Frangipanni Cake

Cake: 1/2 cup butter, 1/2 cup sugar, 2 egg yolks, 1 large cup S.R. flour, pinch of salt, about 2 tablespoons milk, 1/2 teaspoon vanilla, grated rind of 1 small orange.

Topping: 2 egg-whites, 2 tablespoons sugar, 1/2 cup coconut.

Method: Beat butter and sugar to a cream, and beat in egg yolks. Stir in sifted flour, milk, vanilla, and rind. Place mixture in well-greased and lightly-floured tin. For the topping, whisk whites of eggs to a stiff froth and beat in sugar until stiff again. Then stir in the coconut. Spread on top of first mixture and bake in moderate oven about 40 minutes. Cover with paper if necessary to prevent burning of the macaroon top.

Source: contributed by Mrs. J. H. Hilder (Cradock), Mrs. C. McCarthy (Renmark), Mrs. Lloyd Pearce (Renmark), and three other members in The South Australian Country Women's Association Calendar of Cakes: A Cake a Day for 365 Days (Kent Town: S.A.C.WA.; 11th edition, 1973), 'Jan. 26'.

Rice Souffle

2&1/2 oz. rice.
1 pint milk.
5 ozs. sugar.
2 eggs.
Strawberry jam.
1/3 pint apple puree.
Brandy.

Method: Cook the washed rice and the milk in a double saucepan until creamy, then cool slightly. Mix 1 oz. sugar and the egg yolks and add to the rice. Put a third of the rice in a greased fireproof dish and spread with jam. Continue with alternate layers of rice and jam, then spread puree over. Top with a meringue mixture made with the egg whites and the rest of the sugar. Bake in a moderate oven (350 deg. F.) for 20 minus. Pour brandy over, set alight, and serve immediately.

Source: contributed by Dorothy Canty in The Walford Recipe Book. Compiled by the Parent-Teacher Association of the Walford Church of England Girls' School. (Adelaide: Messenger Press; October 1966), p.35.

Orange Surprise

4 oranges
Fruit salad (drained of juice)
White curacao (optional)
2 level tablespoons sugar
2 egg whites

Method: Cut top off oranges, remove pulp with sharp knife and spoon, keeping shell intact. Pour in a dessertspoon curacao, then fill with fruit salad. Pipe meringue on top of each orange, sealing carefully. Bake in quick oven until meringue sets (2 mins. only). Serve in individual glass dishes. 

Source: contributed by Mrs. Warwick Hancock in The Possum Cookery Book in Aid of Miss Minda - Telethon (Brighton: Minda Home Auxiliary, n.d. [1960s - post 1963]), p.56.

Fruit-and-Rice Meringue

Put plain boiled rice around the sides of a glass dish. Garnish with nuts or pink sugar. Steam any fruit till cooked, or use preserved or tinned fruits. Sprinkle with preserved cherries chopped in quarters. Place in centre of rice. Decorate with beaten whites of 2 eggs, sweetened.

Source: A Cooks' Tour of Recipes. Published for the Adelaide University S.R.C. [Students' Representative Council]. (Adelaide: Commercial Publications of South Australia, 1955), p.63.

Apple Porcupine

Pare and core 7 large apples. Make a syrup by boiling sugar and water in equal parts, put apples in directly they are peeled; cook until easily pierced by a straw. Take out the apples and place on a dish, pyramid shape; cover with meringue made of white of egg and sugar, ornament with blanched and shredded almonds, colour light brown in cool oven.

Source: A Small Collection of Plain Cookery Recipes, for Household Use. Compiled by Annie Bishop, Demonstrator for S.A. Gas Coy. (Adelaide: J. H. Sherring & Co., Leigh Street, 1911), p.26.

Vegetarian Cauliflower Snow

1 large cauliflower

1 large onion, sliced

2 oz. butter

2 tomatoes, skinned and sliced

1 oz. flour

1/2 pint milk

Salt and pepper

6 oz. cheddar cheese (grated)

4 eggs, separated

Method: Cut cauliflower in fleurettes, cook in boiling salted water, stems down, 5-10 mins. Saute onion in 1 oz. butter until soft; add tomatoes and cook 2-3 mins. Meanwhile, make sauce with remaining butter, flour and milk, season and add 4 oz. of cheese. Arrange cauliflower in a gratin dish, spoon over the onion and tomato mixture, coat with sauce. Beat the egg whites stiffly and arrange on top of cauliflower, making four pockets for egg yolks. Drop a yolk into each pocket. Sprinkle over the remaining cheese and grill until crisp and golden brown.

Source: contributed by Lorna Hosking (A.C.H. Gawler Auxiliary) in The Adelaide Children's Hospital Recipe Book 1982 (Adelaide: 1982), p.32.

