The Real Betty Crocker's Pineapple Upside Down Cake
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I'm heading back out on book tour! I had so much fun the first time that I'm doing it again. More details to come, but here are the current cities and dates.
October 10th or 11th
Great Barrington, MA
Familiar Trees
October 14
Boston, MA
The Boston Book Festival
October 18
Ridgewood, NJ
Bookends Bookstore
October 19
Atlanta, GA
Eagle Eye Bookshop
October 23
Chicago, IL
Bookends & Beginnings
November 9
Phoenix, AZ
Changing Hands Bookstore
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LINKS TO SOURCES & EQUIPMENT**
Betty Crocker's Picture Cook Book: amzn.to/3QFMTVx
Finding Betty Crocker by Susan Marks: amzn.to/458JYJD
10'' Cast Iron Skillet: amzn.to/3DXHL7H
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Subtitles: Jose Mendoza | IG @worldagainstjose
#tastinghistory #bettycrocker #pineappleupsidedowncake
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I'm heading back out on book tour! I had so much fun the first time that I'm doing it again. More details to come, but here are the current cities and dates.
October 10th or 11th
Great Barrington, MA
Familiar Trees
October 14
Boston, MA
The Boston Book Festival
October 18
Ridgewood, NJ
Bookends Bookstore
October 19
Atlanta, GA
Eagle Eye Bookshop
October 23
Chicago, IL
Bookends & Beginnings
November 9
Phoenix, AZ
Changing Hands Bookstore
I hope to see you in Austin TX soon!
Any chances of a few Canadian stops??
Do you know at what time the Chicago event will be?
Great Barrington is a great town and the Berkshire area is amazing. Especially in the autumn. Enjoy!!
Oh and obviously so much history...but there is a Shaker Village nearby that is pretty wonderful.
My grandma made this exact cake for her entire life, and I am now 71. Thanks for this great memory!
To this day, my mom makes this same cake. Whenever I'm back home and she asks if there's something I'd like her to make, this is it.
LOL! My grandmother too. Not to mention her cookies and from scratch macaroni and cheese. Grandmother's of our generation were awesome at generating fond childhood memories.
Mine, too!
Mine too! I’m 72 and I love the memories as well. Are you my cousin?
@@jackieraulerson2005 Are you from Oklahoma City? If so, maybe!
Let's be honest that disgruntled housewife delivered criticism perfectly lmao
👀
Looking back, if I'd married the pretty nitwit who couldn't cook at all (but who loved me to pieces and was kinder than anyone with whom I'd ever been involved), maybe I'd be a married man and not a guy who ended up divorced after five years and dead-set against ever getting married again.
Salt is great with caramel and greater with fries but not so much when stirred into a marriage.
I think it was a time of many disgruntled women, not just housewives.
@@SimuLordThat's rough buddy.
@@SimuLordAfter living through our parents' rotten marriage, my brother and I are both confirmed singletons, each living alone and loving it.
OH MY GOSH!!! I grew up with my mother who kept all her recipes in a "metal tin box" and in that box were the same index cards that you showed in the wooden box set from the 1950's! I recognize those cards and never knew where they came from until now! My mother used many of the recipes from the Red Betty Crocker recipe book and they became family favorites. When my sisters and I graduated high school and left home, mom photo copied all the main recipe pages for each of us to start our own family cook books, and I am now 61 years old, and I STILL have those copied recipes and use them as my go to to this date!
I still have one that my mom used
Index cards? Recipe cards -
My mom had one too, but it was from the 70s so it was a lime green plastic box 😄
@@jaymogrified My mothers box was tin and it too was a lime green top with a white and flowered bottom. It held so many amazing family recipes.
Like you my mother also had a tin box packed tightly with I don't actually know how many Betty Crocker cards and cook books I really thought she was a real person until now wow and I'm now 62 my mother is 87 and still doing well although she doesn't cook anymore but still has so many cook books from all over the USA thanks for your comment took me back to another time and another place
Max you have really brought back memories of my Mom. Dad was a combat surgeon in WWII in the Pacific and fell in love with pineapple, even thinking of buying land in Hawaii at 40 dollars an acre and raising them. Returning to Illinois he told my mother about pineapples and she told him that they are available in cans at the grocery, Who would have thought ? LOL. Well Mom found the Betty Crocker recipe and suddenly became Queen Lailani of the Kitchen.When she wasn't making a birthday cake for me or my sister, she was making Pineapple Upsde Down cake for Dad and the rest of us on every other occasion, or just for fun. When I think of her baking, it is Pineapple Upside Down Cake and her incredible Christmas creme puffs that I could eat by the dozen if she had let me, that I remember. Now I know why she made this so often. With cake mix it is the original dump cake.
Amazing! Thanks for sharing!
Glad you enjoyed it.@@burpie3258
Beautiful story.Thanks for sharing.
Glad you enjoyed it. My problem is that i am diabetic and pineapple is on the no-no list..@@NanaBrown040
My mom made me a pineapple upside-down cake for my birthday for most of my childhood. I'm 55 now and she's been gone 14 years. Last month, my daughter turned 24 and her co-worker made her a birthday cake... a pineapple upside-down cake. I'd not had it for about 35 years. When I had a slice, I cried for a dozen reasons ❤
Have you ever tried baking it yourself or did the recipe get lost during the time?
that is so sweet! may God bless you and your daughter
I hope it was a beautiful cry, sometimes we need a healthy cry
Your story is nearly identical to my mother's story.
We lost my grandmother 14 years ago as well. I'm 24 now, and it was hard to watch my mother navigate through her tough spots without her own mother. I'm sorry you had to lose her in your early adulthood, and I hope you hold on to a plethora of great memories.
@@dyodoleu I'm a great soup maker, lousy baker! I have my grandmother's cookbook from the 1930's, which was the only cookbook I ever saw my mom reference, so it's likely in there. It's been a rough few months, for various reasons, so maybe the best thing I could do for myself is get out that cookbook...
I'm 75 & Mom has been dead for over 10 years, but "I want my Mommy!" Mom's special treat for me was pineapple upside-down cake, baked in a cast iron fry pan, using Mom's favorite (& red) cookbook. Talk about a walk down memory lane. It was wonderful, thank you. I only own two cookbooks. Your's and Mom's red Betty Crocker cookbook. Your's is my second favorite, but I can only ask forgiveness for a small bias. I'm going to share this video with the whole family.
