December 8, 2021 • 37 mins
This brand of recipes and food products that help out home cooks is based around a woman who never existed. Anney and Lauren explore the fictional history and very real science behind Betty Crocker.
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Speaker 1 (00:08):
Hello, and welcome to Favor production of I Heart Radio.
I'm Annie Reese and I'm Lauren Volga bam, and today
we have an episode for you about Betty Crocker. Yes,
which not a current sponsor. No no no um also
favorite pun when researching this one. No whisk, no reward.
(00:28):
Oh my goodness, it's so good. I love it. I
love it, I love it, I love it. That is
official branding. That is official Betty Crocker branding. By the way,
Yeah it is. You're right, all my Betty Crocker knowledge
is gotten whisked together. Now that's fair. That's fair. Yeah, yeah,
(00:50):
this is the longer outline. Actually, um so a couple
of years ago stuff I've never told you. The other
podcast I do, we did an episode on Betty Crocker.
We all also did as part of that um Ante
Mima and uh Mrs Butterworth. So what a what A
what a parent? Yes, so definitely like if you want
(01:11):
to learn more or like more about the kind of
the history of those brands. And you know, now it's
a little bit outdated because a lot of things have changed,
um since Yeah, maybe maybe an updates and order, Yeah exactly,
but the history is still there, and it's really interesting.
And I actually do find Lauren and I were discussing
this before before we started recording. I find this story
(01:36):
really interesting in a lot of ways, um, and a
lot of ways I find it really endearing, and a
lot of ways to find it really sexist. But but
I do. There's just something to me about like this
character taking off for these women who were in the
kitchen and they were trying to do the best with
new ingredients they had around and didn't have the internet. Yeah,
(01:58):
you know, like like relatively isolated and and and lonely
and just trying to work out how to make um,
this post industrial revolution kitchen work and right and finding
you know, reaching out and finding this fictional character and
being like close enough, we'll take it. Yes, Yes, it's
(02:23):
so funny because, like you said, fictional character. I'm almost
like gast It's not like I was ever a shock
to me, but it was a shock to some people.
And we're going to talk about that. Sure, Yeah, quite
a quite a big shock. Sure. Yeah, I mean to
see because she wasn't marketed as a character for decades exactly. Yes,
(02:46):
it's it's a really interesting story and we're going to
get into it. But I guess we should get to
our question. I suppose, Okay, Eddie Crocker, who what is it? Uh? Well, um,
Betty Crocker is a brand based on, Yes, a character
(03:07):
who just wants to help home cooks out. She is
friendly and competent and resourceful and creative yet science based,
and she looks good doing it. She's uh, she's the
She's the Betty with the good hair. Oh nice. Um.
The brand is currently part of the General Mills Corporation,
(03:30):
through which General Mills produces UH packaged food products and
publications of a number of kinds um food products. Generally,
these are meant as like shortcuts for home cooks more
than actual prepared foods. UM. Though, let's be honest, we've
all eaten the icing out of the can. Yeah it's
(03:56):
okay that Hey, that frosting is heck and delicious. Um.
But yeah, there are there are boxed baking mixes that
let you just add water and or eggs and or etcetera,
UM to bake up cakes, cookies, brownies, muffins, pizza crust,
pancakes or biscuits, and yes, a shelf stable frostings to
dress them up with along with icing gels, sprinkles, other
(04:19):
decorative candies, food coloring and candles, and um like muffin
or cupcake liners. Yeah yeah. There are also boxed dinner
mixes that let you just add water and or dairy
and or meat to create main dishes or side dishes,
like the Helper line of hot pastas or rice, hamburger Helper,
(04:42):
chicken helper, etcetera. Um. There's also a line of mashed
or scalloped potatoes. There's also a line of pasta salads. Um.
But there are a few packaged products, namely fruit snacks
that are under the sub brands of Betty Crocker, Um,
Fruit by the Foot, fruit roll ups, gushers, Oh nineties
(05:04):
nostalgic of crashing into me right like a like a gush,
you might say, Yeah, I had I had no idea,
I did not remember that. Um, that's a little bit wild,
and I feel like I don't have time for today.
I feel like fruit by the Foot and Gushers are
like such totally different episodes. Yes, okay, alright, so that
(05:29):
a side Um. The Betty Cracker brand is also a
recipe creating behemoth um testing and publishing just a ton
of content UM through print books, their print magazine, their
product packaging UM and online media including their website, Pinterest, Facebook, YouTube,
and Instagram. Of course, uh that many Cracker brand is
(05:53):
based in the United States, but also has outcroppings in
the UK and Iceland and Saudi Arabia and Mexico, in
Australia and elsewhere throughout Europe and the Middle East and Asia.
I actually just after Thanksgiving. Uh my mom of course,
did the mom thing and I was leaving and she
(06:16):
was like, take this. Take this. You don't have enough food.
Take this. And she gave me like way too much
turkey for like a single person to eat reasonable amount
of time. And so I know, we've done a past
episode on tetrazini and how that used to be like
a thing we would make leftovers. And I found a
Betty Crocker recipe and it was for like a leftover
(06:39):
you make tetrazini. And I happen to have all the
stuff and I was like, well, here we go, that's
what's happening with this and it was good. Well heck yeah, yes,
Well what about the nutrition? Uh don't eat brands or
characters probably mm hmmmm, Well you can get you know,
(07:06):
like gummies fictional characters on them. Sure, sure, and I
mean I guess, I mean, like we we sort of
covered this previously, but like if you drink kool aid, like,
are you drinking the kool aid man's fluids? I don't know,
mm hmm. True. These are the deep questions that haunt us,
(07:28):
keep us up at night over here at Saber. Yeah,
they do well. But in the meanwhile, we have some
numbers for you. We do. As of October, Betty Crocker
is one dred years old. Yeah, over two hundred grocery
(07:48):
products carry the Betty Crocker name. At General Mills headquarters
in Minnesota, there is a Betty Crocker available for questions seven.
The brand is supported by research done in the Betty
Crocker Kitchens, which, as of two thousand three anyway, encompassed
a facility with nineteen individual kitchens equipped to test fifty
(08:11):
thousand recipes a year. Those nineteen kitchens included at the
time eighteen tons worth of granite countertops. Wow, yeah, I know, behemoth,
I said, behemon, and appropriately so, Lauren. Since Betty Crocker's
(08:36):
very first portrait, her image has since been updated seven
times um more on that in the history section. But
despite going through various updates and changes in appearance, Betty
Crocker is one of the most recognizable women in America.
Article from ad Week found that Betty Crocker was one
of the most famous fictional female characters in the US,
(08:59):
and she held the top spot until flow from Progressive
surpassed her. An article from the New York Daily News
but her among the ranks of Barbie, Santa Claus, and
Uncle Sam as one of the most influential fictional figures
in the world. Yes, Betty Crocker's name is on over
(09:20):
two cookbooks, and the one that started it all in
nineteen Betty Crocker's picture cookbook UM now in its twelfth
edition and called the Betty Crocker Cookbook Everything You Need
to Know to Cook from Scratch, has sold over seventy
five million copies. Seventy million copies, Yes, and it's been
(09:41):
translated into Spanish. Uh. The website receives over twelve million
visitors a month, including me I guess YEA. While today
we may be more used to seeing the name and
face on boxed cake mixes and cans of icing, Betty
(10:01):
Crocker used to be a figure women sawed out for
cooking advice. Dear Betty Crocker, why won't my cake cries?
