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Better Than Homemade: Amazing Food That Changed the Way We Eat
(1)Who put the Minute in Minute Rice? (2)What, exactly, is Spam? (3)And why do Pringles come in a tennis ball can? Discover the answers to all these questions and more in Better Than Homemade, a freewheeling illustrated history of the packaged foods industry. From Green Giant and Hamburger Helper to Jiffy Pop and Jell-O, syndicated columnist Carolyn Wyman reveals the fascinating origins of your favorite "food" products -- along with never-before published advertisements, innovative packaging (cheese in a can!?), and hilarious "unauthorized uses."
You'll learn that Birds Eye frozen foods were invented by an Arctic adventurer; Kool-Aid got its start from an 11-year-old entrepreneuer; and Twinkies were once used to capture a gang of escaped baboons. Perfect for fans of the Food Network's Unwrapped , this guide is the ultimate paean to processed pleasures! (1) Afghan prince Attaullah Durrani, who brought the idea to General Foods.
(2) According to Spam's website, "Pork shoulder and ham, mostly." Mostly?!
(3) To answer consumer complaints that potato chips were greasy and broke too easily.
You'll learn that Birds Eye frozen foods were invented by an Arctic adventurer; Kool-Aid got its start from an 11-year-old entrepreneuer; and Twinkies were once used to capture a gang of escaped baboons. Perfect for fans of the Food Network's Unwrapped , this guide is the ultimate paean to processed pleasures! (1) Afghan prince Attaullah Durrani, who brought the idea to General Foods.
(2) According to Spam's website, "Pork shoulder and ham, mostly." Mostly?!
(3) To answer consumer complaints that potato chips were greasy and broke too easily.
144 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 2004
1 person is currently reading
110 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 47 reviews
May 6, 2025
How much of our modern concept of leisure time has been shaped by access to food that can be prepared quickly? I have friends who cook 99% of what they eat in a microwave; why spend time cooking something in an oven? This book takes us down this road of food prepared around our desire to spend more time doing what we want...but is there a cost when everyone cooks their food in a microwave and goes to their room instead of sitting down to eat as a family?
January 26, 2010
A short but fun-trivia-packed book that told me more than I ever wanted to know about Velveeta, Chez Whiz, Bac-O's, Pringles, etc. One of my favorite parts were the sidebars on "Unathorized Uses" - did you know a ball of Wonder Bread makes a good eraser? That you can spray Cheese Whiz underwater to attract fish?
April 27, 2013
A funny and fascinating look into the world of pre-prepared foods. Wyman also integrates a lot of different mediums into her research, including television and print ads, promotional materials, give-aways, and historical and literary references to the foods. She also has a tongue-in-cheek style of writing, which is refreshing.
August 10, 2012
As a confirmed "foodie" I already have a full mental library of food facts from so many years watching "Unwrapped" This book filled in some of the gaps. Very entertaining and even had me laughing out loud. Fun Read!
September 19, 2008
Hilarious! Interesting! This book goes through lots of the foods we eat today and how they got here... whether by ingenious design, amazing publicity, or sometimes just sheer dumb luck! The authors are witty and sarcastic- something I can relate to and enjoy reading. And they tell you all kinds of random interesting facts- this book had me laughing and gagging- sometimes at comments on the same page! [Gagging from learning how a food is made, or how it once was made, not from some really gross humor or something...] Anyway, it's a great read and can be done quickly or in bits over time.
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April 7, 2021Quirky, sarcastic little book about famous prepackaged foods and their origins. Everything from Cool Whip and Spam to Twinkies and SpaghettiOs. Little known trivia and original packaging pictures round out this coffee table book. I recommend reading it if you see it around at the library or something, but it’s a little unnecessary these days with all of the same info (and more) available with a quick google search. This book was published in 2004, so a smidge out of date, but still worth a read for the witty commentary if nothing else.
August 21, 2011
Baby boomers, long converted to health foods, slow foods, local foods, show foods whatever - will wallow in the nostalgic delight of Better Than Homemade. Sure some of the chapters feature old favorites like Jello, Spam and Twinkies, but you'll also read about Velveeta, Hamburger Helper, Dinty Moore canned stew and Pop Tarts, most all still available in the grocery.