I know how ya feel. My dad died 2020 and this was his favorite dessert. He really didnt like sweets but this he did. Every birthday xmas or thanksgiving id make one for him. Since he passed its too soon for me to even eat one now. Id be setting there bawling my eyes out while eating. I doubt tears would make it taste better.
@@1COMIXMAN I make a pineapple upside-down cake every Mom's birthday and eat it in loving memory of her. It helps with the loss by remembering the good times.
I know how you feel! My Mom used Betty Crocker recipes and cake mixes through my entire life at home. I often selected this pineapple upside-down cake for Cub Scout mother-son baking events, etc. This recipe reminded me of how much i miss my folks! I guess I need to bake one "for us".@@1COMIXMAN
Today is the one year anniversary for my mom's death. This brought me to tears.
@annbrookens945 I hope that with time, they will be tears of joy for the good memories. It took me a few years.
I'm 23 and I grew up with my great grandmother who still makes this cake at 90. I'm glad I still have her, but also now the recipe for the cake. She has it memorized from being a kid. She fascinates me being able to still mentally be there and remember.
Oh my God! Max was Disney’s Prince Charming! And I must say perfectly cast for the role😊❤
It blows my mind how you went from a humble TH-cam startup because of COVID, to releasing your own cookbook and going on book tours to meet your fans, in only a few short years. Proud of you Max! Keep up the fantastic work!
And his cookbook is a masterpiece. VERY good. A fine addition to my collection.
helps that he's beefy hawt - wrong tackle for me but still he's got presence!
Wow, that's really impressive! Didn't realize it only started during Covid. But I'm not surprised it grew so quickly. It is well done.
@@prjndigo He was literally one of the actors playing Prince Charming, according to this video. Doesn't get much more credentialed than that.
The Betty Crocker red cookbook helped me connect with my family with an ocean separating us. In the Air Force, deployed to Europe, I had commented to a Sergeant's wife how much I missed enchiladas. She looked up the only available recipe and made some for me, and as it turns out, it was the same Betty Crocker red book recipe my Mom used. She literally gave me a taste of home from thousands of miles away, because of that wonderful cookbook.
yooooooooooo
thats so awesome! good for you!! :D
… This is how you make a grown man cry. The taste of home when he least expects it. >):’^]
@@toryumau6798 yeah, I did. She was always doing awesome stuff for the Airmen in her husband's unit, she was just that good to us.
😮🥺😭
Just happened upon your channel by chance and the title intrigued me. I am 74 and when I was about 8 or 9, my dad gave me a Betty Crocker cake mix. I don't think they were sold in England at that time, we didn't even have supermarkets but he was a transatlantic pilot so I imagine he bought it whilst in America. My sister had her ballet, my brother was a gifted pianist and little ol' me had no hobbies but I loved reading. He was a wonderful father and I was a daddy's girl. I read the instructions, so eager to please my dad. The cakes went into the oven and I waited for the timer to ring. A few minutes later he came into the kitchen and asked me if I could go to the shops and get him some cigarettes and I jumped up to do his bidding. Out I rushed (no laws then, I often bought the parents cigarettes or alcohol, it was a small village and we all knew each other). Entering the house I could smell burning and suddenly remembered my cakes. I rushed to the kitchen, flung open the oven door, took out the two baking tins to be greeted with 2 blackened things. I was so upset until he told me that he had taken my cakes out for me, burnt some toast and put them in the tins. This might sound cruel to people today but it really wasn't. He he told me it was a lesson to concentrate and to be aware of what I was doing. It was a valuable lesson that I never forgot. He encouraged my baking until he was killed in a plane crash when I was 17. And now to find out Betty was not real is a real shocker. Is there a real Duncan Hines? Thanks for your upload and interesting story.
BOAC?
@@pugsandcoffeeplease No, PanAm I think. I was too young to know or be told. A few months later we were back in Africa, again.
So sweet. I loved reading your story. Thankyou for sharing
YES, there WAS a real man named Duncan Hines, who did food and travel advice. A company hired him to be its "face".
I don't think that sounds cruel. It sounds like a quite hilarious prank! 😂
I’m sure everyone texts you. I just thought you should know, I am 64, and a mother of three, with several nieces nephews, and 2 great nephews. I thoroughly enjoy your webpage. My mother was a professional baker, and I know she would’ve found your website very informative and definitely enjoyable. So thank you for taking me on a trip of very fond memories
Betty Crocker, the first Virtual influencer, helping housewives and single moms through radio baking tips and cookbooks
So true
Betty Crocker walked so Hatsune Miku could advertise vegetable juice
The majority of households used Betty Crocker recipes. So much so that it literally influenced the dietary lifestyles of multiple generations. My own mother still has and uses her Betty Crocker cookbook. I'm an 80s kid btw. As children, if we ate at a friend's house, the meals were always similar to how our own mothers cooked them. Why? Betty Crocker. It's crazy how much influence it had on people. It's gotta be the most sold and influential cookbook in history.
Fannie Farmer would like a word.
Sorry, single moms were not "allowed" until the 1970's. It has surely changed a lot since then.
OMG! You are OUR Betty Crocker! When you described Betty crocker, you literally described what you do on this channel all the time. Thank you so much for deciphering those old recipes. 😊
Although Max is a real person. Right, Max? Right?
@@mirandarensberger6919 Please don't be AI Max! 🙀
@@mirandarensberger6919 😂
@barrymalkin4404 : if you have ever read through an AI recipe, you would KNOW that Max is real!
Do we also send him a marriage proposal?
As soon as he said that “crunch but not a crunch” I knew he had gotten it right. This was a staple of my recently passed grandmother and hers always had that characteristic texture and flavor. so wonderful to see where one of the defining flavors of my childhood originated. Top-notch video as always.
I made this for my husband's birthday last week and it was a big hit! Thanks, Max!
Thank you for your generosity and happy belated to the hubby.
I am planning on making it for my husband’s birthday today!
Can we all just take a moment to acknowledge what a treasure Max Miller is?