How do I get fluffy pancakes? Can you share a
good pie recipe? Not only would Betty Crocker give answers
to questions like these um and make people, largely women,
feel more confident in the kitchen, she also encouraged people
(10:22):
to try new things and acted as a safety net
for if those things didn't go to plan. Through this,
she showed up a huge following and fans. According to
the General Mill's website, at the peak of her popularity,
Betty Crocker was receiving five thousand letters a day. Goodness, goodness, indeed,
(10:45):
and it is quite the tale of her creation. And yeah,
and we are going to get into that, but first
we're going to get into a quick break for a
word from our sponsor. And we're back. Thank you sponsored, Yes,
(11:08):
thank you. So I guess, yes, we should get this
out of the way that we've already pretty much said.
Betty Crocker was not a real person, never a real person,
never a real person. She was created by a flour
milling company called Washburn Crosby Company, a company that would
go on to become General Mills. Are a part of
(11:30):
General Mills. Okay, so let's unback all of that. Washburn
Crosby got started in that same year. They entered their
Flower into the International Milling Competition and they won the
gold medal. To capitalize on their win, they changed their
name to something you might recognize, Gold Medal Flower, or
(11:51):
that's the name they put on their products, and yes,
it is a top seller today. The company decided to
run ads for their award winning flower in the Saturday
Evening Post in nine The ad was a jigsaw puzzle
of a small town square and consumers who figured it
(12:11):
out could claim a gold Medal flower sack shaped pincushion,
which cracks me up. And not only did over thirty
thousand people return the puzzle, much to Washburn crosby surprise,
a lot of the responses came with baking questions. Um, yeah,
because I remember this was before the internet. Again, I
(12:34):
think that's a huge part of this story. The company
did have a rather small marketing team made up of
all men and run by a man named Samuel Gale,
and this team typically handled customer questions and complaints. The
men on the team often handed these questions off do
the women who worked for the Gold Medal Home Service department,
(12:57):
But Gail did not like signing his name AM to
their answers because, in his mind, customers would prefer to
get kitchen advice from a woman. At the time, women
were doing most of the cooking and women were doing
most of the writing in to the company. The sheer
amount of responses and questions to the marketing campaign reinforced
(13:19):
to the company um the desire these customers had for
space to ask questions and have them answered, um to
get tips and recipe ideas, preferably from a woman they've trusted.
So that same year, the company went to work on
inventing a fictional woman to fill this need. They borrowed
the last name from recently retired Washburn Crosby director William G.
(13:43):
Crocker for the first name. The powers that be chose
Betty because they thought it sounded all American and cheery
and unthreatening. Yes, now that they had the name, they
needed the signature. Female employees were asked to submit samples
of what they thought signature should look like. Secretary Florence
Lindbergh submission one out and any letter responses sent to
(14:05):
a customer would have that now iconic signature on it.
People were even trained to match it, and the women
who worked at the company's home economist department UM who
answered the mail addressed to Betty were named the Crockettes. Yeah. Uh.
And by by this early point, although the brand and
or character was established by these higher up men at
(14:28):
the company, Yeah, the research and writing was being done
by women. UM, eventually led up by one Jeanette Kelly,
who had joined Washburn Crosby just four years out of
college in nine This was the era during which the
company began creating test kitchens for these home economists that
(14:48):
they employed to create recipes, design solid cooking advice, and demonstrate,
perhaps most importantly, how to use the gold medal flower
that they were so proud of. UM. A notable these
test kitchens were incorporating in the nineteen twenties all of
this newfangled technology like gas stoves and running water. Yeah. Yeah.
(15:12):
So like when we're saying like this was before the Internet,
this was a minute before the internet. This was yeah
things where things were very much still in flux in
terms of of of home cooking technology. Yes, UM, and
the demand for Betty Crocker was high enough that the
company opened the Betty Crocker Cooking Schools, which were these
(15:33):
companies sponsored cooking schools across the country, eventually eventually across
the country, originally just around the company's hometown of Minneapolis,
and then around the Midwest, and then yes, further out
than that even mm hmmm. However, for the first three
years after her inception, Betty Crocker existed in writing for
the most part um either through letters or her name
(15:55):
on the schools. That changed in nine when Betty Crocker
made her audio debut on the newly launched Washburn Crosby
Radio cooking show on Minneapolis's w c C o are
Washburn Crosby Company, and the company had purchased the station
when it was on the verge of bankruptcy. And note
that this was this was really early, or like fairly
(16:17):
early in the history of commercial broadcasting, Like there was
at the time a pretty huge movement towards corporate and
ad driven radio, but it was it was still like
fairly visionary for the company to put this together. The
show was called the Betty Crocker Cooking School of the Air, Yes,
(16:37):
and it was one of the first daytime cooking shows.
It really leaned into this school vibe. Graduates of this
on air school sent in reports for Betty Crocker too great. Uh.
There were two hundred and thirty eight graduates in that
first year. It was written and hosted by home economist
Marjorie Child. Hosted UM and I tried to find a
(16:59):
pronounced tion of the name, so I think it's hosted,
but h U s t e D. However, the show
quickly went nationwide and regional Betty Crockers were developed, though
the scripts are still written at the company's national headquarters.
The show sometimes featured prominent guests like Joan Crawford and
Carrie Grant. Um. I actually listened to one right before this,
and it was yeah in. The new NBC network added
(17:27):
the radio show to their lineup, where it would stay
for the next twenty four years, making it one of
the longest running radio shows in history. Over a million
listeners enrolled in the radio cooking show, and Betty Crocker
became an authority on baking during the Great Depression. She
provided advice on how to cook with little and she
didn't just talk about food. She sometimes gave advice on
(17:49):
raising children and family stuff. She also received queries like this,
I don't make your fudge cake because I like white cake,
but my neighbor does. Is there any danger of her
upturing my husband? Who Betty croc cake intrigued, cake intrigue. Indeed, later,
when asked about her time with this show, Husted, who
(18:12):
reportedly put a lot of herself into the show and
into Betty Crocker, said, it is very interesting to me
to look back now and realize how concerned I was
about the welfare of women as homemakers and their feelings
of self respect. Women needed a champion. Here were millions
of them staying at home alone, doing a job with children, cooking, cleaning,
on minimal budgets, the whole depressing mess of it. They
(18:34):
needed someone to remind them that they had value. I know. Wow.
Six big milling companies, including washbron Crosby, merged together in
to create General Mills. The first grocery item that carried
the Betty Crocker name was a soup mix in ninette.
