In the Gender, Sexuality, Feminist, and Social Justice Studies (GSFS) 401 Winter 2020 semester class on Food, Gender, and Environment taught by Dr. Alex Ketchum, students are analyzing the ways that food accessibility and environmental threats are gendered, sexualized, and racialized within the global context. As part of the course, students visited McGill’s archives and special collections to have a hands on experience with historical cookbooks (more on that here: http://www.historicalcookingproject.com/2020/02/field-trip-to-mcgill-rare-books-and.html). The Special Series of Student Posts is a collection of student reflections on what information we can glean from cookbooks.
Today, we consider baking competitions as just one facet of the reality television genre that has taken over screens in the digital era. Shows such as “The Great British Baking Show,” and “Sugar Rush,” provide audiences with a closer look into the grueling process behind the creation of delicious confections, coupled with the dramatics of reality television to draw in viewership. The concept of pitting home-bakers against each other to produce the ultimate dessert however, was a concept that began at the hands of the Pillsbury Company when they held their first “bake-off” in 1949. According to the company, they launched the bake-off “in honor of Pillsbury’s 80th birthday and as an effort to promote Pillsbury™ Best® flour.” (Pillsbury Kitchen 2017) In framing the competition to the masses, however, they explain the competition as an effort to “create an opportunity for American homemakers to share their beloved recipes and the stories that go along with them.” (Pillsbury Kitchen 2017) The value of a platform such as the bake-off existed in the fact that not only did it provide participants with an opportunity for their labor to be acknowledged, but for house-wives who cooked day in and day out without compensation, this was a chance to gain monetary reward for a job well done.
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In the context of 1940s white, middle-class, American families, women did not customarily contribute to the public sphere and were confined to their private, unrewarded, domestic duties. The Pillsbury bake-off, however, served as an “emblem of the homemaker's dream,” as women could experience reward for their culinary skillfulness for the first time. (Block) According to Summer Block of January Magazine, one runner-up described the bake-off as providing her with her first “plane ride, electric range, first mixer [and] first experience winning…the precious feeling of suddenly having fortune smile on me -- really and truly so.” (Block) The process of choosing finalists was as follows; “Pillsbury home economists evaluated thousands of entries and selected one hundred finalists after baking and sampling the entries.” (Huber 2011) The chosen women were granted the opportunity to win a 25,000-dollar grand prize which would double if they provided proof that they used the Pillsbury flour in their recipe. 50,000 dollars of financial independence for women who were not otherwise able to generate income was incredibly enticing and led to the bake-offs’ resounding success throughout the nation.
Charles Pillsbury began “Pillsbury’s Best flour” as his first entrepreneurial venture after acquiring a flour-mill in 1869. He began with a dilapidated mill on the banks of the Mississippi River and within twenty years was one of the world's larger flour producers. (Huber 2011) The bake-off was a large part of what solidified Pillsbury’s monopoly of the high-quality, bleached flour market, as it became the recommended flour for all home-bakers hoping to achieve the “bake-off standard” of confections. (Ox Tales) The Pillsbury Company ultimately reaped the financial benefits of the bake-offs’ popularity as their product sales skyrocketed, and their flour became a staple in North American households.
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Pillsbury Kitchens Family Cookbook was the company’s first cookbook, which was released three decades after the first bake-off. Not surprisingly, each of the bake-off confections in the cookbook listed Pillsbury flour as a primary ingredient. The Pillsbury Company had appealed to just the right audience when commencing their bake-off – the middle-class, housewives who had control of the kitchen. This made it easy for the company to weasel their way into American homes, as women were in charge of the domestic duties, namely all the grocery shopping and all the cooking. (Ox Tales)
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As the bake-off progressed, as did the standards to achieve a place in the finals. The Pillsbury Company was receiving thousands of submissions, and in order to stand out, creativity became the name of the game. By the time the Pillsbury Kitchens Family Cookbook was released in 1979, the submissions that were winning the bake-off prize were no longer variations on your run-of-the-mill chocolate cake, but included recipes such as “the onion lover’s twist,” and an “open sesame pie.”
However, the title of the cookbook sheds light on the cultural implications that the company was still attempting to disseminate in 1979 when it was published. The release of a “family” based cookbook still followed the nuclear family model that dominated discussions surrounding food and the kitchen. And creating quality dining for the family, and house guests, with little consideration of the “gastronomical” aspects of food, was still a reliable tactic that would guarantee the sales of a cookbook. Besides the few creative bake-off classics listed, the rest of the recipes are basic and “traditional,” indicating the familial nature of the nation’s relationship with food.
As the standards for entry into the bake-off raised, requiring more creativity and edge, as did the amount of prize money one could win, as well as the number of male entries. In the 90s, when the cash prize was raised to a million dollars, the bake-off saw a spike in the number of male finalists, as well as its first male winner. (Ox Tales) The bake-off was no longer a platform for the appreciation and recognition of female labor, but a nationwide phenomenon that had established credibility in the public sphere. However far removed we are today from the original purposes of the bake-off when it commenced, its legacies will remain in memory, archives, and most importantly, cookbooks, for generations to come.