Let's just hope he's a real person!
Acknowledged! ❤
Yes!!!
literally Prince Charming
I do that every Tuesday 😊🥰
I really loved this video and not just because of the history of Betty Crocker and the wonderful pineapple upside down cake recipe. My grandmother was the head of consumer relations for the Warner Lambert consumer products division back in the 1940’s to 1960s which made things like Listerine, Crest Toothpaste, Chiclets gum and a whole line of make up and beauty products for women. She answered letters and wrote blurbs for products, dealt with issues with the products and wrote advice for using them. She felt that Warner Lambert needed an alter ego like Betty Crocker so she developed the character of Mary Butterfly with a persona and signature that she used for all of her communications with consumers and for advertising. Like Marjorie Husted, she was paid a small fraction of what men at her level of responsibility were paid. She had a desk in the secretarial pool and didn’t have her own administrative assistant, grabbing help where she could from the pool. She was a good money manager though so sometime in the early 1960s she decided to retire and travel. She was only gone about 3-4 months when a delegation from Warner Lambert came to visit and begged her to return. They had no idea what she had been doing and so hadn’t thought about replacing her. She demanded that she be paid the same as a man at her level, have her own office with her own selection of art and decor, have a dedicated admin and staff and control over her budget. They agreed to everything and she went back for another 3 years,setting up the consumer relations department as she knew it needed to be and training staff and her replacement.
you must be very proud of her, a woman stronger than the times she lived in
Great story about your grandmother!
Very cool!
You must be busting some buttons! What a strong, courageous, insightful, and creative woman! I didn't know either one of my grandmother's, as both died before I was born, but I would love to have had a grandmother like yours!
Wow! Good for her! She knew her worth and wouldn't settle for less! Still, I've never heard of Mary Butterfly.
fun fact: in switzerland we have a very similar Betty: Betty Bossi.. all is most likely the same, but its for the Company Unilever, and the recepies where invented, to promote the use of Margarine and Oils from Unilever companies. and Betty Bossi also shaped the way, how the swiss are coking and backing today ;)
I’m 60, and I have my mothers original Betty Crocker cook book. I married a professional chef, and I was terrified to cook for him as a new bride, but this book saved me! Simple is always best it seems. And that pineapple upside down cake is the only birthday cake my oldest son has ever wanted for all his 33 years! Lol
Had to share this adorable comment from my adorable 81-year old mother: “I LOVED THIS!!!! I can’t believe that I was just looking at the book a few days ago. Would I donate it? NO WAY. Please send to Gayle and Susie. They will enjoy it as much as I did. We all used cake mixes for no fail cakes. Who is this guy anyway. He is great.” Indeed, who IS this guy anyway??😂😂
About the cake mixes…read an article that asked a bunch of chefs, chefs not bakers, about what they do if they have to make a cake, and they all used BC boxed mixes. The mixes use high quality ingredients and are carefully measured, and you don’t have to buy a pound of cake flour, baking powder etc when all you need is a little bit. Especially if you are only a couple times a year cake baker.
“Who is this guy”!😂😂😂😂
@@katherinewilliams2674I look at it like this : this corporation paid specialists to test this mix to sell and it has to turn out right every time . Who am I to improve that ? Having said that , I often use mixes as a base for things I’m trying
Mid-century cooking is such a weird mixed bag. On the one hand, Betty Crocker and Julia Child gave us not only good recipes but also taught plenty of people the techniques on how to cook well for the first time. On the other, there were so many post-War poverty foods and unholy abominations suspended in gelatin... including vegetable-flavored Jello(!) at the time... that you can look back in downright fear.
If you plan to linger in this time period for a while, Gwen Troake's run-infused coffee pudding that destroyed the career of TV chef Fanny Craddock might be amusing story (and the recipe just sounds plain good.)
Rum-infused coffee Pudding sounds tasty. Now you have me curious about how that would ruin a career...
What I am thankful for is that much of my continent's cooking (Asia) didn't get fucked over post-war despite heavy rationing in several countries here lol
@@fredericapanon207Just read the Wiki on Fanny and the Troake incident. It would make an *excellent* Tasting History episode. And rum-infused coffee cream dessert sounds pretty delish to me, too.
@@a.j.4644 "Not since 1940 can the people of England have risen in such unified wrath." The wiki is a great read :D
@@fredericapanon207 Gwen Troake was a housewife who won a cooking competition called "Cook of the Realm" and the prize was to plan a banquet dinner for some prominent dignitaries (including the former Prime Minister) for a documentary series on the BBC called "The Big Time" in 1976. Cradock was brought on as an "expert consultant" to advise her on the meal. Cradock was condescending and pretended to gag at the meal plan and told her the pudding was too heavy a dessert after such a rich meal (she probably wasn't entirely wrong there, but still.) She suggested this little pastry boats filled with sorbet and topped with garnish made of spun sugar and fruit to resemble a boat sail, since the banquet had a naval theme. The day of, the little fruit boats were a disaster that couldn't be properly served, audiences were furious with Cradock for ruining Troake's big moment, and the BBC canceled her contract and she never hosted another program for the BBC again.
This was so nostalgic to watch. My grandma used to use this recipe to make my dad a pineapple upside down cake for his birthday every year. When I got old enough she would have me come over to help & we would make a day of it. I remember when I was strong enough to flip the cast iron on my own. It was so heavy and I was so nervous I would dump the cake on the floor
Born in Chicago Heights, IL in 1954 I spent much of my pre-school years watching my Mom cook (along with all the other, 'Housewives' duties of the day). We all loved her Pineapple Upside Down Cake and I have not had a single slice since her passing in 1975. This evening, with your broadcast, I finally found her little secret!!! Every single thing you did was EXACTLY as she did, all those decades ago.
Tomorrow, I order the cast iron skillet (which, BTW - HAS to be 'mellowed' properly before use)!
Thank you, Mr. Peabody,
Sherman.
OF COURSE you were Prince Charming!! What else would you be? Thanks, Max for bringing Betty to life for us! Also - sorry Jose! It looks like Max isn't going to share the cake!
The irony of him being Prince Charming lol
@@scottydu81I don't think it's ironic, Max is charming! Cinders could do a hell of a lot worse than a gay friend who can cook.
