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Eva Berry cookbooks

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Held at: University of Pennsylvania: Kislak Center for Special Collections, Rare Books and Manuscripts [Contact Us]3420 Walnut Street, Philadelphia, PA 19104-6206

This is a finding aid. It is a description of archival material held at the University of Pennsylvania: Kislak Center for Special Collections, Rare Books and Manuscripts. Unless otherwise noted, the materials described below are physically available in their reading room, and not digitally available through the web.

Overview and metadata sections

Little is known about these volumes' creator, Eva Berry, other than that she was active in the United States around the 1930s.

There is a printed recipe in this volume for Betty Crocker's perfect buttercup cake published by General Mills.

General Mills formed in 1928 when the Washburn-Crosby flour mill was merged with four other mills by the mill's president, James Ford Bell. The flour mill that would become General Mills was founded by Cadwallader Washburn in Minneapolis, Minnesota in 1866.

Betty Crocker was created as a promotional character for the Washburn-Crosby flour mill's Gold Metal Flour product in 1921. The character was initially created to personalize responses to customer inquiries but in 1924 she became the subject of the first radio cooking show and by the 1940s, she was the "second best known woman in America." (BC)

Sources:

"About Us." Betty Crocker, 19 Jan. 2023, www.bettycrocker.com/about-us.

"Our History." General Mills, www.generalmills.com/about-us/our-history.

These volumes contain 140 culinary recipes and were written and compiled by Eva Berry from around the 1930s through 1947 in the United States.

Both printed volumes are titled "Recipes My Friends and My Own" and were illustrated by Louise Perrett and published by the Reilly Britton Co. of Chicago, IL in 1904.

The first volume is bound in red suede covers with gold embossed details on the cover and a thumb index. The sections of the thumb index include breads (p. 9), beverages (p. 19), soups (p. 31), fish (p. 43), eggs (p. 55), entrees (p. 67), meats (p. 79), vegetables (p. 91), salads (p. 103), puddings and pastry (p. 115), custards, jellies, and ices (p. 127), cakes (p. 139), the chafing dish (p. 151), and miscellaneous (p. 163).

This volume contains a significant number of blank pages (p. 2-4, 11-18, 20-30, 33-54, 57-66, 70-78, 84-90, 93-102, 121-126, 135-138, 152-162, 170-176).

Examples of recipes in volume one include wholewheat muffins (p. 10), cream tomato soup (p. 31), escalloped eggs (p. 55), raisin fluff (p. 68), veal birds (p. 81), escalloped corn and tomatoes (p. 91), Mrs. Roylance's salad (p. 103), salmon salad (p. 105), thousand island dressing (p. 108), lemon pie (p. 119), maple ice cream (p. 127), maple bisque (p. 129), sunrise cake (p. 140), potato caramel cake (p. 141), Devil's food cake (p. 145), and strawberries cooked in sun (p. 166). The recipes in volume one are handwritten.

The second volume is bound in off-white cloth covers with black, green, and red embossed details on the cover and a thumb index. The sections of the thumb index include breads (p. 7), beverages (p. 15), soups (p. 29), fish (p. 41), eggs (p. 53), entrees (p. 65), meats (p. 77), vegetables (p. 89), salads (p. 101), puddings and pastry (p. 113), custards, jellies, and ices (p. 125), cakes (p. 137), the chafing dish (p. 149), and miscellaneous (p. 161).

This volume contains a significant number of blank pages (p. 1-2, 12-16, 12-28, 31-40, 46-52, 55-64, 66-76, 80-88, 92-100, 104-112, 121-124, 128-136, 140-148, 150-160, 163-173). Examples of recipes in volume two include baking powder biscuits (p. 9), bacon muffins (p. 11), split pea soup (p. 30), salmon dish with biscuits concocted (p. 43), eggs foo yung (p. 54), ham timbales (p. 79), raw spinach mold (p. 91), frozen cheese salad (p. 103), Betty Crocker perfect buttercup cake (p. 116), honey pumpkin pie (p. 120), calamity cake (p. 139), Mrs. Quast's day rolls (p. 162).

The recipes in volume two include pasted in clippings and printed recipes in addition to handwritten ones.

Gift of Nick Malgieri.

Publisher
University of Pennsylvania: Kislak Center for Special Collections, Rare Books and Manuscripts
Finding Aid Author
Kelin Baldridge Smallwood
Finding Aid Date
2024 September 6
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Copyright restrictions may exist. For most library holdings, the Trustees of the University of Pennsylvania do not hold copyright. It is the responsibility of the requester to seek permission from the holder of the copyright to reproduce material from the Kislak Center for Special Collections, Rare Books and Manuscripts.

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Eva Berry cookbook, volume 1, circa 1930s-1947.
Volume 1
Eva Berry cookbook, volume 2, circa 1930s-1947.
Volume 2

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