Recent Foodsville Notes by Mayor

Crab Croquettes

mayor@foodsville.com — Fri, 15 Aug 2008 03:09:10

Pick the meat of boiled crabs and chop it fine. Season to taste with pepper, salt and melted butter. Moisten it well with rich milk or cream, then stiffen it slightly with bread or cracker crumbs. Add two or three well-beaten eggs to bind the mixture. Form the croquettes, egg and bread, crumb them and fry them delicately in boiling lard. It is better to use a wire frying basket for croquettes of all kinds.

"PINCESZER" CELLAR GATHERING

mayor@foodsville.com — Sun, 10 Aug 2008 19:11:15

From Hungarian Specialties Cookery Book (1900) by Nelly de Sacellary. To read from the original book click the page image on right.

The favorite recreation of the man living in the Balaton region is the cellar gathering. For the country man this is the substitute of the club or coffee-house where the townsman finds his amusement. The wine grower works from morning till noon and four or five hours after noon but at five o'clock he slings his knapsack over his back, wraps some ryebread, bacon or dry sausage in a white cloth and goes out to the cellar. On the way he always meets some friends who accompany him and often several go together who partake of the food in the knapsacks and the wine in the cellar. Many an evening is spent thus.

Many times it happens that a birthday, nameday or an important guest arrives and then a larger cellar gathering is prepared. The village notables, and neighbour wine growers are invited. The host himself prepares the stew or fish paprikas.

In the autumn mutton stew is fashionable, in the winter fish paprikas or shod and whiting fried in lard, or fish stew are popular.

Naturally the housewife has something to say, in this matter but she does not appear at the gathering. She sends down with the maid some delicious flead cakes of her own making.

The mutton stew is prepared in a glazed pot. No other pot will do. The lard, an abundant supply of chopped onion, meat cut into squares and red pepper are put in the pot over an open fire. All cellars have an open fire, and the guests watch the cooking procedure while drinking the strong Balaton wine as an appetiser.

A cellar gathering is always a very gay affair, the guests joke and perhaps begin to sing some old songs and it is dawn before they realize that it is time to disperse.

As this is the only amusement and recreation the country man has, it is still in existence and will remain until there are no cellars left in which to meet.

History of the Strawberry

mayor@foodsville.com — Sat, 07 Jun 2008 21:13:45

From The Illustrated Strawberry Culturist (1862)
To read the original book, click on the page on the right

How the name of Strawberry came to be applied to this fruit is unknown, as the old authors do not agree ; some asserting that it was given it because children used to string them upon straws to sell, while others say that it took its name from the fact of straw being placed around the plants in order to keep the fruit clean. Its name may not have been derived from either of these, but from the appearance of the plant ; for when the ground is covered with its runners, they certainly have much of the appearance of straw being spread over the ground. We have found nothing conclusive on this point.
The strawberry does not appear to have been cultivated by the ancients, or even by the Romans, for it is scarcely mentioned by any of their writers, and then not in connection with the cultivated fruits or vegetables. Virgil mentions it only when warning the shepherds against the concealed adder when seeking flowers and strawberries.
Ovid mentions the Alpine and wood strawberries, and Pliny speaks of it as one of the few native fruits of Italy.
From what we learn from these and other ancient writers, we conclude that the cultivation of the strawbeny belongs wholly to modern tunes, or about 400 years since. Yet there does not appear to have been any highly-improved varieties in cultivation one hundred years ago, although the strawberry was much cultivated in gardens in the beginning of the fifteenth century.
Casper Bauhin, in his "Pinax," published in 1623, mentions but five varieties. Gerarde, in 1597, enumerates but three the white, red, and green fruited.
Parkinson, in 1656, describes the Virginian and Bohemian, besides those mentioned by Gerarde. Quintinie, in his "French Gardener," translated by Evelyn in 1672, mentions only four varieties, and gives directions for cultivation similar to that practiced by some of the best cultivators at the present time, viz., planting in August, removing all the runners so soon as they appear, and renewing the beds every four years.
Only four or five varieties are mentioned by any of the old writers on gardening earlier than about 120 years ago. Switzer, in 1724, enumerates only four kinds ; therefore we conclude that few, if any, but the wild varieties were in cultivation at that time.
The Cappron strawberry (or Fressant, as it was afterward called), which is mentioned by Quintinie, was the first improved variety. It was obtained at Montreuil, in France, and is said to have been a seedling of the wood strawberry.
The Hautbois was said by Miller to have been carried to England from this country, and Parkinson, in 1629, said that it had been with them but of late days, and that it was brought over from America by Quester, the postmaster. The native country of this species is now supposed to have been Germany, where it is called the Haarbeer. The old French gardeners called it the " Capiton."
The Chili strawberry is supposed to have been introduced into South America by the Spaniards, from their colonies in Mexico. It was planted by them at the foot of the Cordillera Mountains, near Quito, and it was from here that M. Frazier obtained it and carried it to Marseilles, in 1716. It was the largest variety then known.
It is now found on nearly every island in the Southern Ocean, wherever the Spaniards have made settlements. "That the Chiliensis and the grandiflvra are very nearly related, if not the same species, there is but little doubt.
Miller introduced the Chili strawberry into England in 1727 ; but it proved to be so unproductive that, after cultivating it for nine years, he said that its cultivation would have to be abandoned on this account. He also speaks of the large flowers and deformed fruit of this species, which is one of the characteristics of nearly every variety that has been grown in Europe or America from the Chili species.
The Fragrcria Chiliensis and F. grandift&ra appear to be varieties or species from which the varieties mostly cultivated in Europe have been grown. The varieties raised there are generally larger, not ai productive, sweet, but not rich, having less of that aromatic flavor so much admired by Americans. These varieties do not flourish as well in our climate as those grown from the F, Virginiana. Seldom do we get a large variety from Europe that succeeds well in this country, simply because they are grown from the more tender species.
But little improvement was made in the strawberry until the European cultivators commenced raising seedlings from the American species, which were found susceptible of great improvement, without any special effort or the application of any great scientific skill in their culture.
About the beginning of the present century, practical experiments began in England by cross-breeding and hybridizing species and varieties, and the results were soon apparent from the increased number of large and fine varieties. Those that attracted the most attention at that time were the Roseberry, raised by E. Davidson, in 1810 ; Downton, by T. A. Knight, in 1816 ; Grove End Scarlet, by Atkinson, 1820 ; Keen's Seedling, 1823 5 Elton, by Knight, 1828. Then Myatt followed with his Pine, Prince Albert, Eliza, British Queen, etc. A host of other growers were at work producing other fine varieties in innumerable numbers.
The French, Belgian, and other continental strawberry growers were also in the field, and the results are that the strawberry has become one of the great fruits of Europe.
Here we did not commence quite so soon, or go to work so earnestly as did our transatlantic friends ; yet many fine varieties (or those considered so) were produced twenty years ago.
The production of Hovey's Seedling, in 1834, gave a new impetus to the production of new varieties, and it has been kept up with such vigor that, probably, at the present time, we possess as many and as fine varieties produced in this country as can be found in any other.

On the Best Methods of Manufacturing Cheddar Cheese

mayor@foodsville.com — Tue, 20 May 2008 23:12:25

To read the original pages of the book,
click on the page image on the right

ON THE BEST METHODS OF
MANUFACTURING CHEDDAR CHEESE 

The making of a good Cheddar cheese 
depends largely on conditions which are con- 
veniently summarized by the word " medium." 
A first-rate quality of Cheddar can be made in 
any district, provided that you have soil of 
medium quality, which will grow a short, sweet 
herbage. Soils resting on and derived from 
limestone rocks are ideal ; yet any soil of fair 
body, growing herbage free from all coarse 
grasses, &c., and containing a small percentage 
of leguminous plants, is equally appropriate. 
The breed of cattle is of considerable importance, 
owing to the great variation in the nature and 
quality of the milk which they yield. Those 
yielding milks rich in fat, and with a great 
difference between the size of the largest and 
smallest fat globules, are not so suitable as 
those yielding a milk containing an average 
percentage of fat, with only a slight differ- 
ence between the size of the fat globules. 
When a milk is rich in fat there is danger of 
loss during the making of the cheese. When the 
fat globules are nearly uniform in size, you are 
able to get a more perfect distribution of them 
throughout the cheese. The milk of different 
breeds varies in colour, some yielding a milk 
almost white, others one decidedly yellow. The 
nearer white the milk the better, if artificial 
colouring of the cheese is not going to be 
practised. A typical cheese-making milk is 
that of the Ayrshire breed. 

