The Complete Banana Pudding; or, as we say, the Whole Nanner Puddin'

There is one dessert in the South that reigns as the quintessential Southern dessert, even surpassing the venerable Red Velvet Cake –it is the Banana Pudding, or as it is pronounced here in the South, Nanner Puddin’.   There was a time when this wasn’t the iconic Southern dessert, but then there was also a time when biscuits were limited to only the rich folk’s kitchens.  However, as bananas became more available, like wheat flour, recipes trickled down from society kitchens to our grandmother’s and great-grandmother’s kitchens creating things that define us in terms of our food.

       Banana pudding has been in the South for over a hundred years, but it wasn’t as popular as when Nabisco printed that iconic recipe on its box of Nilla Wafers.  The Southern Living Dessert Cookbook from 1967 listed only one recipe for banana pudding, while listing twelve recipes for rice pudding.  That’s changed a whole lot since then:

home made banana pudding. Photo courtesy of Stu Spivack

Banana Pudding 11 Ways by Southern Living magazine

Banana Pudding (1967)

2 ¼ cups milk

2 tbsp cornstarch

2 egg yolks

1 tsp vanilla

2/3 cup sugar

3 or 4 bananas, mashed

1/8 tsp salt

Vanilla wafers

Combine all ingredients except the vanilla wafers and cook in double boiler until thick.  In deep casserole, alternate vanilla wafers and bananas until you have 3 layers of each.  Pour cooked mixture on top.  When cooled, put whipped cream or dessert topping mix on top and serve.

 (SOURCE: Southern Living Dessert Cookbook, Southern Living Magazine, 1967; recipe by Nancy Stillwell, High Point, NC)

You can find what most food historians agree is the first recipe for a “banana pudding” in Mrs. Rorer’s New Cook Book by Sarah Tyson Rorer from 1902.  The following year, Mary Harris Frazier published The Kentucky Receipt Book, which contained the following recipe:

Banana Pudding (1903)

Take a half dozen bananas, peel and cut in pieces an inch thick, put in baking dish and pour over custard made in the following manner:  Custard-one pint of milk, 3 eggs, beat the yolks light, add milk, also two tablespoons of granulated sugar. Have the milk boiling, add the eggs and let it cook until it thickens; when cool pour over the bananas. Make a meringue with the whites and granulated sugar, put on top of custard, set in oven a few minutes to brown.  Serve at once.     

The following is another recipe I have found for  the banana pudding we Southerners would recognize as banana pudding like our grandmothers made.  Instead of vanilla wafers, it uses cake, but it does use meringue as a topping as many will remember on top of Granny’s “nanner puddin’”

Banana Pudding (1913)

Slice very thin, crosswise, three medium size bananas, sprinkle thickly with sugar, then add to a batter made by beating up four egg-yolks and two whites, with one cup crumbled rich stale cake, half-cup sugar, cup very rich milk, and the juice of a large lemon.  Mix smooth, pour into a deep pudding dish, and bake in a quick oven, then cover with meringue made from the egg-whites left out, beaten up with a pinch of salt, two teaspoons cold water, and six tablespoons of sugar.  Return to the oven and let barely color.  Serve hot or cold.

 (SOURCE: Dishes and Beverages of the Old South by Martha McCulloch-Williams, McBride Nast & Company, New York, NY, 1913}

Momma’s mother, Nanny, had a recipe for banana pudding that most closely represents what I myself consider to be a proper banana pudding; however the base pudding is a recipe that has come down from those before her.  It is basically a soft custard and can be adapted to any flavour, not just banana.  My mother adds natural banana extract  to it and pours it over vanilla wafers to make a banana-less banana pudding – our family doesn’t like real bananas in our banana pudding (weird, huh?) Note: I don’t have a date for Nanny’s recip eand since it is still used, I just date it as ”heirloom”.

Nanny’s Pudding (heirloom)

Put two cups milk on to boil.

1 cup sugar

2 eggs

1 t vanilla

2 T butter or margarine

1 T flour

Mix sugar, eggs, vanilla, oleo or butter, flour well and pour into hot milk. Stir until thickened.  For banana pudding, pour over wafers and bananas.

At the turn of the century the National Biscuit Company (or Nabisco) began to market vanilla wafers.  In 1968, the name of the wafers became Nabisco Nilla Wafers.  However, the most important part of all of this is that a recipe on the side of the box became the standard by which all banana pudding would be judged forevermore.

