The vintage ad below is another great example of how “tasty” is socially constructed (i.e., culturally- and historically-contingent). If I’m not mistaken, this ad for canned deviled ham is suggesting that it makes a great sandwich when combined with jelly:
For more fun food-related examples of social construction, see our posts on meat-flavored gelatin, savory veggie jell-o, vitamin beer, cucumber flavored soda, soup for breakfast, and 7Up milk.
Source: Vintage Ads.
Lisa Wade, PhD is an Associate Professor at Tulane University. She is the author of American Hookup, a book about college sexual culture; a textbook about gender; and a forthcoming introductory text: Terrible Magnificent Sociology. You can follow her on Twitter and Instagram.
Comments 18
Erika — March 17, 2010
*hurk*
andrea — March 17, 2010
Makes sense to me. I like pork especially with plums or apples. Or pork sausage, fried apples, and pickled cabbage. Mm.
They also suggest spaghetti sauce and ham. A lot of tomato sauces from the Midwest are really, really sweet. So they're referring to ham and sweet fruit sauce.
egret — March 17, 2010
Meat jellies are actually a very long-standing type of dish - just not one typically eaten in the US anymore. Ever hear of an aspic dish in an old book?
Check this out: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aspic
That said - I like meat or fish cooked with fruit, but the texture would definitely be a problem for me, too.
Laura — March 17, 2010
This reminds me of a food I encountered for the first time this semester (I'm studying abroad in Mérida, in the Yucatán peninsula of Mexico). It's called sandwichón, and it involves many layers of white bread that are dampened with milk, with different things in between. There are layers of jelly (berry or pineapple), ham that's been put in a blender with cream, cream blended with yellow American cheese. On top they spread cream blended with cream cheese, like a frosting, and put peas on top. They cut and serve it like 7 layer cake. I'm vegetarian so I don't eat it anyway, but I have a running joke argument with a Yucatecan friend about whether it's disgusting to put ham in a blender and then eat it with jelly and peas. He also drinks micheladas (beer mixed with worcestershire sauce and salt), which I don't like. We joke that I don't like these things because I'm not Yucatecan, but it's true - none of my friends from the US like them and all of our Yucatecan friends say they're absolutely delicious.
Lady Lately — June 8, 2010
I would probably be fine with the ham and jelly, it's the deviled ham GOO that bothers me.
Chicken-Themed Candy » Sociological Images — June 26, 2010
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