When Lunches Were Lunches, Part III

1950's food pyramid found on Pinterest.

Continuing the series of hearty lunch ideas from The American Woman's Cook Book, here are some of Mrs. Berolzheimer's recommendations for sandwiches there are 21 pages of recipes but this includes tea sandwiches.  Does anyone serve tea sandwiches anymore?).

Panavia, this first one's for you:

Peanut Butter and Onion Sandwiches

1 cup peanut butter
1/4 cup mayonnaise
1 small Bermuda or Spanish onion

Beat peanut butter, add mayonnaise and spread sandwiches.  Slice onion in very thin slices and put a layer of these over mixture on bread.

Cheese Sandwiches

1/2 pound American full cream cheese, grated
2 tablespoons melted butter
1/4 cup cream
1/2 teaspoon dry mustard
Salt, paprika

Mix all the ingredients thoroughly and use between buttered slices of bread.  This filling will keep indefinitely in closed jars in the refrigerator.

Russian Sandwiches

1/2 cup cream cheese

1/4 cup chopped olives

1/4 cup chopped pimientos

1/4 cup mayonnaise

Lettuce leaves

Boston brown bread

Spread the cream cheese on thin slices of Boston brown bread.  Spread an equal number of buttered slices with chopped olives and pimientos mixed with mayonnaise dressing.  Press together in paris with a crisp lettuce leaf between.

Egg Sandwiches

Hard-cooked eggs

Capers or pickles, if desired

Salt, pepper, paprika

Slice the eggs and lay the slices between thin buttered slices of bread.  Season to taste with salt, pepper and paprika and add a layer of chopped capers or pickles if desired.  These are good for lunches for traveling or for picnics.

Chicken, Ham and Celery Sandwiches

1 cup cooked chicken meat

1/2 cup celery

1 tablespoon green pepper

1/4 cup mayonnaise

1/4 cup cooked ham

Mince the chicken, ham, celery and green peppers.  Mix with the mayonnaise and spread on buttered bread.

Beef Sandwiches

1 1/4 cups cold roast beef
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 tablespoon tomato catchup
1/2 teaspoon Worcestershire sauce
1 tablespoon melted butter

To minced cold roast beef, add the salt, tomato catchup, Worcestershire sauce and melted butter.  Spread on buttered bread, cover with a second slice, and cut into fancy shapes.

I'm not sure why the egg sandwich recipe above is considered good for traveling or picnics; without a binder such as mayonnaise or butter, I think the filling would wind up all over one's lap.  The beef and chicken/ham recipes reflect an era when a big chunk of some variety of baked or roasted protein was the centerpiece of every Sunday dinner and a thrifty cook had to come up with a way to use the leftovers.

If you are tempted to try the Russian Sandwiches, here is how to make the bread.

Boston Brown Bread

1 cup corn meal
1 cup rye flour
1 cup graham flour
3/4 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
3/4 cup molasses
2 cups sour milk or buttermilk

Sift corn meal, rye flour, soda and salt together and mix well with graham flour.  Add combined molasses and sour milk and mix well.  Fill greased molds 2/3 full, cover closely and steam 3 hours.  Remove covers and dry tops in moderate oven (375°F).  Makes 3 loaves.

I believe that people washed and re-used metal cans of some sort -- baking powder or maybe coffee -- as molds for Boston brown bread, covered with greased foil, pleated to allow expansion and tied tightly around the tops with kitchen string.

Next week -- Mrs. Berolzheimer's "Miscellaneous Sandwiches and Sandwich Fillings," many of which aren't bad.

When Lunches Were Lunches, Part IV

Vintage advertising from the Woman's Home Companion, October, 1921.

In addition to the detailed recipes discussed last week, Mrs. Berolzheimer provided a list of "Miscellaneous Sandwiches and Sandwich Fillings" for the benefit of homemakers pondering the Lunch Question.  Her suggestions:

1.  Raisins worked into cream cheese.

2.  Chopped raisins, figs, dates or prunes, mixed with chopped nut-meats and moistened with mayonaise dressing or lemon-juice.

3.  The well-whipped white of an egg mixed with a cup each of chopped raisins and nut-meats, seasoned with a little salt.

