Cookbook #109: Brer Rabbit's New Orleans Molasses Recipes and Cookbook #110: Sunkist Orange Recipes
Brer Rabbit's New Orleans Molasses Recipes For Delicious Desserts, Candies, Beverages, and Other Tasty Foods, Penick & Ford, Ltd., Inc. (1948).
This is virtually identical to my other Brer Rabbit pamphlet, but just enough differences to make it count. This time I was determined to make something savory. I picked Smothered Pork Chops ("Wonderful for company... and for families with stragglers!")
I cut the recipe down to serve 2 instead of 6. Start with 1" thick loin pork chops. Season with sage and salt, brown on all sides. Place in a baking dish and cover with sliced apple rings and molasses.
Add some flour to the fat in the skillet and cook until it browns. Add water and cook until it thickens, then add vinegar, raisins, and salt and pour it all over the chops. Bake for an hour.
I made a bunch of mistakes. One was not reading closely enough and figuring I could save a pan by using the skillet as the baking pan. So I dumped flour all over the chops, apples, and molasses. The other was using thinner chops *and* baking for the whole hour. They got tough. Maybe if I'd used a smaller pan, so they were completely submerged in liquid or just cooked them a shorter time. I meant to, but got distracted doing dishes.
Sunkist Orange Recipes For Year-round Freshness, California Fruit Growers Exchange (1957).
The recipe I desperately want to make here is Orange Spanish Cream which is a kind of jello with egg in it that's supposed separate into a creamy layer and a clear layer. Someday. Along with that frosted layer sandwich.
However, in an attempt to use up both a cookbook and a large sweet potato that's hanging around the pantry, I made Whipped Sweet Potatoes in Orange Cups.
Cut off the tops of oranges and scoop out all the fruit and juice. Whip cooked sweet potatoes with melted butter, salt, and the orange juice. Fill the oranges, top with a marshmallow and bake until warm.
The potatoes weren't really whipped, but certainly mashed.
I rounded it all out with some sauteed zucchini and onions.
Verdict: Okay. Like I said above, the chops were overcooked. They were also a touch sweet for my liking. The sweet potatoes weren't bad, but really more work than they were worth. And the marshmallow was totally unnecessary I thought my potatoes were very orangey, new_man didn't. It might have been how well I cleared out the shells.
108/120, 10 this year, 10 to go.