From The Heinz Book of Meat Cookery (1930), HJ Heinz Company
I'm interrupting the semi-regularly scheduled Midnight Sausage series to share molded food images and recipes from my personal collection of early-to-mid 20th century cookbooks. There will be aspic. There will be mousse. There will be various gelatins. All will be semi-solid and of debatable degrees of edibility.
Please feel free to shimmy and shake your way to the comments section to share your very own magical, masticable molds of yore.
From Dainty Desserts for Dainty People (1915), Knox Gelatine
I'm interrupting the semi-regularly scheduled Midnight Sausage series to share molded food images and recipes from my personal collection of early-to-mid 20th century cookbooks. There will be aspic. There will be mousse. There will be various gelatins. All will be semi-solid and of debatable degrees of edibility.
Please feel free to shimmy and shake your way to the comments section to share your very own magical, masticable molds of yore.
From The Best of Taste: The Finest Food of Fifteen Nations (1957), The SACLANT-NATO Cookbook Committee
I'm interrupting the semi-regularly scheduled Midnight Sausage series to share molded food images and recipes from my personal collection of early-to-mid 20th century cookbooks. There will be aspic. There will be mousse. There will be various gelatins. All will be semi-solid and of debatable degrees of edibility.
Please feel free to shimmy and shake your way to the comments section to share your very own magical, masticable molds of yore.
From Cooking with Soup (1968), A Campbell's Cookbook
I'm interrupting the semi-regularly scheduled Midnight Sausage series to share molded food images and recipes from my personal collection of early-to-mid 20th century cookbooks. There will be aspic. There will be mousse. There will be various gelatins. All will be semi-solid and of debatable degrees of edibility.
Please feel free to shimmy and shake your way to the comments section to share your very own magical, masticable molds of yore.
From 500 Snacks: Bright Ideas for Entertaining (1941), Culinary Arts Institute
I'm interrupting the semi-regularly scheduled Midnight Sausage series to share molded food images and recipes from my personal collection of early-to-mid 20th century cookbooks. There will be aspic. There will be mousse. There will be various gelatins. All will be semi-solid and of debatable degrees of edibility.
Please feel free to shimmy and shake your way to the comments section to share your very own magical, masticable molds of yore.
From The Silent Hostess Treasure Book (1930), General Electric Company Electric Refrigeration Department, Cleveland OH
I'm interrupting the semi-regularly scheduled Midnight Sausage series to share molded food images and recipes from my personal collection of early-to-mid 20th century cookbooks. There will be aspic. There will be mousse. There will be various gelatins. All will be semi-solid and of debatable degrees of edibility.
Please feel free to shimmy and shake your way to the comments section to share your very own magical, masticable molds of yore.
After disliking scallops through most of my childhood, I found them on my birthday dinner plate a few years ago. My friend had whipped up a warm scallop salad for my big day, and it was insanely delicious. Now, of course, I love the things. They're very tasty, pretty versatile, and are ridiculously simple to prepare.
Over the last few weeks, I wanted to use up the last of the big scallops hanging out in my freezer. First, I made the above -- a warm salad to get back to the roots of my scallop love. The key is to have a creamy sauce/dressing, and vegetables that are warm and almost limp (but still holding some firmness). This one had tomatoes, peppers, green beans, basil, and feta.
My first exposure to Tuna and Macaroni Salad came years ago, while shopping the salad bar as one of those by-the-pound deli places that dot big Northeast cities. You grab a lidded container and load it up with various pre-made salads, gummy sushi rolls and wilted greens, then pay huge sums for your sub-par box of mayonnaise-y goodness. The tuna mac was always appealing upon initial examination, but frequently disappointing when tasted. I think that many others of you have similar stories of disappointment in relationship to this dish - whether you're familiar with the kind out of the salad bar or from childhood potlucks and church suppers.
However, last night, I set out to redeem the noble tuna mac and was far from disappointed. I first started thinking about tuna salad over the weekend, when my mother mentioned that she was making it for dinner on Saturday night. Growing up, she always served tuna salad with a side of mashed potatoes - there was something about the combination of creamy and crunchy that she really liked. These days, she cubes a boiled potato and tosses it into the tuna salad instead, getting that creamy/crunchy action without the effort of a second dish. That got me thinking about adding a starchy element to tuna salad and the pint jar of whole wheat elbows on the kitchen shelf caught my eye and winked.
Yesterday, I mentioned the produce anxiety I face when the summer starts to head into fall. One way I combat the unrest I experience during the waning days of peaches and heirloom tomatoes is to eat meals that are simple, easy combinations of the best of the season. After I unpacked my farmers market haul yesterday, I made a very basic salad for lunch.
