Oh Frank. You are Such a Ham.

Here are a variety of pig pictures from Cutco Meat and Poultry Cookery. Clearly Frank, the illustrator, thinks that swine are just thrilled to pieces to offer themselves up for our feasting pleasure.

Just look at them frolicking in various settings.

1. Juggling:2. Drunk:3. Crowned king of all swine:

4. Getting high?5. Starring in minor theatrics:

6. Tanning:7. Acting as chief pillow and butt rest:

You'll find some of these illustrations in recipes to come. Others will simply stand on their own merits.

Pork out.

20th Century Wieners! The Dogs Kids Love to Sprinkle with Parmesan

Everyone loves hotdogs. Fat kids, skinny kids, kids who climb on rocks. (Click it. You know you want to.)

Armor says it. Oscar Mayer says it. It must be true.

Cutco obviously believed it as well; it includes a whole chapter titled "Wieners."

Here are some kids enjoying a string, as if to prove the songs.

And here's a recipe in case your kids are bored with the same old dog in a bun. (Or cut up into unchokable chunks if they are little.)

If they are anything like my kids when they were young, they'll want nothing to do with this dish. But then, I was a bad parent and didn't teach them to eat what was placed before them. Hopefully you can learn from my mistake and tell them to clean their plate or lose out on the Jello.

I wonder what the 21st Century Weiner will be like?

Suggestions appreciated.

Nothing Says Variety Like Spiced Tongue

Oh, Cutco. I do so love you.

Take their handling of variety meats. It's just offal. They include pictures in case you find yourself in a market looking at stacks of unlabeled flesh, and need to tell the difference between sweetbreads and brains.

Obviously, the page is useful. You just might want to ignore the illustration of the animals dancing happily at the top, prior to their thymus glands, livers, kidneys, brains, et. al. having been, shall we say, removed.

(Try especially hard not to look at the little guy in the front. I think he's a veal, though he reads more like a cross between a kangaroo and a baby dinosaur.)

But on to a recipe!

From the looks of the picture, I'm guessing that hubby thinks she bears a spiced tongue, but not in a good way. He looks like he'd be happy to boil it, let it soak overnight, and then peel the skin off himself.

Perhaps then he could get back to his paper.

Damn it. Tongue night again?

That's Just Wrong

Frank Marcello, the Cutco cookbook illustrator, cracks me up. He would SO not get away with these illustrations today.

Take a gander into the way his mind pictures the world, and its people.

Brontosaurus ribs anyone?

Cornelius's Favorite: K-E-double-L-O-double-good Every Day Hamburgers

The Cutco cookbook includes six recipes for hamburgers. This one is the every day version, containing, of course, corn flakes.

Note to cook: I'd use the sugar free variety if I were you.

Here's the recipe.

And for your viewing pleasure, here's a little walk down corn flake memory lane:

New Cookbook Day! Cutco Meat and Poultry Cookery

It's time for a new cookbook!

DiDi found this little beauty for my birthday, and I can't begin to tell you how much joy it gave me.

Best $1.50 she ever spent.

It's a promotional piece produced for the cutlery division of Wear-Ever Aluminum, Inc. in 1961.

Here's what it looks like on the inside front cover:

All the meat you could ever hope for in one place!

The best thing about this book is the illustrations. Oh, the illustrations!

The drawings are done by one Frank Marcello. Unfortunately, I can't find much about him.

He's got quite a sense of humor. I'm surprised that Wear-Ever let him get away with half the stuff he put in. Here are a few classic examples:

You'll be hearing more about the illustrations in coming posts, so for now I'll just comment on this last one.

What the heck is going on in this kitchen? Look at the position of mom's feet. Is she pigeon toed, or is there more to the story? They both seem to be happy about it, though the girl's smile looks just the tiniest bit more genuine to me.

Hmmm.... Let me know what YOU think.

Stay tuned for more meat and illustrated hilarity, 1960s style!

Mug Musings

I've been contemplating the difference in coffee cup sizes from the 1950s to today. They seem to have gotten quite a bit larger in the last half century or more.

Just look at the size of the cup this fella hoists, obviously forced on him by a loved one hoping to sober him up:

DiDi and I tend to like mid-century modern dishware, and so have a small collection of cups from that era.

We have some like this:

And like this:

And even this:

We don't have these but I wish we did because they are very cool:

I'm also hearting these very hard:

We have a number of other styles as well, but Google images isn't helping me find them but we moved and some are in storage or in our garage (which I like to call the Fourth Dimension).

