There has probably been no greater force for the dissemination of recipes developed by home cooks than recipe contests.
State and county fairs in the 19th century hosted many cooking contests as a part of their “ladies” programming. These fairs were an opportunity for women gather and to show off their “domestic arts”, from needlework to baking and cooking. In my research about White Potato Pie, I came across a “white potato custard pie” category at the 1880 Cecil County Agricultural Society exhibition. The level of specificity suggests a large amount of prizes to be awarded. The other pie categories that year were Green Peach, Dried Peach, Green Apple, Dried Apple, Grape, Cherry, Gooseberry, Currant, Pumpkin, Cocoanut, Lemon, and Apple – and that is just for pies. There were contests for preserves, cakes, breads, cheeses, and more. The dollar prize adjusts to about twenty dollars in “today money.” Considering the amount of effort to just travel to these events, it was clear that the glory of winning was an incentive as well.
It wasn’t long before companies selling ingredients and kitchen appliances figured out that they could use contests as a way to get publicity – and to crowdsource recipes to promote their products. Companies like Heinz, Borden, and Kraft have held recipe contests over the decades. Sometimes, the winning recipes ended up published in promotional cookbooks and advertisements. Newspapers used recipe contests as a way to engage women readers. Home economists and cooking teachers were often employed as judges.
In November 1910, hundreds of women showed up to the Bernheimer Brothers store in downtown Baltimore to enter their bread loaves, biscuits, pies, doughnuts, and cakes to be judged by “representatives of local newspapers.” The Baltimore Sun described some of the cakes as “ornamental in the extreme” and touted the “skill shown by Baltimore women” but did not print the names of any of the winners or the names of the winning items.
Perhaps the Sun was inspired by the success of this contest to hold their own contest in early 1911.
Advertisement for the recipe contest in the San Francisco Examiner, 1901
Newspapers had been having similar contests since the 1890s. In 1901, the San Francisco Examiner used a format similar to the one the Sun would later use: a series of weekly contests in different categories, the recipes delivered to the paper by mail. The winning recipes – including addresses and names of the winners, were printed in a lavishly illustrated spread in the Sunday women’s pages. The Examiner advertised their contest series as “the biggest thing ever heard of.” What newspaper could resist trying to replicate “the biggest thing ever heard of?”
The Sun asked its 1911 readers “Are You A Good Cook?” and offered a $5 prize for the winner, with five one-dollar runner-up awards. The twenty-three weekly contests were judged by Miss Lillian Armstrong, director of the Y.W.C.A. School of Domestic Science. It is unknown whether the recipes were judged by actually tasting them. Around fifty recipes were printed each week, so it doesn’t seem likely that Miss Armstrong and company had time to test the entries. Perhaps she used her domestic expertise to envision the recipe results.
Over the contest’s 23-week run, there were 1541 recipes printed. I’ve come across these newspaper pages many times, while researching other recipes. After noticing that a lot of the addresses were around Charles Village, I decided I wanted to see the contest recipes on a map. The map below shows just under six hundred of the recipe winners. Other entries came from all over the state, with a few from other places as far away as Wisconsin. The Frederick (Maryland) Post often listed the names of women from Frederick who’d won that week’s contest.
Click here to go to the full version of the map.
When researching some of the participants in the recipe contest, I found a few “prominent citizens,” as well as some people who appeared to be domestic servants or first-generation German immigrants. The early 1900s were a pivotal time in the development of Baltimore city’s segregationist politics, and as scholars have pointed out, the Sun played a role. Like the newspaper’s readership at the time, contest participants were most likely to be white.
Thanks to a generous friend, I had a lot of crab-meat and decided to try one of the crab recipes. I made “Crabs And Bacon,” a recipe contributed by Miss H. A. Blogg of 2506 St. Paul Street.
When I went to research Miss (Harriet) A. Blogg, I was led to… my own post, “Risotto,” from “College Cookery.” Miss Blogg was a librarian at Goucher College who clearly had an interest in food. In addition to entering this contest, and compiling the “College Cookery” cookbook, she wrote for magazines and newspapers, often about the dining trends of college girls. More background on her and her family can be found in that post. I’ll try not to worry too much about how I managed to forget a name like that, and instead I will continue to marvel that out of fifteen-hundred-plus recipes, I managed to pick one by someone I’d already written about.
After sharing this map with Charles Village neighbors, I’ve already heard from a few people who found a recipe from their address. I hope to hear from more. I would love to bring some recipes from 110 years ago forward through time, right to their home kitchens.
Recipe:
- 1 Quart crab meat
- 2 Tablespoon butter
- salt
- pepper, white
- .5 Lb bacon
- parsley
Take 1 quart crab meat, having it in large white flakes, and put it in a porcelain saucepan with 2 tablespoonfuls of butter. Season with salt and white pepper to taste and let it simmer for 10 minutes. Take 1/2 pound of very thinly sliced bacon and fry quickly in a hot pan. Pile the crab meat in the centre of a round platter, arrange the bacon in a border around it and put several long sprays of parsley attractively on the crab. This is an original dish and as delicious as it is beautiful.
Recipe from the Baltimore Sun 1911 Recipe Contest Series, May 28th. Second prize winner, submitted by Harriet A. Blogg.
