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Untold history of instant foods

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Also by Jason Engelhart:

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V-Day sweets awaken hunger, long history (February 13, 2008)
Collection chronicles 'Revolutions' (February 11, 2008)
Fatty food for thought (February 6, 2008)

by Jason Engelhart

Wednesday, January 30, 2008

Hamburger Helper is generally not considered to be the most thought-provoking food, but earlier this week, feasting on a plate of this homogeneous brown goop made me think critically. As I stared into my pile of “dinner,” I began to ponder its origins. How is it that I, the American college student, became so comfortable with the idea of eating a heavily processed combination of meat and noodles dressed in reconstituted, formerly powdered sauce?

In search of answers, I looked into the history of convenience foods in this country. I was convinced that, somewhere in the storied narrative of frozen peas and Lunchables lay the answer to my question.

The history of convenience food in this country has no concrete beginning; processed, ready-made food has existed for ages. Whether they did so with salty beef jerky, fatty pemmican or starchy corn snacks, the first Americans found plenty of ways to get their grub on while exerting minimal effort.

Few Americans, however, reach for one of the aforementioned foods when coming home from a long day at work or school. The beginning of convenience food as we know it began during the cold Alaskan winter of 1916, when college dropout and oddball inventor Clarence Birdseye decided his family was not getting enough vegetables.

In order to remedy this, he adopted the Alaskan native technique of flash-freezing he had seen performed on fish and used it to keep cabbage on his family’s dinner table.

Birdseye’s decision to put his veggies into suspended animation may seem uninteresting and insignificant, but it revolutionized the way Americans eat. By 1929, his frozen foods were available to U.S. consumers, and it was not long before the frozen dinner sensation swept the nation. The post-World War II emphasis on marketing to stay-at-home mothers, the introduction of the microwave and the increasing availability of inexpensive airline travel all helped create an atmosphere for frozen food to thrive.

Today, the popularity of convenience foods has led them to become incredibly diverse. Take TV dinners, for example. As recently as our childhoods, TV dinners were bland combinations of meat and starch. Now frozen meals claim to represent Chinese, French, Indian, Thai and a host of other cuisines. Thanks to the wide variety of flavors available in these ready-made dinners, Americans can bastardize other countries’ foods without even dirtying a skillet.

Some convenience foods, however, have shown a kind of culinary conservatism by attempting to reflect old-fashioned, down-home American cooking. Hamburger Helper, for one, is an interesting case study in the inertia of some processed foods. A number of new varieties have come out since the product was introduced in 1971, but none of them have claimed to be revolutionary. In a 2003 New York Daily News article, General Mills home economist Kelly Thompson said of a new Helper flavor, “The Taco Bake never would have worked a few years ago, but we think people’s tastes have changed enough so that now it can.”

Regardless of whether they are as innovative as Taco Bake or as commonplace as the standard meat and potato frozen dinner, convenience foods have come to define the collegiate diet in a way that Birdseye himself would never have imagined possible. Much to the chagrin of mothers and nutritionists everywhere, the modern student is more likely to reach into his or her freezer for dinner than to take the time to prepare something.

Another group of people that has made use of the advances in convenience food is the U.S. Armed Forces. The introduction of the Army’s Meal Ready to Eat in the 1980s to replace the bulkier C-ration signaled a major shift in how troops ate. Innovations in ready-made food made the new rations lighter and slimmer while keeping the troops well-fed, and the development of a built-in, flameless heater allowed troops to enjoy hot food in any conditions.

Like consumer convenience food, MREs have seen a recent diversification, with the addition of goodies like seafood jambalaya and teriyaki beef. The military also offers an option called the “Meal: Religious” for soldiers who observe kosher or halal dietary codes. Who knew that bland, processed food could be so pluralistic!

After completing my research, my mound of meat and noodles had been cold for a long time, but I was satisfied, as I had found the answer to my questions concerning processed food consumption.

I, the American college student, find it easy to overcome the alienation I feel at the sight of my dehydrated sauce packet because it meets my demand for instant nourishment with minimal effort. Other people, from soldiers trying to keep kosher on the front line to those who want sub-par pad thai in eight minutes, find convenience foods meet their needs as well.

These foods are hardly a highlight of the American menu — they are neither as nutritious nor as delicious as fresh fare. But even a skeptical observer should be able to appreciate that ready-made foods represent incredible technological innovation and a commitment to satisfying consumer demand.

Jason Engelhart is a senior majoring in economics and history. Send all hate mail and Hot Pockets to jengelhart@badgerherald.com.

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Anonymous (January 30, 2008 @ 12:37am):

Shut up and go get me some Taco Bell.

Anonymous (January 30, 2008 @ 1:46pm):

I laughed my @ss off. Thanks!

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