In this vintage ad from the 1940’s we’ve now discovered how the Chiquita Banana Helps the Pieman – and have also had a fascinating demonstration on how to flute a banana.
But that’s only dessert. ‘Where’s the beef?’ (Clara would ask) – and here it is:
Recipes from Gourmet magazine during the 1940’s, from the archives. Note the simplicity of the instructions, and remember – the founder (in 1939*) and publisher of Gourmet was a fellow named Earle MacAusland, who loved huntin’ and fishin’ . . . in a gentlemanly-gourmet sort of way.
Moving right along, if you’re still prone to hunger pains, to some
finished off with (don’t forget the banana pie too)
. . . the recipe for which starts off with
Look over your tree carefully in the springtime, when the blossoms are gone and the fruit is just beginning to form. Choose a few choice specimens, each at the end of a branch, and insert the branch gently into the neck of a large bottle, until the fruit is well inside. The next job is to support the bottle so that it stays in place in the tree. This may be done with ropes, if the tree is large enough, or it may be necessary to build up wooden supports to hold the bottle.
At first, the native feel of the menu made me think of gentle old-timey innocent images in my mind. Little boys goin’ out to catch a mess of fish, oh so cute in their rumpled overalls
But then upon musing on the menu components a bit further, it seemed to me that (more likely) the intent of all this cooking (whether done by the above-mentioned ‘bachelor’ or by his feminine equal) would be in hopes of something more along the lines of this, from Tino Rossi, 1945:
P.S. Edit added: *This date (1939) is not confirmed by source (yet). No bessame mucho here. Yet. 🙂
The first issue of Gourmet was January 1941. This article outlines the early days:
http://www.gourmet.com/magazine/2000s/2001/08/40s_introduction
Ah! Thank you for that link, Anonymous! Yes, the first issue was in the forties – and how I would love to see it in person!
MacAusland had the initial idea to start Gourmet in 1939, I think – or rather I should say that it was during that year when he started to put the concept of the business on paper to obtain funding for start-up – or so it said in my research somewhere. I’ll try to hunt up that source and post it. 🙂
I’ve been driving myself crazy trying to find the reference to MacAusland – and though I haven’t found it yet I did find other things. 🙂
First, I noticed that a Google search shows that foodvox said ‘Gourmet was started in 1939’ (or something quite similar) – though the post above does not say that. Then I realized that the first time I posted this, I noticed I’d written it wrong and went back and edited it. Fast work on the part of Google, for sure – to pick up what I’d written. I just wish they’d gone back and picked up my edit several moments later! 🙂
But I do have to keep better track of my sources. The MacAusland 1939 information is somewhere (and whether that source is accurate or not who knows), but darned if I can find it now.
Ha, ha! That’s why I always say I’m not a scholar and will never be one. Must keep better track of these things. (I’ll try.)
In the meanwhile I also noticed I’d forgotten to post a link to another wonderful MFKF site, with tons of good stuff to read about her – here it is:
MFK Fisher from Les Dames des Escoffier
Scholars never misfile, misremember, mistake, misconstrue, miscalculate, or miserably reveal bias and shortsightedness? Oh fantastic creatures! I hope that they are the order of being from which those who govern and lead us are chosen!
🙂
I’d forgotten my cultural literacy momentarily.
Fill in the blank with a three-syllable word:
“The Absent-Minded _________”.
In my case the problem is that I tidy up too well. I tidy things up so well that I can never find them again.