Bananas are tasty, inexpensive, nutritious, and easy to eat. They are wonderful in smoothies, and delightful sliced on top of cereal or oatmeal. They also are tasty in banana breads and muffins.  Mashed bananas are one of the first solid foods that babies typically eat, and they are equally popular with older children and adults of all ages.

According to the Cleveland Clinic, bananas are sometimes called “nature’s perfect snack.” They are a higher fiber food, and contain lots of vitamins and minerals. They are especially known for being a good source of potassium, which can help reduce blood pressure.

Bananas have been popular in the United States since the latter part of the 1800s. As people became aware of germs, they liked how the peel kept the banana clean until it was ready to be eaten.

By the early 1900’s, large quantities of bananas were imported into the United States from Latin America and the Caribbean. The Fruit Dispatch Company had an advertisement for Unifruitco bananas in the April, 1926 issue of Good Housekeeping. The Fruit Dispatch Company was a selling agency for the United Fruit Company back then. (United Fruit Company is now Chiquita Brands International.) Here are some excepts from the 1926 advertisement:

Offer a child a ripe banana, and see eager eyes light up with the joy of anticipated goodness. Children find an appetite allure in ripe bananas – and do you know what it is? It is sugar – mellow sweetness in its most easily digested form.

Bananas are rich in carbohydrates – the energy-building food values so necessary for children, and so good for everyone. In bananas that are fully ripe, this valuable food element is present in the form of fruit sugars, nature’s most easily digested and most wholesome form of sweetness. . .

Buy them in advance of use and let them ripen at home. . . When all green is gone from the tip, and the yellow skin has turned to a mellow gold, flecked with brown, then a banana is fully ripe and most delicious. . .

The choicest bananas you can find are Unifruitco Bananas. They are grown and harvested down in the tropics, under the most modern methods of cultivation. They come north in specially constructed ships. The Fruit Dispatch Company, Importers of Unifruitco Bananas, distributes them all over the country to wholesalers and jobbers, who keep this fruit in banana rooms until your dealer wants them.

Good Housekeeping (April, 1926)

Both a hundred years ago and now, there was recognition that bananas contain more sugar when fully ripe than when they are greener. The old advertisement recommended eating completely ripe bananas that were a “mellow gold, flecked with brown.” Today people who are concerned about maintaining a steady blood sugar often prefer greener bananas that contain more starch. According to the Cleveland Clinic article:

Green bananas can contain less than half the amount of sugar than ripe ones.

For those concerned about blood sugar levels with more yellow bananas, pairing the fruit with a protein source (such as a handful of nuts or a cheese stick) can help better regulate the increase.

A hundred-years ago, sterling silver flatware was considered a desirable luxury item, and it was frequently given as a wedding gift. Couples often listed their silver pattern on their wedding registry. They hoped several wedding guests would choose to purchase a place setting or two as a gift, and that they would end up with a full set of the flatware plus some serving pieces.

The September, 1925 issue of Ladies Home Journal had a very wordy two-page advertisement for Towle solid (sterling) silver. Here are some excerpts:

Your lovely trousseau, with its charming gowns and dainty little frocks, its film underthings, and bright stockings, has its few bright months of glory.

And, the furniture and hangings for your new home, however you may lavish care upon them, will inevitably wear out after a few years.

But, your wedding silver – your very own solid silver – you will have that always. So its choice becomes the very most important of all choices because you will want to be as proud of your pattern in twenty years as on your wedding day.

What a fascinating privilege this choice is. What a joyous occasion, when you set out to the jeweler’s.

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Watch how proudly the jeweler shows it to you. He knows TOWLE Silver!

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TOWLE patterns are permanent

By starting with TOWLE silver, you can make sure of perfect silver harmony, for relatives and friends will undoubtedly want to match your chosen pattern with such charming and useful pieces as sauce and salad-dressing bowls, plates for jellies, candies, sandwiches, cake, fruit, desserts, etc., candle-sticks, trays or a coffee and tea service. They will be glad to know which TOWLE pattern you have selected, and your jeweler can show them a fascinating variety.

Furthermore, in the future, as you need additions to your set, you will always find that matching it is a simple matter, for TOWLE patterns are as nearly permanent as anything in this life can be.

Ladies Home Journal (September, 1925)

A dollar in 1925 is worth about $18.58 today. This suggests that cooks who successfully completed the Cooking for Profit course might make a salary of $1,858 a week and profits of $185,800 a year in today’s dollars. Sound good to me. Sign me up for the course.

A hundred years ago, American Cookery magazine encouraged readers to get their friends to subscribe to the magazine. The magazine offered premiums for securing new subscribers.

A premium offered in the May, 1925 issue for getting four new subscribers was a cake ornamenting syringe.

Maybe cooks a hundred years ago considered this a wonderful gift; but, in my opinion, the premium doesn’t seem like a very large reward for all the effort that would be involved in getting four people to subscribe to the magazine.

When I saw the cake decorating syringe, I immediately thought of a very similar one that I have – though I’ve always called it a “cake decorator.”

My cake ornamenting syringe once was my mother’s, and she had it for as long as I can remember. I’m now wondering if it is older than I thought, and if my mother got it from her mother.

The decorating tips for my syringe are a little beat up, but it still works great. I used it frequently to decorate cakes when my children lived at home, and I still occasionally use it to pipe frosting, whipped cream, or other similar foods. It brings back wonderful memories of the various themed birthday cakes we made over the years. There was a spaceman cake, a teddy bear cake, and a clown cake, as well as the lamb cake we made every Easter.

Whew! It’s fascinating that this 1925 Karo advertisement focuses on the supposed health benefits of the product.

Here’s a hundred-year-old advertisement for Cox’s Gelatine (spelled with an “e” on the end, which makes it look European). Maybe every cook should keep some on hand (it sounds very useful), but unfortunately, I think that this brand is long gone.