Everyone knows about Tang as that orange kick in a glass, but could it also be an entree? A listener from Plano, Texas, found an elderly relative’s plan for family meals from 1947, which lists “tang with molasses” as a main course. If you’ve heard of tang the food, shoot us a message. This is part of a complete episode.
Transcript of “Tang as a Main Course”
Hello, you have A Way with Words.
Hi, this is Lynn calling from Plano.
Hi, Lynn. Welcome to the program.
Plano, Texas.
Plano, Texas. And I’ve got a question for you.
Okay, shoot.
I’m wondering about the word Tang.
A friend of mine’s mother passed away just recently in Jackson, Mississippi.
And when he went back to go through her things, he found a spiral-bound notebook that contained her plans for the month, what she was going to eat, for breakfast, lunch, and dinner.
And two times she had the entry of Tang with molasses, and another time it was Tang with Cairo.
And that was a dinner entree.
And we’ve gone on the Internet, and we just cannot figure out what Tang might be.
Okay, so…
An entree.
So this is not your family, it’s a friend’s family, right?
Correct.
From Jackson, Mississippi.
Do you have any idea, these sound like dinner plans.
They were dinner plans.
For the entire month, I’m impressed.
Well, she was newly married in 1947.
Oh, okay.
Oh, so these are from around 1947.
Mm—
And she was a home economics major, so I think she was keeping track of what she did.
Are you certain that they’re not a little older than that?
No, the date is September 1947.
Oh, the date is on the plans, the dinner plans?
Mm—
Oh, interesting.
Whoa.
You know why I think that’s odd, Lynn?
Martha knows.
Tell me.
Because I’m almost 100% sure that this Tang is a powdered orange drink.
Okay, but my question is, if you look at the, she has breakfast, then lunch, and then dinner.
Under the dinner, she has tang with honey.
The next line reads baked potato, greens, pineapple salad, bread, butter, butterscotch pudding, and tea.
Whoa.
And she always listed her first line as her entree.
Oh, really?
Do you have some of the other menus where she…
No, I only have those two menus.
Very odd.
But her drink was always listed last on the two entries that I have.
Wow. How’s her handwriting? Could it be something else?
Well, it could be, but I went through and I looked at the other letters, and it comes out as Tang.
You’re right. There needs to be an entree at the top of that thing.
Maybe it’s an acronym.
Well, no. It’s a capital T-A-N-G.
All right, here’s what we’ve got to do, Martha.
Okay.
We have to turn on the sirens.
Okay.
Start the flashing lights.
Put the word out.
We got a lot.
Here’s the thing.
I grew up in a household where tang or Kool-Aid as a part of dinner is ordinary.
Like, if you go through these old family recipe books from Missouri and all throughout the South and large parts of the country, frankly, you’ll often find in the 50s, 60s, and 70s recipes that involved tang.
It was considered an ingredient as much as a food item on its own.
It was cool.
It was cool.
You did stuff like that.
It was with the space program.
John Glenn was drinking it up in space.
What do you think the tang on this menu was?
Give us a call, 877-929-9673.
Or explain tang and molasses or tang and caro syrup to us some other way in email, words@waywordradio.org.
Lynn, the truth is out there, and one of our listeners knows it, at least one.
Okay.
So keep listening, and we will try to find out.
Well, thank you so much.
Okay, thank you for a really interesting question.
All right, bye.
Take care. Bye-bye.