Works Cited
Block, Summer. “Review: Something from the Oven by Laura Shapiro, Fast Food Fantasy.” January Magazine, www.januarymagazine.com/artcult/somethingfromoven.html.
Huber, Molly. “Pillsbury, Charles Alfred (1842–1899).” MNopedia, Minnesota Historical Society, 10 May 2011, www.mnopedia.org/person/pillsbury-charles-alfred-1842-1899.
“Magic Marshmallow Crescent Puff.” Ox Tales. Oxford Symposium on Food and Cookery, April 18, 2018. Accessed on 20 February 2020.
Pillsbury Kitchens. “The Incredible True History of the Pillsbury Bake-Off® Contest.” Pillsbury.com, Pillsbury, 15 Aug. 2017, www.pillsbury.com/bake-off-contest/history-of-the-pillsbury-bake-off-contest.
How the Pillsbury Bake-off Can Shape our Understanding of the Company’s 1979 Cookbook
by Amani Premjee
Today, we consider baking competitions as just one facet of the reality television genre that has taken over screens in the digital era. Shows such as “The Great British Baking Show,” and “Sugar Rush,” provide audiences with a closer look into the grueling process behind the creation of delicious confections, coupled with the dramatics of reality television to draw in viewership. The concept of pitting home-bakers against each other to produce the ultimate dessert however, was a concept that began at the hands of the Pillsbury Company when they held their first “bake-off” in 1949. According to the company, they launched the bake-off “in honor of Pillsbury’s 80th birthday and as an effort to promote Pillsbury™ Best® flour.” (Pillsbury Kitchen 2017) In framing the competition to the masses, however, they explain the competition as an effort to “create an opportunity for American homemakers to share their beloved recipes and the stories that go along with them.” (Pillsbury Kitchen 2017) The value of a platform such as the bake-off existed in the fact that not only did it provide participants with an opportunity for their labor to be acknowledged, but for house-wives who cooked day in and day out without compensation, this was a chance to gain monetary reward for a job well done.
Charles Pillsbury began “Pillsbury’s Best flour” as his first entrepreneurial venture after acquiring a flour-mill in 1869. He began with a dilapidated mill on the banks of the Mississippi River and within twenty years was one of the world's larger flour producers. (Huber 2011) The bake-off was a large part of what solidified Pillsbury’s monopoly of the high-quality, bleached flour market, as it became the recommended flour for all home-bakers hoping to achieve the “bake-off standard” of confections. (Ox Tales) The Pillsbury Company ultimately reaped the financial benefits of the bake-offs’ popularity as their product sales skyrocketed, and their flour became a staple in North American households.
Pillsbury Kitchens Family Cookbook was the company’s first cookbook, which was released three decades after the first bake-off. Not surprisingly, each of the bake-off confections in the cookbook listed Pillsbury flour as a primary ingredient. The Pillsbury Company had appealed to just the right audience when commencing their bake-off – the middle-class, housewives who had control of the kitchen. This made it easy for the company to weasel their way into American homes, as women were in charge of the domestic duties, namely all the grocery shopping and all the cooking. (Ox Tales)
However, the title of the cookbook sheds light on the cultural implications that the company was still attempting to disseminate in 1979 when it was published. The release of a “family” based cookbook still followed the nuclear family model that dominated discussions surrounding food and the kitchen. And creating quality dining for the family, and house guests, with little consideration of the “gastronomical” aspects of food, was still a reliable tactic that would guarantee the sales of a cookbook. Besides the few creative bake-off classics listed, the rest of the recipes are basic and “traditional,” indicating the familial nature of the nation’s relationship with food.
As the standards for entry into the bake-off raised, requiring more creativity and edge, as did the amount of prize money one could win, as well as the number of male entries. In the 90s, when the cash prize was raised to a million dollars, the bake-off saw a spike in the number of male finalists, as well as its first male winner. (Ox Tales) The bake-off was no longer a platform for the appreciation and recognition of female labor, but a nationwide phenomenon that had established credibility in the public sphere. However far removed we are today from the original purposes of the bake-off when it commenced, its legacies will remain in memory, archives, and most importantly, cookbooks, for generations to come.
Works Cited
Block, Summer. “Review: Something from the Oven by Laura Shapiro, Fast Food Fantasy.” January Magazine, www.januarymagazine.com/artcult/somethingfromoven.html.
Huber, Molly. “Pillsbury, Charles Alfred (1842–1899).” MNopedia, Minnesota Historical Society, 10 May 2011, www.mnopedia.org/person/pillsbury-charles-alfred-1842-1899.
“Magic Marshmallow Crescent Puff.” Ox Tales. Oxford Symposium on Food and Cookery, April 18, 2018. Accessed on 20 February 2020.
Pillsbury Kitchens. “The Incredible True History of the Pillsbury Bake-Off® Contest.” Pillsbury.com, Pillsbury, 15 Aug. 2017, www.pillsbury.com/bake-off-contest/history-of-the-pillsbury-bake-off-contest.