NYT Mag has a spread on my namesake Betty Crocker’s “Atomic Age” cookery that sent me fishtailing down Memory Lane. Old cookbooks are windows into the past, I think — you can tell so much about what people valued by reading recipes. The NYT piece notes how a collection of 1971 Betty Crocker recipe cards represent the “spirited artifice of the period.”
I was largely spared culinary fads as a child because my mom wasn’t interested in cooking back then, mostly because she was a single mother who was way too busy. She appreciated others’ culinary efforts, but dinner at our house was usually take-out pizza or boxed mac-and-cheese — something quick and cheap.
For some reason (maybe it was my form of rebellion), I was always fascinated by cooking and would watch Julia Child before Food Network was invented and hang around the kitchen while my grandmothers and aunts prepared meals (it was always the women who did the indoor cooking back then).
My maternal grandmother was as slap-dash about cooking as my mom. But my father’s mother was a serious cook of the down-home variety (fried everything that walks, swims or crawls; bacon-flavored veggies; homemade biscuits). Her culinary legacy inspired my husband to call me “Betty Cracker,” which became my Internet handle.
But back to cookbooks: When I expressed an interest in cooking for the family at age 10 or 11, my mother gladly surrendered the apron to me. She even bought me a junior cookbook at a yard sale. I still have it:
I’ve made practically everything in it, too, including the so-1970s Tutti-Frutti-Ice SPARKLE:
I’m tempted to make it again right now, only with vodka!
Later in life, after she wasn’t so busy anymore, my mom did develop an interest in cooking, but only to a point. In a text message exchange prior to our last Thanksgiving together in 2013, we were trying to figure out division of labor and what I should prepare in advance at my house before we made the trip up to her place vs. what to cook at her house.
She offered to buy the turkey if I would cook it. I asked if she had a cooler suitable for brining, and she replied, “What’s brining?” I replied “LOL!” And I bought the turkey.
So what’s cooking in your neck of the woods, besides baseball? Mets or Royals? (Mets for us.)
Roger Moore
I think I’m going to use some leftover chile verde to make a burrito.
WereBear
Already cooked. Center cut pork chops and green beans. Real flashback to my childhood.
Betty Cracker
Oh Christ, Mets! Are you doomed because I’m rooting for you, just like every team I’ve rooted for in the playoffs?
raven
I’m taking a bunch of cookbooks to habitat. I’ve got wayyyyy too many and it’s part of the reorg to pare down
Snarki, child of Loki
Egg nog needs rum, not vodka.
Although Everclear would do the job also, too.
JPL
Betty, You might enjoy this article that is going to be in the NYTimes Magazine, Sunday. link
It’s Betty Crocker’s greatest hits, or most disgusting depending on your mood.
Omnes Omnibus
@Snarki, child of Loki: Brandy. But I think BC was talking about the tutti-fruiti thing.
raven
Y’all need to order this cook book:
Bull Cook and Authentic Historical Recipes and Practices
Roger Moore
@Snarki, child of Loki:
I believe that brandy and bourbon are also acceptable forms of alcohol for eggnog.
raven
Thoroughly Pizzled
Fuck the Royals.
Betty Cracker
@Snarki, child of Loki: Vodka? Pah! Eggnog needs bourbon, rum and SoCo. Yes, I said SoCo.
greengoblin
I am sitting in a hotel room in downtown Houston watching the game waiting for cookies and milk to start at 8.
Mike J
I got a couple of 70s era NYTs cookbooks for a quarter at the library sale. Craig Claiborne’s NYT is very different from the Times of today.
schrodinger's cat
Betty Cracker@top
Can you share your recipe for hard apple cider? Where do I find champagne yeast?
I made eggplant and tomato gratin, spicy ground beef and ground chicken for dinner. Plus pickled cranberries which will be ready to eat next week.
David Koch
SiubhanDuinne
@Betty Cracker:
Same here. I wanted the Cubs to beat the Mets.
The Mets beat the Cubs.
I wanted the Jays to beat the Royals.
The Royals beat the Jays.
Now I want the Me….
(Wait a second here)
I’M ROOTING FOR THE KC ROYALS!! Yeah, that’s the ticket! Royalzzz!!
BruceFromOhio
Boy howdy, Everclear in the nog this Soltstice would create a fire hazard in several different, unconnected ways.
Cookbooks: the go-to remains an aging, 3-ring Betty Crocker, because I’m hungry and the one stuck trying to gin up a meal using eggs, flour, and some scattering of spices and animal proteins or vegetables. Entirely possible, questionably healthy, and always an adventure.
What would the fictional Betty Crocker have thought about Julie Sanhi and her magical tome? I think they would have got along great, and then made some fresh chai and broke out the eggs, milk and flour to crank out splendid desserts.
