Part 6

The beauty of hash is that, no matter how it tastes, you think it is all right. There is no standard flavor for hash. Hash is fundamentally accidental, so it has no traditions to live up to.

LXIII

_Channing Pollock_

CORN BREAD

When I was young and sometimes went camping my favorite dish was corn bread. In those days, we always began proceedings by building a mud oven. Now I believe portable ovens are convenient and cheap. In any event, following is my recipe:

2 cups of flour 3 cups of cornmeal 4 heaping teaspoonsful of baking powder 2 eggs well beaten 1 teaspoonful of salt 1 tablespoonful of granulated sugar 1 generous pint of milk 2 tablespoonsful of melted crisco or lard Do not scald the cornmeal.

Mix the meal with flour, baking powder, salt and sugar, beat the eggs until they are light, add the milk and eggs to the other ingredients. Beat the whole until it is smooth and light—about one minute. Finally adding the melted crisco or lard; pack into shallow, greased pan and bake in a hot oven for twenty-five minutes.

LXIV

_Hussein Kahn Alai_

(Minister to the United States from Persia)

CHIRIN POLOW

Necessary materials: One pound of rice (Carolina rice is most suitable); one spring chicken; the peel of four oranges; four ounces of sugar; half a pound of salt; two grams of Spanish saffron; two ounces of almonds; half a pound of butter.

Method of cooking the rice: If the dish is required for a luncheon at one o’clock, it will be necessary, the night before, to rinse the rice three times in water, rubbing it each time with the palms of the hands. Change the water each time.

Next soak the rice in tepid water, letting the water stand three inches over the rice. Pour the half pound of salt on the rice and let it stand until 11 a. m. of the next day.

Into a two gallon caldron pour six quarts of water and let it boil. As soon as it boils pour out slowly and with care the water in which the rice has been soaking since the night before. Empty the rice into the boiling water. Cover the caldron and increase the heat. As soon as the caldron containing the rice begins to boil remove the cover and stir the rice gently with a flat spoon. Then replace the lid and let the contents of the caldron boil again. Repeat the stirring process three times. Next drain the rice in a sieve, shaking it to remove all adherents of salt and starch. Now melt a quarter of a pound of butter in a large cup of water. Pour half of the melted butter into a one-gallon caldron and gently empty the rice into the caldron in such a way that it will spread uniformly without sticking together in rice balls. Place the caldron in a hot oven. Close the oven and after five or six minutes see if the caldron is hot; if it is, bring it out gently and pour the remainder of the melted butter over the rice and replace in the oven. Now reduce the heat until the caldron gives a hollow sound when rapped with the fingers; this will indicate that the rice is sufficiently cooked.

Preparation of the almonds: Boil the almonds for a few minutes until the skins fall off and the almonds become white. Cut the almonds into four quarters perpendicularly.

Preparation of the orange peel: Remove the white part of the peel to such an extent that both sides of the peel are of the same color. When this has been done cut the peel into long thin strings. These should be boiled in two waters so as to remove all bitterness. Then strain.

Combining the almonds and the orange peel: Mix the almonds and the orange peel and boil them in a syrup of sugar for ten minutes. Strain and keep in a warm place until needed.

Cooking the chicken: Begin boiling the chicken very slowly at eight o’clock in the morning. Boil to such a point that the skin and bones detach themselves from the flesh.

Preparation of the saffron: Warm the saffron to remove all dampness and pound it to a powder in a mortar; after which dissolve it in three tablespoonsful of cold water.

Dishing the Polow: One half of the rice should be taken from the caldron and mixed in a bowl with the orange peel and almonds. Over this sprinkle three tablespoonsful of saffron water to color well. Now pour over it about two tablespoonsful of melted butter.

Next remove the remainder of the rice from the caldron and dish it up ready for the table. Place the chicken from which the skin and bones have been removed on top of the rice. Crown the whole with the rice, which has already been mixed with the almonds and orange peel and colored with the saffron.

This will make a delightful and pleasantly flavored dish—Chirin Polow, which means “sweet Polow.”

LXV

_William J. Bryan_

FRENCH-FRIED ONIONS

Onions are on my permitted list of foods and they are prepared for the table in many ways. The best way that I know of has been given the name of French-fried onions. I first ate onions in this form at the famous Grove Park Inn, Asheville, North Carolina, and have since introduced the dish on dining cars and into many private homes.

