Back in the Old Days

If you want to know about kitchen life in the 1940s and 1950s, when all food advice was directed at women and it wasn’t unusual to spend whole days cooking, pick up “Heloise’s Kitchen Hints,” published in 1963.  I found a copy at a garage sale and cringed my way through it.

Here are some of the things I learned:

“When scalding a chicken, add one teaspoon of soda to the boiling water.  The feathers will come off easier, and the flesh will be clean and white.”

“Fresh peas can be shelled very fast with a wringer-type washer.  Put a pan on one side of the wringer to catch the peas and the pods go on through.  You will think the peas will go through the wringer and be mashed the moment the pod hits the wringer, but they will pop out before they go through.”

Today we are fortunate to have fully plucked and cleaned chickens available.  Washing machines have changed, but shelling fresh peas is still a chore—if you’re lucky enough to find any to buy.  It’s summer here in Los Angeles, and I couldn’t find any store or farmer’s market selling fresh peas in their pods.  I’m going to have to grow them myself next summer. 

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