Foreign names, no foreign ingredients

I just came across a poor little cookbook that has seen it's better days. The cover is missing and some remaining pages are torn out from the staples etc. It is a ground beef recipe book and must have been from the 60's because it has some recipes from famous people, one is from Mrs John Connally wife of Governor of Texas. The rest of the recipes have been contributed by woman who are listed as "Mrs some man". I don't remember when that went out, but good riddance to that form of written etiquette.

Anyway while looking at it I was struck by the number of recipes with foreign names but no foreign ingredients. Here is an example:

Cuban Chili Con Carne

2 pounds ground beef

2 tablespoons fat

2 large onions, chopped

1 stalk peppers, chopped

2 green peppers, chopped

2 No. 2 cans tomatoes

2 No. 2 cans red kidney beans

1 clove garlic

Chili powder to taste

Salt and pepper to taste

Brown meat in hot fat. Add onions, celery and green peppers. Add tomatoes, beans and garlic, and seasonings. Simmer to a thick soup.

Basically that is how I make chili and I know it has nothing to do with Cuba. Here is another example:

Arabian Stew

Oil

5 medium potatoes, sliced

1 cup rice

1 medium onion, sliced

4 stalks celery, diced

1/4 teaspoon salt

Pepper to taste

1 pound hamburger

1 can tomato soup

1/2 soup can water

Place a small amount of oil in casserole. Add potatoes, rice, onion, celery, salt and pepper. Place meat on top of mixture. Add soup and water. Bake at 350 degrees for 1 hour and 30 minutes. Reduce heat to 250 and bake for 30 minutes longer.

I sincerely doubt they are using much canned tomato soup in Arabia.

Fish Dinners- Fish and Seafood Cookery 1949


Fish and Seafood Cookery is a vintage 1949 booklet I got recently. It has great period illustrations. One thing I find interesting is it was put out by the Mid-Central Fish Co. located in Oklahoma, Kansas, Missouri, and Texas. It must have been a large company. Somehow I don't think of fish as being a Midwestern thing to buy at the grocery store back then. I wonder how fresh is was by the time it was shipped in. Maybe they only sold frozen fish.
A theme through out the book is that fish can be enjoyed everyday of the week. "By using different methods, a variety of delicious fish dishes can be served several times weekly, and while giving your family new food sensations, you will also be sure of serving a truly balanced diet. I guess they were trying to dispel the fish on Friday idea. But health wise it sounds like something you would read nowadays. The booklet explains all the basic ways of cooking fish and then gives some recipes. Here are some of them:

Fish Fillets with Golden Sauce

2 pounds fish fillets
2 tablespoon flour
2 tablespoons melted butter
1 cup milk
1/4 cup grated yellow cheese
1 tablespoon vinegar
2 egg yolks, beaten
1 teaspoon scrapped onion
Salt and pepper
Dry fish; cut into serving pieces and roll in seasoned flour, then saute carefully until delicately browned. Place in a shallow, greased baking dish and cover with Golden Sauce: Blend flour with melted butter; add milk. Cook until thickened, then add vinegar, egg yolks, onion and seasonings. Sprinkle with grated cheese and brown in moderate over 350 degrees for about ten minutes. Serves six.

Fish Fillets en Turban

1 pound fish fillets
2 tablespoons grated onion
2 tablespoons butter
3 tablespoons lemon juice
3 tablespoons cooking fat
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 lightly beaten egg
2 tablespoons water
1/4 cup flour
1 cup crushed corn flakes or other breading
Cut fish into 1- or 1 1/2 inch wide strips for rolling. Combine onion, butter, lemon juice and salt; brush over fish. Bread in usual manner and chill about 2 hours to set crust. Roll fish strips into turbans or pinwheels and skewer with toothpicks. Fry golden brown in hot fat but as usual avoid overcooking. Serve with tartar sauce of hot salad dressing. Serves 3 or 4.

