Object Details
- Creator
- National Museum of American History
- Description
Although Mad Men is over, we haven't stopped loving the 1960s. But how would our 2016 taste buds fare with 50-year-old recipes? We headed to the kitchen, turned up the bossa nova, and threw a '60s-themed potluck to experience the convenience of the rapidly growing 1960s fridge for ourselves.
For the latest installment of our potluck series (we've cooked and shared dishes from the 1930s, 1940s, and 1950s), the Patrick F. Taylor Foundation Object Project team traveled back in time for a swingin' 1960s party. We scoured period cookbooks and prepared a menu chock full of olives, pineapple, and, that mid-century favorite, mayonnaise, inspired by the belief that sometimes it helps to get all five senses involved when trying to understand American history.
Convenience was key to our party prep—just as it was in the 1960s, when the growing availability of frozen foods and frozen meals allowed home cooks to make meals more easily and quickly. According to a LIFE magazine article from November 23, 1961, "The American housewife spends 11 hours a week fixing food for her family, less than 1/3 the time it took her when she used raw ingredients." We capitalized on that convenience as we prepared our potluck dishes.
Knowing we'd want as much time to enjoy the festivities as possible, we took our cookbooks' advice to put our fridges and freezers to work. As the Betty Crocker's Hostess Cookbook reminds us, "It doesn't take a genius to figure out that the more tasks you can take care of well in advance of the party, the more relaxed and composed you'll be at zero hour." Hostesses should "study your menu with an eye to do-ahead dishes—and do them ahead."
As instructed, our spread focused on "make ahead" options, which could be served directly out of the fridge or freezer, or only required a quick reheating. Many items took advantage of pre-prepared convenience foods or frozen ingredients to cut down hands-on cooking time. Jocelyn's Pizza Snacks, which used refrigerated biscuit dough as the crust, were a perfect example—"They were so easy! It only took me 15 minutes to make."
Some items took a bit longer to prepare but used the fridge to increase presentation value. Take, for example, the Salmon Mousse.
Combining canned salmon, heavy cream, gelatin, and mayonnaise (the makings of any good dish), the Salmon Mousse was a crowd favorite—if not for its taste, then for its appearance. The Mousse took shape while chilling overnight in a mold. With the last-minute addition of an olive eye and a sea of dill, the fish was ready for the buffet table.
Unfortunately, not every dish came out as we'd hoped. Better Homes & Gardens' Fruit Cocktail Parfait Pie promised a "glamorous result" from combining "four simple desserts—canned fruit, gelatin, ice cream, and cookies." Our actual experience was less than appetizing, as the canned fruit cocktail changed the filling from snowy white to an unappetizing shade of beige.
Even haute French cuisine could be cold . . . and convenient! Shortcuts could be added to almost any kind of dish, even those adapted from the culinary traditions of other cultures. A French-inspired dish made it to our potluck: Vichyssoise. Traditionally, you make the chilled soup by boiling whole potatoes; Fernanda followed a 1967 recipe that called for dry mashed potatoes, a time-saving convenience.
Two frozen desserts, Frosty Lemon Pie and Strawberry Fluff Pie, were unquestionably the crowd favorites. Each took advantage of the 1960s' large freezers—big enough to pop a pie pan in next to your TV dinners. The growth in freezer capacity reflected the growth of the frozen food industry. From 1930 to 1950, businesses established more than 1,000 frozen food companies in America. The Quick Frozen Foodstrade journal reported that in 1965, "the industry had enjoyed . . . the largest single increase in both dollars and poundage in frozen food history. Products were now valued at $5.2 billion and production estimated at close to 10 billion pounds." All that frozen food needed a place in the home, and refrigerator companies accordingly promoted the impressive size of their freezers.
Today's refrigerator-freezers are even bigger than those in the 1960s, and on the day of the potluck, we filled them to the brim with our historical dishes. We definitely welcomed the cookbooks' promises of convenience, as we were able to tuck our delicacies away for the length of the workday with little additional prep needed come party time. Not every dish turned out deliciously (a telling amount of olive-cheese ball remained at the end of the event), but the group agreed that the 1960s were the most palatable decade yet!
Melissa, Laura, Mary Kate, and Bianca are graduate students in The George Washington University Museum Studies master's program. As summer 2016 interns for the Patrick F. Taylor Foundation Object Project they researched innovative things that shape everyday life in America.
Posted Date:Thursday, April 13, 2017 - 08:00
- Published Date
- Tue, 22 Nov 2016 21:46:28 +0000
- Type
- Blog posts
- Smithsonian staff publications
- Blog posts
- National Museum of American History
- Topic
- American History
- Record ID
- posts_63c0ea975ce4d95b9cd9e715b51e7f98