@raven:
Bread yeast, beer yeast, water filtration and a couple thousand rounds of 9mm wouldn’t hurt either.
schrodinger's cat
@Roger Moore: Eggnog is disgusting, no alcohol can improve it. YMMV.
SiubhanDuinne
@David Koch:
I can hardly tell you how hard I love it that my President says “badass” in public. Especially about girls.
David Koch
Omnes Omnibus
@SiubhanDuinne: The sports Fates know who you really want and will act accordingly.
Iowa Old Lady
We had leftover chicken and garlic stew.
raven
@SiubhanDuinne: women
David Koch
Gorgeous warriors hamming it up with Marine One
Roger Moore
@schrodinger’s cat:
I rather like eggnog, with alcohol or without. A proper cooked eggnog is essentially a custard that’s thin enough to drink.
Scout211
10? 15? years ago, the 1950 classic Betty Crocker’s Picture Cookbook was re-released. It was exactly the same cookbook that my mother used as her cooking guide for everything. I learned to cook using that cookbook along side my mother. Sigh.
I bought a new copy (I had been given her old one years before but it was wee-used). I still love that cookbook and still use it regularly. I gave a copy to both of my daughters but they never had the sentimental connection to Betty Crocker that I did.
SiubhanDuinne
@Omnes Omnibus:
How do I recognize a Sports Fate when I see one, and what should I do to get him on my side?
SiubhanDuinne
@raven:
Women too.
ETA: If the Preznit can say “girl,” I reckon I can say “girl.”
WereBear
I believe I learned to bake from such. It was incredible. Creaming butter, separating eggs, three fluffy layers with boiled frosting. I was a virtuoso.
Actual cooking eluded me for a few more decades.
Scout211
@Scout211:
Edit not working!! It was well-used, not wee-used. Sheesh.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@SiubhanDuinne: have the usual suspects gone all Margaret Dumont on that unpresidential language? I’m guessing Michelle Malkin was at or near the head of that line
schrodinger's cat
@Roger Moore: I like custard but not eggnog. My mom used make me a drink a horrid concoction of raw egg, honey and brandy when I was growing up, because I was all skin and bones. Eggnog gives me flashbacks of that. Do. Not. Want.
David Koch
@SiubhanDuinne:
and then he said “I guarantee you Carli Lloyd knows more about being President than some of the folks running”
Sick burn as the audience burst out in applause.
Omnes Omnibus
@SiubhanDuinne: My previous comment expounded the sum total of my knowledge of sports Fates. I would guess that they enjoy being appeased and such like.
SiubhanDuinne
When I got married in 1964, someone — most probably my mother — gave me a copy of Peg Bracken’s I Hate to Cook Book. It got me through the first year or two of marriage.
Corner Stone
@greengoblin: I love The Magnolia.
Death Panel Truck
I have a 1956 Betty Crocker cookbook I got from an old roommate of mine, a guy I’d known since kindergarten. His mother threw him out of the house when he was 18, and gave him the cookbook as a parting gift. Some of the recipes call for lots and lots o’ lard. Ugh.
Omnes Omnibus
@Corner Stone: I assumed the “milk and cookies” thing was a euphemism for something.
SiubhanDuinne
@BruceFromOhio:
Binders full of women!
beltane
Eggnog is one of those things I’ve never encountered in real life I think I’ll stick with custard.
Omnes Omnibus
@beltane: How have you avoided it? It’s everywhere.
Steeplejack (phone)
Don’t care between the Mets and Royals. Hope the games are good.
Had a big lunch, so salad for dinner with a couple of boiled eggs on top.
Mike J
@Death Panel Truck: You can’t make a good pie crust without lard. Lard is the least appreciated of the gifts of the pig.
Eric S.
@Betty Cracker: I’m batting .000 this post season. First my Cardinals lost. Then my neighbors, the Cubs, lost.
Now I’m routing for K.C. I have an irrational dislike for the Mets. One of us will get a winner.
SiubhanDuinne
@David Koch:
I know. Oh Snap, as they used to say. Can’t we just get rid of that whole term limits thing and elect him President for Life?
Mike J
@Eric S.:
Still hoping they lose on a bobbled grounder.
DemJayhawks
Let’s go Royals!
SarahT
@Betty Cracker: Betty, still have my copy of the book, too ! Over the years I’ve made the Tutti Frutti Ice Sparkle with vodka, rum, Pinns, and sparkling wine (no, not all at once, sorry). We also used to make it with a premixed vodka & orange drink called Tango that used to be sold at NYC’s least finest liquor stores, but we named our Tango-based concoction “Bowery Kiss”. Don’t think they make Tango anymore, though, so today’s drunken teens have no idea of the orange-colored vomity fun they’re missing.
gelfling545
My sister still has my mother’s copy (circa 1949) of the Betty Crocker Cookbook. It’s still our “go to” cookbook for some things because they taste like our childhood memories decree they should taste.
greengoblin
@Corner Stone: That is where I am until Friday. Love it as well.
brettvk
OMG, I remember that eggnog recipe! I remember trying it out when I was about 8 and just starting to try to cook.
