Cookbooks of Yore...

Went to the White Elephant sale on Saturday with the girls and found lots of treasures!

I don't know what it is about those recipe compilations put out by the Jr League and Southern Churches as fund raisers that I cannot resist! I picked up a whole mosh pit of old pamphlets and cookery from all over the US

Here is the "Old Virginia" Favorite Recipes Cookbook which was first published in 1984

This cookbook was written by Mrs. Euradel Parker who was the proprietor of the Kansas City Hickory Pit starting in 1952. It has such delights as Green Goddess Dressing, old fashioned apple dumplings and Smothered Chicken

Smothered Chicken

1 recipe Southern Fried Chicken
1 whole onion
4 cloves fresh garlic
1 med bell pepper
1 tsp sugar
1 tbsp black pepper
1/4 cup veg oil
1 1/2 cup hot water
Saute all vegetables in oil, add hot water, pour over fried chicken, simmer ten minutes and serve

Mrs. Euradel Parker
















The next cookbook was written by a Grand Old Dame, Lillie Hitchcock Coit (Coit Tower)

This one is fascinating as Mrs. Coit lived in France and also had knowledge of chili peppers and other local fare that must have been made known to her through the local Mexican population so her food was quite sophisticated and well traveled. She has recipe for Mole and Game and Pigeon Pie, plus Civet de Lievres and Risotto.

I especially enjoyed the measurements, which included roux made with "butter the size of a small egg" and "a walnut size piece of butter" in another recipe.

Anchovy Toast

Toast the bread. Take Anchovy paste and mix with 1/3 butter. Butter the toast thick with paste. Scramble Eggs with truffles and pour over the toast.

The Little Compton Garden Club cookbook first appeared in 1941, but the one I have was dated 1976
With such delicacies as Vidalia Onion Hors D'Oeuvres, Herbed Walnuts and Stilton, Port and Celery Pate I especially liked the long section on vegetables they grew in the Little Compton Gardens.

Fennel, Orange and Asparagus Salad

1 lb Apsaragus
2 large fennel bulbs
2 seedless oranges
juice of one lemon
1 1/2 tbsp olive oil
2 1/2 tbsp white vinegar
1 tbsp black sesame seeds
Boston or Bibb lettuce
Blanch Asparagus lightly and then cool, and toss with all the other ingredients and refrigerate for up to 4 hours. Serve over lettuce with sesame seed garnish.

This next one was is Le Livre de la Cuisine de Lafayette, which was compiled by the Jr. League of Lafayette Louisiana and has a whole section on Mardi Gras! This section, unsurprisingly, has 40+ recipes for mixed libation and at the end some truly fabulous looking dips!

Lobster Au Rhum

1 large can lobster
2 oz butter
1/3 American cheese
3 oz light rum

Heat butter, cheese and rum in a pan and when it is hot add crab and stir, serve on toast.

This recipe the chef assures us is a "wonderful snack for unexpected guests who have dropped in"

They also have pages and pages of Grits recipes. Fried grits, baked grits, garlic grits, grits pudding, grits cheese souffle. Mmmmmmm Grits! or as the Italians would say, "polenta!"


I found a tiny tome called Favorite Cotswald recipes, which is all traditional British foods (no date on this one). On Sat when I brought the books home everyone cooed over the "Mothering Sunday Pork" and I will likely make Gloucestershire Pie and Crayfish and Bacon Savory.

Two of the books I snagged were Pennsylvania Dutch and one from the Mennonite and Amish community. They are AWESOME! With such treasures as Sauerkraut and oatmeal scrapple.

Scrapple

Separate one hogs head into halves. Remove and discard the eyes and brains. Scrape and clean the head, put into a large heavy kettle and cover with cold water. Simmer gently for 2-3 hours, until meat falls from the bones. Skim fat frequently. Remove the meat from the bones and chop finely, put back in the pan with the stock, salt and pepper to taste, sage and yellow cornmeal, stirring constantly until it is the consistency of mush. Cook for one hour gently. When cooked pour the scrapple into a greased loaf pan and cover and store in a cool place. To serve cut into thin slices and fry in hot fat until crisp and browned.

I also picked up the Balkans Cookbook circa 1972 Too much yummy stuff in this one as well!

It even has a recipe for stuffed bear claws! And a spanikopita type dish with hard boiled and grated eggs added into the goat cheese.

Anyway, I did not pay more than $2 for any of these books and they gave me all kinds of new ideas. I am really eager to find recipes that are a little more in touch with our regional heritage pre-TV dinners and frozen microwave foods.

American food (like any large sprawling country) is a collection of regional areas. In each area you can find subtle differences in food even within a distinct sub culture. For example "Southern BBQ" can mean a lot of different stuff. It can meat pit smoked, or not, or pit smoked with sauce, or without. It can be spicy, sweet, vinegary, smokey, savory or any combination of the above. BBQ across the South, and what this is, can be hotly argued by the various creators and advocates (and likely frequently is).

Each new group of people who come to the country and settle down add a little something from home, filtered through what is readily available here. We forge a new cuisine as time goes by based on the natural abundance of the land (California grows more rice than China), the rare ability to grow wine grapes (they only grow between a certain latitude and longitude on the planet), our freedom from the rigid hierarchies and food legacies that most other countries (rightly so) treasure and revere and our fearlessness of mixing it all up and making it our own.

I hope to some day be a part of the new breed of Chefs who are artists and craftspeople, forging our bright and honored place as a country of fine and unique cuisine. As the California wineries broke barriers in the 70's to take their place as world class wines, I believe American food (in all it's abundant regional glory) will continue to make it's mark on the world.