Finding Ida

Published yesterday on SideDish is the story of Ida Chitwood, a lady known to hundreds of thousands of women in the early 20th century, forgotten to all but her family today. I "met" Ida when I wrote a story on TDCB about pecan pie, little did I realize that finding Ida was also in a sense about finding myself. First, let me clarify, I know who I am, senility has not yet set in. But in the last two years, since the oldest went off to college and the youngest got her drivers license, "what's next" had been rattling around in my brain.

And it was tied into the writing I was doing on this blog. Repeating "what am I doing" as I formulated posts unpublished, the question sealed those stories in my memory instead of here.  So instead of posting about an incredible week in Napa, I read the autobiography of Elmer Scott. Instead of posting about Sevy's new One Pot Braising sauce, I sat for hours in the UT-A library looking at microfiche of the Fort Worth Star Telegram. My new Friday evening pastime (when hubby was at work) was logging into the Dallas Historical phorum and reading the memories of my neighbors. Or sometimes it was scavenging Ebay and antique stores for old postcards and cook books.

But I still couldn't formulate what it was I was trying to accomplish. It took almost two years of researching Ida before the breakthrough came, and when it did, it set a course of what I needed to do. Just as Ida's breakthrough came from the most simplest of Google searches (duh, why didn't I think of it earlier), my purpose was as close to hand.  I needed to find these old stories of people and favorite eating places - put the pieces together and share them, before they were gone forever.

Because food is large part of our cultural history. While not a native, research has shown to me that Dallas has had over the last 150 years some of the most progressive dining in the country. One that goes with our culture, not with cities on the east or west coast. Other transplants would disagree, writing "Dallas feels to me as though it may just be beginning to blossom into a serious food city."

To which I can now reply, "Been there. Done that."

A Taste of North Texas History

Could what we now call just Pecan Pie originally be from Fort Worth?   Mrs. Vesta Harrison claims to have made up the recipe for "Texas Pecan Pie", in Like Wine and Cheese....Older is Better, published by the City of Dallas for the Public Library (1974).   Sue Murch, historian, recorded many ladies in area nursing homes asking about how and what they learned to cook while growing up.  She put to print a portion of their interviews and combined them with recipes from each to give readers a flavor of what it was like to cook back in the early1900's.

Mrs. Harrison came to Fort Worth at the age of four and was a member of the North Fort Worth Baptist Church for 67 years, so I will give her the benefit of the doubt.  Besides, her recipe won her $500, which back in the day was a huge chunk of cash.  In her own words, this is her recount: 

"Yes, the $500 Pecan Pie...The Star Telegram used to bring a Mrs. Chitwood from Chicago to hold a cooking school in Fort Worth.  The second year she was there---now I was not quite eighteen---I dreamed one night of a pecan pie.  The next day over there I said, 'Mrs. Chitwood, have you ever made a pecan pie?'  and she said there wasn't any such thing!  Well, I told her I'd dreamed of one.  She just brushed me off, and so I thought, 'Well, by gollies, I don't know how, but I'm gonna mess up something making a pecan pie.'  So I just made a sorghum syrup pie and put a cup of pecans in it, and it was good.  I took a piece of pie over to Mrs. Chitwood the next day, and I said, 'I want you to know that after dreaming of a pecan pie, I went home and made one."  She told me it was delicious and asked me how I made it."

"After I gave her the recipe of what I did, she said, 'Well, let's put this down and I'm going to send it to Washington.  Do you mind?  We'll name it the Texas Pecan Pie.'  So she sent it to Washington and it was about 5 days, a telephone call come and following the telephone call a check for $500 to me for the pecan pie recipe."

Now there are certainly enough clues here to go back and determine what dates Velma would have been talking about.  According to the book, she moved to Fort Worth at age 4 and at the time of writing (1974) had lived there 75 years, which means she moved to Fort Worth in 1899, she would have been 18 in 1913.  According to some sources, there's no known written recipe for Pecan Pie before 1925.  I know my math's good, but the rest of the story would have to be verified before this could be recorded as fact.

