Meat Sauce, Women's Day May 1951

This week's recipe comes from an article in the May 1951 issue of Women's Day entitled, 16 Spaghetti Sauces.  They all looked pretty good expect for the "Chick-Pea Sauce" (As much as I like chick peas I just can't fathom them in anything else but salad.  I'm such a modern gal!)  The "Bread-Crumb Meat Sauce" just seemed weird.  Seemed like it would be dry.   Anyway, I chose the Meat Sauce, per hubby's request.  (The Tuna-Fish Sauce kind of freaked him out. I thought it would be a nice meatless meal.  Maybe that's what scared him!  NO MEAT??  Well this had "flavor".  But I'm getting ahead of myself...)

Here's what you need:

I made a few changes to the recipe.  I omitted the green pepper as hubby absolutely hates it.  I'm not a big fan either so it's ok with me to leave it out.  Also I didn't have any crushed red pepper so I substituted cayenne pepper.  Just a dash.  At first it was a bit much but mellowed out with cooking and added depth to the flavor.  

Here's the original recipe:

Here are my ingredients:

1 Onion, really large, chopped

3 Cloves garlic (Each of the Dorot frozen garlic is 1 small clove.  Adjust accordingly if using fresh garlic.)

Olive oil

1LB Ground beef

5C Canned tomates

1.5C Tomato sauce

1/4C Fresh parsley, chopped

1t Basil 

1/2t Thyme

1T Salt (seems like a lot but it wasn't)

1/4t Pepper

Dash of Cayenne pepper

First let me talk about that onion.  The original recipe called for 2 onions.  As you know from my previous diversions into onion sizing I believe that onions were much smaller back in the '50's.  When I looked around my kitchen for an onion I saw that I only had a huge monster onion that appeared to be  genetically modified to grow bigger and faster.  But happily it wasn't. It was just a big organic onion.   Here's what it looked like chopped up:

I estimate it's 4-5 cups.

Cook the ground beef in a large pot over a medium high heat.  Drain the beef and set aside.  Add a little olive oil to the pot and heat to medium again.  Add chopped onions and garlic.  Sauté until fragrant.  Here's some video!

Then add the meat back into the pot.  Add the rest of the ingredients.  Stir well and simmer covered for 90 minutes.  

This makes a lot of sauce.  The original recipe said to use with a pound of spaghetti but I had a lot left over even with a healthy spaghetti to sauce ratio.  Here's what our plates looked like:

I would estimate this recipe made about 10 servings for us.  I put about half in the freezer to make a quick dinner later.  Hubby asked for me to save some in the fridge for his lunch the next day too.   I haven't tried the frozen sauce yet but if it's like most tomato based meat sauce it probably freezes well and will taste just as yummy as when it's made fresh.  

Guess what?  Everyone loved it!  Hubby even said it had enough flavor.  Seriously.  And this was after a week of work travel eating in restaurants!  (I really think it kills his tastebuds.)  Must be the long cooking time because I was afraid the amount of herbs wasn't enough.  I usually use a lot more when I wing it tossing canned tomatoes with bottled Italian seasoning.  The flavors really melded well together and as I mentioned the cayenne added some depth to the flavor without making the sauce spicy.  

Enjoy!

Sarah

Chicken Marengo, Everywoman's March 1955

I'd never heard of this magazine before but I now have a bunch of them.  (Apparently Mrs. Katz Cohn was a fan.)  Luckily on page 3 of this issue is a letter from the publisher explaining why the magazine is less expensive than most women's magazines of the day.  Everywoman's magazine was a publication sold in grocery stores only.  It wasn't sponsored by the grocery stores, just distributed directly from the publisher with no middle man.  Thus the price was only 5¢ versus the standard 25¢ to 35¢ for traditionally distributed magazines.  Family Circle started out this way too but is now published and distributed thru a magazine publisher.

So on to our Chicken Marengo.  First before I forget- this went very well with white rice.  You need something to sop up all the delicious juices.  Yummy bread would work too.  I served sautéed spinach as our vegetable.

