LILACS AND BARBECUE…Life Just Can’t Get Any Better! 

That’s all for now folks; I need to go fire-up my Weber Grill!         Until Next Time, Tim

OSWEGO STARCH - T. Kingsford & Son

Without a doubt, my oldest and most ‘valued’ vintage pamphlet is this Oswego Starch brochure from Oswego Starch. Purchased in early 2003 for $12.00 this vintage (1876) pamphlet is now worth approximately $45.00. But like the TV ad says, ‘how much is this worth to you?…priceless’.

Originally established as a factory for manufacturing “pure and silver gloss starch for the laundry, T. Kingsford & Son soon found a method for developing their starch into a product for culinary use as well.

Quoting from the brochure…”This is one of the few productions so perfect as to admit of no improvement. The manufacture of this delicate article from Indian Corn was the sole invention of Mr. Kingsford more than thirty years ago, during which period it has received from time to time all the improvements which skill and science could funish, and has now been brought to the highest attainable quality”.

As an Article of Food

Quoting further, “The experiment which first gave to the world this Laundry Starch from Indian Corn, and the skill which perfected it, have been productive of still more notable success in furnishing this new article of food, which is adapted alike to the taste of the epicure and the wants of the invalid.”

Recipes from the Pamphlet

Oswego Pudding

One quart of milk, three tablespoonfuls of Corn Starch, four eggs. Beat the yolks, and mix them with a little of the milk and flour; sweeten and flavor with vanilla. Scald the milk, and add the other ingredients, boil three minutes; pour into a dish, and set away to cool. Beat the whites with four teaspoonfuls of sugar. Cover the pudding with a layer of currant jelly, and spread the beaten whites over the whole.

 Saratoga Pudding

Mix four tablespoonsfuls of Corn Starch in one quart cold milk. Stir until it boils. When cool, stir in two tablespoonfuls white sugar; six eggs, whites and yolks beaten separately Put in a large pudding-dish, place in a pan of water, bake one and a half hours

Sauce.–One cup sugar, half cup butter, the yolks of two eggs, one glass wine. Rub sugar and butter to a cream, add eggs and half the wine. Put the dish in boiling water, stir ten minutes, add the rest of the wine, and serve.

There are 8 more recipes and a more detailed description of the factory in this tiny (3.5″ x 5.5″) 16-page, colorful vintage pamphlet.

(back cover)

That’s all for today folks, be sure to sign-up for my mailing list in the upper-right hand corner so you can be notified whenever I update this blog. I’ve been known to send a free vintage download to those who have signed-up for my mailing list.

Tim

THE NATIONAL COOKBOOK - 1932

by Sheila Hibben

PREFACE by Tim Mack

For me, one of the attractions of older cookbooks is the unique language found in them. This particular cookbook differs a bit from many that I’ve read because it was written by a well-schooled, professional writer.

Sheila Hibben was born in 1888 in Montgomery, Alabama. Her given-birth name was Cecile Craik. Ms. Hibben created the restaurant column for The New Yorker. While in this position she began cataloging the many tastes of American regional cooking. This is one key element that I find so fascinating with this book. It’s almost a geographical history lesson centered around food.

The National Cookbook was published in 1932. Continuing with her passion for regional cooks, Ms. Hibben later authored a book that she is probably better known for - American Regional Cookery (1946). For a period of time she was a food consultant at the White House for Eleanor Roosevelt.

Sheila Hibben has a wonderful talent for finding obscure recipes from every part of America and then with her ability to describe her finds, in good basic English, this would be a wonderful book for your collection.

In compiling this 27-page booklet I’ve include some very unique regional recipes and several vintage graphics. I am not attempting to replace Ms. Hibben’s book, but only to serve as an introduction for you should you want to seek out your own copy. I’ve included in this booklet her word-for-word introduction; and as a bonus, I’ve also included another of her fine food-related regional articles.

