One of the things that people often overlook is how far we have come these days in terms of how people choose and prepare the foods they eat every day.
Just take a moment to think about how different food selection and preparation was in the past than modern food selection and preparation is today. In the beginning, taste did not matter and it was thus that food was translated into life.
If you want to go back to cavemen (maybe Bobby Flay and Emeril Lagasse of their time) and cavewomen, it was just a matter of clubbing something on the head before building a bonfire on the edge of the cave to cook it.
Obviously, this meat is not prepared in a non-stick pan or with the help of fancy marinades or spices. It was a basic, “You gotta kill it before you burn it” way of thinking to get food to live.
Even in the pioneer years in our country, there were often vegetables or fruits that people could grow mixed with wild animals that they could shoot. They were still cooked over an open fire, usually over the fire in the cabin.
Eventually came the invention of ovens, pressure cookers, toaster ovens and more that were used over the years by generations of grandmothers, great-grandmothers and mothers. It took the warm and simple name of “home cooking” with lots of meat, potatoes and vegetables.
Many of us still have old recipes written down, and from time to time prepare them to enjoy not only the taste, but the aroma and memories that they bring. It was a time of chopping and slicing by hand using iron pots, pans, kettles along with an iron frying pan for cooking or in the oven.
Since those days, technology has now entered the cooking picture changing the way we prepare and choose food. What is surprising is that relatives who have gone before did not realize the skills that men and women use today in the kitchen to prepare food.
When I look around my kitchen, I see things that my grandmother and mother didn’t have like microwaves, toaster ovens, George Foreman grills, mixers and more.
I can still hear my grandfather talking about how freezers changed the game of food storage. No, I’m not talking about refrigerators or freezers, but their predecessors, which were sealed metal boxes that were kept cool by actual blocks of ice cut from Lake Manistee in the winter.
Consider this when you go to the refrigerator today with a glass to press the tab outside to collect ice or crushed ice followed by water from the unit’s dispenser. Back then, the only water that came out of the ice was when it melted on a hot day and became the pan below it.
What was also interesting is that at that time food was often a source of food for the people who ate it. These days with all the ingredients and great cooking methods being presented to us by cooking shows on the radio, it has taken over the entertainment industry.
However, reading an article about high-end kitchen gadgets on display at the recent CES Tech Show in Las Vegas gave me a good idea of what my grandma and grandpa would like to see in my kitchen today.
For example, General Electric unveiled a smart mixer that has a sensor that allows the chef to measure your ingredients in the bowl as they work. You know, my grandmother also had a sensor that she called, “You have to add a smidgen of this and a smidgen of that.”
Even today Emeril Lagasse has his own “Bam Sensor” for detecting the amount of added ingredient on the plate.
The smart mixer has an auto sensor that can monitor changes in texture and viscosity to prevent overmixing. My mom had a similar sensor inside her when she mixed something and said, “It looks good.” What was surprising was that he always saw.
Dutch company OneThird unveiled a scanner that can now tell you in the store whether avocados, fruit, tomatoes or watermelons are ripe. Grandma had one too, but it was called her fingers.
Two squeezes will cause him to point to one and say, “Take that one, wacha.” And by golly they were burnt.
Versa Ware came out with a small phone device that can be attached to a blackboard or mixing bowl to display recipes and track food. My grandmother and mother had a device called “their brain” to remember the secret. And about being healthy, that came in the words, “Eat, it’s good for you.”
Another new cooking technology is Samsung’s bespoke A1 Oven which comes with a camera inside to alert you if your food is burning. Grandma used something a little different; he smelled the air and quickly said, “Get out of here it’s getting hot.”
Yes, today’s modern cooking world is probably better at trying to cook, putting in the right ingredients and making sure they don’t burn while cooking. But one thing the most advanced equipment cannot and will not compare to the true love and memories that our mothers and grandmothers made in their cooking.
It’s something that will stay that way when I see you again on Thursday.
Ken Grabowski is a retired associate editor at the Manistee News Advocate who spent more than 36 years in the newspaper business.
