Since I have been on a food theme lately (I think I will have to invest in some more Medifast coupons), I thought I would give you a list of foods that were introduced in the 1970s.
1970: Orville Redenbacher’s Gourmet Popping Corn, Hamburger Helper, Morton’s salt substitute
1971: Alice Waters opens Chez Panisse, Starbucks founded, McCormick’s “Roast in a Bag Kit”
1972: Celestial Seasonings Herbal Teas, Snapple, Quaker Oates granola
1973: Egg McMuffins, Cup O’Noodles, Stove Top Stuffing, Promise (margarine), Brim (caffeine-free instant coffee)
1974: Yoplait yogurt, Miller Lite, Mrs. Field’s Cookies, Mr. Coffee
1975: Famous Amos Chocolate Chip Cookies, Country Time lemonade, Apple & Eve juice
1976: Pop Rocks, Burger King launches its “Have it Your Way”, Starburst Fruit Chews, Oodles of Noodles, Puritan Oil, Perrier Water introduced to U.S. markets
1977: Dean & DeLuca, Twix Cookie Bars, Denny’s Grand Slam Breakfast, recyclable soda bottles, plastic grocery bags
1978: McCormick’s Lite Gravy, Ben & Jerry’s Homemade Ice Cream, Reggie Bar (candy), Reese’s Pieces, Whatchamacallit (candy), Arby’s Beef’n'Cheddar Sandwich
1979: Paul Proudhomme opens K-Paul Louisiana Kitchens igniting Cajun/blackened food fad, Zagat restaurant guides (New York City)
Wow! I didn’t know that Burger King was letting us “Have It Our Way” for more than 30 years now!
I was recently reading the book New Mercies by Sandra Dallas set in Mississippi (it is a really good book). One of the food items mentioned in the book is beaten biscuits. These biscuits date back to before baking powder or baking soda were available. Cooks used to use a compound called pearlash (potassium carbonate) as a leavener, but this resulted in a bitter taste. Instead, the biscuit dough was pounded and folded many times so that air pockets were formed in the dough. While the biscuits baked, the air pockets would expand making the biscuits raise. Items such as hammers, wooden mallets or old axe handles were used to “beat” the dough.
If you would like to try it, here is a recipe:
4 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon salt
1/4 cup solid vegetable shortening
2 tablespoons unsalted butter, room temperature
1 cup cold milk
In a large bowl, combine flour and salt, tossing with a fork to blend. Add shortening and butter; work fat into flour mixture with your fingertips until mixture resembles coarse meal. Make a well in center of mixture and add milk; stir to combine well. Turn out onto a lightly floured work surface and knead 3 or 4 times until dough holds together. Preheat oven to 400F . Grease baking sheet; set aside. Pat out dough about 1 inch thick and begin to beat it, using a wooden mallet or other implement, with a gentle, rhythmic motion. When entire surface has been well beaten, fold dough in half and repeat the process. Continue to beat and fold until dough is well blistered (20 to 30 minutes). Roll out dough 1/2 inch thick and cut into rounds with a floured 2-inch biscuit cutter; reroll and cut scraps. Repeat until all dough has been used. Prick top of each biscuit 3 times with a fork. Place biscuits on greased baking sheet; bake in preheated oven until golden brown (20 to 25 minutes). Serve hot.
How do you know if you are making a Depression Cake? This type of cake contains little or ,no eggs, sugar, butter or milk. Depression cakes were commonly made during the Great Depression in the United States since some ingredients were either not readily available or much too costly for the average family.
While Depression cakes varied from home to home, most included some sort of spices. Here is a typical recipe:
* 2 cups packed brown sugar
* 2 cups hot water
* 2 tablespoons bacon grease
* 2 cups raisins
* 3 cups all-purpose flour
* 1 teaspoon salt
* 1 teaspoon baking soda
* 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
* 1 teaspoon ground cloves
DIRECTIONS
1. In a medium saucepan combine the brown sugar, hot water, bacon grease, and raisins, over medium heat. Bring to a boil for 5 minutes, then set aside to cool.
2. Preheat oven to 325 degrees F (165 degrees C). Grease and flour two 8×4 inch loaf pans.
3. In a large bowl, stir together the flour, salt, baking soda, cinnamon, and cloves. Add the ingredients from the saucepan and mix until well blended. Divide evenly between the two prepared pans.
4. Bake for 45 to 50 minutes in the preheated oven. Cool in pans for 10 minutes before removing to a wire rack to cool completely.
If you were dieting in the 60s, you might have tried the Knudsen Diet 225. This was one of the first diet supplements in shake form. The diet had three different options: Rapid Weight Loss, Gradual Weight Loss or Keeping Weight Down. If you chose the Rapid Weight Loss plan, you would drink four cans of the “liquid meal” a day, plus a snack at bedtime. If you became too hungry, you could snack on raw vegetables during the day. You were supposed to continue this plan until you lost the weight you wanted to lose!
I remember the old commercial on television with the zebra selling Beech-Nut Chewing Gum. The gum was package under Fruit Stripe and all the animals were striped. The gum was made in the early 1960s as part of the Beech-Nut Chewing Gum line. The gum was bought from Hershey’s in the 2003 by the Farley’s & Sathers Candy Company, Inc. The gum actually has painted on stripes and is still produced.
Grape Nuts cereal is still around, but do you remember the old Euell Gibbons commercials? He loved to talk about Grape Nuts being a “back to nature cereal.” Euell Gibbons was born in 1911 and died in 1975 at the age of 64 from an aneurysm from complications of Marfan’s syndrome. In 1974 he made the famous commercial for Grape Nuts asking “Ever eat a pine tree? Many parts are edible.”
I couldn’t find the pine tree commercial, but here is one that he starred in:
Good & Plenty Candy was first introduced in Philadelphia in 1893 by the Quaker City Confectionery Company. It is the oldest branded candy in the United States. In the 1950s, Choo Choo Charlie, the engineer, fueled his train with Good & Plenty Candy. Do you remember the commercial?
Ayds was an appetite suppressant that was the precursor of some of the modern diet pills. It was a candy that was popular in the 70s and 80s. The product was first introduced in the 1940s.
In 1981, due to the attention given to the disease AIDS, the product name was changed to Diets Ayds. Unfortunately, the company saw the sales of the products drop by as much as 50% due to the association with the name AIDS. The product was eventually withdrawn from the market.
Here is one of the originally television commercials:
I used to love when they would put records on the cereal boxes! These records were first produced in the 1950s and continued to be put on cereal boxes until the 1970s. Some were made of cardboard and you actually had to cut them out from the box. Others would peel off the box. These were 45 records and they played great on our stereo. I remember having the Jackson Five, Bobby Sherman and some Disney ones as well.
When I was a kid in the 70s, there were only a handful of obese kids in school. Some of these kids had actual medical problems that attributed to their obesity. Some seemed to have a quick weight loss when their height finally caught up to their weight.
Today, things have changed. There are three times as many obese children today then there were in the 1970s. The Institutes of Medicine found that 5% of children 6-11 and 5% of children 12-14 years old were obese. Today, 16.3% of children 6-11 are obese and 16.7% of children 12-14 years old are obese.
What are the causes of the raise in obesity? Less physical activity, fast food diets, excessive snacking and genetics are some of the top causes.