INTRODUCTION by Sheila Hibben

“There are those who think a cookbook is just a book for cooks; and if that were so, there would, perhaps, be no need for an introduction to a manual on what the bright young men call the technology of the kitchen. But, as the months of compiling this volume have gone by, and I have sent and received hampers of correspondence with people interested in good all over the United States, I have let my spirits rise.

“I have felt as if I were writing not only a geography of this country, but a social study of its inhabitants, for I have been in communication with people who really believe that how we do things, as much as what we do, is significant - people who still hold that a thing, even an apple pie, must have style to be important……..”

Order this wonderful booklet today from

The National Cookbook

That’s it for today, until next time,

Tim

2100 NEEDED INVENTIONS

By now you probably know that I like old stuff…and especially old books. Granted, old cookbooks are my favorites, but fun, old books of any sort, turn me on.

This is a fun book that I recently purchased for $1.25 at an antique mall in Tacoma, Washington. Written by Raymond F. Yates in 1942 with a Fifth Printing in 1946 by Wilfred Funk, Inc. (Publisher) of New York.

Dust jacket leaf reads:

Ideas For You

“You don’t have to be a genius to be an inventor. Look at the common paper clip, the safety razor, the rubber pencil tip, and the clamped fruit-jar top, each of which paid a fortune to its inventor, and you will immediately feel — quite correctly! — that you could have invented them if you had had the idea.

“Today the inventor has greater opportunities than at any time in history. The world is calling for new inventions and rapidly making many of our present methods of doing things obsolete. Literally thousands ofmachines and devices we have been using will have to be invented all over again.

“Many inventors need “a place to start.” They need practical suggestions on what to invent — things the public is eager to pay for — to keep them from wasting time on freakish or impractical inventions that nobody wants.”

Remember that these ideas are from 66 years ago but here are some of Raymond F. Yates suggestions:

1.  Removing hot toast from a still hotter toaster is a very awkward process the way toasters are constructed at the present time. If there was some little mechanical attachment that would release the toast with no danger of burning the fingers, it would be sure to attract housewives who have learned to handle this device gingerly at the breakfast table.

2.  A waffle iron that will lift out waffles when they are done, delivering them, perhaps, like the “pop up” bread toasters.

3.  A waffle iron that would not overflow would find its way into several million American homes.

4.  A process for canning green vegetables whereby the natural green color of the food is retained through the canning process and subsequent storage by a method which prevents the destruction of the chlorophyll, upon which the natural green color is dependent.

5.  A good liquid or powdered coffee extract which, upon dilution, would yield a beverage with taste and aroma fully equal to that of freshly and correctly brewed coffee (still needed today…get your thinking caps on children).

6.   In the field of flour milling, a perfection of processes and methods whereby certain vitamins may be added or retained in white flour, without decreasing its storage qualities.

7.  A drying or processing method to produce whole dry milk, including the butterfat, in such form that the butterfat will not become rancid during reasonable length of storage.

8.  A means of raising the melting point of chocolate so as to lengthen the shelf life of cholcolate-coated candies. The production of chocolate goods is almost completely halted by the hot, humid climatic conditions of the summer months (I believe M&M’s solved this!).

9.  Because most manufactured cookies are alkaline and are subjected to rapid baking at high temperatures, delicate flavors are not retained well in the finished goods. If a fixative, or process for retaining delicate flavors in manufactured cookies could be developed, it would be very valuable to the biscuit and cracker industry.

10. There are several hundred million bushels of soft winter wheat produced in this country each year, but with the advent of high-speed dough mixing machinery, this wheat is not adaptable to bread making. We need a process or material which could be added to soft wheat flour that would activate the protein so that soft wheat flour could be put through modern bakery equipment. With this, a large agricultural area, particularly that lying east of the Mississippi River, would be helped materially. Furthermore, it would improve the quality of the loaf of bread.

11. Some way of retaining oven aroma in bread and other bakery products for 48 hours.

12. A successful process for preserving bread by freezing.

13. A product which added to a cereal will be harmless and tasteless to human beings, but would prevent infestation by weevil or flour moth.

