This is a small promotional pamphlet for Spry Vegetable Shortening. Date unknown and although there are two different female characters on either side, neither of them are the Aunty Jenny character.

Spry Shortening was similar to Crisco if you want to try these recipes today.

Date of this pamphlet is unknown, if anyone has more information about the date of this, I’d love to hear about it!

The full contents of the recipe booklet are presented below, presentation trying to stay true to the layout of the original booklet.

I’ve included the advertisement for the “What Shall I Cook Today?” Spry cookbook, but remember–it is a decades old ad and the offer is no longer valid today.

Spry Vintage Recipes - Recipecurio.com

HOW TO HAVE CRISP, TENDER

Fried Foods

THAT ARE AS EASY TO DIGEST AS IF BAKED OR BOILED

SPRY makes fried foods wonderfully delicious. They’re crisp, tender, tasty–and as easy to digest as if baked or boiled. You’ll love Spry for baking, too. Creams so easily. Makes such light, fine-flavored cakes–such tender, flaky pastry. Spry stays fresh and sweet indefinitely because it’s a pure ALL-vegetable shortening. Just keep it on the pantry shelf.

DEEP FRYING

Deep or french frying is cooking in fat deep enough to float the food at temperatures around 375°F. Use a straight-sided kettle two-thirds full of Spry. Use a frying thermometer, if possible, as temperature is important.

FRENCH FRIED POTATOES

6 large potatoes (2 pounds)
3 pounds Spry (3-quart kettle)

WASH and pare potatoes. Cut lengthwise in pieces, 2 1/2 x 1/2 inches. Soak in cold or ice water 1 hour. Dry thoroughly between towels.

Heat Spry gradually to 385°F., or until a 1-inch cube of stale bread turns golden brown in 1 minute. Drop carefully 1/2 pound potatoes, a few at a time, into fat.

Fry until potatoes float and are golden brown. (New potatoes require a longer time than old ones. Thus the frying time may range from 5 to 20 minutes.) Drain fried potatoes on absorbent paper. Raise temperatures of Spry to 385°F. Add another 1/2 pound potatoes and continue frying. Sprinkle potatoes with salt and serve immediately. Serves 6.

Care of Spry After Frying. Strain Spry after each frying to keep it clear and free from food particles. Strain through several layers of cheesecloth placed in a strainer. Spry may be used over and over again.

SHALLOW FRYING

Shallow frying is simplified French frying. Only a skillet or frying pan is needed. Just melt enough Spry in a heavy skillet to give a depth of about 1 inch. Heat to frying temperature (375°F.) and fry as usual. Croquettes, fish, vegetables, or any other food may be fried in this easy way.

SALMON CUTLETS

4 tablespoons Spry
5 tablespoons flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 cup milk
2 cups salmon, flaked
1 teaspoon lemon juice
1/2 teaspoon onion juice
Dash of pepper
2 eggs, slightly beaten with 2 tablespoons water
1/2 cup sifted bread crumbs

MELT Spry in top of double boiler. Add flour and salt and blend. Add milk and cook until smooth and thick, stirring constantly. Remove from fire. Add salmon, lemon juice, onion juice, and pepper. Blend well. Spread mixture in shallow pan and chill until stiff. Cut into cutlets with 2 1/2-inch biscuit cutter.

Roll in crumbs, then in beaten egg, then again in crumbs.

Fry in hot Spry (375°F.) 1-inch deep in heavy frying pan until brown. Drain on absorbent paper. Serve with egg sauce or with creamed green peas. Serves 6 to 8.

SAUTÉING

Sautéing or pan-frying means cooking in a small amount of fat. Keep your can of Spry handy for pan-frying meats, fish, vegetables, eggs, etc.

HUNGARIAN VEAL CUTLETS

1 veal steak, 1 1/2 inches thick
Sifted bread crumbs
1 egg, slightly beaten with 1 tablespoon water
1 clove garlic, cut in half
1/4 cup Spry
1 teaspoon paprika
2 cups milk or sour cream

CUT veal into pieces for serving. Dip in crumbs, then in beaten egg, and again in crumbs. Rub frying pan with garlic. Heat pan very hot. Add Spry. Brown veal quickly on both sides. Reduce heat. Add paprika. Cover veal with milk. Cover tightly. Bake in moderately slow oven (325°F.) about 1 1/2 hours. During the last 15 minutes remove cover to brown veal. One pound veal will serve four people.

