prefood

In a danish cookbook called “Nutidsmad” fra 1929. it is pointed out to the struggling housewifes that one should get as much energy out of "formaden" as possible ("formad" roughly translates to prefood.) To save money and don't spend so much on the (real)food like roasts and other meats.

The book counsels

"Jo større Portioner Formad, man spiser, des mindre Appetit har man til den efterfølgende dyrere Kødret. Det er derfor en gammelkendt økonomisk Regel, at man skal spise store Portioner Formad, naar man vil leve billigt"

which most non danish speakers wouldn't understand so here is a translation
"The bigger the potions of prefood, one eats, the less is the appetite for the following meat dish. It is therefore a old wellknown economic rule that one should eat big potions of prefood, when you wanna live cheap".

The prefoods or lets just call the first courses was primarily soups or porridge, (f.ex. water porridge). None of them sounds really interesting. But it made me think if this is the same reasoning which lies behind the italian primo, which is always a pasta, and then followed by the "secondo" ( the second after there first one, what a surprise) which is meat.

Very interesting... no ???