14. A yeast whose rate of action in doughs would be slower at temperatures of between 80 degrees to 90 degrees F. 

15. A method to reduce the high cost of distributing milk to the consumer. This will probably be a specialized process for concentrating and canning milk to so preserve the normal color and flavor of the product that when diluted back to original volume in the home, it will closely simulate pasteurized milk. Such a process will enable the producer to can milk in areas where milk is cheap, and deliver a supply to last a month or more.

16. A method of freezing cream so that when remelted it retains all of the properties and taste of fresh cream.

17. When we mix a sponge to make soda crackers, yeast is added which is allowed to ferment until there is a considerable amount of alcohol formed which is lost when the baking process begins. The recovery of this would lead to considerable profit (one can’t be wasting that good alcohol).

18. Every year thousands of tons of peach pits are hauled to the dump. Inside the pit is the peach kernel in which is concentrated the entire essence of the peach. We need a process whereby the kernel could be utilized to flavor peach products.

19. A method whereby we can put a beef belly (carrying very large amounts of exposed fat) into storage for periods up to one year and then bring this belly out, defrost, put to cure and market with the fat in good condition. This is not possible now because the fat suffers deterioration, resulting in the fishy, rancid flavor (I hate it when that happens!).

20. There is an almost unlimited field for research in both edible and inedible by-products of the meat-packing industry. Much is still to be developed through improved uses for bone, blood, hair, wool, leather, etc. Animal glandular derivatives and the use of liver as a therapeutic are but two examples of new uses for edible by-products.

Hope you enjoyed this brief review of Yates’ fun book. There are sections on nearly any field you can think of if you’re interested in tracking down a copy.

Until next time,

Tim

THE BLACK FAMILY REUNION COOKBOOK

The other evening, after a fine home-cooked dinner, I poured myself a cup of coffee and pulled one of my favorite cookbooks from the shelf. Feeling full and mellow…and rather nostalgic…I started again to thumb through the pages.

 I wasn’t looking for recipes…I suppose that’s blasphemous for a cookbook writer to say, but rather I was in need of memories from a time past. A simpler time. A time to relax and not worry about the day’s bills and world problems.

 Well my friend, this book in my hands was just what I needed. Even the book’s subtitle tells me that it’s “Recipes and Food Memories”. How very true!

A couple paragraphs from the back cover tells of the origin of this book:

“The Black Family Reunion Celebrations, organized by the National Council of Negro Women and held in seven cities across America every summer, celebrate and preserve the values, traditions, and strengths of the African-American family. Inspired by these festivals, ‘The Black Family Reunion Cookbook’ contains more than 250 recipes from home kitchens across America, seasoned with warm memories and “homemade love.”

“Including personal reminiscences from celebrities such as Natalie Cole, Wilma Rudolp, Patti LaBelle, and Spelman College President Johnetta Cole, this unique collection reflects the local, national, and international heritage of the Black community. It offers dishes for every occasion and every taste, from African-inspired Mustard Greens with Peanut Sauce to down-home Family Famous Chicken and Dumplings, from a traditional gumbo to sophisticated Sweet Potato Smoked Turkey Bisque, and, in honor of the council’s founder, Mary McLeod Bethune, her own recipe for her celebrated Sweet Potato Pie.

What I especially love about this cookbook are the personal sidebars written by its members. This wonderful quote is only one of many that I find so great:

 ”The Goodie”

“Every spoonful of those baked beans tasted so indescribably good that I closed my eyes to savor the flavor. Oh, but no clever phrase could capture the rapture that was mine as I let my tongue press against each bean; one-by-one, and extract the tastes of pungent garlic, scorched, diced onions, rich brown sugar and smoked, thick and meaty bacon. They blended on my palate like the smooth inseparable sound of the MJQ.

“Reluctantly, I drifted out of my Modern Jazz Quartet trance to scheme with my sister about how we could repeat our pleasure before mother shooed us away like annoying house flies from her “company only” baked beans deluxe. It was that Saturday night that we learned what to look for in life.