Lamb Patties. Put lamb steak through meat chopper twice, using finest knife. Season with salt and pepper, and add cream to make soft mixture that can be shaped into round flat patties. Sauté in hot Spry.

Hamburger Cakes. Season meat with salt, pepper, and chopped onion. Shape into flat cakes. Sauté in hot Spry.

All measurements are level

Vintage Spry Recipes - Recipecurio.com

THREE MORE WONDERFUL NEW
SPRY RECIPES. TRY THEM!

BROWN RIM COOKIES

1 cup Spry
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon vanilla
2/3 cup sugar
2 eggs, well beaten
2 1/2 cups sifted flour

COMBINE Spry, salt, and vanilla. Add sugar, then beaten eggs, and beat thoroughly. Add flour and mix well.

Drop from tip of teaspoon on baking sheets greased with Spry. (Or press through pastry bag.) Let stand a few minutes, then flatten cookies by stamping with a glass covered with a damp cloth. Bake in moderately hot oven (375°F.) 8 to 10 minutes, or until delicately browned. Makes 4 1/2 dozen.

WHITE FUDGE ICING

3 tablespoons Spry
1 tablespoon butter
5 tablespoons top milk, scalded
3 cups sifted confectioners’ sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla
1/4 teaspoon salt

MELT Spry and butter in scalded top milk. Pour hot milk over sugar and stir until sugar is dissolved. Add vanilla and salt. Beat until smooth and thick enough to spread. Makes enough icing to cover top and sides of 10 x 10 x 2-inch cake.

MILK ‘N’ HONEY CAKE

1/2 cup Spry
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon vanilla
1/2 cup sugar
2 eggs, unbeaten
2 cups sifted flour (cake flour preferred)
2 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 cup evaporated milk
1/2 cup honey

COMBINE Spry, salt, and vanilla. Add sugar gradually and cream until light and fluffy. Add eggs, one at a time. Beat thoroughly after each addition.

Sift flour and baking powder together 3 times. Combine milk and honey. Add small amounts of flour to creamed mixture, alternately with combined milk and honey, beating after each addition until smooth.

Pour batter into 8 x 8 x 2-inch pan greased with Spry. Bake in moderate oven (350°F) 50 to 60 minutes. Spread White Fudge Icing on top and sides of cake.

This cake may also be baked in two 8-inch layer pans in moderate oven (350°F.) 25 to 30 minutes.

All measurements are level

THESE RECIPES ARE GRAND. NOW I WANT THE BIG 52 PAGE SPRY COOKBOOK

Write today for this wonderful new cookbook called “What Shall I Cook Today?” with 124 healthful tested recipes.

THE last word in cookbooks. It will bring your family new joy in eating, a new thrill from your cooking. 52 pages. Illustrated in full color. New and easier ways to bake and fry, pictured for you step by step. Over 100 recipes–housewife tested–the best you ever tasted. Easy and economical. Send for it today. Absolutely FREE — just write to Lever Brothers Company, Dept. A-4, Cambridge, Mass.

Thrifty women buy Spry in the economical 3-lb. can

The 2 Week Diet

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32 Responses to Vintage Spry Vegetable Shortening Recipe Pamphlet

CR Beverly
Published 3 July, 2007 in 8:39 pm

This article revives old memories from my childhood in the 1936-1946 era. I can remember Ads for SPRY on the old time radio soap aperas like Lorenzo Jones, Ma Perkins, etc. There was one little jingle that still sticks in my memory:
Spry for cakes
Spry for pie
Spry for all you bake and fry

Nina Mills
Published 15 July, 2007 in 3:14 am

I have an origianl copy of “What shall I cook today? – SPRY cook book and other booklets that I wish to sell – if you are interested, please contact my email address and I can let you know what I have.

Great site – lovely to see such great designs etc!

Regards
Nina Mills – England

janice listman
Published 2 February, 2008 in 6:08 pm

i still use my copy of the spry “what shall i cook” that belonged to my mom. i keep it in a plastic ziploc. i would like to know as much as i can, “good housekeeping seal” does not provide a place to request that information. the pie crust is the best. can you still get spry?

janice california

Cindy - Georgia
Published 12 December, 2009 in 2:19 am

I still use the recipe for pie crust that my mom copied off a Spry shortening can in the 50’s. No other pie crust is as tender and flaky – people rave about it.

Abby
Published 27 January, 2010 in 2:30 pm

That particular pamphelt is probably from the fifties. Before that time, there was a live actress “Aunt Jenny” who had a radio program based around a small town, like a soap opera. She featured recipes on the program including Spry, which funded the show. When she left and was replaced in the fifties, she was artistically rendered. And Spry, produced by Unilever, was discontinued. The closest you can get is Crisco.

