The Value of Home Cooking Traditions
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The Pennsylvania State University The Graduate School School of Humanities SOMEONE’S IN THE KITCHEN: THE VALUE OF HOME COOKING TRADITIONS IN THE TWENTY-FIRST CENTURY A Dissertation in American Studies by Jennifer Rachel Dutch © 2013 Jennifer Rachel Dutch Submitted in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy May 2013 ii The dissertation of Jennifer Rachel Dutch was reviewed and approved* by the following: Simon J. Bronner Distinguished Professor of American Studies and Folklore Program Director, Doctor of Philosophy in American Studies Chair, American Studies Program Dissertation Advisor Chair of Committee Anne A. Verplanck Associate Professor of American Studies and Heritage Studies John R. Haddad Associate Professor of American Studies and Popular Culture Carol R. Nechemias Associate Professor Emerita of Political Science and Public Policy Charles Camp Special Member Associate Professor of Visual Arts and Coordinator of Art History and Humanities Ann Arundel Community College *Signatures are on file in the Graduate School iii ABSTRACT With the proliferation of convenience foods, preparing complex recipes from scratch appears to be unpopular with Americans who declare that they are “too busy to cook.” “No one cooks anymore” has become the opening line of the obituary for traditional American home cooking in the twenty-first century. At the same time, home cooking is a multi-billion dollar industry including cookbooks, kitchen gadgets, high-end appliances, specialty ingredients and much more. Cooking-themed programming proliferates on television, inspiring a wide array of celebrity-chef branded goods even as self-described “foodies” seek authenticity by pickling, preserving, and canning foods in their own home kitchens. Obviously, home cooking is a hot topic. This dissertation is not an effort to prove that Americans still cook at home. Instead, I argue that the death of home cooking narrative represents a site of struggle where Americans work through key aspects of national identity including race, gender, and class. Drawing on a wide array of “texts”—cookbooks, advertising, YouTube videos, and more—I peel back the layers of the death of home cooking narrative to reveal how massive changes in food production and kitchen technologies transformed cooking at home from an odious chore into “home cooking,” a concept imbued with deep meanings associated with home, family, and community missing from the twenty-first century. Furthermore, I contend that by emphasizing present-day decline while invoking a nostalgic past as the path to a triumphant future, home cooking’s mourners follow the rhetorical tradition of the American jeremiad. I posit that by relying on idealized imagery, modern-day Jeremiahs seek to establish a singular definition of “real” home cooking while reinforcing its symbolic significance. However, these arguments only serve to emphasize the gap between everyday cooking experiences and the ideal—a gap filled by iv advertisers who use the same imagery to peddle convenience products as the solution to America’s cooking problems. Ultimately, this dissertation analyzes current discourse and, in the process, offers a counter-narrative that includes the complexities of daily practice which incorporate tradition and convenience while reinforcing the necessity of a more nuanced discussion of the past, present, and future of American home cooking. v TABLE OF CONTENTS List of Figures …………………………………………………………………………...……….vii Acknowledgements ……………………………………………………………………………..viii Chapter 1. INTRODUCTION: IN THE KITCHEN WITH GRANDMA ………………………...1 The Death of Home Cooking …………………………………………………………………..6 Defining Home Cooking ……………………………………………………………………...13 Home Cooking is Dead…Long Live Home Cooking .……………………………………….20 The Meaning(s) of Home Cooking …………………………………………………………...30 Moving from “Real” Home Cooking to Home Cooking Reality ……..…………………….39 Chapter 2. FROM GREAT GRANDMA’S HEARTH TO MOM’S MICROWAVE: THE TRANSFORMATION OF AMERICAN HOME COOKING ………………....41 Home is Where the Hearth Is ………………………………………………………………....45 Industrial Revolution and Industrious Women ……………………………………………….47 Changing Responsibilities from Home Cook to Consumer …………………………………..51 Magic Mixes and Push Button Kitchens: Cooking in Post-World War II America ………….54 Resistance and Revolution …………………………………………………….……………..60 The Twenty-First Century Fractured Food Landscape ……………………………………….67 Chapter 3. JUST LIKE GRANDMA NEVER MADE: LAMENTING THE LOSS HOME COOKING IN AMERICA …………………………………………………71 Judging by This Jeremiad, Dinner’s Done For ……………………………………………….75 The Microwave Murdered Mom’s Home Cooking …..……………...………………………78 There’s Promise in the Past …..………………………………………………………….…...92 If I Can Cook, So Can You …..