Sue Makes Tuna Timbales

December 5, 2023October 24, 2023 VintageJenny

Timbales found their way onto many a Twenties dinner table. They were relatively easy to make. Better yet, they used canned or leftover cooked meats in an inviting way. Today Sue makes Tuna Timbales with Ruth, but you could also make this recipe with leftover chicken or salmon.

This is Lesson 34 of When Sue Began to Cook, a 1924 children’s story cookbook by Louise Bennett Weaver. If you’re just joining us, click the book title to see Lesson 1, where the story begins. Actually, the story begins several books before this one, in A Thousand Ways to Please a Husband (with Bettina’s Best Recipes.) That too is a storybook cookbook, and it tells the story of Bettina as a young bride and her friend Ruth who became Ruth Ann’s mother. The link will take you to the Internet Archive’s copy, where you can read or download it.

But back to Sue and Ruth Ann. Timbales sound difficult to make but they’re a simple concoction of baked bread crumbs, cooked or canned meat, seasonings, and a little egg and milk to hold it all together. And they are delicious. You may know of it from the 1960s onward as tuna patties or salmon patties. It’s basically the same recipe prepared in a different shape.

Sue’s Notes on Tuna Timbales

Take the tuna out of the can just as soon as you open it. Mother told us both to write it down again so we would never, ever forget.

We don’t have any timbale pans at our house, so Mother had us bake the timbales in muffin pans. When they were done, we let them stand for about five minutes. Then we carefully loosened the little timbales and helped them out onto a hot platter without breaking a single one.

While the timbales were baking, we each made a creamy sauce. Just like the creamy sauce for Cheesed Creamed Potatoes, only without the cheese. We used four tablespoons of butter, four tablespoons of flour, two cups of milk, one teaspoon of salt and 1/4 teaspoon paprika. [You may want to reduce the salt to 1/2 tsp. A full teaspoon of salt is a lot of salt for two cups of white sauce.] When this was all done, and was creamy and hot, we poured it over the timbales on the platter.

A little timbale reassurance

“Tuna Timbales may seem hard to make,” Mother said to us while we were stirring our Creamy Sauce. “But it’s a good recipe to know. Instead of tuna, you can use any kind of leftover cooked meat or chicken, or turkey, or salmon. And people will like it exactly as well as they did the first time it was served.”

The little timbales did look delicious. We had them for lunch, with little hot biscuits and jam and iced milk and some of Robin’s lettuce. And we ate out on our little porch table. (Meals always taste better out there.)

Ruth Ann is already planning lunches she and her mother will have next summer on their porch table, and she says she is going to have us over very often.

Print Recipe

Tuna Timbales

from the book When Sue Began to Cook by Louise Bennett Weaver, 1924

Course: Luncheon, Main Course

Cuisine: American

Keyword: Bettina, Ruth Ann, Sue, tuna, When Sue Began to Cook

Equipment

1 muffin pan or individual timbale pans if you have them

Ingredients

1 ½ cups tuna canned, drained
1 cup bread crumbs soft
1 tbsp parsley cut up very fine
1 tsp onion cut up very fine (minced)
1 tsp salt or less
¼ tsp paprika
¼ tsp celery salt
1 tbsp lemon juice
2 eggs, beaten
½ cup milk

Instructions

Place the drained tuna in a mixing bowl. Mother had us flake it — break it apart with a silver fork. Then add soft breadcrumbs, parsley, onion, salt, paprika, celery salt, lemon juice, beaten eggs, and milk. Stir it all together.
Butter the compartments of a muffin tin and fill them 2/3 full with the tuna mixture. Then place the muffin pan into a shallow larger pan, like a 9 x 13 pan. Fill the larger pan with hot water so that it comes up the sides of the muffin tin, about 1-inch deep. Then bake the timbales in a moderate oven (350℉) for 30 minutes.
When they're done, let stand for five minutes and then loosen them from the pan. Serve plain or with a cream sauce.

