In a Lazarus ad, the latest General Electric model had 12 cubic feet of storage, revolving turnout shelves and a freezer that could hold 77 pounds of food. The column follows much the same format today as it did in the beginning. Requests for long-lost or coveted recipes are published, and readers respond with exact or similar recipes. During periods of its publication, various readers have made Cook's Corner a hobby, spending a good portion of private time looking up requested recipes and even testing them before submission. For example, when scientific researchers announced in the 1980s that oat bran was revealed to be an aid to lowering serum cholesterol, the Food staff was deluged with requests for oat-bran recipes.
Readers also go through eating phases.
Many say they tasted such dishes at a friend's party or at a restaurant and want to prepare them at home. In 1960, The Dispatch Food pages still were published on Thursdays. For the next 20 years, they were the spot for grocery store advertising. Some weeks the ads stretched over 25 pages. Supermarkets also offered trading stamps throughout most of the century.