Of Viands and Victuals

[Marshal Mo Hare, SASS #45984]

Copied from America’s Test Kitchen.

 

So what exactly does distinguish center-cut bacon from the ordinary kind?

As it turns out, not much. Center-cut bacon is nothing more than regular bacon with the fatty ends cut off. If you’re looking for bacon with less fat, by all means go for center-cut strips. Just know that you’ll be paying more for less: The 12-ounce center-cut packages we sampled were priced exactly the same as the 16-ounce regular packages from the same brand.

[Subdeacon Joe]

Quote

Last night, baking my wife's Deconstructed Stuffed Peppers, there was a minor spill.

I SHOULD HAVE REMEMBERED THE SPILL AND CLEANED THE OVEN BEFORE TURNING ON THE HEAT!

 

I, of course, have never done anything like that!   

 

We have a small, 24", wall oven so stuff on the lower rack would tend to scorch a bit when the oven cycled to maintain heat.  So I keep a cheap, beat up rimmed sheet pan inverted on the oven floor as a kind of insulation to mitigate that.  It helps.  A secondary benefit is that it catches (most) drips and spills, so if it starts generating smoke I can just pull it out.  
 

Edited May 25 by Subdeacon Joe

[Subdeacon Joe]

https://www.instagram.com/reel/C7NuaYiK_e-/?igsh=MzRlODBiNWFlZA==

[Subdeacon Joe]

From 

 

 

(hmmm....link seems to now be broken_)

the book is Woman's World Cook Book, 1909, by Marion Howland.  Supposedly, in fact, I know it's there, in the Internet Archive.  

 

 

MEAT PUDDING.

 

Chop two pounds of round veal steak into pieces as small as dice and season with salt and pepper to suit taste. Then take one quart of flour, one teaspoonful salt, two teaspoons of baking powder, one-half cup lard and enough water to form a smooth dough. Be careful not to get the dough too soft as it will break. Roll out to thickness of one-half inch. With the dough rolled out, wet edges and fill with meat, adding one teaspoonful of butter and three of water. Draw edges together and put in cloth ; tie cloth, allowing a little room to swell. Drop in kettle of boiling water with saucer in bottom to prevent scorching and boil one and one-half hours, not letting the water boil too hard, as it will be likely to burst.

 

 

Edited May 27 by Subdeacon Joe

[Subdeacon Joe]

From the afore mentioned "Woman's World Cook Book":
 

NUT LOAF

 

Four cupfuls of flour, four teaspoonfuls of baking powder, one cupful of English walnuts, one-fourth cupful of sugar, two eggs, two cupfuls of sweet milk, pinch of salt.

 Beat the eggs, then add milk ; mix all the other ingredients together dry. Pour into them the milk and eggs. Pour into a greased pan and let raise twenty minutes, then bake fifteen minutes in a moderate oven.

 When cold, slice thin, butter lightly, and spread with jelly.

 

I just mixed this up and am waiting the 20 minutes for it to rise.  Not sure WHY it calls for rising on a non-yeast loaf.  

Changes I made, since I only have medium eggs, I used three instead of two, and since I only have 1% milk, I added a little vegetable oil, about 1 tsp, to it to make up the fat.

I also question the fifteen minutes of baking time.  I've set the oven for the top range of "Moderate," that is 375F, and will check it after the fifteen minutes.  But it seems to me that it should take at least 45 minutes for this size quick bread. 

 

We shall see.  

 

ADDED:

 

 

**Timer just went off after 15 minutes. Has a nice rise, a top crust is just starting to be formed, but not a hint of color. Tester came out coated with the batter. Added 20 minutes.

Edited May 27 by Subdeacon Joe

[Subdeacon Joe]

50 minutes ago, Subdeacon Joe said:

From the afore mentioned "Woman's World Cook Book":
 

NUT LOAF

 

Four cupfuls of flour, four teaspoonfuls of baking powder, one cupful of English walnuts, one-fourth cupful of sugar, two eggs, two cupfuls of sweet milk, pinch of salt.

 Beat the eggs, then add milk ; mix all the other ingredients together dry. Pour into them the milk and eggs. Pour into a greased pan and let raise twenty minutes, then bake fifteen minutes in a moderate oven.

 When cold, slice thin, butter lightly, and spread with jelly.

 

I just mixed this up and am waiting the 20 minutes for it to rise.  Not sure WHY it calls for rising on a non-yeast loaf.  

Changes I made, since I only have medium eggs, I used three instead of two, and since I only have 1% milk, I added a little vegetable oil, about 1 tsp, to it to make up the fat.