Roger Moore
@Mike J:
Sure you can. You can make an excellent pie crust with butter.
Corner Stone
@Omnes Omnibus: I don’t know what would start at 8PM that’s any actual fun.
They have a very good breakfast buffet on the weekends. The Magnolia is a delight.
Ken
I have a 1950s Joy of Cooking that has a section on strontium uptake in vegetables. Is that Atomic Age enough?
beltane
@Omnes Omnibus: I don’t have any Americans in my family and most of the friends I grew up with were recent immigrants. Egg nog was something people on TV drank. Of course it was always for sale in the dairy section of the supermarket, but it seemed to be one of those things like pickled eggs and head cheese that no one in their right mind would consume.
Omnes Omnibus
@Roger Moore: My grandmothers are rising from their graves to strangle you for that heresy.
greengoblin
@Omnes Omnibus: Milk and cookies are the actual “thing”
SarahT
@SiubhanDuinne: I’ll drink to that !
beltane
@Roger Moore: Butter is good for pate brisse and puff pastry, but lard is what provides the proper texture for “regular” pie dough. It is supposedly less bad from a health standpoint than either butter or vegetable shortening. The lard sold in the supermarket is crap though. A pie crust made with freshly rendered lard is sublime.
Mike J
@Roger Moore: You can make a decent pie crust with butter.
Omnes Omnibus
@SiubhanDuinne: @SarahT: I wouldn’t wish that fate on anyone.
SiubhanDuinne
@Jim, Foolish Literalist:
Fainting couches at the ready!!
And I’m looking forward to Ruth Marcus, Scourge of TeenAge Potty-Mouths Everywhere (h/t Charlie Pierce).
Cervantes
@raven:
I’ve had it for years.
On page 18 there is a short but wondrous rant about Hollywood, television, marriage, divorce, and our national glorification of prostitutes.
On page 30 is discussed the etymology of the word “Dixie.”
On page 124 is a photograph of Bourbon Street in New Orleans, described as a “blend of fine old lace iron work and nude women.”
On page 179 are some photographs of Disneyland, followed by this: “I am in favor of giving some land back to the Indians, they didn’t do such a bad job with it at all.”
On page 225 “Jeb” Stuart is celebrated as “one of the greatest military geniuses the world has ever produced.”
On page 349 one is told how “to avoid any chance of becoming an alcoholic and still drink.”
Oh, and in between these things (and other such), there are some recipes, instructions, and household tips.
Anoniminous
@Roger Moore:
Smoke point of butter is ~300 degrees, smoke point of lard is ~350 degrees. While is possible to make a decent pie crust with butter it is more likely a butter crust will develop an acrid flavor on the bottom than a lard crust.
raven
@Cervantes: Wild stuff, no?
Omnes Omnibus
@Cervantes: Jeb Stuart a military genius? For his contributions to the Union war effort, I presume?
SiubhanDuinne
@Omnes Omnibus:
Seriously, I wouldn’t either. I’m being selfish. I want Barack and Michelle Obama to have a long, happy, productive, and lucrative life, and not much of that can happen as a resident of 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue.
beltane
Thank you all for reminding me to pick up some fresh lard when I go shopping this weekend.
Corner Stone
@greengoblin: One time a few stays ago there was a wedding happening the next day. I never asked but I think it was two Persian families. Beautiful women of all ages, all decked out and vibrant.
raven
@Omnes Omnibus: “What to do in case of hydrogen or cobalt bomb attacks” is better.
Anoniminous
@beltane:
I deduce your family didn’t hail from Northern Europe and you did not eat pickled herring or lefse or mashed potatoes with meat balls and ligonberry sauce either.
ETA: where in the world do you get fresh lard?
EdG
World Series. Will the asshole in the Marlins jersey please find a new way to massage his own ego?
raven
@Anoniminous: or Kumla
Omnes Omnibus
@raven: I learned that in the army: Bend over and kiss your ass good-bye.
raven
@Omnes Omnibus: ding, winner in aisle 73!
SarahT
@Omnes Omnibus: of course you’re right, but still…
beltane
Speaking of lard, here is a video of Jeb! valiantly fighting with a two sizes too small hoodie. http://wonkette.com/595377/jeb-bush-baffled-by-zippers-magnets-life-itself
Anoniminous
@raven:
ooooh, kumla. (yummy, tums.)
Aleta
@SiubhanDuinne: I think Malia might go in another direction, so I’m supporting Sasha now.
Omnes Omnibus
@efgoldman: I’ll refrain if you will.
Aleta
@Anoniminous: You freeze the butter crust before adding filling and putting it in the oven. You can also freeze the butter to start, and then grate it into the flour. It mixes so easily that way, and then you add ice water 1 T at a time.