The food which the cow receives influences 
the milk. The ideal food for producing a cheese- 
making milk is grass ; and the addition of cake 
to the diet of a cow renders the milk more 
suitable for butter than for cheese-making. 
This is because prime Cheddars are made from 
a medium quality of milk rather than from an 
excessively rich one. Besides, the increase in 
the richness of milk from such feeding is largely 
that of the fat of the milk, and consequently no
appreciable increase in the quantity of cheese 
is obtained ; whereas if butter was made a cor- 
responding increase in the butter yield would 
be got. Again, cheese made from the milk of 
cake-fed cows is liable to deleterious changes 
during manufacture. The drinking water of 
the cows should be free from all suspicion of 
contamination. Water from stagnant ponds, 
or the effluent water from sewage farms, renders 
cheese liable to become spongy. The surround- 
ings of the cow must be clean. The chief cause 
of complaint against milk is probably due to 
contamination after it is drawn from the cow. 
Given a suitable district, breed of cow, food, 
water supply, and surroundings, the cheese- 
maker can depend on commencing with a first- 
class raw article, i. e. a milk of average quality, 
suitable colour, with uniformly sized fat globules, 
and free from contamination either in the form 
of injurious bacteria or acquired taints. 

A Cheddar is a whole milk cheese, and con- 
sequently no fat is extracted from the milk 
which is intended for its making. The evening's 
milk is strained into the cheese- vat, and kept 
at 64 to 68 F. The temperature is varied
according to the conditions of the weather and 
the keeping qualities of the milk. In the 
morning the cream is skimmed off, heated to 
90 F., and returned to the vat through the 
strainer along with the morning's milk. By 
this plan we get thorough mixing of the 
cream off the evening's milk, with the mixed 
evening's and morning's milk. The milk is 
now allowed to ripen, if it is not already ripe 
enough. 

Ripening is essentially acidity development. 
There are two methods of attaining the desired 
result, (a) The old Cheddar method in which 
a certain amount of sour whey is added to the 
milk in the vat. This is an empirical plan 
which does not take into account the amount 
of acid already present in the milk, and also 
risks one day's contaminated whey tainting the 
rest of the season's make of cheese. (#) The 
more modern method, and that adopted by the 
Canadian makers, is to keep the milk at a certain 
temperature (90 to 95) until the required acidity 
develops. This temperature is the one that 
is most favourable to the growth of the bacteria 
which produce the acid we desire to obtain. 

TESTING FOR ACIDITY. There are two 
methods by which to determine the ripeness 
or amount of acidity developed (a) By means 
of rennet. Take 4 oz. of milk at the temperature 
at which it is intended to rennet the milk, and 
add i drachm of rennet ; if the milk coagulates 
in 20 to 22 seconds it is ready for renneting. 
(b) By means of chemical re-agents. Take out 
10 c.cs. of milk with a pipette, run into a white 
porcelain dish, and add three drops of phenol- 
phthalein solution (addition of an alkali to a 
solution of phenol-phthalein produces a pink 
coloration). From a burette allow to drop 
soda solution of such strength that i c.c. of it 
will neutralize O'Oi gramme of lactic acid. 
Whilst adding the soda solution, keep constantly 
stirring the milk in the dish, and on the appear- 
ance of the faintest tinge of pink which remains 
permanent, you know that the whole of the 
lactic acid in the milk is neutralized. If it 
requires 2 c.cs. of the soda solution for this 
purpose, we know that we have O'2 per cent, of 
acid in the milk, which is about the correct 
amount for making Cheddar. The former of 
these methods is probably to be preferred, 
owing to its requiring materials which are 
always at hand, and similar materials to those 
you are going to use in the actual cheese- 
making. The ripening or development of 
acidity is done with the object of aiding the 
coagulating action of the rennet, to assist in 
expelling moisture from the curd, and to shorten 
the whole process of manufacture. 

RENNETING. Assuming that the correct 
amount of acidity is developed, and that the 
temperature of the milk is 82 to 85, depend- 
ing on the season of the year, the atmo- 
spheric conditions of the day, &c., we add a 
sufficient quantity of rennet to ensure coagula- 
tion in 45 to 60 minutes. Usually 4 to 4! oz. 
of Hansen's rennet extract to each 100 gallons 
of milk is sufficient. After thoroughly stirring 
the milk and rennet, cover the vat with a cloth, 
and leave the curd until firm enough for cutting. 
When the curd makes a clean break over a 
finger inserted under and along its surface, it 
is ready for cutting. If cut before it is firm 
enough, you get a white whey owing to loss 
of fat, and this will happen however carefully 
the cutting is performed. If, on the other hand, 
the curd is too firm, you require to use such 
force in cutting that you also get a white whey, 
owing to the injury done to the curd. 

CUTTING. In the old Cheddar system a large 
single-bladed knife was used. In the Canadian 
system American cutters are used. With the 
latter the curd is first cut with a vertical knife 
lengthwise and crosswise, then with a horizontal 
knife in the same manner. Clean the sides 
and bottom of the vat with the hands ; cut 
again with two knives both ways, and allow to 
settle ten to fifteen minutes, the shorter period 
if the curd is hard, the longer if it is soft. The 
object of cutting is to facilitate the escape of the 
whey, and cutting into uniform-sized cubes aids 
in the securing of a good curd. 

BREAKING. After settling, stir the curd care- 
fully with the shovel breaker or rake for fifteen 
to twenty minutes, until the curd is the size of 
peas, and thoroughly intermingled with the 
whey. Then commence the application of 
heat or scalding, which usually takes place 
some forty minutes from the time cutting 
commences. 

SCALDING. This is done to render the curd 
firm, and to develop acidity. There are two 
methods of scalding 

(a) The old method in which the operation is 
performed in three stages. The process consists 
in drawing off a proportion of the whey, and 
after heating it to a certain temperature adding 
it slowly to the contents of the vat. This is 
repeated three times. The first time the whey 
is heated to 110, the second to 120, and the 
third to 130. The temperature of the contents 
of the vat is raised the first time to 90, the 
second to 95, and the third to 100. To 
ascertain the number of gallons of whey to 
draw off, multiply the number of gallons of 
milk at the commencement by the number of 
degrees it is intended to raise the contents of 
the vat at the first scald. This product, divided 
by the number of degrees of heat it is intended 
to raise the whey, gives the number of gallons 
of whey required ; e.g. 

Contents of vat, 100 gallons. 

Temperature to which it is intended to raise 
the contents of the vat, 90. 

Temperature of whey before commencing 
heating, 85. 

Temperature to which it is intended to raise 
the whey, 110. 

Thus we have 
90 - 85 = 5 x 100 gals. = 500 
100 - 85 = 25 
< -r = 20 gals., amount of whey required. 
I 25 

The contents of the vat are stirred fifteen 
minutes after each scalding, but after the last 
scalding stir until the curd is sufficiently 
cooked. 

(b) The more modern method (which requires 
a jacketed vat and steam) is to raise the temper- 
ature continuously at the rate of i in three 
minutes, until 100 is reached, and then keep it 
at 100 until the curd is sufficiently cooked. 
Scalding ought to be done more slowly if little 
acid is present in the curd, and more rapidly if 
the acid is well developed. 

