Aunt Jemima (Nancy Green)
Source of Recipe
Food Newsletter
Recipe Introduction
Chris L. Rutt and Charles G. Underwood purchased the Pearl Milling Company in 1889, and came up with the novel idea of creating a ready-mixed pancake flour. Rutt named it for a catchy tune called 'Aunt Jemima' which he had recently heard in a vaudeville show. Rutt and Underwood went broke in 1890, and sold the formula for Aunt Jemima Pancake Mix to the R.T. Davis Milling Company. Davis looked for a woman to represent the product, and hired an African American woman named NANCY GREEN from Chicago, Illinois.
At the 1893 Columbian Exposition in Chicago, Davis made an all-out effort to promote the new pancake mix, and built the world's largest flour barrel. 'Aunt Jemima' (Nancy Green) demonstrated how to use the new mix, and the exhibit was so popular, police had to control the crowds at the Aunt Jemima booth. Nancy Green was awarded a medal and proclaimed 'Pancake Queen' by the Fair officials. Soon signed to a lifetime contract by Davis, Green was a hit all across the country, as she toured demonstrating the new Aunt Jemima Pancake Mix, and by 1910 it was available nationally. She played the part of Aunt Jemima until her death on September 24, 1923 (she died in a car accident).
Aunt Jemima Mills were purchased in 1925 by the Quaker Oats Company of Chicago.
TRIVIA--
Garum is a condiment or sauce widely used by the ancient Greeks and Romans. Take some small fish, the intestines of some larger fish, maybe some oysters, salt them, maybe add some vinegar, pepper and/or other spices. Then set this in the sun for several days. At this point it is called liquimen. As this appetizing mass of stuff would ferment and putrefy it oozed a liquid. This liquid is garum. Used as a seasoning in cooking and also as a table condiment. There are several modern versions of this: Pissalat from Nice and nuoc-mam in Vietnam are two of them.
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