Boston Cooking School Holiday Menus

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irina
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Boston Cooking School Holiday Menus

Post by irina »

Guess I should put this here as were are hopelessly going astray with mincemeat pie.

I have my mother-in-law's copy of "The Boston Cooking-School Cook Book" by Fanny Merritt Farmer. First printed in 1896 my edition is the 1924 edition. On page 474 there is:

Menu for New England Thanksgiving Dinner

Oyster Soup Celery Crisp Crackers

Roast Stuffed Turkey Giblet Gravy Cranberry Jelly

Mashed Potatoes Onions in Cream Turnips

Thanksgiving Pudding* Sterling Sauce*

Mince Pie Squash Pie

Vanilla Ice Cream Fancy Cake

Fruit Nuts and Candies Bonbons

Cafe Noir

*******************************************************

Menu for Christmas Dinner

Oyster Cocktail

Consomme Bread Sticks

Olives Celery Salted Almonds

Roast Goose Potato Stuffing* Apple Sauce

Duchess Potatoes Cream of Lima Beans

Chicken Croquettes with Green Peas

Lettuce Cheese Straws

Ryssian Dressing

English Plum Pudding Brandy Sauce

Frozen Pudding Assorted Cake Bonbons

Cafe Noir

************************************

*Thanksgiving Pudding I (page 494)

4 Cups scalded milk
1 and 1/4 Cups rolled crackers
1 Cup sugar
4 eggs
1/3 Cup melted butter
1/2 grated nutmeg
1 Teaspoon salt
1 and 1/2 Cups raisins

Pour milk over crackers and let stand until cool; add sugar, eggs slightly beaten, salt, and butter; parboil raisins until soft, by cooking in boiling water to cover; seed, and add to mixture; turn into buttered pudding dish and bake slowly two and one half hours, stirring after first half hour to prevent raising from settling; serve with hard or liquid sauce.

Thanksgiving Pudding II contains suet nuts, bread crumbs, cinnamon, figs, baking powder, etc. Steam 3 hours.

*Sterling Sauce (page 505)

1/2 Cup butter
1 Cup brown sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla
2 Tablespoons wine
4 Tablespoons cream or milk

Cream the butter, and add sugar gradually, and milk and flavouring drop by drop to prevent separation.
Is all we see or seem but a dream within a dream. ~Edgar Allan Poe
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twinsrwe
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Re: Boston Cooking School Holiday Menus

Post by twinsrwe »

Interesting menus, Irina. Some of those sound really good, and others sound not so good, but then, who am I to judge without at least trying them. :grin: Thanks for posting these menus!
In remembrance of my beloved son:
"Vaya Con Dios" (Spanish for: "Go with God"), by Anne Murray ( https://tinyurl.com/y8nvqqx9 )
“God has you in heaven, but I have you in my heart.” ~ TobyMac (https://tinyurl.com/rakc5nd )
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irina
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Re: Boston Cooking School Holiday Menus

Post by irina »

Darn it! I wrote it all out just like in the book and the system ran it all together. So everyone please guess where the spaces should be. The book had two to three items per line with wide spaces between. For example it isn't "celery salted almonds". It's celery (wide space) salted almonds, etc. :oops:

Note the long soaking time for the crackers in the pudding. I don't think the crackers were our modern saltines. I figure they were using pilot bread. Zwyback or arrowroot biscuits probably would also work in the recipe. Note also the need to parboil the raisins, and remove the seeds. Did Abby parboil her raisins and seed them or did Bridget help with the mincemeat making? I bet Bridget helped as mincemeat can be labour intensive.

Speaking of suet (pudding) I have suet out for birds and had a regular flock of woodpeckers, juncos, nuthatches and chickadees to the bird feeders today, like I have never seen before. So I suspect one heck of a storm in the mountains is on the way.
Is all we see or seem but a dream within a dream. ~Edgar Allan Poe
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irina
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Re: Boston Cooking School Holiday Menus

Post by irina »

Thinking of Twins' suggestion to make Cornish pasty in a 13 X 9 pan, let me share my trick for banana cream pie. Left over pie of that variety tends to weep, turn black, separate, etc. So I make the pudding (using Emeril Lagasse's recipe~~He was born in Fall River, you know), and I make murtbeig pastry in a plain sheet. That pastry is somewhere between a cookie and short crust. Then I serve the pudding, slice bananas into it, add pastry pieces and top with whipped cream. Each serving is therefore fresh, firm, crisp. Never slimy.

