 | Hi everybody! This is Sullivan (the newest addition to the Lizzyoung Bookseller team) and I’ll be your guide through this incredible themed ephemera drop on Sunday! To be truly honest, when Lizzy gave me her collection of baking powder ephemera to catalog, she slipped the book BAKING POWDER WARS into the box “just in case” I developed a burning passion for baking powder history. I started joking about the idea of me developing a burning passion for baking powder history near constantly, which lasted all the way up until I developed a burning passion for baking powder history. (and, of course, read Linda Civitello’s incredible BAKING POWDER WARS cover to cover… 3 times! If you would consider yourself to have a religious calling to bread, you're not alone. With bread as the staple of diets in America, baking a good bread was seen as the symbol of a good woman. Feeding your family with your bread was the duty of any proper Christian woman. (An idea championed by Rev. Graham of Graham cracker fame). With the invention of chemical leaveners, for the first time, women could quickly make cakes, breads, and other risen goods, without the intensive time or labor. The story starts with pearlash, an unrefined potassium carbonate made from fireplace ashes known for leaving behind a "urine taste." By adding carbonic acid and eventually switching over to sodium bicarbonate, it became baking soda as we know it today, which requires an acid to react and leaven. These vary widely from sour milk to lemon juice all the way to the all important cream of tartar, a byproduct of winemaking, which was sold with baking soda, paving the way for baking powder! Baking Powder Wars history part 2!
This is what you’ll see a lot of in the sale tomorrow. Brand wars. I truly fell in love with this for the endless petty drama between these brands. On each page of these books, there is a new underhanded remark. It’s incredible to look at both how far marketing has come and how near we still are to this model!
And there’s so much more to the history than this! One of my favorite stories, for example, Calumet got taken to court by some of the other brands (cough cough Royal) for having egg albumen in their product. When they advertised their products door to door, they did something called the water test, where they mixed the powder in water so you could see the release of gas. By adding egg albumen, Calumet’s powder would foam up during the test. Royal tried to get this declared illegal because of how well it was working! The case fell through, because it is, in fact, legal to sell food with eggs in it!
(quote on post by Linda Civitello, BAKING POWDER WARS) | |  | | | |  | The Rumford Modern Methods of Cooking.
The Department of Home Economics, Sarah Field Splint.
Providence, RI: The Rumford Company, [~1920]. staplebound. 64 pages, 18.5 x 12.5 cm. The Rumford Modern Methods of Cooking cookbook is both an advertisment for the Rumford Wholesome Baking Powder... (#3036)
Price: $15.00 | | |  | Radio Recipes of Davis Baking Powder.
Hoboken, NJ: RB Davis Co./Robert Roy Co. Inc. Printers, 1927. Staplebound. 20 pages, 19 cm x 12.5 cm. The Radio Recipes of Davis Baking Powder is a collection of recipes... (#3037)
Price: $20.00 | | |  | The Calumet Baking Book; New Edition.
Tarrytown, NY: General Foods Corp. 1931. Staplebound. 31 pages, 19.5 cm x 12.5 cm. The Calumet Baking Book begins with a letter from the editor of the book, Marion Jane... (#3038)
Price: $15.00 | | |  | Baking Powder and Other Leavening Agents.
Foot, F. N.
New York: The Spice Mill Publishing Company, 1906. Hardcover. 86 pages, A byproduct of the baking powder wars, fought at the end of the 20th century. After a stable rising... (#1566)
Price: $75.00 | | | | | |  | Reliable Recipes; A Calumet Cookbook.
Calumet Baking Powder Company.
Chicago, IL: Calumet Baking Powder Company, 1922. 26th Edition. staplebound. 81 pages, 22 x 13 cm. The 26th Edition of Reliable Recipes by the Calumet Baking Powder Co. has pages... (#3049)
Price: $15.00 | | | | | | | | |  | KC Baking Powder Grocer's Want Book.
Jaques Manufacturing Co.
Chicago, IL: Jaques Manufacturing Co., [1940-1942]. staplebound, backed with cloth tape. 28 pages, 21 cm x 10 cm. This KC Baking Powder Grocer’s Want Book was published between 1940 and... (#3052)
Price: $15.00 | | |  | Rumford Common Sense Cook Book.
Lily Haxworth Wallace.
Rumford, RI: Rumford Chemical Works, 1932. staplebound. 64 pages, 12.5 x 18.5 cm. The Rumford Common Sense Cook Book includes pages of recipes, cooking terms, and instructions. One page informs... (#3053)
Price: $15.00 | | | | | | | | | | | |  | THEPURE Cook Book.
Gestine Lemcke.
Albany, NY: THEPURE Baking Powder Company, 1904. Paperback. 128 pgs, 14 x 19 cm. THEPURE Cook Book, compiled by the owner and principal of the Greater New York Cooking School... (#3057)
Price: $30.00 | | |  | Twenty-One Different Ways to Make Biscuits.
Edna M. Plunkett.
Los Angeles, CA: The Joannes-Splane Co., [~1920]. Staplebound. 16 pages, 14.5 x 7.5 cm. The Joannes-Splane Co.’s Twenty-One Different Ways to Make Biscuits advertises the West Coast division of baking... (#3058)
Price: $35.00 | | | | | |  | Better Baking Recipes; Snow King Baking Powder.
The Kenton Baking Powder Co.
Cincinnati, OH: The Kenton Baking Powder Co., 1928. Staplebound. 16 pages, 14.5 cm x 9 cm. In this small packet of recipes for cakes, pies, and treats, Snow King Baking... (#3066)
Price: $20.00 | | |  | New Royal Cook Book; Royal Baking Powder Co.
Royal Baking Powder Co.
New York, NY: Royal Baking Powder Co., 1922. Staplebound. 50 pages, 20 cm x 13 cm. The New Royal Cook Book is the 1922 release of the Royal Baking Powder... (#3067)
Price: $15.00 | | | | | | | | |