You can think of it as a very chunky guacamole, and if you were looking for a tasty dip, you could chop everything a bit finer and serve it with tortilla chips. I like eating more like a creamy salad, the corn kernels blending into the avocado chunks and hiding in the tomatoes. I made mine completely plain, seasoned with just with salt and pepper, although if you wanted a bit more acidity, you could dress it with a squeeze of lime juice. My basic recipe is after the jump.
Another item in my latest organic basket was sprout mix. While I've eaten them out, I had no idea how to prepare them. Do I cook them in something? Keep them raw? Grind them? When in doubt: salad!
The sprout mix was a great addition to the classic Greek salad above. Tomatoes, cucumber, and onion were mixed up with the sprout mix, feta, lemon juice, garlic, and extra virgin olive oil. The sprouts gave a nice crunch to the salad, and made it a nice, filling meal.
But that's only one option. What would you do with a sprout mix? I've got more waiting to be eaten, and no idea what to do with them!
While in the throes of the sticky days of summer, you don't need to heat up your kitchen to make a filling and gourmet meal. It's the perfect time for a healthy and filling salad.
Being part-Polish I should love borscht. The beety flavor, the gorgeous red hue. It's one of the big staples along with my beloved pierogies and galumpkis. But I just couldn't get into it. I began to feel bad about this distaste when my great aunt came to visit from Poland and cooked for us. Years later, I still fear the soup, but since I've been on a huge kick to remove as many foods on my no-eat list, I figured beets were a good area to tackle next. That, and I got some beautiful ones in my last organic food delivery.
I searched the web and settled on Roasted Beet Salad with Beet Greens, courtesy of Epicurious. In the comments, a few people swore that beet haters loved this, so I had to try. It's simple, almost fool-proof. I got antsy and nuked my beets half-way through (it was getting really late at night), and I am happy to say -- they were delicious. The vinaigrette cuts some of the beet flavor, and is paired wonderfully with the garlic, capers, feta, and beet greens. When you do get some of the strong, beet flavor, it's much easier to take, get used to, and like. In fact, I'm hooked on salad now. It hasn't even been a week, and I've already picked up more beets. For other beety options, try this beet and goat cheese salad, or this carrot and beet salad.
The other day, I was itching for a great meal -- as gourmet as possible without breaking the bank. So my friend and I walked around the corner to this small fusion bistro, and while the over-done steak left something to be desired, I almost melted over the seafood chowder. There's nothing quite like the texture of seafood so soft that it melts in your mouth, exploding with flavor. Still dreaming about that great bowl of sea goodness, I have to share a similarly awesome-looking recipe from Leite's Culinaria -- Rhode Island Clear-Broth Quahog Chowder.
Doesn't the above look absolutely amazing? It's also accompanied by a great story -- one that taps into my day dreams about living near the ocean and having a sea full of great food as my back yard. I don't have quahogs readily available, so I'm hoping one of you Slashfood readers can take on this recipe for me and tell me if it tastes as good as it looks. I have a feeling that it does...
One of my favorite greasy spoons knows how to lather on the greasy, tasty fat. However, it also introduced me to one of my favorite salads -- the normal mix topped with guacamole. In the summer, it's an insanely delicious and easy way to have a big and healthy meal with a good helping of avocado's nutrients and great fresh veggies. The guacamole is also a great replacement for dressing -- completely healthy, thick, and filling.
All you do is bring together your favorite tossed salad ingredients, grind some fresh salt and pepper on top, and then top with as much guacamole as you'd like. The above picture is just a salad of tomato, lettuce, and onion, with a little drizzle of high-quality extra virgin olive oil and the guacamole. But if time is an issue, this meal also works just as well with simple mashed guacamole with seasoning.
Over the last year, I've posted quite a few of my grandma Bunny's recipes here on Slashfood. There was her recipe for Lemon Thing last summer, Zucchini Bread in August, Apple Cake in the fall, Shrimp Curry Improv for those quick weeknight dinners and her recipe for Kheera ka Rayta just last week.
Yesterday, Yumsugar posed the question, "What's your most treasured recipe?" Their query made me realize that I've never posted my favorite recipe from Bunny (both in terms of which one I like to eat the most, as well as which card I favor). I have a very special place in my culinary heart for this card, which instructs the reader on how to make Mushroom-Spinach Salad. I remember being about six years old and helping Bunny wash the spinach and slice the mushrooms for this dish. I can instantly recall how helping make the salad made it that much more delicious to me.
I also treasure this recipe for the physical presence of the card. I love that Bunny marked it with her signature bunny sketch, that she starred it to indicate that it was particularly tasty and that it has a stain just left of center that shows it was loved. I get great joy from having it as a symbol of connection to my personal food heritage.
A jar of honey can become a sticky mess. Next time you're adding honey to another dish or a mug of tea, use a honey dipper to prevent a thick gooey layer from spreading.
Chocolate-stuffed bananas on the grill
Tyler Florence welcomes new daughter
Beware kids' menus!