Beer Coffee Cake- Nitty Gritty Quick Breads

This recipe come from the Nitty Gritty book Quick Breads by Kyte and Greenbery 1979. I am getting quite a collection of these little oblong books. When I went to the cookbook store I picked up this one and another double sided one- Quiche & Souffle a 2 in 1 cookbook. While looking at their publications listed in the front I noticed the tag line "Books designed with giving in mind". Don't think I ever got one as a gift. I need to get all of mine together and count how many I have.

The net has hundreds if not thousands of references to beer bread or beer muffin/rolls. I don't think I have come across a beer coffee cake before.

Beer Coffee Cake

1 cup butter or margarine, softened

1 1/2 cups brown sugar, firmly packed

2 eggs, well beaten

3 cups all purpose flour

2 teaspoons baking soda

1/2 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon cinnamon

1/2 teaspoon allspice

1/2 teaspoon cloves

1 cup chopped walnuts

2 cups chopped dates

12 0z. beer

Lemon Glaze: Mix together,

1 cup powdered sugar

2 tablespoons lemon juice

1 teaspoon grated lemon peel

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Cream butter and sugar. Mix in eggs. Stir together flour, baking soda, salt, spices, walnuts and dates. Add the dry ingredients to the creamed mixture alternately with beer. Pour batter into a greased and floured 10-inch tube pan. Bake for 1 hour and 15 minutes, or until done. Cool in pan for about 10 minutes, then turn out on wire rack. Spread on Lemon Glaze. Makes 1 coffee cake.

San Francisco Stir-Fry- Fresh Ideas From Velveeta


Last night I noticed my store has Velveeta on special for $4.00 for the 2 lb. box. I don't buy it very often because most recipes seem to call for large amounts of it and that really increases the cost of the recipe. Today while looking for something to post I found a little booklet Fresh Ideas From Velveeta laying nearby. I guess that is a sign I should buy some.
This recipe is a little bit unusual. I don't think is should be called a stir-fry for a number of reasons, but it probably tastes good.

San Francisco Stir-Fry

2 cups broccoli flowerets
1 cup carrot slices
1/2 lb. Chinese pea pods
1/4 cup margarine
3/4 cup Velveeta Cheese Spread, cubed
1/4 cup milk
4 ozs. linguine, cooked, drained
1 1/2 teaspoons dried tarragon leaves, crushed
In large skillet, stir-fry vegetables in margarine until crisp-tender. Add process cheese spread and milk; stir over medium heat until process cheese is melted. Add remaining ingredients; toss lightly. 4 to 6 servings.

Honey Peppermint Taffy CAI Dishes Mother Used To Make


I know that Valentine's is gone for another year but I forgot to post a scan of my vintage Valentine card. I collect pansy items and several years ago I bought a vintage card lot on eBay because it had some pansy cards. There where also some other floral cards. Luckily I came across them this year in time to display this Valentine.
In keeping with a sweet Valentine's theme this is a candy recipe from Dishes Mother Used to Make Cook Book. This is a Culinary Arts Insitute book copyright 1942. According to my cookbook collecting guide this is part of the series 101. The first twenty books were reprinted with different numbers and the books 121- 129 were new issues for 1942. My book is number 126.
Honey Peppermint Taffy
1 cup sugar
1/2 cup light corn sirup
1/2 cup strained honey
Pinch cream of tartar
1 teaspoon vinegar
2 tablespoon butter
1 teaspoon peppermint extract
Combine sugar, sirup and honey. Heat until sugar is dissolved, then add cream of tartar and boil, stirring constantly for about 20 minutes. Add vinegar, butter and peppermint extract; heat to boiling, then pour into buttered pan. Pull when cool enough to handle and cut into pieces. Makes about 30 pieces. Wrap each piece in waxed paper.

Strawberry Jam Cake- Rawleigh's Almanac Cook Book



This loving couple isn't celebrating Valentine's Day. They are just happy they don't offend each other with BO. Vintage Rawleigh's Good Health Guide's are full of really great retro images like this one. This issue is from July 1954. The page opposite the image features cake and pie recipes. This jam cake is a little different because it has bran flakes in it.

