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Post by Chuckie on Nov 17, 2017 10:57:23 GMT -5
I posted this on the "other" site, as W.O.T. started a salad dressing post over thar'. FRED HARVEY FRENCH DRESSINGWhen my Mother grew up, her father was the manager of the Country Club, and they lived there in the manager's manse. Consequently, the maid/cook "came with the house", as her sleeping quarters like the old days were right off the kitchen. Her name was Estelle Rodd; mother said she was a VERY sweet, short, rotund black woman, who treated her and her brother my uncle Pete like they were her own grandchildren. If Uncle Pete would miss the last bus from town, she'd wait up for him while he walked the 4+ miles back out to the Country Club--that WAS in the country then!--and cook him steak and eggs! Anyhow, she was a cook for the old Harvey House Restaurants. Here is her handwritten/signed recipe dated June 14, 1943 in my Grandma's old cookbook---the entire BOOK is handwritten! I have NOT tried this yet, so cannot attest how it would TASTE, but it SOUNDS pretty RICH!! She has several other recipes in there as well--Coca-Cola Roast, icebox rolls (about same recipe as Idlehour) and a few more.  ------------------------------------------------------------- FRED HARVEY FRENCH DRESSING2 Cups vinegar 1 Cup Olive Oil 1 tsp salt 2 TBS sugar 1 TBS paprika 2 buttons of garlic Blend together Vinegar beat oil into vinegar thoroughly add salt and sugar and paprika and buttons of garlic. Let stand several hours before using. When ready to serve beat thoroughly again. ------------------------------------------------------------ IF someone tries this, PLEASE post how it comes out! CHEERS! Chuckie |
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Post by nana on Nov 17, 2017 18:00:15 GMT -5
I love the hand written vibe. You can feel a bit of the personality, especially the crossed out word, even though as far as I can tell she spelled it right. Maybe she just didn't like the looks of it....I suppose a button of garlic is a clove. Minced? Or whole, just as a faint essence of flavor? 3 cups is an awful lot of salad dressing to try! I would have to pare down the amounts. But a family treasure all the same!
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Post by Chuckie on Nov 18, 2017 0:03:25 GMT -5
I love the hand written vibe. You can feel a bit of the personality, especially the crossed out word, even though as far as I can tell she spelled it right. Maybe she just didn't like the looks of it....I suppose a button of garlic is a clove. Minced? Or whole, just as a faint essence of flavor? 3 cups is an awful lot of salad dressing to try! I would have to pare down the amounts. But a family treasure all the same! The "button" came up on the "other" site as well-- mach12 was asking. Guess it's a "Midwest thang", as his Nebraskan wife knew what it was--a 'clove'. I suggested 'over there' smashing it a bit w/the back of a spoon, to kinda "release" the flavors... And if WE made this, it DEFINITELY would be cut in HALF!! CHEERS! Chuckie |
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Post by mach12 on Nov 18, 2017 12:06:50 GMT -5
I love the hand written vibe. You can feel a bit of the personality, especially the crossed out word, even though as far as I can tell she spelled it right. Maybe she just didn't like the looks of it....I suppose a button of garlic is a clove. Minced? Or whole, just as a faint essence of flavor? 3 cups is an awful lot of salad dressing to try! I would have to pare down the amounts. But a family treasure all the same! I have a collection of cookbooks and to me the best ones are the ones all full of handwritten notes and recipes stuck in them that are written on scraps of paper. Somebody really put their heart into their cooking and that collection was important to them. My parents passed only a few months apart and when we cleaned out the house to sell it I remember walking in the kitchen and seeing my sister sitting there holding my mother's cookbook, all stuffed full of notes and recipes, and crying her eyes out. I'm always surprised when I come across one like that and wonder about the circumstances that brought it there. Man do I wish I could have met the owner, too. I posted over on the other site that I had to look up what a button of garlic was and there were several sites that said it was just another name for a clove of garlic. I was all ready to impress my wife with a bit of new found knowledge but just got one of those "have you been living under a rock?" looks. She gets to use that look a lot with me, especially with cooking. That's okay, next time she has a fault mode on an Abrams tank or a safety lockout on a 40 ton crane I'll get even. So I'll add one of my favorite salad dressings. This is pretty much the standard in the Asian places around here and is really, really easy. And good. Just toss everything into a blender and hit the button and you're in business. I blend it for several minutes, then let it sit for a couple of hours, and then give it a final stir just before using it. 1/2 cup mayonnaise 5 tablespoons rice vinegar 2 tablespoons sugar 2 tablespoons sesame oil 1 tablespoon soy sauce 1/4 teaspoon garlic powder |
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Post by karitx on Nov 18, 2017 17:41:55 GMT -5
Oh, that cookbook is such a treasure! I haven't ever run across one full of hand-written recipes, but I would buy it if I did. I do have several like mach12 mentioned, that are full of stains and notes, with extra recipes stuffed in here and there. I always feel like I have to save them when I see them.