4.  Peanut butter moistened with salad dressing and mixed with raisins, dates, figs or bananas.

5.  Equal parts olives, peanut butter, celery, mixed with a little salad dressing.

6.  Peanut butter mixed with chopped dill, sweet or sour pickles.

7.  Cream cheese and chopped stuffed olives.

8.  Chopped stuffed olives and chopped nuts, moistened with salad dressing.

9.  Cream cheese and crushed pineapple between very thin slices of bread.

10.  Tunafish mixed with parsley, lemon-juice, seasoning and a bit of onion.

11.  Cream cheese and chopped nuts.

12.  Ground boiled ham and chopped pickles or chopped peanuts.

13.  Cottage cheese and pickles, olives, nuts or pimiento.

14.  Currant jam with pounded walnut meats and creamed butter.  Pass with cream cheese.  Preserved currants may be substituted in this combination.

15.  Boston brown bread with cream cheese or mayonnaise mixed with chopped nuts or raisins.

16.  Rounds of brown bread spread with chopped olives,  minced lettuce and watercress, tarragon, paprika, parsley and chives mixed with mayonnaise.

17.  Pimientos, cucumbers and onion or chives, minced, mixed with mayonnaise and spread on buttered entire-wheat bread.

18.  Green pepper, pimiento and olives with mayonnaise.

19.  Boston brown bread with minced corned beef seasoned with mustard and rubbed to a paste.

20.  Cream cheese used with chopped parsley, pimento and mayonnaise, chopped nuts, sliced sugared bananas, crushed pineapple, chopped or sliced olives, shredded sliced apples.  The cheese may be rubbed with butter or the creamed butter may be spread on the bread.

I'll pass on #s 3, 5 and 20.  Next week:  Hot sandwiches! (I'm on a roll, people.  Pun intended).

When Lunches Were Lunches and Giants Walked The Land

 THE LUNCH BOX

“As much care is needed in selecting and preparing the food for the lunch box as for the other meals served to the family.  If the lunch is inadequate or lacking in food essentials throughout the year, the individual’s whole nutrition will be seriously affected, and his work will suffer.  The lunch box is one of three meals, not just a “snack,” and should possess the following characteristics:

1. It should be abundant in amount for a hungry, healthy individual.  A little too much is better than too little.
2. It should be chosen with regard to nutritive needs of the individual, and in relation to the whole day’s food.
3. It should be clean, appetizing, wholesome and attractive.

Food Selection Plan

Plan it the day before.  Select from the following one food from each group.  Make the lunch box bear its full share of responsibility for liquid as well as solid nourishment.

MILK, in food or drink.
BREAD, enriched or whole grain in sandwiches.
MEAT or cheese or eggs or fish.  In sandwich fillings, salads or hearty main dishes.
FRUIT, at least one.  Whole or in salads or desserts.
VEGETABLES, at least one, in sandwich filling, salads or in hearty main dishes.  Use leafy green and yellow vegetables, and use them crisp and uncooked often.

Plan to have leftovers for the lunch box.  Meat loaf or pot roast that will make good sandwiches, sliced cold.  Gingerbread or stewed fruits.  Don’t specialize in starchy foods.  Always include some kind of surprise such as; Whole tomatoes in season, radishes, celery, carrot or green pepper sticks, pickles, olives, dried fruits, nut meats, or cookies.

Keep in mind the season of the year in planning menus.  In winter have something hot and invigorating in the thermos bottle: Hot soup, coffee, tea, baked beans, hot chocolate, or stew.  Something cool and refreshing in the summertime, such as lemonade, tomato juice, fruit juices, chocolate milk shake, milk, iced tea or iced coffee, canned fruit juices.  And do not forget the straws.”

Ruth Berolzheimer, The American Woman’s Cook Book, 1948.  Next week:  suggested menus.

When Lunches Were Lunches, Part II

(FYI: Posting has been problematic as our internet connection was iffy for a couple of days.  Bad weather tends to either knock it out completely or slow it way down).

Continued from The American Woman's Cook Book, 1948.

"Be sure to include crisp, crunchy vegetables that will give the meal some contrast.  In a packed sandwich lunch, texture and flavor are of great importance.  Sandwiches have a tendency to be soft and too easily become soggy.  Pack lettuce separately, to be added just before eating.

