Overbooked and Underpaid: Notes from a Yes-aholic

Back To Betty - Pastry - My Tips

The Betty Crocker 1950 Picture Cookbook pastry recipe uses only shortening and no butter.

But, as I've explained here, while a crust made without butter is very tender, it is also less flavorful and often too delicate to get a clean slice out of the pie pan. So I use a half shortening half butter combo.

The good thing about having shortening in the crust is it's a lot less fussy.

But if you are using butter it's still good to have that butter as cold as possible when you add it to the flour.

Dicing that butter without letting it heat up to room temperature can be a challenge - especially in warm weather.

So here's my trick for dicing butter into small pieces quickly without too much fuss.

1) Make a lengthwise cut with a sharp knife in the stick of  cold butter. I do this right on the wrapper.

2) Flip the butter over and make another lengthwise cut that intersects the first cut and creates quarters.

3) Cut a small slice (about 1/8 inch) off the end of the stick and place it on the secret weapon - an egg slicer - to turn your butter pat into nice tiny cubes. This works best if you push the butter through the slicer right over the bowl of flour and directly into the mixture.

4) Repeat until all butter is diced. 

Using this trick will give you nice small pieces of butter in no time at all!

If you want to learn more about pie and pastry and the Back To Betty project (baking my way through the Betty Crocker 1950 picture cookbook) choose the category "Back To Betty" over in the right hand sidebar.

 

Back To Betty - Everything You Ever Wanted To Know About Pie But Were Afraid To Ask

Well, first off, that headline is a lie.

This post will cover everything Betty Crocker had to say about pie in 1950.

In the first edition of the Betty Crocker Picture Cookbook the section on pies and pastry starts on page 293 and runs through page 328.

Let's jump into Betty's world of Pie....

As with every section of the book we begin with:

"The Yellow Page"

(Click here for an explanation of book layout)

Impression - Yellow Pages always feature a quote by Betty - compliments of the General Mills Marketing Division - this one is about how "American" pie is. My first reaction is to want to look up the origin of the phrase "American as Apple Pie." I've always wondered why pie is considered such an American thing so many other countries have long standing pie traditions.

Then vs Now - The thing that jumps out at me on this page is the image for "summer pies". I'm trying to decide if it's racist or not. It seems harmless in this context but it makes me think of less harmless racial stereotypes of smiling barefooted black and brown people.....

 

The Essay

(These always appears at the beginning of a section)

Impression - That "American Pie" thing is presented here again - now I really will have to look it up.

What I Learned - There's an interesting bit about pie dishes being long and called "coffins" and there is a claim here that Americans invented round pies. I never heard of either of those things before and now I have to go look those up.

Important Note - At the bottom of the page they mention their new "simplified methods" including a pastry that does not need to be chilled. When you get to the pastry recipe you will see that this is because it uses only shortening and no butter. I take a deep dive into the use of both shortening and butter in my post here.

 

The Two Page Photo Spread

(not every section has one of these but when there is one a reference key is often printed on the back of the "yellow page.")

Impression - My first impression is how far we've come with food photography. My second impression is how homemade these pies look in contrast to the images we see in cookbooks nowadays. The third thing I notice is how thick the pastry is - I generally put thinner pastry on top of my pies.

Weird - At first I thought there was a small tart consisting of nothing but a pastry crust filled with olives tucked up there on the right hand page. When I went back to the reference key on page 294 I discovered it's actually a green grape pie. A reminder to check out the reference key!

 

The Methods

Pages 289-301

Impression - The methods pages in the Betty Crocker Cookbook are usually the most important and most helpful parts of the book. The pastry pages are extremely helpful for tips on achieving flaky pastry and handling the dough.

What I Learned - 1) To mix together all dry ingredients first 2) To add shortening (or butter) in two stages, mixing with a pastry cutter each time  3) To add water 1 tablespoon at a time by sprinkling it lightly 4) To fluff with a fork after each addition of water 5) That different kinds of pie pans produce different results.

