Holiday Promotions

A trip to the grocery and liquor stores just before Christmas turned up the following recipe leaflets and booklets. They were free and found in the aisles next to the products.

Keebler Ready Crust Pie Crust Recipe Cards (6 color cards, 5-1/2 x 4 inches):

Streusel Topped Creamy Pumpkin Pie
Fluffy Pumpkin Cheesecake
Cranberry Walnut Cheesecake
5 Min. White Chocolate Hazelnut Pie
Easy Chocolate Chip Cheesecake
Raspberry Swirl Cheesecake

Leaflet with store coupon and recipes using Kellogg's Rice Krispies, Keebler Ready Crust and Nestle Toll House Morels. The recipes in this leaflet are:

Creamy Pumpkin Pie
Easy Chocolate Chip Cheesecake Pie (different than the one above)
Chocolate Yummies

Recipe & Coupon Leaflet - Nestle Store Coupons for Signature Treasures or Turtles Candy, Stouffer's Family or Party Size Frozen Entree, Coffee-Mate and Nescafe Taster's Choice, with recipes for:

Hot Chocolate & Vanilla Swirl
Spiced Pumpkin Nut Bread

HEB Coupon/Recipe leaflet: Shrimp Ranchero

Pompeii Recipe Card with recipes for Lemonade and Limeade

MBA Brand Poultry Smart Chicken Brochure:

Sesame Glazed Smart Chicken
Pecan Crusted Smart Chicken

Just Perfect All Natural Recipe Brochure - Deli Sandwich Recipe Book and Nutrition Guide with recipes:

Spicy Strawberry Salsa Turkey Sandwich
Summer Harvest Turkey Sandwich
Beechcomber Smoked Turkey Sandwich
Roman Turkey Pita
Tuscan Tomato and Basil Turkey Sandwich

Food Network's Dave Lieberman Exclusive Holiday Recipes & Coupons (Miller Beer) Leaflet:

Pulled Turkey and Fennel Salad on Toasted Pumpernickel with Orange Cranberry Sauce
Turkey-Filled Dumplings

La Vie de Chambord Liqueur: Volume 3 Recipe Booklet (62 pages):

Cocktail recipes with color photos

Spry Christmas Cookie Recipe

A Christmas cookie recipe from a wartime Spry pure vegetable shortening recipe booklet, Good Cooking Made Easy (1942, 48 pages):

FESTIVE CHRISTMAS COOKIES

Don't wait til Christmas to make these prize-winners! Grand with black walnuts too.

3/4 cup Spry
1/4 cup butter
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup powdered sugar
2 tablespoons vanilla
2 cups sifted flour
1 cup pecans, chopped

Blend Spry, butter, salt, sugar, and vanilla. Add flour and pecans. Drop by tablespoons on Sprycoated cookie sheets. Bake in slow oven (325 degrees) 25 minutes. Cool. Roll in confectioners' sugar.

Makes 40 cookies.

If preferred, the dough may be shaped into small balls or finger-shaped rolls instead of being dropped from a spoon.

Dulce de Leche

Another sweetened condensed milk post. (Bear with me, the holidays are almost over.)

To boil the can of sweetened condensed milk or not? Safe or unsafe? Who knows? You can find varying opinions all over the internet.

Evidently it's okay to boil the can in South America. The screenshot below is a recipe (translated from Spanish) from the Nestle Argentina website:

Just for the record, I've never tried this method (why look for trouble?). I paid $1.50/can for Nestle's Dulce de Leche at the grocery store a couple of days ago. Works for me.

Swift'ning Shortening

Swift & Company was incorporated in 1885 by Gustavas Franklin Swift. Located in Chicago's Union Stock Yard, they became one of the largest and most innovative meat packing companies in the U.S.

Commercial refining of lard, an animal fat, was a natural path of diversification for the meat packers. It was one of many products developed to use the discarded portions of the cattle and hogs that were slaughtered for their meat.

The introduction of cottonseed oil as an ingredient in refined lard later led the meat packers into the production of shortening as well. Many meat packers produced shortenings both with and without vegetable oil.

