“There’s A Surprise In-Between”

In between the burgers, or in between the lines, metaphorically speaking?

It’s 1963 and even though Burger King has been around since 1954, and the Whopper since 1957, Better Homes and Gardens has appropriated the name in their Barbecues and Picnics cookbook. So here we have Whopper-burgers, something even the Dad out of camera range can make:

Whopper-burgersTwo juicy meat patties in one - and there’s a surprise in between -

2 pounds ground beef
Salt and pepper
Prepared mustard

Pickle Filling: pickle relish and 1/2-inch cubes of sharp process American cheese

Shape patties as directed below [flatten them with a measuring cup with a protective sheet of wax paper between it and the beef, basically]. Set half the patties aside for “lids.” Sprinkle remaining patties with salt and pepper, then spread with prepared mustard, leaving 1/2 inch margin for sealing. Top with a round of Pickle Filling. Cover the filling with “lids,” sealing edges well.

Place on greased grill or spread both sides with soft butter or margarine. Season top side with salt and pepper. Broil over hot coals about 10 minutes; turn; broil about 10 minutes more or till done to your liking. Season second side. Slip patties into hot buttered buns. Makes 5 Whopper-burgers.

Well, Dad is going to have to hone his fine motor skills. That is a lot of butter on the grill, and the filling is bound to slip out, and then he has to get the burgers into the buttered buns. Lots of room for disaster. You can see the filling coming out in the photo. On all the burgers, actually. I guess Mother didn’t seal the edges very well. She didn’t even want to have a picnic, she wanted to go out to dinner - why, look how she’s dressed!

Junior in the yellow sweater is pretending to be thrilled. Looks like he’s been holding that smile for a long time. Just hurry up with the spatula already, Dad! How many of these do I have to help with? Six? But there are only four of us! And the recipe says it only makes five. Dad? Who are the other two burgers for? (Dad’s just a disembodied hand- and there’s another subtextual problem right there - so he isn’t saying, but there’s another surprise in the offing, probably: the unnamed extra guests).

Sister’s trying not to sit right on the grass - grass stains are hell to get out of those party dresses she and Mother have on. Only back in 1963 they aren’t party dresses - that’s everyday wear! I remember that. We had to wear a dress to school every single day (in the winter too, that was fun) until third grade (1970) and the powers that were (the meanie principal) said that girls could wear pants. Still - on a picnic, it’s a little much, even for the sixties.

Mother looks like she came from a suburban wedding reception. And both she and Sister seem to be dressed for summer, while Junior is ready for autumn. Somebody’s got to be too hot or too cold, I don’t get it.

And if you have a good look at Mother, you will see the other surprise. She’s had three bottles of beer, and she’s brought her rolling pin along. And she’s reaching for it, too. Dad’s going to get a surprise all right, and not just from the Pickle Filling.

Flapper Salad

The grapefruit boats recipe over at Retro-Food.com got me thinking about all the vintage dishes that strive to look like other things, ice cream planets and candle salads and of course, grapefruit boats. I delved into one of my favorite promotional cookbooks for the following salad - well, it is sort of a salad.

The Sexton Cook Book came out in 1950 to promote John Sexton & Co. Manufacturing Wholesale Grocers who had been in Chicago ince 1893 and made a range of food products. They particularly served the bulk-cooking crowd. Here are some of their customers, as listed on the title page: Dude Ranches, Fountainettes, Convents, Air Lines, Country Clubs, Drive Inns [sic], Industrial Cafeterias, Infant Homes, Orphanages, Resort Hotels, Sanitoriums, Canteens, Steamship Lines and Tea Rooms. Well, it’s a clever cookbook that can cater to both a Country Club and an Industrial Cafeteria. You can usually tell by the contributor (also listed at the back with their institution) what sort of place you would expect to find the particular dainty dish (or, as in the case of Glandular Stew - I kid you not, it’s on page 242 - not so dainty).

Here’s a nice Flapper Salad, that is supposed to look like, I don’t know, Joan Crawford in Our Dancing Daughters - only just the head. It was contributed by the Head Dietitian at a Michigan hospital.

