October 4, 2006

How Your Automatic Toaster Works (Dec, 1947)

Filed under: How to, Kitchen — @ 10:19 am
Source: Popular Science ( More articles from this issue )
Issue: Dec, 1947
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How Your Automatic Toaster Works

YOU push down the handle, wait . . . and the bread pops up all by itself, toasted to a turn. Ever stop to wonder how the toaster knows enough to brown your slice without burning it?

Automatic toasters are mostly of two types—both ingenious. One has a thermostat that cooks with the toast and switches off the current after the right amount of heat. The other kind is timed by clockwork, but uses a thermostat to speed up the machinery when full heat is reached. Here is what goes on inside both types, shown in Toastmaster toasters through the courtesy of A. Lockyer of Toaster Appliance Sales
and Service Co., New York City.

September 26, 2006

Super Chef – 1965? (Sep, 1955)

Filed under: Advertisements, Kitchen — @ 2:48 pm
Source: Scientific American ( More articles from this issue )
Issue: Sep, 1955
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NEW DEPARTURES OF TOMORROW

Super Chef – 1965?

Set the table . . . then set the dial! Future meals could be as easy as that with this miracle meal-getter. And, maybe tomorrow it will be a reality.

When it is, New Departure will play an important part, just as it does in so many of today’s work-savers. For example, you’ll find New Departure ball bearings in almost every major appliance . . . and for good reason. They keep moving parts functioning smoothly, while requiring virtually no maintenance. They support loads from any direction . . . keep parts always in perfect alignment.

If you’re dreaming up tomorrow’s time-saver, or improving your present product, call on New Departure for the most dependable ball bearings in the world.
NEW DEPARTURE • DIVISION OF GENERAL MOTORS • BRISTOL, CONNECTICUT

September 13, 2006

Largest Omelet Fried in Half-Ton Pan With 7,200 Eggs (Nov, 1931)

Filed under: Just Weird, Kitchen — @ 4:45 am
Source: Modern Mechanix ( More articles from this issue )
Issue: Nov, 1931
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I really wish they had a picture of the girls greasing the pan wearing bacon ice skates.

Largest Omelet Fried in Half-Ton Pan With 7,200 Eggs
DID you ever hear of an omelet frying record? Well, such a record was established for all time recently at Chehalis, Washington, where a Gargantuan omelet, composed of 7,200 eggs, was fried in an eight-foot pan weighing nearly half a ton.

A record for novelty in greasing was also established when two young ladies used the pan as a skating rink, the skates being slabs of bacon tied to their feet. Stirring the omelet required use of a huge paddle larger than a rowboat oar as shown in the photo above. One Swede remarked that the whole thing was a big yolk.

September 3, 2006

Onion Slicer Spares Housewife’s Tears (Sep, 1938)

Filed under: Kitchen — @ 2:50 am
Source: Mechanix Illustrated ( More articles from this issue )
Issue: Sep, 1938
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This is one of the gadgets that has allowed generations of infomercial hucksters to proclaim “It’s Just That Easy!”. I’m guessing they don’t tell the marks er, audience, that it first came out 70 years ago.

Onion Slicer Spares Housewife’s Tears
EQUIPPED with an airtight cover and a close-fitting plunger, the kitchen device shown at left enables a housewife to chop or slice onions without bringing the usual tears to her eyes. The plunger has four sharp cutting blades and can be used as vigorously as necessary, a wooden disc in the bottom serving as a chopping block.

August 17, 2006

Automobile Hot Dog Cooker (Mar, 1950)

Filed under: Automotive, Kitchen — @ 11:41 am
Source: Popular Science ( More articles from this issue )
Issue: Mar, 1950
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Auto Oven Cooks Hot Dogs
Want a hot dog on the road? Just plug this heater into your car’s electrical system. It cooks two wieners in three to five minutes. Priced at $3.95, it also comes in a 115-volt version for the home. It is called the Hot Dog Sizzler and is made by the Thomas Manufacturing Co., of Chicago.

August 15, 2006

Tortillas Meet The Machine Age (Nov, 1950)

Filed under: How to, Kitchen — @ 9:16 am
Source: Popular Mechanics ( More articles from this issue )
Issue: Nov, 1950
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Interesting quote:
“After being cut, the dough is carried on a canvas belt to the asbestos conveyor of the first oven.”

I wonder how many other food products used to be cooked on asbestos conveyor belts.

