The Real Mrs. Cubbison of Stuffing Fame

If you've ever enjoyed a holiday feast in America, you've probably tasted Mrs. Cubbison's dressing. A real person stood behind that dressing.

Sophie Huchting was born in 1890 in San Marcos, California--part of San Diego County. She learned to cook the hard way: by preparing meals for nine siblings and the workers on her father's ranch--about 40 men. Five meals a day, from 5 am to 8:30 pm, in mobile field kitchens with no mechanical appliances.

The lady herself confirms this on the MrsCubbison website, adding that she was 16 when she took on the responsibility for all that cooking. She had one assistant.

Her brother said she put herself through college with money she earned from baking. In 1912, she graduated from California Polytechnic State University in San Luis Obispo. Cal Poly has a page dedicated to her, and this picture is from their yearbook.

She played basketball and tennis in school. I'm glad she got to have some fun after all that hard work.

Sophie met Harry Cubbison the year after graduating college. Her father had died, and she was now supporting her mother. Harry Cubbison was in the same boat, supporting invalid parents.

The two married in 1916 and borrowed $300 to buy a fully-equipped bakery in downtown Los Angeles. They borrowed a little more to purchase a mill and grind their own flour. Harry delivered the bread his wife baked.

In 1925, they sold the bread-making business and packaged and sold Sophie's special Melba toast and Zweiback bread products, which were so popular with dieters the Cubbison's had to run three plants to fill the demand. Even in 1925, Hollywood prized tiny waistbands.

The stuffing mixes for which she is so famous now came along in the early 1950s. Her salesmen advised against the product, but she went ahead with packaged poultry stuffing. On November 24, 1952, the Los Angeles Timespublished a ringing endorsement of the product, saying that "Sophie Cubbison has rendered her sister citizens a fine service."

From 1937 to 1953, the Cubbisons lived in a Los Angeles home that Sophie called "Casa de Mi Sueno" (my dream house). The Spanish name was not an affectation: Sophie's mother was Mexican. The house is currently for sale, according the Los Angeles Times, for $1.4 million.

Harry Cubbison died in 1953. Sophie continued to develop and promote her products, appearing on television talk shows and giving cooking tips throughout the 1950s and 1960s.

In 1963, Sophie Cubbison sold her bakery to a St. Louis pretzel company, and it got sold over and over after that. Sophie remained a consultant, however, until declining health forced her retirement in the 1970s. She died in November 1982, 92 years old.

Her company is now a part of Interstate Bakeries Corporation (IBC). Not good. Also owned by IBC are companies like Hostess, Dolly Madison, Wonder, and Home Pride Bread, along with Marie Callendar stuffing products.

IBC filed for Chapter 11 Bankruptcy protection in 2004, which means that the company has the chance to survive by reorganizing and restructuring. In fact, the last time IBC was in the news it was to announce that it was shutting down one of its subsidiaries: Wonder Bread, which had been around since 1921. That cost 1300 jobs.

Doesn't that make you feel all warm and fuzzy!