My Vintage Kitchen Column for OKRA magazine: Cardamom Sour Cream Pound Cake with Burnt Sugar Ice Cream

Cardamom Sour Cream Pound Cake with Burnt Sugar Ice Cream

Last month for my assignment as the Vintage Kitchen columnist over at OKRA magazine, I tested an old Alabama recipe for Cardamom Sour Cream Pound Cake with Burnt Sugar Ice Cream.

The recipe came from Sook’s Cookbook, Memories and Traditional Receipts from the Deep South which I came across in a box at an estate sale.  The cookbook is a compendium of old recipes from the Faulk family of Monroeville, Alabama.  Sook Faulk was Truman Capote’s great aunt and her special fruitcakes are immortalized in Capote’s lovely and sad short story “A Christmas Memory.”

Compiled by Marie Rudisill, Sook’s niece, the recipes date as far back as 1836 in plantation record books.  Marie and Truman started work on the cookbook in 1947 but put it aside until 1972 when they collaborated again, mostly by phone.

Marie wrote a great deal about the characters in the Faulk household:  the cook, Little Bit; Corrie, the housekeeper and sometime cook; Sem Muscadine, another cook and handyman; and Truman, Aunt Jenny, and Aunt Sook.

Truman Capote's Aunt Sook, as illustrated by Barry Moser.

Truman Capote’s Aunt Sook, as illustrated by Barry Moser.

 

The cookbook is a charmer and the pound cake and ice cream recipes were fantastic!   I will definitely be making these again.  Pop over to OKRA, the digital magazine for the Southern Food and Beverage Institute (SoFAB), and check it out.

 

 

Feelin’ Crabby: Part One

Corks & Cake Contributor: Kathryn Michel

Drinks on the veranda.

Drinks on the veranda.  Photo by Allison Beuker.

 

Our guest contributor today is Kathryn Michel, a native Marylander who grew up in Potomac.  Kathryn has served as Social Secretary to several prominent Washington hostesses and is a consummate event planner.  She’s planned parties in just about every venue around town from the White House, to the Library of Congress, the Smithsonian, the Corcoran, and the Capitol building.  In addition to her passion for parties she has a passion for animal rescue work, in particular with horses.  She is also riotously funny (I can attest!) and is a great person to have on board during a complex event because she keeps her cool.

 

Blue crab, wild caught in the USA. (This is from Virginia, not Maryland, full disclosure.)

Blue crab, wild caught in the USA. (This brand is from Virginia, not Maryland, full disclosure.)
Photo by Rebecca Penovich.

 

The lady knows her way around a crab cake (the most popular party appetizer in these parts).  She, Allison, and I agree that our favorite crab cake is the classic Maryland crab cake and by that we mean NO FUNNY STUFF.  No tarragon, no potato chips, no green peppers, no bacon, no artichoke hearts, just stop it already you crazy chefs!

 

 Title page of this vintage tome reads:  To The Generations Of Maryland Cooks Who Since 1634 Have Blended The Fruits Of Bay, Field and Forest Into Maryland's Way Photo by John Penovich.

Title page of this vintage tome reads: To The Generations Of Maryland Cooks Who Since 1634 Have Blended The Fruits Of Bay, Field and Forest Into Maryland’s Way
Photo by John Penovich.

 

My go-to crab cake recipe comes from the venerable Maryland’s Way Cook Book, published by the Hammond-Harwood House Association in 1966.  The Hammond-Harwood House in Annapolis was built in 1774 by the colonial architect, William Buckland, and is on the National Historic Landmark registry.

There are five recipes for crab cakes in this vintage book (out of 21 for crab in general.) The one I call for is the one named “Yardley’s Crab Cakes.”  I don’t know who Yardley was (no surname) but the credit lists Baltimore Sun under his name.  A very cursory Google search leads us to believe this recipe could have originated with either a very popular cartoonist with the Baltimore Sun newspaper named Yardley, or a prominent Baltimore gastroenterologist named John Howard “Jack” Yardley.  Culinary sleuths, please report out in the comments if you have any intel.

Use the best lump crab meat that you can afford and treat it gently.  Don’t try to stretch it with too much filler, just make the cakes baby-size and let everyone enjoy one perfect bite of the dish that speaks to the heart of Maryland cuisine:  fresh seafood from the Chesapeake Bay, enhanced but not covered up.

I change it up sometimes by adding lots more parsley and less bread.

Crab cakes dressed for company with sriracha remoulade. Photo by John Penovich.  Food styling by Rebecca Penovich.

