3 hours ago, MelissaH said:@Anna N, your story of only being saved prep time reminds me of a story I read (and can't remember where, or I'd give them credit): when cake mixes were first being developed, those in charge made a conscious choice to have bakers add their own eggs, because they found that it made people feel more like they were really cooking (and, presumably, less guilty about using a mix in the first place).
I'm not sure if this is the only source but I read that story in Laura Shapiro's Something From the Oven. It's a rather scary book about how the food industry maneuvered their way into people's kitchens after World War II. It's sort of a follow up to her book Perfection Salad about how, in the 1900's - 1920's, home economists persuaded women that cooking the way their mothers had cooked was not "scientific" and that women who were not being appropriately "scientific" were failures as wives, mothers and probably as people. (Because if you were a woman then, what mattered other than succeeding as a wife and mother? Unless you were one of those home economists in which case you were clearly in the vanguard of home science.)
edited to add - When I think about it, isn't there a parallel of sorts with Blue Apron and their competitors that goes beyond the sweet potato?
