Stack up the chili! We got a Westinghouse!

I picked up the Recipes.. Care.. Use Westinghouse Electric Ranges booklet (1949) not for the color cover (though it is hard to resist a cover with green petits fours that almost match the pea soup).

I got it because I'm kind of fascinated by pictures of old electric ranges. They always seem so happy, listing all the features as if this specific appliance will change the owner's life.

This model offers extra outlets for appliances, an acid-resistant top, a warming drawer, and an oven big enough so you can bake EIGHT loaves of bread at once! (Never mind that I don't want to imagine what a private, non-bakery life that would require baking eight loaves of bread at once might entail.)

There's even a tiny woman ready to explain the oven's features for any homemaker lucky enough to own one.

Well... A tiny woman with football-player shoulders. She's ready to explain that the minute timer can (You guessed it!) be used as a timer. The "Surface Signalite" lights up so cooks will know when (You guessed it!) a surface unit is turned on. (If you want to know what the "Oven Signalite" does, you'll just have to turn to page 15.)

The recipes themselves are admittedly not the most compelling. If you need to know how long to steam various vegetables or how to adjust a cake recipe if you live in a high-altitude region, this offers up the appropriate guides. Still, a few recipes made me slow down for a closer look. The Chop Suey recipe briefly made me wonder what kinds of weird snack foods were available in postwar America.

A can of mushroom chips? I initially imagined crispy mushroom bits similar to canned fried onions-- like the kind people put on green bean casserole. Then I realized that the recipe also called for "water from mushrooms"-- so this really just means plain old canned mushroom stems and pieces. They're just referred to as "chips" because they're cut in small pieces. So much for that mystery.

I noticed a recipe for "Chili Stack" and was wondering how cooks might stack up their chili, given that it's usually pretty fluid and amorphous.

There is no real stacking involved, though. It's just chili with the suggestion that it be served on toast. (Not even a recommendation for layering toast, chili, toast, chili, which would at least be closer to a stack!)

And there is, of course, the recipe labeled as "Chinese" for extremely flimsy reasons.

The Chinese are known for their cheese-filled omelets with a white-sauce base, right? (And don't even get me started on how this is more of a soufflé than an omelet!) This recipe  is just another reminder that the simple addition of rice was enough to make pretty much any recipe "Chinese" back in the day.

I'm not sure how to end this one, so I guess it will just be with an embarrassing observation about myself. In the picture highlighting the Signalite, I noticed that the range has written indications of which control goes with which burner. (Note the "Right Read" near tiny woman's knees.)  That means I could easily figure out which burner to use! Stoves now try to be more inclusive by using little diagrams to indicate which burner goes with which control so people who may not read English can still figure out which one to use. The problem is that my spatial sense is so terrible that I am often confused by the little diagrams when they are not accompanied by written descriptions. If I've only got a diagram, I end up turning on a burner, touching it to see if it's getting hot, and then adjusting if I guessed wrong the first time. So-- come to admire my cookbook. Stay to hear me make fun of myself! 😄