Since 1985 a singular artifact has always hung on my walls no matter where I have worked and lived. It is an aluminum foil plate with four indentations presented as a museum exhibit I received from Swanson foods as the Daily Camera’s food editor.
The item includes this label: “Aluminum Tray Dated from 1954-1985: Shiny-surfaced container of typical 20th Century design. Stamped hallmark ‘Swanson’ identifies this piece which is thought by many scholars to have been a receptacle for a meal colloquially known as a ‘TV dinner.’”
The mass introduction of TV dinners in 1954 changed America’s culture as much as the black-and-white television with three or four channels, which was then still novel.
In my family we sometimes sat with trays in front of us and watched the Vietnam War unfold in the nightly news on TV. About once a week we ate frozen TV dinners — turkey most of the time, and fish cakes and tots on Fridays.
The aluminum cooking tray was considered “futuristic” and the introduction of frozen foods was regarded as a feminist moment. As the National Women’s History Museum put it: “TV dinners gave women (who usually did all or most of the cooking) more time of their own to pursue jobs and other interests.” My mother appreciated the respite from creating three meals a day from scratch for five kids and a husband.
I remember really liking the turkey dinners, especially after Swanson added desserts. I found that the apple cobbler stuff complemented the roasted frozen peas.
It was only in the mid-1980s that microwave ovens finally become omnipresent in American kitchens and microwave-safe trays took over.
In 2018, these dinners are still consumed in front of variously sized screens and supermarkets are still jammed with frozen international cuisine, regional American and restaurant-named entrees plus vegetarian, low-fat and organic meals.
So with coupons in hand, I decided to taste-test the current crop of meals starting with one descended directly from those original TV dinners. My Hungry-Man Roasted Carved White Meat Turkey came with “creamy mashed potatoes, gravy, seasoned stuffing and mixed vegetables (and) a warm apple cranberry dessert.”
The “Serving Suggestion” on the box “Enlarged to Show Quality” bore no resemblance to what emerged from the microwave after about 14 minutes.
The 1-pound net weight dinner contains 16 grams of protein, 410 calories, 50 percent of your sodium requirement along with a fine print blur of ingredients including turkey type flavor, sodium acid pyrophosphate, soybean oil, salt, modified food starch, sugar, L-cysteine monohydrochloride, turkey powder, gelatin, chicken fat, turkey fat and margarine. Such a deal for about $3.
The package recommends: “Check product temperature. Internal temperature must reach at least 160 F as measured by a food thermometer taken in several spots.” Right. Like that’s going to happen.
I ate the dinner as I consumed political chatter on cable news programs. The turkey was neither roasted nor carved and the pieces were suspiciously uniform. Stereotypical mixed frozen veggies were accompanied by a thin, blah gravy plus odd, chewy stuffing nuggets, prison-style non-creamy instant mashers and a spoonful of sweet cranberry-apple substance that wasn’t “dessert.” It did give me flashbacks to the house I grew up in.
The TV dinner was like a cartoon in a foreign news magazine parodying what the typical American man would want to eat.
I balanced that taste attack with some tasty dinners including Eating Well Vermont Cheddar Mac & Cheese, shrink-wrapped to show off the contents. I enjoyed the whole grain corkscrew pasta in a creamy-enough sauce with a distinct, sharp Cheddar flavor topped with buttery bread crumbs plus broccoli. It’s a major step up from typical frozen mac and cheese.
Notable is Atkins Chicken and Broccoli Alfredo with 25 grams of protein, larger pieces of good-tasting chicken breast in a substantial sauce and a full cup of even more broccoli. I was also reasonably satisfied by Lean Cuisine Origins Butternut Squash Lasagna with goat cheese and spinach.
The most satisfying meal was Three Cheese Mushroom Risotto from Boulder-based Evol Foods. This one is made with the right stuff: arborio rice, portobello and crimini mushrooms, caramelized onions, Parmesan, fontina and romano cheeses with heavy cream and extra virgin olive oil.
Best-tasting overall was the Luvo Thai-style Green Curry Chicken bowl, a bright-tasting dish of soft brown rice noodles, nice yellow squash, carrots and red bell peppers and chicken that actually tasted like chicken. The sauce had a decent amount of heat, some tartness and an authentic spice aroma. It’s darn close to Thai restaurant takeout.
For me, it was nicely ironic to consume ready-made dinners after a day of work in the kitchen making caramelized onions, rolled involtini and deep-fried wonton mini taco shells. However, after dining on faux food for a few days, I had to let it go. I went back to scratch home-cooking to eat something fulfilling, more nutritious and much less expensive and far less damaging to the environment.
Novelist John Cheever once described frozen dinners as “the monotonous fare of the besieged,” but they are celebrated annually on Sept. 10, National TV Dinner Day. My Proustian advice: Be careful when you go looking to sample the flavor of memories. You may be left with a bad taste in your mouth.
Local food news
After 20 years of high-fiber fun, the Lafayette Oatmeal Festival is done. Quaker Oats has withdrawn their financial support of the annual January event. … Boulder’s J. Wells Brewery, 2516 49th St., has changed its name to Stein Brewing Company. … Many of the hottest food- and drink-related businesses in the area are now located in Erie, Gunbarrel, Lafayette, Longmont, Louisville, Lyons and Niwot. Please cast your votes in the 2018 Best of Boulder East County survey before Sept. 30. I use the results to find out about eateries, bakeries, breweries, food stores and food makers. Vote at: http://bit.ly/BOBEC18.
Words to chew on
“TV dinners, there’s nothin’ else to eat
TV dinners, they really can’t be beat
I like ’em frozen but you understand
I throw ’em in and wave ’em and I’m a brand new man, oh yeah.” — From “TV Dinners” by ZZ Top
John Lehndorff is the former dining critic of the Rocky Mountain News. Listen to his Radio Nibbles podcasts at: news.kgnu.org/category/radio-nibbles
