Squeezing the Margarine

Several years ago, I asked the Professor if he remembered squeezing the white margarine to spread the dye throughout the bland looking substance.  He had  no idea what I was talking about.  It could be that his family did not save money by buying margarine instead of butter.  The family this blogger grew up in definitely lived on a budget and we grew up eating margarine at our house instead of the more expensive butter.  

Today I read a note about the origin of margarine on someone's Facebook page.  After reading it, I started looking up the history of oleomargarine.  Apparently the United States changed its laws about the color of margarine long before any of the Canadian provinces did.   As the excerpt below indicates,  in most households the children did the squeezing of the dot of deep yellow dye to make the package of margarine yellow.  I am not sure that we fought about it but I do remember the great pleasure I had at six or seven when I got to squeeze the margarine to mix in the color.  

I have no idea what brand of margarine we ate at the Fisher house.  Delrich does not sound at all familiar, but this copy of an old advertisement catches the spirit of the activity very well.  

 

Margarine originated with the discovery by French chemist Michel Eugène Chevreul in 1813 of margaric acid. 

Emperor Napoleon III of France offered a prize to anyone who could make a satisfactory alternative for butter, suitable for use by the armed forces and the lower classes.^[34] French chemist Hippolyte Mège-Mouriès invented a substance he called oleomargarine, the name of which became shortened to the trade name "margarine".

During WWII in the U.S., there was a shortage of butter and "oleomargine" became popular. The dairy firms, especially in Wisconsin, became alarmed and succeeded in getting legislation passed to prohibit the coloring of the stark white product. In response, the margarine companies distributed the margarine together with a packet of yellow dye. The product was placed in a bowl and the dye mixed in with a spoon. This took some time and effort and it was not unusual for the final product to be served as a light and dark yellow, or even white, striped product. 

In 1951 the W. E. Dennison Company received patent number 2,553,513 for a method to place a capsule of yellow dye inside a plastic package of margarine. After purchase, the capsule was broken inside the package and then the package was kneaded to distribute the dye. Although this was considerably less effort than mixing with a spoon in a bowl, it was a job usually given to the children of the household, some of whom enjoyed it immensely. Around 1955, the artificial coloring laws were repealed and margarine could for the first time be sold colored like butter.

Canada

In Canada, margarine was banned from 1886 until 1948, though this ban was temporarily lifted from 1917 until 1923 due to dairy shortages.^[52] Nevertheless, bootleg margarine was produced in the neighbouring Dominion of Newfoundland from whale, seal, and fish oil by the Newfoundland Butter Company and was smuggled to Canada where it was widely sold for half the price of butter. The Supreme Court of Canada lifted the margarine ban in 1948 in the Margarine Reference.

In 1950, as a result of a court ruling giving provinces the right to regulate the product, rules were implemented in much of Canada regarding margarine's colour, requiring it to be bright yellow or orange in some provinces or colourless in others. By the 1980s, most provinces had lifted the restriction. However, in Ontario it was not legal to sell butter-coloured margarine until 1995.^[52] Quebec, the last Canadian province to regulate margarine coloring, repealed its law requiring margarine to be colourless in July 2008.^[53]

I suspect that coloured margarine was sold in both Ontario and Quebec long before the regulations about margarine were repealed.  I don't remember any white margarine when I was a teenager living in Quebec.  I am not sure if we used Blue Bonnet margarine in our home, but I certainly remember the slogans and the jingle advertising it.    (Just ignore the second commercial for coffee, please).  

1. 
   
2. ^ O'Connor, Anahad (16 October 2007). "The Claim: Margarine Is Healthier Than Butter.". New York Times (New York Times Company). Retrieved 10 October 2009.
3. ^ ^a b "Canada's conflicted relationship with margarine". CBC News Online. 2005-03-18. Retrieved 2007-08-28.

