Gastronomically, though, the Fabulous Fifties were anything but. Experts enthusiastically denigrate the decade as the nadir of American cuisine. The mass distribution of processed foods, thanks to transportation, is often blamed.

"The critical thing about food in the postwar years was the building of the national highway system," Kraig points out. "Once that was built, [food] processors like Oscar Mayer became really big. And then there was the rise of McDonald's and [other] hamburger chains along these highways."

Bronz offers an additional explanation for the dearth of appetizing food in the '50s: "Once Mom has been out of the house for the duration of the war, she found it really difficult to go back home and work as a housewife. It was at this time that we got all those ads about appliances and prepared foods freeing us from the kitchen."

So we turned to the well-advertised can, package and pouch. Soups were available both in liquid and dry form, Tang landed on supermarket shelves and frozen dinners poised precariously on trays in front of TV sets nationwide.

Introduced in 1953 by Swanson, 98-cent TV dinners were the ultimate time- and energy-saver of the modern kitchen. A flick of the wrist turned back foil revealing turkey and stuffing floating in gelatinous gravy, whipped sweet potatoes and peas. About a half hour in the oven, and dinner was done. With nary a dish to wash.

Another favorite from the prepackaged '50s was California Dip. Nothing more than a mixture of Lipton Recipe Secrets Onion Soup Mix and sour cream, the dip was the first thing to disappear at parties. According to Lipton brass, over 220,000 envelopes of mix are now used daily — most of which end up as dip, not soup.

Tuna noodle casserole, sloppy joes, frozen fish sticks, Grasshopper Pie and drinks filled with neon-colored umbrellas conspired to make the '50s the epitome of culinary kitsch.

Yet even in this decade of gastronomic debasement a few dishes managed to shine. Beef Stroganoff, with its rich sour cream sauce, was considered the height of contemporary entertaining. Depending upon one's budget, it could be made with strips of medium-rare sirloin or ground beef. With one dish you could impress the neighbors or feed the in-laws.

Something happened during the end of the decade that ushered in a new era of American cooking. "At the end of the '50s, jet travel came in, and that meant Paris was suddenly seven hours away instead of 20," says Anderson. "Veterans, who had tasted foreign food while in combat and were hungry for more, packed up their families and headed off to Europe and the Orient."

While overseas, wives gathered kitchen equipment by the armful, determined to re-create many of the dishes she had tasted there. Unfortunately, with the exception of James Beard, there was little in the way of reliable instruction back home. That was until a charming, six-foot woman with a voice reminiscent of a throttled goose cowrote a tome called Mastering the Art of French Cooking (Alfred A. Knopf, 1961). more >

Recipe
California Dip

 


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