I was a bit perplexed when I started looking through The American Culinary Society's Menu Maker (Marguerite Patten, 1973). (I'm not showing you the cover because mine is hardcover with no dustjacket. There's not much to see!) The first chapter was supposed to represent "Money Saving Meals," but the first menu had two proteins, something I don't really associate with low-cost cooking.
It's got both soufflé eggs and roast chicken. I thought with low-cost menus, you'd probably stick with either the eggs (because they are cheaper) or the chicken (if you want to feel a little more luxurious), rather than both. Then I looked more closely at the egg recipe and discovered this is actually a triple protein menu:
The eggs are supposed to have ham in them too! This menu starts off almost more like a high-protein-diet menu than a money-saving one-- that is, until it veers off into "sweet sour stuffing," starchy vegetables, and dessert.
As I continued reading the book, though, I realized that Marguerite Patten must just have had an egg fixation.
This menu starts off with Tomato Soufflés.
Yep, that's a soufflé mixture baked right into a tomato case! It's pretty cute.
It kind of looks like the tomatoes' minds have been blown, and we're seeing the mushroom cloud begin to rise. And what's that behind them? You know that peanut-covered monstrosity has got to be the sandwich loaf! And what do sandwich loaves generally contain, in their 27 layers of various random ingredients?
If you guessed/ remembered the egg salad layer, you know how to play this game! Yep, more eggs. (P.S.- The suggested variations also include subbing in a layer of scrambled eggs in place of one of the other fillings. The sandwich loaf could conceivably have an egg salad layer and a scrambled egg layer!)
When I got to a recipe for Golden Tomatoes later in the book, I assumed it was something to make with the lower-acid, yellow-toned tomatoes I sometimes see at the summer vegetable stand. Of course, I was wrong.
Golden Tomatoes are just regular tomatoes with hard-cooked egg whites stuffed inside and the chopped-up yolks adhered to the outside with a spackle of thick mayonnaise. Yep: golden= egg yolk coated.
And then, I hit a menu that seemed like it wasn't even trying to hide the egg-heaviness anymore.
Yep-- it's Crab and Egg Tartlets with a Liver Soufflé. Maybe the Crab and Egg Tartlets have some special kinds of eggs in them? It's seafood, so maybe the eggs are roe?
Nope. This calls for chicken eggs (unless there's a way to make scrambled roe with just three fish eggs?).
Well, maybe the Liver Soufflé is one of those recipes that says it's a soufflé but it's not a traditional eggy soufflé-- Maybe light and airy from whipped gelatin or just called a soufflé for no goddamn reason at all.
Nope. This is a traditional whipped-egg soufflé. So we've basically got an egg appetizer with an egg main dish. I'm kind of surprised this menu didn't go all the way and just add a custard or some meringues (or a meringue-topped custard) for dessert!
In short, I started to suspect that The American Culinary Society got paid off by the American Egg Board to write this cookbook. If you want a secretly egg-centric cookbook, this wouldn't be a bad choice. If you're not excited about the idea of eating eggs with a side of eggs, though, then you might not want to follow the menus too carefully.
Eggs, eggs, eggs, eggs, eggity eggs, eggs. No, Monty Python had it right. Spam is much more fun to say (although I think they did have Spam and eggs on their menu). Now remember to put chopped eggs in your souffle, you should be very good at making souffle by the end of this book.
ReplyDeleteThere were definitely some Spam and egg dishes, like Egg and Spam, Egg Bacon and Spam, and Spam Spam Spam Egg and Spam.
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