Here's the original recipe:

I didn't change much except the onion situation.  12 small whole onions weren't to be found in my grocery store.  It's that whole onion sizing thing again.  Also I didn't add the green pepper and tomato at the end.  Tomatoes are awful this time of year and hubby detests green pepper.

Here's my version:

1 chicken, cut in 8 pieces
1 large white onion, sliced thinly
1-8oz package of sliced mushrooms
Rind of l lemon, juice from 1/2 of the lemon (It was a really big lemon and needed to save the other half for my son- he has a sore throat.)
1-11.5 oz Can tomato juice
1/2C Flour with salt and pepper to taste
6T Olive oil
1-1/2t Salt
1/2t Pepper
1/2t Thyme

First heat half of the oil in a large skillet.  Sauté the onions until translucent.  Remove from the pan.  Add the rest of the oil to the pan.  Dredge each piece of chicken in the flour and place skin side in the hot pan.  Turn each piece occasionally so that it browns all over.

While the chicken browns zest the lemon and juice half of it or the whole thing if your lemon is small.  My lemon was about 4 inches long.  This big:

It was organic too.  Go figure!

Then pour the tomato juice, salt, pepper, and thyme into the bowl with the lemon juice and rind.  (I used a large measuring cup.)  Mix well.  Once the chicken is all nice and brown put the onions and mushrooms into the pan.  Pour the lemon-tomato mixture.  Jostle the chicken around so the juice gets mixed in well with the veggies.  Cover and simmer over a low heat for 45 minutes or until chicken is done.  Serve with rice.  (Yay!  I didn't forget!!)

Everyone liked this dinner for the most part.  Hubby had seconds.  (Jackpot!!)  My Little Miss Sweet 16 ate the chicken mixed with the rice when I cut it off the bone for her.  (Big surprise.)  My middle daughter said she liked the rice plain (what?) and my son, who's throat was very sore, said it was worth the pain of swallowing.  If this isn't a positive endorsement I don't know what is!!

Enjoy!

Chopped Beef Potpourri, Woman's Day February 1949 and bonus recipe Speedy Artesian Bread

This recipe was originally published in a 1938 Women's Day issue.  It was part of an article called "Our Best 64 Hamburger Recipes".  That's a lotta beef!  Perfect for my carnivore hubby.  In 1949 this recipe costs only $0.14 to make.  Using the CPI Inflation calculator that's $1.37 in today's dollars.  Food prices sure have gone up independent from inflation because I spent way more that that!

Chopped Beef Potpourri is just ground beef stew.  It's a great all in one meal (Includes protein, veggies, grains, and starch.) to make on a weekend and there's enough for leftovers throughout the week.  Judging from the ingredients it would probably freeze well.  Warning:  total cooking time is 2 hours.  Plan accordingly.  ( I caught the end of Hairspray and about half of Grease while making dinner tonight.  Yes, I was in the kitchen a good looooong time!)  I also made an herbed artesian bread using a speedy version of my Aunt Alice's favorite bread recipe.  I'll post my fast recipe below but click on the link to see the original.  It's not vintage but it's a keeper.  Even if you've never made bread before you can make this recipe.  Really.

Here's the original Chopped Beef Potpourri:

Here's my version, aka Ground Beef Stew:

• 1 Lb Ground Beef
• 2 Large onions, sliced 
• 1/3C Barley
• 2 1/2C Diced tomatoes (about a can and a half using two 14.5 oz cans)
• 1 1/2 Quarts water
• 2 Beef bullion cubes
• 1T Salt (or less depending on the saltiness of your bullion)
• 1/2t pepper
• 3 Carrots, sliced
• 2 Large potatoes, diced
• 3 Stalks celery, diced
• 2t A-1 steak sauce
• 1/2t Worcestershire sauce
• Garlic powder to taste

First brown the ground beef in a BIG pot over a medium high heat.  Add the onions and cook for about 10 minutes lowering the heat if necessary to avoid burning them.  You'll see the original recipe calls for 3 onions.  Remember my whole thing about onion sizing?  How I'm betting they're larger now?  Well if not click on the "onion sizing" label on the right.  Here's how much onion I used:

The onions on a 9 inch salad plate.

