Wednesday, June 3, 2020

Hot Salsa and Cold Veal for June

It's June, so Modern Meal Maker (Martha Meade for Sperry Flour Co., 1935) is once again here to tell us what to make for the month. Since the weather could be warming into the uncomfortable zone, the book offers up an old-school summer favorite. If you've read Grannie Pantries for any more than a week, you can probably guess what kind of summer favorite it is.


Yep-- Aspic! Well, "Jellied Veal Loaf," but it's clearly an aspic, even if the title doesn't say so. The fact that this is made with unflavored gelatin even makes this sound slightly less revolting than the usual mid-20th-century attempts to make people eat chopped up egg, pickle, celery, and meat floating in an oozy block.

Slightly more unusual is the recipe for salsa.


This might be truer to the more general meaning of salsa as sauce than what I'm used to. Instead of a tomato-based dip, this cooks down dry chilis with some seasoning and oil, and instead of being billed as a snack accompaniment or a taco topper, it's supposed to be served on spaghetti! (The book specifies that the kiddos will probably prefer plain buttered noodles when this is served for dinner.)

Of course, a major theme in this book is eat more Sperry Wheat Hearts, so we can't go without a wheat heart recipe or two. If the family is up for hot food and wants to continue the Mexican-ish theme, there's Wheat Hearts Hotcha:


If it's too hot for corn, peppers, pimientos, olives, and ground round bound up in a thick wheat cereal glue, then maybe a cold wheat heart dessert will work better.


I've never had this, but I can almost imagine grandma pulling a log of congealed cereal full of grated pineapple and marshmallow bits out of the fridge for a summer dessert and/or breakfast. (The differences between breakfast and dessert were sometimes pretty minimal....)

Why not start off the summer months by congealing a block of something edible? (I'll admit that I occasionally puree cottage cheese in lemon Jell-O and top it with berries for a summer "pretend cheesecake" breakfast. Don't tell anybody.)

2 comments:

  1. I'm still trying to imagine grating a pineapple. A quick internet search tells me that the food processor was introduced in 1973. I'm also thinking that canned pineapple would be the most accessible form of pineapple. Did they not have crushed pineapple, or pineapple tidbits back then? I could see grandma pulling something like this out of the fridge, but it would be made with egg whites instead of the yolk, and no cream being involved since those are "bad" for you.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Canned pineapple was definitely available then, but the cookbook was printed privately in San Francisco, so I think it was intended primarily for the west coast. Since pineapple grows in California, it was probably much easier for them to get fresh than it would have been for people in the midwest. Fresh tastes so much better that maybe they'd be willing to try to grate it?

      Yeah, grandma would probably have skipped the toppings (or just put out some Cool Whip Lite if you wanted it).

      Delete