A terrified look crept over my husband’s face as he stood in the kitchen one day last week. It was his, “Oh no, she’s getting ready for a garage sale” look.
My son took a more positive uptake on the counters filled with every pan we owned. “No, I think she might be going into one of her marathon baking moods.” He wished!
Actually I was taking the advice of an article in the May 1949 issue of Successful Farming magazine. Titled “Baking Failures May be the Pans You Use”, the article explained the intricate value of a shiny, no-dent, no rust pan for baking ribbon winning cakes and pies.
As I set about examining each pan, memories crept into the kitchen like a midnight refrigerator raid. Most of my pans have been with me since we got married, some before that. A number were given to me by elderly friends who wanted their “best pans” to be passed on to somebody who would use them.
One black-rimmed white enamel pan was used exclusively for the lye bath step in making homemade pretzels. Another was always used to bake and transport a sheet cake to covered dish suppers. A red enameled tube pan was a gift from a friend who never used it. It bakes up the best angel food cakes.
Newer heart-shaped and checkerboard cake pans were no match for the sixteen inch long loaf pan which baked up a blue ribbon winner torte at the county fair. Smaller loaf pans reminded me of mom’s date nut loaf and the hundred year old recipe in my box for gingerbread.
A few of the pans did indeed have small dents or a tiny spot where rust might take hold any moment. But that was a chance I was willing to take. None of them could be thrown out. True value is rarely a surface matter.
While putting everything back with a mixed sigh of nostalgia and relief, the evening’s meal was beginning to pester my panned out brain. Short on time, but having the makings for a meatloaf at hand, I decided to insure its doneness with the use of the tube pan. Meatloaf in the round has been around for decades, just not in my kitchen. Tonight my guys would be glad I had all the pans out; and no garage sale in sight.
Fluffy Meat Loaf
1 ½ lbs. ground beef or veal
3 medium slices soft bread, torn into pieces
1 cup milk
1 egg, beaten
¼ cup minced onion
1 ¼ teaspoons salt
¼ teaspoon each: pepper, dry mustard,
sage, celery salt, garlic salt
1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce
3 tablespoons ketchup

Combine all ingredients except ketchup.
Mix thoroughly by hand. Shape into loaf
on a shallow baking pan. Spread ketchup
on top.
Bake in preheated 350 degrees oven
for 1 ½ hours or until meat in center is no
longer pink. Tube pan may be used, using
less baking time.
Recipe Source: Dr. Oetker Schul-Kochbuch fur
den Elektroherd (German school cookbook for the electric
stove)
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