Lessen sugar. Add walnuts. If you're in a hurry, you can put it in 3 pans so it will cook in less time.
I was more amused by her note for the quick banana bread recipe, though.
Never mind that the Quick Banana Bread takes an hour when the regular one can be done in 50 minutes. The hour cook time may be overly optimistic, especially if there's a bit of extra fruit. The note about this is so enthusiastic that it uses two exclamation points: "Do not put extra banana- will not cook!!" I love imagining the day when they figured that out. Maybe they had an extra banana, didn't want it to go to waste, and figured there was no harm in throwing it in. Then the rest of the day turned into a waiting game, checking the "quick" banana bread every five minutes after the initial hour of baking time until they finally gave up and added the all-important note so the quick banana bread didn't become the for-fucking-ever banana bread again. I love the quiet comedy of old cookbooks.
Now I'm wondering why the good cooks of Hawaii didn't come up with a way to use up old bananas that didn't involve running the oven for an hour. Why not cookies that can bake in a toaster oven on the porch or a frozen concoction instead? I also like how the first recipe tells you to cream the sugar and shortening twice.
ReplyDeleteAt least the recipe gives instructions! A lot of old recipes for baked goods just list the ingredients, an oven temperature, and maybe an approximate cook time if you're lucky. Maybe the double instructions are a way to make up for all the recipes that never tell cooks to cream anything.
DeleteThe mock banana daiquiris idea sounds excellent. (I used to buy frozen strawberry daiquiri mix and just make it in the blender with some water. I finally decided I probably should stop guzzling so much high fructose corn syrup.)
ReplyDeleteI know a lot of people get nostalgic for mom's old recipes, but not all of them are worth bothering with! I'm certainly not trying any of my mom's recipes. Her best dish was probably Rice-A-Roni made using the instructions on the back of the box anyway.
Don't get me wrong. I love Rice-a-Roni too! We didn't get it often though because my dad hated it, and everything else was distinctly lower-tier than that. I just meant I don't need her best recipe because I can pick up Rice-a-Roni at the grocery.
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