Chapter II: Part 2

This sounds like a joke but it is a perfectly serious dish—I made its acquaintance at the table of a little inn in South Baden, on the shores of Lake Constance.

First you must wait until the elderberry bushes are in full bloom. Then you gather a good sized bunch of them—and cut off each blossom just below the point where the little stems join the main stalk.

These you dip into a light egg batter such as is used to make apple fritters (lighter, perhaps), taking care to cover both the flower and as much of the little stalks as possible. They should be served like fritters as soon as made.

XXVIII

_Reed Smoot_

PEACH COBBLER

One of my favorite dishes is peach cobbler. I am told that it originated in the south, but its fame has spread far beyond the limits of the Mason and Dixon line. It is made in this way:

Line a baking dish or pan, about three and one-half inches deep, with a rich pastry. _There must be no break in the pastry._ Then fill the dish to the brim with peaches—ripe, luscious ones, that have been pared and broken—not cut—in half. Sugar generously, and leave in about six or eight of the peach pits—they give a certain flavor that only peach pits may impart.

Cover the peaches with an _unbroken_ upper crust of pastry; seal it tightly along the sides, so that none of the juices or aromas may escape. Bake in a slow oven until nearly brown—then sprinkle the top with powdered sugar, that will give a certain professional luster to the dish. After that finish the browning process.

A cobbler containing a quart of peaches should bake for about one hour.

EDITOR’S NOTE:—Senator Smoot is not alone in his partiality
toward peach cobbler. Back in the days before Volstead,
famous cobblers were produced just as above with the
addition of brandy, say a cup to a quart of peaches—but
that, of course, was a long time ago.

XXIX

_Ray Long_

SHAD ROE

Dip the roe well in melted butter or bacon fat, place under hot broiler flame, cooking for five minutes on each side. Then place in a greased baking dish, season with salt, tabasco, Worcestershire sauce and paprika. Dot over with a little more butter, or bacon fat, add a small quantity of hot water, cover closely and bake in an oven until tender—about fifteen minutes. This may be garnished with crisp bacon which should be cooked separately.

_Dessert_

Slice fresh pineapple, cover with sugar, and put on ice for several hours. Serve with lemon water ice.

XXX

_Kenneth C. Beaton_

(“K. C. B.”)

LOBSTER

Get a couple of lobsters.
Split and cleaned.
And put in a pan.
And dot each piece.
With bits of butter.
And put the pan.
In a very hot oven.
And broil ten minutes.
And after that.
Lift meat from shell.
Onto heated plates.
And serve with sauce.
Made in a bowl.
With a bit of mustard.
Stirred in water.
And a pinch of salt.
And of paprika.
Just a dash.
And a scant teaspoon.
Of Walnut catsup.
And a tablespoon.
Of Worcestershire sauce.
And mix them all.
With half a cup.
Of melted butter.
That’s just been heated.
And not boiled.
And serve it all.
With a mess of potatoes.
Baked or boiled.
And boy, oh, boy!
There is a dish.
Fit for the gods!
I thank you.

XXXI

_John Harvey Kellogg, M. D._

MACARONI WITH CHEESE

1½ cups macaroni
1 cup Cottage Cheese
2 hard boiled eggs
2 tb. butter
2 cups milk or sufficient to cover the macaroni

Boil the macaroni in salt water until tender. Place a layer of macaroni in the bottom of a baking dish, a layer of cheese (½ C.), sliced hard boiled eggs, layer of macaroni and the cheese—bits of butter are placed between the layers and on the top, sprinkle cracker, bread or PEP crumbs over the top, moisten with cream or bits of butter; sufficient milk is poured over to just cover the macaroni and bake in rather a slow oven for about forty-five minutes.

SAVORY POTATOES

1 pint sliced potatoes
½ small onion
1 tb. butter
1 cup water
1½ teaspoon salt

Place the thin sliced potatoes in the bottom of a baking dish, slice the onion over this and add the remainder of the potatoes; pour hot water over all with butter and salt. Bake in a slow oven two hours.

XXXII

_Clare Briggs_

WAFFLES

There is a simple but effective recipe for one of the kitchen’s most wonderful products.

1¾ cups flour
3 teaspoons baking powder
½ teaspoon salt
1 cup milk
Yolks of 2 eggs
Whites of 2 eggs
1 tablespoon melted butter

Mix and sift dry ingredients; gradually add milk, then yolks of eggs, well beaten. Next the melted butter and last the whites of eggs, beaten stiff. Cook on a very hot and well-greased waffle iron and serve with maple syrup.

EDITOR’S NOTE:—President Harding favors creamed chipped beef
as a dressing for waffles while Mr. Briggs is a staunch
supporter of the sweet-tooth school.

For those who like the sweet stuff this variation of plain
maple syrup is worth trying:

Put one half pound of strained honey in a double boiler, or
a small pan placed in water. _Heat very slowly_, adding a
half pint of pure maple syrup with which has been previously
mixed two teaspoons of powdered cinnamon and a dash of
caraway. Heat and stir until thoroughly mixed—but do not
boil. Serve warm.

XXXIII

_Edward W. Bok_

ASPARAGUS

The food I like?

The dishes I really crave?

The things off which I would dine every day of my life?

I never see them. I never have them.

Why?

Because Mrs. Bok says there is not a digestible dish amongst them.

But I often think of them,—wistfully, oh, so wistfully!

Here they are:

Soft-shell crabs, done in hot olive oil; or hard-shell crabs; deviled.
Lobster with mayonnaise.
Filet Mignon; panned in brown butter.
Veal loaf.
Roast pork tenderloin.
Fried eels.
Sausages; never had enough; ditto scrapple!
Currants with a hot roll lightly wound through them.
Hot fresh doughnuts.
French pancakes of a thinness like unto gauze.
Strong black coffee.
Chocolate meringue glacé.