For instance, who sent her the $500 from Washington?  Wouldn't there be some record of this - $500 is a very generous prize for that time, maybe there's more record of this?  Ida Chitwood was a person of note in Dallas' food history - in the 1930's she ran a cooking school, published cook books for area flour mills (under the name of Southern Laboratory Kitchens),  and performed cooking demonstrations at the Old Mill Inn down in Fair Park.  I can't find any information about her from Chicago, however, and her Centennial Cook Book (1936) does not include Ms. Harrison's Texas Pecan Pie recipe.

But by God I believe that good church-going lady.  I'm going to keep checking newspaper archives.

Kitchen Crappy? Me Too

Mine's not small, but the best of equipment usually ends up down at the restaurant.  Like my FryDaddy.  And a few vintage cast iron skillets.   But here's a book that can help me overcome my shortage of modern-day accoutrements for meal preparation.

  Last July I wrote about fellow UT-D grad and El Centro culinary school grad Jennifer Schaertl and her website CrappyLittleKitchens.com .  Well, her book has been published, Gourmet Meals in Crappy Little Kitchens (HCI Books, 18.95) and was reviewed in the Dallas Morning News last Sunday (5/2/10).  Overall?  They said it's definitely NOT crappy - very helpful to those home cooks with small, and ahem, understocked kitchens.

Congratulations Jennifer!

Score Five For The Collection

Canton's Trade Days didn't yield much more than an old copy of Irma S. Rombauer's, A Cook Book for Girls and Boys ($2), so after driving back to Dallas I decided to make one more stop at a local antique store than can usually be relied upon for a few good old books.

Score!  Added to the collection, and from the history of Big D is the Motherhood Class Cook Book, from the classes conducted by Mrs. E. C. Poole, teacher at Tyler Street M. E. Church, South, published in 1923.  From 1940 is Let's Eat, Favorite Recipes of Members of Oak Cliff Society of Fine Arts (compiled and edited by The Finance Committee).  Published around 1947 is Favorite Texas Recipes by Margaret Boone (compiled and published by Metzger Dairies) who for many years was a Home Economics teacher at Sunset High School.   And finally, With Or Without Beans, by Joe Cooper (published 1952) is an informal biography of chili wtih help from a few "Chilosophers".  More Texana lore than cook book, but mostly fun.

Both of the non-Dallas cook books involve Latin cuisine.  First, reprinted in 1945 is Mexican Cookbook, by Erna Fergusson (The University of New Mexico Press) which when originally published in 1934 educated many Yankees about the use of chiles in food.  Second is Libro de Cocina de Los Aliados, or the Allied Cook Book, a 1944 publication of the Allied Sewing Committee, Guatemala, C.A., all of the recipes are both in Spanish and in English.  And tucked within, a letter addressed to a Mrs. Spence and written on motel stationary from 77 Ranch Courts on Harry Hines Blvd, a very nice thank you note regarding the loan of the book to a fellow guest from Lima, Peru.

100 Years Ago

Let's take a moment to look back at cooking a century ago.  The Alfalfa Cook Book (Second Edition, 1909) compiled by the Ladies of the Roswell Cemetary Association gives us a glimpse into "what was cooking" in the Southwest at the time.  The advertisements point to an era where kitchen cabinets were what we later called "cupboards" - furniture pieces transportable by families should they move.  There are ads for differing stoves, the Garland Stove competed against the Majestic Range in this market, both appear to be wood-burning.

In the section labeled "Mexican Dishes", Higinia Paredes submitted a recipe for Green Chile with Cream: 

Roast about eight green pepper pods on top of stove.  Place in cold water till you can slip the skins off, cut off stem ends.  Place in a bowl and mash fine, add two medium sized tomatoes, skinned and mashed.  Place in a frying pan a very little lard, when hot cut up one onion fine and fry until tender.  Then add chile and tomatoes, cook a few moments and add a cup of cream.  Salt to taste and serve hot.

Mrs. S. L. Ogle submitted a recipe titled Texas Lyonnaise Potatoes: 

Put two tablespoons butter or bacon grease into a frying pan.  When melted add an onion chopped fine, cook two or three minutes.  Add six cold boiled potatoes sliced into strips, seasoned with salt and pepper, fry to a light brown.  The addition of a little chopped parsley and a few drops of lemon juice gives a savory flavor.

