ABOUT THIS BOOK

From the 1920s through the 1940s, American kitchens had a welcome guest in “Aunt Sammy,” a creation of the US Department of Agriculture and its Bureau of Home Economics. Through the radio program Housekeeper’s Chat, Aunt Sammy gave lively advice on food preparation, household chores, parenting and children, and gender dynamics as she encouraged women to embrace the radio and a host of modern consumer household products. The recipes she shared were gathered, in 1927, into a cookbook that became a valuable household manual for tens of thousands of Americans.

Aunt Sammy’s Radio Recipes revives the famous cookbook and joins it with extensive excerpts from the accompanying radio broadcasts, providing a fascinating study of how a witty and charming fictionalized personae became one of the early celebrity chefs of the radio age.

AUTHOR BIOGRAPHY

Justin Nordstrom is associate professor of history at Penn State’s Hazleton campus. He is the author of Danger on the Doorstep: Anti-Catholicism and American Print Culture in the Progressive Era.

REVIEWS

“Cookbooks reveal clues about peoples’ desires and aspirations as well as everyday eating habits. Aunt Sammy’s Radio Recipes provides a glimpse into 1920s American food and cooking, but also into government officials’ attempts to gently and with light-hearted humor introduce modernity into Americans’ homes. Framed by Nordstrom’s illuminating introduction and commentary throughout, we learn much about the popular cookbook and the radio program so important to millions of Americans.”
—Amy Bentley, author of Inventing Baby Food: Taste, Health and the Industrialization of the American Diet

“Reveals the ways in which the new social media of a century ago — the radio — converged with new technologies of the kitchen and the everyday household needs of cooking and eating to form a character who contributed to a national ideal. An insightful contribution to food studies.”
—Etta Madden, Co-editor, Eating in Eden: Food & American Utopias

“The book provides a fascinating glimpse into American foodways from a century ago. It is enjoyable, readable, and makes a valuable contribution to the University of Arkansas Press’ Food and Foodways Series.”
—Cory Young, Food, Culture & Society, September 2018

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Contents

Series Editors’ Preface

Preface

Acknowledgments

Introduction

Notes

Soups

Fruits

Vegetable Dishes

Sample Menu #1 — Meat and Potatoes

Egg and Cheese Dishes

Sample Menu #2 — Breakfast Time

Sample Menu #3 — Savory and Sour

Sample Menu #4 — Regional and National

Poultry

Sample Menu #5 — Familiar and Far-Fetched

Salads and Salad Dressings

Muffins and Other Quick Breads

Puddings and Frozen Desserts

Sample Menu #6 — An Apple a Day

Sauces

Pies and Other Pastries

Sample Menu #7 — Just Desserts

Cakes, Cookies, and Cake Frostings

Confections

Preserves, Jams, and Relishes

Sandwiches

Conclusion: Cooking History

Appendix: Aunt Sammy’s Menus

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