Today I've been reading Good Housekeeping's Book of Menus, Recipes, and Household Discoveries. It sets out menus for meals for a week for each month. For instance, today being a Monday in August, for lunch we would have had:
Boiled Rice with Fruit
Chipped Beef (I'm going to have to look that one up)
Cream Gravy (nothing like a heart attack to start the day right)
Muffins
Coffee
Chipped Beef (I'm going to have to look that one up)
Cream Gravy (nothing like a heart attack to start the day right)
Muffins
Coffee
Then for "luncheon," instead of the smoothies I actually fixed, we'd have:
Nut Loaf with Tomato Sauce (?????)
Graham Bread Sandwiches
Orangeade
Graham Bread Sandwiches
Orangeade
And tonight we'd be having:
Green Pea Soup
Cauliflower with Mushrooms
Rings of Spaghetti with Garnish of Julienne Carrots
Coffee Ice Cream
Sponge Cake
Coffee
Cauliflower with Mushrooms
Rings of Spaghetti with Garnish of Julienne Carrots
Coffee Ice Cream
Sponge Cake
Coffee
The recipes are included later in the book, though I have not yet found that nut loaf thing. (Do you think it would be considered an Hors d'oeurvres, bread, or a salad?) This book was published in 1922, so it uses measurements like a "peck," offers up recipes for cooking pigeons (which would solve hunger AND the statue cleanliness problems in America) and has a surprising variety of ingredients listed. The first "modern" grocery store (where you get to pick up things for yourself instead of asking the clerk for them) in America opened in 1916 in Memphis, Tennessee and was christened the "Piggly-Wiggly," which has to be one of the more bizarre names ever chosen for a business. I may be underestimating the more traditional grocery stores, but I just wouldn't have expected the normal small-time grocery stores to have things like pimentos and white and black mustard seeds. To be honest, I actually haven't been able to find black mustard seeds in any grocery stores, so maybe I'm just biased. (Then again, I haven't run across pigeon either.)
6 comments:
Welllll, do you really want to run across pigeon???
Chipped beef - or rather creamed chipped beef is really good. Of course it has nearly everything bad for you in it except alcohol and cigarettes, but it's one of my favorites. They sell it frozen but that's nasty stuff - floury gravy with a few specs of beef. My mother made it with tons of chipped beef with just a light coating of the gravy. Still a coronary on a plate but yum. (Others will disagree with that)
Friends of mine actually breed pigeons and say they're delishous. They offered to give us some but I can't bring myself to try them. I keep having the image of those fat "flying rats" in mind.
As for black mustard seeds, I think I've seen them somewhere. It was either one of the grocery stores or the tea shop. I'll see if I can get some for you.
Nut loaf is classed as an entree, at least by the British. It's a common vegetarian alternative to the traditional Sunday roast dinner. (It is usually pretty nasty, although I've had one or two that were edible.)
Graham bread would have been a whole wheat break - you'd have gotten plenty of fiber between that and the nut loaf to make up for the cholesterol-laden breakfast gravy.
As a dabbler in weird history, I would be interested to know if there was a drastic increase in the country's pigeon population once the population quit eating them... thinking about the history of food, it's interesting that most americans only eat two types of birds (chicken and turkey), and few venture beyond four (duck and goose).
I love old cookbooks and have several myself; in fact, I once posted a recipe for boiled celery - yummers!
oooh, chipped beef on toast with gravy!! called sh*t on a shingle in the common language, it is soooooo good! my mother used to make it as a quick dinner. we made it with dried corned beef from the packaged meat section of the grocery store, but some parts of the country carry it in the deli section.
it's really bad for you, but totally excellent!
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