Its introduction speaks of a brown-covered Gold Medal Cook Book as being its predecessor, which you can download from https://ia800304.us.archive.org/19/items/goldmedalflour00washrich/goldmedalflour00washrich.pdf , and a fascinating site, http://www.friktech.com/crock/crock.htm , talks about versions of that old book...and ties it back even farther to Miss Parloa's cookbooks, which I've enjoyed free from links such as https://archive.org/details/missparloasnewco00parl -- where you can read such gems as "It seems as if electricity might, in the near future, do the beating of breads, batters, ice creams, etc."
That fascinating site hasn't been updated in 10 years, so I'd like to mention its explanation of how Betty Crocker was created -- if its writer lets me know (I don't see how to contact him), I'll omit this long quotation -- I do see the writer is Frank Daniels, who's written very valuable retro cookbook information in at least one book, this one:
and various sites:
1921 saw the introduction of "Betty Crocker," quite by accident. Washburn-Crosby held a contest, awarding pincushions to those who could assemble a jigsaw puzzle that depicted people carrying sacks of Gold Medal flour. Over 30,000 people reportedly responded, prompting the company to set up a means of responding. Since so many people had questions about recipes, a character was created that would symbolize the company in response to inquiries. After William G. Crocker, a recent director of Washburn-Crosby, the name "Crocker" was chosen. The affable name of "Betty" was selected to be her first name. Various employees submitted signatures, one of which would represent "Betty Crocker"; the design handed in by Florence Lindeberg was determined to be both legible and distinctive and was chosen to represent the fictional character. The Betty Crocker kitchens were opened, and home economists were hired to test recipes. A cooking legend was born.He also mentions on this site that Betty Crocker had a 45 RPM record and ideas for "Cake & Coffee Time"! From 1957.
This 1950 cookbook has somewhat newer, but still very retro nowadays, ideas. What I've found most interesting so far:
...It calls for using only "cooking salt" which is bought in a "bag" and is saltier than "other" salts.
...It suggests equipment for steaming foods (as in puddings, Boston brown bread, not vegetables), including a large "kettle" pot and a round and a fluted mold. I still often see this in British but not in American cookbooks.
...It assumes most of its readers have a kitchen cabinet with a bread box and a cake safe.
...Of course that cabinet has things like Betty Crocker soups, which I've never seen, and speaking of cakes her "party cake" mix (which looks like a white cake) and her Devil's Food cake mix and her "Ginger Cake" mix (which looks like a fancier gingerbread, but like it baked in a rectangular or square pan).
...For storage, she does recommend plastic bags and foil and covered refrigerator dishes (I assume like the glass or metal ones I see in antique stores), but also "waxed paper, cheesecloth, rubber bands." She also has a good idea probably for fresh clean herbs, to put them into covered glass jars.
...She mentions one might own an incinerator for garbage, though also a disposal.
...She has a good idea, that if you just have some cheese left over, you might want to grate it and keep it in a covered glass jar for convenient use.
...There's a lot of advice on softening hardened foods such as bread, and on heating without a microwave, which could be useful if you prefer to use non-microwave approaches.
...She's actually more careful about tea than I am (though I have run across suggestions recently that indeed one should be very careful about this to preserve the antioxidant value); she suggests ever only having one week's worth open and keeping it in the refrigerator after opening. (Ditto for coffee, which I have often heard nowadays.) (I've seen old grocery offerings of loose teas, of which surely one could just buy what one needed for that week or so.)
Fascinating and useful!
