Aside from being fixated on dried milk and clueless about the meaning of "spicy," Lean Cuisine for the Weight Conscious (nobody wanted credit for this one, but it's from 1978) really appreciated unnecessary quotation marks.
Sometimes they are used in the Weight Watchers way, indicating that a recipe does not really contain the named ingredient, as in the Mixed "Fruit" Sherbet.
Nope-- no actual fruit. It's just "black cherry flavored dietetic soda" and strawberry extract (because strawberries and cherries are known for being so calorific-- can't risk actually eating any).
Sometimes, the scare quotes seem to be an open admission that the recipe title is a lie.
"Fantasy" Fudge is admitting that not even the most deprived dieter is fantasizing about nonfat dry milk with chocolate and vanilla extracts, diet margarine, and artificial sweetener.
Sometimes, the scare quotes appear to be trying to perform some kind of complicated reverse psychology maneuver.
See, "Mistake" Cake isn't a mistake because "mistake" is in scare quotes, meaning that it's not really a mistake to consider crumbled raisin bread reconstituted with an egg, artificial sweetener, and extra spices and flavorings to be a dessert-y cake!
And some quotation marks are just... a puzzle.
I have no idea where they're trying to go with "Spice" Spice Cake. Are they trying to imply that cinnamon is insufficient to make it a spice cake? That seems like a weak guess. Maybe it's to reassure readers that the cake doesn't have any hot and spicy pepper ingredients-- just non-spicy spices? Maybe it's to fool midwesterners into thinking spices are just imaginary, so it won't hurt if they actually add a few? I welcome all theories, no matter how far-fetched!
Was cinnamon raison bread different in the 70s? Today it's so sweet it could be a dessert on its own. No need to break it into pieces, mix with an egg and several other unnecessary things and bake it again. I was also entertained that "fantasy" fudge serves 1 even though it states to shape it into balls. Plural - more than one ball! I can feel my gag reflex kicking in just reading the recipe. I'm guessing it will serve as many suckers as you can find who are willing to try it until the balls of misery are gone. I also wonder why black cherry and strawberry were the combined fruits. I was expecting lemon/lime with one other fruit flavor, but no. I wonder how many women kept making the recipes with artificial flavoring, dry milk, and crumbled up bread expecting that the recipe would turn out edible. Any sane person would look at the recipes and run away screaming. An optimist would try one of each type of recipe. I won't speculate on the mental state of someone who made multiple versions of these same themes.
ReplyDeleteI imagine cinnamon raisin bread may have been less sweet in the '70s just because seasonings in general were more subdued, and Americans tend to add extra sugar/ icing/ etc. to everything now. In any case, I'm sure the plain cinnamon raisin bread must have been better than the "cake," but I think going to the effort to make it into something called a cake was supposed to enhance the flavor somehow (just like "detox" diets are supposed to make people feel like they've accomplished something just because of all the effort).
DeleteFor a second I thought they went with THE fantasy fudge before I saw the quote marks.
ReplyDeleteAlso, every time I use chocolate extract in a recipe it tastes... odd. Would it really have ruined the calorie counts to use cocoa powder?
Seriously! Cocoa powder usually only has about ten calories a tablespoon (and even the fancier high-fat stuff only has twenty)! Maybe the fudge is doomed to be so terrible that no one would want to waste cocoa powder on it, though.
Delete