Scribal Terror

Things people [around here] don't eat anymore

When I was growing up in the fifties, people ate things (often quite reluctantly if they were children) that you never see in grocery stores anymore. Here's my list. Do you know what they all are? Do people still eat them where you live? Can you think of anything to add to the extinct foods list?

goetta (I still goett cravings)
blood sausage (the color of mortal injury)
cottage ham (in whose cottage was all that fat acceptable?)
city chicken (what were those hunks of meat anyway?)
stewed tomatoes (as a side dish, not an ingredient!)
mock turtle soup (purportedly made with a calf's head)
chili soup (mmm, watery)
canned spinach (I don't know for sure if this is extinct and I am afraid to look. It had a strange, metallic taste, like an industrial waste product.)

Tracey adds:

head cheese (but whose head?)

What's that sauce?

Its ingredients are vinegar, molasses, high fructose corn syrup, anchovies, water, onions, salt, garlic, tamarind concentrate, cloves, natural flavorings, and chili pepper extract. So DON'T serve it to your vegetarian friends.

Right they are: Scott (FIRST!) and HA HA HA both identified this famous sauce as Worcestershire. Yes, it has fish in it.

Cowca-cola

Ananova reports:

India's Hindu nationalist movement says it is in the final stages of developing a new soft drink made from cow urine.

The Cow Protection Department of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh, India's biggest and oldest Hindu nationalist group, is behind the new brew, reports The Times.

Department head Om Prakash said the drink - called "gau jal" or "cow water" - was undergoing lab tests and would be launched "very soon, maybe by the end of this year". . . .

Mr Prakash said his drink was made mainly of cow urine, mixed with herbs, and would be "cheap", but declined to give further details until it was officially launched.

He insisted, however, that it would be able to compete with the likes of Coca Cola and Pepsi.

Homemade Pizza!

By Warren, the Scribal Spouse. It contains spinach, bacon, mozzarella, provolone, homemade crust. The only store-boughten item was the Classico di Napoli sauce. Now we eat.

Cheddar is a verb

According to Bon Appetit magazine, "cheddaring is . . . a process::

It's how the cheese gets its texture. Curds are cut into slabs and then piled on top of one another. The weight drains moisture from the curds and compresses them, which takes about an hour to complete.

Swiftlet nests

 
These are the kinds of nests used in Bird's Nest Soup. According to Wikipedia:

The nests are built during the breeding season by the male swiftlet over a period of 35 days. They take the shape of a shallow cup stuck to the cave wall. The nests are composed of interwoven strands of salivary laminae cement. Both nests have high levels of calcium, iron, potassium, and magnesium.

A kilogram of white nest can cost up to $2,000, and a kilogram of “red blood” nest can cost up to $US 10,000.

The nests dissolve into a gelatinous substance when cooked.

Here are some swiftlets making and using their nests in the wild:

Broccoli Cheddar Soup

This is adapted from CD Kitchen. I make a lot of it and then freeze it in single-serving packets.

Ingredients:

1 tablespoon butter, melted
1/2 medium onion, chopped
1/4 cup melted butter
1/4 cup flour
2 cups 2% milk
2 cups chicken stock or bouillon
1/2 pound fresh broccoli
salt and pepper to taste
1/4 tsp cayenne pepper
8 ounces grated sharp cheddar

Directions:

Cook the broccoli until tender. Crumble it up and set aside.

Saute onion in butter. Set aside with broccoli.

Cook melted butter and flour using a whisk over medium heat for 3-5 minutes. Stir constantly and slowly add hot chicken stock whisking all the time.

Put everything together. Add milk, salt, pepper, and cayenne. Puree, return to stove until hot, then serve.

Mustard yogurt sauce

This is a lovely cold sauce for salmon:

    1 tsp dijon mustard
    1 tsp parsley finely chopped (dill would also do nicely)
    2 T GOOD olive oil
    4 T plain yogurt (fat free works fine)

Most of the recipes for mustard sauce I've found have called for either mayo or sour cream, and neither of those sounded tangy enough. The yogurt adds the perfect amount of tartness.

What's the difference between a bagel and a roll?

A bagel is boiled for a few minutes (depending on the recipe, 1-7 min -- I do 3) before it is baked. Here's a good intro to bagel making. This challah bread recipe is great for making bagels. I am still working on making the bagels not look deformed, but they taste and toast fabulous. Dessert this evening was toasted challah bagel with black raspberry preserves from our garden.

Grrrr

In my half-asleepedness, I have put a can of sweetened condensed milk into the pumpkin pie instead of unsweetened evaporated milk. Well, the cans look the same. Anybody want a really sweet pie?

So anyway, I made Ruined Pumpkin Pie cookies by dipping out and beating the baked custard, and adding a teaspoon of baking powder, a melted stick of butter, and enough flour to make the texture seem right.  I rolled them into walnut sized balls, squooshed them down, and baked them at 350 for 20 minutes. They're not too bad, all things considered -- more like tiny muffins than cookies. I realize now that I put in too much flour (3 cups -- 2 1/2 would have been better) and should have added more spice.  (I just sprinkled some powdered clove over the last batch.) I also made another pie -- the right way.