Strawberry Jam Cake

2/3 cup Bran flakes cereal

1/2 cup milk

1 1/2 cups cake flour, sifted

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/2 cup shortening, soft

1/2 teaspoon Rawleigh's Almond flavoring

2 eggs, beaten

1 cup Strawberry Jam

Soak bran in milk, add shortening. Add dry ingredients which have been sifted together. Stir until well mixed. Add flavorings, eggs and jam. Mix thoroughly. Pour into a greased 8-inch square cake pan. Bake in 350 degree oven for about 40 minutes. Cool. Frost with Jam Frosting. Other jam may be used. Serves 9.

Jam Frosting

1 (3 0z.) package cream cheese

1/4 cup straberry jam

2 cups powdered sugar

1 teaspoon Rawleighs Orange Nectar

Mix cream cheese with jam. Sift in sugar. Add nectar and enough water to attain consistency to spread. Beat until smooth.

Valentine's Beef Stroganoff- Ideals Magazine


I like vintage Ideal magazines. I love the pictures in them and really hate to tear them up so I can get a good scan. However it is just about impossible to get a quality scan from the book so I will have to make a decision.
This recipe happened to be in the same issue as a suggestion for a Valentine's dinner. I have never seen a recipe for stroganoff made like this before. You could start making the sauce while the steak is broiling and the whole dish would be finished very quickly.

Beef Stroganoff

1 pound flank steak
1 cup beef broth
1 cup chopped onion
1 pound fresh mushrooms, cleaned and sliced
1/4 cup cold water
1 tablespoons flour
1 tablespoons cornstarch
1/4 cup low-fat plain yogurt, at room temperature
1/2 teaspoon paprika
3/4 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon garlic powder
12 teaspoon prepared mustard
Hot cooked noodles, optional
Preheat broiler. Broil steak 6 inches from heat until rare, about 5 minutes on each side. Cut diagonally into thin 2-inch strips' set aside. In a large frying pan bring broth to a boil. Add onion and mushrooms. Simmer, covered about 5 minutes until vegetables are tender remove vegetables with a slotted spoon; set aside. Simmer broth until reduced to 1/2 cup; remove from heat. Combine water, flour, and cornstarch mix well. Stir into broth with wire whisk. Cook and stir over low heat until thickened, about 2 minutes. Remove form heat. Combine yogurt, paprika, salt, garlic powder, and mustard to thickened broth, stirring until smooth. Mix in reserved beef, onions and mushrooms. Warm over over low heat., stirring constantly, until heated thoroughly, about 5 minutes. Serve over noodles if desired.

Ham Loaf With Pineapple- The ABC of Chafing Dish Cookery

Today I had another day off and made a trip to an area of town know as Kensington to visit a very special bookstore. Yes, a cookbook store! I had been wanting to visit since October when I found out about it. I had thought it went out of business but it turns out that there were two cookbook stores in town and the one that went out sold new books.

The Cook Book Store has over 10,000 used cookbooks. There were books for everyones budget. Lots of 93 cents, 6 for $5.00 or 12 for 10.00 books and rare and expensive volumes. Considering my budget we stuck with the 12 for $10.00 books. I got the ABC book shown to add to my collection and also several Nitty Gritty cookbooks. The ABC books crack me up, they have a little food poem for each letter. This is the poem for H:

Hey, nonny, nonny!

Sing a song of food!

Suzy, bring my chafing dish,

It'll soon smell good!

To me a chafing dish and Ham Loaf are two truly retro items. This recipe
combines both. It comes from The ABC of Chafing Dish Cookery, 1956.
I kind of wonder if it would be cooked firm in only 30 minutes.

