Getting (not terribly) crazy with the herbs and spices

If you need yet another reminder of how little flavor Americans used to expect from their food, Better Homes and Gardens Cooking with Herbs and Spices (1967, though mine is the 1968 second printing) might just do the job.

I was surprised by how many recipes seemed to suggest that "Flavor Magic" simply meant adding a little marjoram, like this recipe for Rice 'n Tuna Pie.

There's a little bit added to the rice-based crust and a little added to the tuna-and-Swiss cheese filling, so this recipe went all out.

The recipe for Oven Roasting Ears gets a little crazier, adding both rosemary and marjoram to the butter used to coat the sweet corn before it's wrapped in romaine leaves(!) and baked in the oven.

The booklet is also a reminder that snack food flavors were WAY more limited in 1960s America. If you wanted a flavor of potato chips other than "salt" and maybe barbecue or onion, you pretty much had to make them yourself. Better Homes and Gardens recommended using thyme, basil, or (surprise!) marjoram.

But to make it stick, you'd need to fix the potato chips nacho-style, with some melty cheese.

And while a lot of recipes are pretty basic, like adding basil to cooked carrots, dill to cucumber pickles, or candied ginger to ginger crisp cookies, there are a few oddball recipes, like this recipe from the "Fast and Flavorful!" section of the booklet.

Since the section heading wasn't too descriptive, I initially assumed that the applesauce and ginger meant Dixie Dandy Bake was a dessert. Then I saw the luncheon meat. And the sweet potatoes. And the apricot jam. And the mustard... So this is clearly one of those overly-sweet main dish dealies that tend to give me the heebie-jeebies, and the title clearly does not help in that regard...

Still, as I make fun of the 1960s households for being so timid and conventional about herbs and spices, I have to admit that I have an entire spice rack full of barely used (and often unopened) spices that I saw on sale or clearance, picked up because I thought they would be fun to try, and then chickened out on because I was worried what my digestive system might think. I like to make fun of these old booklets, but it's more of an act than you might imagine.... (Still, though, I am more adventurous than salt, pepper, and a hint of marjoram.)