In the Kitchen: Carnival Cream

Dear Constant Reader,

One of my friends sent me this mid-century recipe and kind of dared me to make it. So, of course, I did. If you want to see the whole process in living color, become one of my Patrons!

Carnival Cream is a simple frozen dessert, a little bit like ice cream, with a very special ingredient, which I will reveal later.

You needIMG_0962

eggs, heavy cream, sugar, vanilla, the Special Ingredient, and maraschino cherries & toasted almonds for topping. (there is actually sugar in this picture — hiding behind the almonds)

Beat the eggs with sugar until thick. Whip the cream until stiff. Carefully fold in the vanilla and Special Ingredient. Fold in the eggs. Pour the mixture into molds and top with chopped cherries and almonds. Freeze until firm.

Isn’t it pretty?

IMG_0972

What did I think? It’s sweet and creamy. It’s also much firmer than ice cream, since there’s no churning. Maybe you could use a spoon if you let it thaw a little, but I bit right into it. The cherries and nuts add some much needed texture. The Special Ingredient provides a subtle, but distinctive flavor. It might not be immediately recognized.

So what is the Special Ingredient?

Ketchup.

Yes, you read that correctly. This was a recipe from Heinz Ketchup.
For a dessert.
Containing ketchup.
You see why I just had to try it.

It’s not as disgusting as you might think. Really. It’s kind of odd, but not terrible. One could probably use sriracha instead of ketchup if one liked spicy things (I don’t) and be rather au courant.

Here’s the original recipe. (I rearranged the order slightly in my video and above for dramatic effect.)

Carnival Cream

From Mrs. Frank Flynn, Philadelphia, Pa.

Whip 1 cup heavy cream until stiff. Fold in 1/4 cup of the world’s best-loved ketchup, Heinz, and 1/2 tsp. vanilla. Beat 3 eggs with 1/2 cup sugar until thick. Fold into whipped cream mixture.

Pour into individual molds or ice cube trays. Sprinkle with 3 Tbs finely chopped Maraschino cherries and 2 Tbs. chopped toasted almond.s Freeze until firm. (Makes 8 to 12 servings.)

M2These writings and other creative projects are supported by my 15 Patrons. Thank you so much! To become a Patron, go to my Patreon page. Or you can just tip me if you liked this.

Published in: on 31 March 2021 at 2:01 pm  Leave a Comment  
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In the Kitchen: Pineapple Salad (1928)

Dear Constant Reader,

It’s my birthday tomorrow and I have a gift for you!

When I made Sub-Gum Chop Suey from The Mandarin Cook Book, I also made Pineapple Salad. It was too weird to pass up! Usually I only share these vintage cooking videos with my Patrons, but thanks to my kind sponsor, Emporium 32, I’m making this little bonus video public! Enjoy!

If you want more like this, consider becoming a Patron. With more Patrons, I can get some better video equipment, like the microphone I clearly need.


Pineapple Salad
Original Recipe
Boil 3 cups bean sprouts in pineapple juice. Cover with mayonnaise dressing, flavored slightly with Chinese sauce. Sprinkle with chopped nut meats and garnish with Kumquats cut in quarters.

Mina’s Version
Simmer 1 cup bean sprouts in 1 cup pineapple juice until tender. Drain and let cool. Blend 3 tablespoons mayo with 1 teaspoon soy sauce and add enough to the bean sprouts to lightly coat. Sprinkle with 1 tablespoon toasted slivered almonds and garnish with citrus sections.

M2These writings and other creative projects are supported by my 15 Patrons. Thank you so much! To become a Patron, go to my Patreon page. Or you can just tip me if you liked this.

Published in: on 18 February 2021 at 4:38 pm  Leave a Comment  
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In the Kitchen: Sub-Gum Chop Suey (1928)

Dear Constant Reader,

One of my Advisor Committee tier supporters on Patreon, Adrienne F.,  requested a recipe from the 1920s. I first grabbed a Photoplay cookbook, full of recipes from movie stars of the era, but no dish jumped out at me. Then I remembered I had another Jazz Age cookbook.