Crab cakes dressed for company with sriracha remoulade.
Photo by John Penovich. Food styling by Rebecca Penovich.

Yardley’s Crab Cakes from Maryland’s Way Cookbook

1 pound lump crab meat
1 egg
2 slices white bread
1 tablespoon chopped parsley
1 tablespoon prepared mustard (Grey Poupon Dijon, preferred)
1 tsp Worcestershire sauce
salt and pepper
Pull inside of bread into small pieces, soak well in beaten egg with mustard and seasonings, add crab meat (trying not to break it).  Form into cakes and cook until brown in 2 T. very hot bacon fat (or butter).  Makes 6 big cakes or 16 golf-ball size cakes.
Enjoy!
Rebecca’s Notes:  I whirred my bread in the food processor to get coarse crumbs before soaking.  I find that chilling the formed crab cakes in the refrigerator (under plastic wrap) for at least 30 minutes before pan-frying helps them keep their shape.  If you do chill them, you might want to put them in a warm oven (350 ° for 5-6 minutes) after getting a good browning on both sides to ensure that they are warm throughout but not overcooked.
In Feelin’ Crabby Part Two:  Kathryn shares her grandmother’s celebrated dinner party dish of Deviled Crab and Rebecca offers up a modern take on the Maryland crab cake from chef Tom Douglas, author of I Love Crab Cakes.

Classic Mint Julep, 1937

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Photo by Allison Beuker.

 

Vintage cookbooks and especially community, church, and Junior League recipe collections offer a lens into the food culture of the time–what was fashionable, what was available, and what was deemed good enough for “company” or for at least putting forth for a fundraiser for your church or social group.  One thing I love reading through are the recipes for punch and cocktails.  I love that the recipes usually have the name of the contributor as part of the title: “Sue Emory’s Eggnog” for example. It makes me think: Who was Sue? Was her eggnog really good? Did she throw the best Christmas party? Did Bob the tee-totaller get sauced on her eggnog and end up wearing the lampshade on his head in 1952?

 

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Photo by Allison Beuker.

The best old recipes have excellent ‘head notes’ (you know, those descriptions preceding the ingredients that tell you the why, what for, provenance, special notes or anecdotes about the recipe to follow.) Read the head note and if makes you want to try the recipe right then and there, then it’s a good one.

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Doesn’t this make you thirsty?
Photo by Allison Beuker.

A little late for Derby Day, I know, but this recipe for a Mint Julep from “Queen Anne Goes to the Kitchen, Third Edition” produced by The Episcopal Women of St. Paul’s Parish of Centreville, Maryland is a gem. Produced for the tricentennial of the founding of St. Paul’s Parish (that’s 300 years ya’ll), this church cookbook has some of the most pithy and interesting head notes I’ve ever read and some of the best Old-School recipes for classic Chesapeake cooking.

So with no further introduction, I give you “Mint Julep” reproduced in its entirety.

MINT JULEP
This recipe is extracted from a letter of Colonel S.B. Buckner, Jr., U.S. Infantry, Ft. George G. Meade, MD, to Major General William D. Conner, West Point, NY, dated March 30, 1937.

cool, clear spring water (bottled)

lots of fresh mint
a good Kentucky bourbon
sugar bowl
row of silver goblets and spoons
ice

In a canvas bag pound twice as much ice as you think you will need. Make it fine as snow and keep it dry.

In each goblet put a heaping teaspoon of sugar, barely cover with spring water and slightly bruise one mint leaf into this mixture, leaving the spoon in the goblet. Pour bourbon to make about 1/4 full. Wipe goblet dry and embellish copiously with mint.

Then comes the important and delicate operation of frosting. By proper manipulation of the spoon, the ingredients are circulated and blended until the goblet is encrusted with frost.

Colonel Buckner ends: “Thus harmoniously blended by the deft touches of a skilled hand, you have a beverage eminently appropriate for honorable men and beautiful women.”

” When all is ready, assemble your guests on the porch or in the garden, where the drama of the juleps will rise heaven-ward and make the birds sing…Being overcome by thirst, I can write no further.”

 

–S.B. Buckner, Jr., Col., U.S. Infantry

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Vintage sterling shot measures.
Photo by Allison Beuker.

Integral to the enjoyment of Mint Juleps, in addition to the fine technique instructions of Colonel Buckner (above), the fine company to drink them with, and the wrap-around porch, are the accoutrements that go with making them.  These vintage sterling shot measures are engraved with ‘Little Shot’ (1 oz. marked on the bottom), ‘Just A Shot’ (1 1/2 oz on bottom) and ‘Big Shot’ (marked 2 ounces on bottom.)