Cooking Techniques · Recipe Collections · The Vintage Kitchen

Sue Makes Pimiento Cheese Sandwiches

November 28, 2023October 24, 2023 VintageJenny

An illustration from the Twenties that shows two young girls, one blonde and one with short dark hair, standing by a table in front of a window. Between them sits a pile of cheese sandwiches, and they are wrapping them with a napkin. — In this illustration from *When Sue Began to Cook*, Sue and Ruth Ann wrap their sandwiches to keep them from drying out.

For some reason, Pimiento Cheese Sandwiches were a picnic staple for families from the 1920s through the 1960s. I’ve seen many recipes for these sandwiches, but none that only used cream cheese and roasted red peppers (pimientos). that is, until now. Today Sue makes Pimiento Cheese Sandwiches along with her friend Ruth Ann. Sue and Ruth Ann are cooking their way to kitchen prowess in When Sue Began to Cook.

When Sue Began to Cook was a Twenties cookbook for kids by Louise Bennett Weaver. This is Lesson 33 in Sue’s year of 52 cooking lessons. If you’re just joining us, click the linked book title above to visit the first lesson and start at the beginning of the story (and recipes).

Sandwiches were easy and popular fare in the Twenties. Grab some white bread (or nut bread for tea sandwiches.) Spread the bread with anything handy plus a little butter and you have a feasible sandwich. Chopped nuts, celery, onion, cheese, and even little bits of roasted red peppers made their way into the Twenties sandwich.

This recipe calls for Creamy Salad Dressing, which Sue learned to make in Lesson 26. Click the link to see that recipe.

Sue and Ruth Ann make a dozen sandwiches, each of them working with twelve slices of bread. Although the recipe below calls for softened butter, Sue and Ruth Ann use butter right out of the icebox. Here’s how she explains it…

Sue’s Notes from Pimiento Cheese Sandwiches

After the cheese mixture was ready, we each cut twelve slices of bread very thin, and arranged it in pairs that matched so they could be fitted together. We softened the butter by mashing it down with a spoon. Then we spread one piece of bread of each pair with butter and the other slice with our cheese mixture. We used a silver knife for the spreading. Mother said that was best.

As soon as all the bread had been spread, we pressed the sides together to make sandwiches. Then we piled three big sandwiches on top of each other and cut them all across in half with a sharp knife to make smaller three-cornered sandwiches. Then we cut the other three in half. Then we each had twelve sandwiches. [Actually, they each had twelve half sandwiches, cut diagonally.]

When all the sandwiches were made, Mother gave us each an old clean napkin and had us dip it in cold water and then wring it out as dry as we could. Then she had us wrap up our sandwiches with it and put them away till we were ready to use them. [This is to keep the sandwiches from drying out in an age before plastics.]

Picnic time!

“We’re going on a picnic in the car tonight,” Mother said. “Yes, you too, Ruth Ann. I’ve already asked your grandmother and she says you may.”

“Goody!” I said, that being my favorite expression. “Are you going to let us get the lunch ready now? Oh, Mother, let us do it all!”

“Not all, just the sandwich part,” said Mother, laughing as she always does when I act very enthusiastic. “I want to have th whole lesson on sandwiches. Just one kind. You see, not many people know how to make very good sandwiches, and I want you girls to learn a few simple rules about sandwich making and never forget them.”

Here are some of the rules:

1. Always use bread that is at least a day old, but don’t cut it until you are ready to use it.
2. Cut the bread as thin as you can, but be sure the slices are very even.
3. Always soften the butter by creaming it, but don’t ever melt it on the stove.
4. Wrap your sandwiches in a damp (not wet) cloth till you are ready to use them.

