The Disciples of Christ change things up with tomato sauce, index fingers, and real oysters

I was surprised when my sister sent me Favorite Recipes 1977 (Troy Mills Christian Women's Fellowship, of Troy Mills Disciples of Christ Christian Church) because I'd never seen a Disciples of Christ community cookbook. I thought the category was mostly dominated by Lutheran and Catholic cooks, but a search through the archives shows that Methodists are number one and Lutherans are a more distant second than I would have guessed.

So let's see what sets the Disciples of Christ apart from the Methodists and Lutherans. 

Well, first of all, this is an Iowan church, so the church offers a recipe for Maid-Rites.

I'll readily admit that I'm not very familiar with Maid-Rites. I know they're loose meat sandwiches and thought they were supposed to be seasoned, but not have an actual sauce. These have tomato puree and catsup. I'd feel insecure saying that suggests they're not actual Maid-Rites, but the Wikipedia page on the Maid-Rite restaurant chain notes that "the Maid-Rite sandwich's meat is not formed into a patty, making it similar to a sloppy joe without the tomato-based sauce," so I don't feel like I'm going too far out on a limb to say the Disciples of Christ seem to be taking liberties with the recipe. (Maybe they figure if the recipe starts with 30 pounds of hamburger, nobody will notice that there are a couple of gallons of tomato products in it?)

Maybe it's just that this congregation is not very picky. They like letting kids mix pie with their fingers!

The sugar and flour get mixed with an INDEX (YES ALL CAPS) finger, and then the cream and vanilla get incorporated with fingers. I love the sternness of "Do not use SPOON. It would only spoil the texture." So maybe the cooks are picky-- but more about texture than about sanitation.

They also love really weird spreads. If I think of a fruit butter, I think of apple or maybe pumpkin, but not in Troy Mills! They want Melon and Plum Butter.

Just the thought of all that concentrated muskmelon makes me gag...

Maybe it would be better to go for some jelly instead.

Okay, I'm sure the beet lovers out there would defend Beet Jelly, but I'm not sure the package of unsweetened Kool-Aid would be enough to save the thickened beet-water spread for me.

This congregation also likes to add their own special touch to common dishes. For instance, I see corn oyster recipes all the time, and they're usually for corn fritters that only have "oyster" in the name because the fried bites are supposed to look like oysters. The Troy Mills Disciples of Christ take the "oyster" in the name seriously.

Yep! Their Corn Oysters start out with a quart of actual oysters, which are then baked under a thick layer of seasoned creamed corn and cracker crumbs.

The congregation also likes to mess with regional recipes. I know it's not uncommon to make Pimento Cheese Salad, but it's usually a pasta salad with pimento cheese as part of the dressing. Not in this book!

This pimiento cheese is turned into a salad with the addition of marshmallows and pineapple! About a third of me thinks that southerners would be horrified by this variation and two-thirds of me thinks they would actually like the idea. A lot of pimento cheese recipes call for sugar anyway, and '70s cooks thought a can of crushed pineapple could be added to just about anything, so I could see somebody defending this.

The most interesting recipe might just be a mashup between a '60s recipe and a '70s preparation trend, though. Behold, the Fondue Wellington!

I can't help but be fascinated by an attempt to turn refrigerated crescent rolls smeared with liverwurst spread and wrapped around a tenderloin cube into tiny Wellingtons that need to be cooked in a fondue pot of oil. It's such a collision of old trends! I'm almost convinced that this could be used as an actual time machine if it were just served with a noodle ring filled with creamed vegetables and a Jell-O molded salad.

Thanks again to my sister for this insight into the '70s-era Iowan Disciples of Christ! They've brought a little joy to this heathen's heart.