Famous For Foods

Angostura-Wuppermann Corporation,1934

Back cover:
The booklet opens with some history, entitled,"The Romantic Career of Dr. J.G.B. Siegert the Inventor of Angostura Bitters."

A summary:

Born in Silesia 1796, Siegert studied medicine in Berlin. He became Army Surgeon with the East Prussian Infantry during its campaign against Napoleon.

Siegert emigrated to Venezuela in 1820. During the war for independence he offered his services to Simón Bolívar, and was appointed Surgeon-General of a military hospital.

In 1824 he first began developing his product, which he named after the place where he had settled. (The town of Angostura would later change its name to Ciudad Bolívar.)

After Siegert's death, and "due to constant political disturbances," two of his sons relocated the business to Trinidad in 1875. The business grew from there, going on to become famous and award-winning.

This is followed by testimonials from happy customers. These home cooks found that Angostura solved a variety of sensitive problems :

"My cooking may seem too rich, but that danger has been eliminated by the Angostura."
Miss Dorie Will, 4313 Wilkinson Ave., North Hollywood, Calif.

"I find I do not have indigestion when I use Angostura for my meat sauces."
Mrs. P. H. Klingensmith, 1218 Coal Street, Wilkinsburg, Pa.

With the last writer's address, I picture her ensconsed in the local mine owner's mansion, suffering from over abundance before discovering this product.

Other endorsements:

"Recently I have found that by the addition of Angostura a delicious new zest has come into my salads."
Mrs. George W. Keenan, 11 Atkinson St., Rochester, New York.

"I cannot remember a time when my mother's cupboard was without a bottle of Angostura. She always used it for flavoring Hard Sauce at Holiday time and Father managed to use it in between times. We have always considered it somewhat of a family secret, using it in food as we do. Now that the secret is out, I hope that many people enjoy what we have always known."
Mrs. Beatrice Thurston, Santa Monica, Calif.

Ahh, those little family "secrets"... Father barely managing a nip "in between times" that Mother was using the stuff.

Followed by a page of thanks to chefs whose menus include dishes using Our Product. Among these:

Gabriel Lugot .... Waldorf-Astoria, New York
for his WALDORF SALAD ANGOSTURA

Antonio Mestres .... National Hotel, Havana
for his ARROZ CON POLLO HABANERA
(Chicken with Rice, Cuban Style)

Ernest Amiet ... Palmer House, Chicago
for his MORNING GLORY DELIGHT

These recipes are not divulged.

The ones that the booklet does offer are pretty much the American diet of the period, pepped up with Bitters. Canned items are featured a lot, which I assume was the chic, modern thing.

There is also such typical period stuff as a recipe for "Mammy's Chocolate Spice Cake with Lemon Icing."

Another dessert is this 1930s "dream" ... of toasted sugar, graham cracker, walnuts, coconut:

Dream Cake
Part 1
1/3 cup butter
3 tablespoons sugar
3 cups graham cracker crumbs

Part 2
3 cups brown sugar
1 cup walnuts
1 teaspoon flour
1 cup cocoanut
3 beaten eggs.
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 1/2 teaspoon ANGOSTURA

Mix well the ingredients of Part 1. Spread in large or 2 square pans, 8 x 8 inches. Bake 5 to 10 minutes. Have ready Part 2, the ingredients mixed in the order given. Spread the mixture evenly on top of the partially baked Part 1. Return to oven and bake until nicely browned in about 350-degree oven. A too hot oven will burn this exceedingly rich mixture. Cool and cut in squares to serve. Will serve 10. Can be served plain or if for a company dessert it may be topped with whipped cream.

Mark Your Place

Book marker, found in a second-hand book—

silver embossing on plastic film, c. early 1960s.

And a word from our sponsor:

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Cartoon: "Getting by, Italian art"

From this, we arrive at the timely theme, "Mi Rifuto" o "Mi Riciclo" ["I Refuse" or "I Recycle"]—

Remember the joke about the child who ran into the house: "Papa, Papa, the man with the garbage is here!"
- "Tell him we don't want any more, we already have plenty!" And we're filling up with more and more. The Tuscans say: "Pork fat was never clean," but it's true that waste from consumption has become so cumbersome and unwieldy that no one wants it, though, thanks to the Italian art of getting by, there is always someone who can profit from it. How hard it is to be like the sun, shining on the manure pit without getting dirty! Now the watchword is to recycle. Italy is starting to, but many are still upset and like Hamlet in our common dilemma: "To refuse or to recycle?" Others are playing the blame game so that many landfills are like the conscience: "clean, because unused." I come back to the bitter prophecy of Chief Seathl [Sealth; Seattle], of the Duwamish Indian tribe, contained in a letter written to the president of the United States, Franklin Pierce, in 1855: "You will die buried under your waste." We don't know whether the wise Seathl, were he living today, would refer only to landfills, or to other kinds of garbage, such as television, print media, politics, etc... but his words continue to hang over our heads like a sword of Damocles, as the sun continues to shine "on the human tragedies"

Now there's some food for thought... even if the writing style for this department is always a run-on bunch of "on the one hand/on the other hand" points, interspersed with quotes.

In one of the many small sidebar items, we find this piece of wisdom attributed to a later (naturalized) American—

L'alcool è un liquido prezioso; conserva tutto...tranne i segreti
- C. Grant

Alcohol is a precious liquid: it preserves everything... and keeps secrets