Covers early history, advertising shifts to maintain market share and ingredients. Chapters: Homemade Helpers-Foods that Revolutionized the Kitchen (On-Cor Family Size Entrees), Powerful Packages: Foods with Innovative Product Delivery Systems (Pringles), Triumphs of Technology: Foods That Improve on Mother Nature (Carnation Instant Breakfast), Indestructibles and Recyclables: Foods for the Long Haul Plus Recycled Food Factory Scraps (Slim Jim) and Marketing Marvels: Advertising Has Made These Must-Eats (Clamato).
Well researched and illustrated, a delight to read and recall.
--Ashland Mystery
Covers early history, advertising shifts to maintain market share and ingredients. Chapters: Homemade Helpers-Foods that Revolutionized the Kitchen (On-Cor Family Size Entrees), Powerful Packages: Foods with Innovative Product Delivery Systems (Pringles), Triumphs of Technology: Foods That Improve on Mother Nature (Carnation Instant Breakfast), Indestructibles and Recyclables: Foods for the Long Haul Plus Recycled Food Factory Scraps (Slim Jim) and Marketing Marvels: Advertising Has Made These Must-Eats (Clamato).
Well researched and illustrated, a delight to read and recall.
--Ashland Mystery
March 15, 2009
Fun and interesting, but definitely one to get from the library. Briefly and breezily covers 46 different processed foods, all of which are still in production. Officially they're divided into five categories (chapters), but they're pretty meaningless because everything fits in all five. I ended up with lots of fun new trivia for parties, and it only took about 30 minutes to read the whole thing, but that is all the substance to it. Appropriately enough, for the subject matter!
March 9, 2016
This was very interesting. I enjoyed learning the history of quite a few of the processed foods I grew up with. I would have enjoyed the book a little more if the author had left out the dirty jokes related to some of the products. Since I was listening to an eaudio, I couldn't just skip over them. The author's attempts at humor often fell flat with me.
June 11, 2019
Really enjoyed this retro look at the foods that have shaped our country however processed they may be :). Highly recommend if you are a foodie. Got my copy off of Amazon, of course :)
February 1, 2021
A friendly romp through Americans love for food Focused on the convenience foods of the 50's, 60's and 70's, from Kraft mac & cheese, through Jello and t.v. dinners. Even the history of Clamato Juice and the Bloody Caesar.
April 13, 2009
I was browsing in the food section of the library the other day, and came across this book: Better Than Homemade: Amazing Foods That Changed the Way We Eat, by Carolyn Wyman. It's basically a history of how and why processed foods were developed, a sort of love song to frozen peas, foods put in aerosol cans, and fluffernutter sandwiches.
It's written by a woman who laments about how cooking from "raw" ingredients saps both time and energy, and doesn't taste nearly as good as anything that comes in a cardboard package. It's entertaining because there are jaw-dropping, unintentionally hilarious bits on almost every single page. She thinks cooking is a waste of time, as evidenced by descriptions of how cooking meals is simply fussing in the kitchen. I suspect she simply never learned how, and takes her frustration out on the crazies who actually like to cook; she confesses that she was 12 before she found out that vegetables come in some other form than cans or frozen blocks. She's also totally inspired by the innovation of processed foods, and furious that they're now seen as unhealthy, seeing it as a sort of failure of feminism: "This was the time before the words artificial flavoring were hidden in the ingredient lists instead of being proudly displayed in product names like 1956's Imitation Black Cherry Jell-O-- before women were expected to hold full time jobs and come home to prepare wholesome meals from scratch with all-natural ingredients." I can't help but laugh about the praise in her tone when she talks about artificial flavoring, and the disdain in her prose when she talks about how the natural food movement expects you to slave away in the kitchen. (She goes into depth later about how the hippies ruined everything.) Here's another fun quote: "If other advances in science and technology experienced a similar backlash, we'd all be riding horses instead of driving cars and paying the iceman to deliver 50-pound blocks of ice instead of simply opening the freezer door. The sad result? Most people today sneak-eat their favorite processed foods in guilt and shame."
I guess you can celebrate certain aspects of processing; freezing allows us to eat a much larger quantity of fruits and vegetables for far longer than their natural harvesting season. But I think she takes it a bit too far in almost every chapter: she lavishly praises Cheese Whiz, because it has a consistent, bland taste (not "strongly-flavored" like cheddar or brie), and it never grows disgusting green mold. Check it out if you'd like to be both horrified AND amused.
