Vintage Recipe Blog

In 1926 the war between Shortening and Lard was in it's 5th year. Both were fighting for supremacy in the hearts and minds of housewives across America. The main brands of lard were Armour and Swift's and on the opposing side was Crisco, Spry and Snowdrift. I don't really know what happened to Spry and Snowdrift over the years. Most likely they were gobbled up by Crisco leaving them the dominant force in shortening. As for the war between lard and shortening, shortening won by default once...

This is a Sponsored post written by me on behalf of Scotts®. All opinions are 100% mine. It's been warm here in North Florida for awhile, cool and breezy at night with daytime highs in the 80's, such find weather for going to the beach or taking a hike but there is one thing that it also means... The lawn is alive again with new growth and WEEDS.  I've vowed to reclaim the lawn form the weeds this year but upon looking in the garage I see that our old spreader is broken, you know the one I'm...

I don't know how of God's green Earth anyone can find this appetizing. The ad says "Husband home for lunch?... Pamper him like this" Pamper? If my wife served this to me, and she's from the Philippines so she's served me some weird stuff, I think I'd just start going out for lunch. And what is that on the side, a "man-style salad of lettuce, canned peach and cottage cheese." Oh, thank you for cleaning that up because I could have swore it looked like sliced croquet ball on a bed of vaguely...

"Salads should dress for dinner" proclaims this 1938 ad for Heinz vinegars and Olive oils. I heartily agree, what's the use of eating a salad if it doesn't have a dressing made from the best ingredients? However it can be daunting finding the best ingredients for whatever you're cooking and so much noise is generated by the marketeers trying to sell you sub-normal garbage. It's ever more important to read labels today and find out what's really in your food and, I'm sorry to say this, but if...

At the time this ad was published, 1912, Florida was still trying to recover from the devastating freezes of 1894-95 and 1899. The 94 freeze was bad enough but growers were just starting to recover when the devastating freeze of 1899 came. It led to a precipitous decline in fruits from Florida and paved the way for California to lead the way on fruit production. Naturally when Florida got back on it's feet, it needed a marketing angle to recapture market share. Hence this ad from the Florida...

Contribution by Saul Martin I have become so dependent on my ClearWirelessInternet that it’s crazy. I can’t believe there are still people who don’t have internet access at home or on the go. My internet use spans all areas of my life, and I don’t know what I would do without it. I work from home, so it is imperative that I am connected to my clients at all times. My livelihood is tied to me being dependable and available, and most of them prefer to email instead of call. The first...

Crab meat must have been much cheaper than it is now back in the old days because I see quite a few recipes that use it, even in the Depression Era. Few of these recipes are anything resembling a crabcake, mostly they are some sort of deviled crab in a can doctored with more butter and a few spices. I come from Maryland so I certainly like crab but the thought of canned deviled crab gives me the heebee-jeebee's. This particular ad is for a company that I can't even locate anymore. The ad is...

This post brought to you by Scotts®. All opinions are 100% mine. I wrote some time ago about the Scotts® Snap® Spreader System and how it can give you the best lawn you ever imagined. Personally I hate my lawn. It's mostly weeds which may be green, but they grow like... well weeds. It's bad enough having to mow the lawn almost twice a week in the Florida Summer, but with a lawn full of weeds you have to do it 3x a week or you could hide elephants in the weeds. Now most people when they think...

We've been on something of an old movie kick lately, Casablanca, Key Largo, The African Queen all great movies to sit down with a bowl of popcorn and enjoy. This got me thinking though about popcorn itself. The stuff in movie theaters now is absolutely horrible stuff with the texture of packing peanuts usually drowned in a greasy substance masquerading as butter. It wasn't always this way though so I went on the hunt to see how popcorn was made and sold in the 1930's and learned a little...

This is an easy recipe to do for dinner one night. Make up the BBQ sauce and just store it in the fridge and you'll have it around whenever you need it. The sauce is a take on Carolina Low-Country Sauce and being such is much thinner than the thick sauces sold in the store. Store bought sauces, in addition to being full of chemical garbage, are finishing sauces, not meant to be cooked with as they turn into chewey goop. This sauce will thicken a bit while cooking in the oven and after...

Even though I live in Jacksonville I'm from Maryland originally, as a matter of fact most people in Jacksonville are from somewhere else. Being from Maryland I do love crab cakes but the ones you see in stores and restaurants around here go from mildly passable to pathetic and everything in between. The problem lies with a few things, over reliance on expensive crab meat, the use of too much fillers, i.e. bread crumbs, and the wrong seasoning. Every true Marylander knows that to make the...

This is a Sponsored post written by me on behalf of Scotts®. All opinions are 100% mine. It's spring in North Florida already and I'm looking forward to planting a flower garden along the back porch. the only problem is that the soil is so poor along the porch, strewn with rocks, that I really have to plant all my flowers in pots instead of the ground. This is why I was so excited to hear about Expand ‘n Gro™ by Miracle-Gro. I've used Miracle Gro products before and so I am assured of their...

Doctors love to keep changing their minds. First pasta is bad for you because of the sauce, then it's the sauce is god for you and the noodles are bad, etc etc etc. The American heard of barking seals that consumes every bit of drivel from the medical community is all to happy to parrot the belief of the moment as it is was God's writ on the tablets. Whatever happened to thinking for yourself? I suppose it went out of fashion along with personal responsibility, lost in the tide of people who...

I apologize if I'm short today but it's a very busy day and I won't get a chance to sit until after 3pm. Here's the Welsh Rarebit recipe... 2T each butter and Flour 3/4C Whole Milk 1tsp Worcestershire Sauce 1tsp Colemans Dry Mustard 1/2C Good English Brown Ale (Wytchwood Hobgoblin is what I used) 6oz Good Cheddar, Shredded dash Tabasco salt and pepper to taste 1 egg yolk Melt butter in saucepan and add flour. Stir constantly 2 mins until roux is cooked. Add all ingredients except cheese and...

This is a recipe that seems like so much trouble but is really simple to prepare if you do some things beforehand. My wife was working this day and did not get home until after 7pm and I had dinner on the table by 8. For the fish, Salmon is traditional but I balk at smothering such a tasty fish in a cream sauce. I prefer one with a nice white flesh, Cod, Whiting, Perch, Halibut, etc. (I used Cod). Leftover sauce can be kept and tastes delicious over some scrambled eggs the next morning. 6oz...