I'm not quite sure what made that "Texas".  Mrs. J. P. Dyer submitted Chile Sauce as follows: 

Two quarts ripe tomatoes, four cups vinegar, four quarts onions, three tablespoons sugar, four red peppers or cayenne, two tablespoons salt, cloves, cinnamon, allspice and nutmeg.  Boil all together.

Peach Sweet Pickles?  Apparently so, by Mrs. Otto Hedgcoxe: 

If desired sweet take 7 pounds of peeled peaches to 2 pounds sugar, or if preferred sour, use 10 pounds of fruit to 3 pounds of sugar.  1 quart of apple cider, stick whole cloves in peaches and put allspice and cnnamon in muslin bag and cook with fruit sugar and vinegar.

But my favorite, written by Minnie B. Sharp was for Potato Split Biscuit, written in rhyme and with a sense of humor:

I start at nine o'clock, that is, have potatoes baked by then,
At nine in the morning have baked to a turn
Two large, white potatoes - be careful not to burn;
Half and half mix a teacup of butter and lard
With a pinch of fine salt, nor the process retard
Till you add the potatoes, mashed fine and still hot
      (I rice my potatoes)
And two well beaten eggs, but yet you must not
Forget that a teacup of milk you will need
Which you scald and then cool - 'tis a trouble indeed;
In this you dissolve one cake compressed yeast
And a large spoon of sugar, and last but not least,
Add one quart of flour and stir all together.
     (Stir at first, then lightly knead.)
And set away to rise until light as a feather
At noon you must stir in one pint sifted flour
Then leave quite alone till five, at which hour
Turn carefully out on your bread board the dough
With a wee bit of flour, not more you must know,
Roll thin and cut small, then arrange them by twos
One on top of the other and then if you choose
Bake them quickly, when once they are risen again
And they will soften the hearts of the crossest of men.

Eating History

I love food history and when I found this book at a local antique store it brought a big smile to my face, and not just because it was 80% off the $7.99 price. Published some time close to 1950 (from extensive research I did on the businesses who advertised within), it was compiled by the Longfellow Parent-Teacher Association. They must have been a fun group - and good cooks too from the recipes included within. The only name I recognized was Mrs. Frank X. Tolbert who submitted her recipe for Dill Potato Salad.

But I'm interested also in all of the restaurants and food businesses that advertised within, and was wondering how many of you have memories of these places? Please leave word if you remember any:

Cabell's Dairy * Beef N' Bun (2 locations) * Fred's (1 Super Drive-In and 7 Barbecue locations) * Bluff View Farms Dairy and Ice Cream * Cohen Candy Company * Lucas B & B (1 Restaurant, 1 Bakery, and 4 Farms - Packing House, Poultry, Dairy and Ice Cream Plant) * Vick's Restaurant (4 locations) * Little Bit of Sweden * The Southern Kitchen * Ernie's Bakery * Sammy's Restaurants * Dinner Time Food Service.

Thank you!

Updated Book List

I've updated the list of Texas books in The Collection to the left, and created a new one (scroll down, way, way down) of all the older non-Texas cook books I've accumulated. There's still one shelf of books to be entered, but I'll get around to it soon.

I Think I've Found Heaven

And amazingly it's back in my home town. What a delicious collection of old cookbooks, I'm definitely checking it out when I go back north next.

Cashing In On Julia

While in Half Price Books, a lady asks the clerk, "Do you have any of Julia's cookbooks?"

"Sorry, we're all sold out."

And her republished famous "Mastering the Art of French Cooking" makes the #1 spot on the New York Times Best Seller list - for the first time since it was published almost 60 years ago.

And in my e-mailbox, Gastronomica Magazine is re-publishing their Summer 2005 special issue "featuring ruminations by Jacques Pépin, Paul Child, Alex Prud’homme and others on the iconoclastic American chef Julia Child." Each copy costs $13, you can check out the table of contents here, it looks really really good.

