Category: sources

Jelly Roll No. 2, “Timely Tips for Bakers”

"Baltimore's rapid industrial progress is being reflected in growth of population... Allowing this city an annual increase of 16,500 the 800,000 mark will be passed during 1924. Apparently the 1,000,000 mark will be reached at the time of the next census in 1930." — George C. Smith, director of the Baltimore Board of Trade's Industrial Bureau, to the Evening Sun in May 1923

At first glance, “Timely Tips for Bakers” looks like any other corporate cookbook aimed at housewives. On the front of the tall thin brochure-sized booklet, a uniformed man holds up a perfect layer cake. The first page features a photograph of the headquarters of “The International Company,” producers of ingredients like “Velvet Egg” and “Eggrowhite” powdered egg products, Sunrise Baking Powder, and “Mex-Val-Ol” vanilla flavoring. Recipes, of course, can be found within.

On closer inspection the recipes call for two and three pounds of flour at a time for cakes and cookies. When I baked the recipe for this post, for “Jelly Roll No. 2,” I had to get out a calculator.

The ample text in the cookbook, most of which extols the benefits of the International Company’s product offerings, also contains some information about the School of Commercial Cake Baking, an experimental bakery where professional bakers from around the country were encouraged to visit to receive instruction in the latest technology and best techniques of cake baking. Presumably, the bakers were encouraged to familiarize themselves with the company’s product line.

In other words, “Timely Tips for Bakers” is meant literally. This is not a book full of tempting cakes for church suppers.

The International Company Headquarters at Lombard and Commerce Streets
Continue reading “Jelly Roll No. 2, “Timely Tips for Bakers””

Sponge Orange Cake, Ladies Aid Society, Church of the Holy Comforter

One of the many changes that the pandemic caused in me was a reversal of my austere policy on hard-copies of cookbooks. Where once I had been donating my more rare books and avoiding paying for anything I could view in a library, I suddenly had the urge to build up my home collection more and more. Donations and acquisitions have nearly doubled the amount of books I have on hand.

One of the books I purchased is one of the earliest books that I had access to digitally, a slim 1884 fund-raising cookbook from Baltimore called “The Favorite Receipt Book and Business Directory,” produced by the Ladies Aid Society of the Church of the Holy Comforter.

The book is disappointingly anonymous, but the advertisements, which the book promotes as a feature, are plentiful and interesting.

Ads are sometimes the most illuminating part of a cookbook like this. Some books have a lot of ads that demonstrate a whole neighborhood’s worth of local businesses, like a phone book. It can present a window into what kind of goods were available. Ads for grocers offer insight into where the church’s women might shop. Ads for appliances show what would be the cutting edge kitchen equipment.

Continue reading “Sponge Orange Cake, Ladies Aid Society, Church of the Holy Comforter”

H. Franklyn Hall’s “Crab Cakes”

“Men become cooks because they have a love for the calling,” wrote Harry Franklyn Hall in “Good Housekeeping” in 1903. The article he wrote described the passion and career progression of men (specifically) in the food industry and the stress one must endure as he gains skills and experience to become “an eighth-degree cook.” Despite the annoying implication that only men can “excel in the art of cooking” and “reach its loftiest height,” the article details the many techniques Hall personally mastered in the rise from dishwasher to famed chef. Together with the listing of his places of employment in his 1901 book “300 Ways to Cook and Serve Shellfish,” it is closest thing we have to a career autobiography of Hall.


“Philadelphia Colored Directory”, 1910
Continue reading “H. Franklyn Hall’s “Crab Cakes””

“Mother’s Southern Spoon Corn Bread,” Gwendolyn E. Coffield

Once again a second visit with a cookbook reveals a new dimension to it: this time its the 1973 “Rosemary Hills International Community Cookbook,” compiled by Gwendolyn Coffield and Juanita Hamby. The book is an early celebration of the DC suburbs’ growing diversity.

In 2002, the Washington Post ran an article about the Lyttonsville neighborhood surrounding the Rosemary Hills School. The article called the Silver Spring neighborhood an “ethnic enclave” with “hidden appeal.”

Gwendolyn’s sister Charlotte is quoted in that article, reflecting on the ways Lyttonsville had changed over the years. The historically Black neighborhood, built on land that had been acquired in the 1850s by a free Black man named Samuel Lytton, has been home to several generations of the Coffield family.

Continue reading ““Mother’s Southern Spoon Corn Bread,” Gwendolyn E. Coffield”

“Coralline” Muffins, The Practical Cook Book

The Slow Foods Ark of Taste is a list of thousands of food products, collected with the intent of promoting and preserving them before they die out. The list includes heirloom fruits and vegetables, rare livestock breeds, and prepared specialty foods like cheeses. Items are nominated to the list using criteria factoring in uniqueness, sustainability, and quality. The Slow Food USA website declares that “these foods are prized by those who eat them for their special taste.” No commercial or trademarked products are selected.

But what about foods that just… aren’t that special? What about all of the commercial products that have come and gone, perhaps dying out justly and unlamented? Obsessed as I am with the detritus of popular culture, I can’t help but wonder about extinct ingredients that no one publicly mourned.

  • Coralline ad, “The Practical Cook Book,” 1888
Continue reading ““Coralline” Muffins, The Practical Cook Book”

Posts navigation

1 2 3 4 5 6
Scroll to top
error: Content is protected !!