A New Snowdrift Cook Book

Mrs. Ida Bailey Allen for the Southern Cotton Oil Trading Company, 1920 — a shortening tin's cookbook, and a lesson in how fat was sold.

Curious Facts

Everything below is in the book — each one links straight to the page it comes from.

  1. The calorie table crowns the shortening. "There is more calory value in Snowdrift, pound for pound, than in any of the foods you cook with it" — a fat ranking itself above butter, printed proudly in 1920, when calories were a selling point. Read it in the book →
  2. The author teaches by mail. Mrs. Ida C. Bailey Allen writes of "many students who come to my school, and many of those who are taking my Correspondence Courses" — a celebrity cooking teacher fronting a brand book. Read it in the book →
  3. Boiled fish travels in greased cheesecloth. The easiest method: brush cheesecloth with Snowdrift, tie the fish loosely in it, and plunge the whole bundle into boiling water — the cloth lifts the fish out unbroken. Read it in the book →
  4. Bread gets a scolding. "It has wrongly become more of an accessory than an actual food" — the bread chapter opens by demanding respect for the loaf. Read it in the book →
  5. The rival brand's oil appears by name. The Boiled Salad Dressing begins with three tablespoonfuls of Wesson Oil — Snowdrift and Wesson were sister products, and the book cross-sells without blinking. Read it in the book →
  6. Bread pudding wants stale bread by the clock. The recipe specifies crumbed bread "at least 24 hours old" — freshness, precisely rationed. Read it in the book →
  7. The vegetable timetable is exact to the minute. Boiling or steaming: cabbage 10 to 45 minutes, cauliflower 30 to 40, onions… — a whole page of nothing but times, for cooks who measured doneness by the clock. Read it in the book →
  8. Beans get soda when their skins loosen. Bean Soup soaks the beans overnight, then cooks them in water with a fourth teaspoonful of baking soda "when the skins begin to loosen" — kitchen chemistry, casually deployed. Read it in the book →
Rights & ReuseThe complete text of A New Snowdrift Cook Book (1920) is in the public domain in the United States — like all works published before 1928 — and is free to read, download, quote, teach from, and reuse. This digital edition (its transcription, restored images, and site design) is © 2026 PhotoOpAI, and any editorial commentary we add is clearly marked as ours; the underlying public-domain text carries no such restriction.