But as I never had the good fortune to know the above foods at first hand, I cannot well give you the recipes for them.

Perhaps you might like to know my favorite way of serving asparagus in my home, Dutch fashion, as I remember it in my native land of The Netherlands.

The asparagus bunches are placed in a double boiler upright, the tips being above the water, and thus cooked by steam. Passed at table, with the asparagus, is hard-boiled egg, put through a ricer, a small quantity of finely ground nutmeg and a dish of hot, melted butter. It always has to be explained to guests, but once the introduction is over the convert is made!

XXXIV

_Charles Hanson Towne_

CORN PUDDING

There is no dish I like better than a Corn Pudding made just like this:

2 cups of grated corn
½ cup of milk
½ cup of cream
1 tablespoonful of flour
½ tablespoonful of salt
1 teaspoonful of sugar
1 tablespoonful of butter
A pinch of baking powder

Cook for a half hour and serve immediately. It is brown on the top, and in a deep dish it is the most succulent course a man could wish for. I want others to share it with me. I wish I could give a party every night with this as the _pièce-de-résistance_!

EDITOR’S NOTE:—In speaking of the origin of this dish Mr.
Towne says that it was “first made by my wonderful colored
housekeeper, Hattie Jefferson.”

XXXV

_Jerome D. Kern_

TERRAPIN

My favorite dish is Stewed Terrapin and my recipe follows:

Cut the boiled calves’ liver into moderate sized pieces and put into stew pan with sufficient fresh butter to stew it well.

In another pan make a sauce of pre-Prohibition Sherry or Madeira, flavored with the beaten yolk of one egg, powdered nutmeg and mace, a pinch of Cayenne pepper, salt to taste, enlivened with large lump of butter.

If pre-Prohibition Sherry is not available, names and addresses of seventy-one bootleggers can be supplied.

Stir sauce well, and just before it comes to a boil, take it off the fire.

Use three or four hard-boiled hens’ eggs to pinch hit for turtle’s eggs and send to the table piping hot in chafing dish.

IMPORTANT: Serve the sauce separately. The terrapin is frequently ignored by those who prefer the flavor of the sherry. I am one of them.

XXXVI

_Daniel Willard_

COTTAGE PUDDING

One tablespoon butter
One cup sugar
Two eggs
Half cup milk
One large teaspoon baking powder
One and a half cups flour

Bake in a square tin and serve with strawberry sauce.

STRAWBERRY SAUCE

One large tablespoon of butter beaten to a cream. Add gradually one and a half cups powdered sugar and the beaten white of one egg. Beat till very light and just before serving add one pint of strawberries which have been cut in small pieces.

XXXVII

_Houdini_

SCALLOPED MUSHROOMS AND DEVILED EGGS

_The Mushroom Dish_

Choose for this purpose fine firm ones. Pick, wash, wipe and peel—then lay them in a deep pudding dish well buttered. Season them with pepper and salt, and add a little onion. Sprinkle each layer with rolled bread crumbs, dot with small pieces of butter and proceed in this way until dish is full, having the top layer of bread crumbs. Bake in a moderate oven.

_The Eggs_

Boil the eggs hard. Remove shells and cut eggs in half, slicing a bit off the ends to make them stand upright. Extract yolks and rub them to a smooth paste with melted butter, cayenne pepper, a touch of mustard and a dash of vinegar. Fill the hollowed whites with this and send to table upon a bed of chopped lettuce or water cress, seasoned with pepper, salt, vinegar and a little sugar.

XXXVIII

_Charles P. Steinmetz_

MEAT LOAF

I have been consulted about very many things, but this is the first time I have been consulted on gastronomical matters. But I give herewith, from my camping experience, the following favorite dish of mine:

Beef, veal, and pork (sirloin steak and chops), ½ pound each. Cut off the bones and the fat from the beef and veal, leaving the fat on the pork. Then pass all three through the meat grinder, chopping fairly fine. Add two complete raw eggs and some finely sliced bacon (Beechnut bacon, cut in pieces about 1 inch square) and mix everything together thoroughly, adding the proper amount of salt and pepper and if available some celery salt. Form into the shape of a round loaf.

In a cast iron or cast aluminum frying pan (that is a pan of sufficiently heavy metal to well distribute the heat and guard against local burning) melt some butter, then put the loaf in the melted butter and cover the pan. Heat on a very low fire, turning over after some time, and continue for a long time, until very thoroughly cooked through. Add butter once or twice when absorbed. Then uncover and greatly raise the fire, turning over after a little while so as to brown both sides.

Then take out the loaf and put it on a warm platter or plate. Now pour a cup of cream or rich milk into the pan, stir until the sediment in the pan is dissolved, and heat until you get a good brown gravy. Pour this over the loaf and serve with boiled mealy potatoes. What is left over can be eaten cold, sliced and served on buttered toast.

XXXIX

_Charlie Chaplin_

STEAK AND KIDNEY PIE

This is how I do it:

Get 2 pounds lean steak
1 beef kidney
1 small onion.

Cut the steak and kidney into two inch pieces. Flour them. Add pepper and salt to taste. Line a deep pie dish with rich pie crust after having buttered dish. Put inverted egg cup in center. Fill with meat and finely chopped onion. Add water almost to top of dish. Roll pastry half inch thick and cover all. Make several small holes in pastry to permit steam to escape. Bake three hours in moderate oven. EAT.

