Hurff Canned Goods

Once upon a time, a company with the somewhat off-putting name of Hurff was big enough to advertise in a top-of-the-line national magazine like LIFE.



Here's the backstory, so far as I can find out.



I have found ads from them as late as 1948. Does that mean that store was selling three-year-old cans of food, given the plant-closing date of 1945? Or maybe the plant did not close, but Hurff himself was forced out? We will probably never know...



Hurff is a fine forgotten piece of what cartoonist Robert Crumb calls "weird old America."

Posted By: Paul - Fri Dec 16, 2016 - Comments (10)
Category: Food, Regionalism, Advertising, 1930s, 1940s

Make milk a social drink

1960: The dairy industry, noting that coffee, tea, beer, liquor, and soft drinks are traditionally served at parties but milk isn't, started plotting ways to make milk a "social drink."

If you add alcohol to milk it could be considered a social drink. Otherwise, I'd say their campaign fizzled.

Akron Beacon Journal - Dec 4, 1960

Port Angeles Evening News - Mar 9, 1960

Posted By: Alex - Sat Nov 26, 2016 - Comments (4)
Category: Food, Soda, Pop, Soft Drinks and other Non-Alcoholic Beverages, 1960s

Happy Thanksgiving 2016!

Posted By: Paul - Thu Nov 24, 2016 - Comments (1)
Category: Crime, Food, Holidays

Andy Warhol Eats a Hamburger

Posted By: Paul - Wed Nov 23, 2016 - Comments (3)
Category: Food, Pop Art, Bohemians, Beatniks, Hippies and Slackers, 1960s, 1970s

Squirrel Burgers

Over at twincities.com, Dave Orrick extols the virtues of squirrel burgers, which he says are one of his "favorite ways to introduce people to squirrel meat."

Just get yourself some squirrels (you may have some scampering around in your back yard), skin 'em, run the meat through a grinder, and cook it up. Dave says that squirrel has "a distinct, nutty flavor." But if you find the flavor too strong, you can always dilute it with a bit of turkey meat.

I know there have been occasional efforts to encourage people to eat squirrel meat (see below), but these efforts always seem to fizzle. Kinda like the similar efforts to get people to eat insects.

Sydney Morning Herald - May 14, 1971

Posted By: Alex - Sat Nov 05, 2016 - Comments (4)
Category: Food

Couch Potato Sculpture

I'm assuming all WU-vies will want to shell out $345.00 for this figurine as the perfect Xmas gift for that lazy brother-in-law, son, uncle, or father.



Home page here.

Posted By: Paul - Sat Nov 05, 2016 - Comments (1)
Category: Art, Food, Hygiene, Parody

The Palatability of Eggs

After World War II, Dr. Hugh Cott of Cambridge University conducted a series of egg-tasting experiments in order to determine the palatability of eggs from various species of birds. I think part of the idea was to determine which eggs might possibly be used as a food source by Englanders, in case of another war. But part of the idea was also just scientific curiosity.

He assembled a panel of three egg tasters, who were served the eggs scrambled. They then rated them on a 10-point scale. Over a six-year period (1946-1951) they tasted eggs from 212 bird species.

Some of their results: The domestic hen was rated tastiest (8.8 out of 10). The coot, moorhen, and lesser black-backed gull came in second place (8.3 out of 10).

Penguin eggs were "particularly fine and delicate in flavor." Domestic duck eggs were of only "intermediate palatability."

Coming in at the bottom were the eggs of the great tit ("salty, fishy, and bitter"), wren ("sour, oily"), and the oyster-catcher ("strong onion-like flavor"). The eggs of the bar-headed goose made the tasters gag. However, "The freshness of the material available may have been in question."

Cott concluded that brightly colored eggs were, overall, less palatable than camouflaged eggs, but this result has subsequently been challenged. Zoologist Tim Birkhead has also suggested that Cott's experiment would have been more scientifically valuable if the tasters had eaten the eggs raw, because "What predators ever experienced cooked eggs?"

Cott published the full results of his experiment in 1954, in the Journal of Zoology.

The Bend Bulletin - Feb 2, 1948

Posted By: Alex - Wed Nov 02, 2016 - Comments (2)
Category: Food, Eggs, Experiments, 1940s

Follies of the Madmen #295

So that's where corporate executives come from! It's something in their breakfast cereal as kids!

Posted By: Paul - Tue Nov 01, 2016 - Comments (5)
Category: Business, Advertising, Products, Food, Children, 1960s

The Weeny Witch

From the 1940s to the 1970s, the makers of "Skinless" wieners tried hard, through relentless advertising, to establish "Weeny Witch" parties as a Halloween tradition. Basically, these were parties that completely centered around hot dogs. A "Weeny Witch" (a hot dog dressed up as a witch) would serve as a table centerpiece.

To make the Weeny Witch party more festive the company distributed a pamphlet with party suggestions, which included "Bobbing for Franks" as well as "Feeding the Weeny Witch." The latter involved creating a cardboard cutout of a witch's head. Blindfolded kids would then try to stick their weeny in the witch's mouth.

Image source: reddit

Image source: And Everything Else Too

Albuquerque Journal - Oct 23, 1949

Posted By: Alex - Mon Oct 31, 2016 - Comments (5)
Category: Food, Junk Food, Halloween

Post Toasties

Here's an ad campaign over the course of a decade or so that shows the Mad Men flailing around blindly. Whom do we appeal to? Kings, Indian Chiefs, housewives, nursery-rhyme characters, despotic sea captains, or cartoon animals? Or, in the end, the anti-hippie conservatives embodied by Andy Griffith and his fancy-neckwear disparagement?

Posted By: Paul - Sun Oct 30, 2016 - Comments (2)
Category: Business, Advertising, Food, 1950s, 1960s