It's written by a woman who laments about how cooking from "raw" ingredients saps both time and energy, and doesn't taste nearly as good as anything that comes in a cardboard package. It's entertaining because there are jaw-dropping, unintentionally hilarious bits on almost every single page. She thinks cooking is a waste of time, as evidenced by descriptions of how cooking meals is simply fussing in the kitchen. I suspect she simply never learned how, and takes her frustration out on the crazies who actually like to cook; she confesses that she was 12 before she found out that vegetables come in some other form than cans or frozen blocks. She's also totally inspired by the innovation of processed foods, and furious that they're now seen as unhealthy, seeing it as a sort of failure of feminism: "This was the time before the words artificial flavoring were hidden in the ingredient lists instead of being proudly displayed in product names like 1956's Imitation Black Cherry Jell-O-- before women were expected to hold full time jobs and come home to prepare wholesome meals from scratch with all-natural ingredients." I can't help but laugh about the praise in her tone when she talks about artificial flavoring, and the disdain in her prose when she talks about how the natural food movement expects you to slave away in the kitchen. (She goes into depth later about how the hippies ruined everything.) Here's another fun quote: "If other advances in science and technology experienced a similar backlash, we'd all be riding horses instead of driving cars and paying the iceman to deliver 50-pound blocks of ice instead of simply opening the freezer door. The sad result? Most people today sneak-eat their favorite processed foods in guilt and shame."
I guess you can celebrate certain aspects of processing; freezing allows us to eat a much larger quantity of fruits and vegetables for far longer than their natural harvesting season. But I think she takes it a bit too far in almost every chapter: she lavishly praises Cheese Whiz, because it has a consistent, bland taste (not "strongly-flavored" like cheddar or brie), and it never grows disgusting green mold. Check it out if you'd like to be both horrified AND amused.
May 21, 2018
This book is easily read in an afternoon, colorful, glossy, lots of pictures, and a ton of fun, trivial history about products we all remember from back in the day. We're talking Kool-Aid, Tang, Pillsbury, Jello, Green Giant, and a slew of other ones you'd recognize in an instant. Check out all the cool stuff Wyman teaches you that you didn't really need to know, but now that you do, you can have something to throw into those awkward pauses when someone else says something mind-blowingly inappropriate and fight-inducing:
* The story behind why Dinty Moore stew cans used to have a thumbprint on the lid
* How sci-fi writer Gene Wolfe helped design the machine that makes Pringles (thank you!!)
* How the Pringles shape helped inspire the shape of the Sydney Olympic Stadium
* Jolly Green Giant, Tony The Tiger, Pillsbury Doughboy, Charlie The Tuna and the Keebler Elves were all designed by the same ad agency, Leo Burnett
* Philadelphia Cream Cheese is not made in Philly, but do try their 3 Step Cheesecake anyway --- like you'd want to turn away cheesecake either way, right!
* Who knew the inventor of Jell-O was a wee bit of a hottie back in his day!
A really entertaining part of this book are the "Unauthorized Uses" sidebars, relating the not-endorsed-by-the-manufacturers uses for the products. Some of my favorites:
Coffemate Non Dairy Creamer : clothes whitener (mixed with water makes a soaking solution), dry erase board cleaner, OR mixed with 2 parts hot water can be turned into liquid creamer
Tang: can be used to shampoo greasy hair, clean toilet bowls or dishwashers, wart treatment (Tang & water paste with a Band-Aid over it)
Kool-Aid: recreate your favorite discontinued flavors! Sharkleberry is 1/2 tsp each of Lemonade, Orange, Strawberry with 1 cup sugar and 1/2 gal of water. Sunshine Punch = 1 pack Orange + 1 pack Lemonade with the sugar and water. Wyman says you can find other flavor formulas at KoolAid Usernet Group.
Carnation Instant Breakfast: Did you know you can make ice cream from this stuff? Yep, mix 1 packet with 1 cup milk, put in a plastic container, stick in freezer until it's about half-frozen, still a little soft. Take out, throw into your blender, hit pulse until it looks like ice cream. This is just for a single serving so if you have friends around, you'll either have to do the math on that one or send them on their way before trying this ;-)
Basically just a fun little read for food history nuts!
* The story behind why Dinty Moore stew cans used to have a thumbprint on the lid
* How sci-fi writer Gene Wolfe helped design the machine that makes Pringles (thank you!!)
* How the Pringles shape helped inspire the shape of the Sydney Olympic Stadium
* Jolly Green Giant, Tony The Tiger, Pillsbury Doughboy, Charlie The Tuna and the Keebler Elves were all designed by the same ad agency, Leo Burnett
* Philadelphia Cream Cheese is not made in Philly, but do try their 3 Step Cheesecake anyway --- like you'd want to turn away cheesecake either way, right!
