Curious Facts

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

The first page is a declaration of war on yeast. The book opens: Royal Baking Powder "may be used instead of yeast to leaven bread. It does precisely the same work" — and promises bread mixed and baked in about an hour and a half. Read it in the book →
Its signature bread contains a boiled potato. Royal Baking Powder Bread rubs one medium-sized, cold, boiled potato into the flour — with seven teaspoons of baking powder doing what yeast would have done overnight. Read it in the book →
Spider Corn Bread is supposed to be underdone. The extra milk is poured on last and never stirred: "There should be a line of creamy custard through the bread." The custard streak is the point, not a fault. Read it in the book →
Peanut butter bread, best a day old. The recipe closes with lunch advice: it "makes delicious sandwiches cut in thin slices and filled with either cream cheese or lettuce and mayonnaise." Read it in the book →
The cake chapter's two doneness tests. A cake is thoroughly baked when it shrinks from the sides of the pan, and when a light touch of the finger leaves no mark — printed before thermostats made either unnecessary. Read it in the book →
Angel cake cools hanging upside down. The tin is never greased, and after baking the pan is inverted until the cake is cold — it hangs by its own crumb so it cannot sink. Read it in the book →
Mince pie law. "Mince Pie should always be made with two crusts." No argument is offered; none was expected. Read it in the book →
The fireless cooker gets its own physics test. For roasting, the soapstone radiator is ready when it is "hot enough to brown a pinch of flour immediately" — a baking powder company writing instructions for someone else's appliance. Read it in the book →
The canning chapter is borrowed from the government. It is credited to material adapted from the U. S. Food Administration and the N. Y. State Department of Agriculture — the wartime canning drives were three years past and still the national standard. Read it in the book →
Invalid cookery begins with a warning about the senses. "In sickness the senses are unusually acute and far more susceptible to carelessness, negligence and mistakes in the preparation and serving of food than in health." Read it in the book →