“If alum is something to be proud of why conceal it on the label in type as small as the law permits?” – Alum in Baking Powder, 1927, Royal Baking Powder Company
“Today, the Royal Company is manufacturing and selling a phosphate type of powder such as they condemned and classed as a mineral poison a few years ago.” – The Truth About Baking Powder, 1928, Calumet Baking Powder Company
The libraries of Johns Hopkins don’t always have much to offer when it comes to my research. This post was a rare exception. I found a lot of reports and books about baking powder in the Hopkins Sheridan Libraries. I soon learned that this is because it exists in the grey area between food, chemical, and – some once believed – toxin. It was a potential cause for medical concern.
I selected two books: “Alum in Baking Powder,” published by the Royal Baking Powder Company in 1927, and “The Truth About Baking Powder,” from the Calumet Baking Powder Company in 1928. The former is meant to dispel any bad publicity or residual rumors from a 1926 Federal Trade Commission Hearing regarding Royal Baking Powder and their crusade against the ingredient alum. The latter book is a rebuttal of the former, in which Calumet wants the reader to look at the cutthroat tactics of Royal and wonder “just what are you so afraid of, Royal Baking Powder?”
1911 Royal Baking Powder Advertisement
If that all seems confusing, its because it is. A new book, “Baking Powder Wars,” by Linda Civitello, chronicles the bumpy history of baking powder from convenient godsend to (alleged) public health menace to kitchen staple.
A lot of recipes in older cookbooks contain long-forgotten ingredients like pearlash and saleratus. I’ve always been struck by the ingenuity of cooks of that era, and the way that information and ingredients would disseminate around the country. In the case of these baking powder predecessors, they had some help from cookbook authors like Eliza Leslie and Amelia Simmons. Use of these leaveners marked further diversion from American cooking’s British roots.
“American women should be given more credit for what they created and for the chemical experiments they conducted in their kitchens. Even if pearlash was not revolutionary by itself – which it was – the accretion of innovation created a new American cuisine.” – Baking Powder Wars, Linda Civitello
Aside from chemical leaveners and yeast, you may recall that another traditional way to get air into breads, especially in Maryland, is to beat the hell out of the dough for a half hour or more. Performing this process definitely makes one think of the history of servitude and slavery in Maryland, and Civitello draws a connection between that and Eliza Leslie’s distaste for Maryland Biscuits, which Leslie deemed unwholesome (despite including the recipe in her book). Leslie’s Maryland contemporary, Elizabeth Ellicott Lea, also an abolitionist Quaker, simply declared that Maryland Biscuits are “very nice for tea.” But hey, as Leslie said “there’s not accounting for tastes.” (1)
Rumford Cook Book, probably 1895
Commercial baking powders were first developed in the mid-1800s, even before a reliable yeast was available to consumers. Housewives, cooks and bakers cultivated and maintained their own yeast. Between the different blends of flour, the variability of yeasts, and the makeshift baking powders, we can scarcely imagine the inconsistency of 19th century baked goods.
Regardless, according to Civitello, many women were skeptical of the chemicals, or else fiercely set in their independent ways. The burgeoning baking powder industry resorted to creative means to market their products to consumers.
The Royal Baking Powder Company released a cookbook in 1877, pushing their products with the allure of exciting new recipes. The book disparaged other baking powder formulas and offered hundreds of recipes featuring their product. (2)
As competition heated up, the war began. Royal promoted evidence that the ingredients in other baking powder formulations were responsible for indigestion. The most famous of this ‘evidence’ involved an 1880 study in which dogs were fed biscuits made with the different baking powder formulas – the Royal formula versus the “other leading brands” containing alum.
“Eight [alum baking powder] biscuits were given to dogs Nos. II and VI in the morning; in the afternoon dog No. II was very loose in his bowels, and dog No. VI very constipated. Five more biscuits were given in the afternoon and eight more the following morning, part of which were eaten. Both the dogs then were extremely constipated and apparently quite sick, although they did not vomit. To-day dog No. IV, in perfect health, was then given three biscuits… the dog became quite sick and vomited. In the afternoon and the next morning more biscuits were given him, but he would not eat.” – The Sanitarian, Volume 8, 1880
Very scientific. Loose stools AND constipation?!?! Even a DOG wouldn’t eat those biscuits!! Well I say! I’m smarter than a dog!
