Jellied Everything

Leafing through my vintage cookbook collection, I'm struck by how many recipes there are for food presented in aspic, particularly in the 40's. I'm one of those people who makes a lot of dining decisions based on "mouth feel" as much as by flavor.  Love the taste of bananas, hate the slimyness.  The slippery sensation of oysters and the gummy texture of clams give me shivers. All my meat is mercilessly trimmed of fat before it passes my lips.  So, I find the notion of eating any meat, fish or vegetable presented inside a quivering mass of jellied buillion appalling, with some selections (tongue, for example) going right on to nauseating.  And judging by the way aspic has disappeared from current cookbooks and restaurant menus, I don't think I'm alone in finding it repulsive. Here's a sample of some yummy aspic recipes I have in just one book in my collection, 500 Tasty Snacks, Ideas for Entertaining (possibly they meant 'Ideas for Entertaining People You Hope to Discourage from Cadging Meals from You in the Future'). The choices include:

Hard-Cooked Eggs in Jellied Buillion
Chicken Mousse
Jellied Salmon
Ham Mold, New Orleans Style
Jellied Melange (chicken and ham)
Jellied Beet Pickle Salad
Pate de Foie Gras in Aspic
Jellied Tuna
Tongue Mousse
Jellied Calf's Liver
Ham and Cider Jelly Loaf
Liver Sausage in Aspic

and my favorite - not just for the yucky factor, but for the wonderful presentation of hot dogs standing at attention .....

Jellied Buillion with Frankfurters

 Bet you never thought of hot dogs as a glamorous choice! And it's so simple to make:

JELLIED BUILLION WITH FRANKFURTERS

1 T. unflavored gelatin
1/4 cup cold water
1 1/2 cups hot beef broth
Frankfurter
Hard-boiled eggs, sliced
Diced celery

Soften gelatin in cold water.  Dissolve in hot stock. Sprinkle celery in desired mold.  Arrange sliced eggs around the edge. When stock begins to thicken, pour into mold and insert frankfurters in an upright position then chill until firm.  Unmold and garnish with vegetable curls or cups, radish roses, endive or parsley. 
 Photo and recipe from 500 Tasty Snacks, Ideas for Entertaining, Culinary Arts Institute, 1940

Attack of the Cupcakes

Raisin Funny-face Cakes?  Or Mad Monster-face Cakes?  With their orange frosting, I think they are supposed to resemble jack-o'-lanterns, but  this looks like an army of angry Mr. Bills to me.

200 Dishes for Children, Culinary Arts Institute, 1964

RAISIN FUNNY-FACE CAKES

1/2 cup shortening
1 cup sugar
2 tsp. grated orange rind
2 eggs, beaten
1 cup dark or golden raisins
2 cups sifted flour
4 tsp. baking powder
1 tsp. salt
1/2 cup milk
Confectioners' sugar frosting
Orange food coloring
Dark raisins for eyes

Cream shortening, sugar and grated rind together; add eggs and beat until fluffy.  Blend in raisins.  Sift flour, baking powder and salt together.  Add alternately with milk to the creamed mixture, beating until blended after each addition.  Turn batter into greased cupcake pans.  Bake at 425 degrees 15 to 20 minutes.  When cupcakes are cooled, frost with confectioners' sugar frosting, tinted orange.  Make faces on cakes, using dark raisins.  Makes about 15 cupcakes.

What Do We Have Here?

I started this blog by featuring the 200 Dishes for Children cookbook, because it's just full of scary (and funny) recipes and photos.  For instance, can you tell what tasty dish is pictured here? I think it looks a little like Punxsatwny Phil and his clones peeking out of his burrow, but this, my dear, is Bunny Salad!  As the accompanying quote in the cookbook says, "You need not wait until Easter to transform pear halves into impish bunnies for the children's delight." 

The same page also features recipes for Pointsetta Salad, Clown Salad, Jack-O'-Lantern Salad and another of my favorites, Duck Salad.  No picture, but I think you can probably conjure your own image of a peach-half body with a marshmallow head, currant eyes and almond beak, floating on a sea of shredded lettuce. My own impish children would have eaten the marshmallow.  Can't wait for Easter to make your own little bunnies? Here's the recipe - the first and only one I've seen that calls for shredding - yes, shredding - Jello. And please don't let anyone eat the cloves!

BUNNY SALAD

1 package lime gelatin
2 cups hot water
6 pear halves
1/4 cup cottage cheese
Mayonnaise
1 T. blanched almonds
Lettuce
24 almonds, blanched, chopped
Whole cloves
Soft pimiento cheese
Parsley

Dissolve gelatin in hot water.  Pour into an 8x8x2-in. pan; chill until firm. For each salad, fill pear half with cottage cheese mixed with mayonnaise and nuts.  Invert on lettuce leaves on a bed of shredded gelatin by forcing firm lime gelatin through a sieve.  Make bunny's ears, nose and tail out of almonds. Make eyes, using whole cloves.  Shape small carrots from cheese, use parsley for top and place one or two by each bunny.  Serve with mayonnaise.  Makes 6.

200 Dishes for Children, Culinary Arts Institute, 1964

Frightening Food - The Beginning

Many moons ago, my sister worked at an upscale market while she was in high school.  One day, she came home with a handful of little cookbooks published by the Culinary Arts Institute.  The management had decided they were too outdated to sell, and offered them to staff.  My sister took some for her older, soon-to-be-married sister - and those little cookbooks are the base of what is now a vintage cookbook collection.  Every once in a while, I would pick up another one that I found in a thrift shop or antique shop, but I seriously began to look for them when I noticed them showing up at library book sales (another love of mine!).  As I looked through them, I'd share the more outrageous recipes with the family around our kitchen table.  And there were some appalling ones (Frankfurters in Aspic, anyone?). One night all four of us were sitting around and I was reading through a new acquisition, "200 Dishes for Children", when I saw the recipe for Liver Soup.  For kids.  As a serious lunch selection.  We howled - and decided it was too good not to share.  Thus the Frightening Foods blog began.

Here is the recipe, in case you have any hungry kids looking for a nourishing soup on a cool fall day.  Or if you have any bad, bad children around who should be punished.

LIVER SOUP
1/2 pound beef liver
1 cup chopped mushrooms
2 tsp. minced parsley
3 T. fat
1 tsp. salt
4 cups brown stock or bouillon
1T. flour
1 cup cream or evaporated milk

Cut liver into small pieces. Saute liver, mushrooms and parsley in 2 tablespoons of fat 5 minutes. Add salt and brown stock and simmer, covered, 1/2 hour or until liver is tender.  Combine remaining fat with flour and brown, add liver mixture gradually and cook 5 minutes.  Add cream.  Serves 6

200 Dishes for Children, the Culinary Arts Institute, 1964.