Not-so-Sexy Sixties Microwave Recipes

I've written about Amana microwave cookbooks before, but those books were from the 1970s-- a time when microwaves were just beginning to get popular. Today's book is special because it's even earlier.

The Amana Radarange Microwave oven Microwave Cooking Guide is from 1968-- just after the first models appropriate for household use went into the market.

Part of what I love about the cookbook is its sixties vibe. Microwaves were so new that owners had to be instructed on how to find a place for the appliance, and this kitchen is just soooo sixties I want to frame it and hang it by my desk.

Just look at the cheery red-orange cupboards with the white trim! And the profusion of bright orange and yellow flowers in the wallpaper, with an avocado-green dining room chair hiding in the background! It's such a cheery late-'60s wonderland that I can almost forget for a second that people who weren't killing and dying in Vietnam were being assassinated right here at home. 

But hey! At least lobsters didn't feel self-conscious about going out with unshaven armpits.

And yeah... If you were rich enough to own a microwave, you were also rich enough to nuke a lobster. I've already covered that.

The thing that really struck me about this very early microwave cookbook, though, was just how many organ meat recipes it had. The microwave was billed as an easy way to cook liver.

It could also scramble sweetbreads like nobody's business.

Or it could bake veal OR pork brains!

Or if you couldn't remember whether your fridge was full of sweetbreads or brains, well, either could be Dejeunered, as long as you had a few fresh veggies and some canned asparugs.

It just seemed odd to see so many organ meat recipes (dishes that seem more like meals for farmers who used up all parts of their animals or for people on limited budgets who couldn't afford steaks than for ritzy trend setters) in a cookbook for a pricy appliance. I guess maybe microwave owners had to make up for the price of the microwave by making more economical dishes?

Or maybe tastes just really were more old-fashioned back then, as the first word in "Prune Party Crock" now seems out of place to me.

Yeah, there's wine in the prunes, but maybe party guests would rather have their alcohol without prunes, especially if they're trying to make smoldering glances to the cutie across the room rather than worrying about what that gurgly feeling down below might presage....

I'm just not sure Amana was quite ready to party in 1968, but it was trying to make using up the prunes and organ meat seem kind of fancy and thrilling.