Cervantes
@Omnes Omnibus:
No, the tribute is quite in earnest. For example:
(Aforementioned page 225.)
Omnes Omnibus
@efgoldman: I’ll avoid mentioning gefilte fish.
Betty Cracker
@raven: Definitely want that! But I’ve always been told 12-gauge shotgun shells are my fortune in the apocalypse rather than tobacco…
@schrodinger’s cat: It’s commenter Betsy’s recipe, but here it is, in its gorgeous (paraphrased) simplicity: Take unfucked-with apple juice / cider (i.e., no preservatives, etc. — Martinelli’s at the grocery store works) in a glass jug and add a teaspoon of champagne yeast (I get mine online) for each gallon.
After adding the yeast, place the cap back on LOOSELY, and put the bottle in a cool, dark place atop paper towels to handle any overflow. Try a sip after a few days to see how it’s doing. The longer you wait to refrigerate (and thus stop fermentation), the drier it will become and the higher the alcohol content.
@SarahT: Wow. I’m glad I wasn’t the only one whose mind went there!
Woohoo, Mets!
Mike J
@Betty Cracker:
Your local home brew shop will have it too.
Cervantes
@raven:
Would have been a good title for the section on “the myth about so-called wild rice.”
Anoniminous
@efgoldman:
We can buy processed lard-in-a-box. By “fresh lard” I assumed it was in the pig 24 hours previous to purchase.
SiubhanDuinne
@efgoldman:
@Omnes Omnibus:
I’m going to assume both of you are overly familiar with James Lileks’ “Gallery of Regrettable Food.” Yes, I know he turned into a RWNJ at some point, but the fact remains, he did us all a big favor when he aggregated some of the Greatest Hits of the ’50s and ’60s.
Link: http://www.lileks.com/institute/gallery/
Hobbes
For anyone who doesn’t know what brining means in this context, it is exactly what it sounds like.
I used to have egg nog for breakfast: break one egg into a mug,add 1 sugar(whatever sort I could find), a little grated nutmeg, top up mug with milk and/or cream, stir with a fork.
greengoblin
@Corner Stone: That sounds lovely. Much better than the convention that is here now. I am not part of the convention but keep being greeted as if I were.
Aleta
@efgoldman: I remember a Jello salad with slices of hot dog in it (and other things) at pot luck supper in the Midwest when I was a kid.
Anoniminous
@Aleta:
I’ve done that trick and it’s still not the same. For me. YMMV.
Corner Stone
@Betty Cracker:
12 gauge is good, but IMO, better off to invest in .22 ammo as barter. Lot easier to parcel out. Plus, no one is reloading .22s but they are super useful.
ThresherK (GPad)
First, always wondered how you got your nom de net.
Second, not sure how, but I grew up a child of Depression babies and didn’t learn a thing cooking. Nor my siblings. Plenty of food, some good traits taught (real maple syrup, please, and Hummel’s casing franks, plenty of native corn and tomatoes in summer).
But no hand-me-down family recipes, “my own” copy of a favorite a la Fannie Farmer, or witnessing any of that “stovetop alchemy” at the elbow of an older relative who tossed in a pinch of that land a handful of this, by instinct.
I became a good cook, somehow, and that was before I had to trot out any of those skills as bait to grown-up women.
Cervantes
@Anoniminous:
Farmers’ markets, if you’re in the right place.
Anoniminous
@Aleta:
OH GAWD!!!!
Orange Jello with scrapped carrots or those horrible little marshmallows covered with uneatable imitation whipped cream yuck*.
* Also suitable as a floor wax
ThresherK (GPad)
Hey, I’m awful at pie crusts. What’s an absolute foolproof way to get me started off the Doughboy’s stuff?
I will try any shortening.
Darkrose
…I’m guessing there’s not an earthquake.
Cacti
Rooting for the Mutts b/c I’m an NL guy, but thinking the Royals will win the series because they’re the experienced team this time around.
Gravenstone
@Betty Cracker: Yeah, unfortunately you’ve sort of been the kiss of death this post season.
A few Christmases ago, my stepdad got me a locally assembled cook book that featured a variety of recipes from different eras. Some of them sound interesting, others are sort of a series of WTF moments.
SiubhanDuinne
@efgoldman:
Heh. My work, for the evening, is done.
raven
Anyone heard from Tybee? The supermoon and tides have the island in a pickle.
F
Sweet delicious schadenfreude at the World Series.
schrodinger's cat
@ThresherK (GPad): I use cold butter, vodka and ice water and make the dough in a food processor.
SiubhanDuinne
@efgoldman:
What a nawful thing to say! You make me sound like a troll, or a … a … a … STALKER, or something!!