Two of the products sold under the Swift'ning brand name were Swift's Bland Lard and Swift's Shortening.

Swift'ning Shortening, a lard-based product, was developed by Swift & Company during the 1940's. It was marketed as an all purpose shortening and contained a mixture of both animal and vegetable fats.

A number of recipe booklets were published to promote the use of Swift'ning brand shortening.

One such advertising promotion was found on a 3 lb. can of Swift's Shortening. The rear of the can featured a mail-in offer for the recipe booklet 77 Recipes using Swift'ning Make-Your-Own-Mix, by Martha Logan, the Swift & Company Home Economist. (1950, 34 pages). The purchase of a can of shortening was necessary as a paper disc from the top of the can had to be sent in to receive the booklet.

The recipe for Swift'ning Make-Your-Own Mix, a mixture of Swift'ning, flour, salt and baking powder, yielded 13 cups. Stored on the pantry shelf until needed, it could be mixed with milk and a variety of other ingredients to bake a variety of breads, muffins, waffles, cakes, cookies, puddings, dumplings and main dishes.

Another recipe pamphlet, a shorter version called Selections from 77 Recipes Using Swift'ning Make-Your-Own Mix was also published (1950, 6 pages). It featured a plain cover and 22 of the recipes from the original booklet.

New and Improved -- It's Velvetized!

In 1964, the Carnation Company monkeyed around with the formula for their evaporated milk product and came up with a new version which they called "Velvetized." Carnation registered the "Velvetized" trademark in 1965.

Mary Blake, Director of Carnation's Home Service Department, writes about this big change in the recipe booklet Cooking ...with a Velvet Touch (circa 1965, 48 pages).

Throughout the cookbook, she lavishly extolls the benefits of the new and improved Velvetized Carnation Evaporated Milk:

• It's Velvetized for creamier, smoother, more nutritious, extra delicious cooking results;
• It's THE milk for cooking;
• It makes sauces and soups smoother, custards extra creamy, puts double the fresh milk values in casseroles and whips to extra lightness;
• It's finer, denser and creamier;
• It has double the milk benefits of protein, calcium and Vitamin D;
• It has new flavor lightness, new calorie lightness, a new light texture and extra richness.

What is Velvetized? Mary never actually says. Perhaps the only clue for the consumer was found on the front of the can label. The word "Homogenized" was replaced with "Carrageenan Added". The new label also indicated that the amount of Vitamin D was increased.

Carrageenan, a red marine algae, is a food additive that's used as a stabilizer, thickener, binder and texturizer to produce a uniform texture and improve "mouth-feel." It's frequently found in many dairy foods.

The definition for the use of carrageenan certainly fits with all the adjectives Mary used to described their new Velvetized product.

Today the list of food additives on processed foods is usually relegated to the rear of the packaging in tiny, fine print, but perhaps in 1965 it was seen as a benefit worth bragging about. Whether they merely changed the additive from another that did the same thing, or added it to make their product better, they needed something to make us feel good about it. Velvetized...sounds smooth and creamy doesn't it?

The recipe booklet introduced 86 new Carnation recipes for cakes and cookies, desserts, main dishes, pies, salads and a salad dressing, dessert sauces, meat and vegetable sauces, soups and vegetables.

Even though it's close to breakfast time as I write this, one photo of a clear glass dish containing a scoop of chocolate ice cream with a dollop of pink Mint-Mallow Sauce on top looks particularly appetizing.

MINT-MALLOW SAUCE

2/3 cup light corn syrup
1/2 cup crushed peppermint candy
3 tablespoons butter
2 cups (7-oz. jar) marshmallow whip
1/2 cup undiluted Carnation Evaporated Milk

Combine corn syrup, candy and butter in 1-1/2 quart saucepan. Heat mixture over medium heat, stirring constantly, until candy melts. Continue to heat until mixture comes to a full boil. Cook 5 minutes. Cool slightly. Add marshmallow whip. Mix well. Slowly stir in Carnation. Stir until mixture is light and smooth. Refrigerate until served over your favorite flavor of ice cream or use as a cake topping. Top with crushed peppermint candy. (This makes a great dessert served with coffee..."creamed" with Carnation, of course!)

