One of the joys of browsing through the Blakes and Hoseasons brochures from the first half of the 20th century is the adverts they contain, many of which were specifically worded and illustrated for the Norfolk Broads. From unwieldy portable radios to outboard motors, and boating apparel to tinned, jarred and packet foodstuff …. it all builds up quite an interesting picture of how boating holidays were conducted in those days. One such advert caught my eye this week which illustrates some of the strange tangents I find myself going off on at times.It comes from the 1949 edition of the Blakes “Norfolk Broads Holiday’s Afloat” brochure and is for POM – One Minute Instant Potato. Most people of a certain age will remember the Smash Martians TV adverts from the 1970s, but I had no idea that instant mashed potato went back so far! Trying to find out a little more, I Googled “POM one minute potato” and apart from a brief mention on an obscure forum I came up blank.
POM advert 1949
Now this is where it gets sad … I actually found myself Googling “the history of instant mashed potato” …. as Google filled it in before I had finished typing, it made me feel slightly better to know that I obviously wasn’t the first person to conduct the same search! Wikipedia tells me that the drying of root vegetables dates back to the Inca empire, although it and several other internet sources actually credit the invention of instant mashed potato to the Canadian Edward Asselbergs in 1962 (around the same time that Cadbury’s launched Smash in the UK).
Having seen this advert, I now beg to differ but quite how far back the brand goes I don’t know. I asked my mother in law who vaguely remembers such things being about towards the end of the second world war. In reality, it probably bore as much resemblance to potato flavour wise as wallpaper paste, but it’s interesting to see what the 1940s boater would have had onboard for creating quick and easy meals!
