An old-fashioned Christmas
An “old fashioned Christmas” implies some old fashioned, super special food. Often it includes a meat dish not served everyday of the week. What better way to discover a dish that is beyond the ordinary meat and potatoes than to peruse a cookbook written shortly after the end of World War One?
With that in mind, let’s focus today on the 1920 cookbook written by Mrs. Mary A. Wilson: “Modern Cooking: Numerous New Recipes Based on Present Economic Conditions,” by an instructor of cooking for the U.S. Navy who was also formerly Queen Victoria’s Cuisiniere.
The first selected suggestion for a protein dish is “Turtle and Snapper.” Wilson’s instructions begin with a hearty description of preparing the meat. After removing the shell and meat, “With a cleaver, chop the shell into five pieces and place in scalding water for five minutes. After scalding, peel off the skin and bristle … now you have white and green turtle meat ready to cook.”
She then gives a list of herbs and vegetables to be prepared, tied up in a cheese cloth and boiled. I never did find out what to do with them. So I assumed steam and eat. However, my taste buds stopped when I read “cook the green meat, most of which is still in the shell.” What is green meat? I googled the term and received the good news that I don’t have to try and find out what green meat in a turtle means or tastes like because America has banned the hunting and selling of sea turtle meat and many of its relatives.
Okay, so no exotic turtle meat. Let’s go for a traditional meat: Chicken. With fried chicken offered on every corner, few folks turn up their noses at chicken. So let’s find a 100 year old variation: “Chicken Stuffed with Bananas.” In 1920, sometimes the meal began with catching the chicken from the yard, but we will assume the chicken comes all ready to cook.
Now we just need to prepare the banana stuffing. The recipe starts with “pare and rub through a sieve four bananas.” I understand peeling four bananas, but pare them? Does Mrs. Wilson mean to use a paring knife? And rub the banana through a sieve? That sounds like a lot of work compared to whipping off that skin and mashing the banana. Still the recipe for stuffing does include many of the usual stuffing ingredients; onion, pepper, parsley, bacon, bread crumbs, thyme, eggs and salt. Mix and fill the chicken to roast as usual.
The flavor of banana with chicken did not really appeal to me. I turned the pages and found “Kidney Pie.” Wilson wrote “these pies are served in the Chelsea Coffee House in London.”
Sounds special. I was offered kidney soup once. It smelled horrible. Maybe the smell came because it was not prepared Wilson’s way, “remove the fat and tubes from one large beef kidney. Boil it in three cups of water and simmer for 10 minutes. Drain and let the cold water run on the kidney for five minutes. Return the kidney to the saucepan and add thyme, marjoram and four onions.”
I’ll bet that many onions would cut the kidney smell and flavor. Follow the onions with cooking the kidney until tender and cover with boiling water. Top it all off with dumplings made of mashed potatoes, seasonings and an egg.
If it weren’t for the memory of the smell of the kidneys from that one experience, I might try it, but the memory lingers. Also, the law dictates no turtle or snapper. That only leaves banana stuffed chicken. Hmm, maybe it will be a vegetarian meal this year. At least there are no endangered vegetables that come with a revolting smell.