Spry-Eyed

Surely a can of lard, no matter how Spry it may be (and what an interesting name that is to choose for a lard product, don’t you think?) cannot teach a person to cook. And it cannot actually cook the stuff for you, either!  This lady seems to think that the enchanted Spry can started piping out little instructions, rushing around the kitchen on wee legs, fetching bowls, jumping on the countertop to supervise her. “That’s it, flute it round the edge. No, not like that! Like this, see?”

There is also a nice ironic undertone to the ad, as the heroine does not look quite as spry as she was, no doubt, before getting married to the gas cooker.

She really has a slightly mad look to her. Like she has been in that kitchen WAY too long. Some days it only takes about ten minutes for me to look like this, and that’s without the pastry.

Thank you so much Amy for this fabulous ad!

This is for VIntage Thingies Thursday, hosted by the Apron Queen.

The Culinary Waterloo

If you are a “Guardian Service Homemaker,” the above title would be in reference to pie-making.  I’ll bet you didn’t know that the pie business was quite so – serious. The final battle in the war that is wrangling a meal onto the table! The author of Guardian Service Tested Recipes (ca 1955), Betty Gay, writes a whole sidebar about this terrible pie problem, entitled “Now You Can Have Fresh Pies Without Lighting the Oven.” You are, of course, supposed to make them in a Guardian Kettle Oven, which actually does sound like fun. The picture above shows the noble Kettle Oven with some of its best friends.

She writes, “courage, dear ones, only remember to use these few tips, then flaky, tender crusts that melt in the mouth will be your proud triumph.” Betty is the Wellington of pastry chefs! Her sidebar instructions are pretty standard though – make sure the water is ice cold, add it a little at a time to the fat and flour, handle it carefully, chill it before you stick it in the Kettle Oven. Here is something that sounds quite good (minus the food coloring) that you can do with your triumphant crust:

GRAPE CHIFFON PIE

(1 9-inch pie or one dozen tarts)

1 1/2 Tb plain gelatin
1/4 cup cold water
1/4 lb marshmallows
2 cups grape juice
1 Tb lemon juice
Red food coloring
1 1/2 cups whipping cream
1 bunch Tokay grapes
1 baked pie shell

1. Soak gelatin in the 1/4 cup cold water. Place cup in boiling water to melt gelatin.
2. Place marshmallows and 1/3 cup grape juice in unit over low heat. Fold over and over until marshmallows are almost melted, remove from heat – add gelatin, continue folding until smooth, cool.
3. Add remaining grape juice, lemon juice, few drops food coloring, blend in one half of whipped cream. Chill. When beginning to congeal, pour into baked pastry shell.
4. After firm, spread with whipped cream. Arrange halved grapes cut down side to resemble cluster of grapes, cut angelica to form leaves and a stem, or use a real grape leaf. 

I really wish that they had called making Napoleons a Culinary Waterloo. The jokes would certainly turn out better, anyway.

Wartime Recipe Service, 1940

Sorry about the what-look-like-someone-poked-a-pencil-through-it marks on the 1940 Woman’s Weekly offering above.  That wasn’t me. I rescued the poor coverless magazine from a secondhand bookstore basement and I need to scan all the ads before it just gives up and falls apart (the basement didn’t do the cheap paper much good, not to mention the pencil pokes).

Anyway, here we have some scrumptious Ration Recipes: Liver Sandwich, which is liver in pastry (so really not a sandwich per se), Cold Meat Pasties (more meat in more pastry), and Economical Spotted Dick, which is a steamed currant pudding. And I don’t know why it is called that but it certainly doesn’t sound like dessert to me as much as the punchline of a dirty joke. Which I am not making except in this indirect and roundabout way, sort of implying it.

Apparently “spotted” refers to the currants (duh) and “dick” is derived from the last syllable of the word “pudding” or from “dough.” A hospital in England changed the name to “Spotted Richard” on its menu in 2002. They thought that the sick people might be too embarrassed to order a Spotted Dick. They have since changed the name back. I think maybe if you are in hospital you have other things to worry about.

The recipes are from the McDougall Self-Raising Flour people…Oh, I just thought of a good joke. I’ll bet you know what it is, too.

I might come back and post some more ads later. It is a rainy day here, as soggy and depressing as – as a Liver Sandwich. So more funny retro ads are definitely in order.

Baked Alaska Pie

If you are also readers of The Old Foodie (and I certainly hope that you are!) you will know that it is Pie Week in honor of Pi. You can go here for some ideas on how to celebrate Pi Day – aside from the consumption of delicious pies, of course. I don’t know if we are going to play the Pi version of Jeopardy! (I am already confused just thinking about it), or decorate the house (with pie plates?) but perhaps I will play “American Pie”on YouTube or something.

 Pi Day is in fact tomorrow, but I am putting this up today. You can read it tomorrow if you like, of course. This recipe is from the festively-named Good Housekeeping Party Pie Book (1958). There’s something about a party pie that sounds – so perky! A party pie for a Pi party. Let the calculations begin! Perhaps you could measure the slices with a protractor or a ruler or something (can you tell that I dropped math in 10th grade?)

