Read more
First patented in 1856, baking powder sparked a classic American struggle for business supremacy. For nearly a century, brands battled to win loyal consumers for the new leavening miracle, transforming American commerce and advertising even as they touched off a chemical revolution in the world's kitchens. Linda Civitello chronicles the titanic struggle that reshaped America's diet and rewrote its recipes. Presidents and robber barons, bare-knuckle litigation and bold-faced bribery, competing formulas and ruthless pricing--Civitello shows how hundreds of companies sought market control, focusing on the big four of Rumford, Calumet, Clabber Girl, and the once-popular brand Royal. She also tells the war's untold stories, from Royal's claims that its competitors sold poison, to the Ku Klux Klan's campaign against Clabber Girl and its German Catholic owners. Exhaustively researched and rich with detail, Baking Powder Wars is the forgotten story of how a dawning industry raised Cain--and cakes, cookies, muffins, pancakes, donuts, and biscuits.
List of contents
Cover
Title
Copyright
Contents
Acknowledgments
Introduction
1. The Burden of Bread: Bread before Baking Powder
2. The Liberation of Cake: Chemical Independence, 1796
3. The Rise of Baking Powder Business: The Northeast, 1856-1876
4. The Advertising War Begins: "Is the Bread That We Eat Poisoned?" 1876-1888
5. The Cream of Tartar Wars: Battle Royal, 1888-1899
6. The Rise of Baking Powder Business: The Midwest, 1880s-1890s
7. The Pure Food War: Outlaws in Missouri, 1899-1905
8. The Alum War and World War I: "What a Fumin' about Egg Albumen," 1907-1920
9. The Federal Trade Commission Wars: The Final Federal Battle, 1920-1929
10. The Price War: The Fight for the National Market, 1930-1950
11. Baking Powder Today: Post-World War II to the Twenty-First Century
Glossary
Appendix: Baking Powder Use in Cookbooks
Notes
Bibliography
Index
About the author
Linda Civitello