Print Recipe

Pimiento Cheese Sandwiches

A recipe from When Sue Began to Cook, by Louise Bennett Weaver

Course: Luncheon, Picnic

Cuisine: American

Keyword: Bettina, Ruth Ann, Sue, Twenties recipes

Ingredients

12 Slices white bread, cut thin
⅓ cup butter, soft
½ cup cream cheese
2 Tbsp pimientos, cut fine
2 Tbsp Creamy Salad Dressing
½ tsp salt
¼ tsp paprika

Instructions

First we put our cream cheese in a bowl and creamed it by pressing it with a spoon till it was very soft and creamy. We cut the pimientos very fine with the kitchen scissors, and put them in with the cheese. Then we added the salad dressing, salt and paprika, and stirred it all together until it was well mixed.
After the cheese mixture was ready we cut 12 slices of bread very thin, and arranged it in pairs that matched so they could be fitted together. Then we spread one piece of bread of each pair with butter and the other slice with the cheese mixture.
As soon as all the bread had been spread, we pressed the slices together to make sandwiches. Then we cut them in half to make 3-cornered sandwiches. (You are cutting the sandwich in half diagonally.)

Cooking Techniques · Recipe Collections · The Vintage Kitchen

Sue Makes Sugar Cookies

November 14, 2023October 21, 2023 VintageJenny

Sue and Ruth Ann get ready to cream butter with their “holey” spoons.

When I turned to Lesson 31, where Sue makes Sugar Cookies, I was a little surprised at how filthy the pages were. This recipe from When Sue Began to Cook was spattered with 100 year old flour stains. They sported a dot or two of grease, and even a little splash of age old vanilla extract. Apparently this is an excellent sugar cookie recipe.

This is our 31st lesson from this cookbook, and we’re a little over halfway through the year. My copy of the book was actually missing one of the earlier lessons on walnut fudge. The pages were ripped right out of the book. That must have been a sacred family recipe. If this is your first adventure with Sue and her friend Ruth Ann, click the linked book title in the first paragraph to be transported back to the beginning. A whole story goes along with these cooking lessons and you don’t want to miss any of it.

Last week Sue and Ruth Ann learned how to make a sponge cake and fold egg whites into a batter. This week they cream fat and sugar together. And Sue has lots to say about it…

Sue’s Notes from Sugar Cookies Day

“You may each get out one of the yellow mixing bowls,” Mother said, “and one of the holey spoons.” Ruth Ann and I were both glad because we knew that meant “creaming,” and we like to cream things.

We have a porcelain topped table at our house. It’s just the thing to roll cookies on. Mother had us sprinkle some flour on the clean table so the cookies wouldn’t stick. Then she had us take up half the dough in our hands and roll it together. (Of course, we washed our hands just before we began to make the cookies.) Then we put the dough on the floured table top.

Next we dusted the rolling pin with flour. Mother showed us how to roll out the dough as evenly as possible till it was about an eighth of an inch thick. Then we took the cooky cutter, dipped it into the flour and cut the cookies out. We really took several cooky cutters before we were through. We made our cookies in the shape of stars, ducks, and hearts.)

After we had cut out all the cookies we could, there was still some dough left. Mother had us make a ball of it and roll it out again and cut out some more cookies.

The Neighborhood Cookies

We made “neighborhood cookies” today, and at the time I write this, there isn’t a single one left!

There has been a regular epidemic of painting and yard cleaning in this neighborhood lately. I wrote about the McCarthy’s sudden interest in window washing. Well, after that was all finished they began to paint their house. It was so much fun with everybody standing around and giving advice that Robin and Teddy began to tease to paint something too. Of course, they are much littler than Clarence Patrick and Clyde. So Mother bought them some paint and let them paint the back fence between our yard and Teddy’s.

So today Ruth Ann and I announced that after our cooking lesson we would treat every real “neighborhood worker” to cookies. Everybody, that is, who had spent the whole morning in painting or gardening. Or cleaning up a back yard. Or doing something useful outdoors. It was a wonderful day for work and our cookies melted away like snowballs in August, as Father says. But it was worth it! This is getting to be the cleanest, neatest, shiniest, paintiest neighborhood in town!

Sue

And that is how Sue made Sugar Cookies during her Saturday cooking class.

Note: While I correct most of Sue’s atrocious spelling, her spelling of cookie as cooky, when talking about only one, is correct through the 1950s.

