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Prosperity and Thrift: The Coolidge Era and the Consumer Economy, 1921-1929
The story of a pantry shelf, an outline history of grocery specialties: a machine-readable transcription.
The Fascinating Story
of Foulds
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The Fascinating Story
of Foulds
The Story of the Making and Marketing of
the Foulds' Line--Macaroni, Spaghetti,
Noodles, Vermicelli and Other Wheat
Products and the Famous Kitchen Bouquet
The Story of the Making and Marketing of the Foulds' Line--Macaroni, Spaghetti, Noodles, Vermicelli and Other Wheat Products and the Famous Kitchen Bouquet
TheFoulds Milling Company was organized in Cincinnati, Ohio, in 1884. The manufacture of macaroni products was started in 1890. The Foulds Milling Company was combined with the National Macaroni Company of Libertyville, Illinois, in 1905. The Foulds plant at Libertyville has been developed and extended until today it is one of the most modern macaroni factories in the United States.
Mr. F. W. Foulds, the founder of the Foulds' Brand, has often been called by those familiar with the macaroni situation the "Pioneer of the Industry," as it was through Mr. Foulds ability to foresee the possibilities offered in the American market for quality macaroni plus a sanitary package and
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the wonderful health-giving qualities macaroni offer as a food that the Foulds' Brand became famous.
Back in the '80s macaroni was little known to the American housewife. It was principally manufactured and consumed by foreign trade, mostly of Italian origin. The products offered for American consumption were very questionable. Pure food laws were not effective and anyone buying macaroni or spaghetti was liable to get so-called "imported" goods at a high price, with a fancy label, whereas the goods, in many instances, were made in some small factory under most unsanitary conditions in one of our American cities.
These conditions were responsible for the rapid growth of the Foulds' Brand, which is packed in a sanitary package and advertised as an American food for American people, made under the most sanitary conditions. The advertising slogans first adopted were "Cleanly Made by Americans" and "Flavory, Firm and Tender." Year after year, the sales of Foulds' have increased almost without interruption, the market being created through the merit of the goods, progressive merchandising policy and consumer advertising.
Perhaps no feature of the development of the Foulds' business was more important than the cooperation offered Mr. Foulds by the Department of Agriculture and the cooperation of the Northwest farmer in encouraging the growth of durum wheat, a hard spring wheat introduced into this country some years ago from southern Russia, particularly adapted for the manufacture of macaroni products. This company, for several years, offered a beautiful loving cup to the farmer who raised the best crop of durum wheat.
In 1923 the Foulds Company was formed by the consolidation of the following companies: The Foulds Milling Co., Chicago and Libertyville; Warner Macaroni Co., Syracuse, N.Y.; Woodcock Macaroni Co., Rochester, N.Y.; Palisade Manufacturing Co., manufacturers of Kitchen Bouquet, Hoboken, N.J., and just recently the acquisition of the Cone Company of America, making the well-known Havacone ice cream cone, which gives another product closely allied with the macaroni industry.
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The merchandising position on Foulds' Brand has been continually strengthened. The national advertising campaign has been increased for 1925, and the feature will be color pages in the Delineator and Designer.
After a thorough investigation and research activities, a wonderful cooker has been developed and patented by The Foulds Company. It is a pure aluminum cooker, colander and self-strainer. This utensil is ideal for cooking Macaroni, Spaghetti and Egg Noodles and many vegetables; in fact, any food cooked in boiling water. It cooks without stirring, sticking or burning. When the housewife uses the Foulds' Cooker there need be no fear of scalded hands while draining hot water in which foods have been cooked. The inner vessel is just lifted and the water completely drains into the outer kettle. The Cooker is not on sale in stores, except by grocers in connection with Foulds' Macaroni Products. The value is $3.75. The Foulds Company offers it for $1.89 and a sales slip showing that four packages of Foulds' Macaroni Products have been purchased from a retail grocer.