Baked Alaska Pie

Baked 9″ pie shell
16 large marshmallows
1 Tb water or canned pineapple juice
2 egg whites
1/4 cup granulated sugar
1/4 tsp salt
2 cups chilled fresh raspberries or drained, just thawed frozen raspberries or strawberries
1 qt. firm vanilla, peach or pistachio ice cream

Refrigerate pie shell until well chilled. Preheat broiler 10 minutes, or as manufacturer directs. Over low heat, heat marshmallows with water, folding constantly, until marshmallows are melted. Beat egg whites until quite stiff; gradually add sugar and salt, beating until very stiff; fold into marshmallow mixture. Sprinkle 1 cup berries into pie shell; fill with ice cream; then sprinkle rest of berries onto ice cream; top with meringue, covering ice cream completely all the way out to edge of pie (this helps to keep ice cream firm). Broil several inches below heat until lightly browned. Serve at once.

Good Housekeeping notes that you can make this in advance – just leave out the berries, make and broil the pie with meringue, then bung it in the freezer all wrapped up. Thaw for about 45 minutes before you want it, and put the berries on top as you dish it out. Only they took about three paragraphs to say it, so I thought I’d cut to the chase.

Traditional Baked Alaska uses sponge cake as a base for the ice cream and meringue. It was made possible by a scientist named Benjamin Thompson (1753-1814) of Woburn, Massachusetts, who was well known both in the US and England. He was honored by the English with the title Count Rumford (after his wife’s hometown in New Hampshire – I guess they didn’t like the sound of Count Woburn). According to John F. Mariani in  The Dictionary of American Food and Drink (New York, 1983), Thompson discovered that egg whites are resistant to heat. From this scientific breakthrough came a dessert at New York City’s famous restaurant, Delmonico’s, called Alaska-Florida. Fannie Farmer first called the dessert Baked Alaska in 1909 [Mariani, p. 23].

So there you have it – the perfect dessert for Pi Day, a scientific pie!

For more delightful pie recipes:

To Catch A Quiche
Rawleigh’s Coconut Cream Pie
Silverwood Spice Pie

To Catch A Quiche

One of my favorite kinds of retro cookbooks are the ones that feature celebrity recipes – and I use the term “celebrity” fairly loosely, depending on the book. Good Housekeeping put one of these out in 1958, called Who’s Who Cooks: Favorite Recipes of Famous People. They tracked down “actors and authors, musicians and milliners, statesmen and skaters, and puppeteers” and asked them what they liked on their celebrity tables. Some of them didn’t cook, not surprisingly, so in that case you are getting the cuisine “perfected by their jewels-of-cooks.”

In the case of Ray Bolger (who was as you probably remember the Scarecrow in The Wizard of Oz), “he takes his recipes to favorite restaurants and has them made to order.” Because he doesn’t have time to cook, you see. But wouldn’t schlepping all the way to some restaurant and trying to get a busy chef to make you Flaming Filet of Beef – one of Ray’s favorites, apparently – take more time than bunging it in the oven yourself? And why didn’t he have a jewel-of-a-cook?

Oh, never mind.

The celebrities range from people like writer/explorer Lowell Thomas  and newscaster John Cameron Swayze, to less famous ones like Sally Victor (famous in the 1950s for her hats) and Bil and Cora Baird (the puppeteers). I’ll write about some of their offerings down the road, but today I can’t resist sharing one of my favorites – Alfred Hitchcock’s Quiche Lorraine.

Who knew that Alfred Hitchcock was so crazy about quiche? I thought Real Men Didn’t Eat Quiche, and all that (remember that book from 1982, anyone?). He was clearly a man ahead of his time. Good Housekeeping informs us that Hitchcock told his friends that “I’m not a heavy eater. I’m just heavy, and I eat.” Whatever you say, Sir Alfred – just as long as you don’t bring any flocks of birds along to dinner, or anything.

Note the explanation in parentheses after the title – quiche was pretty exotic stuff back in 1958.

Hitchcock’s Quiche Lorraine (Swiss-Cheese Pie)

Sift together 1 1/2 cups sifted cake flour and 1/2 tsp salt. With finger tips, work in until crumbly: 1/4 cup butter or margarine (1/2 cup). Slowly add, stirring with fork: 1/4 cup cold water. Shape into ball; roll in waxed paper; refrigerate about 1/2 hour, or until easy to roll. Then start heating oven to 425 F. On floured board, roll dough into large circle, about 14″ in diameter. Fit into 11″ pie plate. Make attractive fluted edge. With fork, prick well. Place in refrigerator about 30 minutes. Meanwhile, make filling. Fry until crisp:

12 slices bacon

Crumble bacon into small pieces. Now, using fine grater, grate:

1/4 lb. natural Swiss cheese (makes about 1 cup)

Into bowl, break 4 eggs. Then add:

2 cups heavy cream

3/4 tsp salt

Pinch nutmeg

Generous pinch sugar

Pinch cayenne

Plenty of freshly ground black pepper

Beat with egg beater just long enough to mix thoroughly. Now spread pastry shell with about 1 Tb soft butter or margarine. Sprinkle bacon bits, then grated cheese, in bottom of pie shell. Pour cream mixture over all. Bake 15 minutes. Then reduce oven temperature to 300 F; bake 20 minutes longer, or until silver knife inserted in center comes out clean. Serve hot, cut into wedges. Makes 20 hors d’oeuvres, or 8 main-dish servings.