I also question the fifteen minutes of baking time.  I've set the oven for the top range of "Moderate," that is 375F, and will check it after the fifteen minutes.  But it seems to me that it should take at least 45 minutes for this size quick bread. 

 

We shall see.  

 

ADDED:

 

 

**Timer just went off after 15 minutes. Has a nice rise, a top crust is just starting to be formed, but not a hint of color. Tester came out coated with the batter. Added 20 minutes.

 

 

After that 20 minutes it's starting to get some color, but still very wet,  20 more minutes added 

 

[Subdeacon Joe]

OK,  after the additional 20 minutes  (15 + 20 + 20= 55) the tester comes out clean and it's GB&D.

 

[Marshal Mo Hare, SASS #45984]

I don’t know if I’d try to make up for low-fat milk.  But something I’ve tried is to replace fat with applesauce. A jarful would spoil before I used it all so I bought a pack of six individual servings, about 1/3 cup each.

[Subdeacon Joe]

1 hour ago, Marshal Mo Hare, SASS #45984 said:

I don’t know if I’d try to make up for low-fat milk.  But something I’ve tried is to replace fat with applesauce. A jarful would spoil before I used it all so I bought a pack of six individual servings, about 1/3 cup each.

 

 

It's what we have.  I should have thought to use some of the full fat yogurt to add fat.

Anyway, it came out well ... other than me using oil and not butter to grease the pan,  A pain to get out.  Next time use butter or lard to grease the pan.

But it has a nice, slightly crunchy crust and  good crumb, more like a yeast bread crumb than a quick bread crumb.  A very slight sweetness to it, and a subtle nutty taste.  Next time I'll chop the nuts much finer.

 

This one is a keeper, and a do again.  It will lend itself to lots of variations.  Add spices, add dried fruit. Could also go savory - say with onions and a little Italian or Poultry Seasoning.  It will make a nice French Toast, might try Grilled Cheese, say, with Swiss or Gruyere and Gorgonzola.  I bet it would make a good BLT. 

Edited May 27 by Subdeacon Joe

[Subdeacon Joe]

 

 

BROILED HAM HAWAIIAN...

 

The broiled-together flavor of Deviled Ham and pineapple is delicious!

Toast 6 slices white or whole-wheat bread on one side. Spread untoasted side generously with Underwood Deviled Ham (use 1 Family Size 4 1/4-oz. can). Place on broiler pan. Top each slice with a well-drained slice of canned pineapple. Crumble together 1½ tbsp. brown sugar, 1½ tbsp. butter and pinch of curry powder. Sprinkle lightly over pineapple slices.

Place 4 inches from heat; broil until pineapple is golden brown on edges, about 5 minutes. @midcenturymenu

[MizPete]

4 hours ago, Subdeacon Joe said:

Underwood Deviled Ham

We called it potted meat.

[Linn Keller, SASS 27332, BOLD 103]

BREAKFAST, AGAIN

Last day of visit with my father in law.

We've done our best to be gracious guests, I've kept the dishes washed up -- as soon as one hit the sink I laved, rinsed and stacked it -- we fixed breakfast every morning so far and he insisted on fixing us breakfast this morning. Scrambled eggs, exploding biscuits, bacon, coffee ... the Chinese have a saying:

"Hunger makes the best sauce."

Which is true, but good company improves things as well, and this is the best!

Memories flow like a rippling stream when we get together.

My wife said she was a little girl, getting underfoot when her Mama was fixing breakfast at Family Reunion: she happily declared to a nearby aunt that "Mommy is fixing Cooked Eskimo!"

Her mother gently corrected that she was fixing Baked Alaska.

I understand the pediatric phrase made its rounds that day.

 

[Subdeacon Joe]

Another mid-20th Century culinary delight!

 

 

i have to admit,  I  just can't wrap my head around this one.  Weird enough that it uses pineapple cheese,  but with Roquefort and Dr. Pepper?  No....

 

HELL NO!  

[Subdeacon Joe]

 

 

 

[Calamity Kris]

Please pardon my ignorance.  In the second half of the video, he is seen chopping up something and preparing it to boil.  What is 0he chopping up?

[Subdeacon Joe]

18 minutes ago, Calamity Kris said:

Please pardon my ignorance.  In the second half of the video, he is seen chopping up something and preparing it to boil.  What is 0he chopping up?

 

Ignorance is correctable,  usually by asking questions. 

 

My guess,  and it's only a guess, is sweetbreads.  