……………………………………………………………..101 The Virtuous Versus the Villainous and the “Morality” of American Home Cooking .……108 Do as I Say and Cook the Right Way ...…………………………………………………….111 Cooking at Home for a Better Future …..…………………………...……………………...116 Chapter 4. FROM GRANDMA’S RECIPE BOX: HOW COOKBOOKS SELL COMFORT AND HELP CREATE AMERICA’S CONSUMER COOKS …...…………………121 Selling the “Comfort Cooking” Experience ……………………………..…………………123 “Quick and Easy” Recipes for “Busy” People ……………………………………...………126 Cooking for Comfort …………………………………………………………………….....130 The Ideal Versus the “Real”……………………………………………………………...….143 Haunted By Hate: The Legacy of Race in the Kitchen ……………….…………………….150 Chapter 5. BRAND NAME “GRANDMA”: SELLING TRADITION TO AMERICAN HOME COOKS ……………………………………………………...….................155 Home Cooking Without Cooking …………………………………………………..………160 Homemade Not Made At Home ……………………………………………………………168 “Let Us Do The Cooking For You” …………………………………………………………177 Fixing It or Faking It? ………………………………………………………………………180 vi Chapter 6. GRANDMA’S GONE GLOBAL: HOME COOKING TRADITIONS MOVE FROM THE KITCHENETTE TO THE INTERNET ………………………..……185 Sharing Cooking Knowledge from Word of Mouth to the World Wide Web …………..…189 From Grandma to Me to You: Recipes, Stories, and Recipes-as-Stories in the Global Age …………………………………………………………………….……………197 Extending Kitchen Space into Cyberspace with Online Cooking Videos …………….……208 Bound by Tradition? ..............................................................................................................222 Keepin’ Tradition Alive and Cookin’ ………………………………………………….……233 Chapter 7. CONCLUSION: IN THE KITCHEN WITH…DAD?: CONTINUITY AND CHANGE IN TWENTY-FIRST CENTURY HOME COOKING ………..………235 A Bowl of Fish Chowder ……………………………………………………………………235 Good Cooks, Bad Cooks, Non-Cooks, Too ……………………………………...…………239 Appendix A: List of Online Recipes ……………………………………………………...……243 Appendix B: List of YouTube Cooking Videos …………………………………….…………249 Bibliography……………….……………………………………………………………………255 vii LIST OF FIGURES Figure 1: Me and Grandma, c. 1983 ...…………………………………………………………….1 Figure 2: Dad Serving Dinner, December 2011 …….….………………………………………235 viii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS There is an old saying, “too many cooks spoil the broth.” The same is not true for undertaking the size and scope of this dissertation. Throughout this project, I have benefited from the support and encouragement of innumerable people: family, friends, church members, teachers, library staff, fellow students, and even strangers who pointed me in the right direction at the local bookstore to find just the right volume or offered a smile and a kind word at the local coffee shop. Each of these individuals made this dissertation possible and all deserve a warmhearted “thank you.” Some supporters surpassed what I could have asked for and I take this opportunity to share just a small portion of my appreciation for the contribution that they have made to this dissertation. Above all, this journey would not be possible without God’s great mercy and love. I am truly grateful for the blessings that He has provided. All glory is His. In October 2008, as my husband and I made the return trip New Hampshire after visiting Penn State Harrisburg for the first time, we passed the time during the nine hour trip by listening to the radio. Reports of the stock market’s horrendous collapse peppered the news. As the numbers became more and more alarming, I turned to my husband and asked, “Should we really try this? Quit our jobs, move hundreds of miles, just so I can get a PhD?” He did not skip a beat before replying, “Let’s go for it!” Throughout this process his unwavering encouragement has uplifted and sustained me. Whenever I felt a task was nearly impossible—studying for the comprehensive exam, presenting a paper at a national conference, finishing a chapter draft—he responded with a brief but heartfelt, “Jen, you can do this! I know you can.” During a particularly frustrating period of writer’s block when I spent more time staring at a blank page than writing, a tiny pink post-it note appeared on the edge of the computer screen that included ix the lines “I love you. You are going to succeed.” That note became a touchstone, providing inspiration each time I felt as if the task had become too daunting. As my friend, companion, confidante, and, most of all, the love of my life, I could not have completed this work without him. My parents Raymond and Lesley Ritchings have always given me their unconditional love, unwavering support, and unshakeable trust. Through hard work and sacrifice they provided me with a wonderful childhood filled with love that provided strong roots, enabled me to pursue my academic interests, and gave me the strength to pursue my dreams. My little