The mid-century cups typically hold about 8 oz if you've got a steady hand or don't mind a periodic morning scald. 6 oz is better if you prefer to play it safe.

Contrast that with today's mugs:

Ok so this is a bit of an exaggeration, but you know what I'm talking about. Walk into your local AstroDollars Coffee Shop and take a look at their options. Assuming you understand the language they use to make you feel hip, the smallest one is typically 12oz, and the large is 20oz.

That's a lot of joe, no matter how much they've frothed the milk and decorated the top with hearts and flowers.

The mugs most people use at home are similarly ginormous.

What happened in the intervening years? Do we really need that much more caffeine now?

Did the coffee mob strong arm cup manufacturers?

Here's what I discovered. When I'm at home, the amount I drink in a small cup is satisfying. When I'm on the road and pull over for a jolt, I still tend to go for the 16 oz medium.

Which is weird. Somehow just looking at the larger cups make me think I need more.

But I don't.

New Haul!

Check out my finds from this afternoon!

It includes:

• Two Better Homes and Gardens magazines from the 1940s
• A trippily illustrated "fast food" book from the 1970s
• A hardcover book of "Electric Refrigerator Recipes and Menus" from the late 1920s
• A 1955 community cookbook published by members of the Women's National Press Club
• 2 pamphlet's from the 1930s published for Calumet Baking Powder.
• A campy 1950s cookbook
• A gold covered, index tabbed general cook book from the 1960s

Can't wait to start going through them!

Cannes Seafood Casserole

This artist says "I try to turn out a painting that will speak for itself."

If the statement also holds true for recipes, I'd say that this one deserves a spot in the Cannes Food Festival.

(Get it? Cannes? Oh never mind.)

It's another fine example of the heavy reliance on canned food products during the sixties. With all that white sauce, butter, and cheese it might be rather good using fresh ingredients. I'd probably hold off on the hardboiled eggs, which also seems to be sixties thing.

Have a look.

Seafood Casserole

3 hard-cooked eggs, sliced

2 cups medium white sauce

1 can shrimp cut in halves

1 can tuna, well drained

1 cup bread crumbs mixed with 1/2 stick melted butter

1 2-oz can sliced mushrooms

1 can crabmeat

1/4 lb. grated cheddar cheese

Place in buttered baking dish, layers of sliced egg, shrimp, tuna, mushrooms and crabmeat, pouring white sauce over each layer. Sprinkle with grated cheese. Cover top with buttered crumbs. Bake in 325 degree oven for 45 minutes. Serves 6 to 8.

Where have all the puddings gone? (Auntie's Date-Apple Pudding)

Something happened in the dessert world during the 1970s.

Something earth shattering. Pole shifting. Cataclysmic.

And yet something so subtle we didn't even notice it happening.

For some reason, we stopped making pudding. (If I was a betting woman, I'd wager that Bill Cosby had something to do with it.)

Pudding as an ubiquitous dessert option virtually ceased to exist in any form other than what comes from a box. Eventually you didn't even need a stove.

I've tried to fight the trend in small ways. I made tapioca pudding from scratch the other day, recognizing that it was a small splash of rebellion against a tidal wave of change. And I may grow even more daring, and try a recipe like the one below, despite having no knowledge whatsoever of who "Auntie" might be.

What's the worst that could happen? JELL-O brand takes a contract out on me?

Auntie's Date-Apple Pudding

A butterschotchy pudding rich in apples, dates, and nuts.

1 cup brown sugar (packed)

1/4 cup cornstarch

2 1/4 cups water

1 cup chopped dates

1 cup chopped apples

2 tbsp. butter

1/4 tsp. vanilla

1 cup broken walnuts

Mix brown sugar and cornstarch in 2-qt. saucepan. Gradually stir in water. Cook over medium heat, stirring constantly, until mixture boils; boil 1 min. Add dates, apples, butter, and vanilla. Remove from heat. Cool to room temperature, add nuts, then chill. Serve in sherbet glasses. Top with whipped cream, if desired. 6 to 8 servings.

Peach-Cantaloupe Pie

Not sure about you, but I've not come across a recipe which calls for cooking cantaloupe before.

I'm not a huge fan of the stuff, and I can't see how cooking it would improve the situation, but I'm sure many of you are major cantaloupe-heads looking for ways to eat it other than in ball form.

In which case, this recipe is for you.

