Bonus Post: Anna Van Blarcom

It's Restaurant Week here in DC, and I kicked it off by having dinner with my friend Jeannette at Ceiba. Between courses, I asked if she knew about an Anna Van Blarcom.

Oh, boy, did she! Anna didn't marry into the MacCutcheon family; rather, she was a MacCutcheon who married into the Van Blarcoms. THE Van Blarcoms, of Van Blarcom Closures. They made metal bottle tops for soda bottles and the like. Stopped making them when the industry went over to plastics, because plastics factories worked around the clock, and the Van Blarcoms weren't going to run three shifts and never shut for the night. No, not the Van Blarcoms.

Anna was a proper Quaker lady, and always wore simple grey dresses. When she died, in the 70s, her family went up to close up the estate. The found her grey dresses, yes, but the also found what she wore under the dresses.

Nothing but bright red silk underthings.

Go, Anna.

Salmon Soufflé

It's a Friday, and I have enough latent Catholicism in me to think that Fridays mean fish. Casserole Cookery: One-Dish Meals for the Busy Gourmet indulges my association with a pantry cooking dish.

Salmon Soufflé

Time: 1 hour

Ingredients:
1 No. 1 can salmon
2 tablespoons butter
3 tablespoons flour
1 cup milk
4 eggs
1/4 teaspoon thyme
1/2 teaspoon curry powder
salt and pepper

Make cream sauce, melting butter, blending flour, and adding milk and seasoning. Cook for 2-3 minutes, remove from the stove, add yolks of eggs and salmon. Stir well and fold in stiffly beaten whites of eggs. Put in buttered casserole with straight sides and bake in slow oven (375°) for 35 minutes. Serves 4.

Menu
Salmon soufflé
Salad: Lettuce, tomatoes, radishes, cucumber and French dressing (2 parts olive oil, 1 part garlic vinegar,
Drop biscuits
Coffee

Story
For that unexpected (uninvited?) guest. All from materials that should always be on your shelves.

Ooo, a typographical error? An omission? What comes after the 1 part garlic oil? Other than the missing stuff (salt and pepper, I'd wager, and maybe some mustard), the salad and dressing sound remarkably like what I thought salad and dressing were as a kid. Those ingredients. Presented the same way. Over and over.

Until, of course, the Kraft Catalina Dressing taco salad came into our lives... :swoon: It's trashy, it's kitschy, it's so very good.

But this is about the salmon soufflé...

I like the assumption that everyone's going to have a soup-can-sized can of salmon on her shelf (and, yes, the assumption is that the cook is a woman; the drawing on the page shows a woman walking by a window overlooking a station where the train has just pulled away; there are two men's hats on the sideboard, and it's 5 minutes to 7... a whole story in a little picture). I think I actually do have one up in my cupboards... I've butter and flour, milk, ... heck, I might even still have 4 eggs.

Dang. I could actually throw together this pantry cooking recipe right now.

...huh.

Remember, I've linked to a can size number cheat sheet in the past; a No. 1 can is the same size as a Campbell's condensed soup can.

Tomorrow, a bonus post, and a new cookbook. Should the bonus post be Egyptian Eggplant, or Celery Au Gratin?

(Yes, "Celery Au Gratin.")

Brunswick Stew

There's a certain lack of squeamishness in Casserole Cookery: One-Dish Meals for the Busy Gourmet that I find utterly refreshing (or, occasionally, intriguingly off-putting). Meat comes from animals, and those animals come from somewhere, and that somewhere used to have fur or feathers or fins. Usually. So, here's to acknowledging the little critters that make some tasty dishes.

Brunswick Stew

Time: 1 3/4 hours

Ingredients:
1 squirrel or rabbit, cut at joints
2 cups canned tomatoes
1 No. 1 can niblet corn
1 package frozen cut green beans
3 spring onions, tops and bulbs chopped
1 No. 2 can tiny new potatoes drained
1 cup red wine
bay leaf
1/2 teaspoon thyme
salt and 8 peppercorns

Brown the squirrel or rabbit and onion in olive oil. Place in casserole, add vegetables, wine, and seasoning. Brown new potatoes in skillet used for squirrel and add to casserole. Cover and simmer gently in medium oven of 350° for 1 1/2 hours or until meat is tender. Serves 4.

