This month’s menu is a bit different. It comes from the January 1943 issue of The American Home. This particular issue marked the 10th anniversary of the magazine. Sort of.
The American Home was a continuation of an earlier magazine called Garden and Home Builder. The first issue was published in 1928. In 1932 William Herbert Eaton became publisher and eventually purchased the magazine in 1935. The anniversary celebrated in this issue was from the one Eaton published in 1933.
The magazine was 10 cents in January 1933 and increased over the years to 75 cents in 1977. The first increase was printed on the cover of the September 1942 issue—15 cents. That price stayed the same until a bump to 25 cents in October 1947. The magazine merged with Redbook in the late 1970s with the February 1978 magazine being the final issue published (late in 1977). Redbook itself has been an online-only magazine since 2019.
This menu included at least one dish from the January issue of each year, and party attendees pooled their sugar rations together to bake the cake. I’ve included the recipes from the January 1941 issue below.
It is interesting to note that the above-mentioned Garden and Home Builder was published from 1924 as Garden Magazine and Home Builder. It was changed slightly to Garden and Home Builder the next year. Prior to being Garden and Home Builder, it was The Garden Magazine, a New York-based magazine that focused on growing fruits, vegetables, and flowers around the home from 1905-1924. It sometimes amazes me how periodicals have such interesting timelines.
Happy New Year!
History in the Kitchen 