(18:57):
When the company started selling cake mixes in ninety seven,
uh they came with her name to the first cake
mix was a ginger cake uh, today gingerbread cake, followed
by a Devil's Food cake mix and a party cake
mix with dual instructions for white or yellow cake via
adding just egg whites versus whole eggs. Yeah, party cake mix,
(19:20):
party cake mix. Okay, Um, yeah, that was a that
was a rabbit hole I very narrowly avoided, but I
wanted to learn everything there was about box cake. Oh yeah, yeah, No,
that's definitely that's definitely a separate episode. Um and right,
really really nitty gritty and interesting. Um, but for another day. Uh. Meanwhile, Um,
(19:46):
a year before that, ginger cake mix debuted in the
company's test kitchens were officially rebranded as the Betty Crocker Kitchens. Yes,
and Betty Crocker was by this point a household name.
Surveys done around the time found that nine out of
ten women knew the name Betty Crocker and she was receiving, yes,
(20:09):
about five thousand letters a day. Fortune magazine named her
the second most popular woman in the US behind Eleanor
Rosevelt in nine, earning her the nickname the First Lady
of Food. But this was actually somewhat of a scandal
because the article outed her as a fictional person. According
(20:34):
to Susan Marks's book Finding Betty Crocker, The Secret Life
of America's First Lady of Food, the company started stalking
tissues for people who visited the company's headquarters to meet
Betty Crocker, only to be reduced to tears when they
learned she wasn't real hoof to right. Yeah, but I
(20:55):
totally get it. I get if you had this presence
in your kitchen where you might have even received a
letter from her, like you might have corresponded like and
then and then to realize that Betty was a lie
that stuff. I mean also just like oh, man, like
y'all like like like we talked, we talked these days
about about representation, right, about seeing people like yourself, um
(21:20):
out there in the world. And yeah, the fact that
the second most popular woman in the US in was
fictional is really that just really says something about the
state of representation at that time. Yes, and that they
were both still white, so there you go. Yes, yes,
(21:43):
also that um. At the request of the U. S
Office of War, Betty Crocker spent four months in on
the radio show Our Nation's Rations, all about inspiring listeners
on ways to be creative and resourceful. During ration ng UM,
there was also a Betty Crocker pamphlet called Your Share
about all of this. Over seven million copies were circulated.
(22:06):
A second Betty Crocker pamphlet called Through Highway to Good Nutrition.
Through Highway to Good Nutrition that for some reason, that
title gets me every time. Yeah yeah, was recognized by
the American Red Cross for having a positive contribution in
terms of national interest. Yeah. I don't. I don't think
that you can read that title without having in your
(22:28):
head that very atomic age, uh, you know, like mid
Atlantic accent, like very um fallout or BioShock, kind of
like through Highway to Good Nutrition like kind of thing, yea,
which was kind of the I was like, oh, there's
that Transatlantic when I was listening to some clips. Oh, yep, yep, yep,
(22:51):
especially Oh my goodness, especially radio of that era was
really full of it. Yes, oh yes. Inty Crocker's Sure
cookbook hit the shelves and it sold two million copies
in its first two years. The aforementioned Janette Kelly, who
was still with the company UM, supervised the launch of
the book. UM. She uh stayed with the company until
(23:13):
nineteen when she went to New York City to continue
her career. And yeah. Since then, this book has sold
seventy five million copies and is still available under the
name the Betty Crocker Cookbook. Um. It has had a
huge impact, and it's sometimes referred to as the kitchen
Bible or Big Red. Its covers are red. It's a thing. Yes, yes,
(23:34):
but I know some of your listeners have written in
about this and I found a really delightful uh kind
of just an essay from somebody who was writing about
the importance of this book and kind of rediscovering it
and retrying the recipes, and it was just really sweet.
At the time, recipes accompanied with pictures were new and exciting. Again,
(23:55):
no Internet and another way to make cooking less intimidated. Sure, um,
I there's there's also, I will say now, a little
bit of a collector's market for some of these old,
old versions of this book. I myself have two or
three versions of it um that are not like in
(24:16):
like collectible condition by by any means. I'm not that guy.
I'm like fully prepared to spill something on any of
my books at any given moment um. But uh, but
they are fascinating because around around this time especially and
up through oh goodness, the modern era. UM, they had
in addition to recipes, like all of this life advice
(24:39):
UM about about like hey, like don't wear your best
shoes when you're vacuuming, or like what vacuuming the only
time for them? There's there there's one on I'll see.
I'll see if I can find it and post it
(25:00):
on the I'm so sorry. I never post anything on
the internet, but all sudden, y'all remind me, like right
in and remind me. Um, there's this one, and it's
always coming with these little like atomic age cartoons. Um,
there's this one that's like if you feel tired, to
just lie down on your back for a while on
the floor. And this is like like lady in this
(25:25):
very nice day dress and heels just flat on her back,
like studying the ceiling like you do. I've been there.
I've been there. Heck, i've been there today. Jeez, I
knew what was up anyway. Anyway, Yes, Uh. The advent
of televisions and homes in the US in nineteen really
(25:50):
changed this whole thing again, because the company knew they
needed to find a face and a voice for Betty Crocker.
After a search, they hired actress Adelaide Holly Coming, who
portrayed her in um several television programs like The Betty
Crocker Television Show and The Betty Crocker Star Matinee. Holly
Coming had come up in vaudeville, and before her hiring,
(26:12):
General Mills became the first consumer product company to extend
They're one of their trademarked print slash audio characters to
a quote fully dimensional live action personification. I don't know why.
That kind of makes me nervous. I think a lot
(26:33):
of things just make me. Full dimensional live action personification
sounds a little threatening to It's the specification of fully dimensional,
I think, because then it opens the question of like,
how many dimensions? How many dimensions like five? Two? I
don't know again deep questions questions in this episode. At
(26:59):
the time, there had been illustrations of Crocker previously, including
the first official portrait composed by Nissa McMain in ninety
six and I Hope I'm pronouncing your name correctly. It
was a compositive faces of the women who worked in
the company's home services department, and it didn't really change
for two decades, but it has now been updated seven
(27:20):
times to fit the trends and times of whenever it
has been updated, and in that way, it's kind of
an interesting look at the evolution of American women or
a specific demographic of American UM. For example, in nineteen
sixty five, she was styled in the vein of Jackie Kennedy. However,
she has generally been depicted as a white woman with
(27:42):
brown hair in her early thirties, specifically thirty two UM,
usually wearing red and white. I know, like okay, I'm
sure mm hmm. In painter John Stuart Ingold tried to
make Betty Crocker more inclusive by giving her all of
skin and for the first time, brown eyes. Oh. To
(28:07):
create the image, he took inspiration from seventy images of women.
General Mills provided that they felt captured the spirit of
Betty Crocker. Yeah, um and yeah. By the nine sixties,
around of the American population recognized the name. So that's
a lot yeah, mostly everybody, yep, yes, But stepping back
(28:31):
a bit, uh huh. The trademarked Red Spoon branding was
released on packaging starting in nineteen fifty four. UM and
General Mills brought the brand international for the first time
in the mid fifties to Canada um later other places.
