Frozen Foods for the Family

Today I want to share with ya'll this fun leaflet that I found in a box of items I purchased at an estate sale (auction) at some point (I honestly can't remember when, but it has been in the past year).  This is Circular 555 from the University of Missouri College of Agriculture's Agricultural Extension Office.  Every county seat has a University of Missouri Extension Office, I believe.  Ours is a few blocks from my parent's house.  The circular is dated April, 1948.  It has apparently been well used, as there are stains on several of the pages.  I like the picture of the woman on the cover, with her paring knife in hand, cutting up something (new potatoes?) into her Pyrex mixing bowl.  Included is everything that a mid-century housewife needs to know about freezing foods.

First, as seen in Fig.2, you must choose a convenient type of container for your frozen food storage.

You should only put high quality meat in the freezer locker!

This piece of meat has been well wrapped and is now ready for freezing.

Properly blanching your vegetables will help them retain their food values!

Make sure you plunge those blanched vegetables into cold running water or ice water!

When you are preparing your frozen vegetables, drop them directly into boiling salted water on your beautiful 40" mid-century electric stove.

This chart is on the two dirtiest pages in the booklet.  My guess is that the lady who used this book used these pages often for reference.  It is titled "Directions for Preparing Vegetables for Freezer Locker."  It lists different vegetables, how to select them, directions for preparing, scalding and packing.

And now, I'm getting hungry just looking at the list!  Feel free to click on the pictures to enlarge them for a better look, especially the chart in the last picture.

Have a great Monday!