Universal Translator

Showing posts with label historical. Show all posts
Showing posts with label historical. Show all posts

Sunday 9 February 2014

Interesting Southern Heirloom Cake Recipes III: Red Velvet Cake

Red Velvet Cake from Waldorf Astoria
Red Velvet Cake, the royal cake of the South, is a cake with either a dark red, bright red or red-brown color. It is traditionally prepared as a layer cake topped with cream cheese or a cooked frosting. Common ingredients include buttermilk, butter, cocoa, and flour for the cake, beetroot or red food coloring for the color.


James Beard referenced red velvet cakes in his 1972 book American Cookery.  The three cakes he mentioned varied in the amounts of butter, shortening, and oil but all used red food coloring. Throughout its history, red velvet cakes have used beetroot or red food coloring to achieve its signature red hue; however, even without the coloring, the cocoa used in the cakes reacts with acidic ingredients, such as vinegar or buttermilk, revealing the naturally present red anthocyanin in cocoa. (Anthocyanins are naturally occurring pigments in all tissues of plants, including leaves, stems, roots, flowers, and fruits.) Before more alkaline “Dutch" cocoa was widely available, the red color would have been more pronounced. This natural tinting may have been the source for the name "red velvet".

When foods were rationed during World War II, bakers used boiled beet juices to enhance the color of their cakes. Beets are found in some red velvet cake recipes, where they also serve to retain moisture. Adams Extract, a Texas company, is credited for bringing the red velvet cake to kitchens across America during the time of the Great Depression by being one of the first to sell red food coloring and other flavor extracts with the use of point-of-sale posters and tear-off recipe cards.

Original tear-away recipe from Adams Extracts (front)

Original tear-away recipe from Adams Extracts (back)
 
The popularity of the cake increased after the release of the 1989 film Steel Magnolias that included a scene with a red velvet groom's cake made in the shape of an armadillo.

Red Velvet Cake 

1 ¾ cup oil
1 cup buttermilk
2 ½ cup plain flour
2 eggs
1 ½ cups sugar
2 tsp cocoa
¼ tsp salt
1 tsp vanilla
1 tsp soda
1 or 2 oz red cake coloring
 
Cream oil and sugar, add eggs and beat well.  Add flour and buttermilk alternating.  Make paste of cocoa and coloring and add to mixture. Add salt and vanilla and soda; mix together and bake 25 minutes at 350 degrees.

Icing:

1 box confectioners sugar
 ¼ lb or 1 stick oleo or butter
8 oz cream cheese
1 tsp vanilla
1 cup chopped nuts

(SOURCE: Homemakers Cook Book by Pickens County Homemakers Club, Pickens County, Alabama, 1977, recipe by Mrs. Orman Storey)




Most people nowadays use a modern cream cheese-based frosting because of its simplicity and ease; however, Ermine Frosting, also known as boiled milk frosting or butter roux frosting, is the original icing on Red Velvet Cake.  The combination of the names - Red Velvet Cake with Ermine Frosting – conjures images of royalty and this cake is indeed the queen of Southern cakes.

Ermine Icing (for Red Velvet)

 1 cup whole milk
3 TB all-purpose flour
A pinch of salt
1 cup unsalted butter
1 cup granulated sugar
1 tsp vanilla extract

Whisk flour into milk and place over medium heat in a small saucepan.
Cook mixture until thickened, whisking constantly.
Remove from heat and whisk in the salt.
Pout into a clean bowl and cover with plastic wrap on the surface. (This will stop the cooking and the plastic will prevent crusting)
Set aside to cool slightly.
In a stand mixer, begin creaming the butter and sugar until fluffy.
Add vanilla extract and mix to combine.
When milk mixture is slightly cooled, add 1 TB at a time to the creamed butter mixture while the mixer is running on medium speed.
Slowly the mix will combine into an extremely fluffy, light and buttery frosting.
This icing needs to be refrigerated though as it does not stand up well to temps above 70 degrees

(SOURCE: http://www.bakespace.com)




Monday 3 February 2014

Interesting Southern Heirloom Cake Recipes II: Lane Cake

Thick slice of Lane Cake (photo: Eunice)
A Lane Cake, also known as a 'Prize Cake' or an 'Alabama Lane Cake' is a traditional cake from the Southern United States. Emma Rylander Lane from Clayton, Alabama is credited as the creator of this cake.  She won first prize with this cake at the county fair in Columbus, Georgia. She called it Prize Cake when she self-published a cookbook, Some Good Things To Eat, in 1898.