Print Recipe

Sugar Cookies

From When Sue Began to Cook, by Louise Bennett Weaver

Course: Dessert, Snack, Tea time

Cuisine: American

Keyword: baking, Bettina, cookies, dessert, Ruth Ann, Sue, teatime

Ingredients

½ cup lard Any solid shortening should work here
1 cup sugar
2 eggs
4 Tbsp water
1 tsp vanilla
2⅓ cups flour
¼ tsp salt
½ tsp powdered nutmeg
2 tsp baking powder

Instructions

Measure out the lard into a bowl, and cream it with a wooden spoon (mash it down over and over) until it is very soft. The cookbook suggests using a spoon with a hole in the middle if you have one. Then add the sugar slowly, creaming all the time, until it is all added and well mixed.
Break the eggs into a smaller bowl, and add the water and vanilla. Beath this egg mixture up all together with a Dover egg beater and then add it to the sugar mixture. Beat it all up very had with the same spoon until it is well mixed.
Now take the dry ingredients and mix them up together, and then stir them into the wet mixture. (Or you can use a sifter, if you have one, and sift the dry ingredients over the bowl.)
Roll out until about one-eighth inch thick, and then cut out with a cutter dipped in flour. Grease a cookie sheet and bake in a moderate oven (350-375℉) for fifteen minutes.

Cooking Techniques · Recipe Collections · The Vintage Kitchen

Sue Makes Sun Drops

November 7, 2023October 21, 2023 VintageJenny

Welcome to Lesson 30 of When Sue Began to Cook. We’re working our way through a year’s worth of cooking lessons from the children’s cook book by Louise Bennett Weaver. If this is your first time tuning in, click the book title link to visit Lesson 1. This week Sue makes Sun Drops with her friend Ruth Ann.

Never heard of Sun Drops? Not a surprise. I’ve been reading Twenties recipes for years and this is the first time I’ve heard of them as well. Basically, Sun Drops are cupcakes made with a sponge cake batter. A cake sponge is made from eggs that are separated, with the stiffly beaten egg whites folded in last to give them volume. Many cake recipes from the 1910s through the 1930s were sponge recipes, simply because they required few ingredients, no expensive fats (like butter), and they looked and tasted great when they appeared at the table.

In today’s lesson, Sue learns how to create a cake flour substitute at home instead of buying a box of Swan’s Down. Ingredient storage space was at a premium in Twenties households. So anything that could be whipped up easily as a substitute was welcome, compared to yet another open box. As usual, Sue (or rather, her mother Bettina) has some opinions about the day’s activities:

Sue’s Sun Drops Diary

The Sun Drops looked so good we could hardly wait to try them.

A good sponge cake recipe is a useful thing for a housekeeper to have, Mother says. And she also says that she likes this particular one so much better than any other that this is the only one she uses any more. It doesn’t have to be baked in muffin pans. Very often she makes it in a square cake pan lined with waxed paper. When it’s baked that way, it takes about twenty-five minutes in a moderate oven instead of twenty. [Note: A moderate oven is 350 – 375ºF.]

Sometimes we have sponge cake like this, cut in squares and served with whipped cream, for dessert. Father loves it that way.

Mother says some pleasant day Ruth Ann and I may have a porch party and serve Sun Drops and lemonade for refreshments. They’re fine for an afternoon party or tea, Mother says.

Ruth Ann and I are feeling like grownup cooks today. We’ve learned to make sponge cake!

Sue

Print Recipe

Sun Drops

Sponge cake cupcakes from When Sue Began to Cook, by Louise Bennett Weaver

Course: Dessert, Tea time

Cuisine: American

Keyword: Bettina, cake, Ruth Ann, sponge, Sue

Ingredients

4 eggs
3 Tbsp cold water
1 tsp lemon extract
1 cup sugar
7/8 cup all purpose flour (a full cup minus two tablespoons)
2 Tbsp cornstarch
1½ tsp baking powder
⅛ tsp salt

