51黑料

By 鈥渉eavens,鈥� I mean reader (and frequent baking-contest winner) Sherilyn Krell, who was making room for more cookbooks in her house by giving away a bunch of the older cooking pamphlets that her late mother had accumulated.

And I was the happy recipient.

Note to readers: Please do not give me any more of your old cookbooks. I already have far more than I need and I, like you, am trimming my overstuffed shelves by culling books I rarely or never use. Thank you.

Included in the stash was one actual book, a plastic-spiral-bound tome from 1965 called 鈥淩ecipes on Parade: Desserts Edition.鈥� This is a compilation of 2,000 recipes submitted by U.S. military officers鈥� wives (hence 鈥淩ecipes on Parade鈥�); each recipe includes the base where the wife is stationed and, when relevant, her position in that base鈥檚 Officers鈥� Wives Club.

The book begins with a contribution from the then-First Lady, Lady Bird Johnson, for strawberry ice box pie: Cook 17 ounces of marshmallows with 2 tablespoons of strawberry juice until the marshmallows are dissolved. Add a box of frozen strawberries (or 2 cups of fresh sweetened strawberries), and chill. Whip 1 cup of whipping cream, fold into the mixture and pour into a baked pie crust.

She also gives the recipe for the pie crust which, for the record, uses shortening for its fat. That makes the crust nice and flaky, but it doesn鈥檛 add any flavor.

The women who sent in the recipes did a lot of entertaining, which is reflected in the perhaps surprising quality of the recipes. And with 2,000 possibilities, the recipes cover just about every dessert you could think of in 1965 鈥� some of them several times. Five recipes for grasshopper pie are included, plus an additional four recipes for frozen grasshopper pie.

But it was the pamphlet-style cookbooks that grabbed most of my attention.

You鈥檙e probably familiar with them; these are pamphlets that came free with food products or occasionally cooking products. Understandably, the recipes tend to specify the product they are advertising: The Calumet baking powder booklet features recipes all made with Calumet baking powder (and the recipes tend to be called things like Calumet Muffins or Calumet Sugar Cookies).

Pro tip: Other baking powders work just as well.

The Spry cookbook makes use of Spry vegetable shortening (鈥淪pry is purer shortening. It鈥檚 ALL-vegetable, contains not an atom of animal fat, only the choicest and blandest of wholesome vegetable oils鈥�). The 鈥淔.W. McNess鈥� Cook Book鈥� calls for McNess spices or extracts or baking powder or cocoa.

The McNess pamphlet, which looks to date to the 1930s, also offers free medical and veterinary advice. Just write to their experts and they will write back with information that, one hopes, reaches you in time.

OK, one more thing about McNess, which is still in business selling everything from spices to camphor rub to cattle feed: At the time of this pamphlet, they also sold vegetable laxative tea, mustard ointment and candy worm expeller.

The smallest pamphlet, from 1930 contains recipes to be made with Jell-O鈥檚 newest flavor, lime (it joined orange, lemon, raspberry, strawberry and cherry). Included are such classics as marshmallow pineapple mold, lime mallow sponge (make lime Jell-O, add marshmallows and whip until fluffy and thick like ice cream; chill until firm) and ocean crest Bavarian, which also requires marshmallows.

A pamphlet called the Mouquin Epicure (鈥渁n unusual recipe book鈥�) sought to re-create some of the classic recipes featured at the Mouquin restaurant; it offered some of the finest dining of the Gilded Age, bringing French cuisine to New York. The restaurant did not survive Prohibition, though the company continued importing wine into the 1950s.

With this pamphlet, the ambitious cook could learn how to make lobster 谩 la Newburg, filet of sole Marguery and champignons 谩 la Bordelaise. It also includes some 54 recipes for cocktails and punches, including everything from a breakfast egg not to a silver fizz to an orange blossom cocktail.

It occurs to me that this pamphlet is worthy of further study.