The cake has been forever enshrined in literature in Harper Lee's To Kill a Mockingbird - Miss Maudie Atkinson gives a Lane Cake as a welcome gift to Aunt Alexandra. The narrator in the story is the young daughter, Scout, of Atticus Finch. Scout reports, "Miss Maudie baked a Lane cake so loaded with shinny it made me tight." ("Shinny" is slang for liquor.) Also in the book, Miss Maudie bakes a Lane Cake for Mr. Avery, who was severely injured in an attempt to put out a fire in her home.


Emma Rylander Lane’s Prize Cake 

- CAKE – 
3 ¼ cups sifted cake flour
2 teaspoons double-acting baking powder
1 – 16 teaspoon salt
1 cup butter, at room temperature
2 cups sugar
2 teaspoons vanilla
8 egg whites
1 cup milk
*On wax paper sift together the flour, baking powder and salt.
In a large mixing bowl, cream the butter, sugar and vanilla. Add egg whites, in four additions, beating thoroughly after each addition.
Fold in flour mixture alternately with milk; begin and end with dry ingredients. Batter should be smooth but look slightly granular.
Turn into 4 ungreased 9-inch round layer-cake pans lined on the bottom with wax paper.
Bake in a 375-degree oven until edges shrink slightly from sides of pans and tops spring back when gently pressed with finger, or cake tester inserted in center comes out clean — about 20 minutes. Place pans on wire racks to cool for about 5 minutes.
Turn out on wire racks; remove wax paper; turn right side up; cool completely.
Put layers together (on a cake plate) with Lane Cake Filling, stacking carefully; do not spread filling over top. Cover top and sides with swirls of Boiled White Frosting.
Cover with a tent of foil or a cake cover; or cover tightly in a large deep bowl in tin box. Store in a cool place; if refrigerated, allow to stand at room temperature for half a day before serving because cake texture is best when cake is not served chilled

- FILLING -
8 egg yolks
1 cup sugar
½ cup butter, at room temperature
1 cup seedless raisins, finely chopped
1 – 3 cup bourbon or brandy
1 teaspoon vanilla
*In a 2-quart saucepan, beat the egg yolks well; beat in sugar and butter. Cook over moderate heat, stirring constantly until quite thick. Remove from heat; stir in raisins, bourbon and vanilla. Cool slightly; use as directed.

- BOILED WHITE FROSTING -
(from a standard recipe)

SOURCE: This recipe is by way of Emma Rylander Law, Mrs. Emma Rylander Lane’s granddaughter, and was published in an article by Cecily Brownstone, food editor for the Associated Press on Dec. 19, 1967. 


Another version:

Lane Cake

1 cup butter
1 cup milk
2 cup sugar
1/8 teaspoon salt
3 cups flour (sifted 3 times)
1 teaspoon vanilla
7 egg whites

All ingredients shold be room temperature.  Cream butter and add sugar gradually and cream until fluffy.  Add sifted dry ingredients alternately with milk.  Add vanilla and fold in beaten egg whites.  Pour in two 9-inch pans and bake at 350-degrees F.

Filling:
7 egg yolks
1 cup chopped nuts
1 cup sugar
1 cup coconut
1/2 cup butter
1 cup raisins
1/2 cup wine

Cook egg yolks, sugar, and butter until thick.  Let mixture cool and add nuts, cocnut, raisins and wine.

SOURCE: Mildred Mason, Favorite Recipes of Alabama Vocational Home Economics Teachers, Second Edition 



Boiled White Frosting
1 ½ cup sugar
½ cup water
2 egg whites
Cook sugar, water and egg whites together, beating while cooking over low heat, until icing will hold peak.  Beat until thick enough to spread.  (This is a good icing for fresh coconut cakes, also.) 

