Practical Recipes from the Globe Mills

Globe Grain and Milling Company was incorporated in Los Angeles in 1902 (with origins in an earlier grain mill partnership under a different name). 

 

By the 1920s, the company had built an impressive grain elevator and milling facilities at 907 E. 3rd St. in Los Angeles. Promoting themselves with the motto “going forward with Los Angeles,” Globe Mills was in step with the city’s agricultural push during the early decades of the 20th century.  

 

This cookbook includes recipes by Globe Mills’ Domestic Science Department as well as a section of prize-winning recipes featuring entrants from around the State. It highlights the range of grains produced by Globe Mills - including cornmeal, oatmeal, rye, and barley as well as their “famous A1 flour”. 

 

In 1940, Globe Mills was purchased by The Pillsbury Company, who continued to operate the Mill until the 1960s. As industrial factories moved from the area, artists moved in, and today the neighborhood has been developed under the moniker “the Arts District.” 

 

In 2016, the Zurich-born art gallery Hauser & Wirth (briefly in LA as Hauser, Wirth, & Schimmel) opened a West Coast outpost within a restored version of the Globe Mills complex. The restoration preserved much of the compound’s mill history, and the motif of wheat sheaves can still be seen on the building’s exterior. 

 

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Black & white photo by Dick Whittington Studio of women holding Globe Mills products, Los Angeles 1933, four years after this cookbook’s publication (via USC Digital Library)

 

Drawing of Globe Grain & Milling Co. headquarters and warehouse, located at 907 E. 3rd Street, at S. Garey Street from the Security Pacific National Bank Collection (via LAPL Photo Collection)

I made The Globe Mills Oatmeal Bread! This recipe incorporates three different kinds of Globe “A1” grains: oatmeal, flour, and graham flour. 

 

Graham flour is like a coarse version of wholewheat flour (a combination of white flour, wheat bran, and wheat germ). The flour appears in many early recipes for “health breads,” and in fact is named for Sylvester Graham - a Philadelphia minister who promoted a multi-grain and vegetarian diet. In his first book, published in 1837 and entitled “Treatise on Bread and Bread-Making,” Graham condemned the highly-refined flours of the Industrial Revolution era as lacking in nutritional value. Unfortunately, while he may have been ahead of his time on “whole grain” nutrition, not all of Graham’s ideas were as prescient. He also believed that masterbation could cause blindess and death.

 

“Compressed yeast cake” is another ingredient that appears often in older recipes, such as this one. If a recipe calls for “one yeast cake” it is generally equivalent to one contemporary envelope of active dry yeast (ie .25 ounces/ roughly 2.25 teaspoons)

PRIZE-WINNING/CONTRIBUTORS 

El Molino Best Recipes 

Look Inside the door for Finest Refrigeration: 33 Prize Recipes

Los Angeles Times Cook Book - No. 2

Los Angeles Times Cook Book No. 2 (RED COVER 25 cents)

Los Angeles Times Cook Book Number Four

Los Angeles Times Cook Book Number Three

Los Angeles Times Cookbook Number Three (Red Cover)

Los Angeles Times Economy Cook Book Number Five

Los Angeles Times Prize Cook Book 

Magnificent Chili Mess: 12th Annual World Championship Chili Cook-Off

Practical Recipes from the Globe Mills

Recipe Spectacular Contest

Western Family Champion Recipes 

 

FINE ART-RELATED

Artistic Tastes: Favorite Recipes of Native American Artists

California Cooking 

Entertaining is an Art

Luncheon Menus The Gamble House

Practical Recipes from the Globe Mills

Recipe Collection, The Gamble House, A 

To Please The Palate

 

BREAD AND PASTRY COOKBOOKS

El Molino Best Recipes 

Loafing It: The Easy Way To Perfect Bread

Practical Recipes from the Globe Mills

 

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