Perfectly Crappy

Reading the UT-D School of Management alumni ('90) magazine turned up the greatest "Dallas" food find, Jennifer Schaertl and her website, CrappyLittleKitchens.com . A 2003 graduate of UT-D, she then spent several years in Brooklyn, learning how to manage to cook in a 300 square foot apartment.

Returning to Dallas she attended El Centro's culinary school, and in March was hired as the head chef at the North Central Surgical Center at Central and Park Lane. Previous Dallas employers include Savory, Taste, The Grape and Suze restaurants.

But the juicy part is the publication in the fall of her book, Gourmet Meals in Crappy Little Kitchens (HCI Books), and apparently a proposed TV show which is being shopped to producers according to the website. Until such time, you can enjoy her gig here, her Crappy Little Kitchen Video and sign up for her newsletter at her Crappy Little Guestbook with the 115 others who have already done so.

She credits skills she learned in The School of Management for helping her draft her business plans and proposals. I completely concur.

I love this crap! Good luck Jennifer!

Just In Case It Rains Today

Reminder fellow book fans, this weekend is 20% off the already low prices at Half Price Books.

Visiting the "Mother Ship" on Northwest Highway last Thursday added to The Collection, Mexico Through My Kitchen Window (1961) by Maria A. deCarbia and edited by Helen Corbitt - a copy signed by Ms. Corbitt ("Salud! Helen Corbitt") on the inside cover, unverified of course but only $3 more than the unsigned copy.

For $3 I purchased Zonta Club of Austin Cook Book (no year) with sketches of Austin landmarks by Betsy Warren. While an actual bound paperback, it was typed on what appears to be a pre-IBM Selectric typewriter and features ads from Via Addendam Railroad (Route of the Never Ending Railroad), Villa Capri Hotel, American Founders' Life Insurance Company and The Brown Schools.

From the Ladies of St. Stephen's Guild in Sherman, Texas, Our Parish Cook Book, no year listed, I would guess circa 1930's from the print type, style and the inclusion of the section called "Aunt Jemimy", which certainly speaks volumes and not about food:

Fried Chicken - Fust ketch yo chicken, have em fat en young en sassy too. Clean, wash en cut in pieces, uv de size to 'peal to you. Den salt each piece en dip it into egg or cracker crums end fry in bilin' lard ontil de rich brown coluh comes. Dress up yo deesh wid passley en po' yo' sauce all roun', you nevuh tasted nothin dats bettuh I'll be boun.-Aunt Jemimy.

Belton Texas, Circa 1908

Sometimes when I need a zen moment, I turn to one of the old books in my collection. The smell, the words, the information, it's a view of history and personal lives of the past. A pie crust recipe scribbled on paper that says "Take This Prescription To J. C. Rodgers' Drug Store, Nolanville, Texas", or this from a newspaper clipping that fell out of my 1908 "The Reliable Cook Book" (by the Woman's Home Mission Society of the First Methodist Church, Belton, Texas, 1908):

Directions for Preparing "Little Pigs In the Blankets" Drain a dozen large oysters. Take strips of very thin bacon, and wrap each oyster in a strip, fastening with a skewer. Grill before an open fire or on a skillet until bacon is done and oysters tender. Have rounds of bread ready and saute in skillet until brown on broth sides. Serve the "little pig" on a round of toast at once.

On the back of this newspaper clipping:

"Temple Tex. Oct 21 - A kindergarten school has been established at the Sunday school room of the First Baptist Church at Temple under the patronage of Belton-Baylor Baptist Female College. Miss Mattie Crumpton Hardy, a well-known kindergarten expert, has been placed in charge and is organizing classes. The school will be in session five days of each week."

Miss Mattie Hardy was an educational pioneer and authored (1917's) "The Derivation of the Montessori Didactic Apparatus", and "The Effect of Distribution of Practice on Learning a Stylus Maze". Baylor Female College then located in Belton and founded by the Republic of Texas in 1845 was the sister school to Baylor College in Waco, and is now known as the University of Mary Hardin-Baylor.