SOURCE: Mrs. J.M. Cruse, from Watt’s Cooking by the Jackson Electric Membership Corporation (Georgia), 1977



Baptists in Alabama have traditionally looked down on the alcoholic Lane cake - it was generally the Methodists and Presbyterians who tended to make the alcoholic cake.  They were generally thought to have more money than us Baptists and we considered them also a bit worldlier.  However, the Baptists had their own non-alcoholic version, suitable for church socials.  (Although, some Baptists would sneak to the liquor store across the state line and risk their eternal souls for a 'real' bite of Lane cake.) 

An alternative filling recipe: 
Lane Cake Filling (1977)
½ lb butter
2 cups chopped pecans
2 cups sugar
2 cups raisins
6 egg yolks well beaten
2 cups coconut (fresh preferably)
½ cup milk
1 tsp vanilla
Mix butter, sugar, egg yolks, and milk.  Cook over low heat, stirring occasionally until it looks syrupy and glossy.  Then add nuts, raisins, coconut, and vanilla.  Spread between layers and on top.  Ice sides of cake with white frosting. 

SOURCE: Mrs. J.M. Cruse, from Watt’s Cooking by the Jackson Electric Membership Corporation (Georgia), 1977



FYI: A Lane Cake should never be confused with a Lord or Lady Baltimore Cake.





Friday 31 January 2014

"Coahoma Cooking:every day and Sunday too, or Favorite Menus and Recipes"




Cover of cookbook from 1957


Four editions of 
Coahoma Cooking:every day and Sunday too, or Favorite Menus and Recipes by the Coahoma Woman’s Club, Coahoma, Mississippi were published between 1949 and 1957. This book is a product of its time containing many recipes of Southern heirloom status.  The cookbook reminisces in the food of the “plantation South” –featuring local and historic menus and recipes. However, modern readers and cooks would be offended by the unflattering illustrations of African-Americans throughout the book, accompanied by Uncle Remus-esque sayings.  Regardless of its illustrations, the locally published cookbook gives us a historical glimpse at rural Mississippi Delta culture through its food.








Sample from the cookbook:


Pauline’s Luncheon
(Special for Yankee Guests)


Frosted Mint Julep
Shrimp Cocktail with Hot Cheese Boxes
Southern Fried Chicken     Rice and Cream Gravy
Tender Greens with Ham Hock     Eggplant a la Palmirissa
Sweet Potato Surprise
Corn Pones     Hot Rolls
Egg Nog Pie
After Dinner Coffee
Cheese







The Recipes

Mint Julep

1 or 2 lumps sugar, according to the size of the julep
Bourbon Whiskey
1 bouquet freshly gathered mint
1 sprig of mint
Water
1 Silver Goblet

A thin glass will do, but the silver goblet takes the frost better and is more in accord with the noble character of the contents.  Put in the sugar, sprig of mint, and water in the goblet.  Crush well and fill with freshly shaved ice.  Pour in the whiskey till within half inch of the top of the goblet.  With a spoon stir briskly from the bottom, touching the goblet with the hands as little as possible.  It becomes covered with fine white frost.  Garnish with a thick bouquet of mint so hat the entire top is filled with leaves.  Serve it to a worthy and thirsty person, sitting at ease on a shady porch on a hot day.  This drink could very appropriately be called the hospitality drink.



Southern Fried Chicken

Select fryers not over 2 ½ pounds.  Dress carefully and cut into attractive pieces.  Chill thoroughly before frying.  Add salt to flour and roll pieces thoroughly in this.  Then drop into a deep layer of hot fat (375 degrees F) until golden brown.  Remove chicken and drain on unglazed paper.  Serve hot or cold.  For extra special, soak chicken in sweet milk 30 minutes before frying.  Add pepper (unless white) after it is cooked to keep it from turning dark.


FYI:  When Southerners refer to “sweet milk”, they mean regular whole cow’s milk.  The phrase “sweet milk” differentiates it from the sour buttermilk that was also popular among Southerners.



Sweet Potato Surprise

3 baking yam potatoes
1 cup nuts
1 ½ cups sugar
1 cup sweet milk
4 eggs
½ cup sherry
½ cup butter
1 tsp baking powder

Bake or boil potatoes, mash, and add sugar, butte, milk, nuts, sherry, and baking powder.  Beat until fluffy.  Place in well-buttered baking dish.  Top with nuts and marshmallows.  Bake in 350-degree oven 30 minutes.



