The 1920s roared; the decade was known as the Roaring Twenties. Between 1920 and 1929 America’s total wealth doubled. And in the world of food, things were really looking up. Food was plentiful and cheap, thanks to the American farmer.

Gas stoves and electric refrigerators and other labor-saving kitchen devices enabled easier preparations and safer storage. The Women’s Institute of Domestic Arts ran a correspondence course on how to properly use what was then the new luxury equipment. The Twenties brought to homes the “modern kitchen.”

The rise of packaged and processed foods was another huge development. Many such introductions still on the market today include Log Cabin Syrup, Baby Ruth candy bar, Wheaties, Popsicles, Wonder Bread, Reeses Peanut Butter, and Maxwell House Coffee, to mention a few. Birds Eye frozen products appeared in 1922. Now, women had to spend less time in the kitchen.

Finger foods like deviled eggs, tea sandwiches, salted nuts, prawn cocktail, salmon ro...