Flapper Salad (1 serving)Lettuce, Bibb or salad greens…..as needed
Pear…..1/2
Cloves, whole…..as needed
Cherries, maraschino…..as needed
Pink coloring…..as needed
Cheese, American or pimiento…..as needed
Mayonnaise…..as needed

On salad greens place a pear half. Use cloves for eyes and nose, cherries for lips and coloring for cheeks. Run cheese through the food shredder to make attractive curls. Insert into “cherry lips” a white birthday candle for “cigarette.” Garnish with mayonnaise and light the “cigarette” before serving. Note: This is especially attractive to serve on New Year’s Day.

I have got a few questions about this whole business.

1. How am I supposed to make “attactive curls” out of cheese? That hair is going to look more like mine after a day out in the rain with no hat.

2. Where does the mayonnaise go?

3. Do I want to eat something that is smoking a birthday candle as a cigarette?

4. Is this something they served at the hospital, and if so, why?

5. Why is it good for New Year’s Day? Am I missing some festive meta-message in the Flapper Salad? Perhaps she is suppoed to look like a hungover party girl in need of a few good resolutions.

Here’s the first New Year’s resolution: no cigarette-smoking food items. Oh, and please promise not to make Glandular Stew, while we’re at it, either.

Picture of Joan Crawford in 1928 from Wikipedia.

“Gel-Cookery Helps Us Eat Better”

Oh, Knox Sparkling Unflavored Gelatine, how we love you. “More and more thousands of women” - just like the over-caffeinated and disembodied woman in this ad - are savings loads of money on food by sticking Knox gelatine into everything. Just make it into a mold - anything you’ve got. It’ll go farther that way - leftover casseroles, cake, fruit, peas and carrots, tuna, anything. “Prove to yourself that homemade is always best, just as easy, and far more thrifty.” That would depend on what you’re gelling, though. I like the sound of the Coffee Sponge, though. We used to have coffee jello when I was growing up, and it was really good.

Coffee Sponge

1. Soften 1 envelope Knox Unflavored Gelatine in 1/2 cup cold coffee. 2. Dissolve gelatine and 1/4 cup sugar thoroughly in 1 cup very hot coffee.

3. Stir in 1 tablespoon lemon juice and, if desired, 1/4 teaspoon vanilla.

4. Chill or freeze until unbeaten egg white consistency.

5. Gradually beat 1/4 cup sugar into 2 stiffly beaten egg whites.

6. Whip gelatine until fluffy, very thick., fine-textured, and volume has doubled.7. Fold into egg white mixture.8. Turn into 2 1-lb. coffee cans waxed paper lined (or use half for a pie filling) and chill until firm.9. Unmold and decorate as desired.

10. Makes 8 to 10 servings.
I would substitute whipped cream for the raw egg whites and more vanilla for the lemon juice. I don’t know what the lemon juice is supposed to do for you, you don’t generally take your coffee with it. Maybe you could put a bit of brandy in instead of the lemon juice - Irish Coffee Sponge. I’ll bet you anything that the lady in the picture has been digging into some of that!

Time Magazine Macaroon Pudding

This is from The Time Reader’s Book of Recipes (1949), an odd volume of recipes that Time magazine asked female readers (including the odd minor celebrity) to send in. It is illustrated with funny little drawings, one of which is at the top of this post.

The project was overseen by one Florence Arfmann, the Director of the Experimental Kitchen at Young and Rubincam Inc., Advertising. I guess they were friends of Time magazine or something. Anyway, Florence writes about how women are so busy now, with careers even, some of them, but boy they still love to cook and get in the kitchen all the time making swell pies and so on. She doesn’t say “swell pies,” though.

Florence says that people are worried that all the new electric gadgets mean that the food won’t be so good anymore. She’s not worried, though: “There may be women for whom liberation from a hot stove means atrophy, but I haven’t met them.” Women now are spending their leisure time looking after kids, running clubs and gardening - and heavens, some of them even work! Still, they do love to cook cook cook. And boy oh boy, “the services and devices at their command may even be responsible for what seems to me to be an increasing love of cooking.”