Take a Bermuda onion—any other large onion would do—cut it into slices through the rings so that each slice will be made up of a large number of whole rings. Then break the slices up into separate rings, drop these into a thin batter and fry them as you fry French-fried potatoes. Each ring looks like a little doughnut. I find that the dish is universally praised.

May I add a word in regard to radishes, of which I am very fond. The long White Icicle radish is, in my judgment, the best variety and I have found that butter added to the salt makes the radish a little more palatable.

LXVI

_Will Irwin_

HAM AND EGGS

Take a frying pan and some ham. Cook the ham in its own fat in the frying pan—cook until the ham is well dappled with golden brown, or until it is cooked enough. Then break some eggs. Take out the ham and put it on a hot platter, then put in the eggs. Baste them a bit with the hot ham fat. Put a cover on the pan and let the eggs cook in the hot pan with no fire. A minute or two will do—then serve the eggs with the ham and—oh, boy!

For the very best results use the best ham you can get and plenty of day old eggs.

LXVII

_Douglas Fairbanks_

BREAD TART

1 cup fresh bread crumbs 1 cup sugar 1 cup chopped nut meats 1½ teaspoons baking powder 5 eggs 2 tablespoons grape juice 1 lemon

_Filling_

1 egg ½ cup chopped walnut meats ½ cup sugar ½ cup lemon

Soak bread crumbs with grape juice and the strained lemon juice. Beat egg yolks and sugar together until light; then add nut meats, baking powder, bread crumbs and the beaten whites of the eggs. Divide into buttered and floured layer tins and bake in a moderate oven for twenty minutes. Put together with filling. Beat up egg, add sugar, lemon juice and walnuts. This tart may be covered with frosting if liked.

LXVIII

_Julian Street_

SOLE Á LA MARGUERY AND DUCK WITH ORANGES

I have two favorite dishes: both being examples of the French cuisine at its highest.

One is “Sole à la Marguery” (which can be made with flounder, also) and was originated by old Monsieur Marguery at his famous restaurant in Paris. It has a sauce which has a wine base and which contains shrimps and small oysters.

_Sole à la Marguery_

Lay your sole in a buttered platter, add about a glassful of white wine, season and poach:

I. E. Let boil for about fifteen minutes and then take the juice out, mix with it a yolk of a raw egg, about two ounces of sweet butter. Beat slowly so as to get it thick, something like a hollandaise; add a few shrimps, oysters, mussels, and a few heads of mushrooms, cook the sole with it, glaze in a salamande two or three minutes and serve.

Another is duck cooked with oranges. I know how to ask for it at the St. Regis and the Brevoort, but am not sure of the spelling. It sounds like Duck “Bigarade.” They do it well at the Brevoort. If potatoes are served with either of these dishes they should be potatoes gaufrettes—on a separate plate.

_Duck Bigarade_

To Roast: Select a young and very tender duck, prepare and truss it for roasting. It should be roasted on the spit or in the oven for fifteen to twenty-five minutes, according to its size and the heat of the fire.

A domestic duck ought to be served quite rare, and should be killed without bleeding. Dish it after untrussing and pour over it a little of its gravy.

Sauce Bigarade: Peel an orange without touching the white parts, cut the peel up into small, fine julienne. Plunge it into boiling water, and cook until it is tender. Drain and enclose it in a covered saucepan with four gills of espagnole or brown sauce. Just when ready to serve finish the sauce with a dash of cayenne pepper, meat glaze, the orange juice and the juice of a lemon, strain through a tamis, adding two ounces of fine butter.

LXIX

_S. S. McClure_

OMELETTE—AND PIE

I can give you a tip on how to prepare, in the very best fashion, two articles of food.

The first is omelette: The frying pan should be held at a slant, with the lower part immediately over a moderate heat, and continually the volume of eggs that becomes cooked should be scraped back and the liquid part allowed to flow over the pan thus emptied, and then when the omelette is, I should say, about two-thirds cooked, it should be removed from the fire and dished.

It is impossible to make an omelette of the utmost symmetry and firmness and have it good at the same time. If it is stiff enough to maintain a certain symmetry, then it is too stiff to be good. I have made an omelette in this fashion containing as many as eighteen eggs. I learned how to make omelette from Madame Poulard of Mont St. Michel in Normandy, one of the most famous omelette makers in Europe.