Eggplant a’ la Palmirissa

1 eggplant, peeled and sliced
1 cup milk
6 slices of bread
½ pound cheese
4 eggs
salt and pepper

Drop eggplant and bread in deep fat.  Fry until brown and crisp.  Beat eggs well and add milk.  After bread and eggplant have been browned place in baking dish which has been well buttered.  A layer of eggplant and a layer of bread, then a layer of cheese until baker is filled.  Add cheese last.  Then pour over all the eggs and milk.  Bake at 350 degrees for 20 minutes.



Egg Nog Pie

12 eggs
2 pkgs. Gelatin
1 qt. cream
1 dozen ladyfingers
24 tbsp. whiskey

Separate eggs.  Beat whites stiff.  Add 1 tablespoon sugar at a time to stiffly beaten whites.  Beat yellows thoroughly.  Add whiskey a drop at a time to yellows.  Fold yellows into beaten whites. DO NOT beat.  Next fold in whipped cream.  Add gelatin last, which has been dissolved by placing cup in hot water.  Line spring form pan with ladyfingers after splitting in halves.  Pour in egg nog.  When ready to serve slide out of pan and garnish with whipped cream, red and green cherries.




Monday 27 January 2014

Interesting Southern Heirloom Cake Recipes I


Mrs. A.D. Clements’ Alabama Fruit Cake (1949)

1 lb raisins
 ¼ t. cloves
½ lb butter
1 cup watermelon preserves
¾ cup brown sugar
4 eggs
¼ cup grape juice
2 cups flour
1 cup fig preserves
1 T. baking powder 1 cup or more pecan meats
1 t. mace
½ t. nutmeg

Cream butter, add sugar, add egg yolks, beaten, add beaten egg whites.  Sift flour with spices and baking powder.  Add fruits, then grape juice.  Beat well.  Bake 2 hours in a slow oven.

 =====


FYI: When recreating old chocolate recipes, be sure you use chocolate with 60% cacao.  The chocolate in America’s recent past was a uniform 60% cacao and the recipes were created with that in mind – don’t use 70% or 80% cacao thinking it will make it better and more chocolate-y, it doesn’t work like that.

Dixie Chocolate Cake (1949)

3 cups cake flour
3 eggs
4 squares chocolate (melted with boiling water)
3 t baking powder
½ t. baking soda
¾ cup lard
1 ½ cups milk
2 cups sugar
1 ½ t. vanilla
[3/4 t. salt? see note]

Sift flour once, measure and sift again with baking powder, soda and salt.  Cream lard. Add sugar gradually and continue creaming until light and fluffy.  Add eggs one at a time, beating after each addition.  Add melted chocolate and blend.  Add sifted dry ingredients alternatively with milk and vanilla, beating after each addition until smooth.  Line the bottom of 3-9 inch pans with waxed paper.  Pour in batter.  Bake in moderately hot oven (375 degrees) for 25 minutes.  Cool and frost.

(NOTE: Salt is not listed in the original recipe but is in the instructions.  There is a similar recipe for chocolate cake that uses ¾ teaspoon salt in its recipe, so we included it here. (Some old recipes leave out ingredients because of common knowledge or mistakes in copying.)


Mrs. W.M. McDonald’s Chocolate Fluff Frosting (1949)


6 T. butter
4 squares chocolate
2 ¼ cups confectioner’s sugar
½ t. salt
½ t. vanilla
3 egg whites
Cream butter.  Add 1 cup sugar and blend.  Add vanilla, melted chocolate and salt, and mix well.  Beat egg whites until stiff but not dry.  Gradually add remaining sugar to egg whites, beating until mixture stands in peaks.  Fold into chocolate mixture and stir until smooth.