Yes, well. Let’s everybody relax! We’ll all get something to eat, somehow. Just as soon as Mother gets back from her club - just like the ones Lucy and Ethel used to go to, like the Wednesday Afternoon Fine Arts League. This dessert would be nice for the bridge club ladies too, after the sandwiches cut into heart, spade, club and diamond shapes.

Macaroon Pudding2 Tbs plain gelatin
1/2 cup cold water
48 macaroons, crushed
1 cup pecan meats, chopped
1 8-oz jar maraschino cherries, chopped
6 eggs, separated
3/4 cup sugar
1 cup sherry wine

Sprinkle gelatin over water. Let stand. Mix macaroons, pecans, cherries and cherry juice. Beat egg yolks with sugar until well blended. Add wine and cook over hot water, stirring constantly, until thick. Add gelatin. Stir until dissolved. Pour over macaroon mixture. Fold in well-beaten egg whites. Pour into two-quart mold. Chill until set. Serve with whipped cream. makes 8 to 10 servings.

This sounds quite good I think, except you would have to rethink the raw egg white if you were making it now. You might fold in some whipped cream to aerate and lighten the mixture, instead of egg whites.

Glamour Hash Salad

This just about my favorite Essex Meat Packers recipe from their 1968 opus The World At Your Table. That’s a lot of guests to impress. So why not serve something - unusual. Something that everyone can agree on.

Glamour Hash Salad1 15-oz. can Essex Corned beef hash
6 hard-boiled eggs, sliced
1 10-oz. can mushrooms, pieces and stems
1 cup miniature marshmallows
Caraway seeds, if desired
1 15-oz. can corn niblets or peas

Fold the Corned Beef Hash, sliced eggs, mushrooms and marshmallows together in a large mixing bowl. Season lightly with caraway seeds if desired. Mix thoroughly with salad dressing and serve with cold corn niblets or cold canned peas. A real gourmet, tongue-tickling salad.

The Essex booklet notes that this is “hash with an unbelievable difference.” They’ve got that right. I never thought - before acquiring this wonderful little book - that I would ever come across a recipe that required both cold canned peas and miniature marshmallows (not to mention canned hash and salad dressing).

Mark Twain once wrote that “Truth is stranger than fiction, but it is because Fiction is obliged to stick to possibilities; Truth isn’t.”

He may have been thinking of promotional cookbooks when he wrote that.

Sunny Side Up Spaghetti

First it’s ice cream for breakfast. Now it’s spaghetti!

Sunny Side Up Spaghetti

2 Tbs butter or margarine, melted
1 medium onion, chopped
1/2 clove garlic, minced (optional)
3 Tbs flour
1 (20-oz. ) can tomatoes
1 (10-oz.) cam condensed tomato soup
1 Tb prepared horseradish (optional)
1/2 tsp paprika
1/4 tsp pepper
3 cups cooked spaghetti
4 eggs, separated
1/4 tsp salt

Cook chopped onion and galic in melted butter or margarine on low heat for 5 minutes. Add flour and blend thoroughly. Mix in tomatoes, tomato soup, horse-radish and seasonings and cook, stirring constantly until thickened. Combine sauce with cooked spaghetti and place in greased 2-quart casserole. Add salt to egg whites and beat until stiff. Heap in four mounds on top of spaghetti. Drop an egg yolk into each mound and brush with melted butter or margarine. Bake in a moderate oven (325 deg. F) about 20 minutes or until eggs are set. Makes 4 generous servings. garnish with parsley and serve with celery curls and radish roses; for dessert, ice cream and drop cookies.

Actually, this is listed as a main course, not breakfast, though it does seem to be mixing its metaphors, as it were. It is from the 1956 opus, Chatelaine Presents 401 Tested Recipes. Chatelaine was and still is a leading Canadian women’s magazine.

You know what would really challenge me? Brushing raw egg yolks, that are nesting in meringue, with melted butter. Never mind actually lowering them into the meringue without breaking them.

A Mockery of Crown Roast

Here’s a little something for dinner from Interesting Recipes…From Canada Meat Packer’s Food Clinic (1949). I like the little ellipsis there - these recipes are so interesting that they even give the Canada Meat Packers pause.

And I love the idea of a Food Clinic - whatever do you think goes on there? Maybe they fix recipes that are a little - under the weather.

