How To Be Worldly

In 1964, Contadina, a division of the Carnation Company, educated American families who wanted to remain 'stay-at-homes' in the art of international cuisine. How To Be Worldly (without leaving your kitchen) introduced all who sent away for the booklet to the miracle that is canned tomato product. The history of the tomato is fascinating and should be a college major in itself. Sure, we take Contadina's ancient, world-traveled canned tomatoes for granted, but did you know that 'in the 16th century, fierce Aztects plundering for silver and gold found it growing high in the Andes'? They learned, as will you, how canned tomatoes can be used to replicate the national dishes of four culinary regions!

Front cover - The earth, itself like a tomato ripe for plucking, is an amazing amalgamation of nations and people, all of who know the name of Contadina.


Italia is the natural starting point in our tour of pomodoro. Contadina cuts to the core of Italy's identity: Italy is 'the land of song and food.' Yet this elegant still life highlights the importance of art in Italian culture. And Polenta Rings. Here we see the chef gazing on his magnificent creations: Italian Stew with Polenta, Meatballs and Noodles 'Parmegano', and Galetto Marinara.


If Italy is food and music, then what is Mexico? Food and music! Well, maize and mariachi music, to be exact. Only one dish here actually contains maize (Maize con Carne Molida de Cazuela). Otherwise, we've got Green Beans Mexicali and Sopa de Albondigas!


More Mexican dishes, por favor! How about Spanish Eggs and Rice and various meats covered in tomato sauce?


The geneology of Creole cooking is broken down for us by Contadina (I should add that anything in quotes is exactly as it is written on the page. Any quoted typos aren't my typos.): 'It's "mere" was French; it's "padre" was Spanish,' the book explains. No amount of mood lighting can make that Creole Pot Roast look good, though!


Finally, in an American book intended to introduce Americans who only eat Americanized food to the (Americanized versions of) foods of different cultures, here's the page on American food! The America page is worth it just for the text, which can be seen in the larger version of the picture. 'Let's not forget U.S.A. ...the land of breeziness, bounce and the Bar-B-Que. We've been called breezy and boisterous, automated and always in a hurry. We have shiny push-button ranges, convenience foods and short-cuts. Some say we have no traditions in food! They say we're a land of hot dogs, hamburgers and soda pop. They're wrong in many ways, we're just as old-fashioned as home-made apple pie. We think new!' That's some pretty defensive text for a page that shows more hot dogs than any other sort of food! And there's soda pop! Still, there is that old-fashioned home-made apple pie, which is probably filled with that glop from the pot (Contadina Sauce For Back Yard Buns).


Contadina helps with those '36 woman-hours in a 24-hour day' by putting convenience in the kitchen. Convenience in the form of dishes like the Do-Ahead Beef Noodle Bake and Hasty Hash (incidentally, I misread that as 'Nasty Hash' at first).

Pep-Up Meals with Wise (featuring Peppy)

Who-oo wouldn't want to eat waffles and meat loaves made of America's #1 junkfood (and favorite vegetable), the potato chip? Who-oo thinks there's no place for the chip in brownies, cheese souffles, and French toast? Not the Wise Potato Chip Co. of beautiful Berwick, Pennsylvania! In 1921, the Wise Delicatessen Company began to package and market their potato chips. It was actually one of the earliest major brands to be sold in stores, beating Lay's by a decade.

Recipes That Pep-Up Meals with Wise Potato Chips was published in 1957, seven years before they were acquired by Borden. The pictures are pure magic, and the book is made all the more special by the illustrations of the Disney-quality spokesowl, Peppy. Before we start to look over those magical pictures, it might be beneficial to note that Dorothy Wise, home economist of Wise Potato Chips, wrote in the forward to this cookbook, 'We hope...you will remember that still the easiest, most popular way to 'pep-up' any meal or party is simply to serve crisp, golden, flavorful Wise Potato Chips... Keep several packages on hand, always.'

