30 Recipes Everyone Should Know By The Time They're 30 (2024)

FAQs

What was the most popular food in the 30s? ›

From Hunger to Hope. From frozen foods to Jell-O molds, the 1930s and 40s saw a huge upsurge in convenience foods. Building on the popularity of brands like Wonder Bread, Kool-Aid, Velveeta Cheese, and Hostess Cakes, American supermarkets stocked up on mass-produced items.

A survey found that, on average, people claimed to know how to make 15 recipes without having to look them up.

Many of today's favorite snacks were also introduced during this decade: Twinkies, Snickers, Tootsie Pops, Fritos, 3 Musketeers, Ritz Crackers, Kit Kat Bars, Five-Flavor Life Savers, 5th Avenue Bars, Rolo, Smarties, Heath Bar, Lay's Potato Chips and RC Cola.

Maybe the most favorite item coming from the 1930s was the new Toll House Chocolate Chip Cookies developed in 1938. Photos: Bologna Casserole; Vinegar Pie; Fried Egg Sandwich, Kraft Macaroni and Cheese, and Lay's Potato Chips.

​Pizza​ Italian pizza is probably the most famous food in the world.

Pizza is ranked as the most popular food in the world, according to a survey by TasteAtlas. On average, Americans eat 18 acres of pizza a day, highlighting its popularity in the USA. Pasta is the second most popular food globally, after pizza. Almost 14.5 million tons of pasta are consumed worldwide annually.

While seven out of ten people claim to be naturally gifted in the kitchen, 56% of people surveyed in a recent poll say they struggle with even the most basic recipes.

Do chefs memorize recipes? ›

You can take out the recipe you want and put it back when you're done. Do professional chefs use recipes on a daily basis, or do they have phenomenal memories? Yes they do. Any experienced chef will always reference a tried-but-true recipe and that will always be the basis of what they serve.

Highlights: Cooking Statistics

In 2021, approximately 28% of Americans cook at home daily, while 70% cook weekly. On average, people in the US spend 37 minutes per day cooking. 28% of males say they can only cook five meals or less without a recipe. Roughly 98.5% of households own a cooking stove or range in the US.

Gordon Ramsay's best recipes include Beef Wellington, Coq au Vin, Beef Stroganoff, Chicken Piccata, Rack of Lamb, Baked Salmon with Lemon and Dill, Shrimp Scampi, Beef and Guinness Stew, Spaghetti Carbonara, and Beef Burgundy.

Lamb loaf, veal loaf and salmon loaf were all considered party food. A hostess could layer a loaf pan with ingredients like bacon, mushrooms and even mashed potatoes for a striped effect that was bound to elicit oohs and ahhs from guests.

The 1930s were primarily known for the Great Depression, the Dust Bowl, jazz music, the Art Deco movement, and the New Deal. Jazz/swing music not only became popular in the U.S., but also found audiences in Europe.

Dishes such as macaroni and cheese, casserole of all kinds, meat loaf, all kinds of hot dogs and hamburgers were the most popular. The National Biscuit Company peddled a recipe using its new product, Ritz Crackers in 1933 called Mock Apple Pie, much cheaper than using real apples.

In the 1920s and 1930s, some of the most famous chain restaurants—Horn & Hardart, Howard Johnson's, A&W Root Beer, Bob's Big Boy, Dairy Queen, White Castle, and Marriott Hot Shoppes among them—appeared in urban areas as walk-up lunch rooms, cafeterias, and hamburger stands.