The Colonel’s cocktail instructions just say to fill your silver goblet up 1/4 way with bourbon after your shaved ice and muddled mint are in.  The amount of bourbon would depend on the size of your goblet (and here we photographed some genteel sterling punch cups). We can imagine the Southern porch parties gone awry as characters mix their own bourbon and ice ratios.  In fact, I’m sure great Southern novels came out of that phenomenon.

 

 

On Moms, Vintage Cookbooks, and Heirlooms

Some of our most-cherished heirlooms, right up there among old silver and art, are the vintage kitchen hand-me-downs like these old cookbooks from our mothers and grandmothers.

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Photo by Allison Beuker.

We love their splattered pages, the notes in the margins, and particularly the inscriptions in that beautiful old handwriting.

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Photo by Allison Beuker.

This is John’s mother’s signature on her copy of  “How To Cook His Goose (and Other Wild Games)” published in 1973.  This always brings a smile to my face, not only because of that cheeky title, but because I can imagine Eleanor actually cooking a recipe from it for the wild goose or duck that John’s dad would hunt on the Eastern Shore (of Maryland.)

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Photo by Allison Beuker.

This first edition of the “I Hate To Cook Book” from 1960 was given to Allison’s mom by her mom in 1963  when Pat (‘Patty’ in the affectionate inscription) was starting out as a young wife.  There’s even a note from the same year tucked inside advising the newlywed, “I can recommend heartily the Skid Road Stroganoff, Saturday Chicken, Aunt Bebe’s Bean Bowl, and Sub Gum Yuk.”

The inscription is endearing, “For Patty, who is already an excellent cook” because while the book title would suggest her interests and abilities lay elsewhere, Allison’s mom is indeed to this day an excellent and avid cook.  There are some oddly good recipes in there, and the whole edition is a quirky and fun read.  While researching this post, I discovered that the publishers reissued this book in 2010 for a new generation of I Hate To Cook cooks.  We look forward to highlighting some of the gems and downright hilarious recipe headnotes in future posts.

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Photo by Allison Beuker.

I’ve saved this old envelope with my mom’s handwritten recipe for Raw Apple Cake.  This must have been a very popular recipe (and a traditional one too) considering the number of Google hits one gets for it.  I have to say I haven’t made it yet because Mom’s recipe doesn’t say whether to peel the apples or not and I don’t have a memory of the cake.  I’ve transcribed the recipe for you at the end of the post.  If you try it, let us know in the Comments section how it compares to your Nana’s.  And if you peeled the apples or not.

I also found a handwritten copy of my grandmother’s recipe for Date Pudding which I assume was a family favorite back in the 1930s or 40s.  Dates are back in fashion now and I will give this recipe a try in the fall; I suspect it’s more cake-like or bread pudding-like and was probably served with a “hard sauce” although she was a teetotaler.  Grandmother Cullen was a Home Economics teacher in her small town in the Midwest and that is her journal in the background (in the photo above) with notes and instructions for homekeeping and meal planning.  I love that you can see my mother’s name, Norma, in the upper right.

 

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Sad clown lives in attic.
Photo by Allison Beuker.

Some heirlooms are less than fabulous in today’s taste.

But we will never, ever give this sad clown up, even if it has to live in the attic, because of this heartfelt inscription to my husband on the back.

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“Made with so much love for John in the Autumn of 1962 before he was born by his Mother.”

Happy Mother’s Day to Eleanor, Norma, Pat, Hazel, and Nellie (both in heaven and on Earth.)  And Happy Mother’s Day to you moms out there.

Hugs,

Rebecca and Allison

 

RAW APPLE CAKE (as written by Norma Lee Horton)

Rebecca’s notes in brackets.  [Note that I also changed her original abbreviation “t” to “tsp” so that we are not confused between the modern abbreviation for tablespoon (T) and teaspoon (tsp)]

Cream [together]:

2 cups sugar

1/2 cup oil

2 eggs

1 tsp. vanilla

Add and mix well:

2 cups flour

1/4 tsp. salt

2 tsp. soda [she means baking soda]

2 tsp. cinnamon

Stir [in] 4 cups finely diced apple [peeled or not, Mom?]

1 cup chopped nuts [she would have used walnuts or possibly pecans if she had them]

Bake 45 min at 350.

9 x 13 loaf pan  [we wouldn’t call this a loaf pan anymore]