The full title is Mandarin Chop Suey Cook Book containing authentic translation of the best recipes of leading Chinese chefs and directions for preparing various popular and healthful Chinese dishes exactly as they are prepared in the Orient. You can take all that with as much salt as you like… It was published by The Pacific Trading Company in Chicago in 1928.

Once again, I have made a video of cooking this dish for my Patrons.

You will need meat (I used boneless pork chops), oil, celery, water chestnuts, bamboo shoots, green pepper, mushrooms, pimentos, soy sauce, corn starch, water, and almonds.

Everything should be sliced thinly,  then brown the meat in a pan with some oil. Then add the celery, water chestnuts, and bamboo shoots and cook for ten minutes. I though this was excessive, and feared the meat would get tough, but followed the instructions to the letter.

Then add the green pepper and mushrooms. At this point the recipes says to simmer until tender. There’s no liquid to simmer. I wonder if you were supposed to add some stock as well, as is done in some of the other chop suey recipes in the book.

Next we add the pimentos and some “Chinese sauce”, which I assumed to be soy sauce, as well as salt and pepper (I skipped the salt because the soy sauce should be salty enough). Lastly some cornstarch in an unspecified amount of water, which would thicken any liquid, but there wasn’t any. Again, an argument for adding some stock earlier in the cooking process. 

Serve with chopped almonds on top or mixed in.

It was pretty good, but I would make a few changes if I cooked it again. My fears that the meat would become tough from overcooking were realized and the entire dish really wanted to be saucier. Some of the other recipes in the book said to cook the meat until “half-cooked” and then add the vegetables. Others added half a cup of stock after the vegetables. Both of these would be an improvement. I’d probably also add onions and bean sprouts (and skip the green pepper!), but that’s just my personal taste.

Here’s the original recipe, exactly as writ.

Sub-Gum Chop Suey
(4-6 persons)

1 lb. meat (pork or beef)
1 green pepper
1/2 can pimentos
1/2 cup chopped celery
1 doz. water chestnuts
1 doz. almonds
1/2 cup bamboo shoots
1 doz. white mushrooms
3 tablespoons Chinese sauce
1 tablespoon cornstarch

Meat should be cut real small, also all the vegetables.

Have your skillet well greased and hot before you fry the meat. When meat is brown put in the celery, water chestnuts and bamboo shoots. Cook for ten minutes, then add green peppers, mushrooms and let it simmer until tender. Lastly, add chopped pimento, Chinese sauce and a little salt and pepper. Mix cornstarch with cold water and add to the chop suey. You can sprinkle the chopped almonds on top or mix it in the chop suey.

M2These writings and other creative projects are supported by my 15 Patrons. Thank you so much! To become a Patron, go to my Patreon page. Or you can just tip me if you liked this.

Published in: on 18 February 2021 at 3:25 pm  Leave a Comment  
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In the Kitchen: Girl Scout Cookies (1922)

Dear Constant Reader,

Earlier this year I came across The Nineteenth Amendment Centennial Cookbook: 100 Recipes for 100 Years. I was thrilled to discover it contained the recipe for the original Girl Scout cookies. I was a Girl Scout for some years and selling cookies was a huge part of it. In fact, one year every girl in my troop had to each sell 200 boxes to help finance a trip we were taking. I can’t imagine baking the cookies as well as selling them! But I had to see what they tasted like.

If you’re one of my Patrons, you can see a video of me baking and then trying these cookies.

You need…

flour, sugar, butter, baking powder, eggs, vanilla, salt, and milk.

Cream the butter and sugar together. Beat the eggs and stir in. Add the milk and vanilla, and then the flour, baking powder, and salt. Mix well.

Wrap the dough in plastic wrap and chill for an hour.

