Time Travel Kitchen

Introducing Aunt Sammy

Who is Aunt Sammy?

She’s the fictional wife of Uncle Sam, of course, (I didn’t know) and a wildly popular radio star in her own right. An early ‘Influencer’ whose version of Instagram likes were the thousands of fan mail letters she received each week, asking for her recipes and household advice.

I learned this during my days-long Google and eBay quest, searching for vintage cookbooks and culinary history of the 20’s and 30’s. Three women, Fanny Walker Yeatman, Josephine Hemphill and Ruth Van Deman were members of the USDA’s Bureau of Home Economics. They put their heads together and created the content for one of the country’s first ensemble-cast radio programs, Housekeepers Chat. It premiered in 1926 with Sammy and her pals dispensing cooking tips, discussing news of the day, having a laugh and sharing recipes for nutritious meals. By all accounts it was entertaining and grew to hundreds of radio stations across America. The show was scripted and there were several different Aunt Sammy’s in each regional radio market. The show was so popular that a cookbook was, according to the USDA “issued to meet the enormous demand for printed copies of the most popular recipes broadcast.” For 10 cents you could write in and receive all of Sammy’s 400 recipes and 90 menu plans.

The cookbook was printed four times until the show ended in 1944. It was the first cookbook printed in Braille in 1932.

What a stretch of history this program covered. Started while the 20’s were still roaring, crashing in ‘29, the hard times of the Depression 30’s and then WWII. I like to think the constancy of Aunt Sammy’s program would have given some comfort to its listeners.

I now have my own copies of the 1926 and 1931 versions of the Radio Recipes. There is so much there! One of the first things I baked from it was Pineapple Upside-Down Cake, made in a skillet. I’ll share that recipe and other kitchen discoveries in next Friday’s newsletter.

Have a great weekend, thanks for traveling back in time with me and thanks for subscribing!

All the best,

Jolene

sources: USDA; The Henry Ford; RuthReichl.com ‘Meet Your Aunt Sammy’; Aunt Sammy’s Radio Recipes, USDA.