 =====

“Dating back to the 1930's, Mystery Cake was tremendously popular as it required very little butter and eggs, precious ingredients in Depression era America. The flavors in this cake are rich with no true tomato taste, just the warmth of the spices and sweetness of the raisins. This cake keeps beautifully and can be enjoyed as a snack cake with no icing needed, or iced with a simple vanilla glaze to dress it up. ‘This is a pleasant cake, which keeps well and puzzles people while you are cooking other things, which is always sensible and makes you feel rather noble, in itself a small but valuable pleasure.’-M.F.K. Fisher (1942)” --http://www.kingarthurflour.com


Mystery Cake, or Tomato Soup Spice Cake (1930s)

4 Tablespoons unsalted butter, softened
1 cup granulated sugar
1 large egg, well beaten
1 can condensed tomato soup (Campbell's preferred) 10 3/4 ounce size
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1 scant teaspoon ground cloves
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 cup raisins (optional)

1) Preheat oven to 350°F. Spritz a 9" round cake pan with cooking spray. Line with a parchment circle and spritz with spray again. Cream butter and sugar in large bowl. Add egg and mix well.
2) Combine baking soda with undiluted soup in can. Let foam for 1 minute. Pour soup mixture into butter/sugar/egg and blend well. Mixture will look slightly curdled. This is normal.
3) In a small bowl combine flour, baking powder and spices. Whisk well and add to tomato soup mixture. Beat together for 1 minute on medium speed. Pour into prepared pan and bake for 30-35 minutes. Cool on wire rack and ice as desired.







Tuesday 14 January 2014

Eliza Leslie (1787-1858): First Author of a Southern Food Cookbook?

Eliza Leslie (November 15, 1787 - January 1, 1858)


Eliza Leslie [frequently referred to as Miss Leslie] was an American author of popular cookbooks during the nineteenth century. 

She was the first American cookbook author to write about Southern cooking and the vital influence of African-Americans in this regional cooking.  In her 1854 book New Receipts for Cooking, she wrote: “A large number [of recipes] have been obtained from the South, and from ladies noted for their skill in housewifery.  Many were dictated by colored cooks of high reputation in the art, for which nature seems to have gifted that race with a particular capability.” Her comment today would be considered racist; however, we have to remember the time in which it was written.  The fact that this lady would write a cookbook celebrating recipes from African- American women and other marginalized groups – even recipes specifically from the Southern states in a time of political uneasiness- is incredible. The book contains a large number of Southern recipes, many taken from African-American women, as well as recipes coming from French and Native American sources.




The recipe below is from Leslie’s New Receipts for Cooking, copied directly from her book:

Filet Gumbo

“Cut up a pair of fine plump fowls into pieces, as when carving. Lay them in a pan of cold water, till all the blood is drawn out. Put into a pot, two large table-spoonfuls of lard, and set it over the fire. When the lard has come to a boil, put in the chickens with an onion finely minced. Dredge them well with flour, and season slightly with salt and pepper; and, if you like it, a little chopped marjoram. Pour on it two quarts of boiling water. Cover it, and let it simmer slowly for three hours. Then stir into it two heaped tea-spoonfuls of sassafras powder. Afterwards, let it stew five or six minutes longer, and then send it to table in a deep dish; having a dish of boiled rice to be eaten with it by those who like rice.
This gumbo will be much improved by stewing with it three or four thin slices of cold boiled ham, in which case omit the salt in the seasoning. Whenever cold ham is an ingredient in any dish, no other salt is required.
A dozen fresh oysters and their liquor, added to the stew about half an hour before it is taken up, will also be an improvement.
If you cannot conveniently obtain sassafras-powder, stir the gumbo frequently with a stick of sassafras root.
This is a genuine southern receipt. Filet gumbo may be made of any sort of poultry, or of veal, lamb, venison, or kid.”



---
The following recipe is from Miss Leslie’s earlier book Directions for Cookery, followed by a modernized version by Ester B. Aresty, who called the recipe as "still outstanding among Southern recipes":

Sweet Potato Pudding (original by Eliza Leslie, 1851)

“Take half a pound of sweet potatoes, wash them, and put them into a pot with a very little water, barely enough to keep them from burning.
Let them simmer slowly for about half an hour; they must be only parboiled, otherwise they will be soft, and will make the pudding heavy. When they are half done, take them out, peel them, and when cold, grate them. Stir together to a cream, half a pound of butter and a quarter of a pound and two ounces of powdered sugar, add a grated nutmeg, a large tea-spoonful of powdered cinnamon, and half a tea-spoonful of beaten mace. Also the juice and grated peel of a lemon, a wine glass of rose water, a glass of wine, and a glass of brandy. Stir these ingredients well together. Beat seven eggs very light, and stir them into the mixture in turn with the sweet potato, a little at a time of each. Having stirred the whole very hard at the last, put it into a buttered dish and bake it three quarters of an hour.”