Betty Cracker
@SiubhanDuinne: I remember Lilek’s “Regrettable Foods” gallery! I also remember watching in real time as seemingly sane, entertaining people morphed into jingoistic, bigoted wingnut bastards, Lileks and Charles Johnson of LGF (who has since recovered brain function) among them, post 9/11. If no one has ever done a sociological study of that, by god, someone should.
Bill Arnold
@Death Panel Truck:
I grew up with some edition of the Betty Crocker Cookbook (late 60s); hard to tell which edition from cover pictures on the web. The fudge recipe was excellent, involving cooling until 120F before stirring, to reduce crystal size. (Recipe modified with an extra 25% chocolate.) Favorite go-to cookbook now is an tattered Joy of Cooking (an edition with a squirrel recipe).
Debbie
Hey, Betty, if you liked watching Julia Child, you’ll love her memoir, “My Life in France.” Her discovery of her passion for French cooking is inspiring, and her enthusiasm is contagious!
JPL
@raven: I read that awhile ago and made the mistake to read some of the comments. As you know, never read the AJC comments.
I blame Obama.
JPL
wtf.. fox…
SiubhanDuinne
@Betty Cracker:
Oh yes. judging by my Facebook feed, I went to high school with quite a few of them.
Gin & Tonic
Fucking amateur hour on this broadcast.
Mike J
@ThresherK (GPad):
Foolproof? Make pie crusts until you have found the 497 ways to screw it up, and then just avoid those mistakes. You can short circuit that a bit by finding a good recipe (like Alton Brown’s), but you’ll still need to practice it a bit.
ThresherK (GPad)
@schrodinger’s cat: Oh, and “sometimes you add it to the crust”.
(Obligatory bad joke.)
I have heard that about adding moisture w/o creating gluten. I will try it, thanks.
SiubhanDuinne
@raven:
I’m pretty sure Tybee commented here a couple of days ago. I have a friend (actually, my former therapist) who lives on Tybee Island and hangs out with the dolphins, and she has posted to Facebook in the past few hours without any concerns.
But, as always when there’s weather or any kind of geological event, one worries. So Tybee, please let us hear from you.
Betty Cracker
@Bill Arnold: I’ve got an old Joy of Cooking from my granny that has instructions on skinning and cooking possums and squirrels!
@Gin & Tonic: Fucking Fox!
SiubhanDuinne
@efgoldman:
Waiting for a political open thread. I dashed off a little something I think you may appreciate.
raven
@SiubhanDuinne: We have friends that I’ve there as well.
Actually Tybee doesn’t live there!
Debbie
@ThresherK (GPad):
This is supposed to be foolproof:
http://food52.com/recipes/24966-cook-s-illustrated-foolproof-pie-crust
The theory is that the vodka as a liquid keeps the dough malleable, but because it will then evaporate in the heat of the oven while cooking, the crust will be flaky, not tough.
dedc79
@efgoldman: With Buck I just think back to the Tyree catch in the Giants – Pats Super Bowl and wonder what a competent play by play guy would’ve done with that call.
He never fails to suck all the energy out of an exciting sports moment.
SiubhanDuinne
@efgoldman:
Not a pie.
A poem.
MazeDancer
In the cooking/TV zone, noticed last night’s overnight thread had a little chat on what PBS calls “The Great British Baking Show”. Which many were enjoying.
Thread was dead, so didn’t respond, but seems semi-appropriate to add here that “The Great British Bake-Off” which is the real name of the show, is the most popular TV show of ANY KIND in UK. Where it is an obsession. And is known as GBBO. The reason it is not called that here is because Pillsbury owns “Bake-Off”.
The show PBS is running now is an old show. It is Season 4 of GBBO, long gone, as it aired in UK starting in August of 2013. And be careful when you search any recipes as you will get spoiled.
Last year, PBS debuted the show with what was GBBO Season 5. And bizarrely, is going backwards. So those of us who because addicted, had to resort to semi-nefarious streaming of Season 6, which has recently completed.
GBBO Season 5 is available for binge-ing on Netflix. All the other seasons – or series as they call them in UK – are on YouTube. Quality varies on YT, so keep searching – use GBBO – until you find a post you like. And Series 6 is available by simply searching “Stream GBBO series 6 online”. The first result is a fine one.
ThresherK (GPad)
@Debbie: Ooh, Food52 usually has useful techniques. Kudos.
The Pale Scot
You know you’re getting old when you need reading glasses to roll a joint.
At least that’s what SWIM told me as he was preparing for his BIL’s visit.
New Riders Of The Purple Sage “Henry” 10/31/75
Debbie
@ThresherK (GPad):
I believe the idea originated at Cooks Illustrated. They’re great on technique and borderline psychotic in testing to ensure it will work.
Gin & Tonic
@efgoldman: I find these international guys a lot easier to listen to than Joe Buck and crew.