The curd is known to be scalded sufficiently 
when it is shotty, hard, sinks quickly, has an acid 
smell, and answers to the hot iron test. This 
last test is simple and gives constant results. 
It is performed by taking a small quantity of 
curd, compressing it tightly in the hand, drying 
it on a cloth, and then applying it firmly to a 
bar of iron heated to black heat, and gently 
drawing it away. If acid enough, the curd 
attenuates to fine threads of |-inch length. 
If not acid enough, it will not so attenuate ; if 
too acid it attenuates to a greater length. The 
sufficiently scalded curd is allowed to pitch for 
a quarter of an hour, and then a rack is put on 
and weighted with a 56-lb. weight. Thus the 
curd remains until it is consolidated or begins 
to mat. It is then cut up the centre with a long 
knife, rolled to the upper end of the vat, and the 
racks and weights placed on as before. Draw 
off the whey, remove the weights from the 
curd, cut it up and spread it on the bottom of 
the vat. 

PACKING AND " CHEDDARING." Replace the 
curd in a square block in the bottom of the vat, 
sweep up all the crumbs, re-weight and allow 
to remain ten minutes. Cut into bricks and 
remove to the curd-sink ; cover with dry cloths 
and put on the weights. Open and turn every 
twenty minutes, turning the outside of the curd 
within. When the curd is firm and tough, cut it 
into two-inch cubes, tie up in a cloth, cover with 
dry cloths and a tin pan and apply the weights. 
Open out and separate every half-hour, using 
dry cloths each time until it is ready to grind. 
The above method of manufacture results in a 
more open and meaty cheese than that obtained 
by adopting the modern or Canadian plan. 

CANADIAN METHOD. In this method the 
whey is drawn off before any matting or con- 
solidating takes place, and the loose curd is 
removed from the vat to a curd-cooler, where it 
is stirred until it is dry enough to mat, which, 
however, is a point rather difficult for inexperi- 
enced persons to decide. Matting goes on until 
the curd is ready to grind. A curd is ready to 
grind when it is distinctly acid to the taste and 
smell, dry and solid in cutting, tears stringy, and 
attenuates from i in. to ij in. on the hot iron. 

GRINDING is done to reduce the curd to 
such a condition that salt can be thoroughly 
distributed ; it also allows of the cooling of the 
curd. When ground the curd is ready for weigh- 
ing, and, if cool enough, for salting. 

SALTING. About two per cent, of salt is the 
amount usually added, and the temperature of 
the curd should not be above 80. The salt 
hardens the curd, helps to dry it, has a slight 
antiseptic action and therefore arrests decay to 
some extent, and also has a tendency to check 
further development of acidity in the curd. After 
adding the salt stir the mixture well for fifteen 
minutes, which will ensure thorough incorpora- 
tion of the salt and the curd. When the tem- 
perature of the curd is 70 to 75 it is ready for 
putting into hoops which are lined with a cloth. 
In filling the hoops press carefully with the 
closed hand. After the hoop is full place it in 
the press. 

PRESSING. The pressure must be gradually 
applied, and should reach 10 cwt. in two hours' 
time, at which pressure it is allowed to remain 
over night. If pressing is excessive during the 
first few hours, fat is expelled with the whey, 
and the quality of the cheese is lowered. Besides 
this, a hard firm coat round the external portion 
of the cheese is got, which checks the drainage 
of the whey. The object of pressing is to bind 
and consolidate the curd, and to expel whey. 
A suitable temperature in the press-room (60) 
aids the objects of pressing. The morning next 
after the day of making, the cheese is taken out 
of the press, the cloth is removed, and the cheese 
bathed for one minute in water heated to 120. 
This improves the condition of the coat, render- 
ing it tougher and less liable to crack. After 
bathing put on clean cloths, and return to the 
press. Apply 10 cwt. pressure during the first 
two hours, and then 15 cwt. until next morning. 
On the morning of the third day turn the 
cheese, grease it, cap one end, and return to 
press with a smooth cloth ; then apply i to i J 
tons of pressure. The grease is applied to fill 
up cracks, to render the outside of the cheese 
smooth, and to enable the bandages to stick. 
On the fourth day turn the cheese, put a cap on 
the bare end, place in a clean cloth, and then 
apply pressure until the afternoon. In the 
afternoon bandage with a laced or winding 
bandage, weigh, and take up to the curing- 
room. 

CURING OR RIPENING. The temperature of 
the curing-room should be 65 to 70. New or 
young cheeses require the higher, old cheeses 
the lower temperature. The ripening - room 
requires to be kept at an even and correct 
temperature, for although the making of a 
Cheddar depends so largely on success in the 
first stages of the operation, there is yet a 
possibility of spoiling the best of curds if due 
attention is not given to the temperature of 
the ripening-room. When the temperature is 
too low the result is a soapy cheese lacking 
body and flavour; when too high, sweating 
occurs, loss of fat, and dryness in the cheese. 
The cheese must be turned daily for six weeks. 
Neglect to turn results in redness on the ends 
of the cheese, and moisture descends to the end 
which is resting on the racks. A certain amount 
of ventilation is necessary, but there must be 
no draughts. Usually the room is kept dark, 
which, however, is of little if any advantage, 
except that cheese-flies are not then quite so 
numerous.

Pendennis Club Mint Julep

mayor@foodsville.com — Sat, 03 May 2008 02:40:53

From The Blue Grass Cook Book by Minnie C. Fox (1917)
To see the original, click on the page image on the right

PENDENNIS CLUB MINT 
JULEP 

By a well-known member of the club, Louisville, 
Ky. 

These are some essentials . 

1st. Fine, straight, old Kentucky Bourbon 
whisky blended whiskies do not give good results. 

2d. An abundant supply of freshly cut sprigs 
of mint preferably young shoots no portion of 
which has been bruised. 

3d. Dry, cracked flint ice. A glass will an- 
swer the purpose, but a silver mug is preferable. 
At this club, silver cups are kept on ice. A syrup 
of sugar and water is also kept on hand. 

The silver cup is first filled with the ice, and then 
the desired quantity of fine whisky poured in and 
thoroughly shaken with a spoon or shaker until a 
heavy frost forms on the mug. The desired 
amount of syrup is then poured in and stirred 
enough to be mixed. The mint is then carefully 
placed in the mugs with the stems barely sticking 
in the ice and the tops projecting 2 inches above 
the top of the cup. Straws are then placed in the 
cup, reaching from the bottom to about 1 inch 
above the top, and the sooner one sticks one's nose 
in the mint and begins drinking through the 
straws the better. There is no flavor of mint, 
merely the odor. 

Any stinting in quality or quantity materially 
affects the result.

Australian Food Habits and Their Faults--A Plea for Their Improvement

mayor@foodsville.com — Fri, 21 Mar 2008 20:22:42

From The Art of Living in Australia

Worcestershire Sauce

mayor@foodsville.com — Sun, 09 Mar 2008 04:41:49

Worcestershire Sauce: Take 3 quarts of strong 
vinegar, 1 lb. of split raisins, 1 lb. garlic, 1/4 lb. 
eschalot, 1/2 ounce cayenne, 1/2 ounce powdered 
ginger, salt to taste, small bottle of anchovies, 
and mushroom ketchup. Boil the anchovies, 
garlic, eschalot, and raisins in a quart of the 
vinegar in an iron saucepan until it can be pulped 
through a hair sieve, then boil all together for 
a few minutes. Bottle when cold. It is essential 
that the ingredients should be thoroughly boiled 
before being pulped. 

Worcestershire Sauce (No. 2) : Put into a 
mortar 1/2 ounce capsicums or sweet peppers, 1/2 
ounce peeled shallots and a clove of garlic, and 
pound till quite smooth. Add a little vinegar 
and put all into a large jar; boil up one quart 
of vinegar and pour it over the pounded ingre- 
dients, add also a pint of walnut ketchup. Cover 
the jar and allow it to stand for some weeks, or 
long enough to extract the flavor of the ingre- 
dients used, then strain and bottle for use.

