Kitchen Oldies but Goodies

We do a fair amount of crock pot cooking, more so in cooler weather than warmer. Lately, I’ve been looking through our slow cooker books for year-round recipe ideas.

One of the our most interesting  books is one that Grenville gave me for Christmas present. 

It’s not a large book nor does it have a lot of recipes. What is DOES have are classic ads for products and appliances that were, of course, WAY WAY before my time (really). Many of these companies are long since gone, but their advertisements were quite interesting.
There was some online information online about this pressure cooker, but very little for the company itself. On a site that listed various makers/models of pressure cookers, this one was shown as being out of business. The time period is the mid-1940s.

A search for Roastwell was more successful.  The first factory was created by Ulysses Grant Fletcher (on right) and was located in Anderson, IN from 1909-1914. In 1887 natural gas was discovered in Anderson and soon afterwards, several factories and industries that could use natural gas began to locate there overnight.  But, the gas ran out in 1912, many factories left and the city’s growth spurt stopped.

In 1914, the Fletcher Enamel Factory shut down, relocating to  Dunbar, W VA, and starting another factory in 1916. According to a 1943 newspaper article, Fletcher Enamel Company produces a large percentage of the enameled ware used by American and Canadian housewives. The company is equipped to produce more than 268 items. It normally employs an average of 650 persons. The peak production ranges between 20,000 and 30,000 assorted pieces of enameled ware per day.

The company remained a family-run business, but closed down in 1958. During WW II, the company added a “shell shop” which made 60mm shells under a federal contract.

Karo Syrups are the only corn syrup products that are available across the entire US. They're used as toppings for French toast, pancakes and waffles, and in recipes for pies, candies, glazes, sauces, beverages, ice creams.  In the 1930s, the wife of a corporate sales executive mixed corn syrup, sugar, eggs, vanilla and pecans baked in a pie shell to produce the now classic Pecan Pie. In many parts of the South, the recipe continues to be called Karo Pie

Karo Syrup began in 1902 when the Corn Products Refining Company of New York and Chicago formed then introduced Karo Light and Dark Corn Syrup. It’s believed that the chemist and expert syrup formulator coined the name “Karo” after his wife, Caroline. Another theory traces the name Karo back to an earlier table syrup trademark “Kairomel.” Until the introduction of Karo corn syrups, the American housewives carried a syrup jug to the grocery store to be refilled from the grocer’s barrels of syrup.

In 1903, it was sold in “friction-top tins” and advertised as “The Great Spread for Daily Bread.” In full page advertisements appearing in the Ladies Home Journal, it was said that the new table syrup had found “great favor with particular tastes, and was a table delight, appreciated morning, noon or night.” The full-page advertisement offered 11 recipes and a cookbook to all who wrote to the company.

Per Wikipedia: corn syrup is a food syrup, which is made from the starch of maize and contains varying amounts of maltose and higher oligosaccharides, depending on the grade. Corn syrup is used in foods to soften texture, add volume, prevent crystallization of sugar, and enhance flavor. It differs from high-fructose corn syrup (HFCS), which is created when corn syrup undergoes enzymatic processing, producing a sweeter compound that contains higher levels of fructose.

This Savory roaster was made by the Republic Metalware Company of Buffalo NY in the early 1900s and was quite popular. According to a home furnishings publication of that era: The sale of the roaster has been so enormous during the past year that there is not a housewife from Maine to California who does not know of these roasters.

Crosley Corp. manufactured these freezers in the late 1940s. The company, based in Cincinnati, OH, was headed by Powel Crosley, Jr., who is credited with pioneering the ideal of affordable radios, appliances and other housewares. Crosley Radio Corporation was once the largest manufacturer of table-top radios in the US.

The original company has long since ceased operations. But, in  1976, the Crosley Corporation formed in Winston-Salem, NC when a group of independently owned distributors resurrected the Crosley trade name and introduced a line of household appliances. Per its website: Crosley Corporation is a non-profit organization that helps independent distributors and retailers compete in today's marketplace with quality appliances at affordable prices. Appliances are manufactured by world class corporations, built to Crosley specifications, and available exclusively through independent appliance retailers.

More of these ads in future posts.