Miss Leslie’s Sweet Potato Pudding 

(updated by Esther B. Aresty in her book, The Delectable Past, 1964)

“2 cups cooked, mashed sweet potatoes
3 egg yolks, slightly beaten
¼ teaspoon each: nutmeg and cloves
½ teaspoon cinnamon
½ cup sugar
¼ pound butter, melted
¼ cup wine and brandy mixed
½ cup milk
3 egg whites, beaten stiff but not dry

       First, combine the potatoes with the spices and beaten egg yolks.  Then add all the other ingredients, except the egg whites, and beat well.
       (Mrs. Leslie’s original recipe called for rosewater; I substitute the milk, to which I add ½ teaspoon of rose extract.  Try it.)  Last, fold the stiff (not dry) egg whites lightly into the potato mixture.
       Heap in a buttered 2-quart casserole.  Sprinkle top lightly with a mixture of sugar and cinnamon.  Bake at 350-degrees for about an hour.  Serve with chicken, ham or pork.”


Books by Eliza Leslie:


  • Seventy-Five Receipts for Pastry, Cakes, and Sweetmeats, 1828.
  • American Girl's Book, 1831.
  • Domestic French Cookery, 1832.
  • Pencil Sketches; or, Outlines of Characters and Manners, 1833.
  • Miss Leslie's Behavior Book, 1834.
  • Directions for Cookery, in its Various Branches, 1837.
  • The Indian Meal Book, 1847.
  • The Lady's Receipt-Book: A Useful Companion for Large or Small Families, 1847.
  • Amelia; or, A Young Lady's Vicissitudes, 1848.
  • Miss Leslie's Lady's New Receipt-Book, 1850.
  • Miss Leslie's Directions for Cookery, 1851.
  • More Receipts, 1852.
  • Miss Leslie's New Receipts for Cooking . . ., 1854.
  • Miss Leslie's New Cookery Book, 1857.






Source(s): http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eliza_Leslie; New Receipts for Cooking . . ., 1854; Directions for Cookery, 1851; The Delectable Past by Esther B. Aresty, 1964, Simon And Schuster, Inc.; http://chestofbooks.com





Tuesday 31 December 2013

Cotton Style Show Luncheon, 1949

 “King Cotton-whose lint and seed in the Mississippi Delta alone this past season were valued at over $200,000,000-will receive royal tribute from at least four Delta counties planning extensive observances for National merchants throughout the 18 Delta and part-Delta counties also are expected to join in local promotion of cotton products, according Delta Council. Leflore, Coahoma, Bolivar and Sunflower are the counties planing detailed activities during Cotton Week.” ----The Delta Democrat-Times, May 6, 1953 



Cotton Style Show Luncheon

April 28, 1949

Clarksdale, Mississippi


(From the Souvenir Menu)
----
Planter’s Plantation Punch
Hors d’oeuvres

Spiced Coahoma Ham                    Breast of Turkey

Carrot Curls                    Pickle Sticks

Creole Casserole                    Asparagus Mousse

Hot Rolls
Cranberry Salad Supreme
Cotton Bale Ice Cream Mold          Cotton Blossom Cakes
Coffee
Cotton Square Mints



----
(The recipes from Favorite Menus and Recipes by the Coahoma Woman’s Club, Coahoma, MS
N.B. Recipes are not changed, they are rewritten as they appear in original document.)


Planter’s Plantation Punch
1 can orange juice (46 ounce can)
1 can pineapple juice (46 oz.)
1 qt. ginger ale
1 qt. lemon sherbet
Cool punch bowl and cool juices.  Put sherbet into punch bowl.  Add juices with ginger ale last.