Roll out the dough and cut into shapes. The recipe says trefoils, the Girl Scout emblem, but I don’t have a trefoil cutter and I wasn’t going to free-hand it with a knife. I used a heart-shaped cookie cutter Scratch made for me (awwwww….). The dough was really sticky and I needed a fair bit of additional flour to roll it out. After I cut the cookies, I decided to throw them in the fridge for 15 minutes to firm up before baking.

I sprinkled the cookies with a little sugar and popped them in a 375F oven until the edges browned, 8-10 minutes, then let them cool on a rack. They had spread a little bit in the baking and the heart shapes were no longer so distinct.

How did they taste? Well, like sugar cookies. Crispy around the edges and soft in the middle. Perfectly delicious sugar cookies. If I made them again (and I might), instead of rolling out the dough and using cookie cutters, I’d form the dough into small balls and flatten them with the bottom of a glass dipped in sugar.


Original Girl Scout Cookies
1 cup (2 sticks) butter
1 cup sugar
2 eggs
2 Tablespoons milk
1 teaspoon vanilla
2 cups flour
1 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons baking powder

Cream butter and sugar.
Add well-beaten egg.
Then add milk, vanilla, flour, salt, and baking powder.
Refrigerate for at least 1 hour.
Roll out dough, cut into trefoil shapes, and sprinkle sugar on top
Bake in a quick oven (375F) for about 8-10 minutes, until edges begin to brown.
Cool and serve!

EDIT: I’ve since found the original recipe, without commentary from the above cookbook. It omits the salt and the directions are:

Cream butter and sugar; add well-beaten eggs, then milk, flavoring, flour, and baking powder. Roll thin and bake in quick oven. (Sprinkle sugar on top.)

This amount makes six to seven dozen.

M2These writings and other creative projects are supported by my 11 Patrons. Thank you so much! To become a Patron, go to my Patreon page. Or you can just tip me if you liked this.

Published in: on 28 January 2021 at 11:33 am  Leave a Comment  
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In the Kitchen: Sham-Pain Salad (1952)

Dear Constant Reader,

I’m back in the kitchen for a new challenge! I’ve been cooking with historic recipes for quite a while and I’ve made some crazy things (ham-banana rolls anyone?). I realized there was one particular type of dish I’ve never made* — a molded gelatin salad!

For my first attempt, I chose Sham-Pain Salad from Date Bait: The Younger Set’s Picture Cook Book by Robert H. Loeb, Jr. (1952). It’s aimed at teenagers (that is, teenage girls) so they can impress their friends and parents with their culinary skills. There’s a lot of boxed and canned foods involved. I picked this one because it’s not as weird as some other gelatin “salads”.

I filmed the making of this, so if you are one of my Patrons, you can see the whole thing from ingredients to taste testing. I did the majority of the video editing** (of which I am quite proud) and all the camera work (of which I am not so much) myself. I’m pretty pleased with the end result and have more cooking videos in the works.

 

It’s a pretty straight-forward recipe. Make lemon gelatin with hot water and ginger ale and let it chill until slightly thickened. Stir in sliced celery, chopped nuts, and chopped peaches. Pour into a dozen individual molds and chill until firm. Turn molds out onto a lettuce covered platter around a bowl of mayonnaise.

I made a couple tweaks. The minor ones were using jarred peaches instead of thawed frozen ones and using pecans for the generic “nutmeats”. The big ones were cutting the recipe in half, as it served 12, and there are just 2 of us, and using one large mold (a bundt pan, since that’s all I had).

 

Everything went well until it was time to unmold and it just collapsed. My first gelatin mold was a disaster! Ah well, just keeping it real…

At first I thought there was just too much stuff and not enough gelatin to hold it all together. Maybe the peaches, being jarred instead of frozen, added too much liquid, which kept the gelatin from setting up as firmly as it should have. I should have let the peach slices drain for a while before adding them. In the end, I think the failure was due to the half-full mold. Instead of resting on the platter and having the mold lifted away, it just plummeted out and lost structural integrity.