Then vs now - Almost every modern pastry recipe uses a food processor - in my experience food processors produce crust that is NOT as light and flaky as crust made by hand. Contrary to popular belief a hand made crust does not take that much more time and is not terribly hard  if you follow the steps for hand made crust outlined in the Betty Crocker Cookbook - especially if you incorporate some shortening into the crust instead of using only butter. Butter has water in it while shortening does not - so butter will always react with flour to produce longer gluten strands and longer gluten strands will always make a tougher crust than the shorter strands you get with Crisco or lard.

What I do differently - There is really only one combination of ingredients for pastry (salt, flour, shortening, water) for the entire section and it is supposed to be suitable for almost every pie in the book. I find that different pies benefit from different pastries. Below are some changes I make for different kinds of pies:

Large open faced berry tart - 1) Follow the pastry recipe for an 8 inch two crust pie but instead of all shortening use a combination of butter and shortening. (3 parts butter and 1 part shortening) This makes a stronger crust that will hold up well when you unmold it from the tart pan 2) Add some sugar to the crust to give even more strength and aid in browning - the actual amount does not matter that much but do not exceed 7 teaspoons

Fruit Pies - 1) Half butter half shortening instead of all shortening 2) Add 3 tsp sugar to crust 3) Add 1 tsp vanilla extract after adding the water and fluff again with a fork (only use real vanilla, not imitation - real vanilla is alcohol based and imitation vanilla is not so it will alter the moisture ratio.)

Pecan Pie and other very sweet pies like southern sugar pie - 1) Half butter half shortening instead of all shortening. 2) Add slightly more salt to the crust to counter the sweetness of the filling.

 

Page 307

Impression - These tips still hold up for making decorative pie crusts.

Then vs Now - These days you might be tempted to use parchment paper instead of wax paper but I suspect that the crust will fall off the paper before you can get it onto the pie...

Favorite Trick - Making the lattice separately and then flipping it onto the pie!

 

Page 310

What I Learned - 1) To avoid shrinking of the dough when baking don't stretch it when you put it in the pan 2) Not to prick the pastry with a fork for a pastry that will get filled before baking

Favorite Trick - Pouring filling into the pastry AFTER putting it on the oven rack.

Special Note - Up in the right hand corner you can see the words "All You Have To Do"  - these little notes are scattered all over the book and you can easily miss them when they are embedded in a page like this or amongst the recipes. They always have good tips for either avoiding a potential problem or enhancing a recipe. Here's another one:

 

Page 315

Impression - This page is Betty Crocker's answer to puff pastry - finally we have an alternative to the single pastry recipe presented for all the rest of the pies.

What I Learned - That you can supposedly make quick puff pastry out of regular pastry dough simply by adding extra butter and folding it up and refrigerating. I have not tried this yet but I will.

Interesting Note - the "English Pastry" referenced here is what fans of the Great British Baking Show will recognize as "hot water crust".

 

And Then There's This:

Impression - I NEVER heard of this - I find the idea of making a custard separately and then "slipping" it into a baked crust fascinating! I'm totally going to have to try this!

In Summary - There is a lot to unpack in this section and a LOT of recipes for pie. Keep checking back for recipe tests and reviews of specific pies as I bake my way through the book!

As Always: If you own a copy of the Betty Crocker Picture cookbook (1950 edition) I hope I've inspired you to take another good look at it. If you don't have a copy they are pretty easy to find on Ebay and other sources for old used books.

Images reproduced here are for educational purposes only.

Back To Betty - Getting The Most Out Of Each Recipe Section

True to its name, the 1950 Betty Crocker Picture Cookbook features many, many photographs to illustrate not only the recipes but the methods you need to know in order to achieve good results.

If you are an inexperienced cook theses pictures are extremely helpful but even if you've spent years in the kitchen it's amazing how much you can still learn from them.