Canned oysters were heavily in use at this place and in this time, I counted no less than 8 recipes that used them. In the Sandwich section, a recipe for "Pimento Sandwich", which today is commonly called Pimento Cheese. A collegiate theme among recipes too, with "Harvard Salad" and "Vassar Fudge". And ethnic food had infiltrated the culture, with "Eggs Foo Yung" and an antique recipe for Tamale Pie, submitted by Mrs. W. S. Hunter:

"Take 1 pint corn meal and make good stiff mush. Take out about 1 cup of the mush, then add to the rest 1 cup or more of ground meat (either fresh or cold roasted meat) flavor with plenty of chili powder and salt. Put in a baking dish with the white mush bread spread on top as meringue. Bake 1/2 hour."

FREE Cook Book Contest

Enter contest here. A San Antonio cook book by way of a Hudson Valley (NY) blogger. I'm assuming it's legit, because I just satisfied entry requirement #5. You can enter through midnight on April 7th.

Another way to enter is to submit your favorite Tex-Mex recipes for compilation into a new book by the same author.

Game on!

Seems Like Old (Hard) Times

In the early '80's I left college to work full time as a bank teller. It paid $4.35 per hour, barely covering housing, car and food expenses, but Michigan was going through some very tough times and jobs were non-existent. Lee Iacocca had just stepped in to save Chrysler, the government was spending like crazy to win the cold war, and a 5-year $10,000 CD paid over 16%.

I remember these times as some of the best working years in my history, and not just because I met my future sister-in-law while there. It was the camaraderie we shared, and to help build that we were allowed to have pot-luck lunches frequently. I still cook some of the dishes eaten in the tiny basement kitchen. Food is a way to show others you care, and many times it is a link to our pasts - sharing recipes is a form of sharing stories.

So there it is on today's front page of The Dallas Morning News, Hard Times Are Back, and if it hasn't hit you, you probably know someone who it has. Maybe you're an employer, or even just an employee, hell this would even work for PTA meetings, but if you want to start making things at least taste a little better, consider a pot-luck lunch or dinner for your group.

To get you started, here is a recipe from The Papert Family Cookbook (Revised Edition, 1995), published by Dallas neighbors Ida and Sam Papert for the benefit of the Dallas Farmer's Market Friends.

Jalapeno Chicken Casserole by Rosalie Mothner Kern

4 boneless chicken breasts, boiled, diced

1 doz. corn tortillas, torn in strips

1 c. milk

1 lb. grated cheddar cheese

1 onion, grated

1 can cream of chicken soup

1 can cream of mushroom soup

2 (4 oz. ea.) cans chopped green chiles

1/2 c. chicken stock

salt and pepper

In greased 3 quart casserole, layer ingredients as follows: Tortillas, chicken, [half of the] cheese, onion, and peppers. Mix milk, soup and stock, pour over ingredients, cover with remaining cheese. Bake at 300 degrees for 1 to 1 1/2 hours or until firm. Serves 6 to 8.

Sounds pretty comforting to me.

The Recipe Double Down

Yesterdays Wall Street Journal pointed me to the latest battle against portion distortion - cookbooks. So since I have a few hundred laying around, I thought I'd do my own un-scientific study to see if recipe quantities (and calories) are indeed rising. Among cook book authors, I compared Craig Claiborne (NY Times Cook Book, 1961 vs, Best of CC, 1999), Helen Corbitt (Helen Corbitt's Potluck, 1962 vs. Best from HC's Kitchens, 2000), Julia Child (Mastering the Art of French Cooking 1961 vs. 1971) and Betty Crocker (Cookie Book 1963 vs. 1998). In none of these books did I find a distortion of quantities or ingredients, almost all were exactly as had been published in earlier editions.

The article spotlights the classic Joy of Cooking, by Irma Rombauer and Marion Rombauer Becker, in comparing my two copies (1973 vs. 1997's "All New, All Purpose" re-write by Irma's grandson Ethan Becker) the two dozen recipes I compared were in fact larger portions. Either the quantity of ingredients went up, or the number of servings went down, or in some cases both.

In their defense, the rewritten (1997) edition has a far more in-depth discussion about caloric intake and balanced eating. In the almost 80 years since originally published things like the food pyramid, official dietary guides, and a gazillion fad diets have changed eating habits. In the section called "About Calories" it discusses the importance of matching eating to the amount of exercise one expends each day (as I sit here typing), AND they have a handy chart called "What Counts As A Serving". While perhaps some of their older recipes have grown in quantity, the book also expanded it's number of healthier Asian and Vegetarian recipes.