Despite the collapse and having to serve it in bowls instead of decorative slices, it tasted quite good. The celery is fairly inoffensive, just adding some crunch and no strong flavors. I did try the salad with a dab of mayo, just for authenticity’s sake, but it’s much better with some whipped cream.

If you want to see it all, step by step, in living color, become a Patron!

Here’s the recipe as printed, slightly translated because of the pictures in the original recipe.

Sham-pain Salad (serves 12)
WARNING: you must have 12 individual molds

ingredients:
2 12-ounce boxes of frozen peaches (thaw immediately)
Lettuce
Celery
2 boxes lemon Jello
Ginger ale
Mayonnaise
Nutmeats

procedure:

  1. dissolve lemon Jello in 2 cups hot water
  2. add 2 cups ginger ale
  3. refrigerate till slightly thickened
  4. then add 1/2 cup sliced celery and 1/2 cup nut meats — stirring in carefully
  5. drain and cut up peaches
  6. add peaches — stir in carefully
  7. transfer to individual molds — then chill till firm
  8. line large platter with lettuce
  9. unmold so [onto platter around a bowl of mayonnaise] — serve…

M2These writings and other creative projects are supported by my Patrons. Thank you so much! To become a Patron, go to my Patreon page. Or you can just tip me if you liked this.

*I did once make a 17th-century layered wine jelly, but that’s not quite the same thing.
**Scratch helped me a lot though. If something is particularly good or clever, it was probably his suggestion.

Published in: on 28 October 2020 at 10:12 am  Leave a Comment  
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In the Kitchen: Retro Hors d’oeuvres

Dear Constant Reader,

Today is Memorial Day, when many people usually have a barbecue or potluck to celebrate the start of summer.* That’s not going to happen so much this year. I’m going to make a few canapés and hors d’oeuvres for two to enjoy in the backyard with some cocktails. This recipe takes me back to my childhood.

When I first had these tasty bites, they were made by Mary Browne, a friend of my parents. Mary was a great hostess and many of her dishes that guests praised highly were simpler than you might think**. This was one of them. It’s so simple, there isn’t even really a recipe.

You need Untitledcocktail rye, chopped onion, mayonnaise, and Swiss cheese.

Spread some mayo on a slice of the bread. Sprinkle it with chopped onion. Top it with a piece of cheese the same size as the bread and stick the whole thing under the broiler until the cheese bubbles. That’s it!
Untitled
Serve them piping hot. Something magical happens when you heat everything up. Even if you think you don’t like mayonnaise or raw onion, you might like these.

You can, of course, use any kind of bread you have, but cut an average-sized slice into quarters. Similarly, use any kind of sliced or shredded cheese you like. No onion? Any allium will do (but go light if you’re using garlic). I’ve seen variants on this that add seasoning the mayo or add other ingredients (like crumbled bacon!) to the onion, but I’m kind of a purist.

I think I’m also going to make a few Bedroll Specials and some White Bean Dip to have with crudité. Are you making anything special today?

M2These writings and other creative projects are supported by my Patrons. Thank you so much! To become a Patron, go to my Patreon page. Or you can just tip me if you liked this.

* I have nothing against a holiday weekend celebrating the start of summer; I just wish it wasn’t the day we are supposed to honor our military dead.
**The exception was her amazing angel biscuits. She even gave me the recipe and I couldn’t get it right.

Published in: on 25 May 2020 at 12:08 pm  Leave a Comment  
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In the Kitchen: Nana’s Meatloaf

Dear Constant Reader,

I figure we could all use a little comfort food right now. This meatloaf is one of my only true old family recipes, coming from my mother’s mother, known to her myriad beloved grandchildren as Nana.

My glamourous Nana modeling her beautifully coifed red hair.