EDITOR’S NOTE:—Steak and kidney pie is a favorite with many
beside the great film comedian. Interesting variations of
Mr. Chaplin’s recipe are:

_Lamb kidney instead of the beef kidney._

_Top crust only._

_Fry the meat chunks before putting them into the pie._

XL

_Dr. Frank Crane_

ROUND STEAK

Somebody named Johnson, a name with most excellent vibrations, writes me and says that in spite of rumors he has heard, to the effect that I have a hired hand or two to write my stuff, he believes that I honestly wrote all by myself an article which appeared some time ago over my name, in which I stated I could cook round steak so that it would taste as good as fried chicken and be as tender.

“If you are not bluffing,” he says, “you could do a world of good to many housekeepers and stag clubs if you would print your recipe. The writer has worn the outer coat of enamel off his teeth in a vain attempt to make himself believe that round steak is as tender as chicken. Give us a hand, pal.”

Hence, being called, I lay my cards down, face up, on the table, to wit, namely and as follows:

Have the butcher cut you a round steak thin. A little thicker than a lead pencil. He will insist on cutting it thicker, saying it will be juicier and so on. Draw your revolver and compel him to obey you. Don’t have the steak too thick.

After cutting the steak from the piece, have him separate it into portions, each about the size of your hand. Don’t try to cook the steak all in one piece. It must be in small sections, just as fried chicken is best when each joint is cooked separately.

Have the butcher then take his sharp knife (which is much better for the purpose than any knife you have at home, because he knows the art of sharpening and you don’t), and criss-cross each piece, on both sides, don’t forget. So that each piece will be in tatters, almost ready to fall apart.

Put in the frying pan plenty of good sweet lard. Don’t use butter. It will burn. Don’t fry in deep fat, as with doughnuts, but plenty of fat, as with fried chicken.

Rub each portion of the raw steak in flour. Rub it in good. Drop into the hot skillet. Cover it with lid. Keep covered. This cooks it through and makes it tender.

Fry till a golden brown, turning once in a while. You notice the process is exactly as with fried chicken, Southern style.

After you lift out the meat, put in the flour, let it scorch a bit, then pour water and milk mixed into the hot grease and meat particles left in the skillet. Just how much, you will have to find out by experiment. Let it boil up and boil down, keep stirring, until you have gravy of the right consistency. Flavor according to taste, with salt and pepper, before cooking. If the result is not good it is because you have not followed directions.

Round steak not only is cheap, but it is all good meat, with the minimum of waste, and properly cooked it TASTES better than any part of the beef.

XLI

_Robert H. Davis_

CREAM SAUCE Á LA WORCESTERSHIRE

This incomparable concoction is to be united in the bonds of holy wedlock with a piece of fried ham, the ceremony to be solemnized on a hot rasher, hooded.

Select a thick slice of mild cured ham, fry it in its own fat in a hot skillet until both sides show a golden brown. Place in a large cooking spoon one spoonful of Worcestershire sauce, and one heaping tablespoon of rich cream. Set the cooking spoon in frying pan beside ham until Worcestershire and cream become warm, adding a few drops of ham fat while the sauce is heating. Complete the perfect union on the rasher by pouring the sauce over the ham.

Put a Mendelssohn Wedding March disc on your phonograph and conclude the honeymoon at the table.

EDITOR’S NOTE:—This sauce was created by Mr. Davis at a
breakfast given at the Wyandanch Club, Long Island, by Mr.
Charles R. Flint to Admiral Guy Gaunt of the British Navy
and Irvin S. Cobb of the United States of America in 1915.

XLII

_John A. Dix_

FRIED TROUT

For my favorite dish—unhesitatingly—baked beans and pork, country style.

As to my favorite recipe, that requires many condiments, among others a mountain trout stream; the inspiration of the odor of the woods; the vigor of early morning and the pursuit. The requirements, just enough trout plus a few. From the pack basket take a piece of pork or bacon, fry well in a skillet over a carefully laid fire. Prepare the fish and roll well in fine bread crumbs seasoned with salt and pepper. When the fish are done a golden brown remove from the skillet and partake in the aboriginal manner, eating from the fingers. Kings could do no more.

XLIII

_Guy Bates Post_

LAMB CURRY Á LA “OMAR, THE TENTMAKER”

1 onion (diced)
1 cup of stock
½ cup of rice water
1 cup of potatoes, which have been previously boiled and diced
2 cups of lamb, cold roast preferred, and cut into the size of dominoes
2 tablespoons of Curry Powder (Cross and Blackwells, or other
imported—_never domestic_)
Zest of one lemon
Salt to taste

Give me the above ingredients, and I will make you the meat dish which, above all others, is, to my way of thinking, the most savory and delicious. Eight years ago, when I was first playing “Omar, the Tentmaker,” I became acquainted with various members of the Persian Embassy, who were especially interested in the play because of its Persian locale, and it was while dining in the home of one of these gentlemen that I first became initiated to lamb curry—that is, lamb curry as it really should be cooked! Begging the recipe from my host, it has ever since been the favorite pièce-de-résistance in my home.

First of all you brown the onion in olive oil in a deep pan; then add the stock, rice-water, salt and curry powder; the latter having been mixed with a little of the rice-water to insure a smooth sauce. Simmer slowly till the oil and curry float in dark blobs, add the lamb, and continue simmering and stirring until just before serving, when the lemon juice should be dripped in.

Lamb curry should always be served with hot rice, taking on your fork equal portions of both, increasing the amount of rice in case you find the curry too hot. Never drink water with curry, as it intensifies the burning sensation. The amount of curry powder used in the above recipe can be increased or decreased according to the individual taste. Cold cooked shrimps, lobster, veal or chicken may be used in place of lamb; but never beef. Personally I find that lamb produces the finest curry dish.