Front cover dishes: Beef Loaf, Graham Cracker Chip Crust with Lemon Chiffon, Baked Tomatoes with Chip Cheese Topping, and Chip Waffles on an inviting turquoise background. Personally, I demand more vegetables with chip cheese topping. The cheese should either be a block of Velveeta or a jar of gooey Cheez Whiz. This is our only full-color image of Peppy, the Wise spokesowl. The other highlight of the (back)cover is the nice image of the Wise packaging from the late 1950s.


Fried, bechipped appetizers as far as the eye can see! And, for the person who doesn't instantaneously salivate at the sight of chip-encrusted shrimp trying to peer at their beautiful reflections in sanguine pools of cocktail sauce, there's always the classic, unadulterated Chips-In-A-Bowl (regular and Ridgies). As far as the recipes pictured on this page, the book claims that the dishes are (Match the recipe name to the picture. Answers posted tomorrow): Chip and Cheese Wafers, French Fried Shrimp, Hot Crispy Cheese Snacks, Snappy Ham and Egg Balls (I'll give you a hint: this one's pinned to the animal from which one of its ingredients was extracted).


A few scenes of Peppy in action. Apparently Peppy is having a cocktail party! First, he sets up the buffet, and then he carries out a tray of appetizers!


The Wise Bakery: Chip Coffee Cake, French Toast, Crunchy Biscuits, and Cinnamon Rolls (better than Cinnabon!). The most intriguing part of this baking scene is the French Toast (on the leaf plate). It looks like no French Toast I've ever seen!


Potato chips aren't just for between meals anymore. Now, they can be used in your entrees to add that crunch of class (and, sometimes, the sogginess of sophistication). Be sure not to garnish with the green ones (though, Dorothy Wise suggests that the green or burnt chips add an unexpected dash of color and should be used)! Dishes here include Seafood Scallop on Potato Chips (dare I say, a wise choice if you're having the boss over for dinner), Cheese Souffle, and Stuffed Hamburgers (stuffed with a thick paste made of coarsely crushed potato chips and served with potato sticks! That's two servings of vegetables right there!).


Celebrate the holidays with the Wise family! Chip Stuffing fills the magnificent bird, garnished not with the traditional roasted potatoes and carrots but an impressive ring of greasy potato chips! 'I'm thankful that Mom's such a swell cook!,' the kids will exclaim. Chips also go well with other vegetable dishes. This page shows off Corn and Mushrooms with Chip Topping and Sweet 'N' Sour Spinach with Chip Topping. Unfortunately, Wise did not market a package of pre-done Chip Topping. I think they would have made a killing had they done so. Cooks everywhere would have saved a lot of time and effort if they didn't have to make their own from scratch! And, maybe Chip Topping would be the most popular topping today!


The Wise table at the bake sale. My favorite is the Quick Cake with Chocolate Crunch Topping.


And.. Potato Chips. The original 'no fuss or bother' snack. This might be my favorite picture from the entire cookbook. It's bright and exciting, and the whole spread is on the most beautiful tabletop I've ever seen!


Wise Potato Products are produced in America's largest and most modern potato chip plant.

Peckish for a few Wise potato chips now? Have a look at Taquitos.net's list of Wise reviews!

Meals In Minutes

In 1954, The American Home magazine published Meals In Minutes, a cookbook filled with classy menus and hostess ideas, a huge amount of helpful hints, and, luckily for us, a quaint collection of 109 full-color illustrations.

A rustic buffet-style party layout made all the more homey by the chuck wagon bread basket and the glare of the roaring fire reflecting in the copper stock pots (and, inevitably, blinding your guests). The table-top garden is a nice touch!


These dainty Pâté Appetizers are just one of the First-Course Jiffies that will make your next party a smash!


Fish Fillets made Fancy with ornamental mashed potato piping.


Sam Raimi's Glazed Stuffed Turkey Slices (recipe in enlargement!)