I don't know which cookbook is correct, the older Joy of Cooking "Calorie Values" section begins with a quote from Jane Austin:

"Personal size and mental sorrow have certainly no necessary proportions. A large, bulky figure has a good a right to be in deep affliction as the most graceful set of limbs in the world. But, fair or not fair, there are unbecoming conjunctions, which reason will patronize in vain - which taste cannot tolerate - which ridicule will seize. "

Pretty, but not exactly scientific. The following pages go on to (yawn) list the 1963 USDA caloric guidelines, closing with the following reminder:

"Two martinis before dinner count as much as a generous slice of pie for dessert and, if you are trying to keep your weight constant, second thoughts are better than second helpings. "

Whoops.

The Virginia Housewife Cook Book, via Michigan

Sent by Mom, for my birthday, apparently found in an antique store somewhere in Michigan and the penciled price, $9.95. The Virginia Housewife Cook Book by Mrs. Mary Randolph (1762-1828) unlocked a treasure trove of food history. Called the "most influential American cook book of the 19th century" and "the first truly American cook book" it was reprinted many times in the 70 years following the author's death. She is credited with the birth of regional cooking utilizing local ingredients in Virginia agriculture, and incorporating English, African Black, Indian and Creole cooking.

Originally published in 1824, the cook books conceptualization by Mrs. Randolph came during retirement after years of running a popular Richmond boarding house. Born to wealth, educated formally, she was also instructed in good household management techniques. While living in Richmond her home became synonymous with distinctive entertaining. When her husband's political position was removed (by her distant cousin, Thomas Jefferson), and with a decline in their tobacco revenue due to an economic depression, they lost their home, Moldavia. Mary took the brave position of advertising in the local press that they would provide accommodations for Ladies and Gentlemen at their new business, to great success.

Other interesting facts about Mary Randolph, she has been widely credited with the invention of an early "icebox", but was not quick enough to patent it. She was godmother to the wife of Robert E. Lee (Mary Randolph Custis), as well as a distant cousin and Mary considered them her closest family. As such, when she died she was buried on their estate, and her grave is credited with being the oldest on what is now Arlington National Cemetery. How serendipitous that all who were buried afterwards came to the resting place of a great national hostess.

The book given to me has no publication date, but it is marked "Arlington Edition" and the publisher is listed as Hurst & Co., New York (1871-1919), who was a major re printer of works that were losing copyright protections. I had to laugh reading the following quote of their work, "Beautiful covers around deplorable paper", pretty much sums up the condition of this book. Other books published by Hurst & Co under the Arlington label are credited with "circa 1890", I have older books that are in much better condition. When originally published, this book sold for $1.

And here, for historical perspective, I'll share one of her famous recipes:

TO FRY SLICED POTATOS [sic]

Peel large potatos [sic], slice them about a quarter of an inch thick, or cut them in shavings round and round, as you would peel a lemon; dry them well in a clean cloth; and fry them in lard or dripping. Take care that your fat and frying-pan are quite clean; put it on a quick fire, watch it, and as soon as the lard boils and is still, put in the slices of potatos [sic], and keep moving them till they are crisp; take them up, and lay them to drain on a sieve; send them up with very little salt sprinkled on them.

I think I had these at Nick & Sam's Grill the other night.

Sweet Dallas Recipes

From Helen Thompson, "Texas-based food writer and editor", with Metropolitan Home and Meredith Publications (among other gigs), comes a collection of dessert recipes from some of Dallas' favorite restaurants. Dallas Classic Desserts, (Pelican Press), with a foreword by Patricia Sharpe.

Missing Doughmonkey's Madagascar Flourless Chocolate Cake? It's in there. Got a hankerin' for Al Biernat's Texas Pecan Pie a la Mode (I do!), it's in there. How about Asian Mint's Green Tea Ice Cream Cake (yes, yes, yes), it's in there. And (don't melt) there's even the recipe for La Duni's Quatro Leches Cake. Need I say more?

