"retro cookery" news and stories

Scanned from Be Milwaukee's Guest, Recipes Collected and Tested by the Junior League of Milwaukee - 1959

I could scarcely be crankier at myself for muffing the opportunity to present this comb-bound recipe gem on a particularly Wisconsin-centric holiday, such as the recently passed St. Nick's Day, but hey -- any day is a great day for pork cake!

I'm a big fan of the melding of meat and sweet (mmm...bacon candy...), and surely have been known to savor a sumptuously larded crust, but I can't swear that I've ever seen a baked good quite so aggressively piggy as this. Pinwheel rolls studded with flecks of seasoned ground beef, yes, but those were generally presented as a savory, hand-wielded Wellington sort of course rather than spiced, as this seems to be, in the manner of a dessert or breakfast sweet. I'm pleading woeful ignorance about the pastries of the Badger State here, so might someone be so kind as to enlighten me -- is this a traditional Wisconsin breakfast or dessert treat, or a relic of the cookbook's era? If the former, I'm booking a trip on Midwest Airlines posthaste. If the latter -- who's up for a bake-along this weekend?

Lo these many years ago, a UK-born boss of mine attempted to wheedle me into swifter production by offering me a small mincemeat pie if I finished a pressing task by 4 p.m. I begged to be allowed to take only half if I knocked it out by 3, and remain fully un-minced if I had everything squared away by 2.

In theory, I should love traditional mincemeat. I'm a huge fan of a meat 'n sweet one-two punch -- especially when there's cookin' booze involved -- but I've never been able to wrap my head around the flavor of suet. It's the hard fat from around the loins and kidneys of sheep and cows, isn't especially full and meaty like lard, and is possessed of a particularly high melting point, making it the perfect base fat for many classic British steamed puddings. It seems to be the definitive flavoring agent in all the mincemeat I've had, but I've not been able to convince myself to care for it. I tend to be a stickler when it comes to ingredient lists for traditional dishes from my vintage cookbooks, but I'm wondering if there's a fat I can sub in that would render a texture that would cleave closely to the original. Most suet-centric recipes I've come across warn that the use of butter, margarine, lard, shortening et al leaves the whole dish overly greasy and flat, but if any of y'all have met with a successful swap, I'm all ears. There may even be a bit of Spotted Dick in it for you.

Other Cooking and Traveling the Cape Cod Way highlights include Forefather's Day Succotash (look for that recipe on December 21st), Beach Plum Jelly, Irish Moss Pudding, Scootin'-Long-The-Shore, Skully Joe and a wicked lot of mouthwatering Portuguese cookery. I'm more than happy to share if there's any interest.

I found this adorable retro cooking-and-lifestyle book from 1965 in a vintage store in Wisconsin. Enchanted by the title, I picked it up (for fifty cents) and have never regretted it.

Written by two Stanford roommates, this book is hilariously frank and provides great tips the modern Bachelorette can still use.

Example: Here's an excerpt from the Table of Contents:

4. Food fit for a...

• Man in a Brooks Brothers Suit
• Man's Man
• Man in a Garret
• Lover with a Leica
• Man in the Gray Flannel Lederhosen

The list goes on. It's not misogynistic, it's hysterical. Other chapters include "Deadly Little Dinners" and "Happiness is a Very Dry Martini." Each includes an introduction, usually with an anecdote, and often with a warning about putting plastic bags over your head or something silly. I'm certain that Jinx and Judy would have been girlfriends of mine.

I recommend this book. And guess what a simple Googling told me? In 2006, they updated the book! Same gals, still funny. Visit saucepansandthesinglegirl.com to read about it and see where to buy!

I added this volume to my ever-growing collection of vintage cookbooks while I was in Chestertown, MD over Labor Day weekend. It was sitting on the shelf, a burst of vibrant, mid-century color amidst a row of brown and mustard-colored spines from the seventies. As you can see from the price tag on the cover (I couldn't get it off without ripping the dust jacket), I paid $3 for it. That's more than I typically pay for interesting old cookbooks, but I just couldn't let this one slip away.

Written by the Spice Islands Home Economics Staff, The Spice Islands Cook Book was published in 1961 and offered housewives a comprehensive guide on how to incorporate a full spectrum of spices into their cooking.

In addition to offering 150 pages of recipes (everything from appetizers to main dishes to drinks), the authors also incorporated a comprehensive glossary of herbs, so that those cooks who wanted to learn more about the rosemary they were sprinkling into their meals would have easy access to information. There is also a table of equivalents that offers tips on how to substitute one ingredient for another so that a recipe wouldn't be ruined by an empty spice bottle.

Some of the standout recipes from the book include Herb Corn Bread (page 128), Hawaiian Bean Pot (page 94) and the Greek Walnut Cake (page 142). Heidi at 101 Cookbooks also has a copy of this volume and several years ago, posted the recipe from it for Gold Coast French Toast. Yum!

From Good Dishes from Tinned Food (1939), Ambrose Heath

Note - admittedly not molded food this time, but too good to keep to myself.

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.

Previously - Jellied Veal Salad