In a previous post I talked about the importance of reading the first 28 pages of the cookbook because they contain a lot of vital information: terms used in recipes, understanding methods, tools and equipment, etc.

Now would be a good time to address getting the most out the individual sections of the book. 

Each section follows a basic formula:

1) A Yellow page with the name of the section and an index of the recipes contained in the section. These pages are printed on different paper stock and the yellow color and non-glossy paper are very helpful when you want to find the beginning of a section quickly.

2) A short essay on the "American" history of the recipes. I'll be writing a lot about these as I work my way through the book - some of them are hilarious, some of them are just flat-out wrong, some of them are incredibly "white-settler colonial centric." No matter how accurate they may or may not be, theses essays offer a pretty interesting window into the mindset of American marketing and "mainstream" culture in 1950.

3) Sometimes, but not always that essay is followed by a two page photo spread containing images some of the recipes in the section. When this feature appears it is usually preceded by a sort of "key" that can be found on the back side of the previous "yellow page." One thing these photos show is how far we've come in food photography!

4) Photos of "method". These are THE MOST IMPORTANT PAGES IN EACH SECTION. You will always learn a LOT if you take the time to go over them before you start your recipe.

5) Actual recipes ...but be on the lookout inside the recipes for a couple of things:

a) Read recipes carefully because sometimes important tips are built right into the beginning  - for instance, the berry pie recipe has a note about the moisture content of canned berries vs fresh berries and tells you how to compensate.

b) Often in the middle of everything else you will see these words "All You Have To Do"  - watch out for these - they are always tips and tricks, usually for fixing a problem or preventing a disaster.

Before I started this project I have to admit that I had ignored most of what I have outlined above - I generally just opened the book to whatever recipe I needed. I now know I was missing out a lot of what makes the book unique.

As Always: If you own a copy of the Betty Crocker Picture cookbook (1950 edition) I hope I've inspired you to take another good look at it. If you don't have a copy they are pretty easy to find on ebay and other sources for old used books.

Images reproduced here are for educational purposes only.

 

 

Back To Betty - Piecrust Part One: How Betty Saved Me

My grandmother made Killer Pies. 

With a fabulous crust made from scratch.

Which is why it gives me great shame to confess that, for many years, this was my pie crust of choice.

Here I have to stop and admit that I am a teeny bit competitive. And when I'm not any good at something, I tend to avoid it.

So, when the first two pie crusts I made from scratch turned out tough, tasteless, and all around awful, I immediately fell back on the roll out pie crust.

Why were those first crusts so awful?

Because I wasn’t using my grandmother’s pastry recipe

I was using Martha Stewart’s pastry recipe.

I did everything, everything, she said to do for a perfect crust.

I used only grade A unsalted butter, I kept everything, including the mixing bowl, chilled to within an inch of its life. I didn't overwork the dough. 

And the result was a tough, almost inedible, piecrust.

And I told myself, "Well everything Martha does is perfect - so if I can't make this work, it must be me.

And I gave up.

Until I was saved by the Betty Crocker Picture Cookbook.

Which, of course, contains an entire primer on pie pastry.

With an important revelation:

The Betty Crocker pie crust is made with vegetable shortening.

Yes, you heard me, vegetable shortening.

Not expensive butter that had to be just the right temperature.

Just plain ol' Crisco, right out of the cupboard.

I wasn't too sure about this - every cooking show around was singing the praises of butter - how could this be better?

But it was.

It was Fabulous.

And it was Easy.

And, it turns out, it was also the recipe buried in that recipe book from my grandmother. The one I had not bothered to look at once Martha came along.

I was sold.

And ready to enthusiastically abandon the pre-fab refrigerator crust.

Between the Betty Crocker recipe and my own trial and error I’ve learned a few things about pastry over the years:

• Using only butter makes a crust that has buttery flavor but tends to be tough, no matter how little you handle it.
• Using only shortening makes a crust that is incredibly tender but not always durable. It also usually needs a little extra salt to balance out the flavor.
• A compromise of half salted butter and half shortening produces a crust that has great flavor, is nice and flaky, generally holds up to being served out of the pie dish using only a fork, and is almost foolproof.