@be6715 : I thought the same thing! It's perfect casting. :D
I thought so, he really seems & reminded me of a Disney prince... of course, he literally is 😅
Right?! When he said it I was like OH MY GOSH
My mother worked as a character at Disneyland years ago (in the early 00's) and it's so funny you bring up the signature training because even now, decades after hanging up her costume, she still signs birthday cards and such in the "Mickey Mouse" style (the character she played most often). She also still writes with her middle and ring finger together because she got used to writing that way when she was wearing the four fingered gloves. Funny how those things stay with you!
Such a cute story! 😊
My friend worked at one of the Disney hotels after college so she had to learn 'em all. Somewhere I have a postcard she sent me for my birthday that year, signed by Winnie the Pooh and Tigger. (Later she moved into characters, including Goofy; she's 6 feet tall and at the time she worked there, she was the only female Goofy.)
Such a great story!
I danced in the Maintstreet Electrical Light Parade while I went to UCF (98) SOOOOO much fun!
You are the only channel where I don't fast forward the sponsor bits. You even manage to make them fun and entertaining. Your depth of knowledge on your chosen subject is amazing. Can't see you running out of recipes any time soon with all of human history to draw from. Hugely enjoyable and informative, thanks Max.
I'm blessed to have my mother-in-law's 1950 edition and my mother's 1961 edition (in addition to newer versions of my own). The 1961 is my first go-to for cooking most anything. You can tell the pages my Mom used frequently - the oil based pie crust page was taped decades ago, and is transparent from oil and repeated use. Mom was famous for her lemon meringue pie, but it was Betty's recipe. My Mom gave me her cookbook when I was going off on my own, and then a few months later asked for it back. She said "I know it's crazy, but I just can't cook or bake without it!"
Thank you for sharing the history of Betty, and the trip down memory lane!
I ate many a Betty Crocker recipe growing up in Scotland. It was my mother's go-to recipe book and is on her shelf to this day. Everyone in her class was given one during culinary training in the 70's.
My sister still has Mum’s 1957 edition. She is the librarian for the other 2 of us!!!
That and the Better Homes and Gardens recipe book.
@@jayhom5385I have that book too, but Betty Crocker is my go to. Everything tastes just like Momma used to burn er cook.
My mom has an anniversary edition of the Betty Crocker cookbook
Fun fact about cake mixes, they didn't used to have you add eggs. But it apparently felt more "homemade" and less "lazy" when you added the eggs and so the cake mixes started calling for eggs even without changing the mix. I belive some mixes still don't strictly need the eggs, though most people are used to and so prefer the taste of cake mixes with the eggs added.
I lived in India for a couple years, where many of my colleagues and friends didn’t eat eggs or meat for religious reasons, and so I learned that actually a lot of baked goods are pretty much fine without the eggs and without major changes to the recipe to compensate. Cakes, cookies etc. often don’t really need eggs whether made from scratch or from a box
Very fun fact, thank you anime pfp
@@charlesclatanoff3720
Most breads and cakes can use any shortening rather than eggs for stability. However, eggs tend to be a very convenient and chemically ideal binder for a more stable, less crumbly cake so they're sometimes needed for certain desired textures or denseness depending on preference. A lot of breads can get away with as little as 2 ingredients (flour and lard) if one so chooses.
i was about to comment that! its a fun bit of trivia how they took out powdered egg and had home cooks add one themselves.
@@donnyross5108 That sounds a lot like old Sigmund's logic alright. I like the presence of eggs in bread, cakes, blini, etc, just because of the added flavor and added volume.
Pancakes also have a lot more substance as a meal when made with eggs, feeling less like just a pastry.
My grandmother always made pineapple upside-down cakes, and she always used the ancestral cast iron pan... which had creosote deposits, from being used on a woodburning stove, in the mists of time. Anyway, she taught me how to do it, when I was a little boy, just as seen in this video (save the nuts). She has been gone, these last ten years, and now I have the ancestral pan. I need to make that cake again... my mom and girlfriend both love it, as do I. 🙂 Thanks for reminding me of the memories, Max. And to DeDe and Grandpa- I still miss you guys, every single day. EDIT: I hope I can drop in and say hello, Max, while you're in Atlanta.
Thank you for featuring this classic book: It was a modern innovation for its time post WWII. My sister gave my mom a copy in the 1950's, from which I taught myself to cook in 1961 at the age of 9 following my father's death. Many recipes are reminiscent of the Great Depression, with food expanders, gelatin and many other things. It had a personal and heartwarming feel about the book, which exemplified the great character of General Mills and the America of that time. It's a world far away and long ago, sadly. It's a real trip down memory lane and a good way to learn proper techniques in cooking and baking, plus scientific information about chemistry and nutition. Still it's about the best book around, in my humble opinion. No, I am not nor ever have been employed by General Mills.
Something about this episode made me really emotional. There's something really nice about seeing all these chefs, actresses, and Marjorie Husted collaborating to bring Betty Crocker to life. She's simultaneously fictional and non-fictional, because all of these talented people ARE Betty Crocker.
But in the end she meant so much to women before the revolution. Marjorie was a very wonderful woman, along with the numerous unnamed women who brought Betty to life.
ALWAYS Keep in mind that recipes that call for canned pineapple that were written before 1980 almost ALWAYS means pineapple that is canned in heavy syrup. Back then, it was pretty much all you could get. Today, heavy syrup is difficult to find, and most everything is packed in juice, which changes the sweetness of the original recipe.
I stopped buying canned fruit when they removed heavy syrup.
@@marthawelch4289 You can still get it. You just have to look real hard.
@@marthawelch4289This is when I started buying canned fruit. Not a sweet tooth here.
@@marthawelch4289 Dole still does pineapple in syrup but few stores still carry it.
@@1300BlueStar Thank you for replying! None of the supermarkets here carry it But you sparked an idea. I will try stores like Dollar General.
Happiness and health to you!