Menu
Brunswick stew
Salad: Celery curls, radishes, egg, tomatoes, and lettuce with French dressing (2 parts olive oil, 1 part vinegar, salt and pepper, and a pinch of dry mustard)
Cornbread
Coffee

Story
You hunters (both the field and market varieties) should go big for this. However, if for no other reason than to start an argument, try chicken now and then instead of rabbit or squirrel.

Now, I don't think I'm going to find squirrel in the supermarket, and, recent Supreme Court decisions aside, I doubt the folks of DC are going to take too kindly to me taking a bead on the wildlife in Glover Archibald Park. Whole Foods usually has rabbit in the freezer case, so I could go that route.

When I was a 4-H-er, I raised rabbits. Yes, for showing, but yes, also for eating. I do have a fondness for rabbit as a result.

For your other ingredients, remember the cheat sheet for can sizes: No. 2 cans are about 2 1/2 cups, and No. 1 cans, about 1 1/4 cups. I'd assume the green beans should be of the "frozen into a block 4"x6" to 5"x7"" variety, not a big 1- or 2-lb. package. And your thyme should be dried, not fresh.

I know, I know. Fresh would be lovely. But then again, wouldn't fresh corn be lovely here? Fresh potatoes? Onions with a bit more flavor? A salad that didn't sound like a bit of a nightmare? Part of this project is staying true to the recipe... what you do in your own kitchen when you try to make it for human consumption is entirely up to you.

:cough: :cough: :use fresh where possible: :cough: :cough:

Steak and Kidney Pie

I read book jackets. I live for a good blurb. Casserole Cookery: One-Dish Meals for the Busy Gourmet doesn't have a jacket; however, it does have some great cover copy.

Casserole Cookery IS MORE FLAVORSOME, KEEPS FOOD HOT, SAVES TEDIOUS POT-WASHING, AND DECORATES THE TABLE WITH THE POT YOU COOK IN.

WHY THIS COOK BOOK IS UNIQUE:

New dishes in the modern manner

One meal, one page -- everything right under your nose

What to cook -- How to make it -- How long it takes -- How many it serves

DIRECTIONS ARE EXACT, EASY TO FOLLOW

WASHABLE COVER, BOOK DESIGNED TO STAND OPEN AT YOUR PLACE WHILE YOUR HANDS ARE BUSY

Increases your culinary repertory without extra expenditure of time or money -- will add novelty to any woman's shelf of cook books and delight to any he-man's meals.

I couldn't make up those bolds, italics, random-caps and all-caps if I tried, folks. That's straight from the back cover.

Yesterday's recipe was so unabashedly vegetarian and contained so few ingredients, I figure we can go for something more complex and organ-ish today.

Steak and Kidney Pie

Time: 1 1/4 hours

Ingredients:
1 lb. beef -- top round
6 lamb kidneys
1 medium-sized bunch of carrots, scraped and cut into 1-inch pieces
1 No. 2 can tiny new potatoes drained
1 package frozen limas
3 medium-sized Bermuda onions quartered
2 cups prepared biscuit flour
1 cup milk
1/4 small bay leaf
1/4 teaspoon thyme
1/4 teaspoon sage
salt and pepper

Prepare kidneys by splitting and removing white membrane; soak in cold salted water while cutting steak in small pieces about the size of a half-dollar. Sear both in an iron skillet about 5 minutes, add 2 cups of water and boil 6 minutes. Put everything in a low buttered casserole and cover with soft dough (2 cups of biscuit flour, 1 cup of milk, and do not roll). Bake about 20 minutes at 450°.

Menu
Steak and kidney pie
Endive salad with French dressing (1 part wine vinegar, 2 parts olive oil, salt and pepper, and a dash -- merely a dash -- of nutmeg)
Swedish bread (the kind that looks like phonograph disks -- can be bought at any fancy grocery)
Coffee

Story
This will serve four of our friends, or six normal eaters. People who drop in during our dinner, which we have fairly late, and say, " Thank you, I've had dinner, but that looks good, I'd like to taste it," have been known to eat three helpings

I tend to say I've "peeled" carrots, but really like the word "scraped" here. After all, carrots don't actually have a peel; you're just scraping off the outer bit that is a touch darker, a bit likely to be clinging to dirt.

There's a lie in that last paragraph. I only ever peel (or scrape) carrots if I'm peeling/scraping them all the way down into long ribbons. I figure that a washing is all that is needed.