About 10 years ago I was in Kiev for the winter, and ended up watching the international (I think it was British) broadcast of the Super Bowl at the Arena club (part-owned by the Klitschko brothers) with a bunch of ex-pats. No American commercials, though. Walked out when it was almost dawn. Not sure how much of the audio I heard.
gus
I was bored and thumbing through an old cookbook at my parents’ house when I noticed “illustrations by Andrew Warhol.” Amy Vanderbilt’s complete cookbook. I took it home, but I haven’t yet used it.
gus
@efgoldman: No worse than fucking McCarver. Unfortunately no better, either.
beltane
Lard should be bought at a farmers’ market or natural food store. “Leaf lard” is the good stuff and it is not terribly expensive. The lard sold at most supermarkets is a partially hydrogenated product that isn’t very good.
Omnes Omnibus
@beltane: Butcher’s shop?
beltane
@Debbie: The vodka in the water technique works. I use it all the time because rolling out a crumbly dough stresses me out.
Cervantes
@Omnes Omnibus:
If they render.
Many don’t, in which case you have to do it yourself.
Goblue72
@Betty Cracker: I’m with you on rum but SoCo? Gross.
Best eggnog I’ve made us a recipe from Clyde Commin in Portland. Uses anejo tequila and Amontillado sherry. Second best is a recipe for eggnog that’s aged about a month or more, from Sun Liquors in Seattle.
beltane
@Omnes Omnibus: Yes, if you’re lucky enough to live near a real butchers’ shop. The German butcher shops I remember from my NYC youth sold lard and the sweetest, most incredible butter I’ve ever eaten.
Gravenstone
@ThresherK (GPad): Try Alton Brown’s recipe. Features both lard and butter. Not sure if that will quell the argument, or exacerbate it. The key to any crust containing butter, keep it COLD so the butter doesn’t melt until it’s actually in the oven.
Debbie
@efgoldman:
WPIX used to have a great team for Yankee broadcasts. Bill White was a great play by play guy who endured despite Phil Rizutto’s nonsense. “Holy cow, Cora is gonna kill me!”
beltane
I’ve read that some Latin American markets also carry freshly rendered lard. That also might be worth trying out.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
Um… I feel like I should put a trigger warning on this, but it seems to be real. Dave Weigel and a few others are having, or had, what Weigel calls a “Jameson-fueld” conversation with Lindsey Graham
Debbie
@beltane:
I’m too chicken to try any technique. I either use store-bought or figure out another kind of crust like gingersnap or just do a crisp.
SiubhanDuinne
@gus:
OMG, would I love to see that now!
PurpleGirl
My mother did very basic cooking and didn’t start baking until she was in her early 50s. She used boxed mixes for everything, never felt secure enough to try from scratch. One time she was intending to make a chocolate cake and something went wrong. But the cake didn’t rise, and stayed moist and flat. It was a chewy, brownie-like thing. It was delicious, absolutely delicious. We never figured out what went wrong and she couldn’t duplicate it. Le sigh.
Gravenstone
@efgoldman: He still does some of the local Cards broadcasts. Yet another reason to hate them.
Sandia Blanca
I treasure my Grandma’s copy of the 1959 Better Homes and Gardens Holiday Cookbook. She wrote notes inside the front and back covers–just “page 47, Thanksgiving 1962” or the like. I have made several of the recipes, but I just love looking at the pictures and reading the goofy ideas of what made a glamorous holiday back in my childhood.
SiubhanDuinne
@Jim, Foolish Literalist:
Had to google FMK. And now I am marginally more informed than I was when I woke up this morning.
Aleta
@ThresherK (GPad): Trader Joe’s used to have a nice frozen pie crust. Making a pie is so fast, can be so much fun that way.
beltane
Has anyone here made their own filo dough? That is the one baking challenge I have yet to undertake.
SiubhanDuinne
@PurpleGirl:
My grandmother and her sister had very different approaches to making desserts. My great aunt made terrible cakes. She couldn’t bear to give the batter more than about half a dozen desultory stirs, so of course the cakes were always lumpy and heavy. OTOH, she was so delicate when actually having to handle pastry that her pie crusts were a marvel of light, airy texture.
My grandmother, in complete contrast, made terrific cakes. She would cradle that big mixing bowl on her lap and give it 300 of the best with her strong right arm. Great, high-risen layers, with every flavor element mixed in to perfection. But her pie crusts were soggy and sodden and sorry. She just couldn’t stop herself from overhandling the dough, and it would get heavy and leaden and tough.
I miss them both.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@SiubhanDuinne: My apologies. Apparently Bash cleaned it up– this is not a private conversation, it is some kind of quasi-official event, I think– to “Marry, date and disappear forever”. Graham did at least three shots and then got up on stage. Igor Bobic of HuffPo has more.
Betty Cracker
@Gravenstone: I think the necessity of keeping the crust cold prior to cooking is why it so often defeats me. Even with air conditioning and frequent trips to the freezer, a crust can sense that it’s in a tropical climate and think, “Oh fuck that noise!”