Birthday cake? Salmon mousse? Nope, it's Veal Loaf! Its 'icing' is a mixture of mayonnaise and gelatin! Also on the page is Ground Beef Submerged In Sour Cream-Tomato Sauce, a hearty winter supper.


Quick Barbecued Frankfurters stuffed with a dill pickle. A pretty good idea, actually.


Ooh la la, a French Kidney Omelet! The recipe is very generous with the kidneys; it allows for two lamb kidneys per plate (plus, a few slices of cooked kidney make a capital garnish)!


Is there anything lovelier than Creamed Chipped Beef on Toast? If you get tired of making your Creamed Chipped Beef exactly the same way every single day, The American Home has a few variations that might be worth a try, including the scrumptious banana in bacon drippings or oyster preparations (click on the link for a little tidbit about ball-park style franks)!


It's not a worthwhile cookbook if it doesn't contain some aspic. Here we have a Tomato-Potato Aspic Salad. It's a rare gelatin mold that contains potato, and that may be reason enough to give this one a try! This page also features a Spring Salad.


Some sandwiches (although, Hot Savory Toast hardly qualifies as a 'sandwich')! The most impressive example is the plate of Baked Bean Sandwiches.


And, finally, ablaze with the many colors of Jell-O, the Prism Loaf!

Encyclopédie Répulsica, vol. 10

To wind up Curly Wurly's Encyclopedia Repulsica series, here are the four best pictures from three fairly standard Woman's Day encyclopedic cookbooks. The dishes seem to be passably traditional, and the presentations are far from experimental. Only a few intriguing pictures snuck into these volumes. Woman's Day Famous French Cookery, published in 1969, contains 'traditional French dishes for modern American kitchens.'

Traditional French dish #1: Veal and Ham Mousse - It's easy to prepare, can be made well in advance, and, most impressively, can be tastefully decorated with Easy Cheese, the Parisian way!


Traditional French dish #2 - This beauté is the Molded Veal. Personally, I think veal is the ideal meat for gelatin!



Moving away from French cookery, here is a single picture from the comparatively staid Woman's Day Encyclopedia of Cookery, volume one from 1966. This is two views of the ever versatile Tomato Aspic. At the bottom, we have the classic Tomato Aspic, and at the top there is Tomato Aspic with Vegetables, which seems to be heavily artichoked.


Finally, from 1965's Woman's Day Encyclopedia of Cookery, volume two, this is the Steak Tartare. Now, I realize that Steak Tartare is probably still served in fine restaurants and eaten by some of the most cosmopolitan people in the world. It's just that I didn't realize it was raw meat with an egg on top!

Encyclopedia Repulsica, vol. 9 (Sod-Ste)

Volume 15 of the Family Circle Illustrated Library of Cooking has few pictures of interest. While the highlight is Family Circle's signature Sodden Steak, there are a small handful of soup and steak foodscapes that are surely as bland and runny or tough and gristly as their pictures suggest. This edition also features some intriguing presentation ideas that could possibly impress the least impressible.

Running out of candles, the hostess discovered that her taper-like breadsticks made a satisfactory substitution.


Is this a group of 'Soda Fountain Sensations' or are they from the 'Soup Kettle'?! These glasses seem to contain either a beverage, soup, sauce, dip, or relish, but all glasses don't appear to contain something from the same family! Also, why is there lemon gelatin in a mug with a hard-boiled egg on top?!


The featured recipe on this page is the Tomato Consomme (under the category of Clear Or Thin Soups). But who's looking at the soup?! To be honest, the room's so dark, it's hard to see anything but the sparkling gelatin!


The artful Anchovy Steak 'wears an olive and anchovy lattice trim.' It looks like a board game!


'Is this a steak? It is, indeed,' teases the caption. Why, this is a sinfully luscious Steak Bombe with Stuffed Tomato Cups!

Encyclopedia Repulsica, vol. 8 (San-Sea)

We've made it to volume 14 of the Family Circle Illustrated Library of Cooking! Volume 14 is the coveted San-Sea edition of the series, which includes delicacies made from the fruits of the surf as well as various foods coated in sand.

