A hundred years ago (and throughout much of the 20th century) promotional cookbooks distributed by food companies were very popular. Pre-internet and social media, companies frequently used them to publicize their products.

In 1926, the Corn Products Refining Company published a cookbook by Ida Bailey Allen called The Modern Method of Preparing Delightful Foods. The cookbook contained recipes that used Karo Corn Syrup, Mazola Corn Oil, Argo Cornstarch and other products made by the company. At the time, Mrs. Allen was a popular cookbook author. She later became a radio cooking celebrity, as well as an editor of Good Housekeeping magazine.

Source: The Modern Method of Preparing Delightful Foods (1926)

I wanted to make some bar cookies for a pot luck picnic, so decided to try  a recipe in the book for Butterscotch Squares.

I have mixed opinions about this recipe. If I set aside my preconceived notions about what these squares would be like (dense bars with a rich butterscotch flavor), and just enjoyed the squares I ended up with, I’d say that the Butterscotch Squares were tasty.

However, I couldn’t detect any hint of butterscotch when I nibbled on the squares, so I feel like I need to lower my rating of them. Also, the base of the Butterscotch Squares had a cake-like texture, rather than the typical more substantive, dense, moist texture of bar cookies. This base was topped with a thin layer of corn syrup and chopped nuts. (I used pecans.) The only sweetener that the recipe called for was the corn syrup in the topping, which resulted in the squares not being very sweet.

Here is the original recipe:

Source: The Modern Method of Preparing Delightful Foods (1926)

The recipe says that the dough should be put in a “medium-sized dripping pan.” I’m not sure what that is or how large it is, so I used a 9″ X 13″ rectangular baking pan. I didn’t measure the thickness of the dough, and it may have been slightly thicker than 1/2 inch. If I had used a pan which was a little larger, the texture may have been a little less cake-like.

The recipe calls for 4 teaspoons baking powder. This seems like a lot of baking powder, so I used 2 teaspoons baking powder.

I used olive oil instead of the Mazola Corn Oil, but any vegetable oil would work in this recipe.

Here’s the recipe updated for modern cooks: