What Shall I Cook Today?

"Do tell me how you get your French fried potatoes so crisp and dry?"  Shortening was invented by Proctor and Gamble (yes, the soap makers) in 1910 as an alternative to tallow.  In the 1930s, Spry began an advertising campaign that would rival Crisco for decades.  This Spry cookbook published around 1936 by another soapmaker, the Lever Brothers, uses the then new and trendy comic book motif to cleverly advertise their product.  "Spry, the new purer ALL-vegetable shortening...is such a vast improvement over ordinary shortenings."  With great advertising like this, Spry remained a thorn in Crisco's side throughout the 1960s until Spry eventually folded in the 1970s.