Also for pumpkin pie I use Emeril's recipe and I always use his pie crust recipe. I am not a huge fan of pumpkin pie but really like his recipe so I make it for Thanksgiving. My gall bladder really objects but I make the pie once or twice a year. My gall bladder doesn't like Emeril's banana cream pie either. Therefore these things just HAVE to be good!
Is all we see or seem but a dream within a dream. ~Edgar Allan Poe
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Re: Boston Cooking School Holiday Menus

Post by MysteryReader »

irina wrote:

Speaking of suet (pudding) I have suet out for birds and had a regular flock of woodpeckers, juncos, nuthatches and chickadees to the bird feeders today, like I have never seen before. So I suspect one heck of a storm in the mountains is on the way.
My mother-in-law has 2 small logs with holes drilled in them. She puts a mixture of birdseed, peanut butter, and crisco in the holes. Woodpeckers love them and so do several other birds (don't ask me what kind because I have no idea!). To keep squirrels out of your birdseed, cover the pole with aluminum type material. They can't climb it.
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Re: Boston Cooking School Holiday Menus

Post by Aamartin »

I LOVE cooking the Thanksgiving meal. I buy a huge 20+ lb turkey and a smaller one. I roast the smaller one a couple days before and pull off all the skin and cut it with kitchen shears for the gravy and stuffing-- and cube the meat for the same purposes.... I order cranberries from an outfit in Wisconsin. Bake my own bread for the stuffing as well as dinner rolls for the table. One year I got some cream from a farmer and made my own butter. I literally go nuts. People tease me about it. I save my change all year-- not for Christmas-- but for Thanksgiving food!
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Re: Boston Cooking School Holiday Menus

Post by Curryong »

I haven't had a cold Christmas for years! I missed it for a while but not now. Depending on how hot it's going to be, most families eat out in the garden in Australia. If near the beach we go for a nice swim.

Because of the climate (and people's cultural background. We have a lot of non-Anglo migrants) the menu tends to be a mixture of traditional and modern. For instance, it's usual to have potato salad and coleslaw and beetroot cheek by jowl with peas and roast vegetables.

People usually have turkey, almost always a baked ham, and a platter of seafood, mostly king prawns (large shrimps) and baked salmon. In our family we have boiled Christmas pudding but trifle as an alternative choice or pavlova. Icecream puddings are quite popular.

After that, everybody staggers away to relax under the trees. We have a few hammocks or go into the cool of the house. It's amazing how many people go down to the beach on Christmas Day. On Boxing Day, the 26th, there is a cricket match played in Melbourne at the MCG stadium.
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Re: Boston Cooking School Holiday Menus

Post by Aamartin »

Curryong wrote:I haven't had a cold Christmas for years! I missed it for a while but not now. Depending on how hot it's going to be, most families eat out in the garden in Australia. If near the beach we go for a nice swim.

Because of the climate (and people's cultural background. We have a lot of non-Anglo migrants) the menu tends to be a mixture of traditional and modern. For instance, it's usual to have potato salad and coleslaw and beetroot cheek by jowl with peas and roast vegetables.

People usually have turkey, almost always a baked ham, and a platter of seafood, mostly king prawns (large shrimps) and baked salmon. In our family we have boiled Christmas pudding but trifle as an alternative choice or pavlova. Icecream puddings are quite popular.

After that, everybody staggers away to relax under the trees. We have a few hammocks or go into the cool of the house. It's amazing how many people go down to the beach on Christmas Day. On Boxing Day, the 26th, there is a cricket match played in Melbourne at the MCG stadium.
One of my father's business associates moved to Australia and married. After both of their deaths, my mother began to correspond with his widow... She was soon invited for a visit and eagerly headed down under...

The woman, it turns out-- was bi polar. She stole my mom's camera and was just nuts-- so mom took a cab to the airport and was trying to buy a ticket to come home when one of this women's relatives came to her rescue and took mom in for the remainder of her planned time there-- about 3 weeks. She had a wonderful time with the new hostess and they remained friends via email, and packages until mom died.

She LOVED Australia and, I don't know if this is a custom there, or just her hostess' custom-- but she fell in love with grilled cheese with a pineapple ring in the middle of it.

My mom also met a woman on ICQ-- from Spain. And went to visit her there-- and had a marvelous time. This delightful women came to visit us as well and became like family. She owned a hotel right on the beach in Alicante Spain and had an apartment there.

Later-- mom met a woman on 'Pogo' from Missouri-- and invited her and her husband up for a week... Another crack pot!