@TastingHistory, Max, I just pulled out mom's BCCB, and it is dated 1973. She had worn it out, and put it into another red 3-ring binder, and had added recipes she'd found, including things from online up to at least 2006. The first recipe I saw, in the front folder pocket, was her scalloped corn, for which I asked her the recipe every year, as I had never written it down and kept it. There it is, in her handwriting. I gathered most, but not all, of the cookbooks from her house before she moved and had an estate sale. I rarely use cookbooks, especially these days, but having it at hand, remembering... A christmas napkin held the place of the cheese fondue recipe my dad used to do. Another, mom's Waikiki Meatballs (but not the grape meatballs, I don't think, which is just a small jar of jelly and a thing of chili sauce). Anyway, I haven't pulled that book out since I brought it home, because losing mom's place, and her independence, among a lot of other things, has been very depressing. Then, I start to think about how it might be to cook this or that again. How maybe someone else might like it if I did. Thanks, Max. You are helping to draw me out, as I recuperate from my left hip revision surgery (July 12th). I am hoping for an uplifting upcoming year, where, crossing my fingers, nobody dies!!! Be well, you handsome young man.
Based on your review of this cake, I picked up a copy of the cookbook at a vintage sale. The old 1950 publication with a gift inscription 'from Mother, 1951'-😊
You blew right past that whole "I was Prince Charming" thing... We need a reminiscing episode! 😊
Great video as usual. I think it would be fascinating to have a series that highlights the historical figures behind recipe collections such as Fannie Farmer, Betty Crocker, Isabelle Beeton, and Eliza Acton. Most interesting is the time and place as well as the types of foods emphasized by different cookbook authors. Hopefully, Max Miller will be inspired to create a series like that...although all content from dreamy Prince Charming is pretty cool. 😉
Joy of Cooking! That was my mother’s go-to, along with Betty Crocker. She grew up in a household with a cook, and didn’t learn until she married at 25.
Getting that hidden Max lore
alas, I stop the video to scroll through the comments pertaining to my choice comment.
Max Miller Sir, I need, no, we all NEED to know. If you would and can (that copyright shit included) Were you one of our fave Princes in another life?
He talked a lot about Disney when he first started this site. Go back to some of the very first episodes, it may still contain his monologue.
I am 60 years old and I bought my first Betty Crocker cookbook at 15. My book no longer has a cover and several pages are missing. I love it, Betty never assumes that you know anything. I have replaced my book but I still like to use the original. I have bought a copy for my nieces and sons when they all left home. 🙂🇨🇦
Mine is well used too
I got mine some time in the mid 70s, still use it frequently. If the pages stick together, you know that's a favourite recipe!
@@lindamarshall3485 true. I had my parents for dinner and I made sweet and sour meatballs. My mom says you don't need to cook something fancy. I pulled out the page, literally. The page had stuck to the next page and when I tried to separate them the page came out of the book. I just tuck it back in when I'm done with it. 😀
@@jeanmkaufmann that recipe was a huge hit at the daycare I cooked at. I left out the green peppers. And yes, that's a very sticky page!
I love my Betty Crocker cookbook. I also love that when they come out with new ones there are meaningful changes like vegetarian recipes but it still maintains the helpful teaching sections and other things
Definitely go to the book tour if you can. Max Miller is humble and kind and took time with each and every person who wanted his autograph and picture. We loved it!
I grew up this this cake. My all time favorite still and I am 67 years old. Love hearing all of the history. Thanks
Yep! I'm 68 in a few days, and this was my Dad's favorite; Mom would always bake him one for his birthday every year for as long as I can remember. We are it with a dollop of whipped cream. My folks are gone now - I have a sudden urge to make one of these for my family!
My Dad did 99% of the baking in our house. I was his little apprentice from when i was so,small, my nose just reached the counter and i had to kneel on a chair. The first cake i made on my own with no help, other than managing the hot oven, - pineapple upside down cake. I had just turned 8 and i thought it was pure magic that the pineapples started at the bottom and ended up on the top lol.
When I was growing up from the age of 6 to this past April (I made my own), I would always ask my mom to make pineapple upside down cake. Every single year. She passed away in October 2022. I can't believe you are making this! It's like she's here with me through you.❤❤❤
Aaww! That's so sweet! I'm sorry about your mom tho!
I thought the same thing about my mother.
This brought a tear to my eye. Thank you!
My mother graduated from high school in 1958 and her Betty Crocker cookbook from her home economics classes was a fixture in our kitchen. I now have her very well-worn, well-loved book and I still pull it out regularly!
This, without question, was my favorite cake in my 50s childhood. Mom would also make a dark rum sauce for it to be drizzled on it when we would have guests.
Max, now you gotta make the recipe box! Make it a gift for some special occasion or celebration! You can't go more historically vintage than this
I thought this as well! It's now a must lol!
I would buy it and keep it right on the counter!
A holiday recipe special would be fitting. Make a box with little dividers for the different holidays, each card with old styled artwork of the piece, the recipe on one side with a history blurb on the other.
@@ShadowOfMachines that would be awesome
@@ShadowOfMachinesThat would be amazing ❤
I don't think I've seen Max ever want a second bite so badly of one of his other recipes.
watching him go to town on that cake is an entire mood, and also me with pineapple upside-down cake
Make the recipe and you'll see why.
That cake looks amazing, cant argue.
My first cookbook was a Betty Crocker cookbook for children. My mother gave it to me when I was nine. I loved it for decades until it finally fell apart. I used Betty Crocker cookbooks, three of them, after I was married. I still have them but rarely use them anymore.
I don't think we had her so much in the UK, but that was still a fascinating story. It was riveting and you are a great story teller.
I have never seen Max dig in so heartily or quickly for a second bite! 🤣💕 My sisters and I coveted our Mom's 1950's "Big Red" Betty Crocker cookbook so much that she bought us each a copy when they reprinted them in 1998. The paper isn't as good of quality, but the recipes and tips are still great.
There is also a Betty Crocker 'Lost Recipes' book. Very nostalgic.
@@kirbyculp3449 I did not know this. I lost my original B.C. cookbook (1970s), somewhere in my travels, so I was wondering where to find some of the 'missing' recipes, I used to use - ones that were removed from the more current editions. Thank you for this.
I am a child of the late 60's. My mom was not a baker so cakes were few and far between. I remember countless birthdays with candles stuck in a Pineapple Upside Down cake!
I always knew that BC was not a real person but the history behind her myth is fascinating!