The Foulds Company also publishes a cook book which gives many attractive recipes for their products. In addition to the regular lines of macaroni goods in packages, such as Long Macaroni, Elbow Macaroni, Spaghetti, Egg Noodles (Broad or Fine), Vermicelli and Alphabets, under the Foulds' Brand, Canned Spaghetti is also marketed under the brand name of Foulds' Ready-Cooked Spaghetti.
A special folder is also distributed to housewives in connection with Kitchen Bouquet. This product, which has been on the market for forty years, is a flavoring and coloring for soups, gravies and for use in connection with cooking meats, stews and various food combinations. It is used in hotels and restaurants as well as in the home. Kitchen Bouquet is advertised steadily in most of the leading women's magazines.
In the Foulds' factory every possible care is exercised to secure cleanliness and perfect sanitation. Our National Food Laws are observed in letter and in spirit and the precautions taken are in advance to any legal requirements.
Semolina, which is the Italian word for cream of wheat,
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may vary considerably in its value as raw material from which macaroni is to be made. Realizing this, The Foulds Milling Company years ago gave up the idea of manufacturing their own semolina. It has been conclusively demonstrated that only those semolina mills that are of sufficient size to maintain a competent force of wheat testers and flour analysts are capable of furnishing a uniformly good semolina product throughout the year. These mills study the quality of wheat that has come from each source of supply and store the best wheat, so that throughout the period between wheat crops they are able to keep their semolina up to the high standard of quality demanded by such manufacturers as Foulds'.
The manufacturing process begins with a careful sifting of the semolina to insure absolute cleanliness of the raw material. The semolina is mixed with water and the dough is then dumped from the mixer into a kneader. At the end of the kneading period the dough is formed into macaroni and spaghetti. This is done by forcing the dough, under hydraulic pressure, through a cylinder with a flat circular bronze die or mold at the bottom of the cylinder.
In the process of the development of the Foulds' Products several methods of drying have been tried and discarded in favor of the Italian method of hanging the macaroni and spaghetti strands on sticks very similar to broom sticks in size and length. Some manufacturers pile the macaroni strands cut to package length on trays. This was formerly done in the Foulds plant, but the stick method of drying fits in better with the manufacture of high quality macaroni, because it is possible to dry the macaroni more uniformly and in straighter form.
Foulds' modern drying system, which takes forty-eight hours, has been determined by long experience. The relative humidity is properly regulated so that the air which fans over the product has a definite temperature and humidity which automatically changes as moisture is given up from the macaroni to the air. Twelve hours are allowed for the macaroni to cool, and it is then cut into proper lengths for packing in packages. Every package is carefully weighed
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and the wrapping and sealing of the packages is done by automatic machinery.
The analysis of Foulds' Macaroni is as follows:
page image viewer (table)MOISTURE or water is present in all forms of food. It forms 60% of the weight of the body of the average man, being a component part of all tissues.
PROTEIN is familiar to us in the lean and gristle of meat, the white of eggs and the gluten of wheat. It forms about 18% by weight of the body of the average man. In its several combinations is the most important constituent of our food, as it makes the bone, muscle and other tissues.
FAT is chiefly found in animal foods, as meats, fish, butter, etc. If forms about 15% by weight of the body of an average man.
CARBOHYDRATES include such compounds as starch, different kinds of sugar, the fibre of plants and cellulose. It is found chiefly in vegetable foods, like cereal, grains and potatoes. It forms only a small portion of body tissue--less than 1%. Starches and sugars are important food ingredients, because they form an abundant source of energy and are easily digested. They may be, and often are, transformed into fat in the body.
ASH or MINERAL MATTER, while it yields little or no energy, is indispensable to the body and forms only 5% or 6% of the body. It is chiefly in the bones and teeth, but is present also in the other tissues and in solution in the various other fluids. When food or body material is burned or digested the mineral constituents remain as ash.
The above analysis will serve to illustrate very definitely the high food value of Foulds' Macaroni--made from durum wheat semolina, which produces a translucent and almost transparent product of a rich golden color that requires no artificial coloring in the manufacturing.
Information about SGML version of this document.
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