 

It's not liver,  heart, tripe, brain,  or kidney. So that's about the only other thing I can think of.

[Marshal Mo Hare, SASS #45984]

Sweetbreads, pancreas, is no where near that large. It looked to me like suet when he was cutting it. But from there it made no sense if it was suet.  I have never cooked suet though. I does match the appearance of sweetbreads, just huge.

 

There had to be more food than that from a 100kg bull dressed.

 

As was told to me, shawarma is best if the cook is not Russian.  

Edited June 3 by Marshal Mo Hare, SASS #45984

[Subdeacon Joe]

3 hours ago, Marshal Mo Hare, SASS #45984 said:

Sweetbreads, pancreas, is no where near that large. It looked to me like suet when he was cutting it. But from there it made no sense if it was suet.  I have never cooked suet though. I does match the appearance of sweetbreads, just huge.

 

There had to be more food than that from a 100kg bull dressed.

 

As was told to me, shawarma is best if the cook is not Russian.  

 

I had thought of suet, but it didn't look firm enough,  hence going to organs or glands.  Also that's one heck of a big chunk of suet, if that's what it is. 

 

I think they are Azerbaijani. 

[Marshal Mo Hare, SASS #45984]

39 minutes ago, Subdeacon Joe said:

 

I had thought of suet, but it didn't look firm enough,  hence going to organs or glands.  Also that's one heck of a big chunk of suet, if that's what it is. 

 

I think they are Azerbaijani. 

I recall suet that large from the whole animal, not sides. Suet is firm after refrigeration, blobish before it.

[Subdeacon Joe]

In the FB group where I found this one of the people made it and posted photos.  Cut it looked like meatloaf.  She said that it was pretty good.  

[Rip Snorter]

Ham and mixed cheeses En Croute this evening.

[Subdeacon Joe]

This has possibilities.  
 

MAHOGANY SAUCE

3 tablespoons cornstarch

1/2 cup sugar

11/2 cups Welch's Welchade Grape Drink

1 tablespoon instant coffee

1/4 cup butter or margarine

1/4 cup rum

In a saucepan, combine cornstarch and sugar. Gradually stir in grape drink and instant coffee. Add butter and cook over low heat, stirring constantly, until sauce bubbles and thickens. Cool slightly. Stir in rum and serve warm. Spoon over ice cream, peaches or cake squares. Yield: 2 cups.

 

I'm thinking, reduce the corn starch, reduce it more, and use as a glaze on grilled meat or baked ham.

[Father Kit Cool Gun Garth]

[Subdeacon Joe]

"

Some recipes for pies and pasties in 1845. Found in, “The practical cook, English and foreign: containing a great variety of old receipts, improved and re-modelled, and many original receipts in English, French, German, Russian, Spanish, Polish, Dutch, American, Swiss, and Indian cookery : with copious directions for the choice of all provisions, the laying out a table, giving small and large dinners, and the management of a cellar.” Written by Joseph Bregion, formerly cook to H. E. Prince Rausmouski, to H. H. the Prince Nicholas Esterhazy, the Russian ambassador at Paris, &c. &c. and Anne Miller, cook in several English families of distinction. 

From Hathitrust
https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=hvd.32044087439709

 

 

[Linn Keller, SASS 27332, BOLD 103]

T. I. H. LUNCH

*Typical Incompetent Husband

My wife looked at me with almost a distressed expression and said "Would you mind fixing lunch? Please?"

My wife is collar bone deep in ancestry research; she's just found a familial link to the uncle of Sir Frances Drake -- she told me some time ago she's also related to Atilla the Hun -- I leave such matters to her expertise. The cross checking, corroboration and jumping back and forth between Census records, Find-a-Grave, Ancestry Dot Com and other forms of documentation are best left for her organized mind.

As she was happily assaying the family tree, and as I'd already given the yard a haircut, laundered all the dirty duds, hung up her stuff (made the mistake once, and only once, of laundering an all cotton blouse on hot/hot, then tumbling dry on high heat ... it came out sized to fit a Barbie doll!)

-- anyway, all that was done, dishes were washed, dried and put away, I set about fixing lunch.

I had to go to the bank anyway so I got more oats (yes, dull, boring oats) for breakfast, but also spotted and snagged a sack of Perogis and some frozen dead chicken sticks.

I've disassembled chickens, grouse, pheasant and one woodcock, but none of them had any anatomical musculature that resembled these breaded fingers.

Maybe a specialized breed, I dunno. 

