Lessons from Betty

Might as well make it a double-dose of old time instruction day. Only this time, leap forward about 30 years to the1950 first edition Betty Crocker's Picture Cook Book. There's lots of little advice tucked between the recipes. Things that could still prove helpful today:

• All you have to do to dress up leftover macaroni dishes: fill scooped out unpeeled fresh tomatoes with mixture, and bake in moderate oven 30 minutes.
• Prevent splashing when whipping cream by placing waxed paper with a hole for beater over top of bowl.
• Chilled eggs are easier to separate as the cold holds the yolk together.

Then there's the not so helpful advice:

• Do not keep whole wheat or other coarse flours or cereals near white flour. (Is this Jim Crow rules for flour???)
• If you are a good mathematician you may safely reduce recipes [or] increase recipes. To make half a recipe use exactly one-half the amount of each ingredient. To double a recipe, use exactly twice the amount of each ingredient. (Emphasis in the original. I’m a mathematician too: π = crust over filling.)
• All you have to do to remove down from ducks : brush with melted paraffin. Cool and peel off. (Give the bird a Brazilian wax job. I will stick to making a slit in the plastic bag and peeling it off the Butterball.)