Wednesday, August 1, 2018 The Nugget Newspaper, Sisters, Oregon
through
Thyme
Jodi Schneider
Columnist
Radio recipes
remembered
You’ve probably watched
a cooking show or two at
some point in your life.
The very first cook-
ing show aired in the UK in
1946 and was called simply
“Cookery,” starring Philip
Harben.
Before food TV, during the
1920s, ’30s and ’40s, there
were radio cooking shows
that were popular during that
Golden Age of Radio, which
lasted through the 1950s.
Cooking shows were a
natural effort to try to cap-
ture the homemaker market.
Wives and mothers were usu-
ally home all day taking care
of the kids and the house. It
evolved into creating female-
specific programing; cooking
was just one piece of the pro-
gramming pie.
KMA radio broadcasts,
and others like them, gave
farm wives information they
could use every day, while
modern farmer’s spouse.
Its main focus was to help
rural women prepare nutri-
tious meals based on simple
recipes.
The recipes she shared
were gathered, in 1927, into
a cookbook called Aunt
Sammy’s Radio Recipes, that
became a valuable household
manual for tens of thousands
of Americans.
And there’s nothing
overambitious about Aunt
Sammy’s dishes. The recipe
for “smothered ham with
sweet potatoes” lists only
butter, sugar, and hot water as
ingredients — other than ham
and sweet potatoes. “Cabbage
and carrot salad” calls for
equal parts of shredded cab-
bage and carrots mixed with
salad dressing. The goal
wasn’t to impress, but to pro-
mote what at the time were
considered healthy, balanced
meals.
Here is a delicious rec-
ipe out of the original 1927
cookbook:
APPLE BROWN BETTY
2 quarts diced tart apples
1 quart bread crumbs
(oven toasted until crisp and
light brown)
1-1/4 cups sugar
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/4 cup butter
Grease a baking dish and
place in it a layer of crumbs,
then a layer of apples, and
some of the sugar, cinnamon,
and salt, which have been
mixed together. Repeat until
all the ingredients are used,
saving sufficient crumbs for
the top. Pour the melted fat
(butter) over the top layer of
crumbs, cover, and bake for
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Journey
connecting listeners across
the isolation of the mid-
western prairie. The famil-
iar voices who hosted these
shows became an intimate
presence in fans’ homes.
Old-time radio shows such
as The Mystery Chef, The
Mary Lee Taylor Program,
Martha Meade Society
Program and Betty Crocker
Cooking School of the Air
were some of the popular
radio cooking shows. They
were something of an early
support group — especially
for farm wives. For a lot of
rural women, their nearest
neighbor might be several
miles away.
“Aunt Sammy,” a char-
acter created by the U.S.
Department of Agriculture,
hit the radio waves in 1926
with informative and engag-
ing talk about menus, reci-
pes and other items of
household interest. The pro-
gram was also known as
“Housekeeper’s Half-hour”
and as simply Aunt Sammy.
It was one of the first radio
shows that had regular char-
acters; Aunt Sammy’s fam-
ily and friends included
Ebenezer, an uncle; Billy, a
nephew; Percy DeWillington,
a fussy eater; and the Nosy
Neighbor.
From the 1920s through
the 1940s, Aunt Sammy
was a hit food-radio pro-
gram. Supposedly the wife of
Uncle Sam, the character was
voiced by hundreds of dif-
ferent women working from
scripts at their radio stations
around the country.
These early 20th-century
women offered recipes, life
hacks and insights for the
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30 to 45 minutes, or until the
apples are soft. Toward the
last remove the cover and
allow the top to brown. Serve
hot, with plain or whipped
cream, or hard sauce.
Long before her cook-
books became a staple in
our kitchens, Betty Crocker
came into homes across the
United States on the radio.
Debuting in 1924 with “The
Betty Crocker Cooking
School of the Air” and
the “Betty Crocker Home
Service Program,” Betty kept
homemakers company where
they needed it the most—
at home—with friendly,
woman-to-woman chats.
The Washburn Crosby
company, a flour-milling
outfit, created the persona
of Betty Crocker to answer
the questions, using the sur-
name of William
Crocker, a direc-
tor of the firm
who had recently
retired.
The Be tty
Crocker Cooking
School of the
Air aired on
Mi nneapolis
radio station
WCCO. Home
cooks every-
where tuned in
to listen to their
trusted kitchen
confidante—
at the time,
vo iced by
Marjorie Child
Husted, who
was also the
first host and
writer of the
show. Betty’s
a d v i c e
19
became so popular that NBC
picked up the program and
aired it nationwide. It went
on to become one of the lon-
gest running radio shows in
U.S. history.
Here is a 1945 recipe from
the Betty Crocker Cooking
School of the Air:
EMERGENCY STEAK
“T-Bone,” family style.
Strips of carrot may be
inserted to resemble the bone.
Mix together…
1 lb. ground beef
1 tbsp. minced onion
1/2 cup milk
1 tsp. salt
1/4 teaspoon pepper
1 cup WHEATIES or
1/4 cup dry bread crumbs.
Place on lightly greased
pan, pat into shape of T-bone
steak (one inch thick). Broil
in oven.