The men in the family will prefer spicy condiments and sauces on their sandwiches, while the school child will like a mild, more delicate flavor.

Plan for milk in every lunch box you pack.  If in doubt whether milk can be bought or will be bought at work or school, send milk along in some form in food or just cold or hot milk in the thermos bottle.  Use evaporated milk in cooking if at any time fresh milk is scarce.

All too easily lunch box meals fall into a set pattern.  it is only by the most careful planning that a lunch box is appetizing and has variety and balance each day.

MENU SUGGESTIONS

Cream of Spinach Soup

Crackers

Egg Salad Sandwiches with Lettuce

Raw Vegetable Strips

Apple     Cup Cake

Peanut Butter, Bacon and Lettuce Sandwiches

Cauliflowerets     Carrot Sticks

Hard Cooked Egg

Gingerbread      Grapes

Milk

Cream of Tomato Soup

Ham Sandwich with Mustard and Lettuce on a Bun

Celery       Olives

Fresh Pear        Cookies

Oven Baked Beans    Catchup

Boston Brown Bread Sandwiches

with Cream Cheese Filling

Cole Slaw

Applesauce

Milk

American Cheese Sandwich with Catchup and Lettuce

Tossed Vegetable Salad

Dressing (in container)

Pickles

Cake       Orange

Cocoa

Beef Stew       Pickle Relish

Bread and Butter Sandwiches with Lettuce

Whole Tomato       Crisp Radishes

Fruit Cup (in container)

Hot Coffee

Mrs. Berolzheimer directs her readers to the sandwich recipes found on page 131.  Some of them are lulus, and I'll print them next week.

When Lunches Were Lunches, Part V

Vintage Thermos jug photo from Country Living magazine.

Hot sandwich recipes from Mrs. Berolzheimer.

"The hot sandwich is now frequently used as a supper or luncheon dish with a salad.  It is sometimes served as a breakfast dish, and even a dessert may now be served in sandwich form, as, for instance, slices of ice-cream between slices of sponge cake.

There are several types of hot sandwiches.  Some are made from plain bread and served with hot sauce; in others the framework of the sandwich is toast, sauteed slices of bread, French-fried toast or fresh sliced of bred baked with the sandwich-filling; and in still others hot baking-powder biscuit or crisp toasted crackers are used.

Then besides the regulation kind of sandwich -- a filling between two slices of breadstuff -- there is the open-faced kind, in which the top slice is left off and a garnish of cut parsley, pickle, olive or grated cheese is used instead of the covering slice.

And, lastly, there is a third and novel type of sandwich in which the outer structure is of meat.  This is cut in thin slices, slipped in fritter batter and fried in fat, and a filling of vegetables is placed between the slices.

Suggestions for Hot Sandwiches.  

Hot sandwiches should be substantial and filling without losing the chief characteristic of all sandwiches -- ease in handling.  For this reason rolls and buns are often more satisfactory than sliced bread or toast. 

Broiled Hamburger steaks on round rolls are always popular.  The meat mixture may be varied by rolling a stuffed olive in each; by adding strips of bacon crosswise after the first turning, or by a slice of Bermuda onion on both sides.  Chopped pickles, carrots, celery or radishes may be added to the meat before broiling.

1.  Broiled pineapple with sliced hot chicken, hot turkey or hot duck, on whole wheat bread.

2. Broiled ham with a slice of pineapple, either fresh or canned, served on white toast.

3.  Sliced roast lamb with grilled fresh pineapple* on toasted English muffins.

4. Sliced hard-cooked egg with hot anchovy sauce on Boston brown bread.  

5.  Hot roast veal with anchovy sauce and grilled tomato on rye roll.

6.  Grilled tomato with Cheddar cheese on rye toast.

7.  Hot smoked tongue with fried apples on toasted English muffins.

8.  Hot corned beef with grilled sweet-potato and endive on finger rolls.

*An enterprising graduate student might someday explore the connection between American cookery writers' love of pineapple and the overthrow of the Hawaiian monarchy by Sanford Dole in 1893.

