I remember dreading September as a kid-- the pit of horror in my stomach as I imagined what new ways the other kids would figure out to make fun of odd little me. Then I'd see a commercial for some new snack on TV and try to convince myself that if I could just get mom to send me to school with that delicacy, everything would be all right. (And then I'd discover that being the lone weirdo who liked Pudding Roll-Ups did not make my day any easier.)
The Chamberlain Calendar of American Cooking (Narcisse and Narcissa Chamberlain, 1957) has no commentary on the recipe choices, so I don't know whether the September options are meant to have any connection to packed school lunches. In any case, the homemade crackers that predominate for the month remind me that '50s schoolkids did not have the kinds of brown bag options that I did.
Those who lived in the south may have been sent off to school with Charleston Benné Biscuits.
So now I can imagine all those students returning to school with sesame crackers mom cut out with her finest liqueur glass, feeling sad that they can't crisp them in a slow oven before lunch as the Chamberlains recommended.
The northern kids might head out for school with Cheddar Dollars instead.
Other than the flavoring agent, the recipes are pretty similar: flour, fat, salt, and a hint of cayenne. It's interesting that Cheddar Dollars are rolled into a log and sliced rather than being individually cut the way the Benné Biscuits were-- so much less labor-intensive!
I kind of wonder if the kids back then had the same anxieties about how their snack foods would affect their social standing. Did the ones with homemade snacks feel inferior to the snobs with the ritzy Ritz crackers? I don't know, but the September entries make me glad I no longer have to worry about whether my lunch will make the other kids more likely to pick on me during recess.
Now that you mention them, I do remember pudding roll ups. I hadn't thought of them probably since they were discontinued (if not before). These recipes sound like way too much fussing around, especially if you were making them for children to take to school. If you want a snack, have a box of raisins dried out to the crunchy bullet stage washed down with a glass of funky tap water.
ReplyDeleteI think I may be the only person who ever liked pudding roll-ups. I also don't really think the recipes were meant for school since one recipe called for recrisping the crackers before serving and the other said to bake them immediately before serving. I just wanted to tie the recipes to back-to-school time since it's September. Either option is better than the dreaded raisins that got dragged around for months until somebody got desperate enough to eat them.
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