I have a 1940s rationing cookbook called Cooking on a Ration and the recipe for French dressing is almost identical to yours (although it is for a smaller quantity!). I had to laugh when I read the intro to the cookbook because the author laments how no one knows how to actually cook any more and everyone relies too much on convenience foods. I'd like to see her walk through a modern grocery store!
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Post by nana on Nov 19, 2017 16:44:31 GMT -5
What was so convenient back then, I wonder, to make her put that in the introduction? Sliced bread? Canned vegetables? The 40's was prior to the big explosion of frozen and processed stuff that happened in the 50's and 60's...Probably way back, in cave man days, people complained about the fancy pants young folks "cooking" their meat. I can just hear it--Raw mastodon was good enough for my grandpa and it's good enough for me!  |
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Post by karitx on Nov 20, 2017 9:40:17 GMT -5
I will have to look again, but I know she was appalled at canned soups and how no one knew how to make soup any more. But yeah, it definitely had the ring of, "Kids these days! Get off my lawn!" Aside from her lamenting about the good ol' days, it's a pretty good little cookbook. There's a raisin War Cake recipe that is on my list to be tried soon. |
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Post by pooka on Nov 20, 2017 14:12:41 GMT -5
By the 1940s, more & more processed food was coming on to the market. A lot because of research by the defense department. Store bought caned foods was well established by then. Frozen food was actually introduced around WWI. Birdseye went into the frozen food business in 1925. Refrigerators sales is one of the few consumer products that increased by leaps & bound during The Great Depression of the 1930s. By the 40s, ordinary homes were featuring kitchen cabinets because of the need to store all this new processed & convenience foods. In the 20s & 30s, most home only had a Hoosier cabinet for food storage & prep. The first cake mixes were introduced in the 40s. The industrial methods of food production was ever increasing. Like with many other new things, people lamented not doing things the old fashioned way, like cooking from scratch. I remember how people poo-pooed microwave ovens when they first came out. Now we wouldn't think of being without them.
The author of that book was not much different in opinion of food than we are about our Chambers stoves compared to modern stoves. We are in the minority about our stoves as she was about processed food. It's a kind of nostalgia for the old days. The more things change, the more they stay the same I suppose. Different strokes for different folks I guess.
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Post by nana on Nov 20, 2017 18:40:00 GMT -5
I didn't realize the conversion of food from sustenance to industry took place so early in history! I think the worst thing we've done as a culture is accept the removal of so much of the flavor from what we eat. The food gets processed so it is barely recognizable as food, then flavor and color get artificially added back in. And industrial farming has leeched flavor even from our fresh fruits and vegetables. Is there anything as tasteless and bland as a so called Red Delicious apple bought from your corner convenience store? I've had kids at school tell me they don't like peaches, or tomatoes, probably because they never had anything except the ones from the grocery store, beautiful to look at but nasty to eat.
Oops, I have joined the author of Cooking on a Ration on her soapbox. She has all my sympathy now. She's absolutely correct: People DO need to know how to make their own soup!!
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Post by mach12 on Nov 20, 2017 22:11:03 GMT -5
When I was growing up almost everything my mother cooked was from scratch and the leftovers were the best part. Nothing was wasted and eventually what was left usually ended up in a soup or stew. The only convenience food I remember us having were Swanson TV dinners in aluminum trays and we only did those on the evenings we went grocery shopping after my Dad got home from work. Then we'd wash the aluminum trays and make up a bunch of our own TV dinners with leftovers and they were so much better than the store bought ones.
I was in the dollar store picking up a bottle of that Totally Awesome brand cleaner the other day and saw that they sell those aluminum TV dinner trays and wondered how they'd work out in a Chambers. That sure would be convenient.