“Edging her spoon along the baking dish, Janet whispered, “Here, Sonia, Do you want some more of the goodie?”

“I answered with my traditional first child belligerence, “No, I want another serving. What’s the goodie anyhow?”

“Taste it”, she offered with patient coaxing.

“UHM! UHM!” Why would anyone ever want to eat the baked beans again if you could just have that rim of the blended flavors bordering the cooking vessel?

“Needless to say, we trimmed that rim with spoons and fingers until we were caught. But that was only the beginning, because once we discovered “the goodie” we kept an eye or two open for it in kitchens everywhere. We found it in the syrup-soaked, flaky crust tucked in the corner of cobbler pans. We found it in the crusty, cheesy, buttered corners of pans holding macaroni and cheese. We found it where the grill takes over when the Bar-B-Que sauce stops. We found it around the edges of legs of lamb bathed with garlic, rosemary, lemon slices and lamb flavor.

“Here are some helpful hints for goodie seekers. Look at “marginal stuff”…just on the edge of being no good…that’s where you’ll really find “the goodie”.

Sonia Walker

I hope that the authors and publishers of this fantastic book will look favorably upon me for this review of their copyrighted material. It’s a great book and one that belongs in everyone’s collection.

This is a “Fireside” book, published by Simon & Schuster in 1993.

My latest cookbook for you to check out is now ready. This is my biggest and best yet. 103 Unique Recipes from the Past is nearly 50 pages of fantastic and fun recipes and graphics from the past.  

100 UNIQUE RECIPES FROM THE PAST

by Tim Mack  Think of the thrill of rediscovering a recipe from the past that your grandmother used to make especially for you! Until now you might have to spend hundreds of dollars to purchase old cookbooks in hopes of finding even one familiar recipe from the past. Well, I’ve taken the risk and expense out of searching old cookbooks for you. This book is a compilation of 103 (‘not 101’) unique vintage recipes from the past. I’ve gathered these recipes from fourteen different cookbooks dated from 1878 to 1930.  The recipes are recorded in the author’s exact words and every one of them can be used with today’s ingredients. The recipes are “unique” – not weird or “icky” – but truly unique.  Another great thing about vintage recipes is that they are often simple recipes with few ingredients. Cooks in those days didn’t have the utensils and kitchen conveniences that we have today, so they had to be simple. Easy to make…and a pleasure to eat. The following sample recipe is from the ‘Custards, Creams and Desserts’ section (my favorite section):        

Poor Man’s Dessert

12 Crackers                           2 egg whites, beaten

3 tablespoons jam, thick       4 tablespoons sugar 

Put some of the jam on each cracker. Add the sugar gradually to the beaten egg whites. This will make a meringue. Cover each cracker with some of the meringue. Place crackers on a pastry sheet. Bake in slow oven for about 4 minutes, or until browned on top.   

Recipe from “New Presentation of Cooking with Timed Recipes”, by Auguste Gay, Ringsmith and Wellman, San Francisco, 1924

For more information regarding this book and for a copy of the entire table of contents, please click the following link:

TABLE OF CONTENTS 

(General Foods Corporation, 1931)

Part 2

TREASURED CHOCOLATE RECIPES FROM THE WORLD’S VAST STORE

“More and more, better and better chocolate recipes,” is a cry which must be answered. So great a favorite among flavors is chocolate, that gifted cooks, famous chefs, and creators of confectionery are continually searching, continually thinking up new ways of presenting it to thousands of eager devotees.

Study the restaurant and tea room menus. Have you ever run across one on which the proverbial chocolate layer cake, or some other delectable chocolate dish was missing? Question the boy behind the soda fountain in any town in the United States…he will tell you that six out of every ten sodas or sundaes or fountain drinks are chocolate-flavored. And who ever heard of a midnight spread in a girls’ school without a platter of creamy fudge as the most important dish on the menu?

To satisfy this insatiable craving for chocolate, the choicest chocolate recipes have been sought out. In this book you will find jealously guarded family recipes which have been handed down from mother to daughter in old American households.

