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!
I think that I’ll wait to see if others like the hydrogen stove. I tend to be cautious. I’m never an early adopter.
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!!!
Never hurts to have a back-up plan (stove).
Your comment reminds me of a NYT article that I read a few days ago about how quickly fads come and go – and that companies often promote foods that are available for only a “limited time” to create a sense of urgency to purchase it. Companies try to create foods that will look awesome on social media, and hope that influencers will promote the new foods they’ve developed. According to the article, purple foods made with ube (a purple yam) are the current food fad. I’m not sure whether you can access it, but here is the link to the NYT article:
A Must for the Next Food Craze: Be Social Media Gorgeous
Well the title of that article says it all don’t you think?
It does!
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.
I have an induction cooktop and love it! Fast, easy to keep clean, energy efficient and safe.
It’s good to hear that you like your induction cooktop. I’ve heard lots of great things about them.
When I heard that I might need to buy new pans if I bought an induction cooktop, I decided it wasn’t for me. I like the pans that I have. Guess I’m a Luddite – which comes as no surprise.
I have two sets of pans, with one being Corning Visions, which I love. I like to see my food cook. I bought a complete set in the early 80’s for less than 30 dollars. I can’t believe how expensive they are now. My other set is All-Clad, which I should be able to hand down to my grandchildren.
Amen to that!!! I am now learning how to use an air fryer!!!
My oven has that option, and I haven’t tried it yet.
As Becky commented, I remember many of my older relatives having both gas or electric and a wood stove as well “just in case.”
It makes perfect sense that people once had both a gas/electric stove and a wood stove. The electricity could always go out (and it probably wasn’t very reliable in the early days), and there probably were similar issues for gas. I remember a neighbor when I was a child who had an old wood stove. I think that she fired it up each December to make numerous batches of Plum Pudding which she then gave to all her friends. Each batch of pudding needed to be steamed for hours, and she liked that her wood stove didn’t require electricity. She probably also liked the warm, cozy ambience of the wood stove.
We had a wood burning stove in our cabin in the woods in Washington state. I remember my mom cooking on it and everything tasted great, including the fried trout that we caught in the river. What an interesting post to think about the changes in stoves.
It’s nice to hear that this post brought back some warm memories. Fresh fried trout sounds wonderful
Thank you again. They are great memories along with fishing early in the morning and having trout for breakfast.
I’m really enjoying reading these posts about what life was like One Hundred Years Ago!! I learned to cook on a wood-burning stove and when I left home and got my first apartment, it was quite challenging learning to cook with gas.
It’s wonderful to hear that you enjoy this blog. I have a lot of fun doing it. My family had an electric stove by the time I came along; but, at that time, a coal stove was still a recent memory of my parents.
I was born way out in the boonies of West Virginia and electricity didn’t come up our little holler until I was 11.
I’m always surprised how long it took for some places in the U.S. to get electricity. I have a friend whose father has stories to tell about how the rural electric association brought electricity to the area where he lived.
It was a lot of work setting all those poles up these hollers.
I grew up on a farm in Pennsylvania. I can picture the electric poles going across the fields on that farm. Similarly to the way it was where you lived, I’m guessing that it was also a lot of work when they put those poles across my parent’s farm.
Yes! So many places look almost impossible to access!
My grandparents had a wood burning stove. It was lovely during the colder months; always warm in their kitchen – and beyond. I grew up with a gas stove in my parents home, and have had electric since. It may be ‘nostalgia’, but the food tasted great when cooked in that wood burner – then gas – then electric!
Wood stoves are especially nice for soups and other things that need to be simmered or cooked for a long time.
I used to love toasting bread with a man-made large fork made with wire by inserting said fork with bread attached into the smaller door of the stove. The ‘smouldering’ embers made the most fabulous toast…
mmm. . . the toast sounds lovely. It reminds me of making toast over a camp fire. The process sounds similar.
It was interesting to read how people learned how to use gas and electric stoves. Thank you for sharing.
Times sure have changed over the last hundred years or so. I’m glad you enjoyed this post.
I remember grandparents having a variety of cooking stoves, some were a just in case!
It’s always good to have several options in case something goes wrong. 🙂
I recall my mother-in-law saying how electricity made such a difference to their lives. In some ways, those demonstrations in using new cooking appliances are an echo with the advent of microwaves, induction tops and air-friers.
It’s fascinating how cooking demonstrations using new technology have been around for a least a century. Some things don’t change.
Love the picture…could you do one on Hossiers sometime if you have not yet?
It is a fun picture. I’m amazed how many people attended the cooking demonstration. I’m not quite sure what you are hoping I do a post on. Are you referring to old Indiana community cookbooks? If so, I’ve never done any Indiana specific posts. I don’t have any old community/church cookbooks from that state. Each year, I purchase several cookbooks off eBay for whatever year is currently a hundred years in the past. (This year I bought 1926 cookbooks.) It’s always to fun to see what locales have old cookbooks available on eBay.
Sheryl, this is such a great post, and by the comments, clearly resonated with many. I was struck by the number of people who attended the Home Service Lecture, and how well dressed they were! Thanks for the research that goes into your blog
(By the way, we will be heading to Ohiopyle in 2 wks to finish The Gap, this time the 75 miles to Pittsburgh).
What fun! I’m slightly jealous that you are heading to Ohiopyle to do another leg. I’ve loved rafting at Ohiopyle, and hopefully will get a chance to do some biking there someday. It’s wonderful to hear that you enjoy this blog. I have a lot of fun doing it.