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Post by pooka on Nov 21, 2017 5:07:22 GMT -5
Processed Foods History: 1910s to 1950s | Modern Pioneer MomAt the above link there's a quick history of processed foods from 1910 to the 1950s. Under the 1910s, it says, "Trans fats were invented in the 1890s and entered the food supply in the 1910s. Some processed foods became available as early as the 1910s."If you'll note in the 40s, it says, "Farmers used fertilization and irrigation to increase crop yields, decreasing the vitamins and minerals in those plants. Government subsidies for corn and soy led to a food industry with a financial incentive to use high fructose corn syrup, hydrogenated oils, modified corn starches, etc. to produce lots of highly processed (and unhealthy) foods. The U.S. issued guidelines for adding iron, vitamin B, thiamine and riboflavin to bread and other grain products to offset nutrient deficiencies."As you noted nana, many types of produce has been breed for appearance & long shelf life rather than for flavor & nutrient value. I read somewhere recently that many of the apples we buy are as old as a year & a half old. Some time ago, I heard a story on NPR radio about tomatoes. The writer noted being behind a truck hauling them from the field to a packing plant in Florida. He said when the truck made a sharp turn, some of the green tomatoes tumbled out & bounced on the pavement like tennis balls. They would later be artificially ripened when they are ready to go to market. When he spoke to the farmer, he said he was paid for the ones that survive packing & shipping & not for good flavor. We have been trained to buy produce that looks a certain way, & not for it's flavor. On a side note, carrots originally were grown in a range of colors from white or yellow or purple. According to the link bellow, Why the Carrot is Orange: Blame the Prince of Orange - Tested"Then in the 17th century a breed of carrot was developed that had a lot of beta-Carotene and was orange. And the Dutch started growing this in great abundance in tribute to William of Orange to such a degree that almost all other forms of carrot had gone out of mass agricultural production...in this very roundabout way our carrots are orange because our oranges are orange, and they've been that way for political reasons."So today, we a trained to think carrot are only orange thanks to 17th century politics. Not so long ago many types of produce were grow in dozens, if not hundred of varieties, but the industrialization of farming have pared that down to a mere handful in a mono-culture of those types that survive large scale industrial methods & also have what been deemed the most appealing appearance we've been trained to expect. mach12, as I remember, my mom cooked from scratch mostly too, except for maybe cake mixes & the like. With our family of six kids, mom & dad, & great grandma, there weren't many leftovers. When there were, they always seemed better after being re-heating. Something about warmed over leftovers were more succulent with a deeper flavor than the first time around. Re-heated chili was a top favorite, but something as simple as pan fried potatoes made with a little bacon fat was comfort food personified. They were even good cold. TV dinners were a special treat we were rarely allowed.
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Post by nana on Nov 21, 2017 21:03:17 GMT -5
My mom was a great cook too, with all her German home cooking and she was pretty good at Italian dishes too, having spent summers in Italy as a child. We used to plead and bleed for dreck like Spagettios and Hostess cupcakes, because that's what all our friends were having. Kids are such idiots! And we never got to have soda, either, except on birthdays. I used to chafe at the cruel injustice, but I became grateful later on, because I never developed the sugary drink habit that so many people find so hard to kick.
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Post by Chuckie on Nov 21, 2017 23:38:42 GMT -5
My mom was a great cook too, with all her German home cooking and she was pretty good at Italian dishes too, having spent summers in Italy as a child. We used to plead and bleed for dreck like Spagettios and Hostess cupcakes, because that's what all our friends were having. Kids are such idiots! And we never got to have soda, either, except on birthdays. I used to chafe at the cruel injustice, but I became grateful later on, because I never developed the sugary drink habit that so many people find so hard to kick. I think I've said this before, but my Mom was NOT well versed in the culinary arts. HOWEVER, she "invented" hamburger helper before it ever came out, and like recipes. She'd buy a HUGE can (or TWO!) of Chef Boyardee spaghetti & noodles sauce, and fry a pound of hamburger, mix it in. WE thought it was absolutely MAH-VELOUS!!! My Grandparents owned a resort in Hot Springs long ago, and we got treated @ the restaurant one night. I INSISTED on the LARGE portion of spaghetti on the menu, and BOTH parents tried to change my mind, to no avail. My Da was P-I-S-S-E-D when it arrived, I took like TWO bites, and declared it " NOT my MOM'S spaghetti!!!", and wouldn't eat any more! N-O-T a "pretty" evening to be sure! She would also make homemade chicken & noodles, and serve boiled spuds on the side (she obviously wasn't "hep" on food groups either!  ). I never even TASTED broccoli or cauliflower, until I worked briefly in the mess hall @ FT Leavenworth. Ours was always canned corn or green beans, and OCCASIONALLY some fresh green beans or corn-on-the-cob from local farmers. And of course homegrown Kansas tomatoes every year! I was none the wiser, and STILL think of her food as "comfort food". My Da was self-employed, and when he got sick and was "off work" for several months once, we ate a LOT of grilled cheese sandwiches & Mom's potato soup---which consisted of hamburger BOILED WITH THE POTATOES, and then drained, farm-fresh WHOLE milk added, and about a 1/2 stick of butter. Another one of her recipes (which was MY fave!) was frying hamburger w/onions & MAYBE a bell pepper, mixing it into a box (or three!) of instant scalloped potatoes, then bake the spuds per box directions. A-W-E-S-O-M-E! I make that @ LEAST once a month STILL! Nowadays, this sounds like BAD parenting, but-- HEY!--it kept us ALIVE when Da was out of commission and we was hungry, and those are STILL some of my favorite foods... God bless BOTH their memories... CHEERS! Chuckie |
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Post by nana on Nov 22, 2017 8:59:56 GMT -5
It must have been the love she mixed in that made it taste so good and helped you grow up big and strong!  |
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). I never even TASTED broccoli or cauliflower, until I worked briefly in the mess hall @ FT Leavenworth. Ours was always canned corn or green beans, and OCCASIONALLY some fresh green beans or corn-on-the-cob from local farmers. And of course homegrown Kansas tomatoes every year! I was none the wiser, and STILL think of her food as "comfort food". 