I am also particularly successful in making pies. On one occasion I made pies for one hundred and eighty-five officers on the troop-ship _Leviathan_. To make pies, one must have the best quality of butter and the best quality of flour. Use a pound of butter to every two pounds of flour. The butter must be rather firm and must be mixed with the flour with your hands. Then when you have a sort of a mass of dough on the table, make a little hollow in the middle, pour in a little cold water, mix it to such a consistency that it can be made into a roll perhaps as thick as your wrist. It will require about two inches to be rolled out thin for the crusts. Dust a little flour in the dish that it is to be baked in and put into the oven at such a temperature as would require one half an hour to bake. There’s a considerable secret in the choice of fruits. The top crust should have little apertures in it so as to permit the steam to escape. It is easier to make perfect pies than any other dish.

LXX

_Basil King_

LOBSTER Á LA KING

Boil medium sized lobsters. Let grow cold and remove meat. Put large piece of butter and one and one-half tablespoons of flour into double boiler. Stir until creamy. Add one pint of milk and cook about five minutes. Add lobster cut in small pieces and cook about fifteen minutes. Just before serving; add three tablespoons cream and one-half tumbler sherry or brandy.

_Note_: Unless brandy or sherry can be added it is useless to attempt this dish.

LXXI

_John A. Moroso_

SPAGHETTI-FOR-THE-GANG

Many a time as a very small boy I watched my distinguished Piedmontese grandfather grandly direct the cook. This is the way our spaghetti sauce was prepared. Buy about three or four pounds of solid meat from the round, cut thick. Ask for the “eye of the beef.” It is inexpensive. Cut little pockets in it and insert bits of fat bacon in some. In others stuff sage, thyme, parsley and bay leaf with salt and pepper to taste. Sometimes I spread thinly with mustard, the prepared sort; covering the top. A clove of garlic tucked in with the seasoning goes well, if you have Wop ancestry. Pale people use onions. But surely one or the other.

Grease well a deep iron skillet with iron top, the pot-roast utensil. When the gravy begins to drip add a little water, but not much. The steam makes the meat tender and brings out all the flavors in the little pockets. Baste from time to time just to get the aroma of the simmering mess and sharpen your appetite. Take a little wire and jab it in the roast after about an hour and twenty minutes and you’ll find out whether it is tender and juicy enough.

Put the big pot on and get your water boiling fast. Add a good sized kitchen spoon of salt. Better salt the water to taste. Throw in a pound of Italian made spaghetti ... the Farina spaghetti. It requires a certain kind of wheat to make good macaroni. Boil for twenty minutes. Drain off water.

To the rich gravy you will find the roast swimming in add a small can of tomato paste, stirring in slowly. As this is poured over the spaghetti add grated Roman cheese. You will get it all properly dressed by using two forks, lifting and dropping the strands. Serve piping hot with an automatic revolver at hand so that the man who cuts his can be disposed of promptly. Some twine the spaghetti about the fork. Others just lead a mass of it to the face and bite off what they want at that particular mastication.

A good salad and Italian bread, to be secured at any small dealer’s where the boss sings _Santa Lucia_ in a thin high voice as he slices the salami, goes well with the roast. This layout will last an old bachelor or a deserted husband two or three days. It’s grand when it’s warmed up in a boiler.

LXXII

_F. X. Leyendecker_

VEAU SAUTÉ MARENGO

During my Paris days (school days) I became very fond of two dishes and they still remain my favorites:

No. 1—Veau Sauté Marengo—nothing epicurean about this, but real tasty; a ragout of veal which must be served in a brown pot. It is flavored with tiny onions and mushrooms, olives and a delicious sauce. I have never found it quite so well prepared as in Paris.

Fry some small pieces of veal in oil, add one chopped onion, one head of crushed garlic and when it is well brown strain it, add one glass of white wine and reduce. Moisten it with one quart of brown sauce. Add two pounds fresh tomatoes and some fine herbs. Cook slowly for an hour and a half.

Put the meat in another pan, add few small onions cooked in butter, some small mushrooms already cooked.

Dress and serve on toast fried in butter.

No. 2—Vol au Vent Financière—a pastry form filled with mushrooms, cubes of chicken, something else, and a good sauce. This also seems not quite the same outside of Paris.

