The potential of various cooking innovations excites cooks, though they often have difficulty deciding whether to actually purchase the latest inventions. They worry about the cost and ease of use, and want to be sure that they will use the new item.
Similarly, a hundred years ago, cooks were excited about gas and electric stoves. Many people still used wood or coal stoves, but there was huge interest in modern stoves. However, cooks were concerned that they might be difficult to use, and that they would not cook foods as well as the familiar wood and coal stoves. Gas and electric stoves were also expensive to purchase (and the electricity or gas needed to operate them was costly).
Utility companies promoted the use of gas and electric stoves to increase demand for their products. For example, People’s Gas Light and Coke Company in Chicago hired Anna Peterson, who hosted the first radio cooking show, as their Director of Home Services. In this role, she conducted popular food demonstrations, often in large auditoriums, using gas stoves. She made food that looked and tasted great, while chatting about the wonders of cooking with gas.
Anna Peterson also developed a cookbook, Mrs. Peterson’s Simplified Cooking, which shared her expertise. To take the guesswork out of using a modern stove, the recipes in the cookbook included oven temperatures (which older cookbooks often excluded since people using wood and coal stoves cooked by sensing how hot the fire was, rather than based on temperature), as well as cooking times. The cookbook was very popular. The first edition as published in 1924, the second edition in 1925, and the third edition in 1926. (I have the third edition.)
I suppose this will never change. I feel the same way about new products. I just read about a hydrogen stove, for instance!
Great book to have! I think in this “day and age” new or different stuff catches on much faster and probably sizzles out just as fast. When my mothers mother put a gas stove in she kept the wood stove just in case!!!
That made me think about induction cooking. Someone was trying to talk me into it, but then I would have to learn a different way to cook. I could relate to the women getting used to a new way of cooking.