised copy for each of the four chapters (in excessively long paragraphs, too) and I guess the most important thing about these contrived foods was the consistency, month after month, year after year the product was assured to be the same unlike fresh produce which could vary enormously according to the seasons and the type of retail outlet. Fresh also implied lots of preparation time. All the photos in these ads show serving suggestions that any housewife could aspire to. Regrettably none of these colorful ads have a date so that changes from illustration to photography (in the mid-fifties) can be followed, likewise with the small page size very little of the ad copy can be read so the only thing you'll really notice is the overall predominance of red in food selling. The contents certainly cover the market but I was really disappointed that the book wasn't larger to really make these ads sing out. Adverts presented in book form can be quite fascinating, have a look at 'All-America Ads: 40s' (ISBN 3822814687, 754 pages) and 'All-American Ads: 50s' (ISBN 3822811580, 926 pages) both books cover food ads and everything else the consumer might desire. The big page size, 10 inches deep by 7.5 wide, means you can really enjoy a nostalgic trip backwards. BTW If you are interested in the history of instant grub check out 'Better than homemade' (ISBN 1931686424) by Carolyn Wyman, a handsome looking paperback detailing the history of forty-six of the most popular supermarket factory foods.
5.0 out of 5 stars
Really fun and interesting!,
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This review is from: Just Heat It 'n' Eat It!: Convenience Foods of the '40s-'60s (Paperback)
Okay first of all the way this company packaged this book was wonderful; book arrived in such pristine condition! I thoroughly enjoyed reading this book; it was fun, interesting, nostalgic, and a little educational too. There are even some recipes you can read! The pictures are great. I would order more from this author and definitely recommend this seller. Nice sale price too!
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First Sentence:
Born in a General Mills office in 1921, Betty Crocker's first role was to respond to the thousands of letters mailed to her parent company and supply helpful answers and yarns of folksy wisdom to baking questions vexing women across the country. Read the first page Key Phrases - Capitalized Phrases (CAPs): (learn more)
General Mills New!
Concordance | Text Stats Browse Sample Pages:
Front Cover | Front Flap | Table of Contents | First Pages | Back Flap | Back Cover | Surprise Me!
Born in a General Mills office in 1921, Betty Crocker's first role was to respond to the thousands of letters mailed to her parent company and supply helpful answers and yarns of folksy wisdom to baking questions vexing women across the country. Read the first page Key Phrases - Capitalized Phrases (CAPs): (learn more)
General Mills New!
Concordance | Text Stats Browse Sample Pages:
Front Cover | Front Flap | Table of Contents | First Pages | Back Flap | Back Cover | Surprise Me!
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