Anzac Apple Tart

Pastry:

1&1/2 cups plain flour

Pinch salt

2 tablespoons sugar or icing sugar

90 g. (3 ozs) butter or margarine

2 egg yolks

2 teaspoons lemon juice

1 tablespoon water

Spiced apples:

4 cooking apples

1/3 cup sugar

1/3 cup water

Long strip lemon peel

1 teaspoon mixed spice

1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon

Meringue:

2 egg whites

Pinch salt

4 tablespoons castor sugar

Method: For pastry, sift together flour and salt. Stir in sugar. Rub in butter with fingertips. Beat egg yolks with lemon juice and work into flour mixture. Add water gradually and mix into a firm dough. Press dough on to base and sides of a 23 cm. (9 in.) pie plate; trim edges. Pierce all over with a fork. Bake in a hot oven (220C) until firm and golden, 15 to 20 minutes. Cool.

Apple filling: Peel, core and slice apples. Heat sugar, water and peel in saucepan, stirring until sugar dissolves and syrup boils. Add apples; cover and cook 10 minutes. Uncover and cook until liquid evaporates and apples are soft and dry. Remove from heat. Stir in mixed spice and cinnamon. Spoon into pastry shell.

Meringue: Beat egg whites and salt until stiff. Gradually add castor sugar, beating constantly until glossy. Pile over filling to meet pastry and seal completely. Bake in a moderately hot oven (190C) until meringue is browned, 10 minutes. Serve warm or cooled.

Serves 6 to 8.

Source: Memory Lane Cookbook (Rotary Club of Naracoorte, 1986), p.72.

Invention Dessert

Stone big black cherries and soak in rum for at least 6 hours. Add whipped cream and crumbled meringues.

Source: Selected Recipes Compiled by Port Pirie Branch Royal District and Bush Nursing Society (Port Pirie: 1966), p.80.

It's A Retro Cook-Off!

It's time for the Hung Up On Retro / Lucy Violet Vintage... 

It's A Retro Cook-Off! 

I collect vintage cookbooks, primarily those from South Australia, and my Retro Meal (which I served last night to my family) comes entirely from South Australian recipe books.

I followed the recipes as closely as possible, but had to substitute in a few places where the ingredients no longer exist (probably for good reason): the shops are empty of 'Green Lemon Jelly' (was 'Lime' such a frightening concept?) and 'menz malt biscuits'. The type of canned salmon was not specified; I went with 'pink' rather than the costly 'red', which I think is in keeping with the parsimonious ethos of these cook-books. 

What did I make? To begin, a cocktail: 

Barossa Lightning

"This is a dry cocktail that is guaranteed to start off any party with a sparkle, but it has no depressing after-effects. It can be mixed for immediate use, or bottled. Four glasses gin, three quarters glass French vermouth, 1 glass Italian vermouth, 1/2 glass green ginger. Ice and shake well. Serve so cold that glasses are frosted."

This type of meal requires a sturdy anaesthetic type of pre-dinner drink. The Barossa Cookery Book is a classic of the country cookbook genre and is still in print. It was first published in 1917; the second edition of 1932 has since reached its 33rd edition (2006). The cocktail quantities are expressed in 'glasses', a term explained as 'cocktail glass'. Since the 1930s, cocktail glasses have increased in size from around 3.5 fl oz to 10 oz.. I used the cap on the cocktail shaker. This is a very strong cocktail and I must never let my mother have another one. On the plus side, it made all the food look really tasty.

With the main course I served Mateus Rosé: this ran like a river of pink sweetness at my parents' dinner parties in the 1970s. My fall-back would have been a Liebfraumilch (something like Blue Nun).

My entrée comes from p.24 of The Parson Knows: Easy Dinner Party Recipes produced by The Parish of St. Stephen at Glenunga (one of the eastern suburbs of Adelaide). The cookbook is undated, but I suspect it is from the late 1980s. St. Stephen's has since been demolished, but its legacy lives on... The recipe forms part of a 'Autumn Menu'. I could not find tinned grapefruit, so settled for fresh (from our tree):

Prawn & Grapefruit Cocktail 

200g tin prawns

200g tin grapefruit OR 1 fresh grapefruit

1/4 pint reduced cream

1 tbs tomato sauce

3 drops Tabasco (optional)

1 tbs brandy

1 tbs lemon juice

1-2 tsp horseradish

salt & pepper

Method: Empty prawns from tin and rinse in cold water - drain well. If using fresh grapefruit, remove pith and skin, then dice fruit and mix with prawns. Pour over brandy and lemon juice and leave to marinate for an hour at least. Meanwhile, mix all other ingredients to make sauce - pour off excess juice from prawns, etc. and mix with sauce. Serve garnished with parsley or a prawn or a grapefruit segment. Serves 4. [recipe]

It turned out like a cold soupy prawn cocktail with a vicious grapefruit aftertaste. It wasn't awful. It wasn't great: the proportion of sauce to prawn was completely wrong. The sauce was delicious, but then it is basically a Marie Rose sauce.