From to nineteen seventy seven, the company offered scholarships for
(28:53):
high school seniors based on their skills in home Eck
as part of the Betty Crocker Search for the All
American Homemaker of Tomorrow in Sphere. The Betty Crocker magazine debut.
It was a monthly recipe magazine that opened with this quote,
as women were lucky to be alive right now amid
(29:15):
the universal tumlt. It's more than ever a woman's world,
with twentieth century reality located somewhere between the swooning vapors
of Victorian forebears and the militant fervor of women's lib huh. Now,
I'll also say these seem to be pretty big collector's
items here issues in this magazine, and you can find
(29:37):
some like it feels like, I don't know the Indiana
Jones of Betty Crocker magazines. So people will be like,
I've just go I've unearthed this edition and it's in
this condition, and yeah, um well, uh, not to diminish print,
but Betty Crocker dot Com launched in Yes and now
(30:01):
Betty Crocker dot Com has loads of recipes and advice
available UM. When the Betty Crocker app came out, it
was one of the most popular free apps available. Customers
can still find Betty Crocker pamphlets in grocery stores as well.
Crocker made headlines when the companies started providing same sex
(30:21):
wedding cakes in Minnesota, where their headquarters are located, and
when gay marriage was legalized, the company presented the first
three gay couples married in Minnesota with gifts and a
wedding cake. UM. That same year, the Betty Crocker website
launched thirty cakes for thirty Days of Ramadan Um and
the Middle East is the brand's second largest market in
(30:43):
The cookbook was updated to include an entire chapter for
vegetarians and new recipes like chicken to Jane and I
think this is this is a big conversation in terms
of like what is included in American heavy quotes cuisine,
which Betty Crocker is kind of like been the representative
of what people think that is and how it's all
changing and shifting and or at least in terms of
(31:05):
mainstream or every right, right, right, right right? What what
the what the mainstream American UM perhaps includes in American cuisine? Right?
In UM, the brand partnered with Barbie to launch the
Barbie Dream Gap Project UM, which aimed to grow, um,
(31:29):
grow stem confidence in girls via kitchen projects. And that's
interesting because I do think, you know, it's been so
gendered and so I mean, it's such a big divide
of you know, the math and science is the boy's realm,
right and then every you know, social thing is a
girl's realm, which is there's so much wrong with that
(31:49):
to impact. But cooking is very scientific. Cooking is a
heck in science, like baking is science. You can eat
as people cooler than we have said. Yeah, um And
speaking of yeah, this very year in March, I believe UM,
the brand Betty Crocker launched a web section called Betty
(32:09):
lab Um, which yeah, encourages science based kitchen experimentation with
like some really cool stuff about the principles behind cooking
and baking, like heat transfer and sugar crystallization and the
pH scale and like freezing points and leavening processes. It's
it's pretty nifty. Yeah. Again, not a sponsor. I just
(32:32):
appreciate it, you know. Yeah, no, I did too. I
cooking can be an heart and of science. It is, yes,
it is, it is indeed. Um, Well, it's been quite
the journey. But I think that's what we have to
say about Betty Crocker for now. It is. Um. We
(32:53):
do have some listener mail for you, though, we do.
But first we have one more quick break for a
word from our sponsor. And we're back. Thank you, sponsor, Yes,
thank you, We're back with listen. I wanted to do
(33:18):
it the Transatlantic. I know you've got a good one, Laura.
I got a pretty good one. But it's hard to
communicate the trans Atlantic. I would go, like, pick up
a phone and do this. It's like a popping of
the chin. You know. I strongly suspected that that's what
you wanted to go for, and I didn't know how
to follow you with it. So I was just like, well,
(33:39):
we'll kind of yeah, I would, and see what it
takes us. And we did. And but I'm glad you're
picking up my my wavelength. Yeah, communicating it will um.
Danielle wrote, how long again from your favorite New Jersey resident,
(34:00):
I'm still waiting for my jailer Ham episode, but today
I am writing it about your poutine episode. I sat
there waiting patiently for you to mention the new Jersey
diner delicacy disco fries. Now. I'm not sure when they
were first advented, as I was only born in nineteen eighty,
but I remember my weekly diner spot, the Colonnette Diner
(34:22):
in Jersey City, which sadly no longer exists, updating their
menu in the nineteen nineties to include them, though I
believe they were a hidden menu item, kind of like
how Starbucks has hidden menu items for a long while
prior to the update. There's also an alternative version which
swips out the brown gravy for marinara sauce, which is
(34:43):
my preferred way to eat them. M hm. Anyway, come
to New York, New Jersey and I will take you
to all the good spots. Just don't eat for a
month prior. The diner Bagel pizza game is real p s.
I'm still hunting for the tomato soupcake recipe. I know
it's a spice cake mix, but don't remember the other
(35:05):
proportions and the icing which is cream cheese and chocolate frosting. Mixed.
Is literally the jewel in the crayon, the jewel in
the crown, not crayon, the jewel in the crayon. I
feel like wating to happen. Um. Anyway, Danielle continues, I
know my sister has it and is keeping it to herself.
(35:28):
Oh now the cake intrigue. Indeed, right right, I bet
Betty Crocker has a tomato soupcake recipe. Sure. Oh yeah. Um.
I'm like, I'm like almost physically trying to reach out
to my bookshelf which is downstairs where those cookbooks are,
(35:52):
and be like, oh no, it's right here. Um. Alright, alright,
we'll have to we'll have to delve into it later. Um.
But in the meanwhile, Ashley wrote, I loved your episode
The Mad Hatter Tea Party. It was so fun listening
to it. I ended up watching the original movie when
I was done. I've always treasured the Alice in Wonderland movies,
original Tim Burton and Alice though the Looking Glass. In
(36:15):
high school, we studied Alice in Wonderland, which was a
lot of fun. In my Auntie and I decided to
dress up as the Red Queen, her and Alice me.
We didn't even tell each other. We just showed up
dressed as the characters, which was pretty cool. What a
fun coincidence. We also carved Alison Wonderland themed jack o lanterns.
I lost the pictures of us actually dressed up, but
enjoy a picture of us and are finished Alison Wonderland
(36:37):
themed jack o lanterns. I wish I could share this
episode with her. She passed away in April. I hope
you guys are doing well and staying safe. The pictures
are so lovely. Yes, the jack lands are so great. Um,
and I love love, love of love that you showed
up just independently, right sweet. Oh that's wonderful, So so sweet. Um.
(37:05):
I'm glad you enjoyed the episode. As we've said we'd
we'd love doing those. So wonderful to hear. Wonderful to
hear from both of these listeners. Thank you so much
for writing it. If you would like to write to us,
you can our emails hello at savor pod dot com.
We are also on social media. You can find us
on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram at saver pod and we
(37:26):
do hope to hear from you. Savor is production of
I Heart Radio. For more podcasts, my Heart Radio, you
can visit the I Heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or
wherever you listen to your favorite shows. Thanks as always
to our superproducers Dylan Fagan and Andrew Howard. Thanks to
you for listening, and we hope that lots more good
things are coming your way.
