A Tale Of Two Sundays - May

Menu for the first Sunday in May, 1927:

Iced Strawberry Cocktail
Breaded Veal Cutlet
Rice Croquettes with Tomato Sauce, String Beans
Simpson Lettuce with Thousand Island Dressing
Caramel Nut Pudding, Coffee

Hints of springtime here, with strawberries and Simpson lettuce. If you are not familiar with it, Black-Seeded Simpson is an heirloom variety of early leaf lettuce. We’ve grown it (not recently) and I remember that it is very tender. I’m not crazy about the idea of Thousand Island or any other mayonnaise-based dressing with it.

Thousand Island Dressing. Beat until light 2 raw egg yolks. Add teaspoon lemon juice and beat again. Add teaspoon salad oil and beat. Then continue to add, with beating, salad oil, teaspoon by teaspoon, until 1 ½ cups have been used. Then add more lemon juice slowly until altogether 2 tablespoons have been used. Beat in teaspoon salt, a tablespoon finely chopped sweet red or green pepper, a slice of onion, and 2 cups chili sauce. Let stand in ice box to thicken.

Menu for the first Sunday in May, 1953:

Lamb en Brochette with Grilled Tomato and Bacon
Buttered New Peas
Pineapple Celery Salad with Mint French dressing
Chocolate bread Pudding, Iced Coffee

The recipe for Pineapple Celery Salad is missing from the salad book, interestingly enough (although there is an entire page of “Spring Flower Salads,” with illustrations, that are pretty icky), so I will give the one for the dessert instead.

Chocolate Bread Pudding

2 ounces (squares) chocolate
3 cups milk
¼ teaspoon salt
½ cup brown sugar
2 eggs, separated
1 ½ teaspoons vanilla
6 sliced dry bread, cut into ½-inch cubes
4 tablespoons granulated sugar

Heat chocolate and milk in double boiler until chocolate is melted. Add salt. Combine brown sugar and egg yolks; add chocolate mixture gradually, stirring vigorously. Add vanilla. Combine bread and chocolate mixture; let stand 10 to 15 minutes, stirring occasionally. Turn into buttered baking dish, place in pan of hot water and bake in moderate oven (350° F) 30 minutes, or until almost firm. Beat egg whites until foamy; add half of sugar, beating until blended; add remaining sugar and continue beating until mixture will stand in peaks. Pile meringue lightly into mounds in order around edge of pudding. Sprinkle meringue with shaved chocolate and continue baking 8 minutes longer, or until meringue is delicately browned. Serves 6.

Except for the salad dressing, my menu of choice this month would be 1927 (vintage greengrocer image from the ever-enchanting Patricia).