This meatloaf has been loved by at least three generations. It’s easy and can be thrown together quickly from staples. Necessary for someone feeding a big family — besides herself and my grandfather, there were five children, her mother (the original Wilhelmina, from whom I take my name), and her brother. It’s remarkably unfussy in terms of ingredients and lends itself to variations. I’ve changed up the ingredients from time to time, but Nana’s original recipe is the one I come back when I need a little comfort.

You will need…

  • Ground meat. The original recipe calls for “chopmeat”, but you can use any kind of ground meat. I’ve made this with ground beef and ground turkey and meatloaf mix. I’ve never tried it with sausage meat, but that might work.
  • Minced onion. There’s no quantity in the recipe, but I usually use about half an onion. If you’re low on produce, use dried onion flakes.
  • Shortening. Use classic Crisco for authenticity. I usually use olive oil, but you could use butter or even bacon fat for extra deliciousness.
  • Catsup. I try to avoid sugar and artificial sweeteners in condiments, so I use a ketchup sweetened with honey (it’s really hard to find sugar-free ketchup). Although it smells obviously of honey when heated, I didn’t notice any difference in taste in the finished product. If you like something zippier, use chili sauce. You could also use barbecue sauce.
  • Breadcrumbs. I’ve made this with standard supermarket breadcrumbs, homemade breadcrumbs, and panko. If you don’t have breadcrumbs, toast a couple slices of bread and crush them in a ziptop bag with a rolling pin (or a wine bottle). Sometimes, when I use turkey, I’ve used stuffing mix instead of breadcrumbs. I’ve also used crushed corn chips — pairs nicely with the chili sauce above.
  • An egg. No explanation required.
  • Milk. It works just as well with non-dairy milk as with the real thing. 3 ounces is slightly more than a third of a cup.

To get started, heat the shortening or other fat in a small frying pan. Sauté the onions until softened. Add ketchup and remove from the heat. If you’re using dried onion, skip this step.

Put the meat in a large bowl and add the breadcrumbs. Add the ketchup mixture (or dried onions and ketchup), egg, and milk. Now’s the time to also add salt and pepper or any other seasonings you like. Now plunge your (very clean!) hands in and mix! There’s something very satisfying about squishing the mixture all together. The only time I remember my mother taking off her wedding ring was to make meatloaf.

When well combined, mold into a loaf and put into a small baking dish. My mother always made this in one of those Corningware baking dishes with the blue flowers on the side. I wish I had a set of those…

Bake for 1 hour at 350F until cooked through in the middle. Serve with mashed potatoes and a green veggie. When I was a kid, that was often peas, which we would mix into our mashed potatoes for Polka Dot Potatoes. It seemed like a special treat. These days, I prefer green beans with a hot vinegar-bacon dressing. To each their own.

There’s also a recipe for gravy, but I’ll be honest, I’ve never made it, because my mother never did. Perhaps one of these days I will, just to try it.

Here’s the original recipe, exactly as passed down to me!

Nana’s Meatloaf
1 hr – 350

1 lb chopmeat
3/4 C breadcrumbs
minced onion
2 T shortening
2 T catsup
1 egg
3 oz. milk

Sauté onion in shortening. Add catsup.

Add breadcrumbs to meat. Add catsup mixture, egg & milk.

Gravy — melt 3 T butter with 2 T flour. Add 1 t. gravy master, 1 C water & 1 T catsup

Enjoy!

M2These writings and other creative projects are supported by my Patrons. Thank you so much! To become a Patron, go to my Patreon page. Or you can just tip me if you liked this.

Published in: on 24 March 2020 at 1:51 pm  Leave a Comment  
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In the Kitchen: Mocha Marlow (1953)

Dear Constant Reader,

It’s been rather hot so far this summer. A perfect time for icy-cold treats! The other day I made some delicious mocha marlow. “Marlow?” you ask, “What’s marlow?” Like its equally obscure cousin mallobet, it’s a frozen dessert made with a marshmallow base. I’ve definitely dated this style of dessert back to the 1920s (Clara Bow contributed a recipe for Vanilla Marlow to a 1929 movie star cookbook), but it may go further back to the earlier days of ice boxes. These desserts were still being made into the midcentury, but seem to have then died out completely.