XLIV

_Dr. Don Rafael H. Elizalde_

(Minister from Ecuador)

SANCOCHO

Four pounds of loin beef cut into two-inch squares.

Eight good-sized potatoes.

Five or six ears of green corn, broken in lengths of two inches.

Water sufficient to make the amount of soup required.

Boil until the beef is tender, with the potatoes, then add the corn and cook until done.

_Onions_—

Slice thin three large onions—boil for half an hour, drain and cool. Then pour olive oil over them.

_Banana Paste_—

One quart of milk in a double boiler; add two heaping tablespoonsful of banana flour mixed in a little milk to a smooth paste, and cook from half hour to an hour.

_How to Serve_—

Strain the soup through a colander and serve in a tureen, placing meat, potatoes, corn, onions and banana paste in separate, individual dishes from which each person may help themselves.

(In South America the yucca and plantains are used in this dish.)

YAPINGACHO

Make potato cakes by the ordinary recipe, but before shaping them place a piece of cream cheese the size of a walnut in the center of each; then fry brown in very little fat.

_Sauce_—

One quart of milk and one half pound of peanuts ground fine; boil until thick, seasoning with salt, paprika and butter.

Serve the potato cakes with fried eggs and pour the sauce over both.

XLV

_Bide Dudley_

TOMATO SOP

Slice firm, ripe tomatoes; roll in flour and fry in equal parts of lard and butter until brown on both sides. Remove several slices to a platter, stir those remaining with flour and small lumps of butter: then thicken with milk and season to taste.

Sop with bread or toast.

EDITOR’S NOTE:—This is good. But in the interest of the
culinary art it should be stated that the flour, and not the
milk, is the thickening agent.

Try it—you’ll thank the author of “tomato sop.”

XLVI

_William Hale Thompson_

(Mayor of Chicago)

ROAST BEEF

My favorite food is Roast Beef, rare, or a good American sirloin steak, which, I take it, are so simple to prepare that they need no recipe.

_Suggestions_:

1. Stand your roast on two or three thin slices of bacon—not too fat.

2. On the top of the roast lay three or four thin slices of lemon—particularly if you like the “outside cut.”

3. If your steak looks a bit fresh rub with lemon juice (both sides) and allow to stand several hours before broiling or frying. Don’t be frightened if it turns a bit black—be glad.

4. Pan may be rubbed with garlic.

5. Steaks should be _thick_, particularly if you broil.

XLVII

_Booth Tarkington_

CORN FLAKES

My favorite dish is corn flakes. They should be placed in a saucer or hollow dish, then lifted in both hands and rolled for a moment, then dropped back into the dish. After that an indefinite quantity of cream should be poured upon them. They should be eaten with a spoon. I don’t know how to prepare anything else for the table. I think the best Kennebunkport manner of steaming clams is as follows:

A bushel of clams
4 dozen lobsters
4 dozen ears of sweet corn
4 dozen sweet potatoes
4 dozen eggs

A cartload of seaweed, a bonfire burning for six hours on rocks, then swept away; the lobsters, clams, etc., placed in the seaweed, and the seaweed on the hot rocks and covered with BBB canvas. Allow to steam until screams of distress issue from the seaweed; then be careful what you eat!

XLVIII

_T. A. Dorgan_

CHILI CON CARNE

_Comes through with a natural_

What is my favorite filler for the feed bag? Well, I’ll be on the square with my answer.... It’s Chili con Carne.

I might have said Terrapin Maryland, or some other Ritzy dish, but thought I’d better come with a natural.

I’ll play Chili con Carne and tamales as they are served in California (where I was born) against any dish I’ve ever forked over.

_Recipe_

Cut, say, two pounds of good beef in small pieces the size of the first finger joint. Add some of the chopped fat, mix and salt.

Put two tablespoonsful of lard in a deep pot and heat. To this add a chopped onion. When the onion is about half cooked add the meat. Stir well until the meat has boiled down in its juice. When it starts to fry add about one and a half pints of hot water, three tablespoonsful of Gebhardt’s Eagle Chili Powder and a few buttons of chopped garlic. Simmer and stir well until the meat is tender.

XLIX

_William De Leftwich Dodge_

RAGOUT DE MOUTON

I think my favorite dish is “Ragout de Mouton,” or, I would say, the one I cook the best.

The way it’s done is this:

Cut up lamb in small pieces and fry it in a frying pan. Slice three or four carrots and onions and fry them with it. When these are nicely browned, put into a pot, cover with water, and let boil slowly for an hour. Then put in a few potatoes and turnips (cut up in small pieces), and boil until done. Season as you see fit.

L

_Montague Glass_

BOUILLEBAISSE

Bouillebaisse is my favorite dish. I make it according to the recipe of Valentine Blanc, our cook in Nice, where we lived some years ago. Valentine could neither read nor write, nor could a story tell, but her Bouillebaisse was ever so much better than that they make in Marseilles (and I venture to say in Thackeray’s old restaurant either).

Melt about a half pound of butter in a sauce pan. I’m aware that in Marseilles they use oil, but Valentine used butter. Don’t let the butter burn. Have ready two large chopped onions—i. e.—onions chopped fine, and two “dents” of garlic also chopped fine.

Cook these in the butter until tender and without burning. Have ready three perch and one haddock. That is to say: cut off the heads and tails. Some people use eels instead of haddock. I detest eels. Cut into a large saucepan the heads and tails of the fish with about a quart of water and let simmer until well cooked, say about half an hour. Strain out the heads and tails and give them to the cat.

