Something Fishy
Most of the cookbooks from the early twentieth century don't really have all that many recipes for fish. Fish, it would seem, fell out of favor sometime around 1920 -- because that's when a lot of the cookbooks I have suddenly stop mentioning much of anything fish-wise except canned tuna and salmon. Shellfish do slightly better; it's easy to find recipes for shrimp, lobster, oysters and crab. But compared to Marion Harland's 1875 Common Sense in the Household, which gives recipes for preparing no fewer than sixteen different kinds of fish and shellfish, the early- to mid-twentieth century cookbooks are a piscatorial wasteland. And when you do find a recipe for fish, it's usually for canned fish that's either scalloped or creamed. Unless it's a salad, and then anything goes.
And I do mean anything. Here's a sample from Meals Go Modern -- Electrically, published in 1940 by the Edison Electric Institute with the help of the Modern Kitchen Bureau: an up-to-date dish any cook could create easily with the help of her electric refrigerator!
Shrimp and Green Pea Salad in Green Pepper Cups
1 cup shrimp
1 cup cooked green peas
1/2 cup mayonnaise
Lettuce
1 package lime gelatin
Salt and pepper to taste
Green peppers
Remove intestinal vein from shrimp. Moisten shrimp and peas with mayonnaise, and season with salt and pepper. Dissolve gelatin in 1 cupful boiling water and add 1 cupful ice water. Add shrimp and peas. Wash green peppers, cut off top and remove seed. Pour gelatin, shrimp, and pea mixture into pepper cups and chill. Serve on lettuce and garnish with mayonnaise forced through pastry tube.
Sometimes it's just one ingredient that makes the difference between a period recipe and a contemporary one. Here, it's the lime gelatin --
if you took that out of this recipe, substituted some celery for crunch and just a little chopped sweet onion, you could serve this today and nobody would blink an eye, except maybe to wonder why you bothered forcing mayo through a pastry tube.
And sometimes it's not so much the ingredients as the way they're juxtaposed. Here's a recipe from 500 Tasty Snacks: Ideas for Entertaining, which was published in 1950.
Anchovy Beet Salad
4 medium beets
French dressing
3 hard-cooked eggs
Lettuce
8 anchovies, rolled
Mayonnaise
Cut the rounded portion from the end of beets, then cut beets into halves. Marinate in French dressing an hour or longer if possible. Separate yolks and whites of eggs; chop whites fine and rub yolks through sieve. Place sections of beet on lettuce, form a ring around them with egg white, fill center with egg yolk and place an anchovy on top. Garnish with mayonnaise.
Makes you want to run right out and buy beets, doesn't it? Incidentally, I'm guessing the beets here are the canned variety, not fresh ones, since no cooking is specified. If you decide to make this, do let me know which you use.
Really though, when it comes to anchovies some of the recipes seem intended to convince you that anchovies on pizza aren't such a bad idea by comparison. Here's another "tasty snack" from the same cookbook:
Chicken Liver-Anchovy Toast
5 cooked chicken livers
3 tablespoons anchovy paste
3 tablespoons butter
1/8 teaspoon pepper
1 teaspoon salt
4 egg yolks
8 slices hot toast
1 1/3 cups cream
Make a paste of livers and anchovy paste, add butter, pepper, 1/2 teaspoon salt and 1 egg yolk. Spread on toast and place under preheated broiler for 1 minute. Make a sauce by cooking remaining 3 egg yolks, salt, and cream in a double boiler. Serves 8.
Just be sure you warn your eight vict -- er, guests not to get their cholesterol or triglycerides checked for a week or so after eating!
And I do mean anything. Here's a sample from Meals Go Modern -- Electrically, published in 1940 by the Edison Electric Institute with the help of the Modern Kitchen Bureau: an up-to-date dish any cook could create easily with the help of her electric refrigerator!
Shrimp and Green Pea Salad in Green Pepper Cups
1 cup shrimp
1 cup cooked green peas
1/2 cup mayonnaise
Lettuce
1 package lime gelatin
Salt and pepper to taste
Green peppers
Remove intestinal vein from shrimp. Moisten shrimp and peas with mayonnaise, and season with salt and pepper. Dissolve gelatin in 1 cupful boiling water and add 1 cupful ice water. Add shrimp and peas. Wash green peppers, cut off top and remove seed. Pour gelatin, shrimp, and pea mixture into pepper cups and chill. Serve on lettuce and garnish with mayonnaise forced through pastry tube.
Sometimes it's just one ingredient that makes the difference between a period recipe and a contemporary one. Here, it's the lime gelatin --
if you took that out of this recipe, substituted some celery for crunch and just a little chopped sweet onion, you could serve this today and nobody would blink an eye, except maybe to wonder why you bothered forcing mayo through a pastry tube.
And sometimes it's not so much the ingredients as the way they're juxtaposed. Here's a recipe from 500 Tasty Snacks: Ideas for Entertaining, which was published in 1950.
Anchovy Beet Salad
4 medium beets
French dressing
3 hard-cooked eggs
Lettuce
8 anchovies, rolled
Mayonnaise
Cut the rounded portion from the end of beets, then cut beets into halves. Marinate in French dressing an hour or longer if possible. Separate yolks and whites of eggs; chop whites fine and rub yolks through sieve. Place sections of beet on lettuce, form a ring around them with egg white, fill center with egg yolk and place an anchovy on top. Garnish with mayonnaise.
Makes you want to run right out and buy beets, doesn't it? Incidentally, I'm guessing the beets here are the canned variety, not fresh ones, since no cooking is specified. If you decide to make this, do let me know which you use.
Really though, when it comes to anchovies some of the recipes seem intended to convince you that anchovies on pizza aren't such a bad idea by comparison. Here's another "tasty snack" from the same cookbook:
Chicken Liver-Anchovy Toast
5 cooked chicken livers
3 tablespoons anchovy paste
3 tablespoons butter
1/8 teaspoon pepper
1 teaspoon salt
4 egg yolks
8 slices hot toast
1 1/3 cups cream
Make a paste of livers and anchovy paste, add butter, pepper, 1/2 teaspoon salt and 1 egg yolk. Spread on toast and place under preheated broiler for 1 minute. Make a sauce by cooking remaining 3 egg yolks, salt, and cream in a double boiler. Serves 8.
Just be sure you warn your eight vict -- er, guests not to get their cholesterol or triglycerides checked for a week or so after eating!