Ham Loaf With Pineapple

4 tablespoons brown sugar

2 tablespoons margarine

1 1/2 cups fresh pineapple or 4 slice canned pineapple

2 cups cooked ham, chopped

2 eggs, well beaten

1/2 cup bread crumbs

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/4 teaspoon pepper

1 small onion, chopped fine

1 teaspoon dry mustard

Cream sugar with margarine and spread in chafing dish pan. Place
pineapple in the bottom of the pan. Mix ham, eggs,bread crumbs, and
seasoning. Pour on top of pineapple and sugar in chafing dish. Cover
tightly and cook over low direct heat for 30 minutes. Turn onto hot
platter and serve with baked potatoes or creamed new potatoes. Serves 4.

Pickled Peas Armenian- Poppy Cannon's Can Opener Cookbook

This week I visited one of the local antique malls three times to buy cookbooks. Yes, three times even I have to admit that is excessive! I went so many times because the first time we got there we discovered most of the booths were having 1/2 off on their books. There are two dealers that we visit fairly often as they have good prices and the types of books we look for.
Our first visit was on Thursday so we picked out quite a few good titles and decided to go back the next day as that was payday. Our budget does not need more funds devoted to cookbooks but what the heck. On Friday the booth owner was there and the mall clerk told us she had taken down her 1/2 off sign. However when we got to the booth and said " oh darn we are too late" she told us she would extend the sale for us. This is the same place that my husband got all the vintage applicance booklets for me at Christmas. She commented that someone had bought a lot of her vintage booklets one day in December. I laughed and said, "I know, that was my husband". We had to go back the third time as my husband realized he had missed a volume 2 of a fish cookbook series. Of course we had to buy more than just that book.
I checked out the mall's own bookroom in the back were it was also 1/2 off. Usually they do not have any cookbooks but there was quite a few this time. These were all older books like I collect. I picked up this book: Poppy Cannon's New Can Opener Cookbook, 1968.
This recipe might seem familar as I have seen quite a few new recipes that basically had tomatoes and chili's to this.

Pickled Peas Armenian

"An Armenian appetizer, spicy and unusual"

2 No. 303 cans black-eyed peas, drained
1 cup salad oil
1/4 cup wine vinegar
1 clove garlic, peeled, left whole
1/4 cup thinly sliced onion,
1/2 teaspoon salt
Fresh ground black pepper to taste
Place peas in bowl. Add remaining ingredients. Mix thoroughly. Store in refrigerator and remove garlic bud after one day. Store 2 days more, to allow flavors to mingle. To serve place ina large bowl and accompany with Melba toast or buttered toast fingers.

Orange Grove Cake- Nitty Gritty Cakes & Pies




This bundt cake recipe is from a Nitty Gritty book; Cakes & Pies, 1978. It is double sided one side is cakes, turn it over and pies are on the other side.This recipe is from the bundt cake chapter. I have seen a lot of bundt cake pans in stores lately. I think they are having a comeback. Another unusual thing about this book is the background of the cake section. The pages are a pale pink with cake texture. It looks like they photographed a slice of strawberry angel food cake and used it as the background. The titles of the recipes are in a brighter pink.

Orange Grove Cake

3/4 cup butter
1 cup sugar
3 tablespoons grated orange rind
1 teaspoon vanilla
3 eggs, unbeaten
1/2 cup orange marmalade
3 cups sifted flour
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 cup orange juice
1/2 cup evaporated milk
1 cup walnuts, chopped
Nutty topping- Mix 1/2 cup sugar, 1/2 cup butter, 1/2 cup dry bread crumbs and 1/2 cup finely chopped walnuts or almonds together until crumbly.

Prepare Nutty Topping. Butter a 10-cup bundt pan well. Pat topping on bottom and sides (not on the center tube) of the pan. Cream butter and sugar. Mix in orange rind and vanilla. Add eggs and beat well. Stir in marmalade. Sift dry ingredients together. Add to creamed mixture alternately with orange juice and milk. Fold in nuts. Turn batter into prepared pan. Bake at 350 degrees about 70 minutes. Cool before removing from pan.