Add the cooked onions and garlic,—butter and all—to the strained bouillion from the heads and tails and allow to simmer for half an hour more, after seasoning to taste with salt and white pepper. Add about a gill of dry white wine of any variety,—Chablis, Cotes du Rhone or what not,—the cheaper the wine the better. Now take two smallish lobsters, alive, and if you have the heart, cut them into segments and take off the claws and cut _them_ into segments. Cook the massacred lobster for about a quarter of an hour in the liquid or liquor or bouillon above described and add a saltspoonful of dried Spanish saffron, while the whole is cooking together. If you can get mussels, cook also with the entire mess, a dozen or so,—in their shells if the shells be well scrubbed in advance. Somewhere in this process add about a tablespoonful of chopped parsley. Last of all, add the fish cut into convenient slices rather small, and let cook until done, but not long enough so that the fish becomes disintegrated. Remember there ought to be no violent boiling.

Before serving strain off most of the liquor and serve it first as soup with a slice of toast in the bottom of the plate. If the toast has been fried in advance in good butter, so much the better, but this is not necessary. Then eat all the solid part except the shells and sop up all the remaining gravy with bread, using your fingers to do the job and not a fork. Don’t leave a bit of it.

There ought to be enough of this stew for four people, but I can usually manage the whole thing myself with only the slightest assistance from my wife. Wine ought to be drunk with the meal, a good Burgundy Beaune or Chambertin. Later one should eat an artichoke cold vinaigrette, then some fruit and cheese and two small cups of well made black coffee. After this it is necessary to smoke a Corona Corona not too mild, and drink a small glass of Cointreau Sec. The bread ought to be _Pain Riche_ in flutes. The fruit may be fresh apricots, a few green almonds and perhaps some green gages.

The coffee ought to be drunk and the cigar smoked in the garden which must be in the vicinity of Mount Boron on the Grande Corniche or it may be in the Parc Imperial. God ought to be thanked either during or after the meal, and when it becomes a little too cold in the garden a fire should be built in the small living room and one should read Somerville & Ross’ _Recollections of an Irish R. M._, or Neil Lyon’s _Simple Simon_, or Belloc’s _Path to Rome_, or Richard Ford’s _Gatherings from Spain_ until bedtime.

Repeat the whole process on the following Friday.

God! How hungry I am.

LI

_John Philip Sousa_

PELOTAS Á LA PORTUGUESE

“_This serves from six to eight people and is my
favorite dish._”

One quart can of tomatoes. Put in kettle on top of stove, simmer or let boil slowly for one and a half hours. Add pepper, salt, two onions cut in fine slices, four allspice and four cloves. The cloves and allspice to be added after it starts to boil. After two and a half hours add:

Two pounds chopped beef; add one onion, chopped fine, two cups bread crumbs, a little parsley, salt and pepper. Make into meat balls about the size of a plum. Put into sauce and boil one and one-half hours slowly. This makes fully three hours’ slow boiling for the sauce.

SPAGHETTI

Use a package or a pound of spaghetti; not macaroni. Have a large pot of boiling water with about one tablespoonful of salt. Slide the spaghetti into the water. Do not break it. Boil exactly twenty minutes. Must be tender, not tough nor doughy.

To sauce, add three bay leaves one hour before taking off the stove.

Serve spaghetti on large platter, pouring tomato sauce over it. Serve pelotas on smaller platter, allowing a small quantity of sauce to remain on them.

Serve grated Parmesan cheese on side. Use a piece of cheese to grate, not bottled cheese.

LII

_Will Hays_

CHICKEN PILAU

_“Get a fat hen—the fatter the better.”_

Because this recipe comes from a Southern cook, there are no accurate measurements.

Sam would always recommend a “fat hen”—“the fatter the better,” and “’nough rice and plenty of pepper.”

This I know: The chicken is cut up and boiled in the water until tender. Should be cooked in a good sized flat bottom kettle. When the chicken is tender there should be enough of the stock to come up well around it, but not to cover it. Then put in with the chicken about a scant pint of well washed rice. This should be stirred ONCE, Sam says, and allowed to steam slowly an hour. Use plenty of pepper to season and salt to taste. Each grain of rice should be fat and juicy. Successfully made it is delicious.

EDITOR’S NOTE:—The Chicken Pilau recommended by Mr. Hays is
delicious. A variation perhaps equally good, may be had by
substituting broken spaghetti, or vermicelli for the rice.

LIII

_Frank Ward O’Malley_

RUM-TUM-TIDDY

“——_has the best Welsh rabbit backed off the stove._”

Take one country home in New Jersey. One dependable apple-jack bootlegger. One cook who threatens to leave unless she can begin her nightly visits to her daughter in the village as early as seven-thirty o’clock.

Take three or four acquaintances who drop in for apple-jack cocktails just as your cook is about to put the steak on to broil. Then have your guests linger near the cocktail shaker until you, your wife and especially your delayed cook are approaching hysteria.

“Why not stay,” you now announce to your guests in desperation, “and we’ll all make a rum-tum-tiddy?”

You now tell your grateful cook not to bother preparing a meal. You next take one flivver and hurriedly drive her to her daughter’s in the village. Then you buy in the village one and one-half pounds of American cheese, one can of Campbell’s Tomato Soup and a dozen bottles of beer—real beer, if you can get it, Volstead beer if you can’t.

_NOW_:—

Pry your guests away from the cocktail shaker and shoo them into the kitchen. Everybody from this on who is not occupied in mincing the green pepper in a chopping bowl is busy cutting the American cheese into cubes about an inch square. Everybody else beats two fresh eggs—whites and yolks together.

Drop a lump of butter into a saucepan to prevent “sticking.” Begin to melt the pound and one half of diced cheese in the saucepan, stirring the lumps to prevent burning. When the cheese is fairly well melted, pour into it the can of tomato soup and the two beaten eggs. Stir into the mixture about one-third of a bottle of beer. Pour in also the finely chopped green pepper and continue stirring until smooth.