Anyway -- boiled the perogis until they floated, spread the chicken whatevers on a cookie sheet and shoved it in the preheated oven, set the timer.

So far so good.

When the oven was done, when the perogis were afloat, I took each plate and carefully, IN THE SINK, poured hot perogi water over the plate -- dried it quickly -- added half the perogis and half the breaded chicken whatevers, picked up fork, Sweet Baby Ray's sauce and a diet Coke, and packed them back to the wife's office, whereupon she anointed her plate with a generous squirt of her favorite sauce and handed the bottle back to me.

I sprinkled my half with lemon pepper and a very little salt, mostly on the perogis.

Taters always need salt.

UNFORTUNATELY -- and you know my luck -- what Paul Harvey called "The Rrrrest of the Story!" did not manifest itself right away.

Y'see, I like to drizzle a little honey in my coffee, and on my dull, boring oats of a morning, so the plastic squeeze bottle lives on the counter beside the stove.

I pulled out the cookie sheet of baked chicken whatevers, held it a-hover over warmed plates waiting on the stove, carefully slud (past tense of slid) the breaded meat course onto the plates, an equal number for each.

I did not notice that singin' hot cookie sheet was politely melting two holes in the side of the plastic squeezy honey bottle.

The damage was above the waterline, so to speak, and I did not spot it right away.

It was not until the next day's breakfast that I discovered the result of my lunch prep kindness.

I can honestly report that the stovetop is now exquisitely, absolutely, entirely, completely, cleaner than it's been since the day it was built!

[Subdeacon Joe]

 

[Subdeacon Joe]

Another idiot simple one.

 

https://www.instagram.com/reel/C8RxeSIITqu/?igsh=MTc4MmM1YmI2Ng%3D%3D
 

Leeks Stuffed with Apricots

Ingredients:

3-4 large leeks (each leek yields 4-5 units)

For the Filling:

 

Leek leftovers, chopped

Zest of 1 lemon

1 red chili, chopped

1 tsp (5 g) salt

1 cup (about 20 g) mint leaves

2 tbsp (30 ml) maple or date syrup

3 tbsp (45 ml) Olive oil

4 apricots, cubed

½ cup (100 g) rice (uncooked)

 

For the Sauce:

30 g (2 tbsp) soy sauce

30 g (2 tbsp) maple or date syrup

Juice of 1 lemon

1 tsp (5 g) salt

1 tsp (2 g) black pepper

45 ml (3 tbsp) olive oil

250 ml (1 cup) water

 

Method:

- Leeks: Bring a pot of water to a boil. Trim the green tops and roots. Score and peel the leaves carefully to avoid tearing.

- Wash and blanch the leaves in boiling water for about a minute, then set aside to cool.

- Filling: Combine all filling ingredients in a bowl.

- Assemble:Lay a leek leaf flat, place a spoonful of filling at one end, fold into a triangle, and continue folding along the leaf.

- Arrange the stuffed triangles in a baking dish.

- Sauce:Whisk together all sauce ingredients.

- Bake: Preheat oven to 200°C on turbo mode.

- Pour the sauce over the leeks, cover with damp parchment and foil, and bake for 75 minutes.

- Increase oven temperature to 220°C, remove the cover, add more water if needed, and bake for an additional 15 minutes until golden.

[Subdeacon Joe]

https://archive.org/details/cu31924003570607

 

[Subdeacon Joe]

https://archive.org/details/cu31924003572850

 

[Subdeacon Joe]

https://archive.org/details/southernrecipest00know

 

[Rip Snorter]

You may have covered the subject.

[Subdeacon Joe]

Barely scratched the surface.

[Marshal Mo Hare, SASS #45984]

Looking at a recipe for banana bread….

 

• Remove odd pots and pans from oven.
• Preheat oven to 350º / 180º.

[Hardpan Curmudgeon SASS #8967]

8 hours ago, Marshal Mo Hare, SASS #45984 said:

Looking at a recipe for banana bread….

 

• Remove odd pots and pans from oven.
• Preheat oven to 350º / 180º.

 

Farenheit / celsius  (within six degrees F)

 

I hate it when my 'nanner bread just takes forever to cook at 180º in my Whirlypool oven and still comes out gooey in the middle.  But at that temp, heck... you might as well leave the other pots and pans in there.     

[Marshal Mo Hare, SASS #45984]

I thought these pot holders deserve a mention. They come that way though my daughter thought it was a mistake and tried to flatten them.  I rarely use them on the handle but the lid is a must.

 

(silicone pot handle holder)