Thanks Prince Charming! 😉
José is a lucky guy! 😊
its funny, before this episode i had no idea people thought she was a real person! to me she was always a brand mascot at the grocery store, like captain crunch. knowing how she was created and promoted, i can see why. (im a child of the 90s, so fun to bridge generational gaps like this!)
max miller's level of humor is the perfect dose you need per conversation for life
I'm _so_ glad that for once, I wasn't drinking coffee while watching this. Sipping a hot beverage when the *"of course your men get violent if you don't feed them properly"* came on would have been the death of my keyboard.
Thx for another fun & informative video!
OMG, talk about blaming the victim, right? It was always women’s fault. 🤦♀️
@@mahenonz well, obviously. You get the choice between blaming (AKA getting into trouble with) somebody who's known to be able and willing to be violent when things don't go his way, and somebody who's already intimidated and unlikely to have training or experience in dealing out physical violence. Easy to spot the smart choice.
It’s so crazy to still see the domination of Betty Crocker in kitchens worldwide today. Nearly 100 years of being the cookbook queen
I got a Betty Crocker cookbook at my wedding reception in 1986.
It's completely filled apart and held together with rubber bands, but it still works!
Not least, the domination of the Betty Crocker boxed cake mixes. Reliable, weren't they?
And quickly becoming the queen of the (ex-)dollar-store stamped-metal kitchen utensils.
worldwide?
Not really worldwide. I've seen a few Betty Crocker cake mixes and cake icing in the supermarket, but that's it. No cookbooks or anything. (I live in Australia)
The general convention I've noticed and tend to stick to is you use the fancy pronunciation if you're using actual maraschino cherries and you use the Americanized one if you're using those bright red ones that are 80% food coloring ( which are a valid ingredient and have their place in both cocktails and cuisine, but are a different thing ).
I like that
I do the same.
Making Black Forest cake with the cherries in alcohol is quite different than the NA sugar syrup.
@@davidcheater4239 when you know...
Same for me, there’s a definite difference in flavor between the two, and both being used to refer to specific ones makes sense.
My method also.
I have my Mother’s Betty Crocker cookbook from 1955 so fun to see my Mom’s notes by the recipes
I didn't realise Betty was also a radio star, but it does make sense. She sounds a bit like our own 'Aunt Daisy' here in NZ, though she was just a radio host.
The closest we have to Betty's cookbook is the Kiwi-as Edmonds Cookery Book, though this started out as a marketing tool for baking powder and was called the 'Sure To Rise Cookery Book.
I was thinking the radio show sounded quite similar to our Aunt Daisy, I wonder if she was inspired by the American version or it is just coincidence?
Also my answer to the maraschino cherry pronunciation question would be neither, I would use glacé as it’s very hard to find them here!
When I was a kid in Minneapolis, the Betty Crocker Test Kitchen was open to the public for tours. It was pretty amazing! And you got to taste test new recipes. It was (and still is) America's First "Test Kitchen."
You can see something similar inside mill city museum. On Saturday, they bake things in the kitchen. It's mostly a museum about the history of General Mills and Minneapolis.
@@DustinWatson01 They also provide the recipes for the items that they bake. My kids LOVE going to the Mill City Museum.
General Mills was one of the places our school repeatedly took us for field trips. At the end of the factory tour they gave us tiny boxes of cereal. The other place was the Tonka truck factory. Such fun
I like how it's a skillet, which makes it "easy". Pineapple Upside-Down cake is one of my faves!
I love it with vanilla ice cream, but I do use yellow cake mix.
My mom had the 3-ring-binder Betty Crocker cookbook; the cover was red & white check, like a tablecloth one might see at a picnic. It was a wedding present in 1966, and it was well used, obvious from the food stains on different pages. I have a mid-90s copy of _Betty Crocker's Everything You Need to Know to Cook,_ which I've found to be very clear and useful; though not nearly as bountiful in recipes as my mom's cookbook, it has more recipes than I'll ever need.
PS: Mom made pineapple upside down cake, but not with pecans, or other nuts or space fillers, that I recall. It was delicious!
YES!!!
The history in this episode was so interesting! I am always impressed with how much history you include in these episodes and how well you weave the recipe and history together. The images included in this were so cool as well. Very well done. This is basically a docuseries at this point and I love it!
I discovered your channel several months ago and I've really enjoyed your lessons...but today takes, dare I say, the cake. In 1996, of the 75 women selected to create a new composite image of Betty Crocker, my great Aunt's eyes were used as Betty Crocker's. Around that same time, when I was 7 years old, I learned how to cook in the kitchen and followed my first recipe...ironically, the Betty Crocker Pineapple Upside Down cake. I'm not even kidding. I consider myself a good cook now in my 30s, but find I'm not at all a good baker, but when I feel discouraged, I go back to the Crocker Upside Down cake just to show I CAN still bake. You don't know me Max, but I've gotten to know you over the past several months and have really learned to appreciate what you do but your video this week...it's hard not to get a little emotional while typing out this comment. I doubt you'll see it either but man...thank you. I saw the thumbnail and my mouth dropped because I knew you would do her justice. Thank you. I know my aunt isn't THE Betty Crocker...but she is definitely part of her and I don't think I would be the home cook I am today if not for that. Just, thank you.
Max! This made me so happy. My maternal grandmother was a baker and my mom a cook. They both had copies of this book of course and when I was a kid I would sit on the kitchen floor and flip through every page, asking my mom if we could make this or that over and over until she lost her mind and conceded defeat. I pretty much had the cake section memorized and while I didn’t quite inherit the baking prowess of my foremothers I did have fun and there are so many great memories from this cookbook.
Thanks so much for doing this video, what a great start to the day!
I haven't had pineapple upside-down cakes in decades, and I forgot how much I used to LOVE it until I watched this video!
Back in the 80's I was in my early 20's, and a co-worker of mine made a pineapple upside-down cake and brought it to work to share with us. I was blown away by its deliciousness! She gave me the recipe, and I became obsessed with making it, as did quite a few of the other ladies I worked with. It was a "thing" for all of us for quite a while, and we would experiment with the recipe and bring in our latest creation to share with each other.
Thanks, this brought back happy (and yummy) memories!
