Joy of Cooking over time

How do modern home-cooking recipes compare to older ones? Many more calories per serving, according to one study.

Brian Wansink, from Cornell University, directed a study which looked at recipes from the many editions of the Joy of Cooking, first published in 1936. Over the years, eighteen dishes have appeared in every edition, including chili con carne, chicken gumbo, beef stroganoff, macaroni and cheese, brownies, waffles, sugar cookies, and apple pie. The average number of calories per serving went up 63% between 1936 and 2006. (Chili con carne apparently hasn't changed at all, but all the other saw an increase.)

Calories went up for two reasons. First, and most obvious to people eating the food, servings got much larger. The basic waffle recipe used to make 12 waffles; it now makes 6, with the same ingredients. Brownies? Used to make 30, now only 16.

But then there's the caloric density -- more meat instead of beans, more butter, more sugar, so even the same quantity of food has more calories. For fourteen of the 18 dishes, the total recipe has changed significantly, with has an average of 928 more calories, or 44% more. Chicken gumbo now serves 10 people, instead of 14 in 1936, but each serving has 576 calories instead of the old 228. As recently as 1997, the beef stroganoff recipe called for 3 tablespoons of sour cream; the 2006 version calls for a cup. I'd like to take a look at the actual recipes, but as the director of the study says: "That (calorie increases) is more insidious because that's the sort if thing the average person wouldn't notice, wouldn't even think would have happened over the years."

The research was published as a letter in the Annals of Internal Medicine, which means there isn't even an abstract available.