Our kitchen is a collection of mid century vintage--mostly items from the 1920s-50s. We bought a house with a built in 1951 stainless steel Chambers stove and a similarly aged Hotpoint refrigerator. The frig has gone to Icebox Heaven--but the Chambers keeps on chugging along. On the shelf behind this workhorse sits one of my prize keeper finds--a 1930s General Mills Bakers' Service recipe box--stuffed with the original recipe cards. I found this treasure in an antique shop in Sandwich Illinois--and it is as fascinating as any vintage history book.
This box is in fabulous condition with the original decals and contains a couple hundred cards of the most fabulous recipes and tips that would benefit commercial operations. There are several score of rye bread recipes (Milwaukee Rye bread, rye pretzels, Jewish rye and raisin rye) How about a piece of prune rye bread? Are you interested in tips for "Dough Control in Winter Months"? or "Fighting Mold in Bakery Products?"
A few more of my favorites? Wheaties Macaroons, (it is General Mills after all!) Log Cabin Cookies--(also called Rough and Readies) and Prince of Wales Cake. (maybe a particular favorite of Wallis Simpson??)
A particularly quaint recipe can be found in Index 10, Card No. 27 "Indians or Brownies." Not so politically correct, but oh what a recipe. Now remember--this is for a bakery--so you have to start with an 18 by 25 inch pan.
1lb 8ozs Gold Medal Cake Flour Softasilk
2lbs 8ozs sugar
6 ozs. cocoa
14ozs butter
12 ozs corn syrup
12 whole eggs
4 ozs water
1lb 4 ozs pecan nut meats
1 oz salt
2 ozs vanilla
Sugar,cocoa,butter,salt corn syrup and vanilla--beat for 5 minutes. Add the rest. Bake at 400. (but it does not say for how long!)
It is 1930 all over again.
Would love to peruse that box sometime!
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