Vintage Cookbook Update

“Secrets of Making Frozen Desserts at Home,” The Peerless Freezer Company.

This undated product cookbook was published by the Peerless Freezer Company likely sometime between 1914 and 1974.  It features 150 recipes for a hand cranked ice cream machine.  Originally, this company was called Dana & Co. but was renamed to the Peerless Freezer Company after it was sold to the Alaska Freezer Company of Winchendon, Massachusetts in July 1914.  The Alaska Freezer Company manufactured ice cream freezers and other freezers from 1902 to 1974.  In 1974, the company was purchased by a group of investors and renamed White Mountain Freezer, Inc., and continued to manufacture freezers and hand cranked ice cream machines until the early 1990s.  In 2019, the town of Winchendon and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency began the process of demolishing the abandoned Alaska Freezer plant because the building was literally falling apart and there were concerns about asbestos contaminating the site.

“A Guide to ROYAL SUCCESS in Baking,” Standard Brands Incorporated, 1939.

This product cookbook by the Royal Baking Powder Company has a variety of recipes featuring baking powder and cream of tartar.  The Royal Baking Powder Company was started in 1866 by the brothers Joseph Christoffel Hoagland and Cornelius Nevius Hoagland.  A couple of interesting articles I found on the history of baking powder were “Baking Powder: How Baking Powder Works – Types of Baking Powder – How To Test Baking Powder” by Linda Stradley/What’s Cooking America, and “The Great Uprising: How a Powder Revolutionized Baking” by Ben Panko for Smithsonian Magazine.

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