Monday, December 6, 2010

Vintage Gold Medal Flour "Cook Book"

Illustrated is a "Cook Book" published in 1917 by the Washburn-Crosby Company, purveyors of Gold Medal Flour. The cover, above, has a neat little illustration in the center—a colonial cast-iron pot over a fire, supported by sticks in a sort of teepee shape. I think it's "tastefully" presented so small, smaller than the four-sided border in fact, a great layout touch, and extremely subtle for a what was meant to be a public relations/marketing tool. I've actually scanned this cover before, in 2001, when I was designing the bicentennial book for West Point *. I used the beautifully aged background and aqua border as my sidebar template on the interior of the book. The book measures 8 1/2 x 11 inches and is 76 pages including cover and back cover.

From the back cover:
     From the prairies of Dakota; from the wheat lands of Minnesota; from the banks of the Red River of the North, comes the wheat that made this flour. 
     Pure and strong with the strength of the sturdy grain which bore it, carried by rail and steam to the Atlantic and the Pacific and the lands beyond the far horizon, where the deft fingers of a woman will knead it, and men and children will take strength from its vital substance.

* Amazon is no longer carrying my almost-10 year old West Point book, so I can't furnish a link. I'll scan my copy soon and post it. It was one of my best looking books and it received rave reviews when it was published. There were a few different books by various publishers on their bicentennial that year, but I was told that the Commandant picked mine to keep in the office for reference.

A typical recipe page—Each section, Soups, Meats, Poultry, etc, have great little illustrations and extraordinary typography. The type is really small, hard to read even in the original, with tons of recipes crammed onto every page. In the back of the book are six coupons, which the homemaker was supposed to give to anyone enquiring about the book. One coupon and ten cents would secure a new copy. Such a deal! There are tips located throughout the pages, all having something to do with Gold Medal Flour of course.  The execution and tone of the book is friendly and helpful, and not at all a pushy "buy this product" that a similar book published today would most likely be.

This artwork is typical of the look used throughout this nearly 100 year old book. All of the women illustrated have this type of clothing and cap, the dutiful cook and chief bottlewasher.

Another delightful illustration I just had to scan and include here. I love the way they worked in the Gold Medal Flour logo in the background on a billboard. The two-color printing, orange and black, is used to great advantage here, with multiple shades of each. This lends the book a very rich appearance when the use of only two colors can be very cheap looking. This early 20th century designer knew what he was doing, and I feel confident in saying it was probably a "he" as women unfortunately had not really entered the job market at that time. They were too busy "kneading the dough" as mentioned on the back cover of the book!

B T W : 
This recipe was found inside the Gold Medal Cook Book, but was clipped from an old newspaper. I included it here for two reasons. The first is that the recipe sounds great and includes capers, olives, piccallili and parsley in addition to the usual potato salad ingredients. The second reason is the typography of this newspaper item which is also probably close to 100 years old. 

The entire clipping is a shade less than two inches wide and 1 1/2 inches tall—everyone's eyes must have been much better then, lol. The compositor used ligatures for the "f i " connection, which I've mentioned in this blog before. The two letters are combined into one character, so that the ascender of the "f" and the dot of the "i" don't hit each other. It's a minor touch that adds immeasurably to the elegance, and readability, of a typed piece, and I insist of using ligatures in every publication I design. Also notice that the lowercase "u" is missing part of its character in every usage, as if it's a bad key on a typewriter. I'm not really sure how hot lead works, but I thought they were different pieces for each letter. I'll have to do some research on this old printing process. I saw it being done at the newspaper my father worked for in the early 1960s, but I was only about 5 years old and it's a blur to me now. 

I scanned this Potato Salad recipe in higher resolution than usual, so it should be totally readable when clicked on and enlarged. 

Bon Appétit!