Instructions

We took four eggs and separate them. We put the yolks into one bowl and the whites in another. Then we beat the egg yolks until they are light and lemon colored. We measured the cold water and lemon extract into the egg yolks, and then added sugar little by little, stirring all the time until it was all added.
Then we measured out one cup of flour. We took two tablespoons of the flour from the cup. This left exactly 7/8 of a cup. Mother had us add the cornstarch and put it in the cup with the flour. This makes a level cup again. [Note: What you are doing here is making cake flour from regular all purpose flour. This is a great process to memorize, because Twenties recipes used a lot of cake flour!]
Then we measured out the baking powder and the salt and carefully piled them on top of the flour and cornstarch. We sifted the flour, cornstarch, salt, and baking soda right into the egg yolk mixture. Then we stirred it up very gently but thoroughly.
Next we beat up the egg whites until they were very stiff. After they were stiff we let them stand in the bowl for one minute. We emptied the egg whites into the other things and folded them in with a knife. They ought not to be beaten in, but they have to be mixed, so folding them over and over gently with the flat side of a knife is the best way.
We greased a muffin pan and then added a little flour to each compartment and shook it around so the pans would be both greased and floured. Then we dropped cake batter in the little compartments with a spoon, filling them about two-thirds full. We had already lighted the oven and it was warm. We baked the little sun drops in a moderate oven (350℉) for about twenty minutes. When they were dont they were a lovely golden brown color.
Mother told us not to take them out of the pans right away, but to let them stand for five minutes to cool. Then we helped them out very gently.

Cooking Techniques · Recipe Collections · The Vintage Kitchen

How We Made Veal Birds

October 31, 2023October 13, 2023 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

October 24, 2023October 13, 2023 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

October 17, 2023October 13, 2023 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.

Cooking Techniques · The Vintage Kitchen

Sue Makes Creamy Salad Dressing

May 30, 2023January 8, 2023 VintageJenny

Welcome to Lesson 26 in When Sue Began to Cook. We’re halfway to the end! If you’re just joining us, a click on the linked book title will take you to Lesson 1 so you can follow along with the story. This week Sue makes Creamy Salad Dressing.

Although it contains egg yolks, this is a cooked recipe. Thus, it’s safe to make in the US with store bought eggs. They do not have to be pasteurized.

Salad dressings in the Twenties came in to main flavors: French, which was a very tart vinaigrette (not the red sweet French we know today) and cooked creamy salad dressing like this. I’m usually putting the salads together last thing before dinner, so I whip up a Twenties French dressing and call it a day. This salad dressing is cooked and refrigerated, and then thinned as it is used with cream or milk or unsweetened whipped cream.

Here’s a peek into Sue’s weekly kitchen diary:

Sue’s Diary from Creamy Salad Dressing Saturday

Another warm beautiful day that makes us think of picnics. And picnics, Mother says, mean salads and sandwiches. And salads and sandwiches mean salad dressing. So Ruth Ann and I have been learning how to make it.

A little jar of salad dressing makes a good present, Mother thinks. Ever since she said it, Ruth Ann has been trying hard to thihnk of someone to give her little jar to. I’m afraid Mrs. Rancher will get it in the end, after all. Just at present, though, Ruth Ann is considering whether a lovely little gift of salad dressing mightn’t inspire the McCarthy’s to make some of their own later. I doubt it. We’ve been cleaning house for a week and they haven’t shown any signs of beginning on their house yet. So I’m afraid a good example doesn’t mean much to them.

Speaking of gifts, Mother has just given Ruth Ann a funny one! A little bundle of paper straws to drink milk through. Ruth Ann doesn’t like milk, and never would drink it till Mother had her try it over here through a straw. And she didn’t mind that one bit. As Mother is very anxious to have Ruth Ann grow strong and fat before her Mother comes home, she has given her the straws to use at every meal. Won’t Aunt Ruth be pleased!

Print Recipe

Creamy Salad Dressing

from When Sue Began to Cook, 1924.

