My first old cookbook purchase was from the 30's or 40's, basically a long ad for a vegetable shortening called Spry; It featured a bun-clad silver headed old Q-Tip named "aunt Jenny" who made the fluffiest dang biscuits in town and spoke in a strange mixture of southern slang and cooking tips. I later found out that she had her own radio show, and the Spry gig was to her like Nike is to Michael Jordan.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

yumm-ie: the "pennywise steak" is a big glob of hamburger, or "hamburg" as aunt Jenny likes to say, shaped cleverly like a T-bone and generously greased up with... you guessed it, SPRY! A feat that rivals Jesus and the loaves of bread and fishes when it comes to stretching your food budget... and I bet it fooled many a factory worker in 1945 into believing they were actually cutting into a big porterhouse.