Original Nilla Banana Pudding (from the back of the box) (1968)

3/4 cup sugar, divided 
1/3 cup all-purpose flour 
Dash salt 
3 eggs, separated
2 cups milk 
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
45 NILLA Wafers, divided 
5 ripe bananas, sliced (about 3 1/2 cups), divided
Additional NILLA Wafers and banana slices, for garnish


1. Mix 1/2 cup sugar, flour and salt in top of double boiler. Blend in 3 egg yolks and milk. Cook, uncovered, over boiling water, stirring constantly for 10 to 12 minutes or until thickened. Remove from heat; stir in vanilla. 

2. Reserve 10 wafers for garnish. Spread small amount of custard on bottom of 1 1/2-quart casserole; cover with a layer of wafers and a layer of sliced bananas. Pour about 1/3 of custard over bananas. Continue to layer wafers, bananas and custard to make a total of 3 layers of each, ending with custard. 

3. Beat egg whites until soft peaks form; gradually add remaining 1/4 cup sugar and beat until stiff but not dry. Spoon on top of pudding, spreading evenly to cover entire surface and sealing well to edges. 

4. Bake at 350°F in top half of oven for 15 to 20 minutes or until browned. Cool slightly or refrigerate. Garnish with additional wafers and banana slices just before serving. 

Makes 8 servings

 

Just in case you want to do it all from scratch…

Vanilla Wafers (1886)

1 cup sugar

2/3 cup butter

4 tbsp milk

1 egg

1 tsp  cream of tartar

1/2 tsp  baking soda

1 pinch salt

1 tbsp  pure vanilla extract

5 cups  flour (or as needed)

Preheat the oven at 350°F (180°C).

Cream the butter, then add the sugar and mix well. Add the egg and beat until well incorporated, then add the milk and vanilla and mix well. Sift 4 cups of flour with the

salt, the cream of tartar and the baking soda, and add these to the butter mixture. Mix well and then add enough extra flour until the dough holds together and is firm and supple, easy to roll.

On a very lightly floured surface roll the dough very thin (1/8 inch–3 mm), and cut with a cookie cutter. Using a thin metal spatula transfer the cookies to a baking sheet lined with aluminum foil and bake for about 10-12 minutes, until lightly golden. Transfer the cookies on a rack to cool–they will be soft just out of the oven but will become crisp as they cool. Keep in an airtight container.

NOTE: The original instructions do not specify the exact amount of flour, they just say to add enough flour to roll the dough very thin. Begin with 4 cups of flour and then add as much as needed to make a dough that is easy to roll. Adding too little flour will make the dough too soft and sticky, adding too much will make it dry and brittle–in both cases it will be very difficult to roll. If you realize you added too much flour, add some more milk (1 tbsp at a time), until the dough is again supple and easy to handle.

 (SOURCE: The Woman Suffrage Cook Book, edited by Mrs. Hattie A. Burr, c. 1886, recipe by Mrs. B. M. Frazier; via http://www.wythenotes.com/2010/11/19/a-puddin-fit-for-a-king)

Homemade Vanilla Wafers

7 ounces all-purpose flour (almost a cup)

3/4 teaspoon aluminum free baking powder

1 Tablespoon ground golden flax 

1/2 teaspoon salt

4 ounces unsalted butter, room temperature

3 1/2 ounces vanilla sugar (regular will work too)

1 large egg

4 teaspoons vanilla extract

1 tablespoon whole milk

Position 1 oven rack in the top third of the oven and another in the bottom third. Heat the oven to 350 F.

Sift together the flour, baking powder, and salt in a small bowl and set aside. Cream the butter and vanilla sugar in the bowl of a stand mixer on medium speed for 2 minutes, stopping to scrape down the sides of the bowl after 1 minute. Add the egg and incorporate on medium speed for 30 seconds. Scrape down the sides of the mixer bowl. Add the vanilla extract and milk and blend on low speed for 15 seconds. Add the flour mixture and mix on low speed just to incorporate. Chill the batter in the refrigerator for at least 10 minutes before scooping.

Scoop the batter in teaspoon-sized balls and arrange them on 2 parchment paper-lined half sheet pans, approximately 35 cookies per pan. Use the heel of your hand to slightly flatten each ball. Bake, 2 pans at a time, rotating the pans halfway through the baking, until golden brown, about 15 to 20 minutes. Remove the pans to a cooling rack to cool completely before removing the cookies from the pan.

