Month: October 2023

Cooking Techniques · Recipe Collections · The Vintage Kitchen

How We Made Veal Birds

VintageJenny

Welcome to Lesson 29 of When Sue Began to Cook, a Twenties story cookbook for children. This book continues the story of Sue and her best friend Ruth Ann. They learn to cook under the watchful eye of Sue’s mother Bettina. This week she showed them how to make Veal Birds. Bettina is herself a central character in a set of cookbooks by Louise Bennett Weaver. If you’re new to the series, click the book title to be transported back to Lesson 1.

This week Sue and Ruth Ann tell how they made Veal Birds. Veal steaks are no longer available in my local grocery stores, so if I were going to make this I would probably use chicken breast. First I’d cut it to 1/2-inch thickness, and then follow the recipe to see what happens.

Since this is the first time Sue learns to make a stuffed and tied piece of meat, she is quite chatty in the recipe. The recipe itself isn’t long, but the descriptions are. A highlighter might be useful to mark the important parts if you find yourself getting lost in the story of how Sue made Veal Birds.

Notes from Sue’s Diary This Week:

Veal Birds are a company dish at our house. We wanted to make them today because Uncle John and Aunt Lucy were coming in to shop this morning and take Robin and Ruth Ann and me out to the farm to stay over Sunday. School’s out, and we can do lots of nice things we’ve planned to do.

But we’ll go right on with our cooking lessons. I intend to practice the dishes I’ve learned to make over and over, so I’ll never forget them!

I am writing this while we’re waiting for Uncle John and Aunt Lucy. The table is all set, and our Veal Birds are in the oven keeping hot.

Mother says Veal Birds are very convenient to have for company. She says they can be prepared and cooked in the early morning and then reheated. Some people serve them cold in very hot weather. Here come the folks so I must stop.

Print Recipe

Veal Birds

From When Sue Began to Cook by Louise Bennett Weaver
Course: Dinner
Cuisine: American
Keyword: Bettina, frying, meats, Ruth Ann, Sue, veal
Servings: 4

Equipment

  • 1 Oven safe frying pan with oven-safe lid

Ingredients

  • 1 lb veal steak cut 1/2 inch thick
  • 1 tsp salt
  • 2 cups fresh bread crumbs (soft, not hard)
  • 2 tbsp salt pork chopped very fine
  • 1 tbsp parsley chopped very fine
  • 1 tbsp green pepper chopped fine (minced)
  • ½ tsp paprika
  • ¼ tsp celery salt
  • 2 tbsp butter, melted
  • 1 egg, beaten
  • 2 tbsp water, cold
  • 4 tbsp bacon grease
  • ½ cup water

Instructions

  • We wiped off our veal with a clean cloth dipped in cold water, and then cut it into four nice pieces. Then we made little cuts across each piece of meat both ways with a knife. Mother told us this would make it lie flat. In cutting, we hammered it down good. Then we sprinkled the salt on both sides of the meat.
  • Next we cut the salt pork and the parsley and the green pepper in quite small pieces so that we could measure it, and then we put it all in the chopping bowl and chopped it up quite fine.
  • Then we each put our fresh bread crumbs, salt pork, parsley, green pepper, paprika, celery salt, melted butter, beaten egg and two tablespoons of water in a mixing bowl and mixed it all up with a spoon. We put a fourth of this mixture on top of each piece of meat. Then Mother showed us how to roll up each piece and tie it with a nice white string so that the dressing would stay inside.
  • The birds were all ready then, so we each put the bacon grease in a deep frying pan and let it get good and hot. Then we put the birds in and let them brown on all sides. After they were good and brown, we poured the water in the pan. Then we covered the pan with a lid and put it in the oven. We let the birds cook in the oven (350 – 375℉) for about forty-five minutes. Mother showed us how to try them with a fork to see if they were good and tender. They were, so she had us take them out and cut the string with the scissors and take it off. Then we put the birds back in the frying pan to keep hot till they were needed.
Cooking Techniques · Recipe Collections · The Vintage Kitchen

Sue Makes Butterscotch Pudding

VintageJenny

In Lesson 28 of When Sue Began to Cook, Sue and her best friend Ruth Ann learn to make butterscotch pudding. This takes place long before the days of boxed puddings. The only way to get a butterscotch flavored pudding was to follow a recipe like this one. If you’ve been following along since the beginning, you’ve seen the girls’ progress in the kitchen. If you’re new to the series, click the linked book title and it should take you to the beginning.

A recipe like Butterscotch Pudding required the cook to be able to beat an egg until it turned light yellow, no easy feat. These days, using an electric mixer or whisk does the job in a fraction of the time. It also requires much less effort. This recipe is made in a double boiler, which is a metal bowl made to fit over a pan. Don’t have a double boiler? Simply use a heavy-bottomed pan over medium-low heat and keep an eye on the mixture.

Sue’s Notes from the Butterscotch Pudding lesson

When our pudding was done, Mother had us pour it into our nice little glass sherbet cups. We set these on the ice-box to cool, and after they were cold enough not to melt the ice, we put them inside to get very cold. Mother says we must remember never to put hot or warm things into the ice-box. It waastes ice.

Butterscotch Pudding is good with either thin cream (which we know as Half & Half, light cream, or coffee cream) or whipped cream. We used thin cream because we didn’t have any that was thick enough to whip.