Cathy
Published 2 April, 2010 in 8:51 am

I have two of these pamphlets. One of them actually has jennifer wheeler (aunt Jenny) picture on it. they were inside of a book i just got at a yard sale. the book is the inglenook cook book hard cover of 1911. i have tried to find out more about the pamphlets but found nothing. might give lever brothers a try.

Carolyn
Published 18 May, 2010 in 6:36 am

I bought a “Spry Shal-O Fryer” recently at a yard sale, complete with “heavy gauge nickled steel” pan, fryer ring with built-in thermometer, long-handled fryer basket, and a faded, undated instruction sheet. The set looks barely used. My husband loves fried fish, so I’ll give the Spry a try. :)

Fran Bahmueller
Published 3 July, 2010 in 5:50 pm

We found the well worn “What Shall I cook Today? withsome old cook books, and going to try Aunt Jane’s Sugar Cookies for the church.

Judy Focht
Published 17 July, 2010 in 5:55 am

I have a recipe book “10 Cakes Husbands Like Best. Aunt Jenny is on the inside front cover telling how wonderful Spry is to make your cakes just perfect. There is no copyright date on my original copy. I’ve don’t remember ever making a cake from this booklet, but kept it because the cakes look so good!!!!

Nona Tyler
Published 4 October, 2010 in 1:36 pm

I still have a much ised 4 part Spry Binder cookbook I believe from th 1940 era. Section 1 is “new Ways With Ice Cream”, #2 is “aunt Jenny’s Old Fashioned Christtmas Cookies”, #3 is10 Cakes Husbands Like Best”, #4 is 12 Pies Husbands Like Best”. It is well used particularly the Macaroon of the Month (oatmeal cookies) and Patty’s Peanut Butter cookies. I am 80 and in some 70 years of making cookies I”ve never found any better.

Janine
Published 8 November, 2010 in 1:56 pm

Can someone help me. I lost my grandmom’s stuffing recipe from Spry; it was in a pamplet just like the one above. We lost the entire pamplet in our recycling :(

Marietta A Larson
Published 23 November, 2010 in 10:59 am

I had Aunt Jenny’s 12 Pies Husbands Like Best recipe book when I was first married 50 years ago. I only have a few pages left. I tried every recipe and husband loved them all! And I wore out the book. Are any of these recipe books available today?

ray latham
Published 8 December, 2010 in 5:39 pm

I have a reciepe for eggnog pie that I got out of a old magazine. I was a spry advertisement.

Christy Santiago
Published 15 February, 2011 in 9:48 pm

I just purchased a copy of the Spry recipe booklet titled, “10 Luscious New Cakes” Made by Spry’s amazing one bowl method — No Butter Needed! It has a picture of Aunt Jenny in the bottom right corner of the cover. I plan to transcribe the recipes and post them for others to enjoy. The top of the cover states 1895-1945. Must have been at the end of Jenny’s career.

Beth Anne
Published 8 May, 2011 in 12:26 am

for janine, from the
aunt jenny’s favorite recipes book, page 29.
stuffing for poultry:
3 qts soft bread crumbs
2 1/2 tsp salt
1/4 tsp pepper
1 tsp sage
3/4 tsp thyme
2 Tblspn parsley, chopped
1/2 cup Spry, melted
1/2 cup onion, minced
1/4 cup butter
1/3 cup boiling water (about)
combine bread crumbs, salt, pepper, sage, thyme & parsley. mix thoroughly.melt Spry in skillet, add onion & saute 2 mins. (do not brown onion) add bread crumbs & saute until very lightly browned, stirring constantly from bottom. melt butter in boiling water and pour over crumbs, tossing lightly with 2 forks. add more water if additional moisture is needed. makes enough stuffing for one 8-pound bird.

Laurine Wilson
Published 1 October, 2011 in 9:36 am

I was helping Mom with her Spry Cookbook @1949 Lever Brother Company. It is very loved from so much use and parts of it are mixed about. I’d love to buy one from Nina Mills above, if still available.

Selena
Published 22 August, 2012 in 10:50 am

Hi, does anyone have Spry’s Killarney Cake recipe? Thank you so much!

joan
Published 13 December, 2012 in 6:40 pm

I just found an old pamphlet at an estate sale named “10 cakes husbands like best” from Sry’s recipe round-up! Looks like from the 30’s judging from Aunt Jenny’s hair. It includes Chocolate Rapture Cake, Happy Birthday Coconut Cake,Hawaiian Lei Cake, & others, including frostings.