Peach-Cantaloupe Pie

Pastry for 9" Two-crust Pie

2 cups fresh peach slices

2 cups thinly sliced cantaloupe

1 cup sugar

1/4 cup flour

1/2 tsp. salt

1/4 cup sliced almonds

1 tbsp. butter

Heat oven to 425 degrees (hot). Combine peaches with cantaloupe; toss with mixture of sugar, flour, and salt. Arrange fruit in pastry-lined pie pan. Sprinkle with nuts, dot with butter. Cover with top pastry; bake 35 to 40 min.

Cranberry Delight Pie

While I find many of the recipes in these old books entertaining, there are many more that I'd like to actually try. Here's one on that list. I love cranberries, and have been tweaking several of my own cranberry recipes lately, so this one caught my attention.

Cranberry Delight Pie

Perfect for any holiday party.

8" Baked Pie Shell

1/2 lb. marshmallows

1/2 cup milk

3/4 cup ground fresh cranberries (2 to 2 1/2 cups unground)

1 tbsp. grated orange rind

1 cup whipping cream, whipped

Place marshmallows and milk in top of double boiler; heat over hot water until marshmallows melt. Then chill until the consistency of thick whipped ream. Drain excess juice off cranberries until quite dry. Fold in cranberries and orange rind. Chill until thick (almost holds shape when spatula is drawn through). Fold in whipped cream. Pour into cooled pie shell. Chill until set (about 2 hr.). Remove from refrigerator 20 min. before serving.

Happy Father's Day: Dad Cooks Out!

The main reason I'm including this recipe is the nifty illustration at the top of the page.

Doesn't this look just like your dad when he's grilling? It sure looks like mine.

The Hearty Green Bean-Sausage Casserole doesn't seem exactly like a cookout dish, but whatever. It was right below the picture of your dad, so be quiet.

It's probably a good idea that they didn't include a picture of the dish itself. Consider the combination of sausage, tomatoes, and green beans in a gravy base. Gordon Ramsay might say it looks like a dogs dinner, which is more polite than the comparison I would have used.

Despite the potential appearance, let's not be hasty. It may well be delicious.

Ask your dad to make it at the next family cookout. But maybe he should lose the pipe.

Hearty Green Bean-Sausage Casserole

Tomatoes and green beans add garden-fresh flavor and appealing color to this tempting supper dish.

1 lb. bulk pork sausage

1 cup sliced onion

3 to 4 tbs. unsifted Gold Medal Flour

2 1/2 cups cooked tomatoes (1 lb. 4-oz. can)

2 cups cooked fresh green beans

1/2 tsp. salt

1/2 tsp. pepper

Biscuit Topping (below)

Heat oven to 425 degrees (hot). Brown sausage and onion over low heat. (Break up sausage with fork.) Drain off excess fat. Stir in flour; stir in vegetables and seasonings. Bring to a boil. Pour into 2-qt. baking dish. Immediately top with Biscuit Topping. Bake 20 min. 6 to 8 servings.

Biscuit Topping: Add 1/3 cup milk all at once to 1 cup Bisquick. Beat hard 20 strokes; knead 8 to 10 times. Roll into 9" circle; cut in 8 wedges.

Fancy Schmancy Fish

Nuff said.


(Ok, if you really want to know, this picture is for a dish called Buffet Salmon en Gelée. I know you aren't going to make it and so am not including the recipe. If you want to find out where the Jello comes in, you'll have to Google it.)

Lost Deliciousness: Wilted Greens

I'm not sure what happened over the last 30 years, but we threw some darned good recipes out with the hot dog water.

When I first began dating the guy who would become my husband, his mother used to make a salad dressed with a sugary, vinegary, bacon-y dressing that softened the lettuce and turned it into something altogether different. I'd never had it before, and thought the concept brilliant.

But then it just... disappeared.

She stopped making it. Haven't seen it in over 25 years.

I think it's about time that Wilted Greens made a comeback. Here's a recipe so you can do your part for the movement.

Wilted Greens

This salad should be served while the dressing is still hot.

Fry 4 slices bacon, cut up, until crisp. Add 1/4 cup vinegar, 2 tbsp. water. Heat. Pour over 1 qt. shredded greens (lettuce, spinach, endive, romaine, or a combination) tossed with 2 green onions, chopped, 1 tsp. salt, and pepper. Sprinkle 1 hard-cooked egg, chopped, on top. 6 servings.