Kalamazoo Stove Recipes

The Kalamazoo Stove & Furnace Company of Kalamazoo, Michigan, celebrated their Golden Jubilee (50th anniversary) in 1951 with the publication of the Around the World Cook Book (1951, 48 pp.). This softcover book had a gold cover with a red and black Kalamazoo Golden Jubilee logo on the front and rear.

This cookbook was a special printing by Culinary Arts Press and was a modified edition of their 'Round the World Cook Book originally published in 1936. While the original cookbook contained 200 recipes from thirty foreign lands, this special Golden Jubilee edition had 204 recipes from twenty-four foreign countries.

The places represented, with several recipes attributed to each, are Austria, Belgium, Canada, China, Czechoslovakia, England, France, Germany, Holland, Hungary, India, Ireland, Italy, Mexico, Palestine, Poland, Rumania, Russia, Scandinavia, South America, Spain, Switzerland and Yugoslavia.

The Creole Cookery of New Orleans is also found in this cookbook and is used as an example of the blending of the cookery customs and habits of two or more countries. It is described as:

"The traditional cookery of France and Spain has been interpreted by deft negro cooks who have an unusual instinct for cooking and seasoning."

In the discussion of the national cookery of South America, one learns that their cooking is reminiscent of Spanish, Portuguese and Italian cooking, and:

"...the food of the Indian natives consists chiefly of the mandioca root, dried and ground into course powder which they toss into their mouths as they jog trot under their burdens of work in the field--and broth, into which many queer things find their way. The great treats during their parties (fiestas) are roast guinea pigs strung on a stick."

Since my area of Texas has a large Czech population and I am partial to some of their delicious dishes, I am including a recipe from the Czechoslovokia section.

MOHN BEUGEL (POPPY SEED CRESCENTS)

1 cake yeast
1/2 cup sugar
1 cup scalded milk
1/2 cup butter
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon vanilla
4 eggs, well beaten
4 cups flour

Break the yeast in small pieces in a cup; add 1 teaspoon sugar and 1/4 cup of the scalded milk cooled to lukewarm. Set aside to cool. To the rest of the hot milk add the butter, sugar, salt and vanilla and stir until the butter has melted. Cool. Add the beaten eggs and then stir in the yeast. Sift flour and add gradually, using only enough to knead the dough until it is smooth and elastic. Cover and allow to rise until double in bulk. Roll out on a floured board until quite thin; cut into triangles, spread with poppy seed filling (see recipe below), and shape into crescents by rolling them from the straight end toward the point. Brush with beaten egg yolk to which 1 tablespoon of cold water has been added and sprinkle with sugar and chopped nuts. Let rise until double in bulk and then bake in a hot oven (400 degrees F) about 20 minutes or until brown.

Filling

2 cups water
1 cup sugar
1 cup ground poppy seed
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
Grated rind of 1 lemon

Boil the water with the sugar until syrupy. Add the ground poppy seeds, cinnamon and lemon rind. Mix well and allow to cool.

Perhaps also of interest to collectors of Kalamazoo Stove ephemera is the inside of the front cover which displays illustrations depicting a variety of the gas and electric Kalamazoo stoves available at that time. The company also sold refrigerators and washing machines. Inside the rear cover there are several examples of Kalamazoo heating equipment.

I believe these cookbooks were given away free to customers by those dealers who sold Kalamazoo appliances. My own copy has a stamp on the title page that says Ramsey's Stove & Furnace Co. of New Philadelphia, Ohio.

To find out more about Culinary Arts Press cookbooks, you can find a good history in the Collector's Guide to Cook Books by Frank Daniels. To get your own copy of the Kalamazoo Golden Jubilee cookbook you can look here.