Bake Off

[retromania]

Read an article about the first Pillsbury bake off in 1949.  Really neat.  The black and white photo looking down on 75+ white 40" electric ranges with deep-well.  

 

Did anyone's mother or grandmother compete?  Mine didn't.  Always thought it would have been cool if they did! 

 

Santa brought me an EZ Bake Oven in 1968.  My brothers didn't know what to think, but I didn't care I was so excited.  Thay was the beginning of my love of baking and cooking.  

 

[mixguy]

Pillbury Bakeoff

GE provided stoves and small appliances for the event for many years. Each year how many people were chosen to compete? Was there one person chosen from each state? Inspiration Cake, Cherry Winks, Tunnel of Fudge Cake are some winning recipes of the past.

 

[iheartmaytag]

Actually

My mother won as a meer teen in Miller County Mo, 1950 for her Pie crust.  Her Apple pie is still a winner.  Don't ask for the pie recipe as she cooks by a handful of this and a pinch of that to taste.

The crust, however, I can duplicate and is in the Pillsbury cook book.

 

 

Mom said she did better on the electric stove because it cooked more like the wood stove she learned on.  We still have electric to this day.

 

[retromania]

I prefer an electric oven.  Never could get the gas oven to do right.  My cakes and casseroles didn't seem to  brown evenly.  I had an oven thermometer and everything.  People I know that grew up with gas still insist that it's the best.  My aunt up the street always had a gas stove, but she didn't bake in my day in time so I don't have anything to compare my experience with.  

 

[frigilux]

I have a couple of early-1950's Pillsbury Bake-Off winner recipe booklets. It's fun to make those classic, sometimes antiquated, recipes.

 

[retromania]

Those old recipes are fun. I have an old Better Homes & Gardens from my birth year and a lot of the recipes called for a can of veg-all. I keep meaning to look for it when I'm shopping to see if it is still being sold.

 

[westingman123]

Veg-all

Yep, it's still around.

 

[davey7]

A friend of a friend worked for Pillsbury (or their ad agency in charge of the bake-off). He and my friend who lived in Minneapolis (where they met) became obsessed with Salsa Cous-Cous Chicken which I believe was featured in it somehow. When he made it for his mom her response was "What's cous-cous sweetie?" (she once made tempura with bisquick...), but she liked it.

 

[retromania]

I LOVE couscous.

 

[davey7]

It's a pretty good (and fairly easy) dish. He's been making Brini Maxwell's Mac and Cheese lately.

 

[retromania]