Tomato Sauce

mayor@foodsville.com — Sun, 02 Mar 2008 14:07:47

From The Italian Cook Book (1919)

To read the original, click on the page image

TOMATO SAUCE 

(Salsa di Pomidoro) 

Chop together, fine, one quarter of an onion, a 
clove of garlic, a piece of celery as long as your 
finger, a few bay leaves and just enough parsley. 
Season with a little oil, salt and pepper, cut up 
seven or eight tomatoes and put everything over 
the fire together. Stir it from time to time and 
when you see the juice condensing into a thin 
custard strain through a sieve, and it is ready 
for use. 

When fresh tomatoes are not available the 
tomato paste may be used. This is a concentra- 
ted paste made from tomatoes and spices which 
is to be had, at all Italian grocers', now 
so numerous in all American cities. Thinned 
with water, it is a much used ingredient in Italian 
recipes. Catsup and concentrated tomato soup 
do not make satisfactory substitutes as they are 
too sweet in flavor. Of course canned tomatoes 
seasoned with salt and a bit of bay leaf, can al- 
ways be used instead of fresh tomatoes. 

This sauce serves many purposes. It is good 
on boiled meat; excellent to dress macaroni, spa- 
ghetti or other pastes which have been seasoned 
with butter and cheese, or on boiled rice seasoned 
in the same way (see Risotto). Mushrooms are 
a fine addition to it. 

When using concentrated paste the following 
recipes will be found to give good results : 

Chop one onion, one carrot and a celery stalk: 
form a little bunch of parsley and other aromatic 
greens and put everything to brown in a saucepan 
together with a piece of butter. Add a reason- 
able portion of tomato paste while cooking, stir 
and keep on a low fire until the sauce assumes 
the necessary consistency.

Leap Year Day Advice

mayor@foodsville.com — Thu, 28 Feb 2008 21:28:30

How to Select a Husband during the Leap Year...

Truffles

mayor@foodsville.com — Wed, 20 Feb 2008 03:08:17

from The Mushroom Book by Nina L. Marshall (1923)

To read the original text, click on the image of the page on the right

The order Tuberales contains the truffles, which are subterranean fungi, ranging in size from an acorn to a good-sized potato. The asci or spore-sacs are formed on the interior of the fungus, the warty truffle itself being called an ascoma, as it contains the asci.

Since the time of Pliny and Dioscorides, truffles have been known and esteemed as a table delicacy. Since they mature underground, they must be hunted for by dogs and pigs trained for the purpose. A pig will scent a truffle at a distance of twenty feet, and will run quickly to the spot to dig it out with her snout. An attendant must follow the pig to secure the truffle before the pig eats it. Edible species have not been found growing in this country.

The Homes and Habits of Fungi

mayor@foodsville.com — Tue, 05 Feb 2008 21:37:46

From The Mushroom Book (1923)

To read the original text, click on the image of the book on the right.

FOR centuries epicures have used certain fungi for food. The Greeks and Romans esteemed them highly, and gave a great deal of consideration to favourable times and places for gathering them, and to choice methods of preparing them for the table. Juvenal tells us of one old Roman enthusiast who was so carried away by his love for them as to exclaim, "Keep your corn, O Libya, unyoke your oxen, provided only you send us mushrooms!" Horace says that mushrooms which grow in the fields are the best, and that one can have but little faith in other kinds. Mushroom eaters of the present day would perhaps not agree with him, for they find edible species in every imaginable place where fungi grow, and are constantly adding to their list new varieties which they esteem delicious.

Although for centuries it has been known that some fungi contain most virulent poisons, still, through ignorance of those points which distinguish the poisonous from the edible, frequent cases of poisoning occur in all classes of society. The mistakes resulting in death have been frequent enough to inspire the timid with an overpowering dread of all fungi, while the damp and grewsome places in which many fungi flourish have caused them to be despised by others. The following lines from Shelley very aptly express the general sentiment:

"And plants, at whose names the verse feels loath,
Fill'd the place with a monstrous undergrowth,
Prickly and pulpous, and blistering and blue,
Livid, and starr'd with a lurid dew.

"And agarics and fungi, with mildew and mould,
Started like mist from the wet ground cold;
Pale, fleshy, as if the decaying dead
With a spirit of growth had been animated."
SHELLEY: "The Sensitive Plant."

To many people the only growths known as fungi are toad- Itools and mushrooms. They give the name mushrooms to the species known to them as edible, and regard all other similar growths as toadstools, things uncanny or poisonous.

" The grisly todestool grown there mought I see,
And loathed paddocks [toads] lording on the same."
SPENSER'S "Faerie Queene."

This distinction has no scientific basis, and in fact most of the species called toadstools are edible. Fungi are not always the grewsome things of Shelley and Spenser. In their ranks are many which delight the eye with their colouring and the sym- metry of their forms. They are the grotesques of nature; nests, hoofs, cups, umbrellas, shells, and clubs are represented, together with spheres, hemispheres, cones, and many other geometical figures. The mildew on the linen, the mould on food, the rusts and smuts which blight our fields of grain, and the dry rot which crumbles our lumber to dust and which causes old wood in dark places to glow with a weird, pale, flickering light, are all forms of one group or another of these plants which prey upon living or dead organic matter. In ordinary observation, only the simpler and more noticeable fungi are taken into account, but they are in reality met with in almost every situation imaginable. They are found in damp cellars and in rooms shut off from the light; in fact, some form of fungus will be found in every place and on everything which is not exposed to a circulation of fresh air.

In woods and open fields the attractive forms are found. In shady woods the beautiful white "bear's head" hangs on stately tree trunks, and the "destroying angels" gleam white in the shadows on the ground. Shelving brackets, green or red or brown, encircle old stumps, or stand out stiff and white from the crumbling trunks of fallen moss-grown monarchs of the forest, while wood-brown toadstools huddle in groups among the fallen leaves. On the outskirts of the wood, green and red Russulas vie with the flowers in the brilliancy of their colouring. Pink or violet Clavarias, dainty corals, border the wood path, and golden Clavarias lighten up the sombre wood tints with their yellow branches. In dry pastures and along wood roads, puffballs, large and small, send up their puffs of brown smoke, to the delight of every passing child who strikes them with a wand. On lawns and hillsides the Oreades cause fairy rings to grow. The fairy rings are circles, or parts of circles, of impoverished grass of a lighter colour and less luxuriant growth than that of the grass immediately surrounding the circle. Before the existence of fairy folk came to be doubted, it was firmly believed that these fairy rings were the dancing grounds of the fairies.

"The nimble elves
That do by moonshine green sour ringlets make
Whereof the ewe bites not; whose pastime 'tis
To make these midnight mushrooms."
Rev. GERARD SMITH.

The rings on the commons increase in size until sometimes two or more rings intersect to form a labyrinth of green network. Rings appear year after year in the same place, and then disappear, to reappear after an interval of a few seasons. As long as the fairies existed in the imaginations of the people, it was easy to account for these strange happenings the fairies danced in the moonshine, and the grass was worn down under their feet. If they were displeased and left the neighbourhood, the rings disappeared too. As this fancy was given up, other solutions of the mystery were sought. Some believed that the ring was caused by a thunder-bolt entering the ground at this spot, and still others were confident that it was caused by moles. The true solution is not hard to find, to one familiar with the habit of growth of the fungus plant. One fungus plant growing alone upon the lawn will soon exhaust the soil directly beneath it of all true fungus food. Of all the spores which fall from the parent plant only those will grow which fall without this impoverished spot, and so a ring of toadstools is formed. Again, only those spores which fall outside the ring will find good fungus food, and so the ring widens always outward, forming a perfect circle, unless something on one side or other interferes with its travels. The decaying ring of fungi temporarily stimulates the grass around it, so that its rich colour stands out in circles or arcs of circles against the less highly nourished grass. Such rings are conspicuous on the lawns of the White House at Washington, and are often to be seen well defined on distant hillsides.