* Who knew the inventor of Jell-O was a wee bit of a hottie back in his day!
A really entertaining part of this book are the "Unauthorized Uses" sidebars, relating the not-endorsed-by-the-manufacturers uses for the products. Some of my favorites:
Coffemate Non Dairy Creamer : clothes whitener (mixed with water makes a soaking solution), dry erase board cleaner, OR mixed with 2 parts hot water can be turned into liquid creamer
Tang: can be used to shampoo greasy hair, clean toilet bowls or dishwashers, wart treatment (Tang & water paste with a Band-Aid over it)
Kool-Aid: recreate your favorite discontinued flavors! Sharkleberry is 1/2 tsp each of Lemonade, Orange, Strawberry with 1 cup sugar and 1/2 gal of water. Sunshine Punch = 1 pack Orange + 1 pack Lemonade with the sugar and water. Wyman says you can find other flavor formulas at KoolAid Usernet Group.
Carnation Instant Breakfast: Did you know you can make ice cream from this stuff? Yep, mix 1 packet with 1 cup milk, put in a plastic container, stick in freezer until it's about half-frozen, still a little soft. Take out, throw into your blender, hit pulse until it looks like ice cream. This is just for a single serving so if you have friends around, you'll either have to do the math on that one or send them on their way before trying this ;-)
Basically just a fun little read for food history nuts!
July 27, 2010
PIcked this up at Half Price Books. We had a discussion at dinner the other night about where TV dinners came from and why we don't eat them. So when I found this book, it popped up and demanded to be purchased so we could continue the discussion, now with REAL FACTS.
Well, this book turned out to be an interesting lesson in the history of food. Some of the food listed in the book was developed for the war effort (WWII) and then was marketed to the peace-time home front Americans. Some food was developed because new packaging was available and made the food novel and "time saving". And some food was developed because of technology that allowed the food to last longer.
The history of each food item (and I use that term loosely) is provided, along with marketing ploys and ways to encourage housewives to use them. I found out that some food moved into our recipes and pantries because of packaging (pillsbury poppin fresh dough, PAM, Lipton cup-a-soup), some foods were an attempt to improve natural foods (coffee-mate, tang, wonder bread), other foods were developed for longevity (twinkies, SPAM, ore-ida tater tots), and then some foods were just marketed into existence (Swanson TV dinners, jell-o, spaghettiO's).
Some fun tidbits that I learned? SPAM was developed in 1926 as a way to provide the American public with the very first canned ham. It was a popular food during the depression-era because of its low price. GI's in WWII that were fed with the wonder meat called it "ham that didn't pass its physical" or "meat loaf without basic training". But the most interesting use of SPAM? GI's used it to grease their guns!
Well, this book turned out to be an interesting lesson in the history of food. Some of the food listed in the book was developed for the war effort (WWII) and then was marketed to the peace-time home front Americans. Some food was developed because new packaging was available and made the food novel and "time saving". And some food was developed because of technology that allowed the food to last longer.
The history of each food item (and I use that term loosely) is provided, along with marketing ploys and ways to encourage housewives to use them. I found out that some food moved into our recipes and pantries because of packaging (pillsbury poppin fresh dough, PAM, Lipton cup-a-soup), some foods were an attempt to improve natural foods (coffee-mate, tang, wonder bread), other foods were developed for longevity (twinkies, SPAM, ore-ida tater tots), and then some foods were just marketed into existence (Swanson TV dinners, jell-o, spaghettiO's).
Some fun tidbits that I learned? SPAM was developed in 1926 as a way to provide the American public with the very first canned ham. It was a popular food during the depression-era because of its low price. GI's in WWII that were fed with the wonder meat called it "ham that didn't pass its physical" or "meat loaf without basic training". But the most interesting use of SPAM? GI's used it to grease their guns!
January 4, 2021
All that stuff that you never really wanted to know about "Hamburger Helper," "Spam," "Twinkies," "Wonder Bread," and many more are brought out in an entertaining look at some of the foods we have learned to eat, and love(and some less loved). The author is only mildly skeptical, it seems, about some of the chemicals the food industry has introduced for the supposed purpose of preserving the food, so I am not sure you ought to go out and buy any of these products, but the work was still interesting.
