Home Cookin' Old Missouri Peanut Brittle Cookies - Old Cookbook Show

I have the 1949 version of this cookbook, and it is an actual 240-page cookbook, not a pamphlet. The included (effusive) introduction by Duncan Hines is dated 1949, which makes me think it's probably the first edition. I wonder if he encouraged Mrs McDonald to expand the pamphlet into a full cookbook. As for Lee food products, I have some old food tins, and one is a Lee Baking Soda. It has "H.D. Lee Company Inc, Kansas City MO and Salina KS" printed along the bottom. The H.D. Lee Co. was a major producer of canned foods up until the middle of the century. I believe the same company also produced textiles and now primarily makes Lee jeans.

Oh my goodness!! I live near Kansas City, MO and ate at the McDonald Tea Room many times!!!! It was a wonderful day trip for us. My Dad was a traveling salesman and he knew every great place to eat in the Midwest!!! Gallatin also had a used shoe store that sold shoes, purses and some accessories worn by models in fashion shows, photo shoots etc. So we went often searching for bargains! And always, always ate at McDonalds Tea Room. It was worth the drive!

“…maybe she was a very early influencer sellout.” 😂 Love it! ❤🤣

Lee was actually H.D. Lee Company Kansas City, MO and while their food products have fallen by the wayside, people now know them for their jeans. Yes, Lee Jeans is the same company. HD Lee was Henry David Lee.

What I found was in 1889 H.D. Lee Mercantile Co was founded in Salina Kansas. Their food division is the company that is possible being referred to with the Lee branded ingredients. They are the same company that makes Lee Jeans (not to be confused with Levi's Jeans). They sold off their food division in 1950 and the company is still in operations today.

You could always put the peanut brittle in a blender or food processor and basically turn it into a powder and add it into the dough. That would give you a more even distribution throughout the cookie.

Glen nonchalantly: "so I got this peanut brittle at the Bulk Barn" Canadians nodding their heads: "ah, yes, he got it at the Bulk Barn" Everyone else: "what is this barn of which you speak??"

I would suggest chopping the peanut brittle a little finer, thus allowing more batter to surround the bits of brittle. That said, the addition of peanut butter would be fantastic.

Can we please get a tour of your cookbook collection? I feel you've gotta have an entire room dedicated to how many you have!

When growing up we had a neighbor that made these. Loved them, thank you for the memory.

I love the feeling, whether it's accurate or not, that you just walked into the kitchen and decided to try a recipe.

I grew up about an hour and a half from Gallatin. Visited occasionally and once visited the tea room back in the late 800s when I was a kid. Now we live about 30 or so minutes from there and drive through occasionally on our way to Jamesport to visit their large Amish community with all of its shops. I have a book written by a former local newspaper editor which contains the story of Mrs. McDonald. I need to sit down and give it a read. It's just a short chapter. Book is called, "County Seat Paper" by Joe Snyder.

Now if you used "Lee's Peanut Brittle" your cookies would have been fine! Seriously, I wounder if you blended the Bulk Barn peanut brittle before adding in the dough, the cookies would have turn out better....

I wonder if putting the batter in frozen would ket the cookies set before the brittle had time to ooze out? Very interesting history about Lee products. Thank you Glen and Julie ❤

1/4 cup peanut butter, finer chop of the brittle, and I’d flatten them slightly like a peanut butter cookie

Lifelong Missourian here, born in 1953. I live in central Missouri and I’ve never heard of Gallatin which is about 70 miles from St. Joseph, where I was born. What I found interesting is the way you pronounced Missouri. The first 2 times you said miz-ur-ee and the third tone you said miz-ur-ah. It’s hotly contested here in the state on how to pronounce it but I didn’t realize people outside of the state would pronounce it miz-ur-ah! This is not set in stone but typically rural people pronounce it ‘ah’ and city folk pronounce it ‘ee’. My understanding is both pronunciations are correct. Thanks for all the research you do, that’s my favorite part of your videos.

Your experience gleams through in your idea of tweaking the recipe to make it great! As a folklorist I can say that your verbal note at the end is spot on. Research can absolutely include speaking with people who have first hand knowledge.

The recipe called for ground or crushed peanut brittle, that implies much smaller pieces than you put in. I wonder if that would make a difference?

I saw gold medal all over the recipe which is definitely still a thing. In the city I grew up in Massachusetts used to have a holsum bread factory but it's been gold medal for a long time now.

when you pull them out of the freezer to bake you can put peanut butter chips and come flaky salt to fix both of those issues.