Betty Cracker
@SiubhanDuinne: Sounds like they complemented each other admirably, as sisters should.
Woodrowfan
no love for Nanny Ogg’s “Joy of Snacks”??
BruceFromOhio
I do believe all four back fillings are the result of Betty Crocker’s fudge recipe.
schrodinger's cat
Did you guys see the Snooze Hour? I caught the tail end. Ted Koppel was shilling a book and asking people to buy food supplies for six months. When did Koppel become Glenn Beck?
joel hanes
@raven:
George Leonard Herter FTW !
I have a couple old Herter’s catalogs from the 1960s — great entertainment.
raven, were you ever in their showroom in Waseca ? What a bazaar!
There’s a bunch of things that Herter’s did better than anyone (yes, even Cabela’s), and for which I will always miss them.
Overblown sales prose is one of those things.
SiubhanDuinne
@Jim, Foolish Literalist:
A rose by any other acronym….
PurpleGirl
@SiubhanDuinne: My father’s mother made great cookies. She made one with grated hazelnuts that were very light and flaky. I don’t remember other things she made but I do remember the hazelnut cookies. Her recipes were ‘a pinch of this’ and ‘a pinch of that’. My mother’s mother died when I was baby so I didn’t know her at all. Their family unit was quite poor (with 8 live kids) and grandma Devita didn’t cook many of special Italian/Sicilian things. My father’s family was more Austrian middle class (4 live kids). The Krist brothers owned a restaurant on Vesey St in Manhattan. But my father didn’t like the sour, vinegared German special things — he was basic meat and potatoes and that’s what my mother cooked for him.
BruceFromOhio
@Goblue72: OK, its not Eric from Sun Liquors recipe, but cats in a handbag does this sound like a runner: Best eggnog recipe.
Omnes Omnibus
@schrodinger’s cat: Ted Koppel is a waffle.
SiubhanDuinne
@Betty Cracker:
It’s interesting (well, to me, anyhow). There are the grandmother and great-aunt on my mother’s side. No brothers. Another grandmother and great-aunt on my dad’s side. No brothers. My mother and her sister. No brothers. And me and my sister (and, finally in all these generations, a couple of brothers). But in all four cases, the sisters were or are good complements to each other.
dogwood
@Mike J:
My mother taught me the secret to good pie crust. Ignore the recipe when it comes to the amount of water. Use enough water to insure that the crust will roll out and hold together on the first try. Overhandeling the crust, rerolling etc. is what ruins the final product.
SiubhanDuinne
@PurpleGirl:
Grated hazelnut cookies, mmmm. What nice memories.
Laura
@efgoldman: you can buy fresh pork lard by the pint Jar at the Sunday Sacramento farmer’s market under the W/X freeway. It’s mild, melting and tender in baking.
Aleta
@Betty Cracker: Do you think this would work with unpasturized cider that has started to get bubbly? I have some right now that got lost in the fridge. It’s now in the window between gassy and vinegar, so it’s still drinkable but never quite gets the polish of true hard cider. And then goes to vinegar, but not great vinegar, either.
Corner Stone
@SiubhanDuinne: Sounds like you’ve had generations without a male being born. Let me repeat that, no males for generations.
schrodinger's cat
@Corner Stone: I loled!
Aleta
@SiubhanDuinne: Just like my mom (cakes, coffee cakes) and my aunt (best rhubarb custard pie, etc.). (And I miss them both.)
SiubhanDuinne
@Corner Stone:
:-)
Don’t, okay?
And my father might beg to differ.
dogwood
@David Koch:
The president was pretty funny today. I didn’t see Kasich’s rant , so I have no idea how it played live, but reading it made me laugh out loud. He was ranting about Trump wanting to round up 11 million people, haul em to the border and yell at them to leave.
Juju
@efgoldman: My mother once made a gelatin salad from an old cookbook she was given as a wedding or shower gift in 1955. The salad was called Green Mist and it was made with lime jello, though my mother always bought store brand, mayonnaise based cole slaw and mini marshmallows. Top that. I actually ate some. It’s about as good as you’d imagine. We in the family all still laugh at that salad, and we threaten to bring it to family gatherings.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
It read better than it sounded. He had the tone and delivery of a middle school vice principal.
dogwood
@Jim, Foolish Literalist:
I figured as much. But you have to admit most of what he said would fit right into a democratic stump speech. He could be dangerous if he had a sense of humor.
Eric U.
@dogwood: I’m glad that they are pointing out the insanity on their own side. If dems do that, they are part of the “hyper-partisan atmosphere in politics”
Tehanu
Royals. AltaDena egg nog (California only, I think).