Hello, and welcome to Favor production of I Heart Radio.
I'm Annie Reese and I'm Lauren Volga bam, and today
we have an episode for you about Betty Crocker. Yes,
which not a current sponsor. No no no um also
favorite pun when researching this one. No whisk, no reward.
(00:28):
Oh my goodness, it's so good. I love it. I
love it, I love it, I love it. That is
official branding. That is official Betty Crocker branding. By the way,
Yeah it is. You're right, all my Betty Crocker knowledge
is gotten whisked together. Now that's fair. That's fair. Yeah, yeah,
(00:50):
this is the longer outline. Actually, um so a couple
of years ago stuff I've never told you. The other
podcast I do, we did an episode on Betty Crocker.
We all also did as part of that um Ante
Mima and uh Mrs Butterworth. So what a what A
what a parent? Yes, so definitely like if you want
(01:11):
to learn more or like more about the kind of
the history of those brands. And you know, now it's
a little bit outdated because a lot of things have changed,
um since Yeah, maybe maybe an updates and order, Yeah exactly,
but the history is still there, and it's really interesting.
And I actually do find Lauren and I were discussing
this before before we started recording. I find this story
(01:36):
really interesting in a lot of ways, um, and a
lot of ways I find it really endearing, and a
lot of ways to find it really sexist. But but
I do. There's just something to me about like this
character taking off for these women who were in the
kitchen and they were trying to do the best with
new ingredients they had around and didn't have the internet. Yeah,
(01:58):
you know, like like relatively isolated and and and lonely
and just trying to work out how to make um,
this post industrial revolution kitchen work and right and finding
you know, reaching out and finding this fictional character and
being like close enough, we'll take it. Yes, Yes, it's
(02:23):
so funny because, like you said, fictional character. I'm almost
like gast It's not like I was ever a shock
to me, but it was a shock to some people.
And we're going to talk about that. Sure, Yeah, quite
a quite a big shock. Sure. Yeah, I mean to
see because she wasn't marketed as a character for decades exactly. Yes,
(02:46):
it's it's a really interesting story and we're going to
get into it. But I guess we should get to
our question. I suppose, Okay, Eddie Crocker, who what is it? Uh? Well, um,
Betty Crocker is a brand based on, Yes, a character
(03:07):
who just wants to help home cooks out. She is
friendly and competent and resourceful and creative yet science based,
and she looks good doing it. She's uh, she's the
She's the Betty with the good hair. Oh nice. Um.
The brand is currently part of the General Mills Corporation,
(03:30):
through which General Mills produces UH packaged food products and
publications of a number of kinds um food products. Generally,
these are meant as like shortcuts for home cooks more
than actual prepared foods. UM. Though, let's be honest, we've
all eaten the icing out of the can. Yeah it's
(03:56):
okay that Hey, that frosting is heck and delicious. Um.
But yeah, there are there are boxed baking mixes that
let you just add water and or eggs and or etcetera,
UM to bake up cakes, cookies, brownies, muffins, pizza crust,
pancakes or biscuits, and yes, a shelf stable frostings to
dress them up with along with icing gels, sprinkles, other
(04:19):
decorative candies, food coloring and candles, and um like muffin
or cupcake liners. Yeah yeah. There are also boxed dinner
mixes that let you just add water and or dairy
and or meat to create main dishes or side dishes,
like the Helper line of hot pastas or rice, hamburger Helper,
(04:42):
chicken helper, etcetera. Um. There's also a line of mashed
or scalloped potatoes. There's also a line of pasta salads. Um.
But there are a few packaged products, namely fruit snacks
that are under the sub brands of Betty Crocker, Um,
Fruit by the Foot, fruit roll ups, gushers, Oh nineties
(05:04):
nostalgic of crashing into me right like a like a gush,
you might say, Yeah, I had I had no idea,
I did not remember that. Um, that's a little bit wild,
and I feel like I don't have time for today.
I feel like fruit by the Foot and Gushers are
like such totally different episodes. Yes, okay, alright, so that
(05:29):
a side Um. The Betty Cracker brand is also a
recipe creating behemoth um testing and publishing just a ton
of content UM through print books, their print magazine, their
product packaging UM and online media including their website, Pinterest, Facebook, YouTube,
and Instagram. Of course, uh that many Cracker brand is
(05:53):
based in the United States, but also has outcroppings in
the UK and Iceland and Saudi Arabia and Mexico, in
Australia and elsewhere throughout Europe and the Middle East and Asia.
I actually just after Thanksgiving. Uh my mom of course,
did the mom thing and I was leaving and she
(06:16):
was like, take this. Take this. You don't have enough food.
Take this. And she gave me like way too much
turkey for like a single person to eat reasonable amount
of time. And so I know, we've done a past
episode on tetrazini and how that used to be like
a thing we would make leftovers. And I found a
Betty Crocker recipe and it was for like a leftover
(06:39):
you make tetrazini. And I happen to have all the
stuff and I was like, well, here we go, that's
what's happening with this and it was good. Well heck yeah, yes,
Well what about the nutrition? Uh don't eat brands or
characters probably mm hmmmm, Well you can get you know,
(07:06):
like gummies fictional characters on them. Sure, sure, and I
mean I guess, I mean, like we we sort of
covered this previously, but like if you drink kool aid, like,
are you drinking the kool aid man's fluids? I don't know,
mm hmm. True. These are the deep questions that haunt us,
(07:28):
keep us up at night over here at Saber. Yeah,
they do well. But in the meanwhile, we have some
numbers for you. We do. As of October, Betty Crocker
is one dred years old. Yeah, over two hundred grocery
(07:48):
products carry the Betty Crocker name. At General Mills headquarters
in Minnesota, there is a Betty Crocker available for questions seven.
The brand is supported by research done in the Betty
Crocker Kitchens, which, as of two thousand three anyway, encompassed
a facility with nineteen individual kitchens equipped to test fifty
(08:11):
thousand recipes a year. Those nineteen kitchens included at the
time eighteen tons worth of granite countertops. Wow, yeah, I know, behemoth,
I said, behemon, and appropriately so, Lauren. Since Betty Crocker's
(08:36):
very first portrait, her image has since been updated seven
times um more on that in the history section. But
despite going through various updates and changes in appearance, Betty
Crocker is one of the most recognizable women in America.
Article from ad Week found that Betty Crocker was one
of the most famous fictional female characters in the US,
(08:59):
and she held the top spot until flow from Progressive
surpassed her. An article from the New York Daily News
but her among the ranks of Barbie, Santa Claus, and
Uncle Sam as one of the most influential fictional figures
in the world. Yes, Betty Crocker's name is on over
(09:20):
two cookbooks, and the one that started it all in
nineteen Betty Crocker's picture cookbook UM now in its twelfth
edition and called the Betty Crocker Cookbook Everything You Need
to Know to Cook from Scratch, has sold over seventy
five million copies. Seventy million copies, Yes, and it's been
(09:41):
translated into Spanish. Uh. The website receives over twelve million
visitors a month, including me I guess YEA. While today
we may be more used to seeing the name and
face on boxed cake mixes and cans of icing, Betty
(10:01):
Crocker used to be a figure women sawed out for
cooking advice. Dear Betty Crocker, why won't my cake cries?