Asparagus Mousse
2 T. butter
4 egg yolks
juice of 1 lemon
1 can asparagus with liquid
1 pt. whipping cream
¼ lb. Almonds (about 1 tea cup)
2 T. flour
2 T. gelatin
1 T. onion juice
Season to taste with salt, pepper, and paprika
Melt butter I double boiler, stir in flour, mix thoroughly, add asparagus juice, stirring constantly ‘til thick.  Pour over eggs which have been beaten lightly, stirring all the time.  Put back into double boiler and cook ‘til eggs are done.  Add dissolved gelatin, seasoning, onion and lemon juices.  Cut up asparagus, and when cool fold in asparagus, nuts and whipped cream.  Have nuts cold.  Pour into mold.  Serve with mayonnaise.


Creole Casserole
1 can English peas, drained
1 cup grated Chedder cheese
½ cup buttered bread crumbs
1 recipe Creole Sauce*
2 cups white sauce
3 T. grated cheese
Season white sauce to taste with mustard, Durkee’s horseradish mayonnaise, salt and pepper.  Add one cup grated Chedder cheese.  Place bread crumbs in the bottom of casserole, then place alternate layers of peas, white sauce, Creole sauce, finishing off with sprinkled 3 T. grated cheese on top.  Brown in oven first before serving.

[* I have no idea of what Creole Sauce is. It might have been a local sauce in the late 1940s, of which everyone knew.  I found a recipe for a Creole Sauce in the Fannie Farmer Boston Cooking School Cook Book and it appears at the end of this article -tfc]


Cranberry Salad Supreme
2 cups raw cranberries
2 ½ cup water
1 cup sugar
2 packages lemon jello
Juice of pineapple
1 can crushed pineapple
1 cup white grapes
1 cup nuts, chopped
Cook berries, sugar, and water until berries are soft.  Add lemon jello, pineapple juice and cool.  Add fruits and nuts.  Pour in large mold or individual molds.  This serves 14.




Additional Recipes

Creole Sauce Recipe a’la Fannie Farmer
Put in a saucepan: 2 Tb. chopped onion, 4 Tb. finely chopped green pepper, 2 Tb. butter.  Cook 5 minutes, then add: 2 tomatoes or ½ cup canned tomatoes, ¼ cup sliced mushrooms, 6 pitted or stuffed olives, cut into pieces.  Cook 2 minutes, then add 1 1/3 cups of Brown Sauce (below) or gravy or water with two bouillon cubes.  Bring to the boiling point.  Season to taste with salt, pepper, and sherry.

Brown Sauce

Melt 2 Tb butter or bacon fat.  Add ½ slice onion (if desired).  Cook slowly until fat is well browned but not black.  Add 2 Tb flour or 2 tsp potato flour, ½ tsp salt, 1/8 tsp pepper, few grains sugar.  Add gradually 1 cup brown stock, consomme’, or water.  Bring to the boiling point.  Boil for 2 minutes.  Strain or remove the bit of onion.  Cook 15 minutes in double boiler or over very low heat.  Makes about one cup.






Thursday 26 December 2013

"Hop-John Party for New Year's"

The following is taken directly from The Fast Gourmet Cookbook by Poppy Cannon, published in 1964 by Fleet Publishing Corporation.  I wanted to do an article on New Year’s Southern food tradition –but Ms. Cannon did it better than I could. So, Ladies and Gentlemen, Ms. Poppy Cannon:

 ---

“It is the day after Christmas and in your mind the thought keeps stirring that you ought in some way to pay off some of your holiday social debts.  So why not an old-fashioned Hop-John party on New Year’s?  For briefing on this interesting project, we sent an appeal to Eloise Barksdale, since Hop-John parties are a tradition in her hometown of Fort Smith, Arkansas.
       Post haste came help.  Eloise went so far as to write us a poem.


             Hopping John in the Southern way
                should be eaten for Health
            On New Year’s Day
                The recipe handed down to me
            Says this fine dish
                Brings prosperity

            Boil a fresh hog jowl
                with some black-eyed peas
            Add rice and red pepper
                and it’s bound to please.

