A La Whatever

                                                                                                       

                                                                                               

When was the last time you had a good home-cooked meal? Not one that came from the freezer and was simply defrosted.

(The times are different from what they were when our great-grandparents were young.ⁱ In their time there were no pre-cooked foods except the ones they made and stored themselves. There were only home cannedⁱⁱ fruits and vegetables, and some foods that were preserved in salt or by drying,ⁱⁱⁱ but these preparations were usually done by the cook herself.^iv And although commercially produced frozen foods appeared in the mid-1940s, some dishes were probably made and frozen at home before that. And others were canned.)

Additional sources of pre-prepared foods are the local take-out restaurant and the counter in the supermarket that holds the salads, meat dishes, and the like. And the supermarkets also have the packaged cereals, candies, cookies, salad dressings and the numerous other items that are so popular in the last-minute preparation of the meal on the fly that you get at home.

You may choose to go out and get a Big Mac^® or have a pizza delivered at home, or even have daily deliveries of fully prepared meals – especially if you're on a diet. Those meals are likely to have small portions and large prices, but they save the work of actually cooking the meal.

But why not? Why should we live in the past? There was a time when the cleaning of clothes required that they be beaten by rocks in a nearby stream. Now we use washing machines. And at one time we rode on horses if we didn't walk, but now we drive automobiles with GPS units. We now prefer antibiotics and other modern medicines to leeches and enemas. Times are changing, and we should as well. Ready-made meals – “less work for mother”^v – is a concept that makes sense.

Well, yes and no.

For the most part the modern improvements are just that. They are improvements. Washing machines clean better than rocks; automobiles get us to our destination faster than horses or our own legs; and modern medicines have far better results than leeches. The same can be said for many other devices. And in addition they work faster than the methods they're replacing. That concept certainly makes sense. Society has chosen to adopt these practices even though aware of the potential of some laundry products to cause allergies, the cost of automobile accidents in lives and money, and the side effects of many medicines.

But food products don't have such a clear record of benefits in relation to costs. It is undeniable that cooking from scratch has become more difficult as families have been forced into the position of requiring two bread-winners. One of the problems is that there is no one home to cook, and a particular dish may require more time than is available following return from work in the late afternoon or in the evening. And both partners may be exhausted and hungry by that time, so it is easier to assemble a meal than to cook. It's also hard to pass up food that's already prepared and food you can pass off as home-made by just heating it up. Some may even taste good, but there's more to the story than that.^vi You may even notice that the ready-made products often come in pans that can be used for cooking and then thrown out rather than washed. More time saved. Not only that, but with things like TV dinners, and other plastic meals, each diner can have something different. Something for everyone, including the person preparing the meal.

But, as I said, there's more to the story. Whereas the ingredients for meals made in season from scratch are typically tasty and of high quality, the main considerations in formulating the ready-made treats and the fast foods are shelf-life, appearance, and price. That means additives of various sorts, including artificial colors, stabilizing agents, and numerous preservatives.^vii When it comes to taste, which isn't the first consideration, in addition to added salt, sugar, and fats,^viii there are many artificial flavorings. Portion sizes tend to be small so the manufacturer can advertise a lower price (and calorie count) per “serving.”

In this age of easy travel, transport, and communication, everything is in season somewhere, and available all year around. But because it takes time to bring fruits and vegetables to market from somewhere around the world, harvesting may be necessary before the produce is ripe so that it won't be past its peak when it reaches the consumer. Or a variety may be produced that looks^ix and travels well even if its taste is not all you might like. It's far better to sell a product that may not taste good, than not to sell one that tastes better but doesn't look as good.

So people wind up without the meal made from scratch. The “comfort” foods don't do the trick. And the portions aren't big enough.^x And whoever made dinner isn't eager to talk about how (s)he defrosted or reheated what was on sale at the local store and was served. No one will beg for the recipe anyway. On the other hand, talking about a dinner made from fresh local ingredients will probably be a source of enjoyment for the chef, and a tasty home-made dish is the kind of thing that guests will want to repeat in their own kitchens, so be prepared for recipe requests.

There's nothing like a home-cooked meal. But wait. There's more.

Next episode: “More Food For Thought” – There are more important problems with that home-cooked meal.

i       Or at least mine. The level of ancestry needed to reach back to the early twentieth century and before will depend on your age.

ii       Actually they were bottled, but the term used now is “canning.”

iii     Fermentation also has a long history as a method of preservation (at least 10,000 years to drying's 12, 000 years – see http://nchfp.uga.edu/publications/nchfp/factsheets/food_pres_hist.html for more history), but is somewhat more limited in its application than some of the other methods and infuses the contents with alcohol.

iv      I do not mean to be considered sexist, but the reality is that most of the cooking at home was done by women – wives and mothers or, in the case of a well-to-do family, by a paid cook.

v       Horn and Hardart.

vi      Somewhere below. I haven't figured out where just yet.

vii     In order to return some of the nourishment which the processing has removed from the food, and in order to add something for advertising value, there may be added vitamins, or something else that happens to be in vogue, proclaimed on the package, along with disclaimers of allergins and gluten – especially in products that never contain gluten – and fat where it would not ordinarily be anyway.

viii    Including poly-unsaturated fats, oils, and transfats.

ix      Wax coatings are often of value here.

x       I like “man-sized” portions. I know that sounds sexist, but when I get up from the table I like to loosen my belt.