Vigo County Historical Society

Baking powder changes the way people bake

Do you ever remember a time when you weren’t acquainted with a certain product in a metal can with a white label and big red letters saying Clabber Girl Baking Powder?

As a child I was allowed the empty can to save pennies in while in the next empty can I kept fancy buttons.

Baking powder was first developed for the public in 1850 by a physicist called "Count Rumford" of Massachusetts. Hulman & Co. started the production of baking powder with the names of Crystal and "Dauntless." A new formula came into being in 1887 called "Milk" and sold until 1889 when a more refined product was put on the market and called Clabber Baking Powder. This was under the direction of Herman Hulman. This name held until 1923 when the name Girl was added and still holds today. Thus we have Clabber Girl Baking Powder which I never want to do without.

There are four ingredients to baking powder: cornstarch, bicarbonate of soda, phosphate of calcium and sodium aluminum sulfate. What baking wonder or magic comes from this mixture? No more having to use soda and sour milk mixed with any brand of baking powder and uncertain results every time while bread making.

I love the picture of hearth and home on the label. Studying this picture my mind conjures up a scene from long ago. On the original label there was the mother cleaning a goose while a young girl is churning milk into butter.

When I was young I had to help my father pick feathers off of the chicken to get it ready for the big Sunday dinner. I liked to help churn butter in a daisy churn of which I did every Saturday afternoon just before I went to the cowboy show for a dime. One way of earning my dime for the movie was to finish butter and put it into a butter mold.

On the second label the churn was taken off and replaced by a girl sweeping floor with a broom. In 1923, the broom was taken away, and a young girl is seen carrying a large plate of freshly baked biscuits.

My favorite modification of the new can is the peel back tab, which makes the opening of the can so much easier. To see this Clabber Girl Baking Powder can, and other food product containers that the housewife needed in her kitchen, visit the exhibit that just opened at the museum called "Hoosier Homemakers."