Old cookbooks just don't feel quite complete unless they've got a selection of aspics and gelatin salads that defy reason. I was a little sad that The Science of Food and Cookery (H. S. Anderson, 1921) wouldn't have any, as the book's vegetarian theme doesn't make room for Jell-O. I shouldn't have been worried, though, as the book does include recipes for "vegetable gelatin" (also known as agar and still available in Asian grocery stores and health food stores).
I love that the description sells it by noting that "Its vegetable origin guarantees freedom from unwholesome and diseased products, and there is nothing about it to suggest 'hoofs and horns'"-- as if there is no such thing as unwholesome plants (Socrates would beg to differ) or as if "hoofs and horns" is anyone's first thought when they're eating a bowl of gelatin.
The book offers some fruited gel recipes for the health food version of a dessert.
It also offers molded veggie salads, like this cucumber salad.
Since it consists mostly of cucumber and lemon juices and the only real vegetable is a tablespoon of grated onion (assuming the cook doesn't just go for the onion salt option), I'd consider it closer to an overly-thick smoothie than a salad, but I'm not a cook from the 1920s.
The tomato salad at least uses tomato pulp, not just juice (though it's strained, so pretty much juice by the end).
The most interesting recipe might be the full-on Vegetable Loaf en Aspic.
I like that it tries to be fancy, filling the bottom of the mold with sliced hard-boiled egg, parsley, and string beans or peas, since those will show up on the top when it's unmolded. I guess that's to hide the fact that the mold is mostly filled with cold baked dressing (the kind made with breadcrumbs and herbs, typically stuffed into a turkey when it's made by non-vegetarians) or "nut food cut into large squares," neither of which sound particularly tasty being served suspended in a cold gel. I mean, I'll happily eat a slice of cold dressing the day after Thanksgiving, but I've never wished it were suspended in agar.
Still, the vegetarians had to keep up with everybody else! They, too, could make aspics that sounded at least as unappealing as anything the hoof and horn crowd could come up with.
I wonder how many cucumbers you have to juice in order to get 1.5 cups of liquid. Juicing a cucumber also sounds difficult. You would definitely need a machine to do that. Wouldn't it be easier to just grate up a cucumber and throw it in? Sure, it wouldn't be mostly clear like the published version, but people would not want to eat it just the same.
ReplyDeleteMy guess is that cooks were supposed to grate the cucumbers into a clean dish towel or cheesecloth and then squeeze/ wring the cucumber juice from that into a container. It does seem like a lot of work for very little payoff, but that's what old health food books are all about!
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