I finally told her to quit meeting people online! But there are many here I'd welcome into my home!
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Re: Boston Cooking School Holiday Menus

Post by Curryong »

Your mother must have been a lovely, friendly person, Anthony. She was lucky to hit the jackpot with the friends she met online, awful about the other sort, though! I'm glad she enjoyed Australia. It's a favourite place of mine! I enjoy toasted cheese and pineapple toasted sandwiches, too.
I often say, one day, somehow, we will all meet up. We will go to the Borden B&B to stay, and do the Villesca ghost tour. It will be wonderful!
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Re: Boston Cooking School Holiday Menus

Post by irina »

Anthony: Your Thanksgiving sounds wonderful! I like oyster stuffing. Have you ever made that?

Curryong, I think I know about your prawns. When they sell them here they call them "lobster" and if they are smaller they call them "slipper tails" and they are very expensive.
Is all we see or seem but a dream within a dream. ~Edgar Allan Poe
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Re: Boston Cooking School Holiday Menus

Post by MysteryReader »

Anthony,

Your Thanksgiving sounds wonderful! And I enjoy meeting people "online" but I'm not so sure how many I'd like to meet in person!! Your mother sounded like a lovely person to know.
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Re: Boston Cooking School Holiday Menus

Post by Aamartin »

I do a very traditional sage dressing..... I have had oyster and I love it too.
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irina
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Re: Boston Cooking School Holiday Menus

Post by irina »

Sometimes it's easier to saute the oysters and serve them with the dressing. In fact I think it is nicer that way.
Is all we see or seem but a dream within a dream. ~Edgar Allan Poe
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Re: Boston Cooking School Holiday Menus

Post by twinsrwe »

Anthony, can we all come to your house for thanksgiving? :grin: Your dinner menu sounds absolutely fabulous!!!
In remembrance of my beloved son:
"Vaya Con Dios" (Spanish for: "Go with God"), by Anne Murray ( https://tinyurl.com/y8nvqqx9 )
“God has you in heaven, but I have you in my heart.” ~ TobyMac (https://tinyurl.com/rakc5nd )
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twinsrwe
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Re: Boston Cooking School Holiday Menus

Post by twinsrwe »

irina wrote:Thinking of Twins' suggestion to make Cornish pasty in a 13 X 9 pan, let me share my trick for banana cream pie. Left over pie of that variety tends to weep, turn black, separate, etc. So I make the pudding (using Emeril Lagasse's recipe~~He was born in Fall River, you know), and I make murtbeig pastry in a plain sheet. That pastry is somewhere between a cookie and short crust. Then I serve the pudding, slice bananas into it, add pastry pieces and top with whipped cream. Each serving is therefore fresh, firm, crisp. Never slimy. ...
I love banana cream pie! Thank you for sharing your trick with us; I intend to use it! :grin:
In remembrance of my beloved son:
"Vaya Con Dios" (Spanish for: "Go with God"), by Anne Murray ( https://tinyurl.com/y8nvqqx9 )
“God has you in heaven, but I have you in my heart.” ~ TobyMac (https://tinyurl.com/rakc5nd )
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irina
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Re: Boston Cooking School Holiday Menus

Post by irina »

I guarantee it works, Twins. To me there's nothing worse than a weepy, slippery banana cream pie on day 2. Even great pie restaurants have difficulty with that so I figure if it isn't eaten all at once, it shouldn't be made. Or do it my way.
Is all we see or seem but a dream within a dream. ~Edgar Allan Poe
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Aamartin
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Re: Boston Cooking School Holiday Menus

Post by Aamartin »

twinsrwe wrote:Anthony, can we all come to your house for thanksgiving? :grin: Your dinner menu sounds absolutely fabulous!!!
Yes-- because I tend towards cooking enough for thrashers...

And I also splurge on a truffle to put in the mashed potatoes...
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Re: Boston Cooking School Holiday Menus

Post by Curryong »

I've seen pigs rooting for truffles in Normandy. It's pretty amusing to look at but you've got to keep out of their way!

This recipe is for Aussie pav (Pavlova) a dessert my family and I keep for special occasions, but have enjoyed for years.

http://www.perfectaussiechristmas.com.a ... vAody0IARA
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irina
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Re: Boston Cooking School Holiday Menus

Post by irina »

Thanks Curryong!

Just keep explaining, Anthony! At some point I will be a travelling journalist. (At the moment I have to stay close to home for personal reasons.) But when I end up travelling I just might plan to be in Iowa around Thanksgiving!
Is all we see or seem but a dream within a dream. ~Edgar Allan Poe
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