Both marlows and mallobets are made with melted marshmallows. Marlows get their fluffiness from whipped cream, while mallobets (marshmallow-sherbet) contain stiffly beaten egg whites. You don’t need an ice cream maker for these concoctions, which was part of the appeal, I think.

I made this marlow on a terribly hot day and I must confess that cooking everything over boiling water was torture, but the end result was worth it.


Start by cutting 16 marshmallows into quarters. It’s easiest to use kitchen shears or a knife dipped in hot water. Don’t substitute mini-marshmallows because you’ll end up with the wrong ratio of cornstarch (which coats the outside of the marshmallows) to marshmallow.

Set a saucepan over boiling water and melt the chocolate. Then fold in the marshmallows and a cup of strong coffee and a pinch of salt. I don’t drink coffee so I never have any just hanging about. I made instant espresso instead. Keep folding the mixture.

When the marshmallows are about half melted, take them off the heat and keep stirring until they completely melt. Make sure everything is well combined and let it cool. I stuck the pan into a bowl of ice water to help it cool down faster on such a hot day.

Then whip cream until it’s stiff and fold into the cooled mocha mixture and add toasted nuts. I think toasting nuts before using them is always a good idea; they just taste better. The first time I made this I used slivered almonds since that’s what I had on hand, but hazelnuts add a lovely Nutella flavor. If you’re one of those people who doesn’t like bits of stuff in their ice cream, you can certainly leave the nuts out.

Spoon the mixture into a container — I recommend a metal loaf pan — cover it, and stick it in the freezer. When it’s about half frozen (use your best judgement), give it a stir.

It will take a couple of hours to firm up enough to serve.

Mina’s Mocha Marlow

1 oz. unsweetened chocolate
16 marshmallows, quartered
1 cup strong coffee
pinch salt
1 cup heavy cream
1/3 cup chopped toasted nuts

Melt chocolate over boiling water. Add marshmallows, coffee, and salt. Fold mixture continuously over and over until marshmallows are half melted. Remove from heat and continue folding until mixture is smooth. Cool. Whip cream. Add whipped cream and nuts to mocha mixture. Pour into metal loaf pan, cover, and freeze until firm, stirring at least once.

M2These writings and other creative projects are supported by my Patrons. Thank you so much! To become a Patron, go to my Patreon page.

Published in: on 16 July 2018 at 2:34 pm  Comments (1)  
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In the Kitchen: A Novelty in Cakes (1920)

Dear Constant Reader,

The novelty for this cake is that it’s made with graham cracker crumbs instead of flour. The recipe comes from the pamphlet 100 Delicious Walnut Recipes by the California Walnut Growers Association, probably published in 1920. I’ve also found a similar recipe for the cake (but not the frosting) in a Utah newspaper from 1915.

We had a box of graham crackers left over from making s’mores at the Mini Expo cook out and I wanted to make something for our Sunday Social after Cover Girls. This fit the bill nicely.

A couple of notes:

Take the butter and eggs out of the fridge early and let them come up to room temperature. It will be easier to cream the butter and to beat the egg whites stiff when they’re not so cold.

Toast the nuts first. Toasted nuts always taste better. Also, get as much of the skin off the walnuts as possible — it can be bitter. Obviously the Walnut Growers want you to use walnuts, but the cake is probably just as good with other nuts or no nuts at all.

Most vintage recipes call for squares of unsweetened chocolate, which was an ounce. These days chocolate usually comes in bars with 4 squares to the ounce, but double-check and use a scale if you’re in doubt.

One of the challenges was figuring out how many graham crackers to use. The recipe calls for “26 graham crackers”. Is one cracker one of the rectangular cracker quarters? The square half crackers, like for s’mores? Or an entire unbroken cracker sheet? The right answer seems to be 26 square crackers aka 13 full cracker sheets.