Have hot dinner plates ready, each plate containing a large slice of hot, unbuttered toast. Place at least one bottle of beer—two if it’s real—beside each plate.

Holler “Ready, people!” and pour on each piece of toast enough of the contents of the saucepan to form a pinkish overflow of rum-tum-tiddy on the plate.

That’s all—except to shake ’em up a semi-final cocktail and then start right back to the village in the flivver for another pound and one half of cheese, another pepper and more beer to make another immediately when the first rum-tum-tiddy is gone. One calls for two, often three.

Serve preferably in the kitchen. Serve in any room far from the kitchen if you want leg work exercise. Eat until gorged.

LIV

_Charles Evans Hughes_

CORN BREAD

“_My favorite dish is corn bread and honey._”

And here is a recipe for corn bread:

2 cups of flour
3 cups of cornmeal
4 heaping teaspoonsful of baking powder
2 eggs well beaten
1 teaspoonful salt
1 tablespoonful sugar
1 pint of milk
2 tablespoonsful of melted butter

Mix the meal and flour, baking powder, salt and sugar. Beat the eggs until they are light, then add the eggs and milk to the meal. Beat to a light smooth consistency and add the melted butter. Bake in a shallow pan (greased) for about twenty-five minutes.

Eat while hot and use plenty of fresh butter and honey.

EDITOR’S NOTE:—There is a white meal and a yellow. Expert
appraisers of corn bread have said that the white meal is
preferable. Still the golden hue of a pan of hot corn bread
is not to be passed up lightly.

LV

_Walter Prichard Eaton_

MINCE-PIE

“_Made any other way it’s not mince-pie._”

My favorite dish, and the best food in the world, is King Canute Pudding, but I shall not tell anybody how to make it, because that is a family secret. I am descended from Canute, and this was the pudding he ate and which made him feel so good that he went out and bade the tide to cease rising. The recipe is handed down in each generation of my tribe. It was my paternal grandmother who had it to pass on. She lived to be ninety-nine, thanks to her own wonderful cooking and a cantankerous disposition. Her mince-pie was a thing to write sonnets about. It was the second best food in the world. For ten years after I went to New York I lived on the memory of that pie and shuddered at the horrendous messes masquerading under the same name which were offered to me.

Then I moved back to New England and achieved a cook who, by the grace of God and the right bringing up could make a pie like it. For six years I knew happiness again. Then we lost Kate, the incomparable. My only hope was my wife and that was a feeble hope, indeed. She was born not in the pie belt, but in New York. She had never cooked. She was an Episcopalian. I approached the next Thanksgiving breakfast with gloomy forebodings.

But lo, a miracle. It was an orthodox mince-pie. It was Katie’s mince-pie. It was grandmother’s mince-pie—in short, it was mince-pie. Here is the way to make it. Made any other way it’s not mince-pie.

_The Filling_

Affix the grinder firmly to the edge of the table. What the palette is to the artist so is the grinder to the creator of mince meat. Then pass the following ingredients through the grinder, and from thence into a large kettle and let the latter and its glorious contents simmer on the stove for the best part of a morning, stirring them frequently so that no portion shall be neglected and fail to come into close union with the soothing heat that mellows all into one fragrant whole. Take from the stove and store in stone crocks or glass jars in the dark, and keep tightly covered. When about to fashion a pie take out as much of the meat as you desire, wet it with boiled cider and with fresh cider, too, if possible, so that it is not stiff, and bake between the crusts whose ingredients are given below. Eat hot with soft dairy cheese and coffee.

The meat should be thoroughly boiled the day before the mince meat is made, and the cider should be boiled down at home—not bought—until it is the consistency of molasses. Boil enough to last all winter and put in glass jars. Now, alas, that no liquors may be had, it is well to bottle fresh cider and put it away where it is cool, so that with luck it may still be fresh when in March you scrape the last jar for the last pie. Only use care when it is opened, or perchance it will be the ceiling rather than the pie which will be wet down.

5 cups cooked beef; after grinding
2½ cups suet
7½ cups apples
3 cups cider
½ cup vinegar
1 cup molasses
5 cups sugar
¾ pound citron
2½ pounds raisins
1½ pounds small raisins (not to be put through grinder)
salt to taste
juice and rind of 2 lemons
juice and rind of 2 oranges
1 tablespoon mace and nutmeg (or 2 nutmegs grated)
2 tablespoons each of cinnamon, cloves and allspice
2 tablespoons lemon extract
1 teaspoon almond extract
3 cups liquor in which beef was cooked

If you have wine or brandy put in a cupful after taking from the fire.

_The Crust_

2 cups pastry flour sifted with teaspoon salt.
½ cup (generous) of lard mixed in with fingertips till
the combination is fine and powdery.

Wet with cold water, mixing with knife, and cutting, till
you can take the dough from the bowl without sticking to
it. Divide in half, pat gently on floured marble slab, and
roll out thin. Lift lower crust carefully, place in tin and
trim off edges. Roll out from trimmings a strip half an inch
wide and place on top of lower crust, around edge, first
wetting edge slightly with cold water. Put in filling, place
upper crust on top, first wetting edge of rim slightly with
cold water, press together with tines of fork and trim off
overhanging of upper crust. Prick a large T. M. on the top
crust and bake in hot oven till brown.

(The T. M. stands for “’Tis Mince” to distinguish it from the pies labeled T. M. for “’Tain’t Mince.”)

LVI

_W. T. Benda_

POLISH SPECIALTIES

In following my Polish recipes you will find a practical use for the geometry of your school days. If you have forgotten the axioms of Euclid, take a correspondence course before attempting “Ushka.”

