Pillsbury Bake-Off

Pillsbury’s Grand National Recipe and Baking Contest—dubbed the Bake-Off (now a Pillsbury trademark)—was inaugurated in 1949, marking the company’s eightieth anniversary and the postwar return to normal home life. Each recipe submitted was required to use a half-cup of Pillsbury’s flour, and contestants (mostly women, mostly homemakers) responded with from-scratch pies, cakes, cookies, crisps, cobblers, doughnuts, dumplings, quick breads, and yeast breads. Submissions were winnowed down by a team of home economists, and the finals were held at the Waldorf Astoria Hotel, where one hundred electric stoves filled the ballroom. The winner, for her No-Knead Water-Rising Twists (that is, sweet rolls) was Mrs. Ralph E. Smafield of Detroit; her $25,000 Grand Prize was presented by Eleanor Roosevelt, who also served as a judge. (The Grand Prize became $1 million in 1996.)