In the Walter Baker Kitchen countless experiments have been made with chocolate and cocoa. The chocolate masterpieces of Continental chefs have been studied. New and fascinating flavor blends have been tried. With the richness of Baker’s Unsweetened Chocolate have been combined the refreshing coolness of mint…the glistening sweetness of coconut…the tart delicacy of orange…the mellowness of maple.

From these searchings and kitchen-testings have come priceless chocolate recipes…marvelous dishes which have been praised by the most critical food experts. And best of all, these dishes are not only wonderful to eat, but easy to make…dependable. Just follow the directions carefully and see how delightfully simple it is to turn out a triumph in chocolate!

For best results, use the WalterBaker ingredient called for in each recipe. If cocoa is substituted for chocolate, 1/3 cup Baker’s Breakfast Cocoa should be used for every square of Baker’s Unsweetened Chocolate. In cake or cooky mixtures, add 1/2 tablespoon additional butter for every 1/3 cup cocoa.

The half-pound cake of Baker’s Unsweetened Chocolate is divided into eight squares of one ounce each. The one-quarter pound cake and the one-fifth pound cake are divided into eight sections. When the recipes call for “one square of chocolate” use two sections of these small cakes.

Certainly…with Baker’s Unsweetened Chocolate and Baker’s Breakfast Cocoa doing active service on your pantry shelf…you may royally satisfy your family’s flourishing appetite for chocolate.

A sample recipe from this wonderful brochure:

Brazilian Chocolate

• 2/3 cup Baker’s Unsweetened Chocolate, cut in pieces

• 1 cup cold strong coffee

• Dash of salt

• 3 tablespoons sugar

• 3 cups milk

Place chocolate and coffee in upper part of double boiler over direct heat. Stir until chocolate is melted and blended. Add salt and sugar. Boil 4 minutes, stirring constantly. Place over hot water. Add milk gradually, stirring constantly. When hot, beat with rotary egg beater until light and frothy. Cool. Pour over cracked ice in tall glasses. Top with 1 tablespoon sweetened, whipped cream. Serves 6. The delicious blend of coffee and chocolate in this drink makes it an unusual and very popular refreshment beverage.

Hope you enjoyed,

Until next time,

Tim

One of the many pleasures that I find in collecting vintage recipe pamphlets is the archaic language used by the writers of the various companies. In describing their product they often give us a wonderful peak into a simpler time in our history. Today I’m sharing with you a pamphlet from the Walter Baker Company. The pamphlet was created in 1931. It measures 4.75″ x 6.75″ and contains 60 pages. Approximate value is $15-$20.

The following is a direct quote from the pamphlet’s introduction. Today’s pictures include the front and back covers.

WALTER BAKER INTRODUCES CHOCOLATE AND COCOA TO AMERICA 

“Since America was very young the name of Walter Baker has stood for the best in chocolate and cocoa. The first chocolate mill in america was built on the banks of the Neponset river in Dorchester, Massachusetts. In 1780 it became the establishment of Walter Baker and Company. Since that time, this chocolate business has grown steadily until today Walter Baker chocolate products are famous the world around.

“Baker’s Unsweetened Chocolate is a choice blend of the world’s finest cocoa beans. In its manufacture, nothing is added or taken away. For generations this chocolate has been prized for its rich natural flavor and velvety smoothness. Truly an unexcelled ingredient for myriad chocolate dishes. And what product ever offered a more amazing range of wonderful food delights than chocolate!

“Baker’s Breakfast Cocoa is likewise made from the most carefully selected cocoa beans. This rare blend produces the ruddy brown color and the marvelous chocolate flavor you know and like so well. Baker’s Breakfast Cocoa is chocolate in its less concentrated and pulverized form and as such is most convenient for making beverages. Cocoa is also preferable to chocolate in recipes such as angel food and sponge cakes which should not have any extra fat added.

“The nutritive value of Baker’s Breakfast Cocoa exceeds the standard set by the Government.”