It is often stated that the modern hors d'oeuvres industry has never achieved the level of inventiveness of the 'good old days' of hors d'oeuvres design. Here is picture proof. Here we see a display of the 'Sea's Bounty.' That is, indeed, Glazed Tuna-Salmon Mold decorated with radish scales, a green pepper caudal fin, and a green olive eye. The cantaloupe formation is reminiscent of the maw of some bloodthirsty undersea creature. Schools of deviled eggs and stuffed mushrooms teem around it for protection.


On a more appetizing note, here's a toasted sandwich of grape jam and honey mustard. Mmm.


This really is a peanut butter and lettuce sandwich. With a pickle on top. Really.


Here is a hot crustacean band, or another view of the Glazed Tuna-Salmon Mold. I love how it's completely encircled by a champagne-colored gelatin. Is that really necessary? Does the gelatin increase the palatability somehow? Also nice is the Lobster Salad Supreme (that's the stuff spilling out of the poor lobster)!


Finally, Stuffed Lobster, 'a snappy seafood salad made of frozen lobster tails and a bottled French dressing.' I actually thought the lobster tails were stuffed with roasted marshmallows. The cucumber mold is the perfect complementary touch!

Encyclopedia Repulsica, vol. 7 (Pot-Sal)

Excerpts from volume 13 (Pot-Sal) of Family Circle Illustrated Library of Cooking. Interestingly, there is no recipe for potato salad in this volume!

This menu proposes that teenagers have arrived at your house 'by the carload.' The book doesn't say whether the ravenous teenagers are friends of your youngsters or if they're a roving gang looking for sustenance. Pizza, the book insists, is 'the easiest way to cope with hungry teenagers.' I don't think that these two pies would be considered pizza to most teenagers, though! Here we see the crowd-pleasing Ham-and-Salami Pizza and the Antipasto Pizza.


The roast matches the walls, the table, and the salad!!! This is Pimiento-Stuffed Lamb with that gravel from fish tanks sprinkled over top.


The main heading of this section is 'Roasts: The Comeback Trail' which sounds vaguely political. I certainly wouldn't vote for anyone who would endorse any of these dishes! This page: Boeuf à la Mode en Gelée, Sweet and Pungent Pork, and the top of Cabbage Head's cranium.


'Cool Molded Pork Loaf is an appetizing work of art' - This is perhaps my favorite of all the Dadaist aspics.

Encyclopedia Repulsica, vol. 6 (Lun-Nut)

Today's retrospective of the Family Circle Illustrated Library of Cooking has us examining volume 11 in the series. (Lun-Nut) covers lunch ideas for when you're tired of pickle and pimiento loaf or grilled spam, unique decorations for your Sunday brunch, and jellied poultry.

'What lunchbox toter wouldn't welcome one of these?' That's what I want to know!


It came from the deep to make your lunch box (or bag) appealing!


A scene from the play A Lunch For All Seasons starring Baked Salmon Mousse with Poulette Sauce and Duchess Potato Nests with Peas.


Starbucks' new taste of spring: Watercress Frappé (with optional radish rose). Try this new flavor sensation with soy milk!


Showpiece Centerpieces for Lunches and Brunches - See what you can do with asparagus and a melon!


More centerpieces - You'll never look at eggplant and watermelon the same!


The last two dishes fall into the latter part of the book, the 'You've Got To Be Nuts To Make This' section - 'When you're down to the tag ends of a turkey, it's time to make a sensational Avocado-Turkey Crown.' I'm not sure what that means, but the mere fact that you can't make this dish until you're down to them doesn't bode well.


'Chicken Indienne is a curry, all right, but it's a cool and shimmery mold with chutney sealed on top.' - The text seems to be a bit defensive about this dish being a curry and quickly tries to distract the reader with its refreshing gelatinous nature. Strange!