Saturday, May 2, 2020

Snowballs, Waffles, and Bricks for May

Mustering all Modern Meal Makers! It's May, meaning more Martha Meade (1935)!

Martha Meade does not seem to have much faith in spring weather, as May starts out with a bit of a snow storm:


Chicken Snowballs are just the latest in a long line of recipes intended to get people to use more Sperry Wheat Hearts hot cereal, so why not cook it up into "snowballs" with a dollop of chicken gravy in the middle? Chicken Snowballs are certainly likely to be better than getting hit by a snowball with a chunk of ice in the middle (especially if you can still find enough snow to make a snowball in early May)!

Martha Meade also seems to have decided that May is unofficially savory waffle month. There's no chicken and waffles, but there are both formal and informal savory waffle meals. I'll start with the formal version: 


Crab Newburg Waffles are made with tomato juice, Worcestershire sauce, Tabasco, and extra butter to perfectly complement the savory crab sauce:


I have a feeling these savory waffles are NOT meant to be served with maple on the side. (I can kind of picture somebody doing it anyway, though!)

If creamed seafood waffles seem a little too fussy, there's always Barbecue Waffles.


I'm not quite sure that onions, bacon drippings, and parsley = barbecue in most people's minds, but these waffles get the label anyway, and they're meant to sandwich hamburger and pickles. I could see these as a fun addition to someone else's Memorial Day picnic.

And finally, May ends with the most delicious-sounding food format of all: the brick!


Yes, it's a good old Ham Buffet Brick! It's the perfect food for late May when you want a lump of ground ham suspended in mayonnaise-and-egg gelatin goo to slowly melt in the late spring sunshine as your guests decide maybe they would rather just go play croquet instead of eat. And if you notice how much of the Ham Buffet Brick is still waiting to be consumed, maybe a rogue croquet ball will smash the front window so you'll be distracted enough that the guests can make a quick getaway....

Here's hoping we have no snowballs this month! Welcome, May.

2 comments:

  1. For as weird as these recipes are, the thing that strikes me is that they had waffle flour. I've heard of bread flour, cake flour, all purpose flour, but a specific flour for waffles? Maybe it will make a comeback considering all the baking that is supposedly going on right now.

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    1. I think that the Sperry pancake and waffle flour was just the equivalent of Bisquick. It's not a special flour so much as a mix. The recipes calling for the pancake and waffle flour don't call for leaveners, and later packaging referred to it as a mix.

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