How do I get fluffy pancakes? Can you share a
good pie recipe? Not only would Betty Crocker give answers
to questions like these um and make people, largely women,
feel more confident in the kitchen, she also encouraged people
(10:22):
to try new things and acted as a safety net
for if those things didn't go to plan. Through this,
she showed up a huge following and fans. According to
the General Mill's website, at the peak of her popularity,
Betty Crocker was receiving five thousand letters a day. Goodness, goodness, indeed,
(10:45):
and it is quite the tale of her creation. And yeah,
and we are going to get into that, but first
we're going to get into a quick break for a
word from our sponsor. And we're back. Thank you sponsored, Yes,
(11:08):
thank you. So I guess, yes, we should get this
out of the way that we've already pretty much said.
Betty Crocker was not a real person, never a real person,
never a real person. She was created by a flour
milling company called Washburn Crosby Company, a company that would
go on to become General Mills. Are a part of
(11:30):
General Mills. Okay, so let's unback all of that. Washburn
Crosby got started in that same year. They entered their
Flower into the International Milling Competition and they won the
gold medal. To capitalize on their win, they changed their
name to something you might recognize, Gold Medal Flower, or
(11:51):
that's the name they put on their products, and yes,
it is a top seller today. The company decided to
run ads for their award winning flower in the Saturday
Evening Post in nine The ad was a jigsaw puzzle
of a small town square and consumers who figured it
(12:11):
out could claim a gold Medal flower sack shaped pincushion,
which cracks me up. And not only did over thirty
thousand people return the puzzle, much to Washburn crosby surprise,
a lot of the responses came with baking questions. Um, yeah,
because I remember this was before the internet. Again, I
(12:34):
think that's a huge part of this story. The company
did have a rather small marketing team made up of
all men and run by a man named Samuel Gale,
and this team typically handled customer questions and complaints. The
men on the team often handed these questions off do
the women who worked for the Gold Medal Home Service department,
(12:57):
But Gail did not like signing his name AM to
their answers because, in his mind, customers would prefer to
get kitchen advice from a woman. At the time, women
were doing most of the cooking and women were doing
most of the writing in to the company. The sheer
amount of responses and questions to the marketing campaign reinforced
(13:19):
to the company um the desire these customers had for
space to ask questions and have them answered, um to
get tips and recipe ideas, preferably from a woman they've trusted.
So that same year, the company went to work on
inventing a fictional woman to fill this need. They borrowed
the last name from recently retired Washburn Crosby director William G.
(13:43):
Crocker for the first name. The powers that be chose
Betty because they thought it sounded all American and cheery
and unthreatening. Yes, now that they had the name, they
needed the signature. Female employees were asked to submit samples
of what they thought signature should look like. Secretary Florence
Lindbergh submission one out and any letter responses sent to
(14:05):
a customer would have that now iconic signature on it.
People were even trained to match it, and the women
who worked at the company's home economist department UM who
answered the mail addressed to Betty were named the Crockettes. Yeah. Uh.
And by by this early point, although the brand and
or character was established by these higher up men at
(14:28):
the company, Yeah, the research and writing was being done
by women. UM, eventually led up by one Jeanette Kelly,
who had joined Washburn Crosby just four years out of
college in nine This was the era during which the
company began creating test kitchens for these home economists that
(14:48):
they employed to create recipes, design solid cooking advice, and demonstrate,
perhaps most importantly, how to use the gold medal flower
that they were so proud of. UM. A notable these
test kitchens were incorporating in the nineteen twenties all of
this newfangled technology like gas stoves and running water. Yeah. Yeah.
(15:12):
So like when we're saying like this was before the Internet,
this was a minute before the internet. This was yeah
things where things were very much still in flux in
terms of of of home cooking technology. Yes, UM, and
the demand for Betty Crocker was high enough that the
company opened the Betty Crocker Cooking Schools, which were these
(15:33):
companies sponsored cooking schools across the country, eventually eventually across
the country, originally just around the company's hometown of Minneapolis,
and then around the Midwest, and then yes, further out
than that even mm hmmm. However, for the first three
years after her inception, Betty Crocker existed in writing for
the most part um either through letters or her name
(15:55):
on the schools. That changed in nine when Betty Crocker
made her audio debut on the newly launched Washburn Crosby
Radio cooking show on Minneapolis's w c C o are
Washburn Crosby Company, and the company had purchased the station
when it was on the verge of bankruptcy. And note
that this was this was really early, or like fairly
(16:17):
early in the history of commercial broadcasting, Like there was
at the time a pretty huge movement towards corporate and
ad driven radio, but it was it was still like
fairly visionary for the company to put this together. The
show was called the Betty Crocker Cooking School of the Air, Yes,
(16:37):
and it was one of the first daytime cooking shows.
It really leaned into this school vibe. Graduates of this
on air school sent in reports for Betty Crocker too great. Uh.
There were two hundred and thirty eight graduates in that
first year. It was written and hosted by home economist
Marjorie Child. Hosted UM and I tried to find a
(16:59):
pronounced tion of the name, so I think it's hosted,
but h U s t e D. However, the show
quickly went nationwide and regional Betty Crockers were developed, though
the scripts are still written at the company's national headquarters.
The show sometimes featured prominent guests like Joan Crawford and
Carrie Grant. Um. I actually listened to one right before this,
and it was yeah in. The new NBC network added
(17:27):
the radio show to their lineup, where it would stay
for the next twenty four years, making it one of
the longest running radio shows in history. Over a million
listeners enrolled in the radio cooking show, and Betty Crocker
became an authority on baking during the Great Depression. She
provided advice on how to cook with little and she
didn't just talk about food. She sometimes gave advice on
(17:49):
raising children and family stuff. She also received queries like this,
I don't make your fudge cake because I like white cake,
but my neighbor does. Is there any danger of her
upturing my husband? Who Betty croc cake intrigued, cake intrigue. Indeed, later,
when asked about her time with this show, Husted, who
(18:12):
reportedly put a lot of herself into the show and
into Betty Crocker, said, it is very interesting to me
to look back now and realize how concerned I was
about the welfare of women as homemakers and their feelings
of self respect. Women needed a champion. Here were millions
of them staying at home alone, doing a job with children, cooking, cleaning,
on minimal budgets, the whole depressing mess of it. They
(18:34):
needed someone to remind them that they had value. I know. Wow.
Six big milling companies, including washbron Crosby, merged together in
to create General Mills. The first grocery item that carried
the Betty Crocker name was a soup mix in ninette.