The little boys come to lunch

Mother allowed Robin to invite Teddy to lunch today, and so Ruth Ann and I decided to make Robin’s favorite dessert, Butterscotch Pudding. Robin and Teddy have really been unusually good to us this Spring, making us each a bird house and all, and we wanted to reward them. Mother said it was a very good idea.

“Will it take all the pudding — both Sue’s and mine — for lunch, Aunt Bettina?” asked Ruth Ann when both our double boilers were bubbling away.

“Why, dear?” Mother asked.

“Well, Grandmother has a headache today, and I thought perhaps she would like one dish of it.”

“There will surely be plenty for that,” Mother said. “I’ll tell you, we’ll fill my pretty little pudding mould with some, and when it is very cold, we’ll slip the pudding out and you can take it home on a pretty plate. Do you girls know what to do to the mould before the pudding is put in, so it will come out easily and smoothly?”

I remembered because I’ve helped Mother fix gelatine in a mould. She dips the mould in cold water just before she adds the pudding. Then when it’s time to serve it, the pudding or gelatine slips out just as easily, with only a little helping!

Print Recipe

Butterscotch Pudding

From When Sue Began to Cook by Louise Bennett Weaver
Course: Dessert, Snack
Cuisine: American
Keyword: Bettina, pudding, Ruth Ann, Sue
Servings: 4

Equipment

  • 1 double boiler pan set or use a heavy pan and keep an eye on it

Ingredients

  • ½ cup dark brown sugar
  • ¼ cup flour
  • ⅛ tsp salt
  • 2 cups milk
  • 1 tsp butter
  • 1 egg, beaten until it is light yellow
  • ½ tsp vanilla

Instructions

  • Put sugar, flour, and salt into the upper part of a double boiler and mix it all together until it is lump free. Pour in the milk a little at a time, stirring all the while so it doesn't lump. When all the milk is added, set the upper part of the double boiler over the lower part which is filled halfway with water, and turn on the heat. After the water begins to boil, cook the pudding for 25 minutes by the clock. Every few minutes give it a stir to keep it smooth and even.
  • At the end of the 25 minutes, add the beaten egg and the butter, and cook the pudding two more minutes. Then remove it from the heat and beat it with a spoon for one minute. Add the vanilla and mix it in well. Pour into serving cups and refrigerate.
Cooking Techniques · Recipe Collections · The Vintage Kitchen

Sue Makes Date Nut Bread

VintageJenny

In Lesson 27 of When Sue Began to Cook, Sue and Ruth move from salad dressings to quick breads. Date nut bread was a staple of the Twenties household. It provided energy, carbohydrates, something sweet, and a little bit of fruit all in one serving — a Twenties ideal! When Sue makes date nut bread she is learning to make a recipe she will use her entire life.

This recipe uses Graham flour, which is whole wheat flour named for Dr. Sylvester Graham who invented the Graham cracker. This was unsifted wheat with the bran and the germ still in it for nutrition. It also spoiled faster than white flour. You use whatever you like for this receipe. I’ll be using a gluten free one-for-one flour blend.

Sue’s diary for Date Nut Bread

After we carefully took the loaf out of the oven, Mother had us moisten a clean cloth with a little milk and brush it over the top of the loaf. “To soften the crust,” she said.

We didn’t put the bread away till it was cold, and Mother said it outghtn’t to be cut till the next day, or even the day after. Then it will make delicious sandwiches.

There isn’t any doubt in Ruth Ann’s mind as to what she is going to do with her date bread. She is going to make it into sandwiches for the McCarthys! Because the unexpected has happened, and Ruth Ann and I are to blame, or rather, it’s all to our credit.

We coaxed Mother and Mrs. Rambler to let Clarence and Clyde McCarthy wash their windows on the outside, and said we would be around all the time to see that it was well done. And we were. Every time the boys seemed to “slack up” a little bit, we would say, “Oh, what a beautiful piece of work this is!” And we would praise them for a shining pane. Then they would try all the harder.

And the funny part of it is that the very next day after Clarence and Clyde finished at Mrs. Rambler’s house they began to wash the McCarthy windows on the outside! That actually inspired Mrs. McCarthy and Maxine and Muriel to begin to wash windows on the inside, and really, it makes such a difference! Now Clarence and Clyde say they are going to paint the whole house if they can get their older brother Gerald, who lives in Omaha, to lend them the money.

I guess I’ll make some of my date bread into sandwiches for the McCarthys, too.

Print Recipe

Date Nut Bread

From When Sue Began to Cook by Louise Bennett Weaver
Course: Dessert, Luncheon
Cuisine: American
Keyword: baking, fruit, nuts, quick breads

Equipment

  • 1 loaf pan 9 x 5 preferred

Ingredients

  • 2 cups Graham flour (whole wheat)
  • 1½ cups white flour
  • 3½ tsp baking powder
  • ⅛ tsp baking soda
  • 1 tsp salt
  • 1 cup chopped, seeded dates
  • ½ cup nut meats broken up fine
  • ½ cup brown sugar
  • 2 tbsp molasses
  • 1⅔ cups milk

Instructions

  • Mix the white flour, baking powder, soda, and salt together and sift it with the flour sifter. Empty this into a big mixing bowl and add the Graham (whole wheat) flour, dates, and nuts.
  • Add the brown sugar, the molasses, and the milk. Stir it all up with a big spoon until it is well mixed, and then pour it inot a well greased bread pan.
  • Put the loaf into the oven at 350℉ for 50 minutes. When it's done, take it from the oven and let stand for five minutes, then carefully turn it out of the pan. Let the bread cool completely before cutting.