The main course - Salmon Meringue Tart - is something I have wanted to make for a very long time, but have never had the courage. The recipe comes from p.64 of one of my favourite retro cookbooks, The Lunchbox: A Selection of Tried Recipes produced in Clare (in the Barossa Valley) by the Bihar Mission Auxiliary (raising money for the then Jesuit mission to Bihar state in northern India). I have the second edition (1975). The recipe was contributed by Mrs. M. Horgan. 

I cheated with a pre-made pastry case, and I served it hot. The mixture smelled like cat food. I had no idea that tinned salmon was so revolting in the flesh - bones! skin! Ghastly, revolting things I couldn't identify. It tasted like tuna mornay and while it was not as unpleasant as I feared, I'm glad I didn't waste my time making pastry from scratch. The meringue added zero to its charm. The cheese helped a lot.

Salmon Meringue Tart

(May be eaten hot with vegetables, or cold with salads)

1" x 10" lightly cooked Pastry Shell

1 x 8 oz tin Salmon

1/2 pint Milk

Knob Butter

2 Eggs

1 rounded tbsp. Cornflour

Squeeze of Lemon juice

Salt and Pepper

Method: Drain salmon, remove skin and bones. Flake into a saucepan, add milk and butter, bring to boiling point. Separate eggs, blend Cornflour with the yolks and add to saucepan and cook one minute, stirring constantly. Remove from heat, season with salt, pepper and lemon juice and turn into tart shell. Beat egg whites (with small pinch cream of tartar) until stiff, cover salmon with this meringue, bake for 15 minutes at 375 deg. When cooked sprinkle with chopped parsley and grated cheese. [recipe]

To accompany the Tart, I made a Jellied Pea Salad. Gelatine salad is a staple of retro cooking. This salad also comes from The Lunchbox cookbook (p.74, contributed by Mrs. T. Chidwidden). I used lemon jelly and tinted it with a drop of green colouring. The mould is a vintage glass one. And? This was surprisingly good, albeit rather sweet. Some vinegar in the mix might have fixed that. It fell to pieces too quickly for presentation as a mould - I'd set it in a bowl next time (next time!).

Jellied Pea Salad

1 large dspn finely chopped mint leaves, mixed with one packet of green lemon jelly crystals. Add 2 cups boiling water, stir until dissolved, then pour whole mixture over 1 lb frozen peas; leave to set. [recipe]

Dessert. How does one remove the taste of Salmon Meringue pie from the mouth? I initially thought about something with that other great staple of retro cooking, pineapple, but then I saw Rum Pudding) on p.28 of The Parson Knows: Easy Dinner Party Recipes (another item on the 'Autumn Menu'). I set it in vintage compote dishes, rather than another mould (why detract from the moulded delights of the Jellied Pea Salad?). I sprinkled the sponge with additional rum. The verdict: very nice indeed. A bit bouncy, perhaps. But not bad. Not bad at all.

Rum Pudding

1 small jam roll

1/2 cup sugar

1 heaped tbs cocoa

1 tbs gelatine

whipped cream

1 tin Carnation milk

1 heaped tbs Nescafe

1 tbs rum

1/2 cup hot water

walnuts, cherries/strawberries

Method: Line a basin - bottom and sides with slices of jam roll. Beat chilled Carnation milk, add sugar (slowly), Nescafe, cocoa and rum. Beat in gently, then stir in gelatine dissolved in hot water (when cool). Pour mixture into basin and set in refrigerator. Turn out of basin and cover with whipped cream flavoured with rum. Decorate with walnuts and cherries or strawberries. [Serves 4] [recipe]

Finally, a little digestive: Chocolate Mints.

The after-dinner mint is another staple of these books. Perhaps it was cheaper than Mylanta? This is a common recipe, appearing in various guises, often shaped into a log, rolled in coconut and cut into coin-sized pieces. I chose a simple version where the mixture is rolled flat and cut into squares (I used a berry-shaped cutter). They tasted like minty tarmac when I was making them. After a day in the fridge, all the bits melded together and they were really very nice and not so much like peppermint asphalt. Minty. Very minty. The source, The S.C.N.H. 1st Floor Cook Book (no. 2), is local - from the Southern Cross nursing home about 100m from my doorstep. There is no date, but it looks late 1980s/early 90s. The recipe was contributed by one V. M. Smith:

Chocolate Mints 

1 pkt menz malt biscuits

1 pkt white mints, round ones 

3/4 cup sweet cond. milk 

Method: Crush biscuits and mints, and mix all together. Roll out then cut into squares.

The verdict? 

Would I make any of these recipes again? 