(18:57):
When the company started selling cake mixes in ninety seven,
uh they came with her name to the first cake
mix was a ginger cake uh, today gingerbread cake, followed
by a Devil's Food cake mix and a party cake
mix with dual instructions for white or yellow cake via
adding just egg whites versus whole eggs. Yeah, party cake mix,
(19:20):
party cake mix. Okay, Um, yeah, that was a that
was a rabbit hole I very narrowly avoided, but I
wanted to learn everything there was about box cake. Oh yeah, yeah, No,
that's definitely that's definitely a separate episode. Um and right,
really really nitty gritty and interesting. Um, but for another day. Uh. Meanwhile, Um,
(19:46):
a year before that, ginger cake mix debuted in the
company's test kitchens were officially rebranded as the Betty Crocker Kitchens. Yes,
and Betty Crocker was by this point a household name.
Surveys done around the time found that nine out of
ten women knew the name Betty Crocker and she was receiving, yes,
(20:09):
about five thousand letters a day. Fortune magazine named her
the second most popular woman in the US behind Eleanor
Rosevelt in nine, earning her the nickname the First Lady
of Food. But this was actually somewhat of a scandal
because the article outed her as a fictional person. According
(20:34):
to Susan Marks's book Finding Betty Crocker, The Secret Life
of America's First Lady of Food, the company started stalking
tissues for people who visited the company's headquarters to meet
Betty Crocker, only to be reduced to tears when they
learned she wasn't real hoof to right. Yeah, but I
(20:55):
totally get it. I get if you had this presence
in your kitchen where you might have even received a
letter from her, like you might have corresponded like and
then and then to realize that Betty was a lie
that stuff. I mean also just like oh, man, like
y'all like like like we talked, we talked these days
about about representation, right, about seeing people like yourself, um
(21:20):
out there in the world. And yeah, the fact that
the second most popular woman in the US in was
fictional is really that just really says something about the
state of representation at that time. Yes, and that they
were both still white, so there you go. Yes, yes,
(21:43):
also that um. At the request of the U. S
Office of War, Betty Crocker spent four months in on
the radio show Our Nation's Rations, all about inspiring listeners
on ways to be creative and resourceful. During ration ng UM,
there was also a Betty Crocker pamphlet called Your Share
about all of this. Over seven million copies were circulated.
(22:06):
A second Betty Crocker pamphlet called Through Highway to Good Nutrition.
Through Highway to Good Nutrition that for some reason, that
title gets me every time. Yeah yeah, was recognized by
the American Red Cross for having a positive contribution in
terms of national interest. Yeah. I don't. I don't think
that you can read that title without having in your
(22:28):
head that very atomic age, uh, you know, like mid
Atlantic accent, like very um fallout or BioShock, kind of
like through Highway to Good Nutrition like kind of thing, yea,
which was kind of the I was like, oh, there's
that Transatlantic when I was listening to some clips. Oh, yep, yep, yep,
(22:51):
especially Oh my goodness, especially radio of that era was
really full of it. Yes, oh yes. Inty Crocker's Sure
cookbook hit the shelves and it sold two million copies
in its first two years. The aforementioned Janette Kelly, who
was still with the company UM, supervised the launch of
the book. UM. She uh stayed with the company until
(23:13):
nineteen when she went to New York City to continue
her career. And yeah. Since then, this book has sold
seventy five million copies and is still available under the
name the Betty Crocker Cookbook. Um. It has had a
huge impact, and it's sometimes referred to as the kitchen
Bible or Big Red. Its covers are red. It's a thing. Yes, yes,
(23:34):
but I know some of your listeners have written in
about this and I found a really delightful uh kind
of just an essay from somebody who was writing about
the importance of this book and kind of rediscovering it
and retrying the recipes, and it was just really sweet.
At the time, recipes accompanied with pictures were new and exciting. Again,
(23:55):
no Internet and another way to make cooking less intimidated. Sure, um,
I there's there's also, I will say now, a little
bit of a collector's market for some of these old,
old versions of this book. I myself have two or
three versions of it um that are not like in
(24:16):
like collectible condition by by any means. I'm not that guy.
I'm like fully prepared to spill something on any of
my books at any given moment um. But uh, but
they are fascinating because around around this time especially and
up through oh goodness, the modern era. UM, they had
in addition to recipes, like all of this life advice
(24:39):
UM about about like hey, like don't wear your best
shoes when you're vacuuming, or like what vacuuming the only
time for them? There's there there's one on I'll see.
I'll see if I can find it and post it
(25:00):
on the I'm so sorry. I never post anything on
the internet, but all sudden, y'all remind me, like right
in and remind me. Um, there's this one, and it's
always coming with these little like atomic age cartoons. Um,
there's this one that's like if you feel tired, to
just lie down on your back for a while on
the floor. And this is like like lady in this
(25:25):
very nice day dress and heels just flat on her back,
like studying the ceiling like you do. I've been there.
I've been there. Heck, i've been there today. Jeez, I
knew what was up anyway. Anyway, Yes, Uh. The advent
of televisions and homes in the US in nineteen really
(25:50):
changed this whole thing again, because the company knew they
needed to find a face and a voice for Betty Crocker.
After a search, they hired actress Adelaide Holly Coming, who
portrayed her in um several television programs like The Betty
Crocker Television Show and The Betty Crocker Star Matinee. Holly
Coming had come up in vaudeville, and before her hiring,
(26:12):
General Mills became the first consumer product company to extend
They're one of their trademarked print slash audio characters to
a quote fully dimensional live action personification. I don't know why.
That kind of makes me nervous. I think a lot
(26:33):
of things just make me. Full dimensional live action personification
sounds a little threatening to It's the specification of fully dimensional,
I think, because then it opens the question of like,
how many dimensions? How many dimensions like five? Two? I
don't know again deep questions questions in this episode. At
(26:59):
the time, there had been illustrations of Crocker previously, including
the first official portrait composed by Nissa McMain in ninety
six and I Hope I'm pronouncing your name correctly. It
was a compositive faces of the women who worked in
the company's home services department, and it didn't really change
for two decades, but it has now been updated seven
(27:20):
times to fit the trends and times of whenever it
has been updated, and in that way, it's kind of
an interesting look at the evolution of American women or
a specific demographic of American UM. For example, in nineteen
sixty five, she was styled in the vein of Jackie Kennedy. However,
she has generally been depicted as a white woman with
(27:42):
brown hair in her early thirties, specifically thirty two UM,
usually wearing red and white. I know, like okay, I'm
sure mm hmm. In painter John Stuart Ingold tried to
make Betty Crocker more inclusive by giving her all of
skin and for the first time, brown eyes. Oh. To
(28:07):
create the image, he took inspiration from seventy images of women.
General Mills provided that they felt captured the spirit of
Betty Crocker. Yeah, um and yeah. By the nine sixties,
around of the American population recognized the name. So that's
a lot yeah, mostly everybody, yep, yes, But stepping back
(28:31):
a bit, uh huh. The trademarked Red Spoon branding was
released on packaging starting in nineteen fifty four. UM and
General Mills brought the brand international for the first time
in the mid fifties to Canada um later other places.
From to nineteen seventy seven, the company offered scholarships for
(28:53):
high school seniors based on their skills in home Eck
as part of the Betty Crocker Search for the All
American Homemaker of Tomorrow in Sphere. The Betty Crocker magazine debut.