Mock Crown Roast1-2 pounds Maple Leaf Wieners
2 cups cooked sauerkraut
Maple Leaf Bacon
3 cups bread stuffing or cooked vegetablesArrange wieners side by side, with curved side up, (allow 2 wieners per serving). Thread a large needle with string, sew through all the wieners, 1/2 an inch from the bottom and 1/2 an inch from the top. Tie ends of string bringing first and last wieners together. Stand wieners on end to form a crown. Fill centre of crown with sauerkraut, bread stuffing, or creamed cabbage. Wrap 2-3 strips of bacon around roast. Anchor with toothpicks. Bake in 375 degrees F. oven 20 minutes.

Now an actual crown roast is a beef or pork roast formed from the ribs section, ribs up to form a crown. The hollow in the middle is filled with something like stuffing. The ribs can sport little paper frills if one is feeling up to it.

It would certainly go with the whole sewing/crafts theme of the Mock Crown Roast. Just imagine trying to sew a bunch of hot dogs together - with a needle and thread yet. And measuring an inch from each hot dog end. And then getting them to stand up like a crown. Might as well make them a few frills while you’ve got the sewing kit out, I guess.

The hot dog picture is from the cover of the Nathan’s Famous Hot Dog Cookbook (1969), as in the famous Coney Island hot dog stand - but it is not called a crown roast therein, as far as I can tell. It does illustrate what can happen if you do not sew the wieners together.

And the picture on the right is of a real crown roast from the cover of McCall’s Company Cookbook (1965).

Pickle Stretcher Salad

This is the recipe that you pull out when you have only a couple of pickles, and considerably fewer than a couple of ideas about what to make with them. At our house, when there are only a couple of pickles left, we slice them into spears and line them up next to a sandwich. It’s not hard to do.

But sometimes one’s ambition rises above sandwiches (mine, not often really, but it can do). And that’s when you may want to know about this salad.

The recipe is from the 1968 Favorite Recipes of Jaycee Wives Salads. Jaycees are members of the United States Junior Chamber, an organization for entrepreneurs established in 1920. Here’s the link to the Wikipedia article about them. They are involved in all sorts of civic and local affairs and charitable things. And in the 1960s, their wives made a lot of salads. A lot of salads. I have some others lined up for you. Here’s a little amuse-bouche to start us off.

Pickle Stretcher Salad

2 3-oz. pkg lemon-flavored gelatin
2 cups boiling water
1 3/4 cups cold water
6 to 8 medium-sized dill pickles, finely diced
2 tsp sliced, pimiento-stuffed olives

Dissolve gelatin in boiling water; add cold water and chill until syrupy. Rinse pickles quickly with cold water and drain well; fold pickles and olives into gelatin mixture. Pour into 1 1/2 quart baking dish and chill in refrigerator until firm.
Makes tart relish for meat. Yield: 12 servings.

I wish there was a picture of this. Or maybe I don’t. I can see it in my imagination pretty well and I’ll bet you can too. I’m wondering though, why you would worry about stretching the pickles because (a) you had 6 to 8 of them to start with and (b) wouldn’t stretching the main course be more of a concern. I mean, if you ran out of the meat and all you had was pickle salad, that would be a problem. It might be a problem anyway, though.

The picture of - molds! - is from the 1963 classic, The Joys of Jell-O.

Lady Goldenglow Cake

Today’s offering is inspired by The Old Foodie who has declared this week to be Retro Cake week, and has posted all sorts of marvellous old cake recipes. Culinary Types has got a gorgeous Gum Drop Cake post up, and I said to myself: that is just the sort of thing I would like to do!

This recipe is from a book called Any One Can Bake, “Compiled by the Educational Department of the Royal Baking Powder Co., 100 East 42nd St., New York City” in 1933. There are step by step black-and-white photos to show you how to mix stuff in bowls, and lovely colored drawings of the finished products.

They say in the introduction that:

It is our hope that this book may be taken into a quiet corner for sincere reading. It should prove as interesting as the newest romance because what is more fascinating than the secret of producing unusual dishes and serving them daintily and appropriately?

Well, quite.

