Yesterday's Kitchen
I collect cookbooks and I'm especially fond of old cookbooks.  My favorite is a 1916 book published by
the New Orleans Times-Picayune newspaper, titled, "The Picayune Creole Cookbook."  Besides the
recipes, there's a chapter on the customs of "old New Orleans" I love.  Many of the old cookbooks give
us more than just recipes - they, also, give us a rare glimpse into the lives of our ancestors...what their
favorite foods were and how they went about preparing them;  what they kept in the pantry; their
attitudes about food and health;  what sort of recipes they used for the "sick room," holiday customs,
etc.  This page provides insight into cooking customs over the past two hundred years.
What's in the Pantry?  1860 - 1920

1860's
New Foods: Canned pork and beans; canned soup; Tabasco Sauce; cold breakfast food; Folgers pre-roasted and
ground coffee; Fleischmann's yeast
New Companies: Arm and Hammer; Royal Baking Powder; Chase and Sanborn; Ghiardelli Chocolates; Nestle;
Armour meat-packing factory
New In the Food Industry: Pasteurization and sterilization by heat; mechanical refrigerator; tin can with key
opener; thinner steel for cans

1870's
New Foods: Cubed sugar; synthetic vanilla; root beer; Nestle's infant milk; chocolate cream soda; margarine
produced commercially
Not a food, but of use in the grocery...flat-bottom paper bags!
New Companies: Lipton; Pillsbury; F & J Heinz; Quaker Mills; Hills Brothers
New in the Food Industry: Milking machines; glass milk bottles; orange crates; pressure cooking; mechanical
cream separator; William Underwood was the first to register U.S. food trademark.
1880's
New Foods: Malted milk; powdered pea soup; evaporated milk; Aunt Jemima pancake flour; Coca-Cola; Dr. Pepper;
Thomas' English muffins; Oscar Mayer wieners; Tetley tea; Log Cabin syrup; Morton's salt; flaked cereal
New Food Companies: McCormick Spices; Maxwell house; B. H. Kroger; White Lily Foods; Lever Brothers; Calumet
Baking Powder; Pillsbury-Washburn Flour Mills
New in the Food Industry: Packaging of grain commodities; aluminum production; ice-making plants replace
ice-cutting industry; self-service restaurants

1890's
New Foods: Minute Tapioca; condensed soup; Fig Newtons; canned pineapple; Knox's Gelatin; shredded wheat;
Canada Dry ginger Ale; Grape Nuts; Cream of Wheat; Tootsie Rolls; Jell-o; Swans Down cake flour; Uneeda
Biscuits; Pepsi-Cola; Wesson Oil; Cracker Jacks; bottled Coca-Cola; S & H Food Stamps; public school hot lunches
New Food Companies: Quaker Oats; Beech-Nut; Beatrice Foods; National Biscuit; Baker's Coconut; Smucker Jams
New in the Food Industry: Bottle-capping machine; automatic bottle-blowing machine; the Coca-Cola Company was
bought for $2,300; first U.S. pizza parlor; Heinz became Heinz 57 with 57 varieties of products; Campbell adopts red
& white labels---which were inspired by Cornell football uniforms.
Left:  An ice house on a Georgia plantation, c. 1850
Above:  A community ice house in NY, late 1700's
1900's
New Foods: Decaffeinated coffee; Hershey chocolate bars and kisses; Barnum Animal Crackers; canned tuna fish;
ice cream cone; banana split; Ovaltine; Post Toasties; "hot dog" named
New Food Companies: Battle Creek Toasted Corn Flakes; Sunshine Biscuits; Planters Nuts; Kraft
New in the Food Industry: Coffee in vacuum tins; homogenized milk; soda fountains; coin-operated restaurants

1910's
New Foods: Fortune cookie; Crisco; Mazola Oil; Hellmann's Blue Ribbon Mayonnaise; Domino Sugar; Ocean Spray
Cranberry Sauce; Oreo Biscuits; Lorna Doone Cookies; Clark Bars; Peppermint Life Savers; Contadina canned
tomato sauce; Malt-O-Meal; Old El Paso brand; "German" toast re-named "French" toast
New Food Companies: Prince Macaroni; National Dairy; Birdseye; StarKist; Franco-American
New in the Food Industry: Cakes wrapped in cellophane at bakery; Coca-Cola distinctive bottle shape; self-service
grocery stores supermarket chain (Piggly-Wiggly); Fleischmann ad campaign to convince women to buy
bakery-made bread
"The Good Housekeeper" by Sarah Josepha Hale, 1841

Foods for the sick:
Gruel;  Beef Tea;  Barley Water;  Arrow-root;  Calf's Feet Jelly;  Decoction of Liverwort;  Wine Whey;  Balm Tea

"The Fannie Farmer Cookbook" - 1896

Foods for the sick:
Clam Water; Oatmeal Water; Irish Moss Lemonade; Wheat Coffee; Arrow-root Gruel; Hominy Mush; Raw Beef

"The Picayune Creole Cookbook" - 1916

Invalid Cookery:
"It has not been thought necessary to add a chapter on "Invalid Cookery" in this book, as all Creoles know how to
prepare dainty articles of diet for the sick.  Never crowd a tray intended for an invalid.  Spread a dainty napkin on
the salver.  Arrange the food in a most appetizing way, lay a rosebud or a flower fresh from the garden on the
waiter and bring in the dainty, tempting morsel with a happy, cheery smile, though your heart may be sinking.  The
dish, in nine cases out of ten, will not fail to please, while your sunny smile will encourage the patient and make
him feel that his recovery is certain.  Then the battle is half-won."
Cooking Stoves, 1900 - 1923