Notes On A Knitting Tour -- Food

Inisheer graveyard, overlooking the jetty. 

I have to say that I did not have a single bad meal while I was in Ireland.  Two or three that were unmemorable, but none that were bad.

We spent two days/nights on Inisheer, where everything has to be hauled over by ferry or plane from the mainland.  Breakfasts were a choice between healthy options like yogurt, fruit and porridge/cereal or the “full Irish” – eggs, potatoes, grilled tomato, grilled mushrooms, three kinds of toast, bangers, Irish bacon which should not be confused with American-style bacon, and white or black “puddings” (aka blutwurst.  I tried it.  Once).  I found that eating a full Irish kept me from getting hungry again until about 4pm, which was unfortunate given the quality and quantity of the lunches.

These consisted of different potato-based puree’d vegetable soups and amazing sandwiches.  Maybe they were amazing because of the butter, which in Ireland is unbelievably good --  threats of violence were made against those who took all the egg salad.  There were always at least two kinds of cake for dessert, along with fruit scones, cream and jam.   Everything was freshly-made, un-fussy and absolutely delicious.

Dinners were eaten at a small guesthouse whose proprietress runs a cooking school.  The first night we were served a seafood casserole made with chunks of fish and prawns, cream and buttered bread crumbs.  Dishes of root vegetables were passed separately, family-style.  The second night’s main course featured local (Galway) sausages.

I can't believe I only took one photo of the food.

Our hostess/instructress’ husband is a burly retired Irish Army quartermaster sergeant.  He is also the lunch cook.  The kitchen/ prep area is open to the dining area and he would lean against the counter with his massive arms folded, watching us swoon over the food.

1^st knitting tourist lady:  Omygawd these sandwiches are unbelievable.  Try the chicken.

2^nd knitting tourist lady:  Have you had the scones yet?

3^rd knitting tourist lady:  Quit hogging the cream.

4^th knitting tourist lady:  I would kill for another slice of that cake.

Cook:  (finally) What about the soup, then?

This culinary largesse may have contributed to some nervousness on our parts the third morning, when we had to fly off the island (in two batches, on a plane about the size of my front porch).  The airport lady made all of us weigh in along with our luggage.

Knitting tourist lady from California: (aghast) She's weighing us?

Me:  Yes, but look -- she's just writing it down, she's not announcing it.

Knitting tourist lady from California:  Good, because I'm wearing heavy shoes.

(Edited to add some photos. Click on any one to enlarge).

'Tis The Bean

Spent yesterday afternoon at the Lincoln Museum in Springfield, Illinois and spent far more money than I should have adding to my already-considerable stack of Civil War reference materials (I feel a strong sense of kinship with the cat in yesterday’s post.  I do need them all.  Really).

I can remember listening to the griping of of Marines about our food, admittedly the worst in the Armed Forces and something of which the Corps is perversely proud, and when I was a platoon commander on Okinawa I used to routinely field complaints that my Marines were sneaking into the chow hall at the Air Force base at Kadena, just down the road (they also used to sneak into the Kadena officer's club for the Friday night dances, but that's another story).

But military food has come a long way from the salt horse and hard tack of the 1860’s or even the field rations of both World Wars.  The depressing fact of chow up until the second half of the century was the inevitability of the bean.

Nominally the bean is a food powerhouse, packed with all kinds of good things that, were I a dietician, I could rattle off by heart.  Militarily speaking they are highly portable, particularly in their dried state, not prone to spoilage, and easily prepared as long as the cook sergeant has plenty of water on hand.  Gustatorially (is that a word?) speaking, they are pretty dull unless you have something to spice them up like a chutney or a salsa.

This is something I make a lot for my lunches at work.  I recommend some kind of relish to go with them, though.  Pico de gallo is great with this but Major Grey’s works, too.

Rice Cooker Beans and Rice

¼ cup cooking oil

1 cup raw rice

1 cup jarred salsa, such as Pace

1 ½ cup water

1 can pinto or kidney beans, rinsed and drained

Pour it all into the rice cooker, stir to mix the ingredients up, and turn on the rice cooker.  You can’t get much simpler than that, and another advantage is that the rice cooker doesn’t heat up the kitchen in August.