November 18, 2012
I would recommend this book to anyone interested in food. This would particularly be an excellent book for high school teachers, as it is both academically current and accessible. Any history teacher knows that these two worlds rarely meet. Wyman’s interdisciplinary approach to food uses foodways, consumerism, anthropology, and history to make the topic of food a digestible topic for everyone. I will be using the book in my classroom to talk about how the cultural shifts following WWII can be reflected in the food. Getting students to study the familiar, whether it’s Twinkies or Kool-Aid, can help them gain applicable skills to use after high school. If a student of mine can learn to critically look at packaged food, I believe she can have the skills to deconstruct an assignment and skillfully approach a task. History can be fun and relevant!
June 11, 2012
Wow, a guilty pleasure book about guilty pleasure foods (!). This book is series of short essays on the origins of several popular convenience foods (shake & bake, spam, jello, etc). While many of the essays focus on foods from the 50's & 60's, there are still several that I remember from my childhood (like cheese whiz and pop tarts). The author's tone while light, sometimes veers a bit sarcastic (yes, today we know that most of these foods, which are filled with preservatives and chemicals, are bad for you, but back when most of them were first introduced, they were heralded as a a cost-effective boon to busy housewives as they often cost the same or less to make than cooking from scratch, had a long shelf life in the box and cooked up quickly for fast dinners.
April 25, 2016
This was a rather enjoyable and informative book about where processed food has come from. I love social history, so this was the perfect book for me. I also love reading about how people come up with random ideas that they turn into successful businesses, which this book had plenty of.
I learned a lot of interesting tidbits, such as:
- Velveeta is formulated to be more nutritious than regular cheese.
- Twinkies were once used to capture a band of escaped baboons.
- Economists used the Kraft Macaroni and Cheese Index to track recessions
and a lot more. I have plenty of pages bookmarked, I may get around to typing them all here.
I learned a lot of interesting tidbits, such as:
- Velveeta is formulated to be more nutritious than regular cheese.
- Twinkies were once used to capture a band of escaped baboons.
- Economists used the Kraft Macaroni and Cheese Index to track recessions
and a lot more. I have plenty of pages bookmarked, I may get around to typing them all here.
October 25, 2017
I Can't Believe I Found This At The Library----LOL
This was on my Amazon book list and so I thought I would check and see if my local library had a copy. Low & behold, there it was, right on the list of available books.
Nothing goes better with my other pop culture books than a book about basically pop culture food. All the greats are in here. Kool aid, Velvetta, TV Dinners, Twinkies.
Each item is given a history of where and how it came into exsistance, what worked and what didn't , marketing ads and why it's so popular. So interesting and just like junk food, I'm hungry for more. Hope to see a sequel with some newer foods soon.
This was on my Amazon book list and so I thought I would check and see if my local library had a copy. Low & behold, there it was, right on the list of available books.
Nothing goes better with my other pop culture books than a book about basically pop culture food. All the greats are in here. Kool aid, Velvetta, TV Dinners, Twinkies.
Each item is given a history of where and how it came into exsistance, what worked and what didn't , marketing ads and why it's so popular. So interesting and just like junk food, I'm hungry for more. Hope to see a sequel with some newer foods soon.
August 31, 2018
This was a fun book to listen to on the road. The unauthorized uses were particularly interesting, cheese spray to enhance the experience of viewing tropical fish, sweet and low as a hair rinse, the can Pringles used for surveillance by the government, kool-aid as an ineffective teenage hair dye were all bits of interesting information that improved my driving experience.
May 9, 2019
A short, pithy take on the post-war processed foods that Americans disparage but secretly love, each section takes on one popular food and then discusses how it was developed and how it is used by Americans. Filled with lots of interesting trivia presented in a light-hearted manner. One of those books that makes for a great audiobook.
January 23, 2018
This is a great trip down food memory lane. I must admit that my memories are now tainted by the author’s words: “Who knew, back then, that Mom was feeding her family near lethal doses of saturated fat and cholesterol?”
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July 28, 20112009- Some ""history"" about some of America's best-loved foods. Will make you crave Kraft Macaroni and Cheese and/or Spaghettio's.
July 7, 2012
Fun book
September 12, 2012
I like it. It did not look down on its subject as many essay on mid century do.
January 19, 2013
The history of modern processed food, Jello, On-Cor, Tang, etc.
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March 29, 2016Oddly charming. Also funny and full of tongue-in-cheek asides.
September 2, 2017
I can't believe it's food, it says on the back of the book. An amusing historical look as some of the "convenience foods" that we eat. Or not.
May 28, 2019
Informative and witty - a great combination
June 9, 2020
This book is fun and full of nostalgia. You will find recipes you just have to try like Velveeta fudge!
Displaying 1 - 30 of 47 reviews