Wild in the Kitchen
One of my prized cookbook possessions is by the old Minneapolis Star food and culture writer Will Jones. As far as I can ascertain, Jones is the one who really brought the concept of urban (and urbane) food and entertainment writing to Minneapolis, way back in the 50s and 60s (starting as early as the late 40s maybe? the internet has a paucity of information about Will). He broke a lot of ground for someone like our dear Dara Moskowitz. Well, his cookbook Wild in the Kitchen is a treasure. It's filled with great recipes and amusing anecdotes from a bygone era. Also, the artwork is outrageous. So when the mood strikes me, I dig out (and significantly scale down the size of) the recipe for
Golden International Spaghetti Sauce
1 medium chicken
3 large onions, coarsely chopped
6 large carrots, coarsely chopped
1 head celery, chopped
2# beef, cut into 1-inch cubes
2# pork, cut into 1-inch cubes
2# lamb,cut into 1-inch cubes
3 large cans tomato purée
1 tsp fennel seed
1 tsp dill seed
1 tbsp oregano
1 tsp sweet basil
1/2 tsp thyme
1 tbsp dry mustard
1 tbsp Madras curry powder
2 tbsp sweet Hungarian paprika
3 cloves garlic, crushed
1/2 cup Japanese soy sace
1 tbsp Worcestershire sauce
1/2# dried Chinese or Italian black mushrooms, soaked and sliced
1 c mushroom water (the water with which the soaked mushrooms have been covered)
1 tsp instant coffee powder
1 tbsp chocolate sauce
1 tbsp peanut butter
4 or 5 dashes Tabasco
1/2 c strong tea
1 tbsp beef or onion soup powder
1 tbsp honey
1/2# cheddar cheese, grated
1 c parmesan cheese
2 tbsp grated green cheese (Sap Sago)
1 c dry table wine, red or white
1 pint sour cream
salt and pepper
Simmer the chicken, onions, carrots and celery in water to cover, with salt and pepper to taste, until the chicken is tender. Remove chicken from the broth and remove the meat from the bones, cutting it into one-inch chunks. Brown the beef, pork and lamb together in a slow oven, about 300 until fairly tender. Salt and pepper the meat as it cooks.
To the large chicken pot (be sure to leave all the fat and vegetables in the broth) add the chicken meat, with all the other meats and meat juices including any water that may be necessary to remove the brown crust from the bottom of the pan in which the meats are browned, and all the other ingredients except hte cheese, wine and sour cream. Rinse the tomato puree cans with water and put that in, too. Simmer at least two hours. Add the cheeses and continue to stir and cook until the cheeses are thoroughly melted and blended. Then stir in the wine and sour cream and serve the sauce with cooked spaghetti, green noodles or other pasta.
serves 30
Will includes a variant that's slightly faster and less expensive, but I'm not going to type it up here.
I assure you, it's delicious. I think some of the ingredients are half joking, and/or you can afford to leave some of them out, but I bet the strong tea adds a tannic punch, and the peanut butter and honey add a subtle roundness, and the curry powder probably adds color, etc. etc. So I usually make it close if not exactly letter perfect.
I reckon the real flavor comes in the upper third of the recipe, with the chicken broth, mirepoix and three kinds of browned meat. That and the care and time taken to reduce it slowly over a low fire.
He wrote "An especially rich and festive spaghetti sauce. I give the recipe for thirty people because it's a good way to feed large numbers of people exceedingly well, and I've never made it in batches any smaller."
A pot of this is on my stove right now.
Golden International Spaghetti Sauce
1 medium chicken
3 large onions, coarsely chopped
6 large carrots, coarsely chopped
1 head celery, chopped
2# beef, cut into 1-inch cubes
2# pork, cut into 1-inch cubes
2# lamb,cut into 1-inch cubes
3 large cans tomato purée
1 tsp fennel seed
1 tsp dill seed
1 tbsp oregano
1 tsp sweet basil
1/2 tsp thyme
1 tbsp dry mustard
1 tbsp Madras curry powder
2 tbsp sweet Hungarian paprika
3 cloves garlic, crushed
1/2 cup Japanese soy sace
1 tbsp Worcestershire sauce
1/2# dried Chinese or Italian black mushrooms, soaked and sliced
1 c mushroom water (the water with which the soaked mushrooms have been covered)
1 tsp instant coffee powder
1 tbsp chocolate sauce
1 tbsp peanut butter
4 or 5 dashes Tabasco
1/2 c strong tea
1 tbsp beef or onion soup powder
1 tbsp honey
1/2# cheddar cheese, grated
1 c parmesan cheese
2 tbsp grated green cheese (Sap Sago)
1 c dry table wine, red or white
1 pint sour cream
salt and pepper
Simmer the chicken, onions, carrots and celery in water to cover, with salt and pepper to taste, until the chicken is tender. Remove chicken from the broth and remove the meat from the bones, cutting it into one-inch chunks. Brown the beef, pork and lamb together in a slow oven, about 300 until fairly tender. Salt and pepper the meat as it cooks.
To the large chicken pot (be sure to leave all the fat and vegetables in the broth) add the chicken meat, with all the other meats and meat juices including any water that may be necessary to remove the brown crust from the bottom of the pan in which the meats are browned, and all the other ingredients except hte cheese, wine and sour cream. Rinse the tomato puree cans with water and put that in, too. Simmer at least two hours. Add the cheeses and continue to stir and cook until the cheeses are thoroughly melted and blended. Then stir in the wine and sour cream and serve the sauce with cooked spaghetti, green noodles or other pasta.
serves 30
Will includes a variant that's slightly faster and less expensive, but I'm not going to type it up here.
I assure you, it's delicious. I think some of the ingredients are half joking, and/or you can afford to leave some of them out, but I bet the strong tea adds a tannic punch, and the peanut butter and honey add a subtle roundness, and the curry powder probably adds color, etc. etc. So I usually make it close if not exactly letter perfect.
I reckon the real flavor comes in the upper third of the recipe, with the chicken broth, mirepoix and three kinds of browned meat. That and the care and time taken to reduce it slowly over a low fire.
He wrote "An especially rich and festive spaghetti sauce. I give the recipe for thirty people because it's a good way to feed large numbers of people exceedingly well, and I've never made it in batches any smaller."
A pot of this is on my stove right now.