Brackets and mushrooms and puffballs grow in warm, moist places where they find decaying wood and leaves to feed upon. Old tree trunks and fallen logs, rich leaf mould, and cattle pastures are their favourite haunts.

The reason for their choice of place is invariably connected with the question of food, for fungi can thrive only where they can obtain organic matter, as they have lost the power which all green plants have of feeding on inorganic or mineral matter. All plants must have food with which to form plant flesh. Green plants by means of their leaf green the only agent in the world which has the power to turn lifeless mineral matter into living matter take the element carbon from the air, and hydrogen gas and oxygen gas from water, and with their green granules, by some mysterious process, make of the elements hydrogen, oxygen, and carbon, compounds of wood and starch and sugar. Fungus plants have none of this leaf green and must therefore feed on material which has been manufactured by green plants.

To define fungi simply, so as to include all the varieties, would be a difficult task ; but in general it may be said that they are plants which have no leaf green and which do not grow from true seeds, but from dustlike bodies resembling in appearance the yellow pollen of roses or lilies.
The fungi have no flowers and produce no seeds. They produce spores instead, fine dust-like particles, which are borne in special places on the mature plant, whether a mould or mildew, a toad- stool, puffball, or bracket. The cap of a mushroom placed right side up on a piece of paper under an inverted glass will print with its spores a picture of the radiating leaves or gills beneath. A slight blow on a puffball in the pasture will cause a puff of smoke-like dust to rise from it really millions of spores that have ripened inside the puffball and are now ready to grow into new puffball plants when they fall on favourable soil.

Rusks, Doughnuts & Waffles

mayor@foodsville.com — Wed, 23 Jan 2008 19:37:53

From La Cuisine Creole (1885)

To see the original text, click on the page image on the right.

MISS LESTER'S TEA RUSK 

One quart of flour, one half pint of milk, one quarter 
of a pound of butter, two eggs ; add mace, nutmeg and 
a cup of yeast. Set it to rise, and then make up into 
rusks ; bake on buttered tins when light, and serve hot. 

DOUGHNUTS WITHOUT YEAST 

Half a pound of butter, a pint of sour milk or butter- 
milk, three quarters of a pound of sugar, a small tea- 
spoonful of saleratus dissolved in a little hot water, two 
well beaten eggs, and as much flour as will make a 
smooth dough ; flavor with half a teaspoonful of lemon 
extract and half a nutmeg grated; rub a little flour over 
a breadboard or table, roll the dough to a quarter of an 
inch in thickness, cut it in squares, or diamonds, or 
round cakes, and fry in boiling lard as directed. These 
cakes may be made in rings and fried. 

SOUR-MILK DOUGHNUTS WITHOUT YEAST 

Take a quart of flour, three eggs, three-fourths of a 
pound of sugar, and half a cup of shortening ; add a 
teaspoonful of soda, and mix to a soft dough with but- 
termilk. Roll out, cut them, and fry in boiling lard. 

DOUGHNUTS WITH HOP YEAST 

Take two quarts of light hop or potato yeast sponge, 
mix in it a pint of new warm milk, three beaten eggs, a 
cup of butter or lard, one large cup of sugar, a large 
spoonful of cinnamon, and a little salt; beat this well, 
and sift in flour to make a soft dough. Set this in a 
warm place to rise, and when it is light roll it out on the 
board a little thicker than pie crust, and cut with a 
knife in squares of about three inches. Let them stand 
a little and fry them in plenty of boiling lard. If fried 
in a little lard they will soak the fat, which will spoil 
them. Throw them, or any other kind of cakes you wish 
to fry, into a pot half full of boiling lard, and it in- 
sures their being light and nicely browned. 

PLAIN DOUGHNUTS 

Take two pounds, or pint cups, full of light risen 
dough; add to it half a pound of butter, one half 
pound of sugar, one half pint of milk, three eggs, a lit- 
tle cinnamon and nutmeg. Cover it and set it to rise ; 
when light, cut it into shapes and fry in boiling lard. 
Add a little flour to stiffen the dough. 

CREAM DOUGHNUTS WITHOUT YEAST 

A quart of cream, sweet or sour, five eggs, and a cup 
of sugar. If the cream be sour, add soda to sweeten it; 
if sweet, put in two tablespoonfuls of yeast powder, or 
any good baking powder, and flour to mix, then roll out 
and fry in boiling lard. 

WAFFLES. ECONOMICAL WAY 

Take two eggs, a cup of sweet milk, one cup of water 
and three cups of flour, with two tablespoonfuls of yeast 
powder mixed in it before sifting ; add a tablespoonful 
of melted lard or butter, and a teaspoonful of sugar. 
Mix all well, and bake in waffle irons. This is a nice 
cheap waffle. 

CRULLERS 

Two cups of sugar, one cup of butter, three eggs, one 
cup of sour milk, one teaspoonful of soda. Flavor to 
taste, and fry in boiling lard, or bake lightly in the 
stove. 

CRULLERS 

One cup of butter, two cups of sugar, three eggs, half 
a pint of sour milk, one teaspoonful of soda, half a nut- 
meg, flour to roll thin. Cut in fancy shapes. Sprinkle 
sugar over them when done. Put two pounds of lard in 
a deep skillet, and when it is very hot, begin to fry the 
crullers. You will have to replenish once or twice with 
lard, as it will become brown and scorched if you do 
not. The crullers should be a light brown, of uniform 
color. One-half this quantity makes a large dishful of 
crullers.

The Story of Crisco

mayor@foodsville.com — Tue, 22 Jan 2008 03:20:18

From The Story of Crisco (1921)
To read the original text, click on the page image on the right.

The culinary world is revising its entire cook book on
account of the advent of Crisco, a new and altogether
different cooking fat.

Many wonder that any product could gain the favor of
cooking experts so quickly. A few months after the
first package was marketed, practically every grocer
of the better class in the United States was supplying
women with the new product.

This was largely because four classes of
people--housewives--chefs--doctors--dietitians--were
glad to be shown a product which at once would make
for more digestible foods, more economical foods, and
better tasting foods.


Cooking and History

Cooking methods have undergone a marked change during the past few
years. The nation's food is becoming more and more wholesome as
a result of different discoveries, new sources of supply, and the
intelligent weighing of values. Domestic Science is better understood
and more appreciated.

People of the present century are fairer to their stomachs,
realizing that their health largely depends upon this faithful and
long-suffering servant. Digestion and disposition sound much the same,
but a good disposition often is wrecked by a poor digestion.

America has been termed a country of dyspeptics. It is being changed
to a land of healthy eaters, consequently happier individuals. Every
agent responsible for this national digestive improvement must be
gratefully recognized.

It seems strange to many that there can be anything better than
butter for cooking, or of greater utility than lard, and the advent of
Crisco has been a shock to the older generation, born in an age less
progressive than our own, and prone to contend that the old fashioned
things are good enough.

But these good folk, when convinced, are the greatest enthusiasts.
Grandmother was glad to give up the fatiguing spinning wheel. So the
modern woman is glad to stop cooking with expensive butter, animal
lard and their inadequate substitutes.

And so, the nation's cook book has been hauled out and is being
revised. Upon thousands of pages, the words "lard" and "butter" have
been crossed out and the word "Crisco" written in their place.


A Need Anticipated

Great foresight was shown in the making of Crisco.

The quality, as well as the quantity, of lard was diminishing
steadily in the face of a growing population. Prices were rising. "The
high-cost-of-living" was an oft-repeated phrase. Also, our country was
outgrowing its supply of butter. What was needed, therefore, was not
a substitute, but something better than these fats, some product
which not only would accomplish as much in cookery, but a great deal
more.

When, therefore, Crisco was perfected, and it was shown that here
finally was an altogether new and better fat, cookery experts were
quick to show their appreciation.

In reading the following pages, think of Crisco as a primary cooking
fat or shortening with even more individuality (because it does
greater things), than all others.