Course: Dinner, Luncheon, Salad

Cuisine: American

Keyword: Bettina’s Best Recipes, picnic, Ruth Ann, salad, Twenties recipes, When Sue Began to Cook

Equipment

1 Double boiler

Ingredients

3 tbsp sugar
3 tbsp flour
1 tsp salt
½ tsp dry mustard
¼ tsp paprika
2 egg yolks beaten thoroughly. *Note* This is a cooked dressing recipe. It is safe to use yolks from the fridge.
⅓ cup vinegar
⅔ cup water
1 tbsp butter

Instructions

Mother had us each measure the sugar, flour, salt, and mustard very carefully into the top of the double boiler. Then we mixed it all thoroughly with a spoon.
We each put our two egg yolks (Mother used the whites for the tops of two lemon pies) in a bowl and beat them up. Then we added the vinegar and water and kept on beating for a minute.
Then we poured the mixture slowly into the flour mixture, stirring with a spoon all the time as we added it. (I mean of course that we stirred the mixture in the top of the double boiler.)
When it was all added, we beat it for a minute with the egg beater and then put it over the fire. Of course, we made sure we had plenty of water in the lower part.
Mother had us each leave our Dover egg beater in the salad dressing, and as it cooked we gave it a good beating every few minutes.
It took only about ten minutes for the dressing to cook; when it was done it was as thick as thick, creamy custard. Just before we took it off the stove we added the butter. That makes it smoother.
Ruth Ann and I each poured our dressing into a nice clean little fruit jar that we had first moistened on the inside with cold water. Mother says this keeps the dressing from sticking to the jar. After the dressing was cool, we put the lids on our jars and put our dressing away in the ice box. Ruth Ann is going to take hers home tonight. Mother says salad dressing like this will keep for months if it's stored in a cold place. Before you use it on salad the first thing to do is mix it (just the part you are going to use, of course) with thin or whipped cream.

Cooking Techniques · The Vintage Kitchen

Sue Makes Escalloped Potatoes

May 30, 2023January 8, 2023 VintageJenny

Welcome to Lesson 25 of When Sue Began to Cook. If you’re new, click the book link to be transported to Lesson 1, where the adventure begins, and we meet Sue, her friend Ruth Ann, and Sue’s mother Bettina, Twenties homemaker extraordinaire. This week Sue makes Escalloped Potatoes under her mother’s guidance.

Scalloped Potatoes, or Escalloped Potatoes, are a U.S. tradition. The Henry Ford Museum posts a recipe from 1898 here. Escalloped potatoes are warm, filling, and cheap. They contain vegetables and dairy, two items on every Twenties cook’s daily list.

And then there are the pimientos. The Twenties cook put pimientos in everything. They provided color and just a bit of extra nutrition. When Sue makes Escalloped Potatoes during her Saturday cooking lesson, she puts pimientos in the recipe. Feel free to leave them out if you like. I probably will.

Let’s see what Sue has to say about making Escalloped Potatoes on this Saturday morning.

Sue’s Diary Entry for Escalloped Potatoes

This has been a cold raw Saturday for May, so Mother said it was just the day for Escalloped Potatoes. “We’ll use up the old ones I have on hand. New potatoes taste better than old ones in the Spring.”

Escalloped Potatoes sound hard, but are really very easy to make. Of course it isn’t easy to slice raw potatoes very thin, but I’m sure this lesson did us a lot of good. The little vegetable knife must be sharp!

Oh, I mustn’t forget to write something else down. We used only a part of the canned pimientos and Mother had us pur the rest in a little bowl and cover them carefully with cold water. She told us that pimientos would keep a long time if you renewed the water every day. Lots of houskeepers don’t know that, and their pimientos get mouldy very soon and have to bre thrown away.

Next week we are going to begin house cleaning if the weather is pleasant. And Ruth Ann is so excited over it that she has begged Mother to let her help every night after school. She says there isn’t anything so much fun as putting drawers in order. I’m afraid I can think of lots of things more pleasant than that, but then, it will help to have Ruth Ann here taking an interest in things. But Mother says we will have our cooking lesson next Saturday just the same. Not even house cleaning shall interfere with that!

Print Recipe

Escalloped Potatoes

from When Sue Began to Cook, 1924.