I'll share one of the recipes here, it's one I happen to have on file in my computer since my job duties include recipe typing.

Sevy's Grill's Three Citrus Pie. (Makes 1 pie)

Pie Shell:

1 1/2 cups finely crushed graham cracker crumbs

12 cup sugar

1/4 cup unsalted butter, melted

Filling:

6 large egg yolks

6 Tablespoons fresh orange juice

6 Tablespoons fresh lemon juice

6 Tablespoons fresh lime juice

2 (14 ounce) cand Eagle brand sweetened condensed milk

Whipped cream to garnish

Thinly sliced citrus fruit to garnish

Preheat oven to 450 degrees. To prepare the crust, combine the graham cracker crumbs, sugar and butter in a medium bowl and mix well. Press evenly along the bottom and sides of a 10-inch pie plate. Bake for 10 minutes. Let cool.

Decrease oven temperature to 350 degrees. To prepare the filling, beat the egg yolks in an electric mixer on low speed until just blended. With the motor running, slowly pour in each juice in a thin stream. Let set for 5 minutes, then gradually stir in condensed milk. Pour into the cooled crust.

Bake for 20 minutes. Let cool completely on a wire rack, then chill. Garnish each slice with whipped cream and a thin slice of citrus fruit. You may also garnish with raspberry sauce streaks if desired.

Dallas Classic Desserts can be ordered online, 20% off of the cover price of $15.95, here.

Helen Corbitt - Dallas Really Does Love You!

So in my quest for information about Helen Corbitt, I may have emailed my city councilwoman (Hey Linda!) asking if the city had ever officially recognized this early pioneer of quality cuisine. It must have been passed along, because last week an email from a mayoral intern included a prototype of a recognition statement. Half wondering if this was some joke, I made a few recommendations for improvement, and emailed the young lady back.

Yesterday in the mail, came a beautiful navy blue folder, enclosed within was a City of Dallas Special Recognition for Helen Corbitt, with a gold seal, red ribbons, the whole shebang. It states:

City of Dallas
Special Recognition

WHEREAS, Helen Corbitt was born in New York and moved to Texas in 1931 from her job as dietitian at Cornell Medical Center in New York City to manage the tearoom at the University of Texas; and

WHEREAS, she was lured to the Houston Country Club before operating the tearoom at Joske's department store in Houston and had started her own catering business when the Driskell Hotel called her back to Austin; and

WHEREAS, Stanley Marcus "courted" Helen Corbitt for eight years until she finally accepted his offer to direct his Dallas store's lunchtime oasis; she then dazzled celebrities and dignitaries who flocked to the famed Zodiac Room at Neiman Marcus for tantalizing cuisine; and

WHEREAS. Helen also authored five cookbooks; her first cookbook Helen Corbitt's Cookbook has sold over 350,00 copies since it was published in 1957, and her cookbooks brought nation-wide recognition to the Dallas food scene as one of the earliest "culinary stars"; and

WHEREAS, in 1961, Helen Corbitt became the first woman to ever win the food service industry's highest honor, the Golden Plate Award, give to the food operator of the year from the Institutional Food Manufacturers' Associaiton; and

WHEREAS, Helen Corbitt made a lasting positive impact on the city of Dallas and throughout the state of Texas with her renowned cooking that was well-known for new and unusual flavor combinations; the finest and reshest ingredients; and served with impeccable style.

NOW, THEREFORE, I TOM LEPPERT, Mayor of the city of Dallas, and on behalf of the Dallas City Council, do hereby extend special recognition to

HELEN CORBITT

for her excellent service to Dallas, Texas (Signature) (seal).

Next week I'm contacting the librarian at the University of Dallas to see if this could be added to the Helen Corbitt collection they received from her estate.

Additions to "The Collection"

Picked up a few new cookbooks as mementos of our trip in November, The San Francisco Ferry Plaza Farmers' Market Cook Book by Christopher Hirsheimerand and Peggy Knickerbocker and Goat Cheese by Maggie Foard. Unfortunately due to luggage limitations, they came home in a friend's luggage and are still with same friend so I haven't had a chance to taste.

