Dining Delights

The 1948 cookbook, Dining Delights, was published by French's (R.T. French Co., located on Mustard Street in Rochester, NY). It gets special mention for its artfully presented dining tables filled with the titular dining delights. These are impressive spreads!

1. Front cover - A rather anemic looking bird


2. Carol French's introduction - Note that Carol explains that the mashed potatoes on the cover is their 'newer' French's Instant Potato.


3. Cod Fish Cakes on a fishy dish. I can't get over how beautiful the colors are in a lot of these older cookbooks!


4. Surely the masterpiece of this book, the Stuffed Franks! They are stuffed with mashed potatoes. The Broiled Tomatoes aren't covered in cheese but smothered with mayonnaise and mustard!


5. Some ethereal hues in the Salmon Salad Platter (with Mustard Mayonnaise) and the soup.


6. There's nothing like a dinner of Spiced Pot Roast of Veal and Pancakes!


7. The first of two picnic scenes. I can't really identify all of the food (I think those are hamburgers on the grill), but there's a lot of food and drinks.


8. This page has recipes for French's Doughnuts and Mincemeat Turnovers! Also, all the bottles are wearing aprons!


9. A savory ham slice with, probably, Veg-All. I've noticed that the tarts seem to be arranged in a creepy clownlike face.


10. This page shows the packaging design of various pickling spices.


11. Try These Taste Thrills! - Different ways to enhance your dining experience with French's products.


12. More packaging design - Includes other French's items (Instant Potato and Good Luck pie products), Colman's mustard, Silvo silver polish, and Brasso metal polish.

Learn to bake... You'll love it!

Learn To Bake... You'll Love It! is yet another beautiful cookbook from the 1940s (1947, to be exact). The book features interesting line drawings and plentiful photos, many in vibrant colors. This a General Foods publication with emphasis on Swans Down flour, Calumet baking soda, and Baker's chocolate.

Thank you to my sister for use of this book!

1. Front and back covers - A nice integration of two styles of illustration


2. 'Learn To Bake - You'll love it!' - Introduction


3. Some of the tools of the trade, including the sponsored products and Diamond salt.


4. Artful ways to frost and decorate - A brightly colored frosting tutorial is shown (right) next to an illustration of a cake decorator.


5. 6 Wonderful Birthday Cakes - A jubilant page of partially-eaten cakes. All are nicely decorated and are on lovely plates. I wonder how often the 'Daisies Won't Tell' cake is really made.


6. The popular 1776 cake


7. Handsome to look at, stll better to eat - A page devoted to nicely baked biscuits


8. Mixer Cakes - A tigerlike Silver Moon Cake. As you can see from this page, the cookbook is beautifully designed with attractive typography.


9. An arty Angel Food Loaf


10. Pretty as a rose - with tinted coconut


11. Chocolate Pinwheels amid nice kitchenwares


12. Golden pastries and breads

Sandwiches are Nutritious, too!

I'm a proud owner of yet another booklet sponsored by a margarine company. Sandwiches are Nutritious, too! (aka Good Housekeeping's Sandwich Manual) is one of a slew of new (old) cookbooks I've recently acquired. Blue Bonnet is the featured product, once again, in this handy primer to making the perfect sandwich for every occasion. This wonderful piece of work is from 1952.

1. Front cover - Sandwiches are Nutritious, too! Featuring Blue Bonnet Sue.


2. A FAQ from the 50s - Sue sets us straight on the product she represents.


3. Title page - Where the title changes from the front cover. Also has some nice aerial graphics of two scrumptious sandwiches.


4. A full spread of some of the recipes covered in this book.


5. Roll-ups, checkerboards, and rhubarb curls.


6. Facts in the life of a Sandwich - 'The best sandwich I ever ate.'


7. A chart of some of the classier garnishes.


8. Diagrams of bread slicing include Sandwich cuts, 'Jumbos for hearties', and Small ones for parties. This page also has a few ideas for creative variations of cream cheese and peanut butter sandwiches. The best idea? Mix peanut butter with deviled ham, chopped dill pickle, and mayonnaise for a different sort of treat!


9. This help-yourself sandwich tray is the perfect Perk-me-up!


10. Susan serves a Party Sandwich Loaf (part 1)


11. Susan serves a Party Sandwich Loaf (part 2)


12. A Picnic Style smorgasbord


13. This booklet refers often to the 'small fry' demographic. This page illustrates how to appeal to those Small Fries by trying out these fanciful shapes.


14. A drawing of Dagwood eating a dagwood. Plus, a photo of the towering Pyramid Sandwich.


15. Some of America's Famous Women, including Amy Vanderbilt and Mrs. Dale Carnegie, for Blue Bonnet.


16. Back cover - Blue Bonnet is what you need for the three S's: Season, Shorten, and Sizzle!

Diets To Live By!

To continue on a margarine-based theme, Diets To Live By! is a 1967 diet book that aimed to integrate Chiffon Margarine into every dish imaginable. Like many other company-sponsored diet books, the premise was that as long as you use their product in abundance, the remainder of your diet doesn't really matter. Sounds effective!

1. Front cover


2. This doesn't look very light to me! I have to admit, I've never seen margarine on steak before, but I suppose that doesn't mean anything.


3. Chicken goop and chicken goop with chicken cut-outs


4. This dish isn't remarkable. I just think there haven't been enough fish heads in this blog.


5. Back cover - Here you see the sunburst design popular in this cookbook. And you learn a bit about how soft Chiffon tastes like 'expensive spreads.'

Happy Valentine's Day!

Here are a few heartfelt valentines of the food with eyes variety:

Also, check out A Sampler Of Things for more vintage valentines.

Round-the-World Recipes

Round-the-World Recipe Favorites, a compilation of exotic foreign recipes from a group of Newspaper Food Editors, is a strange case. It seems the book was sponsored by Standard Brands, Inc., with a special emphasis on their Blue Bonnet Margarine. This is another cookbook with drawings instead of photographs. The mystery of the book is its date of publication. My guess is the 1940s, and I saw it listed as a probable 1940s publication elsewhere. Note: You can click on the pictures for larger views of the page, which does include the actual recipes, if that's what you're looking for.

1. Front cover - Globe circled by round-the-world people arm-in-arm.


2. Introductory page - Confirms that these 'unusual' recipes were submitted by Newspaper Food Editors and that the recipes were tested using Blue Bonnet Margarine.


3. Bavaria (Bavarian Cheesecake) and China (Shrimp Fried Rice) are represented on the first page.


4. Enlightening drawings accompany the Norwegian Julekake and Stuffed Cabbage recipes.


5. Yugoslavian sheep and a really nice drawing of an elephant.


6. Scenes of Rome and Hawaii.