Customer Reviews

Just Heat It 'n' Eat It!: Convenience Foods of the '40s-'60s

5 star:		(5)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

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!

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.

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!

Part social history and part pop-culture-literacy, this little volume is a fun read. Sussman's introductions to the colorful ads strike just the right tone of tongue-in-cheek humor and real reverence for food accomplishments that truly changed lives. Her bits of trivia on every page are priceless -- how can I have gone this long without knowing that the Pillsbury Dough Boy was voiced by the original Boris from The Rocky and Bullwinkle show? These factoid boxes, set against sometimes hard-to-believe-they're-real ads, make this a great bathroom book, where you can get a lot out of a quick flip through the pages.

If you were an average, middle-class kid growing up in the 50's through the 70's or so, chances are you probably had yourself a Swanson TV dinner more than a few times. Funny thing was that we never really considered them to be a cheap eat. We used to think these full dinners in the aluminum trays were the coolest things as we'd whip out the TV trays and plop in our favorite chairs to eat our Turkey, meat loaf, fried chicken, or Salisbury Steak TV dinners, while watching our favorite shows.

"Just Heat it `n' Eat it" by Adeena Sussman traces the history of convenience foods as they began to be produced for the pantry, refrigerator, or freezer, initially after World War II, but particularly into the 50's with families on the go. The first chapter deals with boxed and single ingredient foods, many of which are still around today and relatively unchanged. Nescafe Instant Coffee, Aunt Jemima Pancake Mix, Frozen concentrated juices, Starkist Tuna, Minute Rice, and Lipton boxed soups are just a few of the foods represented, all with period ads or packaging. I still wonder what Underwood Deviled Ham tastes like!

Chapter two gets into the heat and eat foods with a history of the Swanson TV dinner, first invented as a means to use up surplus turkey. The turkey dinner was always my favorite with the slices of turkey, stuffing, mashed potatoes, and cranberries (a later addition). Frozen dinners are still around and with greater quality and variety than ever, but sadly the aluminum tray is long gone. Other foods features are canned goods like Franco American spaghetti, Dinty Moore Beef Stew, Campbell's Soups, and Hormel Chili. Again, it's amazing how many of these foods are still around in basically the same style as they were 40 years ago or more, although one that I have never seen is Armour BBQ ribs in a can. I'm assuming that one didn't go over real well.

The third chapter is about everyday products from the pantry that could be used by the housewife to whip up creative and tasty meals such as recipes using Campbell's soups, and Jello molds. One rather bizarre Aunt Jemima ad shows pancakes being used as hot dog and hamburger buns!

The book wraps up with well known gimmick foods, and condiments, described by Sussman as one-hit-wonders. Here you'll find A-1 steak sauce, French's Mustard, and Kraft Cheez Whiz.

Many of these classic ads feature celebrities such as John Wayne hawking Starkist Tuna and Groucho Marx pushing Skippy peanut butter. The book ends up being a wonderful little time capsule of clever ads and promotions of days gone by when times were simpler and we weren't confused by so much variety! A fantastic book!

Reviewed by Tim Janson

A good idea. . . writ small. Scads of fascinating old ads for kitschy convenience foods of the past--but reproduced at such a small size that much (if not most) of the copy is unreadable, even with a powerful magnifying glass.

Take the rave reviews with a grain of salt (or MSG): They were apparently posted by friends of the author. . .or some species of humanity with optical powers far beyond that of mortal man.

Just Heat It and Eat It is a wonderful walk down food-memory lane. I'm a few decades younger than the eras covered in the book however I still felt a strong connected with the brand names and food items. I can't tell you how comforting iw was to see Aunt Jemima called out. Campbell's Tomato Soup used to comfort me as a child when I was feeling out of sorts. B&M Baked Beans and franks ties me to memories of my mother. It was one of very few dishes she actually "cooked". The other items in her repetoire included French Onion Soup and Pasta with homemade spaghetti sauce. Just Heat It and Eat It is a feel good book for any foodie. Thanks for the great gift idea!

This book is a mini treasure trove packed with fun retro-food facts and colorful images from '40-'60s America. Anyone who enjoys vintage advertising, loves food and/or is intrigued by the role food has played in American culture, this is a good addition to the book shelf. Food writer Adeena Sussman has done a brilliant job gathering trivia and facts to bring the graphic material to life, offering up lots of interesting tidbits -- from the man behind the Pillsbury Doughboy voice; to the genesis of Kool-Aid; to alternate advertised uses for Miracle Whip. The book is a reflection of a more wholesome time when food was portrayed as a true pleasure of life to be savored -- a far cry from today's landscape of diminishing nutrition standards and chemically-pumped diet foods. If you have a chef or foodie in your life, this makes for a great gift.