Cookbook Art: The Health Value of Bee Hive Corn Syrup

So, I'd just like to start by apologising for not posting on the weekend... or on Monday... or Tuesday.  I was attending to family issues out of town on the weekend, still exhausted by Monday, then it was grocery shopping after work yesterday.  Not that you should care.  I just like to post a tidbit of awesome cookbook art when I haven't been on-the-ball enough to do a proper recipe like a good little blogger.

So, without further ado, this is the centerfold of the Budget Recipes For Every Day of the Year cooking guide from Bee Hive Brand Corn Syrup and the St. Lawrence Starch Co.  (There is no date on this pamphlet, but I'd estimate early 1960's).

Ok... let me tell you all the things I love about this image:

•The fact that they are extolling the "health value" of corn syrup.

•The little Bee Hive Chef mascot thing. Its like some desperate ad execs slaved for hours to design an appealing mascot, and the best they could come up with was to grow limbs and a head out of a can and pop a chef's hat on top. Way to go, boys! That's Madison Avenue material, I tells ya!

•The various foods and beverages the illustrations show you how to ruin improve by smothering them in corn syrup.

•The fact that they recommend pouring it into baby bottles and giving it to infants. Actually, I don't love this so much as I'm horrified by it, but whatever. And yes, I know that back in those days real doctors (especially in rural areas) actually DID recommend combining corn syrup and canned milk as a type of makeshift baby formula, but that doesn't make it any less horrifying to see it so cheerily illustrated. Yikes!

•"PATENTED POURING SPOUT ON EVERY TIN".  No exceptions!

•The full text of the ad. I know you can't read it because of my crappy scanner... so I've typed it out for you below!

"When we are asleep of awake, whether we are active or inactive, our bodies expend energy. To support that energy expenditure, we must have fuel -- and that fuel is provided by our food.

All foods supply this fuel, but some, more than others. Sugars and syrups, starches and fats, are our most important energy foods.

Bee Hive Corn Syrup, whether the White or Golden kind, ranks high among the other sugars. It is an extra-rich form of energy food. Besides, it contains a large portion of the kind of sugar which is already digested -- dextrose, maltose -- the material to which all carbohydrate food must be reduced, before it can be used by the body. For these reasons, Bee Hive Corn Syrup is a healthful as well as delicious food for sweetening beverages, for serving with pancakes and muffins, and for using in your baking. Leading dietitians recommend Bee Hive Corn Syrup as one of the most economical, easily-digested and quick-acting energy foods you can buy.

For babies, Bee Hive is the ideal carbohydrate milk modifier to use in infants' feeding. Baby digests Bee Hive more easily than any other sweet.

For children, Bee Hive is the ideal food to restore energy burned up in strenuous play.

For adults, Bee Hive is an excellent food to include in the menu regularly for quick, round-the-clock energy."

It's like playing "Spot the errors in judgement"!

I'm hoping to post a mini-recipe tomorrow. Let's see if I can manage that.