I'm a bit curious about the one quarter of a bay leaf. I'm much more likely to chuck a few extra bay leaves in when I make a stew or soup. A quarter of one? Seems like a pointless endeavor.

In the not-so-distant future, this recipe will be even more anachronistic. Describing bread as looking like a phonograph disk is going to be as out-of-date a reference for the next iPod generation as calling for things by can size number. Oh, and, remember: a No. 2 can is approximately 2 1/2 cups, so, a nice big can, like the size you'd get if you wanted a can of stewed tomatoes to make yourself a mess of spaghetti sauce.

Cheese with Tomatoes and Okra

I tend to think of casseroles in the fall or winter. Summer should be salads and barbeques and picnics, right? Casserole Cookery: One-Dish Meals for the Busy Gourmet defies expectations, and delivers up a seasonal summer vegetable casserole.

Cheese with Tomatoes and Okra

Time: 1 hour

Ingredients:
4 medium-sized fresh tomatoes
1 pint okra
1 pound rattrap cheese diced
1 spring onion, tops and bottom chopped
salt and pepper

Butter deep casserole. Slice, but do not peel tomatoes. Cut tips and stems from okra pods. Dice cheese and chop onion. Arrange in layers in casserole, first a layer of tomato, then a layer of okra, then a sprinkling of onion, salt and pepper, and finally the cheese. Repeat until all ingredients are used, cover and bake in a medium oven (350°) for 40 minutes. Serves 4.

Menu
Cheese with tomatoes and okra
Beet salad: Beets stuffed with mixture of lemon juice, chopped pickle, chopped spiced beets, mayonnaise, served on lettuce
Italian bread cut in hunks
Coffee

Story
From our Southern cousins. Very inexpensive. Very easy to prepare.

Very suspect salad suggestion. I mean, seriously... I love beets. I love pickles. I love spiced beets. I love mayonnaise. I do not want to chop up most of those things and then shove 'em in another, and serve it on lettuce. No. No, thank you.

"Rattrap cheese" isn't an ingredient I'm familiar with. My initial thought was "Velveeta" or other processed-to-hell-but-deliciously-meltable cheese. Some modern-day research (can we call Googling a term "research"?) points instead to...

...cheddar.

Yes, cheddar. Nothing fancy, nothing imported, nothing expensive. American cheddar, including/especially the dried out and unsavory bits that you wouldn't want to eat yourself, but might be used in an iconic rat trap.

I love it when the story behind words makes such neat and colorful sense.

Also, don't be scared off by the okra. Honest! Okra can be your friend! If you're really wigged out by the notion, I suggest you try some dry-fried okra to ease you into the wonderful veg. Alton Brown has a great episode of Good Eats devoted entirely to this unfairly maligned vegetable; the dry-fry recipe comes from that.

Canadian Bacon with Apples and Red Wine

Marian & Nino Tracy have lots of ideas, and they're not afraid to share them. In the introduction to Casserole Cookery: One-Dish Meals for the Busy Gourmet, they discuss the proper equipment for cooking and serving casseroles.

We use several sizes of earthenware casseroles, both French and Mexican types. The French type with the cover and a long handle works very well. We have a low one for most dishes and a deep one for the very bulky recipes. A very shallow one, a sort of earthenware pie plate, is necessary for some seafood casseroles. We also use individual Mexican casseroles with lids when the spirit moves us.

Casseroles look best with simple china and linens in robust colors. Nothing thin or dainty will do. We use tablecloths made of gaily striped percales, mattress ticking, or checked gingham, which we sew together out of lengths of material bought chiefly for design and color. Cork mats are practical because the food is usually really hot. For buffet suppers a set of trays in a good clear color with not mats, plain contrasting china, and individual casseroles are attractive. Gaily figured glasses from the five-and-ten-cent store are good if your breakage is high. Serve simply. The casserole itself will appreciate this and so probably will your friends.

So, we're called to set cheerful places, folks. I have never sewn my own table linens, but have been known to press pretty sheets or duvet covers at tablecloths in a pinch. I'm a big fan of mismatched colors on a table, and have casseroles in any number of crayon colors. My basic china is white, with accent pieces with a dark blue rim; it pretty much goes with anything and calls out for yummy casseroles, stews, and the like. Like, this one:

Canadian Bacon with Apples and Red Wine

Time: 45 min.