Max , you’ll always be our Prince Charming no matter what your signature looks like , lol! Definitely , be looking for your book . Great video as always !
I definitely use my cast iron skillet for pineapple upside down cake. Also, make the caramel before putting the pineapple in (trick for pineapple lovers: cut the rings in half and lay them in a concentric circle). The pineapple will sizzle and brown a little bit. Make the cake batter. Then pour the cake batter into the hot pineapple/caramel. Starting in a hot skillet will cut your baking time, so I watch it closely and toothpick test the cake without going through to the caramel. Cool 5 minutes, then invert on a plate to finish cooling. Do Not cool in the pan, it will stick.
That is exactly my mother's recepie for upside-down cake.
If you use bananas or apples on the cake, a simple vanilla batter can be used (without the fruit juice). Just stab a fork all over the surface of the finished cake, before inverting it, than spread all over it some milk, a soupspoon at a time. This will make the cake moist, because without the juice the cake gets very dry.
Just don't overdo it, and remember to eat it a little faster, or the milk will run, or worse, spoil.
Can you clarify what you mean by a concentric circle? To me, concentricity is a property of a *set* of circles, a single circle being trivially concentric by definition.
Any tips on how to tip it out? The pan is pretty heavy and I can't really tip it with one hand. And does the cake stick?
Thank you! I will try it as you suggested!
@@lindamarshall3485 Hold a plate over the pan, with both hands, than turn it over. Hold tight and will be ok. You need to do it while the cake is still a little warm, or else it will stick. If it is cold, just put it back on the oven, very low heat, to softhen the caramel, and the cake will come loose.
That might be my favorite surprise hard-tack appearance! 😂
Thank you for the sweet story of Betty Crocker.
Clack clack
It was a particuarly creative cameo indeed! XD
My father was a baker in the USAF during the 50's. One of the products he was proud of was his upside-down pineapple cake, and thus I grew up loving it. In his later years he baked less but I remember one birthday I asked him to make his famous cake, which he did. One of my fondest memories.
I inherited the first edition of Betty Crocker's Picture Cookbook from my great-aunt when I was a young boy back in the 70's. Although I had other cookbooks, Betty's provided me the best education and had the greatest impact on my love for cooking and baking. Well, then there's Julia Child -- but I digress. Betty is the reason why I have always baked my upside down cake in a skillet and I've always gotten raves over it. Thanks so much for making this video, Max. It is definitely a favorite of mine. It brings back a lot of warm memories. I feel so cozy as I watch it. I wanna go into the kitchen and bake a cake!
The way he closed his eyes and his shoulders just dropped when he took that first bite... That's when you KNOW that it came out perfect 😆
I love Pineapple Upside Down cake. For my birthday my daughter decided to make one for me. She was 11. It was quite good. She is now 17 and makes one for me every year, her skills have improved markedly. Her Pineapple Upside Down cake is the best I've ever had, but honestly, the tradition is even better.
The color of your very attractive completed pineapple upside down cake looks wonderfully old fashioned! I could almost taste it as you took a mouth full. Thanks for the history about Betty Crocker. My mother who was born in 1914 did a tremendous amount of gourmet cooking in the late 30's, 40's, 50's & 60's. I actually think one of the reasons my dad married her was because of her excellent cooking ability. Your mention of how the introduction of new & better kitchen appliances was interesting. I actually still have a Sunbeam white electric mixer with bowl very similar to the one you showed here, although I believe mine was purchased in the late 40's by my parents. Thanks for your post on TH-cam. Have a wonderful new year 2024! Signing off from North Carolina.
Growing up in the 70s the only cookbook that I can remember was the big red book. Thank you, Betty Crocker. 😋
This was one of my mother's favorite recipes from her favorite cookbook, which was her first. My mother was married in 1955 and received the Red Betty Crocker cookbook as a wedding shower gift. She used that cook book for the next 60 years until she developed dementia after being widowed, eventually dying just before the pandemic in 2019. She was a wonderful cook and collected recipes all her life, but this book was her foundational - learn to cook book. She bought one for each of her daughters when we married. Thank you for featuring it. It brought back many happy memories. And now I have to get busy, I have a hankering for Pineapple Upside Down Cake, just the way mother used to make it!
Used to be Prince Charming? Max you still are. This is my favorite channel and I ordered 2 of your cookbooks yesterday. 1 for me and the other for my mom. Thank you for your hard work.
I downloaded it on my Kindle when Amazon had it on sale. And I think Max is indeed a charming Prince among men.
I love the dark beautiful caramel richness that the cake has as the result of having been baked in the cast iron skillet! Anything less is not acceptable!
I've got one of those old pre 1910 cookbooks with baking directions like 'bake in a fast oven'. That's it. No time, no temperature. I can only imagine just how modern a Betty Crocker cookbook seemed in comparison to one of those.
My cookbook (inherited from grandma) begins with around 50 pages of explanations of what the individual terms mean. For example, how to recognize a quick oven, what the difference is between a cast iron or copper pot, also how to butcher (including how to tell the age of the animals) and how to properly cut vegetables.
Some say "fake it till you make it" but Betty was "make it to fake it." Truly she was Betty-er than us all
… “One spoon to stir them all”. >)X^D
At 70 years of age I can still remember that buttery caramelized brown sugar taste on that cake even though I haven't eaten one since I was a child. Excellent video...I didn't know half of that story about "Betty".
this cookbook is the best teaching tool. The way the ingredients are listed is perfectly listed. I learned how to read recipes and cook with this cookbook although ours was from the 40's, hard cover.
Just made it yesterday, out standing. Plain and simple. My wife and son live my cooking and baking but I didn't have a recipe for pineapple upside-down cake. Through countless recipes, I decided to say "hey, let's check TH-cam" and I am glad I did. Made this with cast iron and it made a very good looking bottom. Thank you!!
WARNING about OLD Recipes that use cake mix: Pay attention to the box size of the cake mix! The cake mix boxes that were formerly about 18 oz are now about 15 oz due to shrink-flation.
AND @Max - seeing you enjoy the cake so much makes me want to make one now! 😋😋😋
My mom had a 1960’s edition of the Betty Crocker cookbook and every single recipe in it was incredible. Those women really perfected these recipes.