Jean
Published 1 January, 2013 in 2:04 pm

I have a sugar cookie recipe that I cut out of a magazine in the 1950’s . I had gkued it to a piece of cardboard for repeated uses. The other day, I found it(because I was looking for it) in a shoeox type box, It has deteriorated so badly that i can no longer read it. I was thrilled to find your site. Thank you so much for sharing.
Regards, Jean in Texas

buttrkup
Published 12 December, 2013 in 2:46 pm

To help dating Spry cookbooks, the series began in 1935. I have a 1949 edition that shows a modern-style recipe layout and an undated, but old-style recipe layout. I’m betting your cookbook is much earlier than the 1950s! FYI–you can download the 20th anniversary Spry cookbook.

J oanne Marie Aieta
Published 29 July, 2014 in 9:01 am

Hello Everyone,
Just re-found an Aunt Jenny cooking booklet, Copyright 1953. The recipes, I will try first are under PASTRY–I can still learn a few new tricks from it, I believe-book name- HOME BAKING MADE EASY

Valerie
Published 28 February, 2015 in 9:32 pm

I am looking for the spry recipe for cream pies. You can make banana, coconut or chocolate cream pies from the basis recipe. My mom made these pies when I was a little girl and I would love to find the recipies as they are DELICIOUS!!

Gloria
Published 30 July, 2015 in 3:31 pm

Searching for Spry recipe “Yuletide Cookies”–very similar to Snickerdoodles but not quite. Will appreciate any help.

Kathy Curran
Published 24 August, 2015 in 10:46 pm

OMG!I never thought it would be possible to locate a Spry site! I am desperate! My nana made these wonderful cookies with Spry that had caraway seeds in the cookies. I fondly remember her making us each a cup of tea and serving those cookies alongside. I had the recipe at one time, but I have lost it! Can someone help me? Thanks in advance.

mary jane panunti
Published 16 December, 2015 in 6:00 am

looking for old fity years or so for recepie in spry booklet of deep dark rich chocolate pie book lost over years and miss some of the recipies hope someone can help happy holidays mary jane

Shirley Dehmer
Published 17 December, 2015 in 6:06 pm

I’m 77 born in 1938. My mom and I copied the hot water pie crust recipe off the Spry can when I was 12, in the 50’s. It was a wonderful – no fail, fast, pie crust, Delicious! You didn’t have to be careful with it. Just throw it together and it would turn out perfectly every time. I lost the recipe, but contacted Houston Chronicle and got it again. What a wonderful service they provide. I thank them.

Sandy V.
Published 10 January, 2016 in 1:24 pm

I was wondering if Shirley Dehmer would mind posting the no-fail pastry recipe. I’ve been looking for one like that. Thanks

Judy Paris
Published 21 March, 2016 in 4:55 pm

Would you kindly send me the recipe for Spry waterwhip piecrust? Remember I had to boil water first and whip in Spry until smooth. Wonderful, flaky. Never had one to compare.
Thanks, Judy

LOWELL GANTT
Published 23 September, 2016 in 1:29 pm

I HAVE ONE OF THE ORIGINAL
‘WHAT SHOULD COOK TODAY’
124
THRIFTY,HEALTHFUL TESTED RECIPES
THE FRONT BACK COVERS ARE LOOSE BUT STILL VERY COLORFUL ALL THERE

Jennifer Shutt
Published 25 December, 2016 in 7:07 pm

I have Aunt Jenny’s favorite recipes, no date but looks as if it’s from the 40’s. It has meat ,cakes, cookies, candies, frostings, biscuits and breads , pies tarts andpatties, desserts, sauces, frying and main dishes. That’s quite a lot of things!!
I love this book! I wish we could still buy Spry!

Cindy August
Published 9 February, 2017 in 8:07 pm

I loved reading the recipes and the wonderful comments. I have treasured cookbooks and can’t imagine losing one. I looked into it and ALL the SPRY recipe books are all on AMAZON and very reasonably priced. Just type in SPRY COOKBOOK . Love this website

Ann Bojanowski
Published 11 December, 2019 in 8:46 am

I’m looking at my mother’s old cook book. She has several Spry labels and some recipes. I see that they had a company in Cambridge Massachusetts. I also live in Massachusetts. Is there any history on this company?
Thank you

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