Another nice thing about using any almost any amount of vegetable shortening or lard in a pie crust is that you no longer have to worry so much about all that chilling and keeping everything cold. Even if you are also using a lot of butter.

If you own a copy of the Betty Crocker Picture Cookbook, and want to try your hand at a scratch piecrust using Betty’s recipes, head to the section on pies and pastry that starts on page 293. (In the 1950 edition) If you can't get your hands on a copy of the book but want Betty's vintage crust recipe click here.

A note about why I keep bringing up the 1950 edition - over the years many of the Betty Crocker recipes have changed as ideas about health and diet have changed. I can't promise that later editions of Betty Crocker recipes will give the same results as those I cite here.

If you want my recipe for pie crust – which is very similar to Betty’s – click here.

In Part two of piecrust we will continue with the Betty Crocker pastry “how-to” section and my own tips and tricks for dealing with scratch crust.

I promise you that perfect made-from-scratch piecrusts are not as hard as you think once you know a few tricks.

And the results are WELL worth it!

Back To Betty - Quick Tip - Measuring Eggs

I've always known that eggs come in different sizes and that, when baking, the amount of egg you use matters quite a bit if you want consistent results.

But I never really noticed this great little chart in the Betty Crocker Picture Cookbook - I think it's especially helpful now that we have so many different eggs out there on the market and who knows if the sizes we see on the package still conform to the sizes of eggs mentioned in older recipes.

If you want to be completely sure you are using the correct amount of egg in your recipe you will want to save this tip !

This tip is part of the Back To Betty Project - to read more about the project click here.

Back To Betty - How To Get The Most Out Of The 1950 Cookbook

As I mentioned on Monday there is a new feature on the blog: Back To Betty.

I'm revisiting the 1950 edition of the Betty Crocker Picture Cookbook in hopes of generating new interest in this terrific culinary resource. You can read the first post with the background of the project by clicking here.

Now, if you own a copy of this book and you just want to jump right in, find a recipe, and make it, go right ahead.

But if you really want to get the most out of all the Betty Crocker cookbook has to offer you should probably take a moment and check out the first 28 pages.

Including the endpapers.

Yes, the endpapers.

I've been cooking out of this book for many years but until I started this project I never really looked closely at the endpapers so I missed the handy quick tips that are located there.

And to be honest I never really looked at the first 28 pages either. I was lucky enough to have a mom and grandmother who taught me things like the method for properly measuring flour (never scoop it up using the measuring cup - instead you pour the flour into the cup and then level it off with a knife - as shown on page 7).

Had I taken the time to read those pages I could have saved myself from making a lot of mistakes that actually affected the flavor, tenderness, and overall success of the food I was preparing.

There are basically seven sections at the beginning which cover:

1. An introduction to the Betty Crocker kitchens and the goals of the company and the book. There are some VERY cool pics here of the "test kitchens" - I love looking at the kitchen fashions of the 1950s and these are some great representations.
2. Measuring - all the little tips and tricks for measuring different kinds of ingredients and taking into account whether they are wet or dry or should be tightly or loosely packed etc. There's a great tip here for measuring eggs.
3. Meaning of Terms - Very important so that you understand what the recipe is asking you to do. Includes a whole section of "foreign" and special terms (often these are French). It's fascinating to look through the "dictionary" and see how many terms would need little explanation today since they have become so commonplace on cooking shows.
4. Utensils - this section is most important for the recipes requiring baking - different types of pans bake things differently. There is a pic here of the old fashioned pastry cutter I use - I swear by these old cutters - they mix the pastry without cutting your fingers as you clean them off.
5. Food Storage - A valuable resource to avoid food spoilage. Apparently there are different methods for storing hard cheeses and soft cheeses - who knew?
6. Substitutions  - Explains what ingredients can be safely substituted in a recipe without compromising the outcome. Includes a section on common food equivalents and also equivalent weights and measures. I learned here that I can substitute sweet milk for buttermilk and vice versa by adding either lemon juice or baking soda as needed.
7. Preparation - Some ingredients, like chocolate and nuts need to be handled in particular ways - this section addresses a variety of ingredients with special needs. I just learned how to properly open and deal with a coconut in this section!

