#dejectedarr

Okay so first of all bagged milk 

So milk used to be sold in glass bottles yeah but also like cartons and shit like that. In the late 1960s a company started to offer milk in bags - sturdy plastic ones - as an alternative but not everyone was using it, partly because it wasn’t available (and still isn’t in BC / Alberta / SK / Manitoba) but probably also because bagged milk is REALLY weird like it wobbles and is a lot easier to accidentally puncture or burst and anyways

all that changed in the 1970s when Canada (under the government of our current PM’s Dad, Pierre E. Trudeau) started changing over from the Imperial system to the Metric system 

Which is a move that a lot of the Conservative party in Canada opposed for some reason partially because partisan politics and mostly because they saw it as a waste of money and resources cause then you gotta pay to change all the signs and labels and shit but

Trudeau was like oh well time for metricization and started changing miles to km and standardizing the use of cm/m/km and weight in grams / kg and things like not having to wonder how many pints to a gallon or whatever the fuck all of a sudden it’s just mL and L which are WAY more sensible and can still be converted easily to cups and shit for baking but 

the dairy industry and a couple other folks (agriculture etc) were the last to go (see above re: cost of changing all the packaging sizes to reflect the new measurements) 

but the dairy industry was like oh hey, there’s this system already in place for bagging milk so why don’t we just like, do that 

cause it’s cheaper than trying to completely overhaul all our other containers for milk 

so they did

but only in Eastern Canada especially Ontario

which is why they still sell 4 L of milk in bags 

but you can still buy 2L and 1L cartons made of waxed cardboard 

now also Gelatin Salads

SO in France food was a big deal 

I mean like think back to the 1700′s before the Revolution and leading up to it - FOOD WAS BIG it was a status symbol to be able to create food out of expensive and scarce ingredients with recipes that took the better part of a day to make because 1) it showed that you had the money to do so and 2) it showed that you were able to hire people to do the labour on your behalf and slave over boiling pig and cow bones for hours and hours and hours to extract enough collagen to make a stock that, when chilled, would set into this clear jellied substance that you could suspend meat and artfully cut vegetables and shit into 

Meanwhile the peasants who made up 90% of the population were subsisting on gruel (thin porridge made of freshly ground grain) and soup consisting of a piece of stale simple bread with broth and a couple veggies on top 

and so the King especially but also courtiers were like, “we’ve got divine providence! We are super awesome! Let’s get our chefs to do centerpieces as part of our FUCKING ELABORATE MULTI-COURSE MEALS that are literally just a FUCKTON of meat and veggies arranged and meticulously set in layer on layer of clear meat-jelly that took yesterday to make and the rest of the NEXT day to assemble, before popping that out on a platter and carving hunks off of it” 

I could go on about French Court eating but it was ostentatious and like that so ANYWAYS you get this cultural OOOOH about jelly and how it’s made and the time and labour involved + also this association with royalty and wealth

Fastforward like 200 years and the king is dead (long live the revolution then the Republic of Virtue and then oh right the king again?? and then democracy I guess) and go across an ocean and OH HEY ITS NORTH AMERICA

In like the 1940′s and stuff and the war is over and what do we got in America (and also Canada) which aren’t currently firebombed and trying to recover from the rubble left behind? We have a highly industrialised nation 

And said highly industrialized nations were revelling in machinery and mechanized processes and processed foods and OH HEY 

Housewifery is also in full swing but a lot of women have been working full time while the war was going on so processed food companies were having a field day 

Because 1) there were a LOT of processed foods - canned and powdered and boxed and dried and preserved - that previously had to be eaten fresh or preserved some other way especially before electricity was available in the remote rural areas that most people lived in 

and 2) anything that could “save time” on food preparation was seen as very desirable and 

3) also most middle-class folks and people of many other classes had never seen this kind of bounty of food?? IT WAS AMAZING they suddenly had access to food that didn’t rot or need to be packed in jars with sugar or vinegar, it just… boom, you add water and INSTANT FOOD 

also refrigerators 

But still, food preservation (especially in the name of saving money) was a massive deal to so many people 

So …. along comes this company that manages to create what’s basically a powdered gelatin

all of a sudden you just… add water, stir, dissolve, chill, and BAM - jelly 

That was a WAY quicker way than just like, boiling some calves and pigs feet and then still having to strain and clarify everything and hope it didn’t taste too much like meat 

and this stuff was FLAVOURED 

and it happened to go REAL WELL with all the other wacky foods that were being canned 

No fresh fruit cause it’s -30 and the armpit of winter? GOOD THING YOU HAVE CANNED PINEAPPLE / PEACHES / PEARS / CHERRIES / FRUIT COCKTAIL 

Fruit cocktail was advertised as an excellent breakfast / dessert / addition - you had all kinds of savoury recipes too, like pork cooked in fruit cocktail which is actually super tasty 

Also don’t get me started on how much you could do with canned soup (here’s looking at you, Midwestern and Canadian Prairie casseroles and hot dish recipes) 

So back to the main point not only does jello taste good and get made instantly but it’s also CHEAP and MASS PRODUCED and HOLY SHIT YOU CAN PUT FRUIT IN IT?

SO you get all these prairie housewives who can make COOL LOOKING MOULDED JELLIES that are LINKED TO HISTORICAL IDEAS ABOUT WEALTH AND SKILL and that SUPPOSEDLY TASTE GOOD 

but they also helped foods that were suspended in them to stay good for longer which meant they had a longer shelf life which meant less food waste

which is also part of the reason you got stuff like lemon jelly with apples and grated celery and carrots inside them 

or other jellies with meat and veggies inside just like the good old days 

The mayonnaise I still don’t understand but I’ll try to look that up and see why they did it 

why mayo. 

why 

Other fun old time food facts: 

I’m not kidding when I say that pre-fridge rural Canada was not a fun place and they didn’t get that til like the 1950′s. You had root cellars and those kept your garden harvest heartier veggies good for months on end. Anything else had to be canned, which meant jellied or pickled or salted. In the winter you could freeze things by sticking it outside but in the summer? icebox. There’s a recipe that no joke recommends just soaking “greenish” meat in milk to try and make it less gross before you cook and eat it 

Wash day meals were things like meat and canned tomatoes and potatoes and onions mixed together and cooked in an oven all day cause washing your clothes took a full like 10 hours or so 

People used to stockpile. When things only cost dollars or cents, they’d buy like...... 50 kg of flour, 10 kg of sugar, 10 of salt, I don’t know exact figures but basically a FUCK TON and then usually some onions and like, cinnamon and shit. 

You had to buy that much because going into town for food wasn’t a daily or weekly occurance, you went like once a month and often couldn’t go at all in winter because of Snow and No Road Access and Freezing Temperatures and No Cars (or cars that couldn’t run in those temperatures)

Among the foods of SK in particular there are lentils because Syrian immigrants brought and planted those when they were settling here in the late 18 and early 1900′s 

A lot of prairie foods that get a bad name as  bland or uninteresting are that way because of complex cultural and monetary factors - like, people didn’t have money, period. And no access to more ‘fun’ or ‘interesting’ ingredients that we have access to in stores, and part of it was also cooking methods - there’s a lot more emphasis on herbs (dried or fresh) and garlic and onions; other things were often luxuries tho 

at the same time there’s something to be said for getting creative with what you’ve got 

though I have a lot of sympathy for early housewives some of whom didn’t know how to cook at all before they started thier own households 

lard is a godsend 

in like so many recipes