It is simple when you finally master it—and marvelously good. Don’t forget the line B D. Everything hinges on that.

BARSHCK WITH USHKA

_Barshck. (Or Polish Beet Soup)_

If you are brave, put three large beets, peeled and quartered into a glass jar and pour on them a quart of water, add a teaspoonful of salt and a slice of rye bread. Keep this in a warm place for about five days. There will form a sour red-wine-like juice with a whitish mold skin on the top. Don’t lose your courage, take this skin off and pour off the juice.

Then prepare a quart of beef, pork and vegetable stock and while it is hot add to it all your beet juice and a bottle of cream which you previously have beaten with a teaspoonful of flour. Heat and stir it all just to boiling point, but do not let it boil, and serve with or without “Ushka” which are fully described in the next paragraph.

_Ushka_

Barshck is really not complete without “Ushka,” and as they are a very simple dish to prepare you should never omit them.

To make “Ushka” prepare first a fine hash of half a pound of boiled pork and beef with one small onion, a tablespoonful of flour, salt and pepper.

Make white sauce of butter and flour and a little water, mix this with your hash, let it stew for a while, then add one raw egg and stir it madly.

Now mix a dough, using half a quart of flour, one egg, two tablespoonfuls of water, half a teaspoonful of salt, and butter of the size of a walnut. Knead this vigorously for half an hour, or until it is quite smooth.

Roll the dough out into a sheet 1/8 of an inch thick and cut it into 2½ inch squares. Put on each dough square a teaspoonful of your hash; fold them diagonally along the line BD (Fig. 1) and press the edges together, thus joining the edge AB unto the edge CB and AD unto CD. You will thus obtain the right angle triangle ABD (Fig. 2) with the hash inside. Now curve this triangle along the hypotenuse BD until the 45 degree corner D meets the 45 degree corner B. Let these two corners overlap a little and press them together until they stick. The shape resulting from this operation resembles a pig’s ear, as depicted in Figure 3.

Now put these _pig’s ears_ or _Ushka_ into boiling water; they will sink, but that should not distress you. Leave them there until they come to the surface. Put the Ushka on a platter and pour on them brown butter with crumbs and serve them as a side dish with _barshck_.

BURACHKI

(_Beets à la Polonaise_)

Boil eight little beets, skin them and chop them (not too fine).

Take one level tablespoonful of butter, and one tablespoonful of flour. Brown it until it is of a golden hue. Stir into this half a cupful of vinegar, two tablespoonsful of sugar, half a teaspoonful of salt and a little pepper. Bring it to boiling, then mix this with your beets.

LVII

_Captain Edward A. Salisbury_

SAUCE FOR SPAGHETTI

This sauce for spaghetti is a real Italian mixture—and wonderful. This is how I learned to make it in Italy:

Place in a cup or bowl a half teacup full of _dried_ mushrooms. Pour boiling water over them and just let them stand until thoroughly softened, say—about a half hour.

In the meantime cover the bottom of your frying pan or skillet with butter or olive oil (I prefer the butter). Chop one big onion and cook slowly, stirring frequently. In another pan or kettle place two cans of tomatoes. Stew them for half an hour. Then make three small cakes of Hamburg steak or chopped beef and put them in to cook, with the onions. Cook thoroughly. Add at the same time the mushrooms which have been softened and chopped into fine particles.

When the meat is cooked through mash the cakes up with a fork—mixing well with onions and mushrooms.

Now add the stewed tomatoes and, in doing this, press them through a sieve or colander. Stir well.

Place on back of stove and let steep for one hour after adding two teaspoons of Eagle Chili Powder (if available) or two teaspoons of Lea & Perrins sauce with five dissolved cubes of beef or chicken bouillon.

To cook the spaghetti, place it, unbroken, in well salted boiling water. Put it in end first. Boil exactly twenty-three minutes. Drain. Hold under cold water tap for a second or two and drain again. Keep warm on stove until served. This cold water treatment is important. It removes all gumminess and leaves the spaghetti in perfect condition. Use the imported spaghetti if available.

EGGS À LA SALISBURY

Here is a dish that is easy to make and delicious.

I poach the desired number of eggs until they are just solid. Then I place them on hot, crisp toast, covering the eggs with beautifully done bacon.

Over the lot, I pour hot cream until the eggs are floating.

Salt, pepper and paprika to taste.

Try this for breakfast.

FISH À LA COMMODORE

Say you are cooking a six pound bass or some similar fish—do it this way for a change:

Rub the fish well with salt and pepper. Don’t be afraid to rub. Then open the flesh in three places and insert in each opening a clove of garlic.

Next slice six large onions—six small green peppers—and six large tomatoes. Now take your Dutch oven or baking pan and cover the bottom with Mazola oil or olive oil—add a tablespoon of butter.

When this is _hot_ put in your fish and cover the fish with the sliced vegetables. Salt and pepper the vegetables.

Cook until the vegetables are done or about one hour. Baste frequently to avoid scorching the vegetables. To the basting add two teaspoons of Lea & Perrins sauce and one-half wine glass of cooking Sherry when half done.

When serving put plenty of juice and sauce on each portion and make them come back for more. This recipe can be used for many kinds of large fish.

TO COOK TROUT

Dip trout in beaten egg, salt and pepper. Roll in flour and drop into very hot and very deep Mazola oil. Remove when golden brown. The trout will be perfectly free from oil and every bit of the delicate trout flavor will be sealed up inside. Try it!

VENISON STEAK

Venison steak is fairly poor steak at best. But there is one way to cook it that makes you forget all past experiences with venison. And remember this is really the only way to cook it that’s worth a damn.

