Clabber Girl

donna

Brev. Brig. Gen'l
Forum Host
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May 12, 2010
Location
Now Florida but always a Kentuckian
Clabber Girl is a brand of Baking Soda, Baking Powder and Cornstarch. It has been around for over 150 years. The Hulman Brothers, Francis and Herman, formed Hulman and Co. in 1858 in Terre Haute, Indiana, It was at first a wholesale grocery business.

They started manufacturing Clabber Baking Powder in 1899. Today the business sells baking soda, corn starch and the Royal brand of products. In Terre Haute they have a museum, bake shop, coffee roasting operation and culinary classes.

The girl on the can dates back to 1899. The artist who drew her never said if based on his own idea or a real person. She has basically remained the same since 1899. In 1940's they did highlight her hair. At corporate she is known as "Claire Baker".



Trivia:

In 1945 Tony Hulman, Jr. purchased the Indianapolis Motor Speedway. History was made in racing.

Information from: https://www.clabbergirl.com/Corporate/History
 
Clabber would be soured milk, and would have been hard to achieve when pasteurization became common. Milk would be as apt to go bad (spoil) as to sour into useful sour milk--the stuff that thickens and is like sour cream and was used in all kinds of baking. Housewives might have missed their old-fashioned clabber like mother used to have around the house all the time, that they couldn't make anymore. Clabber was strongly acidic so it would balance anything alkaline and the combination would make things rise--biscuits, bread, pancakes, etc.

I'm guessing--this is a research-free post :smug:--that the company used the old-fashioned homey memories of clabber to sell its product at the beginning, same as buttermilk biscuits or buttermilk pancakes sound so much better than baking powder biscuits. The product would be anything acidic that made milk sour. Cream of tartar was the typical powdered substitute used separately, or baking powder combined the alkali and the acid together, or a liquid substitute was anything acidic like a bit of lemon juice or vinegar as long as the flavor wouldn't hurt the results, or buttermilk was another option, but buttermilk was about as scarce as non-pasteurized milk, when things started changing.
 
I usually buy Davis Baking Powder. I can't imagine how difficult it was to bake simple cakes and cookies without baking powder or cream of tartar. On one of the season's of the the Great British Bake-Off they had contestants bake a yeast cake instead of using baking powder as rising agent. I must poke around for the recipe as I'd like to give it a try and share it on the Food Forum, too.
 
I usually buy Davis Baking Powder. I can't imagine how difficult it was to bake simple cakes and cookies without baking powder or cream of tartar. On one of the season's of the the Great British Bake-Off they had contestants bake a yeast cake instead of using baking powder as rising agent. I must poke around for the recipe as I'd like to give it a try and share it on the Food Forum, too.
I used to make cakes and puddings (the period bread-like steamed puddings) all the time with eggs as the rising agent, using neither baking soda/powder or cream of tartar, and they worked really well. If I had to do without the other things, that's what I'd choose, if it was allowed. One really couldn't add too many, so I'd put maybe six or eight in a small loaf pan size recipe, beat them a bit, not so they foamed like merengue but just had some bubbles, then carefully stirred them into the other ingredients, folded them in I guess you'd say. Keep the batter fairly liquidy. Turned out well either baked or steamed.

I've not done as much with yeast just because I'm too lazy to keep healthy yeast going month to month. But I've done it and really didn't like it. One can "proof" modern powdered yeast in a bit of water, and boy is it strong. But mix it in water and use a lot less than the recipe calls for, or the cake will definitely taste "yeasty," and it turns out okay. I'd say the eggs make a nicer taste, though, but maybe I still wasn't getting the proportion of yeast right.
 
Election cake was a typical yeast cake and here's a typical recipes:
https://books.google.com/books?id=JUAEAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA66

"Election Cake. One heaping cup of sugar; one half cup of butter, melted in one cup of milk; one cup of yeast; spice. Rise this over night."

Do not, do not, repeat do not mix modern powdered yeast to its specifications and add one cup and let it rise overnight. :frantic: One really needs to test the strength of the yeast each time.

Clay--a little more specific cake for election day, listed a few recipes down between Harrison and Tyler, apparently depends on eggs alone, plus the acid of lemon and wine and the alkali of... the flour? I don't know, any guesses? Or is it all about the eggs and this is an example of what I meant?

"Clay Cake. One half pound of butter; one pound of sugar; six eggs; one pound of flour; one half pint of cream; one half nutmeg; juice and oil of one lemon; one glass of wine."

These various cake recipes are all over--just pulled up a few at random to talk about.
 
I like butter, sugar, eggs, cream, nutmeg, lemons, wine, milk (but not soured), and by extension yeast. and flour.

Make me something good that's historical.
Are you a Henry Clay man? Have you wife make that Clay cake and serve it to everyone who visits on election day, and you can show both you politics and your taste. :giggle:

No, I don't know why it was done that way, and I'm not even sure about the whole custom. Anyone have more information on why yeast cakes were election day cakes, and then how they got the names of specific candidates? I wonder if they were yeast cakes because that style of baking was older, and election day cakes were older, back to the 18th century I think, but why did the whole concept exist at all? What did one actually do with the cakes, other than serve them to voters?
 
