Like much else in America during the first decade of the twentieth century, how Americans prepared and ate their meals was also changing. At the heart of these changes was the movement from preparation of food in the home from scratch, using primitive appliances, to the preparation of prepackaged foods using modern, electric appliances. Although these changes occurred over the first thirty years of the century, they trace their beginnings to the 1900s.

Here is a look at this transition from the vantage point of a typical middle-class kitchen. In 1901, Mrs. Jones, a middle-class housewife (a woman who did not have any servants in the house, which was still a common practice in this day in well-to-do households), spent the majority of her day cooking and cleaning. She tended a small garden that produced food for the family. In the fall, she canned fruit...