What Meal Planning Looked Like In A Best-Selling Cookbook Of The 1950s

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Planning a good meal is a task that has certainly transformed across the years. Even if we remove the ever-changing sentiments around nutrition, the tastes and styles of the moment provide plenty of direction to define what belongs together on the dinner table. Looking back at a copy of "Better Homes and Gardens New Cookbook" first released around seven decades ago, this is quite clear.

Over on Reddit — in the r/Old_Recipes subreddit — a user shared a photo of their copy of the cookbook that they received from their grandmother. In the post, they expressed their excitement about digging into an edition of the book that they say was released in the early '50s and trying out some of those old recipes. We can't confirm the exact details of that book, but it does seem to look like a 1953 edition. Within that 400-plus-page ring-bound tome, the first section is given over to meal planning and nutrition, and thankfully another generous internet user shared a photo of the hefty meal-planning technique suggested in this best-selling cookbook.

The basis of the meal planning in this 1950s version of the "Better Homes and Gardens New Cook Book" involves simple pairings from six different categories. It starts with the protein — things like broiled T-bone steaks or meatloaf — and then gives the reader easy options to serve alongside it from starches, vegetables, salads, and desserts, as well as a sixth intriguing category referred to by the title of "Nice to Serve" in the book.

As an example, if the center of the meal is a classic meatloaf recipe, the suggested starches are scalloped or Franconia potatoes — essentially potatoes roasted with meat drippings. For the vegetables, the options are buttered broccoli or peas and mushrooms. When it comes to salads, we have a bittersweet orange-endive salad or Sunshine Salad, a very 1950s molded gelatin salad made with shredded carrots and crushed pineapple. The dessert suggestions consist of banana cake and dried-fruit compote, and in the "Nice to Serve" category, we have spiced crabapples and chili sauce.

It is clear, reading through that list, that many of these items are more than a bit outdated. There may be a rich history to Jello salads, but they are history — and crabapples aren't exactly common fare these days either. The style of meal planning, however, seems to be fairly timeless. The protein is the natural centerpoint of any meal, and thus the ideal place to start the planning process. You may not need to add a dish from all five of the other categories, but if you are, say, planning a nice dinner party, these categories hold up fairly well.

Servings of protein, starch, and vegetable are a near guarantee on any plate, and a salad — or perhaps a soup — is always a welcome extra. Dessert, too, is likely a part of any dinner party plan. But take time as well to consider the wisdom of what might be unnecessary-but-nice to serve with the meal. The choices in this cookbook include everything from basics like buttered rolls or toasted bread to the more unique, like watermelon pickles, ripe olives, or even grape juice. These may be anachronistic, but the subtle enhancement they provide is anything but.