Associations formed

1916 was also a year when the American Baking Association (ABA) was incorporated on Nov. 3, in Chicago. The association had 845 members that year. The states best represented in the association at the time were Pennsylvania, with 91; Ohio with 70; and New York with 59 members. Founded in 1897 at the first national convention of the Master Bakers in Boston, the association had more than 50 participating founders.

In September 1918 at the Hotel Sherman in Chicago, George E. Dean and others joined forces to organize the Baking Equipment Manufacturers and Allieds (BEMA) to help with the war effort. Two years later, in 1920, the first Baking Expo took place in Atlantic City, N. J. Its purpose was to showcase products of the bakery equipment manufacturers and suppliers.

It was becoming clear that hand-crafted methods of production couldn’t meet the growing needs for baked products. Peel ovens were rather difficult to work with, as their basic design prevented continuous baking. Several attempts to modify these ovens by relocating their fireboxes was only marginally successful. Heat distribution and the constant need to re-fire the ovens were chronic problems.

Gem pans, early muffin tins, were common in households around the turn of the 20th century, and cupcakes were baked directly in the pans. The term cupcake got its start when ingredients began to be weighed in cups, which was convenient and saved time over the traditional weighing methods at the time. Any time saved was a good thing, as hearth ovens took a long time to bake large cakes.

The first pop-up toaster came along in 1919, as Charles Strite invented the appliance, which used heated electrical coils to toast bread. Trouble was, back then, bread was still cut by hand, so it was cut in different thicknesses. Also in 1919, four Nebraska flour mills consolidated and incorporated as Nebraska Consolidated Mills (NCM), headquartered in Grand Island, Neb. This eventually lead to what is now ConAgra Foods Company.

In addition, October 1 of 1919 was the dawning of the American Institute of Baking (AIB), founded by a handful of bakers in Chicago to serve as the industry’s first baking school. Along with training young bakers, the institute developed programs that varied from the analysis of the production process to sanitation standards and nutritional research. AIB’s Annual Report in 1969—the year of its 50th anniversary—mentions that the association’s plan should be for serious research work designed to establish and make available to members of the industry a broad scope of knowledge relating to the science and practice of baking, including its chemistry, mechanics and commercial aspects. The first class of the School of Baking was held in 1922.