University Women: Provoking critical thought since 1976

It's back to school time, so today we're celebrating with Celebration Cook Book (American Association of University Women, West Chester, PA, 1976). My copy might have been celebrating just a little too hard, as it doesn't have a cover. At least, I assume the cover is missing since the first page is regular paper and the back cover is actual card stock. Luckily, the first page still has all the info I needed to identify the book.

I'm not sure just how celebratory the book actually is, as the recipes are mostly what I'd expect in a regular community cookbook from, say, a Lutheran church. Still, there are a few special special touches. Not only do the university women like alcoholic punches for parties...

...but they also recommend throwing a water balloon in the freezer ahead of time so it can be used as a non-diluting ice cube in the punch bowl. A small part of me thinks this is genius, but most of me is pretty grossed out by the idea of a balloon in the punch bowl. How was it tied off? Will the punch taste like a balloon? Will the party end up sending someone with a latex allergy to the emergency room? And will the college types be able to resist the urge to use a condom since it's a close relative of balloons and they already have some on hand?

Maybe I should just move on to a celebratory cake. I'm used to seeing Wacky Cake recipes in community cookbooks. They were popular in the Depression because they didn't require eggs, milk, or oil, and I guess wacky because the instructions usually specify making separate holes for the vinegar, vanilla, and oil before adding the other ingredients. They're almost always cocoa cakes (like the video linked above). The University Women were extra wacky because their cake has peanut butter in addition to the cocoa.

Well, it's also extra wacky because it's actually wackey. Maybe they just like the extra work of adding an extra "e"? I know they have an affinity for extra work since this cake is often mixed right in the baking pan to save on dish washing, but the instructions to pour the batter into the pan show that this version is supposed to be mixed in a bowl first. 

I know, I know. It's probably just a typo. The University Women were no bigger fans of proofreading than the non-college types. The instructions for the Corned Beef Salad make this pretty clear.

"Dissolve jello in hot water"? There's no Jell-O in the recipe! I'm assuming the "1 pkg. regular lemon juice" is supposed to be a package of lemon Jell-O, because who measures lemon juice by package? Plus, the instructions never say what to do with the lemon juice, so I think supposing they mean Jell-O is a reasonable inference.

Maybe forcing readers to make inferences is intentional, and the University Women are just trying to test readers' abilities to parse ambiguous instructions. Perhaps the recipes are supposed to double as critical thinking exercises? For instance, the Rainbow Slices seem to rely pretty heavily on readers to figure out a step.

I assume that somewhere between halving and hollowing the hard rolls and wrapping the halves back together again, the cooks are actually supposed to add the filling. Otherwise, the end product is a bowl of sweet pickle relish, cream cheese, hard-cooked eggs, and carrots next to a series of hollow dinner rolls. (Come to think of it, I'd prefer that anyway, as I could ignore the bowl of sludge, grab a dinner roll, and ask whether there was any butter... I am not a pickle relish person!)

The most logic-testing recipe just might be Mushroom Casserole. My adolescent habit of following the recipe as I read it (rather than reading and thinking it through first, before I started anything!) would have doomed this one for sure.

"Mix ingredients into stuffing." 

"Done!"

"In casserole, put layer of mushrooms, (sliced)..."

"But... the mushrooms are mixed into the stuffing."

"...thinly sliced cheese..."

"But... the cheese is in the stuffing!"

"...and filling mix."

"All I have is filling mix (which I assume is the stuffing) with everything in it! You told me to mix ingredients into stuffing! Are mushrooms not ingredients? Is cheese not an ingredient?"

"Repeat with dots of butter."

"THE BUTTER WASN'T AN INGREDIENT EITHER???"

"Pour 1 cup of Half and Half over the entire casserole."

"Wait. Is that in addition to the cup I already mixed in during the first step, or are you telling me that half and half wasn't considered an ingredient either and I shouldn't have mixed it in already? Did you just mean to combine the stuffing mix and water in the first step? WHY DIDN'T YOU JUST SAY THAT?"

So... yeah. This recipe would have totally caused a meltdown if I tried to make it when I was young. Even if the University Women weren't always great at planning out or explaining their recipes, they definitely challenged their audience's capacity for critical thought and problem solving. I have to give them props for that. It's a good back to school lesson.