1976 - Snohomish County Tribune

The Snohomish County Tribune 

VolumeLXXXVII, No. 46 Thursday, December 2, 1976 

 114 Avenue C, Snohomish, WA 98290

Margaret and John Duce’s children made their Grandmother Fisher real happy on her birthday November 20 when they presented her with a birthday cake they had baked and iced themselves. Mrs. Fisher said, the cake was one of the nicest gifts she had ever received. The following day, Margaret and John entertained her parents at a Chinese dinner in Everett. The occasion was the anniversary of the Fishers. The Snohomish County Tribune VolumeLXXXVII, No. 46 Thursday, December 2, 1976 114 Avenue C, Snohomish, WA 98290 Margaret and John Duce’s children made their Grandmother Fisher real happy on her birthday November 20 when they presented her with a birthday cake they had baked and iced themselves. Mrs. Fisher said, the cake was one of the nicest gifts she had ever received. The following day, Margaret and John entertained her parents at a Chinese dinner in Everett. The occasion was the anniversary of the Fishers.

Xmas Wreaths

Most recipes for the type of cookies I am thinking of are called thumbprint cookies.  Muriel called her cookies Christmas Wreaths (Xmas Wreaths).  A fitting name for this season of the year.

1/2 cup butter
1/4 cup brown sugar
1 egg separated
1 cup sifted flour
1 cup fine coconut or finely chopped walnuts
Strawberry jam or any red jelly

Cream butter and sugar until light and fluffy.  Mix in slightly beaten egg yolk.  Add flour.  Form dough into small balls.  Dip in egg white which has been slightly beaten with a fork.  Gently roll in coconut or walnuts.  Place on buttered cookie sheet.  Press centres with finger.  Bake in 300 degree oven.  After 8 minutes of baking, take the cookies out of the oven and press in the centers again.  Return to oven and continue baking 10 to 15 minutes longer.  Cool slightly. Remove from cookie sheet and fill centres with jam or jelly while the cookies are still warm.



Muriel frequently used the wide round end of the candy thermometer to press the dent in the cookies.

Sweet and Sour Short Ribs

I heard a story once long ago about a young man who was trying to decide whom to marry.  He lived in the frugal pioneer days.  He went to visit both young women while they were making pie.  The first girl trimmed off the excess dough and went to the door of the kitchen and threw the crumbs to the birds.  The second girl carefully trimmed off the excess dough and used it to make something small to put in the oven.  Of course, the practical young man chose to marry the thrifty young woman.

I am not sure that Muriel was exactly like the thrifty young woman but she had grown up during the Great Depression and knew about hardships in life.  She went to the grocery store once a week with Bob and cooked dinner seven days a week.

When she got close to the bottom of the catsup bottle, I knew that maybe we would have sweet and sour short ribs for dinner.  It was and still is one of my favorite dinners.

Sweet and Sour Short Ribs

2 1/2 to 3 lbs of short ribs
Salt, pepper, flour, fat
1 cup sliced onions
1 clove garlic
1 1/2 cups hot water
1 small bay leaf
1/4 cup vinegar
3 tbsps brown sugar
1/3 cup catsup/ketchup
1/2 tsp salt

Cut short ribs into individual serving pieces.  Remove any excess fat.  Sprinkle with salt and pepper and dredge with flour.  Brow well on all sides in a large skillet or Dutch oven.  Add onions and garlic and cook 5 minutes.  Combine remaining ingredients and pour over ribs.  Cover and cook over low heat for 2 1/2 to 3 hours.

Remove ribs to warm platter and keep hot.  Pour off fat from gravy, then stir in about 2 tbsps flour and enough water to dilute gravy to strength desired.

The recipe is written on a card in Muriel's small precise handwriting.  Even though it is in a plastic sleeve, the ink is starting to fade.  I have had the recipe for about 41 years - just shortly after I was married.

There are several other recipes of hers that I enjoy and am grateful that I have.  Mom/Muriel used to make fruit cake every Christmas.  Even though there are a lot of people who make jokes about fruit cake, I loved the cake that my mother made.  It was dark and firm and sat for about a month before it was cut up and eaten at Christmas time.  She would cook the cakes in her cast iron skillets.