Man's Most Important Food, Fat

No other food supplies our bodies with the drive, the vigor, which
fat gives. No other food has been given so little study in proportion
to its importance.

Here are interesting facts, yet few housewives are acquainted with
them:

Fat contains more than twice the amount of energy-yielding power or
calorific value of proteids or carbohydrates. One half our physical
energy is from the fat we eat in different forms. The excellent book,
"Food and Cookery for the Sick and Convalescent," by Fannie Merritt
Farmer, states, "In the diet of children at least, a deficiency of fat
cannot be replaced by an excess of carbohydrates; and that fat seems
to play some part in the formation of young tissues which cannot be
undertaken by any other constituent of food...."

The book entitled "The Chemistry of Cooking and Cleaning," by the two
authorities, Ellen H. Richards and S. Maria Elliott, states that the
diet of school children should be regulated carefully with the fat
supply in view. Girls, especially, show at times a dislike for fat.
It therefore is necessary that the fat which supplies their growing
bodies with energy should be in the purest and most inviting form and
should be one that their digestions welcome, rather than repel.

The first step in the digestion of fat is its melting. Crisco melts
at a lower degree of heat than body temperature. Because of its low
melting point, thus allowing the digestive juices to mix with it, and
because of its vegetable origin and its purity, Crisco is the easiest
of all cooking fats to digest.

When a fat smokes in frying, it "breaks down," that is, its chemical
composition is changed; part of its altered composition becomes a
non-digestible and irritating substance. The best fat for digestion
is one which does not decompose or break down at frying temperature.
Crisco does not break down until a degree of heat is reached above
the frying point. In other words, Crisco does not break down at all
in normal frying, because it is not necessary to have it "smoking hot"
for frying. No part of it, therefore, has been transformed in cooking
into an irritant. That is one reason why the stomach welcomes Crisco
and carries forward its digestion with ease.


Working Towards an Ideal

A part of the preliminary work done in connection with the development
of Crisco, described in these pages, consisted of the study of
the older cooking fats. The objectionable features of each were
considered. The good was weighed against the bad. The strength and
weakness of each was determined. Thus was found what the ideal fat
should possess, and what it should not possess. It must have every
good quality and no bad one.

After years of study, a process was discovered which made possible the
ideal fat.

The process involved the changing of the composition of vegetable food
oils and the making of the richest fat or solid cream.

The Crisco Process at the first stage of its development gave, at
least, the basis of the ideal fat; namely, a purely vegetable
product, differing from all others in that absolutely no animal fat
had to be added to the vegetable oil to produce the proper stiffness.
This was but one of the many distinctive advantages sought and found.


Not Marketed Until Perfect

It also solved the problem of eliminating certain objectionable
features of fats in general, such as rancidity, color, odor, smoking
properties when heated. These weaknesses, therefore, were not a part
of this new fat, which it would seem was the parent of the Ideal.

Then after four years of severe tests, after each weakness was
replaced with strength the Government was given this fat to analyze
and classify. The report was that it answered to none of the tests for
fats already existing.


A Primary Fat

It was neither a butter, a "compound" nor a "substitute," but an
entirely new product. A primary fat.

In 1911 it was named Crisco and placed upon the market.

Today you buy this rich, wholesome cream of nutritious food oils in
sanitary tins. The "Crisco Process" alone can produce this creamy
white fat. No one else can manufacture Crisco, because no one else
holds the secret of Crisco and because they would have no legal right
to make it. Crisco is Crisco, and nothing else.


Finally Economical

At first, it looked very much as if Crisco must be a high-priced
product. It cost its discoverers many thousands of dollars before ever
a package reached the consumer's kitchen.

Crisco was not offered for sale as a substitute, or for housewives
to buy only to save money. The chief point emphasized was, that
Crisco was a richer, more wholesome food fat for cooking. Naturally,
therefore, it was good news to all when Crisco was found also to be
more economical.

Crisco is more economical than lard in another way. It makes richer
pastry than lard, and one-fifth less can be used. Furthermore it can
be used over and over again in frying all manner of foods, and because
foods absorb so little, Crisco is in reality more economical even than
lard of mediocre quality. The price of Crisco is lower than the
average price of the best pail lard throughout the year.

Crisco's Manufacture

It would be difficult to imagine surroundings more appetizing than
those in which Crisco is manufactured. It is made in a building
devoted exclusively to the manufacture of this one product. In
sparkling bright rooms, cleanly uniformed employees make and pack
Crisco.

The air for this building is drawn in through an apparatus which
washes and purifies it, removing the possibility of any dust entering.

The floors are of a special tile composition; the walls are of white
glazed tile, which are washed regularly. White enamel covers metal
surfaces where nickel plating cannot be used. Sterilized machines
handle the oil and the finished product. No hand touches Crisco until
in your own kitchen the sanitary can is opened, disclosing the smooth
richness, the creamlike, appetizing consistency of the product.


The Banishment of That "Lardy" Taste in Foods

It was the earnest aim of the makers of Crisco to produce a
strictly vegetable product without adding a hard, and consequently
indigestible animal fat. There is today a pronounced partiality from
a health standpoint to a vegetable fat, and the lardy, greasy taste
of food resulting from the use of animal fat never has been in such
disfavor as during the past few years.

So Crisco is absolutely all vegetable. No stearine, animal
or vegetable, is added. It possesses no taste nor odor save the
delightful and characteristic aroma which identifies Crisco, and is
suggestive of its purity.


Explanation of "Hidden" Food Flavors

When the dainty shadings of taste are over-shadowed by a "lardy"
flavor, the true taste of the food itself is lost. We miss the
"hidden" or natural taste of the food. Crisco has a peculiar power
of bringing out the very best in food flavors. Even the simplest foods
are allowed a delicacy of flavor.

Take ginger bread for example: The real ginger taste is there. The
molasses and spice flavors are brought out.

Or just plain, every-day fried potatoes; many never knew what the real
potato taste was before eating potatoes fried in Crisco.

Fried chicken has a newness of taste not known before.

New users of Crisco should try these simple foods first and later take
up the preparation of more elaborate dishes.


Butter, Ever Popular

It is hard to imagine anything taking the place of butter upon the
dining table. For seasoning in cooking, the use of butter ever will
be largely a matter of taste. Some people have a partiality for the
"butter flavor," which after all is largely the salt mixed with the
fat. Close your eyes and eat some fresh unsalted butter; note that it
is practically tasteless.

Crisco contains richer food elements than butter. As Crisco is richer,
containing no moisture, one-fifth or one-fourth less can be used in
each recipe.

Crisco always is uniform because it is a manufactured fat where
quality and purity can be controlled. It works perfectly into any
dough, making the crust or loaf even textured. It keeps sweet and pure
indefinitely in the ordinary room temperature.


Keep Your Parlor and Your Kitchen Strangers

Kitchen odors are out of place in the parlor. When frying with Crisco,
as before explained, it is not necessary to heat the fat to smoking
temperature, ideal frying is accomplished without bringing Crisco to
its smoking point. On the other hand, it is necessary to heat lard
"smoking hot" before it is of the proper frying temperature. Remember
also that, when lard smokes and fills the house with its strong odor,
certain constituents have been changed chemically to those which
irritate the sensitive membranes of the alimentary canal.

Crisco does not smoke until it reaches 455 degrees, a heat higher
than is necessary for frying. You need not wait for Crisco to smoke.
Consequently the house will not fill with smoke, nor will there be
black, burnt specks in fried foods, as often there are when you use
lard for frying.

Crisco gives up its heat very quickly to the food submerged in it and
a tender, brown crust almost instantly forms, allowing the inside of
the potatoes, croquettes, doughnuts, etc., to become baked, rather
than soaked.

The same Crisco can be used for frying fish, onions, potatoes, or
any other food. Crisco does not take up food flavors or odors. After
frying each food, merely strain out the food particles.