Nonetheless, the baking powder competition waged on; right on up to the Federal Trade Commission hearing in 1926.
Rumsford Chemical Works, whose creator Eben Horsford pioneered the original commercial baking powder formula, produced their own cookbook in 1895. Newspapers around the country advertised a “New Pastry Cook Book” by Baltimore Cooking School principal “L. A. Willis”(3) which could be obtained, for free, from Rumsford Chemical Works if you sent in a label (aka your ‘proof of purchase’) from Horsford Bread Preparation (an early self-rising enriched flour).
Rumsford was wisely capitalizing on the rising popularity of cooking instructors, and the cooking instructors capitalized right back.
Lida Ames Willis had been a pupil of Sarah Tyson Rorer, and made good on her credentials with a healthy amount of endorsements. She assisted with Gas & Electric company promotions, and also endorsed Knox Gelatine and Cottolene shortening. Alongside Rorer, Marion Harland, and a few other cooking instructors, Willis contributed recipes to a 1914 book called “Home Helps” – a promotion for Cottolene.
Home Helps, 1910, Duke University Library
The similar refrains from Cottolene about purity and indigestion make one wonder if there aren’t larger forces at play than some unsafe ingredient in baking powder.
Why did people used to suffer from so much indigestion? Well, for starters, nearly any ingredient in a recipe could have been adulterated or spoiled. Refrigeration was not widespread, canning practices were not standardized, and unscrupulous corporate activity was rampant. Maybe people had un-diagnosed sensitivities to gluten or FODMAPs. Maybe e. coli was all over everything (ew). But also… maybe humans just get a lot of indigestion?
Safety concerns are one of the pillars of marketing to this day – GMOs being just one obvious example. And my Rumsford Baking Powder tin assures me that the product is aluminum free.
The convenience of baking powder didn’t eliminate the use of yeast, or even the tradition of beaten biscuits. Still, we have baking powder to thank for a world of cakes with a light texture and a “faint metallic trace of bitterness” that “unfortunately, Americans grew to love.” (4)
If you’re wondering what happened to the dogs who ate biscuits made with Royal Baking Powder, well: “each dog was given as many biscuits as he would eat… Their bowels were not in the least affected.” Those dogs ate a ton of delicious biscuits “with appetite,” and their stools were perfect, which is more than I can say about my own dog who eats food that is made for dogs.
Recipe:
- 2 heaping teaspoons baking powder
- 1 Teaspoon salt
- 1 Quart flour
- 2 oz butter plus more for spreading on cake
- cold milk
- sugared strawberries
- whipped cream
Sift 2 heaping teaspoonfuls Rumford Yeast Powder, and 1 teaspoonful salt with 1 quart flour. Rub in 2 ounces butter and moisten to a very soft dough with cold milk. Mix quickly and lightly; pat out into a large round cake 2 inches thick; place in a large, square baking-pan and bake in a very quick oven 20 minutes. While hot pull apart; spread both halves with good, sweet butter, not pressing but dropping it on with a knife; spread the lower half with a thick layer of slightly crushed, sugared strawberries; put on the top crust, dust with sugar, heap with sweetened, whipped cream and garnish with a few large berries. Serve at once, and cut with a hot knife.
Recipe from The Rumford Bread and Pastry Cook by Lida A. Willis
I think I made this batter too wet. I didn’t bother making an adaptation of this recipe because you can find your own strawberry shortcake recipes out there. But I would have used twice as much strawberries or made half as much cake, and also maybe less milk.
(1) Eliza Leslie “Maryland Biscuits” recipe
(2) A 1920 version is available online. “ Housekeepers who have always used Royal Baking Powder with utmost satisfaction are sometimes misled into experimenting with baking powders containing questionable ingredients. “
(3) Spelled “Leida” in this book, her name appears more often as Lida and Lida is the name used in the census
(4) Culinary historian Karen Hess quoted in “Baking Powder Wars”. This book has much more history going on including corporate espionage and Clabber Girls trouble with the KKK – check it out if you’re into that kinda thing!