Ingredients:
1 lb. Canadian bacon
1 No. 2 can sweet potatoes
4 large cooking apples or 1 No. 2 can sliced pie apples
1 cup red wine -- claret would be best
2 tablespoons brown sugar
grated peel of 1/2 lemon
pinch of cinnamon
salt and pepper

Core, peel, and slice apples. Frizzle the bacon a few minutes. Place sweet potatoes on bottom of low buttered casserole. Arrange apple slices in layer above sweet potatoes. Sprinkle with sugar, cinnamon, grated lemon peel, salt and pepper, and go easy on the salt because the bacon is quite salty. Top with a neatly arranged layer of bacon and pour in the wine. Bake in a medium oven (350°) for 30 minutes. Serves 4.

Menu
Canadian bacon with apples and red wine
Salad: Mixed greens (water cress, chicory, endive, and a little chopped parsley, for instance) with French dressing (2 parts olive oil, 1 part vinegar, pinch of thyme, pinch of marjoram, and, of course, salt and pepper)
Hot buttermilk biscuits (prepared ones that come in tubes)
Coffee

Story
When we say claret would be best, we expect controversy. So use waht you prefer, but don't blame us if it fizzles.

Aaaah, old cookbooks! Casserole Cookery often uses canned ingredients, and refers to them by the can size number, not by ounces. So, what's a good casserole cook to do? Look up the info from a handy dandy Extension service! University of Nebraska-Lincoln offers a cheat sheet for can sizes; you'll need about 2 1/2 cups of cooked sweet potatoes for this recipe.

Full disclosure: I'm the daughter of a former Extension agent, and the sister of an Extension secretary. Of course, even if I weren't, I'd send you their way for information galore -- I adore Extension. (Go, 4H!)

If you're not British, you might be unsure about the term "claret." Yes, yes, it's red wine, but more specifically, it's a Bordeaux-style wine. If you don't want to splash out for French wine in this dish (though, really, you can get some yummy ones for not much money), look for a wine with a blend of Cabernet Sauvignon, Cabernet Franc, Merlot, Petit Verdot, Malbec, and/or Carmenere. Or, ask your wine guy or wine gal to point you towards a Bordeaux-style blend.

And, in the "learn something new every day" category: frizzle is a real, honest-to-goodness word. It means to cook with a sizzling sound, or cook until crispy and curled. Not too surprising, once you accept the word as real, one finds that it actually came from mashing up the words "fry" and "sizzle." So...frizzle up some bacon, folks. And then smile at the Tracys, who ended their story with a rhyming word. Just because they could.

Veal Curry.

My copy of Casserole Cookery: One-Dish Meals for the Busy Gourmet was originally owned by one Anna Van Blarcom. Googling her name takes me down several rabbit holes, including one great one that would have Anna Van Blarcom marrying into the MacCutcheon family. This tickles me because my friend Jeannette's grandma, Jean MacCutcheon gave me the cookbook; odds of it being the same Anna are slim, as she'd have been 80 by the time the cookbook came out. Regardless! This book had a history. It was owned by Anna Van Blarcom; she put her name in it, and she ticked off recipes of interest. Veal with Squash. Salmon Steaks with Lima Beans. Kidney Beans and Red Wine. Zucchini with Italian Meat Sauce. Curried Veal with Brasil Nuts. Veal Curry.

There's only one page where Anna availed herself of the "Cook's Comments" lines. On page 21, for the recipe for Veal Curry, Anna wrote "10 min in Pressure Cooker." 10 minutes beats 1 1/4 hours, when trying to cook for... whatever her household situation was like.

I was going to steer clear of the more controversial meats, but I have to say, Anna was particularly fond of this recipe, and so, for Anna's sake, I'm chucking delicate sensibilities to the wind. Also, once I get to the Alaska and Montana cookbooks, there'll be no avoiding more exotic meats (the bear fat pie crust comes to mind).

Veal Curry

Time: 1 1/4 hours

Ingredients:
1 1/2 lbs. veal cut into 2-inch squares
1 1/2 cups raw rice
6 tart apples, peeled and cubed
1 package seedless raisins
4 spring onions, tops and bottoms chopped
1/4 lb. butter
1 1/2 teaspoons curry powder
1/2 teaspoon powdered ginger
salt and pepper

Sauté the veal in olive oil in skillet. Transfer to a low buttered casserole. Add all the other ingredients: rice, apples, raisins, onions, curry powder, ginger, salt and pepper. Pour in 4 cups water. Cover and simmer in a medium oven (350°) for 1/14 hours. Serves 4 or more.

