Mid-Century Baking Authority

General Foods Corporation

All About Home Baking • 1941 [Fourth Edition, Second Printing]

A classic mid-century baking manual produced by General Foods, offering a comprehensive and visually structured guide to cakes, cookies, pies, pastries, biscuits, and quick breads.

Designed as both an instructional reference and a promotional tool, the book emphasizes consistency and technique through clear directions and photographic “picture lessons,” reflecting the era’s push toward standardized, reliable home cooking.

DETAILS:
+++ Title: All About Home Baking
+++ Author: General Foods Corporation (Consumer Service Department)
+++ Date: 1941
+++ Edition: Fourth Edition, Second Printing
+++ Publisher: General Foods Corporation, New York
+++ Format: Hardcover
+++ Size: 5.875 by 9 inches
+++ Pagination: 144 pages with index

CONTENT HIGHLIGHTS:
+++ Wide range of recipes: cakes, cookies, pies, pastries, biscuits, muffins, quick breads
+++ Step-by-step photographic instruction sequences (“picture lessons”)
+++ Sections on frostings, table service, and party menus
+++ Emphasis on technique, measurement, and consistent results
+++ Strong example of mid-century instructional cookbook design

CONDITION: Very Good. The bindings are tight and square. Text is clean; light, even age-toning. Moderate shelf handling wear.

Historical Context —
Produced during General Foods’ rise as a dominant force in American packaged food, this volume reflects the company’s broader effort to shape domestic cooking habits through education. Corporate cookbooks like this bridged traditional home baking with modern food science, encouraging the use of standardized ingredients and repeatable methods.

Emerging from the late Depression into the prewar years, the book captures a moment when American kitchens were becoming more systematized and efficiency-driven. These guides helped redefine home baking as both a skill and a controlled process—part tradition, part industrial influence—and remain key artifacts of 20th-century culinary culture.

Subjects: Mid-century American cooking, baking techniques, General Foods Corporation, home economics, food industry history, domestic science, vintage cookbooks.

Item #21796

Price: $18.00