Advertisements in hundred-year-old magazines provide insight into cooking practices and the culture back then. I recently flipped through the October, 1926 issue of American Cookery, and found an advertisement for a Dandy Chopper. Cooks clamped the food choppers onto a table to grind meats and other foods. I flipped a little further and was surprised to find a second advertisement for a food chopper.
At first, I thought that both advertisements were by the same company, but then I realized that one was for the Dandy Chopper, which was made by the New Standard Corporation in Mount Joy, Pennsylvania, while the other was for the Joy Chopper, which was made by the Rollman Manufacturing Company in Mount Joy, Pennsylvania.
What the heck? Was Mount Joy the Silicon Valley of food choppers a hundred years ago?
My parents used a similar one. They never got a food processor.
My parents also had one.
I was going to pull out my mother’s, which I still use from time to time, but I guess I haven’t used it for a while. I couldn’t find it, so I can’t determine the brand. What I do remember now is that, when our new house was built in about 1957, one of the kitchen features my mother insisted on was a pull-out board beneath a counter. It was about 5″ x 3″, and meant specifically as a mount for one of these gizmos. I do remember that it has three differently sized wheels that attached and allowed coarser or finer grinds, and that she always used it for ham salad.
What a fun story! Your mother must have used the food chopper a lot to have insisted on having a pull-out board beneath a counter for it.
I remember my mother clamping one onto the kitchen table. I have no idea what brand it was, but Mount Joy wasn’t really that far from us. (In fact, we have a friend who lives in Mount Joy, and the last time we were in Pennsylvania, we spent time there 😃)
My mother also clamped one onto the kitchen table. I especially remember her using it when we made coconut eggs at Easter. We would always start by cracking and grating a fresh coconut. It was a process – but always made the candy seem really special.
My mom had 2… I now have 3 cause they don’t wear out and you pass it on to the next generation. I HOPE!
It’s nice how some of the old-time kitchen tools are good and sturdy, and last to be passed on to the next generation.
I remember one of these in my parent’s kitchen – I think it was the one used for processing meat. I can’t say I ever saw my mother using it. I just remember it being in one of the cupboards. Gosh, I feel a bit squirmish. Lack of hygiene could have presented a health problem. But then, that could happen in today’s kitchens too!
Hopefully, your mother washed it carefully before she stored it so that it would be nice and clean the next time it was used.
My parents had these! I had a very strong sense of nostalgia as I read your post, Sheryl. They butchered their own meat and one was only for that purpose as I recall. I remember my mom meticulously washing it after use. The other was for nuts or anything else she wanted to grind. I’m not sure what happened to them after my mom passed but I would love to have one now!
It’s nice to hear that this post brought back some warm memories. I think that we also had two choppers – one to use with meat when we butchered and a second one to use for other foods.
I think my parents had one, but it was not used very often. So interesting!
It’s wonderful to hear that you enjoyed this post.
Oh, we had one like that, as so many of your commenters agree. We call them ‘mincers’ in England though. We mainly used it to reduce raw (occasionaly cooked) meat to mince, and as other commenters have noted, we had three grades of mincing disc.
I like the English name- mincer. It somehow sounds more refined than “chopper.”
Neither term is exactly comfortable though!
I wondered what was considered to be an average family size and a large family size? The chopper for the large family was $1 more, or about $18.66 today.
A large chopper would need to be a lot quicker to make it worth an additional $18.66 in today’s dollars. According to the U.S. Census Bureau the average household size was 4.34 people in 1920. It was 4.01 in 1930.
My mother had one and ground raw meat to make meatloaf? In the 1950s, I guess. I just remember the grinder. I had it but have no idea where it is now.
Like you, I remember my mother having a grinder. I have not idea whatever happened to it.
This post sure inspired alot of comment and reflection and travels down Memory Lane! I loved the comment about building a new home and insisting that a pull out board be placed specifically for clamping the chopper. Mount Joy, PA – home of the choppers!
The comment about the need for a pull out board specifically for clamping the chopper says a lot about how important choppers were in days gone by.