I have a somewhat confused copy of the recipe she used, but I have never had the courage to try to make it myself.  She also used to make sugar cookies at Christmas time.  Some of them would have nuts in them and others would have the fruit that she used in the cakes.  She would role the cookie dough up in waxed paper and put it in the refrigerator.  When she was ready she would cut cookies off the round tube of dough and bake them in the oven.  I can almost remember the sweet smell of the kitchen.  I wish that I had learned how to make those cookies from my mum.  The thought of them brings back pleasant memories of Christmas time.

December 5th, 2012

While I was looking in my recipe box for Christmas Wreath cookies, I came across this recipe for 

Refrigerator Cookies - Xmas Version

1/2 cup butter 

1 cup brown sugar

1 egg
1 1/2 cups sifted flour
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp cream of tartar
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 cup mixed sliced red and green cherries
1/4 cup chopped nuts
1/4 cup slivered citron peel

Sift, then measure flour*, resift with salt, baking soda, and cream of tartar twice.  Cream butter until soft, add sugar and well beaten egg.  Add flour mixture, then add fruit and nuts.  Form into two rolls.  Wrap in wax paper and store in the refrigerator overnight until chilled.  Slice the roll thinly and bake on greased cookie sheet in 400 degree oven for 10 minutes or until golden in color.

(I use fruit cake mix in place of cherries and citron peel as it contains both - giving a varied coloring.)

*Note from Elaine:  Usually flour now has been pre-sifted.  Stirring the flour before measuring should make the flour light and ready for use.)

Muriel's Memories of Childhood

Hollyhocks

Hollyhocks

Outside of the house where Muriel grew up was a large hollyhock bush.  I don't think it was supposed to be a bush, but to me as a nine year old girl, it seemed tall and broad.  Hollyhock blossoms are made for little girls to dream about.  I am convinced.  I can remember picking blossoms from the plant and pretending that they were beautiful ballerinas.



Once in awhile I will see a hollyhock plant here where I live.  They always remind me of Grandpa and  Grandma Toole's home in Medicine Hat.  Happy memories of a brief moment of dreaming with a delicate dancer in my hand.

I often wonder if there are still hollyhocks growing in the garden.  The house is still there and a cousin's daughter lives there.  I hope she kept the hollyhocks.

DOLLS

When mother dear wore gingham frocks, 

Her dollies grew on hollyhocks.

Here was a lady clad in silk,

there was another, white as milk.

Dainty dolls in silken frocks

Blooming on the hollyhocks,

Bowing low at every breeze;

Nodding to the bumble-bees.

Darling dolls in dainty frocks

Blooming on the hollyhocks.  

Small quiet blessings:

A few days after my mother died, my husband left for a month of travel and lecturing.  I arrived home from my mom’s funeral in the evening. Earlier that morning my husband Earl left for Brazil.  From Brazil he traveled on to West Africa. 

My mother, Muriel Isabel Toole Fisher, was involved in an automobile accident on her way to work on Monday morning.  She was conscious and was able to sign the consent forms for surgery and give the people at the hospital the number to reach her husband/my father John Robert Fisher (Bob).  She never gained consciousness following the surgery. 

A few weeks after Mom’s death, my dad drove to Utah and stayed with us for a few days.  It was the summer of 1982 and I was alone with four small children.  It was hot in our house without air conditioning.  My two year old daughter, Kimberly, and I were sleeping on a mattress downstairs in the study.  At least we were trying to sleep.  She cried and cried and cried.  There did not seem to be anything that I could do to console her.

 I was not too surprised when my father knocked on the door and came in.  He had been unable to sleep because of the crying baby.  He quietly asked me if I would like him to give Kimberly a blessing.  When I said yes, he knelt beside the mattress and put his hands on her head and gave her a grandfather’s blessing.  I have no recollection of anything that he said, but she stopped crying and immediately fell into a quiet, untroubled sleep. 

Too often I forget about what Elder Bednar calls “Heavenly Father’s” tender mercies.  This was a quiet moment in our lives when a special blessing calmed not only a two year old but my troubled souls as well.