Gaztronomy: cuisine and modernity in 1930s Lisbon

ABSTRACT

The progressive electrification of kitchens that still place gas cookers center stage raises important questions about the relationship between energy, technology, and culinary practices that emphasize the relevance of more deeply understanding past transitions. This research explores material culture and culinary technology, examining the link between culinary practices and the shift to gas usage in Lisbon households during the 1930s. Seeking to understand this Gaztronomy, we analyzed the programs and recipes from the cooking courses sponsored by the main Lisbon gas utility company during the period 1931–1939, considering aspects such as the stages in the energy transition, diffusion of gas stoves and the characteristics of Portuguese culinary literature. The nearly four hundred recipes presented in the cooking lessons featured in these materials highlight the association between the cosmopolitan nature of the proposed selection and the modernity of gas cooking, leading to an attempt to understand the role of this “modern energy” as an inducer of new culinary practices in the domestic and family sphere. Culinary expertise proved to be an appealing and powerful tool for overcoming resistance to change and consumer anxieties over adopting a new fuel, indeed, as observed by the main Lisbon supplier at that time.

KEYWORDS:

• Culinary practices
• energy transition
• Portuguese cuisine
• gas
• Lisbon
• 1930s

Acknowledgments

I express my profound gratitude for the numerous contributions and support given to this research by Professors, Nuno Madureira, Irene Vaquinhas and José Pedro Paiva; Special thanks to the EDP Foundation’s Documentation Centre through Dr Fátima Mendes, and to Dr Ana Marques Pereira for providing access to essential documentation. To Kevin Rose for his translation work.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Supplementary material

Supplemental data for this article can be accessed online at https://doi.org/10.1080/15528014.2024.2366054

Notes

1. Resolution of the Council of Ministers (RCM) no 96/2000. Since 2013, Portugal has been listed as one of the Mediterranean Diet countries on the UNESCO Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity.

2. The Joint Gas and Electricity Companies (CRGE) was founded in Lisbon on 10 June 1891 to produce and distribute gas and electricity. This company was a subsidiary of SOFINA- Société Financière des Transports et d’Entreprises Industrielles.

3. The first relevant work published in Portugal dates from 1967, o Livro de Cozinha da Infanta D. Maria, an examination and transcription of the earliest known Portuguese culinary manuscript; The first academic research into the Portuguese food history was published toward the close of the 20th century. the first food studies master’s programme was opened by the Faculty of Arts and Humanities, the University of Coimbra in 2008 and the PhD programme in Food Heritage: Cultures and Identities first run by the same university in 2015.

4. Reaching its 82nd edition in 2022.

5. The first experiments with gas cookers date to the beginning of the 19th century. James Sharp (1790–1870) presented the first model gas cooker between 1830 and 1832 (Wright 1970).

6. In Madrid, in 1897, a book was published dedicated to cooking with gas reflecting the spread of this innovation in the Spanish capital. The title was La cocina por gas: agenda de cocina para 1897, written by Ángel Muro.

7. In 1890 Lisbon contained 301,206 inhabitants rising to 356,000 in 1900 (Rodrigues and Ferreira 1991).

8. CDFEDP, CRGE Board of Directors Report, 1892/93, 7.

9. CDFEDP, CRGE Board of Directors Report, 1892/93, 6.

10. Around a third (36%) of consumers had a gas oven at home following loan/rental by CRGE.

11. Gas production problems during the conflict impacted on the price and on service provision, forcing the closure of the Lisbon factory in 1917.

12. No distinction established between industrial and domestic clients.

13. The “city gas” would be the only fuel not to experience price fluctuations through to March 1943, according to Bussola and Teives (2005, 119).

14. Portugal Population Census 1930 (Direcção Geral de Estatística 1933).

15. No. of Gas Clients:1890–13 848 clients; 1930–21 849 clients (CDFEDP-Board of Directors Reports).

16. List of Competition Prizes in the Diário de Lisboa newspaper (Diário de Lisboa, 20th December 1930, 4).

17. E.g., O Amigo do Lar magazine: January 1936, 6; February 1937, 15.

18. We come across advertisements for grills designed for petrol stoves that allow the flame to extend to two burners, along with an oven adapted for a petrol stove suitable for roasts, pastries, and keeping food warm (The Armazéns Grandella catalog, 1933, 35; Magazine Eva, Christmas edition, 1932).

19. Taking into consideration the price of a gas cooker in 1930 deflated in reference to the Price Index produced by Valério (2001) and in comparison with the average prices for the firewood and coal cookers publicized in the Armazéns Grandella Store Catalogues (Lisbon) in the 1910s.

20. Examples of speech themes over these years include: “The modern kitchen, the housewives’ laboratory;” “Gas in the kitchen,” “Vitamins,” “Gas applications,” “Organising the modern kitchen,” “Spend less and get tired less,” “A good kitchen: the most useful and precious of the arts”.

21. E.g, La cuisine au gaz c’est la cuisine moderne by Rossini, published in France by Journal Le Bavard in 1924; Be an Artist at the Gas Range: A Complete Cookbook of Successful Recipes by The Mystery Chef, published in London in 1936 by Longmans, Green & Co.

22. Subsequently designated the Institute of Odivelas, a military education establishment with the mission of “educating and preparing individuals of the female sex for practical life” (Decree Law no. 32615, of 31 December 1942).

23. CDFEDP, Joint Gas and Electricity Companies: Note pour Mr. Deutsch, Cours de Cuisines des CRGE, 1935.

24. Adopting an age range of likely participants as between 15 and 65, we would have a universe of just over 200,000 potential cooking course participants (de Estatística 1933). This number accounts for less than 0.5% of this population.

25. Decree Law no. 27084, of 14 October 1936.

26. E.g., Maria Amália Vaz de Carvalho and Filipa de Lencastre, the largest female high schools in Lisbon.

27. Each course session featured the demonstration of two recipes and by the end totaling between 64 and 70 recipes.

28. The most frequent measurements for household consumption are m³ for gas and KWh for electricity but these do not appear in these records.

29. The American Woman’s Home on Principles of Domestic Science published by Catherine Beecherem in 1860; Efficiency Studies in Home Management published by Christine Frederick in 1913.

30. Of which one well-known example is Frankfurt Cuisine promoted by Margarete Schütte-Lihotzky.

31. The domestic cuisine context associated with the middle/upper middle-class families distinguished between both more elaborate dishes, prepared above all by restaurant professionals (haute cuisine) and those of a regional, peasant and urban mass origin.

32. CDFEDP. Joint Gas and Electricity Companies: CRGE Practical Cooking Course Programs, 1932–1939.

33. “Culinária Portuguesa” by OLLEBOMA had reprints in 1994 and 2012.

34. E.g., “Doces e Cozinhados” by Isalita, first published in 1925, reached its 16th edition in 1952 with the 29th edition coming out in 2016 (Rêgo 1989).

35. In 1930, only 0.05% of electricity consumers and residents in Lisbon had refrigerators; in 1936, this proportion stood at 0.89%, demonstrating the slow spread of household appliances in the Portuguese capital (O Amigo do Lar, no. 4, 1938).

36. The gas tariff over the 1929–1943 period remained unaltered with a single rate of 1$10/m^3.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by FCT – Fundação para a Ciência e Tecnologia (Grant nº2022.11930.BD).