Tortillas Meet The Machine Age

By Jack B. Kemmerer

THE INDIANS of Mexico first made tortillas between 2000 and 1000 B.C., when most historians agree that corn originated in Guatemala and southern Mexico.

The ancient method of making tortillas by hand had never changed until recently. Now, the tortilla has met the machine age.
Read the rest of this entry »

July 31, 2006

Health Bread Made From Seaweed (Dec, 1931)

Filed under: Kitchen — @ 7:20 am
Source: Modern Mechanix ( More articles from this issue )
Issue: Dec, 1931
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By 1931 the hippies already had a strong foothold in California. Now all they had to do was wait…

Health Bread Made From Seaweed
BREAD made of kelp, or seaweed, was placed on sale recently in Ojai, California, a little town near the Pacific coast. Though wheat was on sale at as low a price as 25 cents per bushel, William Baker, who introduced the new bread, claims that his innovation is rapidly becoming popular because of its peculiar flavor.

July 30, 2006

Grapefruit Eaters Use Squirt Guard (Jul, 1939)

Filed under: Kitchen — @ 1:42 pm
Source: Popular Science ( More articles from this issue )
Issue: Jul, 1939
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It’s good to know there is more than one way to conquer a grapefruit.

Grapefruit Eaters Use Squirt Guard
At last someone has come to the rescue of grapefruit lovers by building a handy squirt guard. Invented in England, the hemisphere of celluloid clamps over a half grapefruit as a protection against stray juices.

July 29, 2006

Fun At The Dinner Table (Mar, 1937)

Filed under: Just Weird, Kitchen — @ 7:46 am
Source: Modern Mechanix ( More articles from this issue )
Issue: Mar, 1937
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Fun At The Dinner Table
SOUP serenades, spaghetti entanglements, corn-on-the-cob wrestling and other embarrassments at meal time may never be eliminated, but Russell Oakes, a Waukesha, Wis., business man, got so amused thinking they might be that he discovered a new hobby devising dizzy devices to put eating on a mechanical basis.
Read the rest of this entry »

July 20, 2006

Auto Cooker Uses Exhaust Heat (Dec, 1931)

Filed under: Automotive, Kitchen — @ 10:36 am
Source: Modern Mechanix ( More articles from this issue )
Issue: Dec, 1931
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Oh, this takes me back. I remember those trips my family used to take to our cabin in the woods. Before leaving mom would throw a roast beef and some potatoes into the good ole’ running board cooker and clamp that sucker closed. By the time we arrived, there would be a piping hot, carbon-monoxide infused, soot covered meal waiting just for us. I can still smell the sulfur wafting off my burnt motor oil drenched taters.

Auto Cooker Uses Exhaust Heat
THE drudgery has been taken out of picnics with a compact device that is attached to the automobile running board and which utilizes the waste heat from the engine for cooking. While driving to your favorite camping spot food may be baked, stewed or roasted without cost for fuel, loss of time or interference with the efficiency of the motor. The device cooks without water and therefore the edibles retain their natural juices and flavors. The cooker rests on an asbestos pad and is connected to the exhaust by a flexible pipe.

July 15, 2006

Use Car Power to Grind Meat (Dec, 1932)

Filed under: Automotive, Just Weird, Kitchen — @ 4:58 pm
Source: Modern Mechanix ( More articles from this issue )
Issue: Dec, 1932
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Use Car Power to Grind Meat
NOW you can operate your meat chopper, ice cream freezer, apple parer, or practically any other device turned by a crank without work or worry, thanks to the simple idea of an Illinois inventor. A strap iron strip just long enough to fasten between rim bolts on opposite sides of the car wheel is made. The shaft of the device to be operated is then attached to the center of the strap.
All that remains is to jack up the rear wheel, start up the motor and let ‘er rip. The picture below shows the arrangement in operation. It’s handy for picnics where much food has to be prepared outdoors. Naturally the shaft of the food chopper must be practically in line with the hub of the wheel.

July 11, 2006

Grapefruit Conquered at Last (Aug, 1933)

Filed under: Impractical, Just Weird, Kitchen — @ 7:27 am
Source: Modern Mechanix ( More articles from this issue )
Issue: Aug, 1933
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Finally, after countless lives lost and ruined, the Grapefruit wars are over.

Grapefruit Conquered at Last
AT LAST the grapefruit has heen conquered. The weapon employed in the conquest is an “umbrella spoon” shown at left, which automatically opens into a large shield when you gouge down into the meat of the fruit. When you raise the spoon to your mouth the shield closes.

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