We All Eat Raw Fats

The shortening fat in pastry or baked foods, is merely distributed
throughout the dough. No chemical change occurs during the baking
process. So when you eat pie or hot biscuit, in which animal lard
is used, you eat raw animal lard. The shortening used in all baked
foods therefore, should be just as pure and wholesome as if you were
eating it like butter upon bread. Because Crisco digests with such
ease, and because it is a pure vegetable fat, all those who realize
the above fact regarding pastry making are now won over to Crisco.

A hint as to Crisco's purity is shown by this simple test: Break open
a hot biscuit in which Crisco has been used. You will note a sweet
fragrance, which is most inviting.

A few months ago if you had told dyspeptic men and women that they
could eat pie at the evening meal and that distress would not follow,
probably they would have doubted you. Hundreds of instances of
Crisco's healthfulness have been given by people, who, at one time
have been denied such foods as pastry, cake and fried foods, but who
now eat these rich, yet digestible Crisco dishes.

You, or any other normally healthy individual, whose digestion does
not relish greasy foods, can eat rich pie crust. The richness is
there, but not the unpleasant after effects. Crisco digests readily.


The Importance of Giving Children Crisco Foods

A good digestion will mean much to the youngster's health and
character. A man seldom seems to be stronger than his stomach, for
indigestion handicaps him in his accomplishment of big things.

As more attention is given to present feeding, less attention need
be given to future doctoring. Equip your children with good stomachs
by giving them wholesome Crisco foods--foods which digest with ease.

They may eat the rich things they enjoy and find them just as
digestible as many apparently simple foods, if Crisco be used
properly.

They may eat Crisco doughnuts or pie without being chased by
nightmares. Sweet dreams follow the Crisco supper.

The Great Variety of Crisco Foods

There are thousands of Crisco dishes. It is impossible to know the
exact number, because Crisco is used for practically every cooking
purpose. Women daily tell us of new uses they have found for Crisco.

Many women begin by using Crisco in simple ways, for frying, for
baking, in place of lard. Soon, however, they learn that Crisco also
takes the place of butter. "Butter richness without butter expense,"
say the thousands of Crisco users.

Tasty scalloped dishes, salad dressing, rich pastry, fine grained
cake, sauces and hundreds of other dishes, where butter formerly was
used, now are prepared with Crisco.


"A Woman Can Throw Out More with a Teaspoon Than a Man Can Bring Home
in a Wagon"

Kitchen expense comes by the spoonful. Think of the countless
spoonfuls of expensive butter used daily, where economical Crisco
would accomplish the same results at one-third the cost.

It should be remembered that one-fifth less Crisco than butter may be
used, because Crisco is richer than butter. The moisture, salt and
curd which butter contains to the extent of about 20 per cent are not
found in Crisco, which is all, (100 per cent) shortening.

Remember also that Crisco will average a lower price per pound
throughout the year than the best pail lard. And you can use less
Crisco than lard, which is a further saving.

Brief, Interesting Facts

Crisco is being used in an increasing number of the better class
hotels, clubs, restaurants, dining cars, ocean liners.

Crisco has been demonstrated and explained upon the Chautauqua
platform by Domestic Science experts, these lectures being a part of
the regular course.

Domestic Science teachers recommend Crisco to their pupils and use it
in their classes and lecture demonstrations. Many High Schools having
Domestic Science departments use Crisco.

Crisco has taken the place of butter and lard in a number of
hospitals, where purity and digestibility are of vital importance.

Crisco is Kosher. Rabbi Margolies of New York, said that the Hebrew
Race had been waiting 4,000 years for Crisco. It conforms to the
strict Dietary Laws of the Jews. It is what is known in the Hebrew
language as a "parava," or neutral fat. Crisco can be used with
both "milchig" and "fleichig" (milk and flesh) foods. Special Kosher
packages, bearing the seals of Rabbi Margolies of New York, and Rabbi
Lifsitz of Cincinnati, are sold the Jewish trade. But all Crisco is
Kosher and all of the same purity.
Campers find Crisco helpful in many ways. Hot climates have little
effect upon its wholesomeness.

It is convenient; a handy package to pack and does not melt so quickly
in transit. One can of Crisco can be used to fry fish, eggs, potatoes
and to make hot biscuit, merely by straining out the food particles
after each frying and pouring the Crisco back into the can to harden
to proper consistency before the biscuit making.

Practically every grocer who has a good trade in Crisco, uses it in
his own home.

Crisco is sold by net weight. You pay only for the Crisco--not the
can. Find the net weight of what you have been using.

Bread and cake keep fresh and moist much longer when Crisco is used.

Women have written that they use empty Crisco tins for canning
vegetables and fruits, and as receptacles for kitchen and pantry use.


Crisco's Manufacture Scientifically Explained

To understand something of the Crisco Process, it is necessary first
to know that there are three main constituents in all the best edible
oils.

Linoline, Oleine, Stearine.

The chemical difference between these three components is solely
in the percentage of hydrogen contained, and it is possible by the
addition of hydrogen, to transform one component into another.

Though seemingly so much alike, there is a marked difference in the
physical properties of these components.

Linoline which has the lowest percentage of hydrogen, is unstable and
tends to turn rancid.

Oleine is stable, has no tendency to turn rancid and is easily
digested.

Stearine is both hard and indigestible.

The Crisco process adds enough hydrogen to change almost all the
linoline into nourishing digestible oleine.

Mark well the difference in manufacture between Crisco and lard
compounds. In producing a lard compound, to the linoline, oleine and
stearine of the original oil is added more stearine (usually animal),
the hard indigestible fat, in order to bring up the hardness of the
oil. The resultant compound is indigestible and very liable to become
rancid.

       *       *       *       *       *

The following pages contain 615 recipes which have been tested by
Domestic Science Authorities in the Cooking Departments of different
colleges and other educational institutions, and by housewives in
their own kitchens. Many have been originated by Marion Harris Neil
and all have been tested by her.

We have undertaken to submit a comprehensive list of recipes for your
use, which will enable you to serve menus of wide variety.

We hope that you have enjoyed reading this little volume and that you
will derive both help and satisfaction from the recipes.

We will go to any length to help you in the cause of Better Food. We
realize that women must study this product as they would any other
altogether new article of cookery, and that the study and care used
will be amply repaid by the palatability and healthfulness of all
foods. A can of Crisco is no Aladdin's Lamp, which merely need be
touched by a kitchen spoon to produce magical dishes. But any woman
is able to achieve excellent results by mixing thought with Crisco.

Let us know how you progress.

Yours respectfully,

The Procter & Gamble Co.

Sketch of My Life

mayor@foodsville.com — Wed, 09 Jan 2008 00:21:07

From Good Things to Eat, as Suggested by Rufus

To read the original text click on the page image on the right

I was born in Murray County, Tennessee, in 1857, a slave. I was given the name of my master, D. J. Estes, who owned my mother's family, consisting of seven boys and two girls, I being the youngest of the family.

After the war broke out all the male slaves in the neighborhood for miles around ran off and joined the "Yankees." This left us little folks to bear the burdens. At the age of five I had to carry water from the spring about a quarter of a mile from the house, drive the cows to and from the pastures, mind the calves, gather chips, etc.In 1867 my mother moved to Nashville, Tennessee, my grandmother's home, where I attended one term of school. Two of my brothers were lost in the war, a fact that wrecked my mother's health somewhat and I thought I could be of better service to her and prolong her life by getting work. When summer came I got work milking cows for some neighbors, for which I got two dollars a month. I also carried hot dinners for the laborers in the fields, for which each one paid me twenty-five cents per month. All of this, of course, went to my mother. I worked at different places until I was sixteen years old, but long before that time I was taking care of my mother. At the age of sixteen I was employed in Nashville by a restaurant-keeper named Hemphill. I worked there until I was twenty-one years of age. In 1881 I came to Chicago and got a position at 77 Clark Street, where I remained for two years at a salary of ten dollars a week.