It was a monthly recipe magazine that opened with this quote,
as women were lucky to be alive right now amid
(29:15):
the universal tumlt. It's more than ever a woman's world,
with twentieth century reality located somewhere between the swooning vapors
of Victorian forebears and the militant fervor of women's lib huh. Now,
I'll also say these seem to be pretty big collector's
items here issues in this magazine, and you can find
(29:37):
some like it feels like, I don't know the Indiana
Jones of Betty Crocker magazines. So people will be like,
I've just go I've unearthed this edition and it's in
this condition, and yeah, um well, uh, not to diminish print,
but Betty Crocker dot Com launched in Yes and now
(30:01):
Betty Crocker dot Com has loads of recipes and advice
available UM. When the Betty Crocker app came out, it
was one of the most popular free apps available. Customers
can still find Betty Crocker pamphlets in grocery stores as well.
Crocker made headlines when the companies started providing same sex
(30:21):
wedding cakes in Minnesota, where their headquarters are located, and
when gay marriage was legalized, the company presented the first
three gay couples married in Minnesota with gifts and a
wedding cake. UM. That same year, the Betty Crocker website
launched thirty cakes for thirty Days of Ramadan Um and
the Middle East is the brand's second largest market in
(30:43):
The cookbook was updated to include an entire chapter for
vegetarians and new recipes like chicken to Jane and I
think this is this is a big conversation in terms
of like what is included in American heavy quotes cuisine,
which Betty Crocker is kind of like been the representative
of what people think that is and how it's all
changing and shifting and or at least in terms of
(31:05):
mainstream or every right, right, right, right right? What what
the what the mainstream American UM perhaps includes in American cuisine? Right?
In UM, the brand partnered with Barbie to launch the
Barbie Dream Gap Project UM, which aimed to grow, um,
(31:29):
grow stem confidence in girls via kitchen projects. And that's
interesting because I do think, you know, it's been so
gendered and so I mean, it's such a big divide
of you know, the math and science is the boy's realm,
right and then every you know, social thing is a
girl's realm, which is there's so much wrong with that
(31:49):
to impact. But cooking is very scientific. Cooking is a
heck in science, like baking is science. You can eat
as people cooler than we have said. Yeah, um And
speaking of yeah, this very year in March, I believe UM,
the brand Betty Crocker launched a web section called Betty
(32:09):
lab Um, which yeah, encourages science based kitchen experimentation with
like some really cool stuff about the principles behind cooking
and baking, like heat transfer and sugar crystallization and the
pH scale and like freezing points and leavening processes. It's
it's pretty nifty. Yeah. Again, not a sponsor. I just
(32:32):
appreciate it, you know. Yeah, no, I did too. I
cooking can be an heart and of science. It is, yes,
it is, it is indeed. Um, Well, it's been quite
the journey. But I think that's what we have to
say about Betty Crocker for now. It is. Um. We
(32:53):
do have some listener mail for you, though, we do.
But first we have one more quick break for a
word from our sponsor. And we're back. Thank you, sponsor, Yes,
thank you, We're back with listen. I wanted to do
(33:18):
it the Transatlantic. I know you've got a good one, Laura.
I got a pretty good one. But it's hard to
communicate the trans Atlantic. I would go, like, pick up
a phone and do this. It's like a popping of
the chin. You know. I strongly suspected that that's what
you wanted to go for, and I didn't know how
to follow you with it. So I was just like, well,
(33:39):
we'll kind of yeah, I would, and see what it
takes us. And we did. And but I'm glad you're
picking up my my wavelength. Yeah, communicating it will um.
Danielle wrote, how long again from your favorite New Jersey resident,
(34:00):
I'm still waiting for my jailer Ham episode, but today
I am writing it about your poutine episode. I sat
there waiting patiently for you to mention the new Jersey
diner delicacy disco fries. Now. I'm not sure when they
were first advented, as I was only born in nineteen eighty,
but I remember my weekly diner spot, the Colonnette Diner
(34:22):
in Jersey City, which sadly no longer exists, updating their
menu in the nineteen nineties to include them, though I
believe they were a hidden menu item, kind of like
how Starbucks has hidden menu items for a long while
prior to the update. There's also an alternative version which
swips out the brown gravy for marinara sauce, which is
(34:43):
my preferred way to eat them. M hm. Anyway, come
to New York, New Jersey and I will take you
to all the good spots. Just don't eat for a
month prior. The diner Bagel pizza game is real p s.
I'm still hunting for the tomato soupcake recipe. I know
it's a spice cake mix, but don't remember the other
(35:05):
proportions and the icing which is cream cheese and chocolate frosting. Mixed.
Is literally the jewel in the crayon, the jewel in
the crown, not crayon, the jewel in the crayon. I
feel like wating to happen. Um. Anyway, Danielle continues, I
know my sister has it and is keeping it to herself.
(35:28):
Oh now the cake intrigue. Indeed, right right, I bet
Betty Crocker has a tomato soupcake recipe. Sure. Oh yeah. Um.
I'm like, I'm like almost physically trying to reach out
to my bookshelf which is downstairs where those cookbooks are,
(35:52):
and be like, oh no, it's right here. Um. Alright, alright,
we'll have to we'll have to delve into it later. Um.
But in the meanwhile, Ashley wrote, I loved your episode
The Mad Hatter Tea Party. It was so fun listening
to it. I ended up watching the original movie when
I was done. I've always treasured the Alice in Wonderland movies,
original Tim Burton and Alice though the Looking Glass. In
(36:15):
high school, we studied Alice in Wonderland, which was a
lot of fun. In my Auntie and I decided to
dress up as the Red Queen, her and Alice me.
We didn't even tell each other. We just showed up
dressed as the characters, which was pretty cool. What a
fun coincidence. We also carved Alison Wonderland themed jack o lanterns.
I lost the pictures of us actually dressed up, but
enjoy a picture of us and are finished Alison Wonderland
(36:37):
themed jack o lanterns. I wish I could share this
episode with her. She passed away in April. I hope
you guys are doing well and staying safe. The pictures
are so lovely. Yes, the jack lands are so great. Um,
and I love love, love of love that you showed
up just independently, right sweet. Oh that's wonderful, So so sweet. Um.
(37:05):
I'm glad you enjoyed the episode. As we've said we'd
we'd love doing those. So wonderful to hear. Wonderful to
hear from both of these listeners. Thank you so much
for writing it. If you would like to write to us,
you can our emails hello at savor pod dot com.
We are also on social media. You can find us
on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram at saver pod and we
(37:26):
do hope to hear from you. Savor is production of
I Heart Radio. For more podcasts, my Heart Radio, you
can visit the I Heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or
wherever you listen to your favorite shows. Thanks as always
to our superproducers Dylan Fagan and Andrew Howard. Thanks to
you for listening, and we hope that lots more good
things are coming your way.
Savor News
Hosts And Creators
Anney Reese
Lauren Vogelbaum
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