VOL AU VENT FINANCIÉRE

Put four ounces of butter in a saucepan, add four ounces of cooked sweetbread cut in three-sixteenth inch squares, small bits of the white of chicken, some truffles, olives, mushrooms, kidney and cock’s combs.

Moisten with one pint of Madeira sauce, let boil and despumate; when the sauce is done strain it through a tamis, fill your pastry crust and serve.

EDITOR’S NOTE:—The recipes are French, and properly prepared and served, they will prove the real thing in Keokuk as well as in the Quartier Latin.

LXXIII

_Eddie Cantor_

BOILED BEEF AND HORSERADISH SAUCE

I love boiled beef and horseradish sauce—I love it better than any other dish in the world!

Anybody knows how to boil beef. And a good horseradish sauce is made in this fashion.

Melt a good sized lump of the best butter—almost as big as an egg, is good sized. Add to this, first removing from the fire, about two tablespoonsful of flour. Stir the flour and butter together until the mixture is absolutely smooth, and then add cold milk—a trifle more than a half pint, a shade less than a pint. Put over a slow fire in a sauce pan or, for safety’s sake, a double-boiler. Cook slowly until the sauce is of the desired consistency, and then add your horseradish. If you like the sauce very hot add a lot of horseradish. If you like it moderate, a little horseradish. The best way is to begin with a teaspoonful and keep adding and tasting until it’s O. K. Salt and pepper to taste, of course. And, if you like it, a dash of celery salt.

LXXIV

_Frazier Hunt_

STUFFED CELERY

I like food. I like almost any kind of food. I’ve eaten all varieties—in great cities and in out of the way corners of the world. And I’ve never found anything that I couldn’t eat, if I were hungry enough!

But best of all I think that I like stuffed celery. It’s easy to fix, and it’s slightly out of the ordinary, and it’s possible to consume a lot of it without being looked down upon by those who are dining with you. Because everybody eats a lot of stuffed celery.

To a half pound of Roquefort cheese add a quarter of a pound of butter. Cream them together until they are as smooth as it is possible to make any mixture containing Roquefort cheese. Then add a dessertspoonful—or a tablespoonful, if you like—of Worcestershire sauce. A little salt, and some paprika, enough to slightly color the mixture. And then—

Take stalks of celery—very white and crisp and fresh. And stuff the hollow side, until it bulges, with the Roquefort mixture. And serve with your dinner, or after dinner, or with the salad, or all alone. It doesn’t matter when or where you place it on the menu, for it’s apt to be the dominant note!

LXXV

_William Slavins McNutt_

ORANGE COMPOTE

Orange Compote is my favorite dish. After my fourth I begin to forget that I’m a human being. After my sixth I can feel myself drifting into a blissfully comatose state—with only strength enough left to call for a seventh.

Orange Compote, at its best, may be obtained in any small Turkish or Armenian restaurant where the coffee is good and the dishes aren’t too offensively clean. When made at home it is never quite the same—I don’t know why. This, however, is the best working substitute that I am able to concoct.

Take as many oranges as your system is capable of absorbing, and peel them, removing all of the thin white inside skin, and all of the film-like tissue that divides an orange into sections. I forgot to mention that the orange should be large, luscious, juicy and free of seeds. Place the oranges in individual serving dishes and pour over them this sauce, while hot:

For about six oranges you will need one middle-sized jar of orange marmalade and one small can of Hawaiian pineapple. Put the marmalade, the pineapple—cut into small cubes—and the pineapple juice into a double boiler and cook, briskly, until the liquid begins to thicken. Then pour it over the uncooked oranges and allow them—each in its individual dish—to stand in the ice box until dessert time. Just before serving, sprinkle with a few pine nuts, or salted almonds. Pine nuts are best.

LXXVI

_Stephen Vincent Benet_

ZITELLI’S MACARONI STEW

Take one-half pound of real Italian macaroni, boil it in plenty of water, slightly salted, till soft, say, about twenty minutes; take one quart of tomatoes, one-half pint of water and two ounces of fat bacon cut into small pieces. Now one onion and a small bunch of parsley; boil all these together (apart from the macaroni) for half an hour, then pass the mixture through a colander; add one tablespoonful of butter and season with salt and pepper to taste.

Put it on the fire again and let it boil for five minutes. Let the macaroni and the sauce both be very hot. In a tureen place a layer of the macaroni covered with grated cheese; then cover with a ladleful of the sauce and repeat the layers until the entire amount is served. It should be dished in deep soup plates for individual servings.