       For those of us who might not have immediate access to the jowl of a hog, nor time to soak and cook the black-eyed peas, we have evolved, with Eloise Barksdale’s assistance, a quick and tasty version using canned black-eyed peas and what she calls instant rice.  The menu is traditional and unalterable.  ‘Turnip greens and turnips too, cole slaw, corn bread, buttermilk and egg custard pie.’


Barksdale Hopping John
Turnip Greens
Diced White Turnips, Eloise
Cole Slaw
Arkansas Corn Bread
Egg Custard Pie



BARKSDALE HOPPING JOHN…dice ¼ pound salt pork and fry out nice and crisp.  Add 1 ½ cups packed pre-cooked rice, 1 large can of black-eyed peas with the liuid and 1 cup water or stock. (There should be about 2 cups of liquid all together.)  Bring to a boil uncovered. Season quite jauntily with red pepper or several drops of Tabasco sauce as well as freshly ground black pepper.  Add salt if it is needed.  Stir with a fork.  Cover and allow to stand in a warm place about ten minutes so that the rice will absorb all the rich flavors.  Four to 6 servings.

TURNIP GREENS…Prepare quick-frozen turnip greens according to directions and add to each package, 2 tablespoons finely-chopped onion which has been browned in a little pork or bacon fat.  For the true Southern taste there should be a sting of hot pepper.

DICED WHITE TURNIP, ELOISE…To serve 6, wash, peel and dice 2 pounds of white turnips.  (These are milder, cook faster than yellow.)  Cook tender (10 to 15 minutes) in salted, peppered, boiling water in a covered pan.  Drain.  Fold in ½ cup heavy cream which has been whipped and seasoned delicately with 1 tablespoon lemon juice or rum.

ARKANSAS CORN BREAD…Mix and sift together 1 cup cornmeal, 1 cup flour, 3 teaspoons baking powder, 1 teaspoon salt.  Add 1 cup milk or buttermilk, 2 eggs, well beaten, 2 tablespoons melted shortening (preferably bacon, ham or sausage drippings).  Bake in a shallow well-greased  (8 by 8-inch) pan in a hot oven (425 degrees)about 20 minutes and serve in squares.

EGG CUSTARD PIE…Follow your grandmother’s rule or buy it quick-frozen or from a bake shop.  Sprinkle with nutmeg and slivered almonds or coconut.”




Saturday 21 December 2013

"Yes, Virginia, there is a Santa Claus."



In 1897, eight-year-old Virginia O'Hanlon wrote a letter to the editor of New York's now-defunct newspaper, The Sun, concerning Santa Claus' existence. In response, Francis Pharcellus Church published the editorial 'Is There a Santa Claus'.  The editorial became the most reprinted English-language editorial in history.


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Virginia's great-grandson appeared with the letter on the Antiques Roadshow in 1997, where the letter was valued at $20,000 – $30,000. You can watch a clip in which the letter was valued here

Monday 16 December 2013

Eight-year-old to President Kennedy: "Save Santa!"

Eight-year-old Michelle holding Kennedy's letter in 1961


In 1961, after hearing her parents discussing possible Soviet nuclear tests at the North Pole, 
8-year-old Michelle Rochon grabbed a pencil and wrote a letter to U.S. President John F. Kennedy, asking him to sop nuclear testing for one special reason. Her letter, and the reply she received from the President, can be read below.






Dear Mr. Kennedy,

Please stop the Russians from bombing the North Pole because they will kill Santa Claus. I am 8 years old. I am in the third grade at Holy Cross School.

Yours truly,

Michelle Rochon

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THE WHITE HOUSE

October 28, 1961

Dear Michelle:

I was glad to get your letter about trying to stop the Russians from bombing the North Pole and risking the life of Santa Claus. 

I share your concern about the atmospheric testing of the Soviet Union, not only for the North Pole but for countries throughout the world; not only for Santa Claus but for people throughout the world. 

However, you must not worry about Santa Claus. I talked with him yesterday and he is fine. He will be making his rounds again this Christmas. 

Sincerely, 

(Signed, 'John Kennedy')

Miss Michelle Rochon
Marine City, Michigan




(Source: The Letters of John F. Kennedy, published by Bloomsbury Press on October 29, 2013, via www.lettersofnote.com )