VTT - Cooking, Brides, Aunt Jenny, & Spry

By coincidence this postcard was sent just a bit over 100 years ago. It was postmarked June 22, 1910 in Minneapolis. Lena wrote to Miss Mamie McDonald in Clear Lake, Minnesota as follows:

Dear Mac,
I think that Scotch fellow don't come for the cooking but to see the cook. I expect to come out to see you if I go to Little Falls but will let you know later. I intend to go right after the fourth.

Spry was a vegetable shortening introduced in 1936 and was similar to Crisco. Starting in 1937, "Aunt Jenny" hosted a radio show sponsored by Spry. The Aunt Jenny character was also used in print advertising and several recipe booklets.

I don't know the date of this Spry recipe booklet "Aunt Jenny's Favorite Recipes." The booklet has recipes for biscuits, cakes, cookies, desserts, frostings, frying, main dishes, and pies--all including Spry as an ingredient or oil for frying. The front cover shows Jenny with her husband Calvin. The back cover shows how Aunt Jenny helped out a new bride. I doubt that a modern bride would be so appreciative of Jenny's "gifts" and advice.

My favorite page inside is the biscuit page. The poor bride is really "fed up on all those jokes about Bride's Biscuits." I had never even heard of Bride's Biscuits before. I discovered that they are also known as "Angels Biscuits," and there are many recipes for them on the internet. The reason they are called "Bride's Biscuits" is because are supposed to be easy for even a new bride to make. They include yeast (and sometimes baking soda) in addition to baking powder and are guaranteed to rise.

I never bake or fry anything, so I don't know whether many people still keep vegetable shortening on hand. If I did have some, I think I would try Aunt Jenny's Strawberry Shortcake recipe. It looks much better than the kind of shortcake they sell in stores.

I'm participating in Vintage Thingie Thursday