I'm sad that so few old cookbooks have Halloween-specific recipes. Of course they're loaded with traditional Thanksgiving and Christmas recipes. Hell, they usually even have a cherry pie recipe for Presidents' Day! But nothing for Halloween. 😞 That's why I was so excited to find a couple of salads for my favorite holiday in New Delights from the Kitchen (Kelvinator, 1930).
First up, the delightfully apostrophed Hallowe'en Salad.
It's basically a sweet cole slaw topped with extra dates, mayonnaise flourishes, and "eighth inch peelings from very red apples cut into Hallowe'en shapes such as crescent moons and pumpkin faces." I can't imagine too many cooks in the 1930s spent much time cutting apple peels into tiny shapes-- I'm not even sure how one might go about cutting a pumpkin face into such a tiny bit of apple peel, even if one were so inclined!-- but at least it's a fun thought.
The alternative-- a Goblin Salad-- seems much easier.
Just gussy up a canned peach half with clove eyes and nose and a maraschino cherry mouth. (Leave the mayonnaise out of the cream cheese hair, and I might even consider eating this one!)
Plus, cooks can pair the Goblin Salad with a big bowl of the more-recent concoction Cheddar Goblin for a full meal. Yay! These recipes make me as close as I am likely to get to that "all's right with the world" feeling.
Wow, carving apple peels into Halloween shapes. Someone was bored, especially knowing how fast apple peels turn brown and start to curl up. Maybe leave the peel on the apple and arrange slices into a face on top of the salad?
ReplyDeleteThat sounds a LOT more practical. (And more likely to get noticed, too. It's not like people are likely to examine tiny bits of apple peel mixed into the cole slaw.)
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