KFYR Radio "Around The World" Cookbook

KFYR Radio "Around The World" Cookbook

1969

[KFYR]

Bismarck, N.D. radio station KFYR has published what seems to be an annual collection of listener-provided recipes as a cookbook, each with a different theme. Worldcat gives a flavor of some other years' tastes: KFYR Cookbook: Way to a man's heart (1968), KFYR radio cookbook (1970) with "favorite recipes of government, industry, and entertainment leaders from North and South Dakota, plus recipes from the white house." The 75h anniversary cookbook appeared in 2000.

en

KFYR Radio

Community cookbooks--United States--North Dakota
Cooking--North Dakota
Cooking, American
Cooking, International
Radio Stations

Barr, Tom (Station Manager)

Unknown

110 pages, self-published book

cookbook

This cookbook from the AM/FM station KFYR offers, in the words of station manager Tom Barr, recipes from 'over 40 different lands... supplied by listeners from KFYRLAND.' Luella Travel of Linton, North Dakota won the 'name the cookbook' contest. In 1969, the station was AM/FM. In 2025, it's still on the air (AM only) and online, celebrating its centennial, on AM, playing music, presenting the news and sports, and sponsoring an Agricultural Show in Bismarck with over 7500 expected in February 2026.

The world in 1969, at least as represented in the cookbook, was largely European (at least as far as the Table of Contents was concerned). The first section of American Recipes was about 20% of the book, with only "Oriental Recipes" (pp 84-87) and Mexican Recipes (pp 74-76) named. "Misc. Recipes from Many Different Countries" at the end (pp 97-110) was still largely European recipes, with a few less-familiar cuisines from Armenia and Bulgaria, as well as some from the Middle East and Australia. For the home cook, a few pages for "Personal Recipes" concluded the volume.

Who were the listeners who wrote in? In large part they were women, identified as wives rather than individuals, primarily by their husband's name (Scones, Australia - Mrs. Merton Lenihan, Baldwin, N. Dak), and more rarely their own Chicken and Equsi (Africa) - Mrs. Beulah M. Hill, Turtle Lake, N. Dak.,) A very few (presumably) unmarried women wrote in (Savory Rice (Brazil) - Cheryl Petryzak, Grassy Butte, N. Dak.) and the occasional man (Green Beans & Rice (Lebanese) - Ed George, P.O. Box 216, Ft. Yates, N. Dak. and Fouja Djedjad (Persia) - Arthur Anderson, Carrington, N. Dak.) (all pp. 96-106).

Regardless of who they were, few names seem to correlate directly with the cuisine in the recipe. So how did these recipes make it to North Dakota? Did a soldier bring a recipe back from deployment? Did a curious home cook test out and then adopt and adapt another culture's recipe and so decide to recommend it?

Over fifty years later, it might take some serious sleuthing to find an answer. What is clear is that KFYR hoped readers would use the recipes. Before the first recipe, a table of equivalents offered cooks guidance on converting volumes (cups, squares) to other units -- numbers of egg whites or egg yolks, chocolate squares, to cups and ounces.

Tom Barr received the North Dakota Broadcast Assocation "Pioneer" award in 2001, when he was station manager of KFYR-TV. (NDBA.org)

1969

Unk.

general public
North Dakota

Internet Archive.
https://archive.org/details/kfyrradio550bismarckaroundtheworldcookbook1969/mode/2up
Uploaded to the Internet Archive by member 'scearley,' who has uploaded multiple cookbooks to the archive.

unk.

Internet Archive (archive.org)

Barr, Tom

KFYR

Community Cookbooks
Cuisine--United States
Cuisine--International
North Dakota

United States--North Dakota--Bismarck

3/10/2025