I bought the book from Bonnie Slotnick's Cookbooks in New York in 1999 or 2000. This was before I received my favorite cookbook, The Atlanta Woman's Club Cook Book (1921). I had coveted Mom's AWC cook book for years because there were so many fantastically-period housekeeping tips. I adore the tidbits of instruction on being a good housewife and preparing balanced nutritious foods; the recommendations seem so bizarre and old-fashioned to us now, but the glimpse they provide into the lifestyle of American homes in the 1920s is delicious!
Proctor & Gamble introduced Crisco in 1911 and used to publish a cookbook of Crisco-centric advice and recipes every year. P&G was targeting the prosperous upper-middle class of the 1920's to set the style and spread the word about their shelf-stable, hydrogenated shortening. The first chapters of the book are devoted to setting up a modern kitchen, service of meals, and the planning of meals. We start with a chapter on "Table Service in a Servantless House."
"To the woman with no maid, entertaining at dinner is the very ultimate test of skill."
This chapter includes advice on Sunday night supper. It is presented as an established and well-known practice of having Sunday supper be the casual-meal-of-the-week. "The very term 'Sunday night supper' has a special flavor of its own. Immediately it conjures up freedom from the usual routine. Often the man of the family who has secret yearnings to cook has his chance on Sunday night, and turns out something staggering to the imagination of his family. One nationally known literary man has made almost as much of a reputation among his intimate friends for his Welsh rarebit as for his novels of contemporary life. Almost anything is likely to go into the making of it, while the wife stands by in apprehension... In no way can a family more truly express hospitality than by giving a standing invitation for their friends to 'drop in' for Sunday night supper. Especially can the family without a maid entertain easily this way, making the Sunday evening at home an occasion of real delight to their friends... The dining table should be prettily set and lighted with candles... The fare usually consists of cold meat, salad, a hot food prepared in a chafing dish, or scalloped potatoes, or Boston baked beans or spaghetti with a wonderful Italian sauce, brought very hot from the kitchen... The dessert may be layer cake or cream puffs or delicate home-made tarts."I must confess that I am a little afraid of a meal that is "staggering to the imagination." Also, I am dying to know the literary man of such rarebit repute. What did he write? Moreover, why haven't I ever truly expressed hospitality by issuing a standing invitation to our friends for the staggering dishes prepared by the man of the house with secret yearnings??!
Having exhausted ourselves on the prospect of Sunday night supper and all of its implications, we continue to a chapter on "Table Service in a House with Servant."
"...Rare indeed is the perfect maid; if she exists our friends are the lucky possessors, and such as fall to our lot need training and endless encouragement... Any maid worth having wants to look her best in the dining room and to wait on table properly. She should be supplied with well-fitting uniforms of washable cotton for the morning, of black or gray material for the evening, with plenty of white aprons and collars and cuffs."
After this eye-opening chapter, there are segments on cooking equipment and meal planning. Instead of the chapters progressing logically by course, as in most other cookbooks, we are launched immediately into a chapter of "Deep Fat Frying" with Crisco. The chapter on frying includes a recipe for something called "Fried Creams" which is a concoction of eggs, sugar, scalded milk and vanilla that is then rolled in bread crumbs and fried.
In the meal planning chapter, I found that the proposed Saturday dinner menu containing this molasses cake has the main course of "Braised Sweetbreads on Toast." I did not serve this cake with the recommended menu. 
I would never have made a cake with Crisco, but the recipe called for exactly that. It also called for combining the molasses with the baking soda which created a spectacular, tortoise-shell slurry which was then added to the batter. The cake was difficult to get fully baked without over-baking the outside and causing it to be dry. I wonder if the dryness was also due to the use of Crisco instead of butter; I may have to research the differences in moisture content if I make this cake again. It was a good cake with the flavor as its most positive attribute. The molasses and raisins with mace, cloves and cinnamon was deep, dark and delicious.
Tomorrow (!): Fresh Apple Cake
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