 (SOURCE: http://amomknowsbest.com/2011/05/homemade-vanilla-wafers-easy-

delicious)

The easiest way to make banana pudding (the po’folks version) is the mix up a box of Jello Banana Cream Instant Pudding and throw in some Nilla Wafers; however, if you had a few more minutes and a bit more money, you could try this (I myself would rather do without than do this, but to each his own):

Easy Banana Pudding

3 small boxes instant vanilla pudding mix

5 cups cold milk

12 ozs. whipped topping (Cool Whip)

1 cup sour cream

1 large box vanilla wafers

5 to 6 large bananas

Follow package directions for pudding, using the 5 cups of milk. Fold in half of the whipped topping and all of the sour cream. In large bowl, layer wafers, bananas, pudding mixture. Top with remaining whipped topping. Refrigerate. 

 (SOURCE: http://southernfood.about.com/od/bananarecipes/r/blbb693.htm)

FYI: The National Banana Pudding Festival is held at the Hickman County Ag Pavilion and Fairgrounds at Grinder's Switch just outside of Centerville, Tennessee.  For more info, go to http://bananapuddingfest.org

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)

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.

"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.

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 1/2 cups King Arthur Unbleached All-Purpose Flour

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.

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.

Click here for more recipes from Eliza Leslie at chestofbooks.com.

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

"Charles H. Baker, Jr.'s Own Deep South Barbecue Sauce, 1939"

Charles Henry Baker, Jr. (December 25, 1895 – November 11, 1987) 

Charles Henry Baker, Jr. was an American author best known for his culinary and cocktail writings. Baker spent much of his life traveling the world and chronicling food and drink recipes for magazines like Esquire, Town & Country, and Gourmet, for which he wrote a column during the 1940s called "Here's How".  Baker collected many of those recipes in his two-volume set The Gentleman's Companion: Being an Exotic Cookery and Drinking Book, originally published in 1939 by Derrydale Press. John J. Poister in 1983 wrote, "Volume II of The Gentleman's Companion, by Charles H. Baker, Jr., is the best book on exotic drinks I have ever encountered". Condé Nast contributing writer St. John Frizell wrote, "It's his prose, not his recipes, that deserves a place in the canon of culinary literature ... at times humorously grandiloquent, at times intimate and familiar, Baker fills his stories with colorful details about his environment and his drinking companions — Ernest Hemingway and William Faulkner among them".

I know there are recipes for white barbeque sauces, but nothing like this.  From the lack of liquid, I assume this sauce is rather thick and heavy --I don't know much roasting juices you'd really get from grilling meat (I figure you could use stock or broth). The following recipe is from Baker’s The Gentleman's Companion: Being an Exotic Cookery Book (1939):

“THE AUTHOR’S OWN DEEP SOUTH BARBECUE SAUCE , for all sorts of Miscellaneous Game such as ‘Coons, ‘Possums, Big Fox or Cat Squirrels, Marsh Rabbits, Wild Shote & God Knows What Else of Dark Flesh, or Gamy Flavour, or Both

       We’ve been hungry plenty of times on camp hunts, and seem to have eaten just about anything that swims, flies or runs, through the Florida flatwoods, the pine islands in swamps and Everglades, or in the vast sawgrass marshes.  We’ve nourished on alligator tail, sand hill crane, limpkin, crow, rattlesnake, ‘possum, ‘coon, wild razorback shote, pelican and –credit it or not! – whippoorwill.  ‘Coon, ‘possum, and big brown marsh rabbits are good eating, but have to be smothered in a sauce hot and potent enough to disguise the gamey meat.  This sauce is fine to add to the braising pot half an hour before meat is tendered, or to work up while game is being grilled, roasted, smothered, or what not.  Make it plenty hot with peppers.

1 lb odd trimmings from the animal

1 big chopped carrot

1 big chopped onion

½ tsp dry hot mustard

½ cup evaporated or fresh cream

4 tbsp butter

2 to 3 tbsp lemon juice or vinegar

1 to 1 ½ tbsp flour for thickening

1 piece yellow lemon peel

Salt and lots of black pepper

1 tsp or more of worchestershire

Soak strong meats as long as possible, overnight is best, in strongly salted water, then use this sauce, made as follows:  brown the chopped game trimmings, onion, and carrot in 3 tbsp of the butter.  Cream mustard with a little gravy, and add to trimmings pan.  Take some roasting juices from the meat from time to time, and add –along with lemon juice and seasonings.  Smother and simmer until rich; strain out bones and sinew, pound vegetables fine, thin out with more of the cooking gravy, reduce 1/3, and finally thicken with 1 tbsp flour and same of butter –worked smooth—adding the cream at the last.”