My mom had the Betty Crocker cookbook but she didn’t really like to cook and she rarely used any cookbooks, relying instead on the dozen or so dishes she’d learned how to make from her mother-in-law, my dad’s mother, who was a professional cook and whose recipes are still being used at the Chicago deli she worked at for 30 years. I never really liked cooking either — just eating. However, Hubby Dearest loves to cook so I’ve bought him a slew of cookbooks over the years, including the one with the best title ever: “Eat What You Want and Die Like a Man.”
dogwood
@Eric U.:
He certainly didn’t mince words. I think he timed this stuff so that he will get some attention from tomorrow’s moderators. He just might steal the show cuz he doesn’t seem that desperate to be president, but he sure has had it with the TrumpCarsonCruz gang. .
Goblue72
@BruceFromOhio: Looks tasty.
Joel
God, this is a good game.
Betty Cracker
@Aleta: I don’t know. There seems to be a really narrow window between hard cider and vinegar. I’ve screwed up an accidentally allowed vinegar to happen once or twice.
@Joel: Isn’t it? I had hoped to catch Colbert, but this is more compelling TV…
J R in WV
@beltane:
Eggnog for sale at a store is as good as canned icing for a cake. In other words, bad. The difference between a can of sardines and fresh tuna steak.
You need to have fresh free range farm eggs with golden orange yolks, and heavy cream and rum, brandy and bourbon, and a little ground nutmeg. Some milk too, to keep it from being to thick.
You blend the eggs with the booze, which “cooks” them to prevent egg-borne illness, and then blend in the cream and milk. There’s a good recipe in the Joy, and one in one of Julia’s books. Craig Clayborne might have one too.
If all you have tried was manufactured from the grocery store – or even from a liquor store with whiskey in, you haven’t ever even tried real eggnog. We had to warn people that they could get hammered on the eggnog, it was a real sleeper. There was a small non-alcoholic bottle, it got no takers.
KS in MA
@Debbie:
Loved White and Rizzuto!!!
SectionH
@beltane: Nobody I know. In fact, I just watched the semi-finals and the finals of the first series of The Great British Bake Off last night. And the semis* required the bakers to bake their own filo dough. One of the comments was NO ONE makes their own filo, because the best is actually made by machines, which have the torque to do enough stretching.
*I think, maybe it was the quarter finals. Binge watching has its drawbacks.
@Woodrowfan: The Joye of Snacks? I love All of Nanny Ogg’s books!
J R in WV
@ThresherK (GPad):
Put everything in the freezer but your shortening, I use good unsalted butter, good lard works well too.
But get the bowl down to zero, the pastry cutter, which is a gadget with a handle and round multiple blades that you use to cut the butter into the flour. The rolling pin, if you have a marble or granite board to roll on, put that in too.
The point is to not let the shortening melt while you work it into the flour. So a room temp roller will work against a good crust. It was be done well on a formica-type counter if you work quickly.
I have won pie-baking contests at parties, with whole-wheat pie crusts. The other bakers, all women would say “Yes, your crust is more flaky, but I used whole-wheat flour!” and I would say, “Me too!”
Get a Joy of Cooking, the most recent edition is OK, it has the old squirrel recipes for that antiquity feeling, but it also has the straight scoop on making common but tricky things like good pie crusts. I will confess that I have used factory-produced pie crusts from time to time. The contents are a little more important than the crust, a little bit.
Aleta
@J R in WV:
Never knew that; makes sense. Every New Years, my mom used a recipe she got in Louisville, the bourbon kind, with some vanilla ice cream beaten in at the end. Like you said, a real sleeper. The cousins and I would get into an altered state and drag the toboggan up to a huge ridge in back of the barn and come down flying over the drainage ditches.
Aleta
@efgoldman: Oh there is a difference !
Aleta
wild game
Aleta
my 3rd comment is in moderation, but no links in any of them … just because it’s the 3rd one?
texdoc
@J R in WV:
I made homemade eggnog for a New Year’s Eve party one year–rich and delicious, with rum. Left the cups with a thick rim of eggnog in them to clean up the next day. While we slept, the cat went round and cleaned out all the cups–I’ve never seen anything funnier than the dog looking puzzled at the obviously hungover cat!
Omnes Omnibus
@texdoc: The dog wasn’t puzzled. The dog was politely trying to restrain amusement. Dogs are pack animals and too much pointing and laughing can lead to discord. OTOH, quietly enjoying the cat’s discomfort….
hellorochester
Staying home today with my kid who was pukey Monday night and had a low fever yesterday. Him and his momma have a junky cough so I’m making PA Dutch chicken pot pie, which is basically chicken soup with thick homemade noodles. Made it two weeks ago with a recipe that recommended a half cup of Apple cider which made it amazeballs.
HelloRochester
@bettycracker @aleta
Boil the cider down to about a quarter volume and store it in the fridge before it gets bubbly or vinegary. It makes everything it touches better. Splash in pie, splash in gravy, splash in bourbon.