It’s the gold standard of cookbooks.
My hats are off to all the hard working women who made Betty Crocker a household name and a quality cook.
Countless women (and men, as in my case) were given a treasure trove of dependable, amazing recipes they could make from the cookbook. Even if they couldn’t cook anything else.
Fantastic episode, Max! It was truly inspiring!
Yes!! I don't care if it was just marketing, they were so well written and reliable. I grew up with the red cookbook and was so happy I found a second one to be my own when I got married. I'm only 26.
Yes! You know, the sad thing is that cookbooks written today are mostly of much less quality. I always find recipes in older cookbooks to be much more reliable and delicious! Like lots of other types of books nowadays, most cookbooks are quickly written and judging by the poor outcomes of the recipes, they don't seem to have even been tested whatsoever. The ingredient measurements and cooking/baking times always seem to be way off, and the final product doesn't turn out well at all.
I much prefer the older cookbooks like Betty Crocker!
I would absolutely buy a bespoke “best of Tasting History” box
Betty sold more than flour; I have my aunt's 1950's Betty Crocker cook book and stand mixer which is pictured in the book. It says Betty Crocker by General Mills right on it and still works beautifully! I have never tried this particular pineapple upside down cake recipe but I will try it now. Max, your show is a wonderful contribution to the culinary world. If Julia Child was still here to see it I believe she would be your biggest fan!
This inspired me to look through my mother's recipe box. I found this recipe on a 3x5 card written by my grandmother who passed away in 1948. Thanks for the nostalgia, Max
Wow. I’m a huge history nerd and I had absolutely no idea about the story behind Betty Crocker.
Love your videos Max!
Yes! Cast iron ftw. My late grandmother always made it that was and it's chef's kiss. I still do that, and it was my late father's favorite cake since his mom made it for him.
One of my favorite cakes to make out of the Big Red Cookbook! I inherited my Grandmother's copy as well as the one I recieved on my first marriage in 1985. They virtually are the same biok, lol! 😂 I still use it all the time, there are also notes and cards in a folder my Grandma had in the back. It has her personal recipes in it as well as my Grandpa's eecipes for carmel corn and vanilla ice cream. ❤
I enjoyed your summing Betty Crocker up not as a person, but as an idea. It was a very successful campaign! Thanks for sharing, Max 😊❤😊
My grandmother made this all the time. My mother preferred pies, but I love cake. My grandmother gave me the Betty Crocker Cookbook for Boys and Girls for my seventh birthday. I still make the brownies and sugar cookies from that book. By the way, you can make your own cake flour (I can't find it in my grocery store). For each cup of flour, remove 2 Tablespoons and replace them with 2 Tablespoons of corn starch. It really does make a difference.
I have that one too!!!
I believe that hint for cake flour is IN the Betty Crocker Cook Book from the 50s. :)
So does adding the whey of or yogurt to the mix. I do the cornstarch mix a lots when I'm making anything cake type. Thanks it's good that people know how to make a substitute cake flour
Thank you, I've been trying for ages to remember that trick. Grandma taught it to me decades ago but I've always just bought cake flour so I'd forgotten it but the last few years the store bought stuff has been way subpar.
It cuts down the protein (gluten), opposite of bread flour. You can also use more fat at the beginning, less water and mix less if you use all purpose because the fat will coat the flour and keep the gluten from connecting to other bits of gluten. So if you only have all purpose to hand (like a poor college kid) use oil instead of butter (which is 30% water) and mix it as little as you can get away with once the flour has hit the mix.
Apparently Betty Crocker's history is as rich as her cake 👌
Thank you for the fantastic video Max!
This is my favorite cake and my grandmother made it every year for my birthday.
I won the "Betty Crocker Award" in high school. Guess it was only for my high school because I never received anything other than my picture in the local newspaper! BTW- My mom made this recipe and it was wonderful!! Good childhood memories.
cool!
Excellent choice of thumbnail, because the Betty Crocker cookbook, and in particular that pineapple upside-down cake (minus the pecans, since I'm allergic to tree nuts), brings back viscerally horrifying memories of my mother's attempts at queasine.
My reaction to dinnertime was often akin to Calvin's reaction to his mother's cooking in "Calvin and Hobbes."
"queasine", been ages since I've seen that portmanteau! It's just... *chefs kiss*
Borrowing queasine for icky cooking. Never heard that one before. 🤢🤣
Never heard quesinine either, totally need to find a way to use that.
@@hannahbrown2728find a way to spell it properly first
Us kids got a lot less of that when we stopped having to eat canned diced beets at supper. Pickled beets we minded less, but seldom had.
We liked lima beans at least for being inoffensive (w/butter, salt, and pepper). Spinach, the same way. I got the impression I was slightly odd for liking spinach, even canned -- don't see much of that any more.
I have this book! It was a wedding gift to my mother when she got married in 1950. I first made this recipe when I was 12, about 1965. I read recipe books /recipes for fun and read this book, front to back! I began to rewrite recipes from other books that were written in paragraph fashion, rather then each ingredient on a separate line for easy scanning. It is safe to say that Betty Crocker has had a long-lasting impact on my life.
If you skip the advertisments, the videos are really fun and informative and a joy to watch!
Thank you Betty Crocker for your angel food cake mix.
You do not know how excited I was to see you doing a Betty Crocker recipe from a book my Mom actually owns, but a pineapple upside down cake which was one of my first things I made on my own from my family cook book (I made my great Grandmother's version of it that didn't have the walnuts and had just a few extra changes) which I served on a Christmas to my Grandmother and family. I even had to rush to my mom to tell her about it and we got out her own Betty Crocker cookbook to look for this recipe inside it right before watching the rest of the show. Thank you so much for this. I needed the nostalgia.
This is my favorite cookbook ever- I would pour over it as a child and made almost every kind of cake, cookie and quick bread in there- I actually bought my own very used copy when I moved out of my folks’ place. Thanks for the history lesson about her! I had a friend who made a one person show about Betty and this book- super fun.
I loved looking at the pictures, especially the one of White Plum Duff.
My husband found your program. We have so much enjoyment watching your cooking and your tutorials very informative. Your facial expressions are a hoot.. we just watched about 5 shows great job!