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JoeFelice t1_jduogfd wrote

Reply to comment by InterPunct in TIL the New York Times, in 1944, Introduced Readers to an Exciting New Food: Pizza by FatherWinter

And the people who'd never heard of those things, what was their diet like?

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henryclay1844 t1_jdup0f4 wrote

Hunks of meat and potatoes, with a few other spare vegatables. Source: my family of non WW2 vets.

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Nwcray t1_jdv2rfg wrote

Close. Really it was mostly vegetables and starches, with regular meat in there too. Meat was expensive, that’s why the phrase “brings home the bacon” means someone who is financially successful. They can afford to eat meat with their breakfast.

Depending on the place and time, of course. But pre-WWII was the Depression, and money was tight for most folks. Before that, in the plains anyway, was the dustbowl.

Interestingly, pork was the most common meat. Chickens are too valuable because they keep producing eggs. Cows would rarely be slaughtered because they are an enormous investment of time and resources (plus they can make milk). Goats are good, but pigs put on a lot more meat much more quickly. As a result, pork (bacon, ham, sausage) were the regular go-to for most people.

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GreenStrong t1_jdvju8v wrote

The modern broiler chicken was only bred in the late 1940s. Undoubtedly, the breeds that create it mated many times in the past, but the farmers thought it was a useless defective monster. Chickens used to be expected to forage around the barnyard, and cornish cross broiler chickens aren't capable of it. They need to be kept in a highly regulated environment, they're constantly hungry and incredibly lazy. They reach maturity in 60-90 days and die of heart failure around one year.

Traditional chickens have about half the meat of a modern broiler. Roosters don't produce eggs, and they to destroy each other through combat, but testosterone makes the meat tough, so they would only be used for slow cooked stew. The really desirable meat was capon, produced from a castrated male chicken, but the testes are internal and the procedure had a high fatality rate.

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fiendishrabbit t1_jdvu81v wrote

Although a properly made rooster stew is quite tasty (coq au vin being the most famous example).

Though frequently it wasn't a rooster, and instead a hen that had gotten too old for laying eggs.

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p38-lightning t1_jdvj32o wrote

Yes - I grew up in the rural South in the 1960s. Beef, pork, chicken, and garden produce was the standard fare. I never had pizza or any other ethnic food until I went off to college.

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