Lady Goldenglow Cake

1/2 cup shortening
1 1/2 cups sugar
grated rind of 1/2 orange
1 egg and 1 yolk
2 1/2 cups flour
1/4 tsp salt
4 tsps Royal Baking Powder
1 cup milk
1 1/2 squares (1 1/2 oz.) chocolate, melted

Cream shortening, add sugar and orange rind. Add beaten egg yolks. Sift together flour, baking powder and salt and add alternately with the milk; lastly fold in one beaten egg white. Divide batter into two parts. To one part add the melted chocolate. Put by tablespoonfuls alternating dark and light batter, into three greased and floured layer cake pans. Bake in moderate oven 375 F, twenty minutes.

Orange Chocolate Icing

3 Tb melted butter
3 cups confectioner’s sugar (powdered will not give as good results)
2 Tb orange juice
grated rind of 1/2 orange and pulp of one orange
1 egg white
3 squares (3 oz.) chocolate

Put butter, sugar, orange juice and rind into bowl. Cut pulp from orange, removing skin and seeds, and add. Beat all together until smooth. Fold in beaten egg white. Spread this icing on layer used for top of cake. While icing is soft sprinkle with unsweetened chocolate shaved in fine pieces with sharp knife (use one-half sqaure). To remaining icing add 2 1/2 squares (2 1/2 oz.) unsweetened chocolate which has been melted. Spread this thickly between layers and on sides of cake.

Makes one three-layer cake (nine-inch pans).

Dark chocolate and orange are a natural match, aren’t they? This sounds really good if you like things like Terry’s Orange. Or Baskin-Robbins Mandarin-Chocolate Ice (don’t know if they still make this, I remember it in the seventies). And how can you resist a cake with such a charming name?

Cookies That Almost Make Themselves

And you thought magic required spells, wands, perhaps a course at Hogwarts. Not so. All you need is a can of Borden’s Eagle Brand Condensed Milk.

Their 1952 promotional booklet, 70 Magic Recipes, is full of bewitching recipes: Magic Fruit Surprise Cake, Magic Pumpkin Pie, Magic Chocolate Pie, Magic 6-in-1 Cookies, Magic Baked Custard, Magic Chocoalte Sauce, Magic Mayonnaise, Magic French Fudge and Magic Chocolate Frosting. There are also several non-magic recipes (despite the title), but who needs them?

Borden’s says that these are “Cookies That Almost Make Themselves.” OK, you’ve sold me. That’s just the kind of recipe I need! This makes about 4 dozen cookies (or 24 dozen if each one equals 6, yikes!) - so they’d better know what to do. That’s a lot of cookies making themselves, and I don’t have a lot of counter space (unlike the Sealtest ladies).

Magic 6-in-1 Cookies3 cups sifted flour
3 tsps baking powder
3/4 tsp salt
3/4 cup butter, melted
2 eggs
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 (15-oz.) can Eagle Brand Sweetened Condensed Milk1. Sift together flour, baking powder and salt into a large bowl. Add remaining ingredients; blend thoroughly.

2. Add only one of the following:
1. Chocolate……1 (6-oz.) package semi-sweet chocolate pieces
2. Raisin…..1 1/2 cups raisins
3. Cornflakes……1 1/2 cups cornflakes
4. Coconut……1 (4-oz.) package (1 1/2 cups) shredded coconut, toasted
5. Date……1 1/2 cups chopped dates
6. Nut……1 1/2 cups chopped nut meats

3. Drop by level tablespoonfuls onto well-greased baking sheet.

4. Bake in moderate oven (350 F) about 8 to 10 minutes or until delicately browned around edges.

5. Remove from baking sheet immediately.

Now the photo (shown above) is slightly confusing, but there are 5 cookie recipes on the facing page, the 6-in-1’s are labelled with the green circle with the ‘1′ in it. And there are six of those, one each of the chocolate, the raisin, etc.

If they make themselves, though, why can’t they get off the cookie sheet on their own? That thing is hot to sit on, you know.

Also, why can you only add one extra ingredient? Clearly if you add in, say, chocolate chips AND raisins, the game’s up. They’ll just sit there and refuse to do any work. Definitely not on the menu at Hogwarts, I think.