Take the venison and strip out _all of the white sinews_ that lay between the muscles or lean parts. Strip and cut this white part all away. Then cut your venison into small strips about the thickness of a finger. Now you are on your way. Beat up an egg or two and beat in a bit of salt and pepper. Dip your strips of venison in the egg, then roll them in flour. Fry in butter and serve immediately.

Every hunter or guide who has tried this sticks to it. It’s the one way to cook venison.

GOOSE

There is only one way for a man, or any one else, to cook a goose. Listen: Never pick a goose! Just pull the skin right off—every inch of it.

Then take a sharp knife and follow down the breast bone on both sides. Strip the breast meat clear away from both sides. Split each side of breast into two thin steaks (if large goose).

Dip these steaks in beaten egg, salt and pepper. Roll in flour and fry over a medium fire. That’s new to most folks for goose and it’s going to give you a new idea about geese when you try it.

A MAYONNAISE AND A SALAD DRESSING

Take yolks of two eggs, beat well and add slowly (drop at a time) olive oil. If your mixture is too thick lighten with dash of lemon or vinegar.

Now into a half pint of this mayonnaise put three tablespoons of Chili sauce; three tablespoons of Blue Label Ketchup; one tablespoon of finely chopped pimento; one tablespoon of finely chopped blanched sweet peppers.

To this add one-half teaspoon of salt—pepper and Hungarian paprika to taste.

Then add, slowly, Tarragon vinegar to taste—say about one and one-half tablespoons.

Serve this on shrimps, lobster, lettuce or tomato salad.

DUCKS AND LARGE FOWL

Ducks, such as Mallard, Canvasback and Redhead, should be baked. If you once learn how to bake in a Dutch Oven you have found the secret of successful camp cookery.

Take a Mallard, for instance. Rub it with salt and pepper (I might add here: pick ’em dry and keep ’em dry—no water near a duck!), then put an onion well up in the body cavity. Fill the remaining space with celery, wild or domestic.

Get your oven, or Dutch oven, very hot before the duck goes in. Use no grease and no water—just your dry pan or oven. A big Mallard will cook perfectly in twenty minutes. Do not open oven or take lid from Dutch oven after starting to cook. Serve with currant jelly.

TEAL, PARTRIDGE AND SMALL FOWL

Pick, without breaking the skin. Cut open the back and break out flat for grilling or broiling. Broil bone side to the fire for _eight_ minutes. Souse frequently with melted butter.

Turn and broil, flesh side to the fire, for _four_ minutes, using more butter. Salt and pepper thoroughly at time of turning.

Serve with currant jelly.

BEANS

Get a deep pot for beans. A heavy iron one is mighty good.

Take a half pound of salt pork and cut it into very small pieces. Fry them until brown.

Clean your beans and soak them for at least two hours—or more. Then boil the beans for two hours, after which add the pork and one can of Mexican Chili Sauce. If this is not available, make your own by frying with the salt pork: four tomatoes, three onions, two bell peppers and one red pepper, all chopped.

Now you’ve got your mixture and after it’s all together put in six beef bouillon cubes; salt and pepper to taste.

It’s a good idea to have enough water in the pot so that when the beans are done a fine soup may be enjoyed before the beans are eaten. Altogether three to four hours of cooking is necessary for the best results with beans.

ITALIAN RICE

First, a word about cooking rice. Buy the best head rice. Wash it thoroughly,—six waters. Drop rice slowly into well salted, boiling water, and boil for twenty-three minutes. Drain off three-quarters of water and hold rice under cold water faucet for a moment; this will leave each grain firm and perfect. Drain thoroughly.

Now the sauce. Place in your skillet olive oil to cover the bottom; also tablespoon of butter. Chop one large Spanish onion. Place it in the skillet and cook slowly. Stir often.

After ten or fifteen minutes, a piece of white fish (sole preferred) about the size of your four fingers, from the palm down—see? When the onions are a golden color add one finely chopped clove of garlic. When fish is thoroughly cooked, mash it up with a fork and stir well. Now add one or two cans of tomatoes which have been stewing slowly for half an hour or more. Add them through a sieve and push with a spoon so as to get the thick part through. Mix well.

Place this on the back of the stove where it will simmer for one hour. Add a pinch of saffron or thyme—salt and pepper to taste.

This sauce can be used for only one meal, as it sours after a few hours. Sauce should be applied by each person as desired until it’s all gone.

STEAK SAUCE

Have a large platter very, very hot—really hot!

Then the minute the steak is done, put it on the platter and work fast. Over the steak sprinkle a very little bit of dry English mustard. Then a squeeze or two of lemon. Now several thin slices of butter, a little Worcestershire sauce, salt, pepper and paprika. Rub all this in with a broad knife. Turn steak and repeat the operation. Now tip platter on edge and quickly whip the sauce into a froth, using a fork. Serve two or three tablespoons of sauce with each piece of steak.

LVIII

_Thomas H. Ince_

CHICKEN HALIBUT

(_Baked and with Parmesan_)

Boil some slices of halibut in court bouillon, lay in baking dish a border of potato croquette—either hard or shaped with hand. Have layer of bechamel on bottom of dish—then one of shredded fish, another layer of bechamel and one more of fish, finishing with the bechamel; sprinkle with bread crumbs and grated Parmesan. Pour over a little butter and brown in the oven.

_With Parmesan._ Prepare same and make solid paste by mixing together butter and Parmesan cheese with pinch paprika. Work well and roll out one-eighth inch thick. Cover last layer bechamel with this and brown in hot oven.

_Bechamel Sauce._ Prepare roux of butter and flour, let cook few minutes while stirring—not allow to color—remove to slower fire and leave it to cook 15 minutes. Then dilute gradually with half boiled milk.

ONION SOUP AU GRATIN