It's Saturday morning! You are a 1950s mom who is occasionally in the mood to cook and surprise the family with a special treat, so you decide to make homemade GRIDDLECAKES (Pancakes). So you get out the flour, eggs, baking powder, milk, etc., just as Woman's Home Companion Cook Book (edited by Dorothy Kirk, 1955) tells you to do.
And then you start worrying that if you make a these today, the family might expect them every goddamn weekend, which sounds like a lot of work.... at which point you notice something you might want to try in the list of variations below the main recipe.
And when the family comes to the table to eat, they wonder why the pancakes are being served with ketchup. And those bold enough to brave a ketchup-y bite soon notice the lumps of coarsely chopped clams hidden in the "cake" below.... And nobody complains because if you're capable of this, what else might you be capable of?
It's the perfect morning: You get the fun of making something when you're in the mood to spend a few minutes in the kitchen. There's little danger of running out of food and having to try to whip up a new batch when the ingredients are running low, or of needing to fend off a request for a repeat next weekend when you just want to sleep in. And you got to enjoy your slice of cinnamon toast while it was still hot and crisp-- rather than eating it cold and slightly damp after having to help Suzie with the orange juice and Peter with a second helping-- because you ate before you got started with everyone else's "treat." Only you know what a genius you are.
How many 1950s households just had clams laying around to add to random recipes whenever they felt like it? I certainly don't. I haven't looked, but I'm of the impression that clams would cost a lot of clams, but then everything does these days.
ReplyDeleteYou could have canned clams on hand-- which would also mean you don't need to cook them as a separate step.
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