Cuisine

1930 · 63169 — Austin & Minneapolis MN: Minnesota Utilities Company; Northern States Power Company - Home Service Department Cooking School; Federal Public Service Corporation of Minnesota ca. 1930-1936. Eight parts. 4to. 46 pp assorted separate numbering. w/ most leaves printed on recto only but 2 printed on recto & verso in mimeograph typescript stapled at upper left corners separately 1 part w/ “Seasons Greetings†printed in red minor age toning edgewear still a VG group. A culturally significant group of mimeographed recipes instructions and promotional flyers for the Home Economics & Cooking School demonstrations put on by Naoma Rice for three different Minnesota utility and public utility companies through the depths of the Great Depression. Spearheaded by Rice 1899-1937 the demonstrations emphasized the use and advantages of electric ranges and refrigerators as their popularity and use slowly became more widespread in the 1930’s with an emphasis on local produce and fruits. The first group of recipes includes instructions for such confections as Cranberry Sponge Cake Cider Sherbet Macaroon Pie Spagetti sic Sauce and Bran Refrigerator Rolls. Mixed through the other recipes there are instructions for Crunchy Potato Chip Cookies Apple Cheese Cake Parmesan Veal Frozen Pumpkin Pie and Corn Flake Crust. Several of the recipes emphasize the use of popular Minnesota fruits including Apple Quince Grapes and others.The importance of refrigeration was also emphasized in the “Cooking School†and Model Kitchens with instructions on temperatures needed for home rangers and refrigerators for cooked foods meats butter opened jelly or preserves cheeses and more. Rice suffered through an unspecified childhood illness by by the early 1920’s had become a public school Home Economics Teacher and then by 1928 was listed in Austin MN street directories as a “Demonstrator†for home economics and cooking classes. The Minnesota Utilities Company had been created in 1917 from several smaller utilities and my the Great Depression had grown large enough that it became subject to both the TVA and the Rural Electrification Project as Roosevelt’s New Deal programs attempted to encourage increased use of electricity and electric appliances to boost the economy. The Northern States Power Co. was based out of Minneapolis MN and extended across Minnesota Michigan into the Dakotas and operated an extensive Home Service Dept. The Federal Public Service Corporation of Minnesota appears to have been one of the short-lived outgrowths of WPA and PWA-sponsored programs under the New Deal. This cataloguer could not locate any similar surviving documents for Naoma Rice cooking classes or the Minnesota-based utility companies. Minnesota Utilities Company; Northern States Power Company - Home Service Department, Cooking School; Federal Public Service Cor unknown