Gold Medal Maid

Here's another nice piece of Washburn-Crosby Company ephemera advertising Gold Medal Flour. A Good Bread Recipe for Gold Medal Maids (circa 1914) is a single page (9-1/2 x 12-1/2 inches) that's folded into quarters.

I'm not sure if their use of the word "maid" refers to a servant or a young unmarried woman. Whichever, I do like the detail of her clothing that's shown in the full length image inside.

When the brochure is folded out you'll find the Good Bread Recipe made into a rhyming verse. Here's the first half:

First, mix a luke warm quart my daughter,
One-half scalded milk, one-half water;
To this please add two cakes of yeast,
Or the home made kind if preferred in the least.

Next stir in a teaspoonful of nice clear salt,
If this bread isn't good, it won't be our fault,
Now add the sugar, tablespoonfuls three;
Mix well together, for dissolved they must be.

Pour the whole mixture into an earthen bowl,
A pan's just as good, if it hasn't a hole.
It's the cook and the flour, not the bowl or the pan,
That--"Makes the bread that makes the man."

Now let the mixture stand a minute or two.
You've got other things of great importance to do.
First sift the flour--use the finest in the land.
Three quarts is the measure, "GOLD MEDAL" the brand.

Some people like a little shortening power,
If this is your choice, just add to the flour
Two tablespoonfuls of lard, and jumble it about
'Till the flour and lard are mixed, without doubt.

Next stir the flour into the mixture that's stood
Waiting to play it's part, to make the bread good.
Mix it up thoroughly, but not too thick;
Some flours make bread that's more like a brick.

I love the close-up illustrations next to the individual steps.

On the rear side is the recipe in its traditional form.