"vintage recipes" news and stories

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.

In addition to her roles as a singer, performer and talk show host, Dinah Shore was also know among her friends and acquaintances as something of a cook. In 1971, she took all that food knowledge and put it into this book, Someone's in the Kitchen with Dinah (lucky for her, she just happened to have the best name ever for a cookbook). She included over 200 recipes, most of which being things she did like to cook at home, as well as a few from close friends.

She opens the book up with a chatty introduction and then moves into some party planning tips. One interesting piece of advice is to give two or three parties in a row, so that you can return a number of invitations on the same flowers and boxes of crackers, while keeping the numbers manageable. It makes some sense, although I don't think that there are quite so many rules about the reciprocation of invitations as there once was.

Surprisingly, her recipes are nearly universally good. They all bear the marks of a true home cook, someone who likes to make big, tasty pots of soups and stews or a batch of meatloaf quickly and without fancy ingredients or fanfare. The only suspect thing I spotted was a hamburger recipe that called for a teaspoon of MSG. I guess this was before the days when it was determined that it isn't so good for you. There are a number of recipes I've marked in the book that I'd like to try, including the Fried Chicken Cuffy, the Tennessee Lasagna and the Beef Stroganoff and Kasha (her Jewish upbringing really shows here, which delights me!)

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Now, I know that Easter is over, but I'm a sucker for vintage recipes, so this image of hot cross buns taken with the old cookbook in the back caught my eye. I've never thought of taking a picture of a finished food product in front of the recipe, but having seen this, I'm definitely going to give it a shot. This image comes to us from Flickr user You Can Count on Me, and you can find the recipe over at her blog, Everybody Likes Sandwiches.

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I've always had an affinity for potlucks. There is something about the practice of gathering together with a community of people to share a meal that really appeals to me on a basic level. I grew up attending them, both those at the various Unitarian churches in which I grew up, as well as the more informal ones that would occur every couple of weeks within my parents' group of friends.

Over the years, I started inadvertently collecting potluck cookbooks, until I had six or seven on my shelf. This one, the retro-covered The Potluck Cookbook, is one of my favorites. Written by veteran food writer Dolores Kostelni, it contains a collection of classic potluck recipes from the last 50 years. The images are fun reprints of old magazine and commercial shots from the fifties and sixties, with a few quirky line drawings tossed in for added appeal.

This is a good book to have in your arsenal if you often find yourself asked to bring a dish along (office parties are always a challenge) and you realize that you can't bring your standard Tamale Pie anymore (your co-workers have seen it four times in the last year and a half). It's got good, tasty, fresh ideas (all that was old is new again) and is a fairly slim volume (so it won't take up too much space on your shelf).

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I picked up this magazine-style cookbook when I was in Portland, during my bi-yearly visit to the bins (the as-is Goodwill Outlet in SE Portland that sells nearly everything by the pound) for $.50 (the books are just about the only things that don't go by the pound). My edition of the The American Homes: Meals in Minutes was printed in 1964, by the publishers of The American Home magazine (which was headquartered in a building 13 blocks from my apartment here in Philly).

The thing that's fun about this cookbook is that it is a snapshot of a time in American cooking that has since past. I contains recipes for things like "Make-Ahead Frankfurter Casserole" and "Tongue Noodle Supreme." However, tucked among the kitschy and slightly revolting are some really useful and tasty-sounding recipes, including a well-explained and fairly authentic version of Osso Buco. Another useful element of this book is that it prints calories and information about the vitamins contained in each dish under the recipe. I'm fairly certain that they were probably one of the first to be publishing that sort of data back in those days.

Scattered among the recipes are also a variety of tips and tricks for making food look more lovely and for getting the most out of your leftovers. I'm a particular fan of the tip on page 60 that suggests a good way to heat up leftover rice, spaghetti or veggies. They say that you should place the food on a piece of aluminum foil and then cup the foil up around the food, making sure to leave the top open. Then place it in a saucepan with a small amount of boiling water in it and steam for ten minutes or so, until the food is well-heated. Not a bad tip for these days, especially if you are trying to reduce your dependence on the microwave.

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