Boil ale or beer, scum it, and put to it two or three blades of large mace, some sliced manchet and sugar; then dissolve four or five yolks of eggs with some sack, claret or white-wine, and put into the rest with a little grated nutmeg; fire to a warm and serve it.Don't forget to scum it. That really is the most important step.
Not being much of a candy maker (I'm afraid of boiling sugar), I can't quite tell what the texture of the candies is like, but their snowy whiteness makes a great backdrop for the neon-colored candied fruit of the era.
We always had little plastic tubs of the stuff in my childhood kitchen. I never liked it, but it was a holiday staple, as you will see from recipes to come throughout the month.
Look! She's wearing candied cherries! Surely she will know.
Florence writes:My aunt Jenny was oen of the most famous cooks in central Ohio forty years ago. Her kitchen was a huge room dominated by a coal range from which came aromas which touched off a stampede of children from all parts of the house.Best of all, especially in winter, were the big pans of apple dumplings, steaming at the top with apple jelly oozing out. They were supposed to be served cold, or nearly so. But we couldn't wait. We ate them hot with very cold, very thick cream.Here is her recipe. (Today's busy housekeepers may use ready mixed pie crust.)
"It is wisdom as old as the hills that the way to get along with a man-child is to feed the brute," Mary Haworth advises readers of our WNPC cook book. "Lots of famous fascinators can't cook but I am convinced that nothing gives a woman greater self-confidence as a woman than the ability to cook well."Analyzing females and foods, she believes "The womanly woman has a congenital urge to cook well. She cooks to please her man almost as instinctively as the vamp powders her nose."And, as a final warning, Mary points out, "The lovable woman is a nurturing woman and men don't leave them because 'you can't hardly get them kind no more'."
Her preferred Lenten dish, good any Friday, and heavy enough to please the most masculine appetite is:
Dinner at home, with mother cooking, is an important event now in the lives of Tricia and Julie Nixon, whose parents, the Vice President and Mrs. Nixon, are so busy with official duties that dining at home with the youngsters is a rare event. Mrs. Nixon has compiled a book of recipes that her husband and the children especially like, and she selects from them on the infrequent occasions when she can prepare the family dinner. Here are two Nixon specials:
Mrs. Eisenhower has never made any pretense at being a cook. But like most people with no flair for food, she has impractical specialties. Hers are fudge and mayonnaise. Fudge is still one of her favorites and this family recipe is popular at the White House.
TIME... October-December 1939PLACE... Warsaw, PolandCHARACTERS... Two newspaper Correspondents, Marian H. Jones and Stephanie SteinhausHome: former freight caboose, furnished with double bunk, pot-bellied iron stove, switchman's lantern, Aubusson tapestry over the one window. Cannon to the right, cannon to the left, bombs falling everywhere. Sunday nights we were "at home" to newspaper colleagues and other friends. This dish was a favorite.
I learned to cook at about 14 when my mother went on a three-month speaking tour for suffrage and left me to keep house. Whatever I saved out of the budget was mine, so I specialized in recipes for making cheap cuts of meat delicious, and managed without starving the family, to indulge in new clothes, theater tickets, and other things not covered by my allowance.These recipes are quickies that can be made between deadline time and when the guests arrive.
Camped around edges of Normandy apple orchards in 1944 campaign, cold and muddy and a mile and a half from the mess tent... Swapped off PX cigarettes for shell eggs from nearby farmers--change from powdered eggs... "Liberated" bit of butter or shortening from mess tent, and cheese from rations... "Liberated" a little gasoline from nearest jeep.
This entry comes from Sarah McClendon, of "Sarah McClendon Bureau". Mrs. Eugene Worley laughed when her husband, Federal Judge Worley of Washington, DC said he was bringing the President of hte United States home to dinner.Speaker Raybuurn, yes, or Chief Justice Vinson or Associate Justice Clark. They were regular chili "customers" at the Worley home. Even Judge Worley himself sort of gulped when President Truman, some years ago, picked him up on an invitation to a chili supper, saying "Why yes, I'll be over tonight."His wife was still laughing at the joke her husband thought he was playing on her when she began receiving calls from the Secret Service for directions to the Worley home. Frantically, she rushed out to the neighbors to borrow silver, china, and even a spare maid.Soon she began receiving telephone bulletins on the progress of the party from the Secret Service, saying "we are rounding such-and-such a corner and will arrive in 5 1/2 minutes." To her amazement, Secret Service men immediately dashed to the kitchen to taste the chili--not for flavor, but to make sure it was safe eating for a President.This is the recipe for Mrs. Worley's s famous chili which former Presendt Truman proclaimed "the best in Washington."
This recipe comes from Josephine Ripley who worked for the Christian Science Monitor's Washington Bureau.Giving dinner to Virginia-born Lady Astor presented an unexpected problem for my editor, Erwin Canham, and his wife. The Canham maid, also from Virginia, held her own opinion of highborn ladies from her State. When informed that Lady Astor was to be a dinner guest, she muttered ominously, "She'll be late." She was.When Lady Astor complimented the Gateau Fromage, Mrs. Canham rang for the maid to bring another serving to her distinguished guest. To her amazement, the servant announced flatly: "There ain't no more, ma'am."There was, as Mrs. Canham knew--but not apparently for Lady Astor.
This story and recipe come from Gretchen Smith, "Special Writer" (wonder what that means?)A popular dish for Sunday brunch is kidney stew and waffles. I often entertained friends in Hollywood with this morning repast when I was living not far from Sunset Boulevard.I won't offer a recipe for waffles; you'll find a good one on every package of waffle flour you buy. But kidney stew is another matter.Don't buy anything but veal kidneys. They never have that strong taste you frequently find in lamb or beef kidneys. Below is the recipe which will serve two bountifully. Just multiply it for the number you want to entertain.
Despite safaris to Italy, my favorite Italian spaghetti is still this American short-cut dish. It was, in fact, the first thing I learned to cook. Married while a reporter on Hearst's Detroit Times, I had never even opened a can. While covering a murder trial a few days after my wedding, a rival reporter asked in a stage-whisper if I knew how to cook.
At the shake of my head, she scribbled this recipe and advised me to concentrate on quick-to-cook meals. I tried it on Bob that evening and it was so foolproof that we've eaten it regularly ever since.
A highlight of one of the most perfect days I ever spent was this chocolate souffle. Leaving Pompeii,we traveled by car along the Amalfi Drive in Southern Italy. At dusk we reached quaint Ravello (where Greta Garbo once fled from the press for an idyllic sojourn with Leopold Stokowski). At the Hotel Caruso Belvedere, a quaint, ageless inn, we dined luxuriously in the patio with the entire bay of Salerno at our feet. This was the dessert--so superb that I wangled the recipe.
My cooking life started late. After college, when I went to work, I lived at a club. After marriage, when I went to Geneva, we lived at a hotel. On returning to the United States, I found Emma Smith, who lived with us for seventeen years. After Emma retired, I had to put my shoulder to the can opener. (Note to beginners: a hand is better.) My performance is spotty. But I can make a superb souffle, from an old family recipe.
Here's a close up.
Just look at that smiling cat. Not to mention the amazing African-Americana.These authentic Deep South recipes, all over 100 years old, have been handed down in my family in hand-written cook books. They have proved simple to prepare, nutritious, and delicious. No exotic ingredients are required.