17 comments:

  1. YOU MISSED YOUR CALLING CASEY. YOU SHOULD HAVE BEEN A TEACHER. LET'S HAVE A DISH OF POTATO SALAD FOR LUNCH.I THINK I THE PARK BENCH WILL BE READY AT NOON.
    GRANNY

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  2. I'm very interested in trying this potato salad recipe as well. I had no idea what picallili was until I googled it - I learn something new every time I visit your blog!
    I'll let you know how it turns out!

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  3. X I don't know either - I need to Google it - will I like it? We should have a Potato Salad Cook Off...lol

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  4. Annie, I know you'll like it!
    It's basically a green tomato relish.
    The potato salad sounds really good.
    I'm game for the potato salad cookoff - who will be the judge?

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  5. BTW, did you check out the recipes on the entree page? Half of the recipes had calf's brains or sweetbreads in them! YUK !

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  6. Yes, that recipe sounds so much better than plain ol' potato salad! I love picalilly! We used to find it in country stores when I lived in New England.

    Also, when I was in college, our student newspaper was typeset off campus by a printer. They used cold type so this won't answer your question, but I used to set some of the type. Every letter was a separate piece of lead (and was backwards!) With some practice you could set the lead very quickly. And galley proofs were really necessary. LOL This was around 1973. Just a little FYI...

    Gloomy and cold (36) here today. I think I need to get in a festive mood. ;)

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  7. POTATO SALAD MY WAY

    AROUND 6 TATERS
    ONION
    CELERY
    2OR3 EGGS BOILED AND CHOPPED
    CUCUMBER CUT IN LITTLE PIECES
    SWEET PICKLE RELISH
    TEASPOON OF SUGAR OR A DASH MORE
    MUSTARD TO TASTE LITTLE AT A TIME
    MRS. DASH TO TASTE OR SALT & PEPPER
    MIRACLE WHIP

    YUM

    GRANNY

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  8. Oh, oh....Granny....Miracle Whip? Tell me it isn't so.... no, no, no... Mayonnaise please. lol

    X - Seems only fair that Casey should judge this PSCO contest. All those in favor raise your hands... then its passed.

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  9. And it has to be Hellmans mayo - not Kraft. Better homemade flavor.
    Annie, OK, Casey it is!

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  10. I DON'T LIKE THE TASTE OF MAYONNAISE. I USED MIRACLE WHIP FOR 53 YEARS. MAYBE THAT'S WHY I HAVE A HEART CONDITION.BUT IT WAS YUM GOING DOWN. ANNIE, I BET YOU MAKE YOUR OWN.RIGHT?HOMEMADE IS ALWAYS THE BEST.
    GRANNY

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  11. CASEY. THUMB UP BUT I GUESS I LOST ALREADY. I STILL LIKE MIRACLE OVER THE OTHER.
    GRANNY

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  12. CASEY, HAVE YOU FINISH ED YOUR BOOK YET?

    GRANNY

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  13. I'm going to have to take a few days off to work on other projects. I'll be back later in the week.

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  14. X, I know when I first moved to St. Louis I looked for Best Foods and couldn't find it, I thought I was going to have to have California friends send it to me. Then I found out in the mid-west Hellman's was the same as Best Foods.

    Granny, I have made my own on very rare occasions. My mom was a Miracle Whip person and she also like her meat well-done. my dad and I were Mayo-rare meat people.

    Off to the bookstore to buy some gifts. have a good day all.

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  15. ENJOY YOUR PROJECT CASEY. CATCH YOU AGAIN SOON. CHRISTMAS IS A BUSY TIME OF THE YEAR.
    HUGS TO ALL AND TO ALL A GOOD NIGHT.
    GRANNY

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  16. Well I like both mayo and Miracle Whip. Depends on what I'm using it for. Granny, your potato salad sounds good. Cukes are a new addition I haven't tried. I think I'll make both kinds! :)

    Casey Godspeed in your work!

    I vote that Casey has to judge the contest, too, when he gets back.

    Have a great day everyone!

    Katie

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