Heat the water and add the two bullion cubes.  Dissolve completely and add to the beef and onions along with the barley, tomatoes, salt, and pepper.  Cover and simmer over a low to medium low heat for one hour.  (This is when I baked the bread.  I mixed up earlier so it had already risen.)

Add the veggies, sauces, and garlic powder.  Stir well and cover and simmer for another hour.  Here's what you get:

This was after dinner.  The pot was filled to the ring around the top.
About half was left.  Not sure why the color is off.  Probably the lighting.

I was lucky to have another helpful taster tonight as my son is having a friend sleep over.  These boys are such little men!  Both agreed that they loved the meat and the potatoes best.  When I asked them to describe the flavor they called it "meaty".  Hubby liked their description adding that he thought it would taste even better if I made meatballs to join the pound of ground beef already in the stew.  (I supposed then I could call it "caveman stew" which would be kind of funny like I'm Betty Rubble.  "Barney, your caveman stew is ready!!!")  One daughter didn't care for it but the other loved dipping the bread in the juice.  The puppy of course loved the little taste he got.  Here he is looking cute and hoping for more.

Focus on the doggie, not the stuff on the counter.
Cooking is messy.  At least in my kitchen.

Now on to the bread!  

Speedy Artesian Bread

3C Regular flour (NOT bread flour!)

2t Rapid rise yeast (1 heaping T of regular yeast can be substituted.)

1.5t Salt

1.5C Warm water

Seasonings:  I used about 2 tablespoons dried chives, a few shakes each- garlic powder, onion powder, and oregano and about 3 tablespoons of parmesan cheese.  Be creative and add what you like.  Start with a little and smell it to make sure your combo works for you.  Then add more if you feel like it. 

Use a large mixing bowl.  Put in the flour, yeast, salt, and seasonings if you're using them.  (This bread is awesome plain too!)  Mix well.  Add the water.  Mix really well, scraping as much of the flour off the sides of the bowl as you can.  Cover with plastic wrap and let rise.  Since it was cold today and my counters are on an outside wall I turned on the oven while I was mixing to warm up the room a bit.  Let rise for 3-4 hours.  (The regular recipe takes 12 hours to rise.)  The dough will be bigger, spongy and you'll see air bubbles when it's ready.  

Preheat your oven to 450.  When hot put in a heavy covered pot large enough to hold the dough when it rises even more.  I use a cast iron Le Creuset pot like this one.  (On a side note these are awesome and definitely worth the price.  My brother still has one of our mother's and he uses it all the time.  I plan on passing mine down to my kiddos.  Luckily I have a few different sizes, as I do kids!)  Leave the pot in the oven for 30 minutes so it's really hot.  While it's heating use a rubber spatula to loosen the dough from the bowl and pour it onto the center of a large piece of parchment paper.  Use the spatula to reshape if you wish or leave it how it falls.  Cover with the plastic wrap while you wait for the pot to heat.  

When the pot is hot carefully take it out of the oven using hot mitts.  (The term "hot mitts" comes from a night of wine and dinner in my not so big old kitchen with me, my friend Janet, our hubbies, and our collective 7 kids running through every so often.  I can't remember what the meal was but when I needed to take it out of the oven my middle aged fuzzy brain couldn't think of the words "oven mitts" and the term hot mitts was born.)  Remove the plastic wrap and carefully lower the dough loaded parchment paper into the pot.  Cover (And use your hot mitts please!!  The lid will be HOT.) and put in the oven for 30 minutes.  Uncover and bake another 10 to 15 minutes until brown and yummy looking like this:    

The left loaf is plain and the right is the herbed.  I used a square Le Creuset pot for the plain and my smallest round for the herbed.

Using your trusty hot mitts turn the pot over and let the bread fall out onto a cooling rack.  Remove the parchment paper and flip the loaf right side up.  Let cool before slicing.  A serrated knife cuts best.

