Betty Crocker
Illustrations from Sidelights on History
The Washburn Crosby Company of Minneapolis, one of the six big milling companies that merged into General Mills in 1928, received thousands of requests each year in the late 1910s and early 1920s for answers to baking questions. In 1921, managers decided that it would be more intimate to sign the responses personally; they combined the last name of a retired company executive, William Crocker, with the first name “Betty,” which was thought of as “warm and friendly.” excerpt from Sidelights in History
Mrs. Beaton
Illustrations from Mrs. Beaton’s Book
Isabella Mary Mayson (March 12, 1836 – January 1865), universally known as Mrs Beeton, was the author of Mrs Beeton’s Book of Household Management and is the most famous cookery writer in British history.” excerpt from Mrs. Beaton’s Book
In my day, parents were always afraid to let their kids know that there was no Santa Claus. That didn’t bother me at all. Instead, I was devastated to learn at the tender age of six that there was no Betty Crocker. How betrayed I felt. Confused. Tricked. None the less, I still lusted for a Betty Crocker cookbook of my own. It was a long time coming. It wasn’t until I was thirteen that I got Betty Crocker’s Cook Book for Boys and Girls. It was a birthday gift from my Aunt Yvonne and cousins Chris and Dan. It’s falling apart now, a bit greasy and scribbled upon, but I still have it, still cherish it.
First edition published in 1957
That gift was beginning of a long, long love affair with cookbooks. I was pleased to find that while Betty Crocker was a 20th Century marketing tool, the 19th Century Mrs. Beaton was the real thing. I learned about her – perhaps oddly – when reading an English mystery story. She may have been the first modern cookbook author, probably as innovative in her day as Julia Child was in ours.
As time passed, I learned there were lots of other real people putting out books: Elizabeth David, Julia Child, and James Beard are some authors I enjoyed. I tended to gravitate to books by individuals more than the collaborative corporate efforts published by magazines and food product manufacturers. But I have to say, I loved them all: old and new, ugly and plain or lavishly made with slick stock and full-color pictures. My mother-in-law used to say that I read cookbooks the way other people read mysteries. It was true. I did. I still do.
I always hoped that one day I would acquire a copy of Mrs. Beaton’s book. I recently discovered that her book is available on-line at Mrs. Beaton’s Book of Household Management. It’s history. Read the chapter on “the mistress,” meaning the wife in this case, and you will find yourself thankful that times have changed in terms of both women’s lives and life options and the technology available for homemaking. Mrs. Beaton leaves nothing out of this book. There’s even legal advice on buying a home. And, although the recipes are outdated, there’s still some good ideas and inspiration to be had. If you want to find out how things were made from scratch before the advent of pre-fab food, this is a good place to start.
When I compare the older cookbooks to the newer, I see confirmation that we Americans have become much more creative, use a wider range of vegetables, herbs and spices, have increased our use of vegetables and cut back on sugar and fat, and are much more open to the foods of other countries. We no longer fill half our cookbooks with dessert recipes. The comparison makes me also suspect that most of us have a broader cooking repertoire than our parents or grandparents had.
Some books I keep for their beauty as much as anything else. I can no longer eat wheat-based breads, but one of my favorite books is The Il Fornaio Baking Book: Sweet and Savory Recipes from the Italian Kitchen by Franco Galli. It’s just too artfully done to give up.
Recipe books that include reflections are sometimes real treasures. The first one that always comes to mind is Edward Espe Brown’s Tomato Blessings and Radish Teachings. And I thoroughly enjoyed Jeff Smith’s The Frugal Gourmet Keeps the Feast. I share his respect for and take the same pleasure in festival foods for the history and traditions they help to maintain and cultural understanding they foster.
New cookbooks are published faster than I can read them. I no longer have shelf room for a significant collection. As I’ve downsized over the years, I’ve had to give up most of my treasured cookbooks. Now infrequent but pleasant days are spent at the library breezing though the newer books. It’s interesting to see how just as in couture, some food fashions can come around again if you wait long enough. One young woman has developed a recipe for a hot potato salad made with bacon. We knew that as hot German potato salad. Our first family version of that recipe came from a Betty Crocker cookbook. This was modified on advice from a German neighbor. I think we may have further modified her recipe when we got Luchow’s German Cookbook: The Story and the Favorite Dishes of America’s Most Favorite German Restaurant. It was certainly our favorite German restaurant, and I was delighted to have the book. And, this illustrates how family recipes can evolve over time.
Through the years, the ethnic foods at which others once looked askance have become common, even trendy, items on many American tables. Hummus bi Tahini is one example. Some chefs even make innovations on the classic, using white beans instead of chickpeas, roasted garlic instead of raw, and adding harissa instead of Aleppo pepper. What we at home used to refer to as “mixing our ethnics” – something we did because our family was comprised of an ethnic mix and we just combined things to meet the need, the budget, or the desire of the day – is now called “fusion.” Whatever! It’s all fun. It’s all good. As long as people have enough clean, healthy, fresh food to eat and family and friends with whom to enjoy it, there’s room for lots of difference and great innovation. Good cookbooks help expand our food horizon and inspire experimentation and innovation.