LXXVII

_James R. Quirk_

TOMATO WIGGLE

To one pound of diced American cheese, add one can of Campbell’s Tomato Soup. Heat over a slow fire until a thick, smooth mass has been obtained. And then—

Add one beaten egg, and follow it quickly with a cup of cream or very rich milk. Stir in a dessertspoonful of Worcestershire Sauce, and enough salt to give the proper kick.

Serve on soda crackers that have been heated—large soda crackers.

The name? That’s just to make it difficult.

LXXVIII

_Charles W. Eliot_

A FAVORITE MENU

I can hardly say that I have a “favorite dish.” But a favorite menu for luncheon or dinner is clam soup, corned beef hash, and baked Indian pudding.

_Note._—If you want to try Dr. Eliot’s menu why not use Rex Beach’s clam specialty?

Then for the corned beef hash get plenty of fine lean corned beef and cut it into one-eighth inch bits.

Chop one small onion into very fine particles. Take cold boiled potatoes (fairly firm) and cut or chop.

Prepare some drawn butter and add a few drops of Worcestershire sauce, salt and pepper. Now mix the meat, potatoes, onion and drawn butter. Mold and pat into small, flat, elliptical loaves (individual servings) and fry in a hot, lightly buttered pan. Turn frequently until well browned on both sides. Serve sprinkled with minced parsley.

Top off with this baked Indian pudding:

You must have 1 quart of milk, 3 eggs, ½ cup of the finest seeded raisins, 1 teaspoonful of salt, 2 heaping tablespoonsful of corn meal, 4 heaping tablespoonsful of sugar, 1 heaping tablespoonful of butter.

Boil the milk in a double boiler and sprinkle in the corn meal, stirring all the time. Cook twelve minutes.

Beat the eggs, adding the salt, sugar and a half teaspoonful of ground ginger. Add this mixture with the butter to milk and meal, then add the raisins and stir until perfectly mixed. Remove from the double boiler and bake for one hour.

You will agree with Dr. Eliot.

LXXIX

_H. S. Cumming_

(Surgeon General, U.S.P.H.S.)

VIRGINIA EGG BREAD

I am particularly fond of this dish—it is, I think, my favorite, and I pass along the recipe with the hope that others will find it as satisfying and delicious as do those who already list it among their favorites.

1 cup water ground corn meal (white) 2½ cups boiling water 1 cup sweet milk 3 or 4 eggs 1 teaspoonful salt 2 tablespoonsful butter 2 teaspoonsful sugar

Stir boiling water into the sifted meal; add sweet milk; when cool break eggs into the mixture and beat thoroughly; add salt, sugar and butter melted. Bake in well buttered baking dish in hot oven.

LXXX

_Joseph Santley_

COCOA CREAM CAKE

I will admit that it sounds a good deal like “pink sponge cake” to announce a preference for anything so epicureanly flippant as cocoa cream cake. But it is the one dish that I prefer above any other, and in justice to truth and accuracy, I repeat—my favorite is cocoa cream cake! And my own dear mother will have to stand the responsibility for whatever shame comes to me by openly declaring it. You see, she makes it. And it was from her I learned the secret of its concoction.

Here is the recipe:

Four eggs, one cup of sugar, one cup of cocoa, a teaspoonful of vanilla, and a teaspoonful of baking powder. Cream yolks of eggs and sugar _well_; add the vanilla. Sift the cocoa and baking powder well, and add to the eggs and sugar. Last of all stir in the whites of the eggs, beaten. Bake in two layers, for about ten minutes. When cold whip a pint of thick cream with a teaspoonful of vanilla and sugar to taste—placing half between the layers and half on top.

Oh, boy!

LXXXI

_A. Hamilton Gibbs_

SQUAB EN CASSEROLE

In a casserole put generous layer of sliced onion sauté, two sliced tomatoes sauté, two cups of mushrooms, two cups of potato balls, and a little fresh parsley also sauté. (All the vegetables should be fried in butter). On top place, breast up, a squab or a one-pound chicken—one for each person. On each breast place a slice of crisp fried bacon. Over all pour some rich well-seasoned brown sauce, filling the casserole up with the chicken breasts—three-quarters full—preferably with a cup of sherry added last, if your cellar will still produce it!