Right to Vote Day

The 19th amendment, giving women the right to vote, was passed on August 18 in 1920, although it didn’t go into effect until the 26th of August. It takes my breath away to think that there are still women living who were born before women could vote. We really have “come a long way, baby.” I can’t help but think that this “liberation” came about in part because World War I catapulted women into a new age of short skirts, light (almost no) underwear and freedom from slaving over a wood-burning stove, to name a few things. They finally had time to think about politics. World War I had a huge effect on the status of women at home just as World War II would have as large an effect on women in the workplace.


In a 1917 edition of Ladies’ Home Journal, almost all the articles are a call to action for women to help with the war:

What Mr. Hoover Asks Women to Do

Stop, before throwing any food away, and ask “Can it be used?” Order meals so as not to have too much. Have a proper balance of the most nutritious foods. Stop catering to different appetites. No second helpings. Stop all eating between meals. Stop all four-o’clock teas. Stop all refreshments at parties, dances, etc. Stop all eating after the theater. One meatless day a week. One wheatless meal a day. No young lamb; no veal; no young pigs or ducklings; no young meat of any sort. No butter in cooking: use substitutes. Personal marketing instead of by telephone.

Going further in the magazine, it became clear that the birth of the supermarket came directly out of WW I.

While hunting for some interesting food topics connected to women’s rights, I found that Fannie Farmer opened her cooking school on August 23, 1902. On the frontispiece of her new edition, July, 1923, she wrote:

Cookery means the knowledge of Medea and of Circe and of Helen and of the Queen of Sheba. It means the knowledge of all herbs and fruits and balms and spices, and all that is healing and sweet in the fields and groves and savory in meats. It means carefulness and inventiveness and willingness and readiness of appliances. It means the economy of your grandmothers and the science of the modern chemist; it means much testing and no wasting; it means English thoroughness and French art and Arabian hospitality; and, in fine, it means that you are to be perfectly and always ladies—loaf givers. ----Ruskin

With the progress of women’s rights the needs of the human body could not be forgotten.

And it still fell to women, at least in the home, to fulfill those needs. The changes in what she had at her disposal were huge. Before 1920, most women still cooked on wood-burning or coal gas ranges. The electric range and natural gas range emerged at the beginning of the century and were common by the time women had the vote. But even more significantly, the electric refrigerator replaced the ice box and a new array of frozen and refrigerated desserts and dishes was born. Katharine A. Fisher, Director of the Good Housekeeping Institute in June of 1928 wrote: “In making the best use of your refrigerator…plan the marketing so that milk, fruits, vegetables and other perishable foods will not have to be kept in the refrigerator more than a few days at a time. And, if possible, place the refrigerator in the kitchen, as you would any other piece of kitchen equipment. In any case, do not put it on the back porch where it will be exposed to sun and weather.”

Out of a beautifully illustrated volume, “Electric Refrigerator Recipes and Menus, Specially Prepared for the General Electric Refrigerator” comes this delightful dessert:

Coupes

Any ice cream, mousse or parfait served with crushed fruit or other sauce becomes a “coupe.” It is usually served from an ice cream scoop into a stem glass on a doiley on a plate. Fresh or canned fruit sweetened to taste or a sauce, such as the one that follows may be used. They are most attractive if contrasting colors are used for ice cream and sauce.

Strawberry Coupe

Hull and pick over strawberries. Mash, sweeten to taste, and put in the refrigerator to chill. Fill glasses half-full of strawberries, cover with Macaroon Mousse. (4 dry macaroons rolled fine and added to vanilla mousse).

Vanilla Mousse

Soak 1 tsp gelatine in 1 Tbsp. cold water; dissolve by placing cup in boiling water. Add slowly one-fourth cup milk, then add to three-fourths cup milk; add one-half cup sugar and a few grains salt and 2 tsp. vanilla. Strain into refrigerator pan and put in chilling unit. When beginning to stiffen, beat until light. Beat one-half cup heavy cream until stiff and gradually beat in the gelatine mixture. Freeze.

Well, it was a beginning.