Menu
Veal curry
Salad: Mixed greens (escarole, lettuce, cress) with French dressing (2 parts olive oil, 1 part wine vinegar, salt and pepper)
Vienna bread
Coffee

Story
The beauty of this curry is that it takes only one boy to serve it.

I have no idea what to make of that story. The cartoon accompanying the recipe is a turbaned, wild-eyed man with a big bowl of steaming curry. I see references to "12 boy curry" and "20 boy curry" and the like, where the "boys" are add-ins to curry dishes, and I hope that's what they were trying to get to here...

Vienna bread is baked in a steamy oven, like a baguette. So, crisp crust, fine crumb. I think the point is "bread suitable for sopping up curry," which is always fine with me. Take One Cookbook... is decidedly pro-sopping.

Casserole Cookery: One-Dish Meals For The Busy Gourmet; Stuffed Eggs Au Gratin

You spoke, I listened; this week, we'll look at Casserole Cookery: One-Dish Meals For The Busy Gourmet, by Marian & Nino Tracy. First published in 1941, revised in 1946, and coming to my shelf in a 1949 edition. I'll go into the funky pride it takes in its binding in a later post, because, it's just that much fun. But first, let's look at how things change due to war:

A Note for the 1946 Edition

This book was first compiled in the happy days when the only shortages were due to a lack of money or inaccessibility to good markets, and a casserole for four using a pound and a half of meat was called a "meat-stretcher." We all have learned to readjust many such ideas as that about food. Recipes for casserole cooking are pleasantly flexible and the proportions of the major ingredients may be varied according to what is available. Less meat may be used, with more potatoes, rice, and green vegetables added to make more bulk.

If you use fresh foods instead of canned or frozen foods, more time and more liquid must be allowed unless the food has been parboiled. The list of equivalents below will be helpful on this. Solid or liquid fats may be used interchangeably in cooking but never in French dressing. Seasonings are more important than ever in giving zip to an otherwise restricted diet.

Aaaah, rationing. It ended in the U.S. in 1946, but clearly, after the book went to press.

The cooking magazine, Saveur, has named Casserole Cookery one of its favorite casserole cookbooks:

The chatty royals of the casserole kingdom acknowledge their own laziness and offer 150 no-fuss recipes for like-minded home cooks.

Chatty they are. Nearly every recipe has not only a suggested menu to accompany the casserole, but also a story which may or may not have anything to do with the recipe in question. For this week, I've mostly tried to stay clear of the veal and offal recipes, though there's a lot to learn there, so one or two might sneak in. Today, though, we'll start easy (and use up any of the remaining eggs you have on hand from The Pooh Cook Book):

Stuffed Eggs Au Gratin

Time: 45 min.

Ingredients:
6 eggs
1/2 teaspoon dry mustard
1 tablespoon vinegar
olive oil, enough to make a smooth paste
(anchovies or anchovy paste, Smithfield ham, capers may be used in the stuffing)
2 tablespoons butter
2 tablespoons flour
1 cup milk
1/2 teaspoon basil
grated cheese
salt and pepper

Hardboil the eggs. Peel and halve them. Remove yolks to bowl and mix with mustard, vinegar, olive oil, salt, pepper, and whatever else you care to use. Stuff mixture into halves of whites. Place in bottom of shallow buttered casserole. Make a cream sauce with butter, flour, and milk, and pour over the eggs. Sprinkle top with grated cheese. Bake in oven at 350° for 10 minutes. Serves 4.

Menu
Stuffed eggs au gratin
Raw vegetable salad (carrots, cauliflower, onion, green and sweet red pepper, all chopped) and French dressing (2 parts olive oil, 1 part garlic vinegar, salt and pepper)
Melba toast
Coffee

Story
The "whatever else you care to use" may make you wonder why you paid for this book, but the real point is that the casserole lends itself to many individual tastes.

Yes, it assumes you know how to make a cream sauce. If you don't know how to make a cream sauce, shout out, and I'll do a how-to.

There's a few lines for "cook's comments" on each page, so you can add, subtract, or alter as you see fit.

I find the use of the term "French dressing" interesting here; clearly, it doesn't mean the gloppy red sweet dressing you can buy by that name in the grocery store today. All of a sudden, the pickled peach liquid in French dressing mention back in The Savannah Cook Book makes a lot more sense.