I like butter, sugar, eggs, cream, nutmeg, lemons, wine, milk (but not soured), and by extension yeast. and flour.

Make me something good that's historical.

Hmmm...wine in yeast cake...hmmm...I think depending on the method of fermentation of the wine sometimes yeast is added to the vat. If I remember correctly (hazy wine tasting tour of a vineyard) that grape skins can act as a natural yeast producer. So, not sure if that would react badly with additional yeast for baking.

However I could come up with wine glaze to drizzle on the cake :geek:
 
No, I don't know why it was done that way, and I'm not even sure about the whole custom. Anyone have more information on why yeast cakes were election day cakes, and then how they got the names of specific candidates? I wonder if they were yeast cakes because that style of baking was older, and election day cakes were older, back to the 18th century I think, but why did the whole concept exist at all? What did one actually do with the cakes, other than serve them to voters?

I have a electronic copy of American Cookery by Amelia Simmons from 1796 (my link is to the 1798 edition as I couldn't find an online version of the first edition) and her recipe is the first ever printed version of Election Cake.

Election_Cake_Recipe_Amelia_Simmons.jpg
They really loved their yeast back then! One quart?! Either yeast wasn't what it is today or baking methods have radically changed.

But I digress, back to Election Cake and it's history. According to an article on NPR I found "Muster Cake, as it was called before the American Revolution, was a dense, naturally leavened, boozy fruit and spice cake — baked by colonial women and given to the droves of men who were summoned for military training, or 'mustered,' by order of British troops. Later it became known as election cake. Women would make it in massive quantities to encourage men to vote and come to town hall meetings. Unlike today, Election Day was a festive occasion, with lots of food and the booze flowing." - Source

Getting drunk and eating cake on Election Day doesn't sound like such a bad idea, perhaps we should give that a try going forward :tongue:
 
I wonder if that's the key thing--it could be made in huge quantities, and was like bread but sweeter and "special." Maybe as elections went on, people got the idea of making different cakes for different candidates, so all the Clay men gathered to get a slice of Clay cake, ate and talked, all the other candidate cakes the same, and it helped organize the area and let men who agreed on similar candidates and politics, find each other. I've seen just about every one of the early candidates named.

They really loved their yeast back then! One quart?!

Yes, it was weaker. One can make period yeast by starting it with modern yeast but feeding it with period ingredients for a few months, then proofing it to see how strong it is, and I bet it won't be as strong. As I noted in one of the posts above, proofing was part of the period process, which could be done if you wondered whether your yeast was too weak, though nowadays it would be more to make sure it wasn't too strong, when using period quantities.

Here's a description of how to proof yeast: https://www.craftybaking.com/howto/yeast-proof-or-proofing-techniques What that means is that you'd take your liquid yeast in the period and combine it, and see if it made little bubbles appear. If you're cheating and using modern powdered yeast and water mixed up fresh, you can keep cutting back the amount of yeast until it just barely makes bubbles appear, and that would be the equivalent to period liquid yeast. If you actually are trying to duplicate period liquid yeast, bring it out of the cupboard and see if it still makes little bubbles, but not too quickly.

There are recipes for keeping yeast in most any period cookbooks, suggesting what to feed it with, as it sits in the cupboard. Yeast could also be dried in the period, and there are recipes for that too. I think the Kentucky Housewife may have one, but it wasn't as common as using liquid yeast, which might need refreshed from the neighbors or from a brewery after a while, if it didn't last in a year or two.
 
I have a electronic copy of American Cookery by Amelia Simmons from 1796 (my link is to the 1798 edition as I couldn't find an online version of the first edition) and her recipe is the first ever printed version of Election Cake.

View attachment 121576
They really loved their yeast back then! One quart?! Either yeast wasn't what it is today or baking methods have radically changed.

But I digress, back to Election Cake and it's history. According to an article on NPR I found "Muster Cake, as it was called before the American Revolution, was a dense, naturally leavened, boozy fruit and spice cake — baked by colonial women and given to the droves of men who were summoned for military training, or 'mustered,' by order of British troops. Later it became known as election cake. Women would make it in massive quantities to encourage men to vote and come to town hall meetings. Unlike today, Election Day was a festive occasion, with lots of food and the booze flowing." - Source

Getting drunk and eating cake on Election Day doesn't sound like such a bad idea, perhaps we should give that a try going forward :tongue:
This one huge recipe not for home use,r really designed for a hairy.
 
Donna, here's some additions but boy, what a great thread! They are not needed, it's already dressed up! Plus, now I'm afraid of my yeast. :giggle:

clabber girl 2.JPG

clabber girl 3.jpg
I ' think' this was a sample size they handed out, kept popping up in searches.

clabber girl 4.jpg
Remember those lids? You'd bend all your cutlery, opening them? Tough as paint cans sometimes.

Clabber-Girl-Baking-Powder-Label orig.jpg
Original label, I think.
 
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