Makes 2 cups.

CAI Encyclopedia of Cooking

Inside the front and rear cover of 300 Ways to Serve Eggs (Culinary Arts Institute, 1952, 48 pages) is an advertisement for the Encyclopedia of Cooking - Complete in 24 volumes, which was also published by CAI.

I believe the set that this advertisement is referring to is the binder with the 24 booklets that was issued in 1949. These books were reissues of previously published titles.

According to the ad, "Hundreds of recipes and useful menu suggestions are contained in each book--more than 10,000 in the full series--together with the most magnificent collection of food pictures ever brought together between covers".

This is the list of the 24 volumes as it's shown inside the cover:

No. 1 - SNACKS. One of the most popular cook books in America today. Packed with 500 clever ideas for lunches, suppers, evening snacks, and party refreshments.

No. 2 - LEFTOVERS. 500 interesting recipes and suggestions for ring molds, loaves, sandwiches, stews, shortcakes, and other useful ways to make meals from leftovers.

No. 3 - CAKES. 250 marvelous cake recipes, plus pages of additional information, that take the mystery out of cake baking.

No. 4 - POULTRY AND GAME BIRDS. 250 ways to prepare every kind of fowl--roasted, baked, broiled, stewed, fried, creamed, loaves, casseroles, pies, shortcakes.

No. 5 - PIES AND PASTRIES. A joy to use. Clear directions and illustrations explain every step. 250 superb recipes will help you bake like an expert.

No. 6 - SOUPS. 250 of America's best soup dishes are included in this delightful book, with full instructions.

No. 7 - SALADS. There is magic in salads that makes them irresistible--and the 500 salad sensations in this great book have made it one of the prime favorites of the series.

No. 8 - MEAT. 250 recipes that include every imaginable way to serve meat, with the pertinent information that is essential for best results.

No. 9 - FISH. A remarkable handbook that tells everything about buying, preparing, cooking and serving fish of all kinds. More than 250 different recipes.

No. 10 - EGGS. A grand collection of 300 new and unusual egg dishes, as well as all the time-honored favorites.
No. 11 - FRESH VEGETABLES. 250 recipes, with plenty of practical information about selections and preparing.

No. 12 - DESSERTS. This book is irresistible; it is packed with 250 wonderful surprises that make it the most delightful dessert help ever written.

No. 13 - POTATOES. A remarkable book that lifts potatoes from the commonplace. 250 different recipes.

No. 14. SANDWICHES. An endless variety of all kinds of sandwiches for all occasions. 500 ideas are included.

No. 15 - CANDY. A book that is reviving the art and fund of home candy-making. 250 recipes--easy and inexpensive.

No. 16 - REFRIGERATOR DESSERTS. A fascinating, exciting book of 250 luscious new treats that will start you on a spree of wonderful, home-style chilled desserts.

No. 17 - The COOKIE BOOK. 250 tasty tidbits that will make your cookie jar the most popular in the neighborhood.

No. 18 - DAIRY DISHES. Packed with 300 new menu-ideas to bring extra nourishment to every meal.

No. 19 - BREADS, BISCUITS, AND ROLLS. Home baking is fund, especially with these 250 recipes to show you how.

No. 20 - SAUCES, GRAVIES, AND DRESSINGS. 250 interesting dressings and sauces to enliven your meals.

No. 21 - MEALS FOR TWO. For young marrieds and small families. Shows how to cook without waste.

No. 22 - DISHES FOR CHILDREN. Approximately 200 recipes and menus that give a wide selection of the healthful, nourishing foods that are important in a child's diet.

No. 23 - FACTS ABOUT FOOD. A complete handbook of 2,000 culinary facts that belongs in every kitchen.

No. 24 - MENUS. Contains twelve monthly sections, with day-by-day menus that plan meals ever day in the year.

BINDER. Also available is a beautifully designed, loose leaf binder to hold the complete set of books.