In 1883 I entered the Pullman service, my first superintendent being J. P. Mehen. I remained in their service until 1897. During the time I was in their service some of the most prominent people in the world traveled in the car assigned to me, as I was selected to handle all special parties. Among the distinguished people who traveled in my care were Stanley, the African explorer; President Cleveland; President Harrison; Adelina Patti, the noted singer of the world at that time; Booth and Barrett; Modjeski and Paderewski. I also had charge of the car for Princess Eulalie of Spain, when she was the guest of Chicago during the World's Fair.

In 1894 I set sail from Vancouver on the Empress of China with Mr. and Mrs. Nathan A. Baldwin for Japan, visiting the Cherry Blossom Festival at Tokyo.

In 1897 Mr. Arthur Stillwell, at that time president of the Kansas City, Pittsburg & Gould Railroad, gave me charge of his magnificent $20,000 private car. I remained with him seventeen months when the road went into the hands of receivers, and the car was sold to John W. Gates syndicate. However, I had charge of the car under the new management until 1907, since which time I have been employed as chef of the subsidiary companies of the United States Steel Corporation in Chicago.

Details of The Starvation Treatment of Diabetes

mayor@foodsville.com — Tue, 08 Jan 2008 11:32:19

From The Starvation Treatment of Diabetes (1915)

To read the original text pages, click on the page image on the right.

The details of the treatment of diabetes as carried 
out at the Massachusetts General Hospital, are as 
follows : 

For forty-eight hours after admission to the hos- 
pital the patient is kept on ordinary diet, to deter- 
mine the severity of his diabetes. Then he is put to 
bed, and no food allowed save whiskey and black 
coffee. The water intake need not be restricted. The 
whiskey is given in the coffee: 1 ounce of whiskey 
every two hours, from 7 a.m. until 7 p.m. This fur- 
nishes roughly about 800 calories. Soda bicarbonate 
may be given, two drachms every 3 hours, if there is 
much evidence of acidosis, as indicated by strong ace- 
tone and diacetic reactions in the urine, or a strong 
acetone odor to the breath. In most cases, however, 
this is not at all necessary, and there is no danger of 
producing coma by the starvation. This is indeed 
the most important point that Dr. Allen has brought 
out in his treatment. The patient is kept in bed and 
starved until he is sugar-free. (The daily weight and 
daily urine examinations are, of course, recorded.) 
The disappearance of the sugar is rapid : if there has 
been 5 or 6 per cent, after the first starvation day it 
goes down to perhaps 2 per cent., and the next day 

I the patient may be entirely sugar-free, or perhaps 
have 2 or 3 per cent, of sugar. Occasionally it may 
take longer; the longest we have starved any patient 
is four days. The patients tolerate starvation 
remarkably well; in no cases have we seen any bad 
results from it. There may be a slight loss of weight, 
perhaps three or four pounds, but this is of no mo- 
ment, and indeed, Allen says that a moderate loss of 
weight in most diabetics is to be desired. A moder- 
ately obese patient, weighing say about 180 pounds, 
may continue to excrete a small amount of sugar for 
a considerable period, if he holds this weight, even if 
he is taking very little carbohydrate ; whereas, if his 
weight can be reduced to 170 or 160, he can be kept 
sugar-free, with ease, on the same diet. We have not 
found that the acetone and diacetic acid output be- 
haves in any constant manner during starvation; in 
some cases we have seen the acetone bodies disappear 
during starvation; in others we have seen them ap- 
pear when they were not present before. Their ap- 
pearance is not necessarily a cause for alarm. The 
estimation of the ammonia in the urine is of some 
value in determining the amount of acidosis present, 
and this can be done readily by the simple chemical 
method given below. If the 24 hourly ammonia out- 
put reaches over 3 or 4 grams, it means that there is 
a good deal of acidosis anything below this is not 
remarkable. 

When the patient is sugar-free he is allowed up 
and is put upon a diet of so-called "5% vegetables," 
i.e. vegetables containing approximately 5% carbo- 
hydrate. 

These vegetables must be thrice boiled, with 
changes of water. In this way their carbohydrate 
content is reduced, probably about one-half. A mod- 
erate amount of fat, in the form of butter, can be 
given with this vegetable diet if desired. The amount 
of carbohydrate in these green vegetables is not at 
all inconsiderable, and if the patient eats as much as 
he desires, it is possible for him to have an intake of 
25 or 30 grams, which is altogether too much; the 
first day after starvation the carbohydrate intake 
should not be over 15 grams. Tables No. 1 and 2 rep- 
resent these vegetable diets. The patient is usually 
kept on diet 1 or 2 for one day, or if the case is a 
particularly severe one, for two days. The day after 
the vegetable day, the proteid and fat are raised, the 
carbohydrate being left at the same figure (diets 2, 3 
and 4). No absolute rule can be laid down for the 
length of time for a patient to remain on one diet, 
but in general we do not give the very low diets such 
as 2, 3 and 4, for more than a day or two at a time. 
The diet should be raised very gradually, and it is 
well not to raise the proteid and carbohydrate at the 
same time, for it is important to know which of the 
two is causing the more trouble. The proteid intake 
may perhaps be raised more rapidly than the carbo- 
hydrate, but an excess of proteid is very important in 
causing glycosuria, and for this reason the proteid 
intake must be watched as carefully as the carbo- 
hydrate. This is one of the important points brought 
out in Allen 's treatment. The fat may soon be raised 
to 200 grams ; higher than this we do not generally go. 
If sugar appears in the urine during the process of 
raising the diet we drop back to a lower diet, and if 
this is unavailing, start another starvation day, and 
raise the diet more slowly. But it will be found if 
the diet is raised very slowly, sugar will not appear. 

It is not well to push the average case ; if the patient 
is taking a fair diet, say proteid 50, carbohydrate 50, 
and fat 200, and is doing well, without any glyco- 
suria, it is not desirable to raise the diet any further. 
The caloric intake may seem rather low in some of 
these diets, but it is surprising how well most patients 
do on 1800 or 2000 calories, and how little weight 
they lose. .If it is desired to raise the caloric value 
of the diet, fat can be added in the form of cream, 
bacon or butter. 

It will be seen that the treatment can be divided 
into three stages: 

(1) The stage of starvation, when the patient is 
becoming sugar-free. 

(2) The stage of gradually working up the diet to 
the limit of tolerance. 

During the first two stages a daily weight record 
should be kept, and the urine should be examined 
every day. In the ease of an intelligent patient, he 
can be easily taught to test his own urine for sugar. 

(3) The stationary stage, when the diet is kept at 
a constant level. During this period the urine should 
be tested for sugar twice a week, and if sugar is pres- 
ent the patient should go back to a lower diet. If he 
cannot be made sugar-free by taking a lower diet, he 
should be starved again. 

If this treatment is to be successful, it is absolutely 
necessary for the patient to adhere very strictly to 
the diets, and to measure out everything very care- 
fully ; the meat especially should be weighed. 

It will be noticed in some cases the calories in the 
diets do not tally exactly with the proteid, fat and 
carbohydrate values. The reason for this is that for 
the sake of convenience the calories have been given 
in round numbers 5 or 10 calories one way or the 
other makes no difference. 

The essential points brought out by Allen's treat- 
ment are as follows: 

(1) It is not dangerous to starve a diabetic, and 
two or three days of starvation almost always make a 
patient sugar-free, thus saving a good deal of time, as 
contrasted with the old treatment of gradually cut- 
ting down the carbohydrate. 

(2) It is not desirable for all diabetics to hold their 
weight. Some cases may do much better if their 
weight is reduced ten, fifteen, or even twenty pounds. 

(3) After starvation, the diet must be raised very 
slowly, to prevent recurrence of glycosuria. 

(4) An excess of proteid must be regarded as pro-' 
ducing glycosuria, and the proteid intake must be 
restricted a good deal more than has been the custom 
in treating diabetes.