 I’ve been posting some hand-written recipes in my grandmother’s 1931 issue of the Rumford Cookbook as I am trying them out, myself. It is just too neat to see my grandmother’s penmanship on favorite recipes and to know that I am mixing what she used to mix up for her family, including my dad and my Aunt Lois. In my last post, I gave you a little tidbit of my father’s memories as recorded in his book, Sailing Down The River Of Memories. I thought that I would post a few more of those memories here, that I thought you might enjoy: “We churned our own butter. Lois and Dad liked the buttermilk, but I never developed the taste for it. We never used Oleo margarine (called Oleo) although we sold it in the store. During the thirties, oleo came in a clear sack and looked like white shortening because the butter industry had a law passed to keep it from being colored yellow and looking like butter. A small package of yellow food dye was included in the package. The oleo had to be kneaded with the dye until it turned yellow. Sometimes a person didn’t do a good job kneading it because there would be reddish-yellow streaks throughout the oleo. Some mothers didn’t take the time to color it so it looked as if they were serving lard. As I said, we had butter to go with Mom’s jellies and jams as well as wild honey. I don’t remember anyone in the community with a bee hive, but Dad or some farmer might find a bee tree down by the river that they cut down and then divided the honey among friends. Wild honey was dark, strong and delicious on hot biscuits… Mom was a woman ahead of her time. During the summer of 1940, she got the idea of freezing strawberries so she wrapped a couple of quarts in waxed butcher paper and put them in the ice cream freezer [at the store]. Then, she served them for Christmas. Why was this ahead of her time? Because frozen food didn’t come to the rest of the country until 1945 when frozen orange juice and Swanson and Sons frozen chicken and turkey came to market. People really thought she was smart. Oh yes, one winter we put some snow balls in the freezer and had a snow ball fight the next summer. Unfortunately, they got icy and never thawed out, so they sort of hurt when we got hit… Eating in a restaurant was a big event because we didn’t do it very often, but when we did, we went to family types, not the more expensive ones. Dad and I ate at the stockyards where we took cows and hogs. We ate at the ‘dime store’ such as Woolworth or Kresses or Newberry when Mom took us to Joplin. My favorite was the ‘blue plate special’. It was sliced roast beef on a slice of bread with mashed potatoes covered with gravy, slaw and a coke. A real special was a three-decker club sandwich at the Crown Drugstore. Man, was that good. Down at Pawhuska we went to a pig stand for pork bar-b-que and limeaid or coke…The first fast food place I remember was in Joplin out on Seventh and Maiden Lane during the late 1930’s. It was called “Chicken in the Rough” and had a logo of a rooster with a golf club. We got a paper plate with fried chicken, shoe string potatoes, a dish of honey and hot rolls. We sat in the car and ate it with our fingers which is why it was called “in the rough”. The Checkerboard Cafe’ with the outside walls painted red and black like a checkerboard was noted for coney islands. We sometimes ate at Chili King who served the best chili but he would not serve milk to drink because according to him, it would make a person sick. Oh yes, we did not drink milk when we had fish either. Why? Because. That was explanation enough!” There are 362 pages of memories, geneologies and photographs for us to cherish! And as I posted last time, one of the recipes that my father mentions as a favorite, was my grandmother’s Red Devil Food Cake. I found it in the tattered pages of the Rumford Cookbook, written quickly and precisely. However, there are no baking instructions at all! I had to elaborate on my own. In looking in our family cookbook, I saw that my Aunt Lois also included this recipe and with the note, “(The cake I learned to bake as a child and it was served often at family get togethers)…Note: There are no baking instructions included in my recipe” So here is the recipe and my decision to bake the cake layers at 350º for 20-25 minutes. 1/2 cup sour cream, lard or butter 2 cups flour 1 egg 1 1/2 cups sugar 1 tsp soda 4 Tbsp Cocoa 1 tsp vanilla extract 1/2 cup buttermilk or sour milk 1/2 cup boiling water chopped pecans (optional) Sift together flour and soda and set aside.  Place sour cream, butter or lard into a mixing bowl. I decided to try sour cream. Next time I am going to try butter.  Add sugar  Cream until smooth  In a mixing cup, place cocoa and whisk as 1/2 cup boiling water is slowly added to dissolve. When the mixture is nice and smooth, add to the creamed mixture.  Add flour/soda mixture and stir and then add buttermilk or sour milk. You can sour milk by adding 1 tbsp vinegar into a mixing cup and then pour 3/4 cup milk into the vinegar. Allow to stand for 20 minutes and it will curdle. Pour out 1/2 of the thickest curds.  Add one egg and mix until batter is smooth and uniform  Add vanilla and mix. Unlike the batter in the last cake recipe, this batter is runny. My dad and his family also referred to it as “gravy cake”.  Divide the batter between two greased and floured cake pans. Bake at 350º for 20 – 25 minutes. Use a toothpick to check for doneness at 20 minutes to make sure you do not over bake. Invert pans onto cooling racks and allow to cool completely. Ice with recipe in the last post or use your own. Sprinkle with chopped pecans.  Here’s something neat. I am keeping the cake in my Grandmother T’s cake keeper in which she used to house the same confection! And generations of cooks continue on!  |
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Posts Tagged ‘cake’
Cooking in the 1930’s Part III
Tuesday, April 10th, 2012
Blueberry Season In Full Swing
Sunday, June 5th, 2011
 The blueberries are coming in with a bang this year. They are so big and juicy! Oklahoma’s gonna compete with Maine, I’d say!! When I was a girl, my family would go to Cadillac Mountain in Maine and pick wild blueberries to our heart’s content. Wild raspberries and strawberries could be found as well. There was just nothing like standing on that high mound of granite that was covered in short blueberry bushes, loaded with small, ripe berries. The book Blueberries For Sal was a favorite of ours. Now, I harvest Oklahoma blueberries – large, plump and sweet. The bushes are much larger than those of the Maine wild blueberries. The berries are wonderful for jelly, muffins, scones and coffee cake and today, I thought I’d share a yummy coffee cake recipe that we like. Canned blueberries work fine in this recipe too. Enjoy! For Cake:
 Cream butter, sugar and eggs together  Add vanilla and either lemon or orange zest and mix  Add sour cream and mix in  Add flour that has been mixed with soda, salt and baking powder. Stir  Add fresh blueberries that have been tossed with sugar or use canned blueberries  Grease a 9” round or square pan with Crisco or other shortening. I use a paper towel to do this. I find that it covers more surface than a brush.  Flour the pan by shaking flour around the surface of the pan until all areas are covered. Shake out excess flour. In cookbooks, this is what is meant by “greasing and flouring “ your pan.  Meanwhile, melt stick of butter over medium heat and remove from heat  Add white and brown sugars and stir  Add cinnamon and stir until completely blended  Stir nuts into the batter  Add flour and stir until everything is totally incorporated. It will be crumbly and sticky.  Pour batter into baking pan and crumble topping over the surface of the batter  Crumble the topping all the way to the edge of the pan. Place in a 350º preheated oven and bake for 40 – 55 minutes. Test for doneness with a knife or a toothpick. It should come out clean.  Allow to cool for 10 – 15 minutes and sprinkle with Confectioners sugar. Serve warm. Leftovers can be cut up and frozen. |
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