ForcedPerspective

Chop Suey: a Collection of Simplified Chinese Recipes Adapted for the American Home

Chop Suey: a Collection of Simplified Chinese Recipes Adapted for the American Home
by Mei-Mei Ling, B.S. Home Economics, University of Hawaii, M.A. Home Economics Education, T.C. Columbia University
1953

A lovely souvenir of Hawaii, with other titles from the publisher including HULA!, UKULELE SONG BOOK, and WIKI WIKI KAU KAU—Quick Meals Hawaiian Style.

The recipes are simplified and adapted enough for the American home that it’s mentioned that if you can’t get ginger, substitute “round onion”. Also no sign of garlic or hot pepper. The recipes are a nice cross-section of Chinese cuisine. But because standard mild-ified Chinese recipes are not terribly newsworthy, I’ll feature a couple of exotic ones.

Sweet Sour Pigs Feet
Ingredients:
6 – 8 pieces pigs feet
1 cup sugar
2 1/2 cups vinegar
1 piece ginger root
1/4 cup soy sauce
2 Tb. cooked oil [“Preferably peanut oil. Bring raw oil to a smoking point. Cool and store."]
Salt
Method:
1. Put pigs feet in boiling water and cook for 3 – 4 minutes. Drain.
2. Sprinkle salt over pigs feet and rub with shoyu. [Note: this is Hawaiian soy sauce]
3. Brown in generous amount of oil.
4. Put vinegar, sugar and ginger in pot and bring to a boil. Add browned pigs feet, soy sauce, cooked oil and enough water to barely cover.
5. Cook gently for 3 hours. Serve.

Swamp Cabbage with Shrimp Sauce
Ingredients:
1 lb. swamp cabbage
1 clove garlic [Ah! I’m wrong! But there sure isn’t much of it in the book.]
1 Tb. oil
1 tsp. shrimp sauce
¼ tsp. salt
2 Tb. water
Method:
1. Heat oil to smoking point. Add garlic, salt and shrimp sauce. Fry 1 minute.
2. Add cabbage, mix well. Add water and cook until done.

Marie Gifford’s 168 Meal Planning Ideas that Start with Armour Star Canned Meats

Marie Gifford’s 168 Meal Planning Ideas that Start with Armour Star Canned Meats
The meat of good eating... Armour
1959

I like that they stick with 168 ideas, rather than going for the more attractive round numbers. That’s how many ideas they had, and that’s how many they’ll give you. Marie Gifford was the fictional meal adviser character for Armour, like Betty Crocker or Ann Pillsbury. It’s another cookbook filled with recipes requiring ample quantities of the sponsor’s products, helpfully pictured on the back of the book.

Such as Treet, a Spamalike, and a chopped ham in loaf form that proves that there's more to Spam and Treet than ham!

And while the interior product shots are in glorious meaty full color,

the photos of the dishes featured in the cookbook are in stomach-churning black and white.

Mmmmm! Want some of that? Here's the recipe!

Breaded Treet Slices
1 can TREET
1 Cloverbloom Egg
1 tablespoon milk
1/2 cup fine bread crumbs
Cut TREET into 8 slices. Combine egg and milk and beat slightly. Dip TREET slices in egg mixture and then in crumbs. Brown on both sides in Cloverbloom Butter or Margarine. Serve with cooked whole cauliflower topped with creamed peas. 4 servings.

And because one of my favorite reads of 2006 was The Psycho Ex Game, I must share this dish, Snow-Man stew, unretouched:

Snow-Man Stew

Heat contents of 1 can Armour Star Beef Stew in heavy sauce pan with tight-fitting cover. When stew is bubbling, spoon drop-biscuit dough made from 1 1/2 cups biscuit mix onto the meat and vegetables. Cover and cook for 10 to 12 minutes. Before serving, make dumplings into snowmen by adding whole cloves for “eyes” and pimiento strips for “mouths.”

Knudsen Recipes for Greater Food Value

Welcome to the first installment of From the Vault! The Forced Perspective Vault contains volume upon volume of cool old stuff, primarily stuff related to food. In this recurring (I hope) feature, we drag some gems out into the light of day.

Knudsen Recipes for Greater Food Value
Knudsen Dairy Products, The Very Best
produced by Knudsen Creamery Co of California in 1957

A booklet in the grand tradition of books of recipes containing large quantities of the manufacturer's ingredients which are, in this case, pictured on the back cover.

Note the statement, in all-caps, "SOLD AT FOOD STORES." This would be in contrast to delivery to your door, and the booklet emphasizes that the products are still fresh even if you don't get them off your doorstep. And not only fresh, but not at all infectious! They have scientists, you see! OK, they don't say that outright, but the first page touts their quality control and their staff of both scientists and technicians. But rather than emphasize that they're preventing little Bobby from getting typhoid from his morning cereal, they focus on their effort to improve dairy products, and even make new ones! Unfortunately, I can't think of any novel dairy products invented since the fifties.

I stand corrected! Hoop cheese! I was pleased to see this description of what exactly this product is. I had seen references to it in other vintage cookbooks but had not known what it was. Apparently a low sodium fat free cheese. And for being around since the fifties (and possibly before) it doesn't seem to have taken the world by storm. Not even the sodium restricted diet world. The introduction of the Knudsen products in this booklet points out that they serve Southern California from nine plants which makes me wonder if they got the endorsement of the Los Angeles Heart Association because they were local or because the national association wouldn't bite?

And while the caloric content of the hoop cheese is listed in the charts encouraging you to count your calories in order to lose weight, the suggested menus don't include it. But they do suggest substituting sour cream for salad dressing and mayo. And using half-and-half in your coffee. And while Knudsen did distribute nonfat milk (79 calories per glass), they do not list it among their recommendations for reducing. Instead, they plug buttermilk (110 calories) and Gold Star homogenized milk (166 calories) over even homogenized milk ( 151 calories). I wonder why.

Even your everyday menus should contain vast quantities of dairy products.

And while I enjoy the web sites that poke fun at the strange and hideous dishes of yesteryear (though I’m not totally convinced anyone actually made these dishes) I don’t like when they don’t include the recipe!

Banana-Orange Float
2 bananas, peeled
1/2 cup Knudsen Cottage Cheese
2 oranges, peeled and sliced
8 maraschino cherries, halved
1 (3-oz.) package Knudsen Cream Cheese
1/2 cup Knudsen Hampshire Sour Cream
6 tablespoons orange juice
1 teaspoon grated orange rind
1/2 teaspoon sugar
Cut bananas in half lengthwise. Place each half on salad greens. Cover banana tops with cottage cheese. Arrange orange slices on cottage cheese. Decorate with cherry halves. Blend cream cheese, Hampshire Sour Cream, orange juice, rind and sugar. Pour around banana slices and over salad greens. Serves four.

Lima Bean Salad Mix
2 cups cooked baby lima beans
1/2 cup sliced stuffed olives
1/2 cup minced celery
1/2 cup minced pickles
1/2 teaspoon salt
3/4 cup Knudsen Hampshire Sour Cream
1/4 cup chopped pimiento
Combine beans with remaining ingredients except pimientos and chill 15 to 20 minutes. Serve topped with pimiento bits. Serves 6 to 8.

Both of these recipes seem to not totally match the pictures, so who knows how the pictured dishes were really made.

Do you feel the urge to buy more dairy products yet?