Either version of the bread is delicious with/for soups, stews, grilled sandwiches, toast, etc.  My friend Lauren, who probably hasn't had bread in 10 years, tried a little that I brought over on her "cheat day" and she loved it.  She had it with smoked Gouda.  (I'm drooling just thinking about it.  My poor computer.) Full disclosure- Lauren has an awesome figure to match her awesome willpower.  I feel kind of bad I tempted her but the bread was really for her also awesome fiancé Brad, who loved it too.  

I make the plain version of this bread weekly.  It's become our "house" bread.  I've searched for years to find a bread recipe my kids like to replace the store bought varieties.  This isn't soft like store bought though.  It works for us except for pb&j's.  So guess what?  The kids are eating less pb&j!  They practically lived on them for the first 7 years of their lives so I don't feel too bad.  

Sarah

Hamburger Cobbler, Woman's Day December 1949

I have to credit Mrs. D. E. Dick of Worcester, MA for submitting this delicious recipe to Women's Day.  I don't know if it was her own creation or something she adapted from another recipe but it was a part of a section entitled "New Hamburger Dishes" in which contest winners' recipes were published.  Good job, Mrs. D. E. Dick.  (I wonder if the "D" and the "E" are her initials or her husband's.)

I had an interesting time explaining this dish to my younger kids.  They had only tasted cobbler as a dessert, not as a main dish.  Once tasted everyone enjoyed it.  Hubby said it was good enough to make again.  My 15 year old daughter said it was very filling.  (She eats like a bird so this isn't saying much though.)  My 13 year old daughter thought it tasted like pizza and my son, age 9, liked the meat and the biscuit topping- but not together.

Here is Mrs. D's original recipe:

Original recipe.

Here is my tweaked version:

Beef mixture

• 1 Small onion, sliced  (*see note below)
• 1 Clove garlic, minced
• 3-4 Mushrooms, sliced
• 1 lb Ground beef aka hamburger
• 1t Salt
• 1/4t Pepper
• 1/4t Marjoram

The cheese (stands alone...)

• 8 to 10 Slices American cheese, thinly sliced

Tomato mixture

• 1-14.5oz Canned diced tomatoes, drained well (About 1C chopped tomatoes.)
• 2T Worcestershire sauce
• 3T Ketchup

Biscuit topping

• 1 and 1/2C Flour
• 1 and 1/2t Baking powder
• 1/4C Shortening (I found a non hydrogenated brand at Whole Foods.)
• 1/2C Milk 
• 1/2t Salt

Preheat your oven to 450.

First brown the ground beef in a sauce pan or small Dutch oven over a medium high heat.  Dump meat into a colander in a clean sink to drain and set aside.  Heat the pot on medium and sauté until fragrant the onion, garlic, and mushrooms (my addition to Mrs. D's recipe) in the fat left in the pan from the ground beef.  Put the beef back in the pan and add the salt, pepper and marjoram.

In a bowl drain the tomatoes and mix with the ketchup and Worcestershire sauce.  (If you've never used Worcestershire sauce and are tempted to leave it out thinking you're buying a whole bottle for just two tablespoons DON'T.  It adds depth to the recipe and is used a lot in vintage recipes so you'll likely use it up.  It's also great with steak.  I grew up thinking it actually was steak sauce.)   Add to the beef mixture and mix well.

Grab a 9" X 9" pan and spread the beef mixture evenly in it.  No need to grease it.  Top with overlapping cheese slices.  (Here's where I deviated a bit from Mrs. D's grand creation.  She calls for "processed cheese".  This may or may not have meant Velveeta.  I used organic American.  There's just so much time travel I can do you know?)

Now it's time for the biscuit topping.  Mix the last 5 ingredients in this order in a bowl:  flour, baking powder, salt.  Then cut in the shortening.  (If you don't have a pastry blender use a whisk.  If you don't have a whisk use a fork or your fingers.  There are videos on You Tube to teach you how.)  Then add the milk.  (I used whole milk as this is what we use in the house.  You can try it with a lower fat milk if you like.)  Mix until you get dough.  But not too much or your biscuits will be hard.

