Das elektrische Kochen – Die vollelektrische Küche als Leitbild moderner Haushaltsführung

Abstract

Our eating, conservation, food preparation and cooking habits changed significantly due to the implementation of electric household appliances. Cookbooks are a rarely used source in the history of technology and consumption. This paper deals with the cookbook “Das elektrische Kochen”, first edited by the German energy supply company Berliner Kraft- und Licht (BEWAG)- Aktiengesellschaft, later by the Hauptberatungsstelle (today Fachberatungsstelle) für Elektrizitätsanwendung (HEA). It has now been in print for 75 years, from 1936 to the present thanks to no less than 54 editions. These cookbooks were meant to educate users to buy electric household appliances and create new needs, even before the appliances became part of the standard household equipment. This article advances the theses that, on the one hand, knowledge about manual skills and traditional cooking procedures get lost in this process but, on the other hand, new knowledge concerning the handling of electric household appliances for preparation and cooking needed to be gained by the users. This process is illustrated in a case study of the cookbook “Das elektrische Kochen” for the period of 1930 to 2006 throughout Germany and after the Second World War in West Germany.