A Tale of Two Sundays - March

On a cold, grey, blustery third Sunday in March, 1927, our homemaker would have prepared the following menu: Dried Split Pea Soup, Roast Duck with Apple and Horseradish Sauce, Baked Sweet Potatoes, Creamed Peas, Lettuce Salad with French Cheese Dressing, Peach Custard Pie, and Coffee.

A heavy meal, with peas offered twice, and a rich entrée served with equally rich sweet potatoes. I’d prefer rice or noodles, to soak up the duck juices, myself. That pie looks good, though.

Peach Custard Pie

“Make a rich biscuit dough of 2 cups sifted flour, 2 heaping teaspoons baking powder, 2 heaping teaspoons lard, or use half cream and half milk to moisten and no lard. Roll to fit square pan, prick, and cover with halves of canned peaches. Pour over this mixture 4 cups milk, 2 eggs, ¾ cup sugar, nutmeg or vanilla to flavor. Beat thoroughly before turning over peaches. Bake for 20 minutes in quick oven.”

At this point in American domestic history, there was at least a fifty-fifty chance those peaches were home-canned.

In 1953, our hungry family was offered Pot Roast of Beef, Browned Potatoes, Carrots and Onions, Cabbage Salad, Prune Whip Pie, Coffee and Milk.

A hearty meal for late winter/early spring, using cold weather vegetables, again a little on the heavy side, but the cabbage salad (which was coleslaw prettied up with shredded pimento and green pepper) would have offered a nice tang and crunch to the menu. The prize this month goes to 1953.

(But I’ll pass on the prune whip pie).