I thought the cocktail rather a waste of decent gin, but it certainly made everyone mellow. The entrée sauce was excellent, with a real horseradishy punch. The grapefruit was just plain nasty. Salmon Meringue Tart was a tuna mornay in tawdry floozy attire. It made Jellied Pea Salad look like a good thing. Dessert was surprisingly nice - decent rum and mocha flavours (and good looks). The mints rocked. And I find myself with a strange craving for retro rosé… 

Many thanks to Kylie (lucy violet vintage) and Donna (hung up on retro) for inspiring me to cook from my collection; and thank you to Anne (pineapple princesses) for letting me know about the Cook Off.  I thoroughly enjoyed torturing my family myself.

Bombe Alaska

2 litres ice cream (rainbow if desired)

1 sponge half /wafer cream biscuits

1 can pitted cherries/fresh strawberries

2 tbs brandy

Meringue:

4 egg whites

1.1/2 cups sugar

Method:Arrange biscuits/sponge on piece of masonite. Put the carton of ice cream in the warm for a few seconds, then put ice cream on top of base. Put back into freezer to really harden.

Meringue: Beat whites with pinch salt; when stiffened add sugar gradually. When stiff, coat ice cream with meringue (quickly) making sure it is well sealed at the bottom of the board. This may be prepared in the afternoon and put back into freezer.

Drain cherries and thicken juice with dessertspoon of cornflour and chill. When ready to serve, put Bombe into oven for about 5 mins till lightly browned (325-350°F). Remove from oven and slip Bombe onto large carving dish with carving knife. Have brandy warmed and in a small jug. Put cherries/strawberries around base of Bombe. Take to table, pour brandy over and set alight. Serve with fruit and sauce.

(The secret of success if to ensure that the base and ice cream is really hard before the meringue is put on.) [Serves 6]

Source: The Parson Knows: Easy Dinner Party Recipes (The Parish of St. Stephen, Glenunga; n.d.), p.10 ['Summer Menu']

Hawaiian Shortbread

1/2 lb. S.R. flour
1 egg
1 tspn. vanilla
6 ozs. sugar
1/2 tspn. salt
1 tbspn. milk
4 ozs. butter

Method: Cream butter and sugar. Add sifted flour, salt, add beaten egg, milk, vanilla. Stir well till blended. Add extra flour gradually to make stiff dough. Roll out and line two 8" or 10" sandwich trays. Bake in moderate oven.

Filling:
1 dspn. butter
1/2 cup sugar
2 heaped tspns. cornflour
3/4 cup crushed pineapple
2 ripe bananas
1.1/2 tbspns. lemon juice

Method: Put sugar, butter, cornflour and pineapple into saucepan and stir till thick (over low heat) remove and cool. Then add mashed banana and lemon juice. Leave till cold. Spread into shortbreads and decorate with whipped cream or meringue made with 4 egg whites beaten stiffly with heaped tablespoon icing sugar. Pile on top and bake till a light brown.

Source: contributed by B. Cellier in Recipe Book Containing the Favourite Recipes of Members of the Payneham Methodist Women's Fellowship, 1961 (Payneham [Adelaide]: 1961), p.7.

Pineapple with Meringue Topping

240g canned pineapple pieces
1 egg white
2 tsp cream of tartar
few drops each of orange and coconut flavouring
pinch salt

Method: Divide pineapple pieces into 2 small oven-to-table casseroles. Sprinkle each with flavourings. In medium bowl beat egg white with sugar, cream of tartar and salt until it stands in peaks. Pile half of the mixture on top of each portion of pineapple. Bake at 350 degrees F / 180 degrees C for 10-12 mins. or until topping begins to brown. Serves 2.

Source: contributed by P. Bull in Library Cookbook: West Torrens Public Library - Recipes Supplied by Friends, Borrowers and Staff (West Torrens: 1985 [1st edn]).

Salmon Meringue Tart

(May be eaten hot with vegetables, or cold with salads)

1" x 10" lightly cooked Pastry Shell
1 x 8 oz tin Salmon
1/2 pint Milk
Knob Butter
2 Eggs
1 rounded tbsp. Cornflour
Squeeze of Lemon juice
Salt and Pepper

Method: Drain salmon, remove skin and bones. Flake into a saucepan, add milk and butter, bring to boiling point. Separate eggs, blend Cornflour with the yolks and add to saucepan and cook one minute, stirring constantly. Remove from heat, season with salt, pepper and lemon juice and turn into tart shell. Beat egg whites (with small pinch cream of tartar) until stiff, cover salmon with this meringue, bake for 15 minutes at 375 deg. When cooked sprinkle with chopped parsley and grated cheese.

Source: contributed by Mrs. M. Horgan in The Lunchbox: A Selection of Tried Recipes (Clare: Bihar Mission Auxiliary. 2nd edn, 1975; 1st edn 1968), p.64.