Recent from talks
Mildred Brown Schrumpf
Knowledge base stats:
Talk channels stats:
Members stats:
Mildred Brown Schrumpf
Mildred Brown "Brownie" Schrumpf (January 24, 1903 – March 2, 2001) was an American home economist, food educator, and author. Named the "Unofficial Ambassador of Good Eating" by the Maine Department of Agriculture, she wrote a weekly food column for the Bangor Daily News from 1951 to 1994 promoting traditional Maine recipes. She was the main proponent of the claim that the chocolate brownie was invented in Bangor. She was inducted into the Maine Women's Hall of Fame in 1997.
Schrumpf was born Mildred Greely Brown on a farm in Readfield Depot, Maine, to Fred Brown and Nellie Mabel Gordon Brown. She was a member of the Kennebec County 4-H club and won a canning contest in her teens. After graduating from Winthrop High School in 1921, Schrumpf attended the University of Maine – the first person in her family to go to college – and earned a bachelor's degree in home economics in 1925.
Schrumpf began her career as a tester for home gas stoves for the Bangor Gas Company. She next worked as an assistant leader in 4-H clubs statewide and as the Penobscot County 4-H club agent through the 1930s, updating home demonstrators on "food preservation, kitchen design and farm life". In the 1940s, Schrumpf worked for the United States Department of Agriculture Extension Service, giving demonstrations and classes and also teaching "camp cookery to forestry students". She also taught home economics classes at the University of Maine.
In the 1950s and 1960s, Schrumpf became the Maine Food Products Promoter for the Maine Department of Agriculture, and also did cooking demonstrations on television.
Maine's reputation for good cooking was not built on mixes.
Schrumpf began writing a weekly food column called "Brownie's Kitchen" for the Bangor Daily News on August 31, 1951. Each column opened with remembrances of life in 20th-century Maine and featured traditional recipes, using simple ingredients that could be found in any Maine grocery. Although she initially eschewed the use of ready-made ingredients, Schrumpf later printed recipes using convenience foods, which were included in her second cookbook collection, Memories from Brownie's Kitchen (1989). She continued producing her column until April 4, 1994.
Schrumpf received widespread publicity for her claim that the chocolate brownie was invented in Bangor, Maine. In its first edition (2007), The Oxford Companion to American Food and Drink refuted her premise that "Bangor housewives" had created the brownie. The Oxford Companion noted that while Schrumpf cited the inclusion of the recipe in the Girl's Welfare Cook Book published in Bangor in 1912 as proof of the brownie's origins, a Fannie Farmer cookbook published in 1905 already contained a recipe for the chewy chocolate treat. However, in its second edition (2013), The Oxford Encyclopedia of Food and Drink in America said it had discovered evidence to support Schrumpf's claim, in the form of several 1904 cookbooks that listed a recipe for "Bangor Brownies".
Schrumpf served as a judge for the Bangor State Fair and the national Pillsbury Bake-Off. She chaired the Maine Boiler Festival Chicken Barbecues and Luncheons, and headed delegations of Maine food demonstrators to the Eastern States Exposition in West Springfield, Massachusetts.
Hub AI
Mildred Brown Schrumpf AI simulator
(@Mildred Brown Schrumpf_simulator)
Mildred Brown Schrumpf
Mildred Brown "Brownie" Schrumpf (January 24, 1903 – March 2, 2001) was an American home economist, food educator, and author. Named the "Unofficial Ambassador of Good Eating" by the Maine Department of Agriculture, she wrote a weekly food column for the Bangor Daily News from 1951 to 1994 promoting traditional Maine recipes. She was the main proponent of the claim that the chocolate brownie was invented in Bangor. She was inducted into the Maine Women's Hall of Fame in 1997.
Schrumpf was born Mildred Greely Brown on a farm in Readfield Depot, Maine, to Fred Brown and Nellie Mabel Gordon Brown. She was a member of the Kennebec County 4-H club and won a canning contest in her teens. After graduating from Winthrop High School in 1921, Schrumpf attended the University of Maine – the first person in her family to go to college – and earned a bachelor's degree in home economics in 1925.
Schrumpf began her career as a tester for home gas stoves for the Bangor Gas Company. She next worked as an assistant leader in 4-H clubs statewide and as the Penobscot County 4-H club agent through the 1930s, updating home demonstrators on "food preservation, kitchen design and farm life". In the 1940s, Schrumpf worked for the United States Department of Agriculture Extension Service, giving demonstrations and classes and also teaching "camp cookery to forestry students". She also taught home economics classes at the University of Maine.
In the 1950s and 1960s, Schrumpf became the Maine Food Products Promoter for the Maine Department of Agriculture, and also did cooking demonstrations on television.
Maine's reputation for good cooking was not built on mixes.
Schrumpf began writing a weekly food column called "Brownie's Kitchen" for the Bangor Daily News on August 31, 1951. Each column opened with remembrances of life in 20th-century Maine and featured traditional recipes, using simple ingredients that could be found in any Maine grocery. Although she initially eschewed the use of ready-made ingredients, Schrumpf later printed recipes using convenience foods, which were included in her second cookbook collection, Memories from Brownie's Kitchen (1989). She continued producing her column until April 4, 1994.
Schrumpf received widespread publicity for her claim that the chocolate brownie was invented in Bangor, Maine. In its first edition (2007), The Oxford Companion to American Food and Drink refuted her premise that "Bangor housewives" had created the brownie. The Oxford Companion noted that while Schrumpf cited the inclusion of the recipe in the Girl's Welfare Cook Book published in Bangor in 1912 as proof of the brownie's origins, a Fannie Farmer cookbook published in 1905 already contained a recipe for the chewy chocolate treat. However, in its second edition (2013), The Oxford Encyclopedia of Food and Drink in America said it had discovered evidence to support Schrumpf's claim, in the form of several 1904 cookbooks that listed a recipe for "Bangor Brownies".
Schrumpf served as a judge for the Bangor State Fair and the national Pillsbury Bake-Off. She chaired the Maine Boiler Festival Chicken Barbecues and Luncheons, and headed delegations of Maine food demonstrators to the Eastern States Exposition in West Springfield, Massachusetts.