Mrs. D says to drop the biscuit dough on top of the tomato mixture but I found the dough to be too thick to drop.  I would have rolled it but I took the quick way out (I had no clean counter space and just needed to get dinner on the table.)  and just formed it into flat circles with my hands. While the dough was nice I might try this recipe next time.  I prefer a lighter biscuit but it may not hold up with the heavy meat and cheese so use it at your own risk.

Bake your beautiful cobbler in the oven for about 25 minutes or until the biscuits have browned a bit and the beef-tomato-cheese underneath is bubbly.  Then Mrs D. says to cut it into squares.  The baked cobbler was too loose to cut into squares but scooped up easily biscuit and all.

Ta dah!!!!!!!!

*A note about the onion.  I seem to have an issue with onion sizing.  This recipe called for a "small" onion but exactly what constitutes a "small" onion? Or a "large" one for that matter?  I tried to measure what I thought was right but the slices were too big to fit into a measuring cup.  So I took a pic.  How did people cook before cell phones??  ;)

Looks like a little less than a cup to me.

I would totally make this again.  It was warm and yummy on a cold night.  I served it with a salad and sliced apples.  If I made it on a weeknight I'd start in the morning cooking the meat and adding the tomato mixture then stick it in the fridge.  I'd put the biscuit topping on right before I popped it into the oven.

Reheating note- Dear son was home sick from school today and we had this for lunch, reheated in the microwave.  It was good but a smidge dry.  I think it's fine for leftovers but I wouldn't make it a day ahead for company.

Sarah

Savory Fish Stew Women's Day, December 1954

I'm not a big fan of fish unless it's grilled but hubby and my dad, who is visiting from California, love bouillabaisse and I'm sure not up for that.  (I once texted hubby from the grocery store asking what he'd like for dinner and he sent me a recipe for bouillabaisse with 25 ingredients!  Seriously.  And no, I didn't make it.)  This recipe was better than I thought it would be and I got me over my distaste of non-crunchy fish.

The original recipe

• 3 Large onions, sliced thinly
• 1/4C Olive oil (I used less- about 2-3T)
• 2 Large potatoes, sliced thinly
• 2t Salt
• 2 Cloves garlic
• 2 Bay leaves
• 1/4C Tomato paste
• 1T Paprika
• 2lbs Cod or haddock, fresh or frozen and thawed (I used cod), cut into bite sized pieces

As you can see I omitted/changed a few things; The green pepper (Hubby absolutely HATES it!), the peppercorns (I hate them.  But I'm not quite as vocal about it.  Thus no caps necessary.),  and I swapped the salad oil for olive oil.  I really used 3 onions.  My dad and I were wondering if onions were smaller in the 1950's because it looked like a lot of onions in the pot.  But I wanted to stay true as possible to the recipe and I'm glad I did.  The onions added a nice texture.

The original recipe says it serves 4-6.  I think it's more like 6-8.  It was a hit with the adults but my girls wouldn't even consider tasting it.  My son, the 9 year old foodie, tasted it but gave it a thumbs down.

So here's how to put it all together:

Heat the oil in a large pot over a medium-high heat.  (I used a Dutch oven but whatever you have is fine.)  Cook the onions until light brown.  Add potatoes, salt, garlic and bay leaves.  Stir gently and cook for a few minutes.  Add 4 cups water, bring to a boil and cover.  Lower the temp and simmer for about 20 minutes.

Add the tomato paste and paprika to the pot.  Stir gently (To keep the bay leaves intact.).  Add the fish and simmer covered for another 20 minutes.  Remove the bay leaves before serving.

This is what you get:

The finished stew

I had this bread in the freezer and it was perfect with the stew!  Surprisingly this reheated well for leftovers the next day.  (Usually reheated fish doesn't do well.  I've tried.)  I gave a little taste to my pooch and he loved it too!


Sarah