I am not sure about the sugar and the cayenne, or about the butter on top of the pie crust (followed by bacon) – but Hitchcock’s “great interest and good taste in food are sort of a legend,” and this is the way he liked his quiche. Let’s just be glad he didn’t put anything really strange in it.

Rawleigh’s Coconut Cream Pie

The W.T.Rawleigh Co. Ltd. was based in Montreal and Winnipeg and made a wide range of cooking and household products, roughly similar to the Watkins Company in Minnesota. They made medicines, spices, dessert mixes, artifical sweetener, food coloring, makeup – you anme it, they probably made it or something close.

The ad and recipe are from their 1959 almanac, which has lots of terrific full-page color ads for their products. In fact the almanac is mostly ads, which is great because I love old advertisements. I especially like the product packaging. Rawleigh’s give their medicines brilliant names like “Pleasant Relief” and Anti-Pain Oil.” Who wouldn’t line up to buy some of that? Just what I need after a long day!

And here’s another thing you and I might need: dessert mix. That’s right. Because you never know when hungry guests and ravenous school children are going to come marauding around, looking for pie! (Hopefully not at the same time, of course).

In the ad above, Rawleigh’s is pushing their pie-fillings-slash-puddings. They want you to serve them after meals and also as an after school snack (not the healthiest thing, but I guess it is 1959 and sugar= good energy).  I love how they urge you to keep a few on hand all the time “for regular and emergency use” – as if there was going to be some kind of pudding emergency cropping up, maybe after school. Or maybe you forgot to make something for your guests. And that will make them cranky. Low blood sugar is like that. So keep everyone happy with Rawleigh’s dessert mixes. And not to worry; this pie won’t take long to whip up.

Coconut Cream Pie

Vanilla wafers, crushed…..30

Brown sugar…..3 Tbs

Butter, melted…..1/3 cup

Semi-sweet chocolate pieces…..1 pkg

Rawleigh’s Coconut Pie Filling…..1 pkg

Rawleigh’s Vanilla…..1 tsp

Whipping cream, whipped

To make crust, mix wafer crumbs, brown sugar and butter together. Shape and press into a 9-inch pie plate. Place one half of chocolate pieces over sides and bottom of crust. Bake in 325 F oven for 10 to 12 minutes. Cool. make coconut filling according to directions on container, add 1 tsp. vanilla. Cool. Pour into crust. Cover top with sweetened whipped cream, flavored with vanilla. Sprinkle remaining chocolate pieces over top. Chill until ready to serve. Serves 6.

This sounds a lot like a Mounds bar, which is a great idea. The Mounds bar was created in 1920 by the Peter Paul Candy Manufacturing Co. in Connecticut, which you can read about here.

Silverwood Spice Pie

This is from a promotional pamphlet put out by Silverwood Dairies in Canada sometimes in 1957. It sounds like a custard pie with extra spice, not that fashionable, but it is sounds good enough. The Silverwood people feel that it would be an even better idea if you used their powdered milk in it.

Spice Pie (Using Silverwood’s Milk Powder)4 egg yolks
1 1/4 cups milk
1 1/3 cups sugar
2 Tb melted butter
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/4 tsp ground cloves
1/4 tsp nutmeg
3 Tbs flour
4 egg whites
1/2 tsp saltCombine first eight ingredients, mix well. Beat egg whites and salt until stiff but not dry. Fold gently into egg yolk mixture. Pour filling into warm baked pie shell. Bake 40 to 50 minutes in 350 F oven.*To convert milk powder to milk follow directions on package.

I like that last little hint. Don’t, you know, try any funny business on your own, like mixing half the package with a tablespoon of water, or with orange juice or something. Just read the package! I guess they thought they had to tell the housewives that.

Also they tried to make the booklet appeal more to women by calling it Food Fashions of ’57, like you would be stylish if you made their recipes, like Fried Corn with Sour Cream Sauce and Tuna-Macaroni Supreme. Very cutting-edge.

The photo is from the front page, which tells us that “more than 450,000 Canadian housewives have witnessed demonstrations which feature the proper balance of food for healthful nutrition, so necessary in our daily diets.”

I’ll bet you anything they are also showing them how to mix the powdered milk! They don’t trust the housewives to read the back of the box!