Course: Side Dish

Cuisine: American

Keyword: Bettina’s Best Recipes, potatoes, Twenties recipes, vegetarian, When Sue Began to Cook

Ingredients

3 cups raw potatoes peeled and sliced very thin
3 tbsp flour
1½ tsp salt
⅓ tsp paprika
¼ tsp celery salt [you may want to reduce salt by ¼ tsp]
2 tbsp pimientos cut very fine with kitchen scissors
2 cups milk
3 tbsp butter melted

Instructions

We peeled the potatoes and then sliced them very thin, just as thin as we could.
Then Mother had us each mix our potatoes, flour, salt, paprika, celery salt, and pimientos very carefully and empty them into buttered baking dishes.
Then we poured the milk and the butter over the top and baked the potatoes in a moderate oven for fifty minutes.
Note: Moderate oven = 375 degrees F.

Cooking Techniques · The Vintage Kitchen

Sue Makes Salmon Loaf

May 16, 2023January 8, 2023 VintageJenny

In Lesson 24 of When Sue Began to Cook, Sue makes Salmon Loaf. Canned salmon provided a way for the landlocked portions of the United States to provide fish. Along with tuna, salmon was used in baked loaves like this one, casseroles, aspics, salads, and sometimes sandwiches.

This is Lesson 24 from the book When Sue Began to Cook, 1924. It was one of the cooking storybooks in the Bettina’s Best Recipes series. If you’re new to these lessons, click the linked book title in the previous paragraph to see Lesson 1 and follow the story from the beginning.

As always, Sue has much to say about her Saturday cooking lesson in her kitchen diary.

Sue’s Diary for Salmon Loaf

I certainly do have a good joke on Mother! She is always talking about saving dishes and telling us how good cooks simply things.

Well, after we had mixed up our salmon loaves just as she told us to, and had written everything down in our notebooks, I said to her, “Why didn’t you have us break the eggs in the mixing bowl first and then add the other things? That would have saved a dish!”

Mother looked surprised for a minute, and then she laughed. “Well, you’re surely right about that, Sue! That would have been simpler and easier, after all.”

I tell you, I’m going to think about the dishes. Ruth Ann and I have to wash our own (we wouldn’t be really learning to cook if we didn’t do that, Mother says.) Sometimes it takes us a long time to get them clean. We try to remember to fill each cooking pan with cold water right away and let it soak till we can get at it. That makes a world of difference.

This is a warm, lovely, “open-window” May day, and we thought our salmon loaves would be best cold. So I’m saving mine for dinner tonight. We’ll cut it in thin slices and garnish it with lemon and parsely. Ruth Ann has taken hers home with her.

Print Recipe

Salmon Loaf

from When Sue Began to Cook, 1924.

Course: Dinner, Luncheon

Cuisine: American

Keyword: Bettina’s Best Recipes, fish, meat loaf, Ruth Ann, salmon, Sue, When Sue Began to Cook

Ingredients

1½ cups salmon flaked with a silver fork. We took out the bones and pieces of skin.
2 cups soft bread crumbs
1 tsp salt
¼ tsp pepper
¼ tsp celery salt
1 cup milk
2 eggs beaten
1 tbsp butter melted

Instructions

Mother says to write in our notebooks in big black letters: Never Leave Salmon in an Open Can. Just as soon as we get the can opened, we must empty the salmon out in a dish, because many people have been poisoned by letting the air get into the salmon and the tin.
After each of us had pur our salmon in a mixing bowl, Mother had us separate it in pieces with a silver fork.
Then we measured out the soft bread broken into crumbs, and added it to the salmon in the bowl. We also added the salt, pepper, celery salt, milk and beaten eggs.
Mother had us mix it all up together with the silver fork. Then she had us each butter a small loaf cake pan and pour the salmon mixture into it.
We shaped it up like a little loaf and poured the melted butter over the top.
Then we baked the two loaves for thirty minutes in a moderate oven. After they were done, we let them stand for five minutes and then we carefully helped them out onto two platters. They looked very brown and crusty and good.
Note: Moderate oven = 375 degrees F.

Notes

Sue and Ruth Ann are each making a full recipe, hence two loaves in the oven. This recipe makes one salmon loaf.