THE ROMANCE OF “LA BELLE CHOCOLATIERE”

“Her story is just another delightful version of Cinderella and Prince Charming…HE is Prince Ditrichstein, brilliant young Austrian nobleman…SHE is a waitress in a new Viennese chocolate shop–Babette Baldauf, daughter of an impoverished knight!

“One frosty afternoon in 1760, the dashing young hero commands his chaise to stop before this quaint chocolate shop, first of its kind in Vienna. He must discover for himself the merits of a rich new beverage…that romantic drink from the tropics which is the topic of conversation among all the young fashionables.

“He enters, seats himself at a table, orders “hot chocolate” and promptly discovers not only the glories of this mellow, fragrant drink, but also the prettiest girl in all Vienna.

“Day after day, he returns for more chocolate and more demure glances. The bewildering enchantment grows and grows…until his daily cup of chocolate becomes the most important event in Prince Ditrichstein’s life. He completely forgets that a Prince may not look at a waitress…And the rest you’ve already guessed!

“As a betrothal gift, Ditrichstein engaged a talented Swiss artist, Jean Etienne Liotard, to paint his winsome beloved in the simple costume in which she first bewitched him. This portrait now hangs in the Dresden Museum…and its well-known replica graces every can of Walter Baker’s Breakfast Cocoa.”

There’s more to the Walter Baker Company story and I’ll continue on with it in the next posting. Remember that the pictures that I post are generally, thumbnails; so to enjoy the vintage pictures more, click on them for a larger viewing.

Until next time,

Tim

Occasionally there will be times that I have to get something off my chest that has little to do with cookbooks. These times will be rare - I promise, but this will be one of those times.

You may have noticed my first five entries were posted on February 27, 2008. No I didn’t write them all on that date. Wordpress is a wonderful blogging system, created by some very intelligent computer people. If you have a blog that’s supported by Wordpress you know what I’m talking about.

The problem is this. Since starting my blog, around the first of February, I’ve been reminded daily that there is an upgrade for the program and to please download it. I read the instructions a couple of times and thought, no, I’m not ready for this. You see, the instructions were written by very creative computer people - people wholly unlike myself. Tiny steps in the upgrade process that are simple and obvious to them, are not necessarily simple to the reader.

To make a long story short, I spent 8-10 hours on the 26th trying to get this “simple upgrade” to work; then another 4 hours on the 27th, again with no luck. Finally, in frustration, I deleted my whole program and started from day one of my blogging experience. Fortunately I had backed up some of the program through my hosting company, but it all needed cleaning-up. All-in-all, I lost one post and the better part of two days to clean-up this mess. Aggravation? You might say that.

My whole point is not to criticize Wordpress. It’s a cool program. But the folks that write the programs are not writers.

The same can be said about cookbooks. Not all cookbook authors are writers. They may be good, creative cooks, but leaving out one simple step of a complex recipe that may be obvious to them, could spell disaster.

There, thank you for reading…I feel better now!

Until next time,

Tim

I mentioned in a another post (Fleischmann’s Yeast) that manufacturing companies learned early-on that folks loved recipe brochures with colorful pictures of children. By making the brochures attractive, housewives of that day would hang on to the brochure and not throw it into the fire - hence, they were collectible in their day as well as today. Here is a wonderful example of a valuable little brochure from my collection.

This beautiful little brochure measures 3″ x 6″ and contains 13 pages. It takes little room in my collection, unlike old vases, etc. and is valued at $20-$25. What’s really neat about these little recipe brochures is that not only do they contain some very good recipes, but they often give a little history of the company and product, and instructions how best to use the product. This particular brochure is hinged at the top which in itself is rather unique.

The back cover shows a colorful picture of the product itself:

On each page there’s a bread recipe and neat little pen and ink type sketch (below).

vintagebreadmaking

If you like what you’re seeing in this blog, be sure to drop me a note using the contact box in the upper-right hand corner and I’ll keep you informed via email of future postings.

Until next time,

Tim