Here’s how you make the cake:

Crush graham crackers to fine crumbs. I like to use a rolling pin, but it’s faster and more uniform if you use a food processor. Separate eggs and beat whites to stiff peaks. Mix sugar & baking powder, then cream with butter. Mix together egg yolks, milk, vanilla, cracker crumbs, and nuts. Fold in beaten egg whites. Pour batter into buttered pans. The original recipe says just to “bake in loaf or layers”. A little research lead me from this vague instruction to the appropriate size and shape of pans and the temperature and time. Let cool before frosting. See recipe below for specifics.

To make the frosting, cream butter and powdered sugar. Add melted unsweetened chocolate. Add enough cold coffee to make the frosting spreadable. I don’t drink coffee so I don’t usually have left-over coffee hanging about. I use instant espresso powder for intense flavor and make a single cup. I used about 1/4 cup of cold espresso, but the amount will depend on what consistency you like your frosting and a bit on how humid it is. Finally, mix in ground walnuts. Frost the cake(s). If you used round cake pans, level the layers before frosting and stacking (or use cake bands so you don’t have to).

It went over really well. Someone tasting the cake said the cake and the frosting have the right balance of sweet. Everyone loves the mocha frosting.

Graham Cracker Cake
1/2 cup (1 stick) butter
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 cup sugar
3 eggs, separated
3/4 cup milk
26 graham crackers, crushed into fine crumbs (2 1/2 cups)
1/2 cup chopped nuts, toasted
1 teaspoon vanilla

Mix sugar and baking powder. Cream with butter. Add egg yolks, milk, graham cracker crumbs, walnuts, and vanilla. Beat egg whites to stiff peaks and fold in. Bake in greased pans: two 9″-round pans or two loaf pans or a 13×9″ rectangular pan for 30 minutes at 350F. Let cook and frost with Mocha Nut Frosting.

Mocha Nut Frosting
2 cups powdered sugar
1/2 cup (1 stick) butter
1 ounce unsweetened chocolate, melted
1 cup cold strong coffee
1/2 cup ground toasted nuts

Cream butter and sugar. Add melted chocolate. Add enough coffee to make a spreadable consistency. Stir in ground nuts.

M2These writings and other creative projects are supported by my Patrons. Thank you so much! To become a Patron, go to my Patreon page.

Published in: on 9 October 2017 at 10:57 am  Leave a Comment  
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More Vintage Cooking

Dear Constant Reader,

I’m sorry it’s been so long since I shared a recipe with you. Last month was kind of a crazy one and I was barely in the kitchen. However, there should be more cooking in the near future.

You know I love old cookbooks of any kind, but when it comes to 20th century cooking I have a particular fondness for the recipe pamphlet. My collection includes “100 Delicious Walnut Recipes” by the California Walnut Growers Association and “The Exciting World of Rice Dishes” from Minute Rice.

A couple of years ago Scratch bought me two pamphlets that were clearly part of a series, created by the Culinary Arts Institute. Earlier this year I found two more. And now, thanks to eBay…


I have them all. 24 pamphlets to add to my cookbook project. In this project, which has been going on for years, I need to cook one recipe, which I’ve never made before, out of every cookbook in my collection. This project brought you such delights as Frozen Fruit Salad, Cashew Chicken, and Peach Mousse.

As of last week, I had 130 cookbooks in the project and I only needed to cook from 2 more of them to have completed the project (for now)! Then I added these pamphlets to the collection…

Fortunately, I’ve already cooked from three of them and two of them have no recipes (one has menus, the other food facts), but that still means I’ve got a lot of recipes to make. Perhaps some of them will even make it onto these pages. Perhaps some Luscious Refrigerator Desserts or Superb Pies and Pastries. So many possibilities!

M2These writings and other creative projects are supported by my Patrons. Thank you so much! To become a Patron, go to my Patreon page.

Published in: on 12 September 2017 at 10:14 am  Leave a Comment  
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