Mechanically Frozen Fruit Salad

The evolution of salads over the last century is interesting to study. Jellied salads were common, both sweet and savory, containing fruit, vegetables, and meats. Some of these concoctions sound delicious, others faintly (or even overtly) disgusting.

The New American Cook Book contains many of these recipes, such as the one below, titled Frozen Fruit Salad:

The caption for this photo reads "A loaf salad to feature your finest dinner."

Here's the recipe. I love that it refers to a "mechanical refrigerator." Similar recipes in the book refer to the "automatic refrigerator". Obviously refrigerators were still relatively newfangled even in the early 1940s.

Frozen Fruit Salad

6 ounces cream cheese

1/3 cup mayonnaise (recipe No. 701)

1/2 cup heavy cream

3 1/2 cups canned fruit cocktail

1/2 cup chopped nuts

Few grains salt

Mash cheese. Add mayonnaise. Whip cream. Fold into cheese mixture. Drain fruit cocktail. Fold fruit, nuts, and salt into first mixture. Pack into freezing tray of mechanical refrigerator. Freeze firm. Serve on lettuce. Serves 8.

Silencing Solution for Critical Guests: Gaily Colored Ice Cubes

One of the interesting things in this introduction is the mention of people flocking to soda fountains. If it were written today I suppose it would talk about coffee shops, and the resurgence in popularity of tea.

The other thing that strikes me is how worried the author is about critics. Personally I don't believe in inviting critical people for dinner and drinks. But that's just me. If you like the kind of sniping criticism that these people bring to the table, be my guest. Just consider your ice cubes, as advised below:

Beverages probably furnish more pleasure at meals or between meals than any other single course. The early morning aroma of fine coffee makes a day start right. Beautifully colored and delightfully flavored cold drinks bring joy and happiness to meals served in hot weather. It is the punch bowl that forms one of the chief attractions at parties. The large numbers of men and women--old and young--who swarm into the soda bars in every part of the world provide ample testimony to the craving of everyone for fine drinks. The clever homemaker can serve in her home as delicious and refreshing drinks as can be found at the best-equipped fountains.

A good general rule to follow in serving beverages is, "Serve hot drinks hot and cold drinks cold." Never serve lukewarm hot drinks nor slightly cool cold drinks.

Make all beverages as lovely and colorful as possible. Select garnishes and ingredients in beverages for color as well as taste. Your critical guests will remember the beauty of your punch bowl long after the flavor of the punch is forgotten. Particularly study the possibilities of gaily-colored and garnished ice cubes as an accompaniment of cold drinks.

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.

Veggies ala 1964 (French Peas and Artichokes)

I'm fascinated with the way ingredients are specified in the recipes of today compared with those of our mothers, grandmothers, and great grandmothers. In Never in the Kitchen when Company Arrives, ingredients illustrate the place of respect that prepared foods held during the 1960's. The author was considered quite the gourmet, and yet many of her recipes contained canned and frozen vegetables.

Here is an interesting example.

French Peas and Artichokes

1/8 lb. butter

2 tablespoons frozen chopped onion

2 cans artichoke hearts (drained)

2 cans petis pois (drained)

Salt and fresh-ground pepper

Melt butter in a saucepan and pare frozen chopped onions into pan. Let cook over low heat for about 3 minutes, then add artichokes and turn gently to coat with butter-onion mixture. Butter a shallow casserole (from which the vegetables will be served) and make a bed of the peas. Spoon over the artichokes and any drippings from the pan. If not enough butter, dot with a little more. Cool, then cover with aluminum foil. In the evening, place in oven, covered, with broilers and potatoes.*

*Note: this dish is part of a menu, and was to be baked along with the Baby Broilers (chickens) and Tiny New Potatoes in their jackets.

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(BTW, I'm wondering what paring would be needed for onions that are chopped...)

Macaroni and Cheese: the other orange vegetable

Here's another great find from Meals for Small Families.

The vegetable voted number 1 by children all over the country: Macaroni and Cheese!


Mis-categorization isn't the only baggage this recipe carries; it offers the option of using CANNED macaroni.

Canned. Macaroni.

I never knew such a thing existed.

Have a look.

Macaroni and Cheese

Boil macaroni in salted water until tender, or purchase a small can ready for heating.

Place a layer of macaroni in a baking dish, add grated cheese and alternate with macaroni, until dish is filled. Cover with white sauce (Recipe, page 134) and bake about 40 minutes in a moderate over. A small can will make 3 servings. This may be used as a meat substitute.

Only American cheese of good flavor should be used for this.

Candlestick Salad (That's what -she- said.)

I remember this recipe from an old children's cookbook read in years past, but when I checked the three I have in my library, it wasn't included. I'd hoped to find a picture, but perhaps it's best that I didn't. (Search Google images if you must.)

As with the recipe for Prune Loaf (jello), I find the shifting societal trends reflected in cookbooks really interesting. In today's world, the only place this salad could be served would be at a bachelorette party.

I wonder when the shift away from phallic shaped foods (other than those served in buns) was complete? Early 1970s perhaps?

If the trend continues, might hot dogs soon be flattened?

Candlestick Salad

For each person allow 1 slice of canned pineapple placed on a lettuce leaf. Put one half a banana in the center, pour a little mayonnaise at one end, to represent the wax running down, with a small piece of red cherry for the flame.Use orange peel or green pepper for the handle.

There's always room for Prune Jello

Now I've got nothing against prunes. I even rather like them; fresh out of the package, in my friend Nancy's prune cake, or even stewed. This recipe from Meals for Small Families however, does not appeal. Wonder how it went over with the author's family?

Were prunes not the butt of jokes then as they are now?

And more importantly, did Jell-o brand ever offer prune flavored gelatin? If not, why not?

Prune Loaf

1/2 lb. prunes soaked in cider overnight

1 stick of cinnamon

1 tablespoonful sugar

Cook prunes in juice in which they were soaked. Remove pits. Save 1 cup of juice, heat and add the following:

3 tablespoonfuls gelatine

1/2 cup ice water

1 orange (juice)

1 cup chopped almonds

1 orange rind, grated

1 cup prune juice

Add the gelatine--soaked in ice water--to the hot prune juice. When dissolved add the fruit juice, orange rind, and chopped nut meat. Pour into wet mold and chill. When set, unmold and serve with whipped cream. This serves 6.