The helpful hints and "how to's" don't stop with the introduction but on page 28 we actually start seeing some recipes and the step-by-step instructions and tips become more integrated into the rest of the book. I'll be addressing these other "how-to" sections and "tips and tricks" in later posts as we move through the project. There is a LOT to unpack in this book!

So, if you have a copy of the Betty Crocker Picture cookbook kicking around your house and you haven't truly looked at it in years, maybe now would be a good time to dig it out, grab a cup of coffee (or tea or wine - knock yourself out) and browse through that first section. Even if you've looked at it in the past I bet you will find something interesting and/or enlightening that you barely noticed before.

For those of you who don't own a copy of the Betty Crocker Picture cookbook I'm posting images of those first pages (see them by clicking here).

Hopefully you will be so intrigued by them you will head over to Amazon or Ebay or wherever you find old books and order a copy of the book for yourself.

Back To Betty - It Begins....

Americans love cooking gurus.

Julia Child, Jaques Pepin, Graham Kerr (The Galloping Gourmet) and Martha Stewart to name a few.

But before all of those we had Betty Crocker.

Here's Betty:

No, wait, here's Betty:

No, here's Betty -  and here, and here:

And here, and here, and here:

Whaaaaaa???

If you're confused by the many Betty portraits the answer is simple.

There is no Betty Crocker.

Unlike Julia Child and Martha Stewart, Betty Crocker is not actually a real person.

She has been portrayed since 1936 by a variety of actresses - both in print and on radio - and all of the above "portraits" were commissioned by the company behind "Betty Crocker"; General Mills.

Specifically General Mills Flour.

The history behind the creation of Betty is actually quite fascinating. To read one of the better articles, click on this link to the PBS site featuring a piece by writer Tory Avey.

Once upon a time the Betty Crocker Picture Cookbook was the kitchen bible of housewives everywhere.

Before the advent of television cooking shows, a good picture cookbook was a godsend for all those women (yes, women - we're talking 1930's to 1950's) - who felt lost in the kitchen. Or who maybe just wanted some new recipes and ideas that didn't come from their mothers and grandmothers.

My own cooking life changed profoundly in 1987 - the year my husband inherited his grandmother's copy of the 1950 edition of this amazing font of cooking knowledge.

I had entered our marriage armed with my grandmother's typed recipe book but not much else.

Here's how the book looked when we got it.

And here's how it looks now.

Clearly the broken spine and the many layers of tape are the signs of a heavily used and truly valuable kitchen resource.

Such a great resource that last Christmas I scrounged up copies to give to all my kids.

And such a great resource that I've decided to start a new feature here on the blog called "Back To Betty" which will focus on:

• Recipe Reviews & Revisions - actual breakdowns of several recipes
• Then vs Now (1950 vs 2020)
• Tips & Tricks - an exploration of all the great "how-to's" in the book
• Memories - stories of food I ate growing up that I never knew came from the book
• Who Knew? - things I'm learning from doing this project

I want to be clear about one thing right up front.

This is not going to be Julie and Julia.

There is no way I could ever cook my way through this entire cookbook. Not only would it be a herculean task, I would most certainly gain at least 20 pounds.

Nor do I have any particular desire to emulate the housewives of the 1950's.

While The Betty Crocker Picture Cookbook changed my life in the kitchen, the rest of my life, not so much.

My main goal here is to introduce new cooks to a great old resource, gather some kitchen wisdom, and have some fun along the way.

Back To Betty Posts will appear on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Thursdays, as often as the rest of my overbooked schedule allows :-).