A Sampler of Modern Sour Cream Recipes (Home Economics Department of the American Dairy Association, undated, but Michigan State University Library's Alan and Shirley Broker Sliker Culinary Collection estimates it as 1955 and offers a full scan of the booklet here) has a cross-stitch themed cover with a house during an ambiguous season. (When I was a kid, the apples were on the trees long before we fired up the wood-burning stove for the season.)
The smooth and creamy tang of sour cream is a much easier sell for most than lumpy cottage cheese. There aren't a lot of terrible recipes in here, but I'll do my best to put together a questionable menu. Let's start with an appetizer.
Chili Cuke Dip doesn't sound too bad, but it should probably just be called Cuke Dip. I'm not so sure the eighth of a teaspoon of chili powder is going to give it a lot of zip, even if it is backed up by 2-3 drops of Tabasco.
Since we're going all-in on the sour cream, maybe we should lighten things up a bit with fish as the main course.
Well, with fish sticks. I don't know anyone who is really in love with frozen fish sticks. What's the only good thing about them? That's right: the crispy coating. So how are these fixed? They're plunked on top of a bed of steaming hot green beans, then slathered with mock hollandaise. In other words, they're now mush, losing the ONE redeeming feature they had.
Let's just move on to dessert. How about a modern take on the creme brulée?
This was Modern Creme Brulée for the mid-'50s, when home cooks would try anything if it started with packaged goods-- at least, if you believe what the old cookbooks suggest. Vanilla pudding made from a mix and topped with pears, thawed raspberries, and brown-sugar-bedecked sour cream caramelized under the broiler seems the antithesis of the ideals of scratch-cooking, farm fresh evangelizing, torch-equipped chefs making fancy desserts today.
You know what, though? I'd still try it. Even bad sour cream desserts are bound to be pretty good.
You've got to love any recipe that starts their ingredient list with, "a box of frozen fish sticks". https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q-jMiHnnRjg
ReplyDeleteI'm not sure that was the link you intended, but I'll bet fish sticks would work just as well as wafer cookies! (There aren't too many occasions to use that sentence.)
DeleteI couldn't find any with fish sticks, but this video had the same vibe. Just take something pre-made and modify it some strange way to pass it off as home made.
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