From Gma Gerry, Sevy received Eric Ripert's new book, On The Line; The Stations, The Heat, The Cooks, The Chaos and The Triumphs Inside The World of Le Berdardin (with Christine Muhlke). Lots of pictures, I especially like the ones in the Fish section, which includes a statement on each about usage or flavor. They also have a sketch of Le Bernardin's kitchen layout and many, many staff pictures. The back half of the book is mostly menus with some sketches of how a dish would be plated. In the far back there's a list of "sources for other hard-to-find items", like squid ink, smoked salt, dried rosebuds, tamarind concentrate.

For Christmas, I gave hubby three food books, The New Food Lover's Companion by Sharon Tyler Herbst and Ron Herbst (4th ed.), replacing a dog-earned 2nd edition we've had for 13 years. The latest version has 2,700 more entries than our old copy, obviously a significant upgrade to this indispensible dictionary of food and ingredients.

The Culinary Institute of America Cookbook was a trip down memory lane, we lived in Poughkeepsie while Sevy was a student at the CIA, 22 years ago. Poorer than church mice, we made it through a very cold winter living on homemade pasta in a 100+ year old house that had been converted to apartments. But it was worth everything, their level of excellence in education and food in unparalleled, and it led to a job back in Dallas post-graduation. The cookbook has some technique pictures, but is mainly just recipes - I love that it includes a ribbon book mark in case you lose your page.

Alinea, by Grant Achatz was an exercise in weight lifting just to get it to the check out. 395 pages of glossy, luxurious paper in a double-wide binding, it's as much about the beautiful pictures as the beautiful food. Chef Achatz is reknown for his devotion to food as art, both visually and flavorfully at his restaurant, Alinea, in Chicago. Contributors to the book include Michael Ruhlman, Jeffrey Steingarten, Mark McClusky, Nick Kokonas, Michael Nagrant and photos by Lara Kastner.

Thanksgiving - Like 150 Years Ago

I purchased a cook book, Mrs. Putnam's Receipt Book and Young Housekeepers' Assistant (New and Enlarged Edition, 1867) at the Limited Unlimited (or was it Unlimited Limited?) Antique Store, formerly on Midway just north of Beltline. The Boy would go for batting practice at DBAT, and I would run down to check out what the excellent book dealer had in stock. It was not an inexpensive book at $85.00, but when scraps of old hand-written recipes and newspaper clippings started falling from between it's aged pages, you might as well have stamped "Sold" on my forehead.

So with Thanksgiving coming up, how was a turkey prepared 141 years ago? Well if you were lucky enough to live in a home that could afford a book on cooking, you likely had a spit and could roast a bird over the fire. For those less fortunate a recipe for boiling said bird is also included.

ROAST TURKEY

A turkey should be well singed and cleaned of pin-feathers; then draw the inwards. Be sure you take everything out that is inside. Lay the turkey into cold water; clean the gizzards, liver, heart, and neck; let all soak one hour if you have time. Wash all very clean, wipe the turkey very dry, inside and out. Make a dressing of two cups of bread-crums (sic), one teaspoon of salt, two large spoonfuls of sweet marjoram, two spoonfuls of butter, one egg, and mix them well together. Cut the skin of the turkey in the back part of the neck, that the breast may look plump; fill the breast with the forecemeat, and sew it up. If you have any more forcemeat than is required for the breast, put the remainder into the body, and skewer the vent; tie the legs down very tight, skewer the wings down to the sides, and turn the neck on to the back with a strong skewer. Baste with salt and water once, then frequently with butter; fifteen minutes before dishing, dredge with a little salt and flour, and baste with butter for the last time. This will give a fine frothy appearance, and add to the flavor of the turkey.

To make the gravy, put the gizzard, neck, and liver, into a saucepan with a quart of water, a little pepper, salt and mace; put it on the fire, and let it boil to about half pint. When done, braid up the liver very fine with a knife, and put it back into the water it has boiled in; then add the drippings of the turkey and a little flour, and give it one boil, stirring it all the time. Dish the gizzard with the turkey. Allow twelves minutes to a pound for the time to roast turkey.

A turkey weighing ten pounds requires two hours to roast with a clear fire, not too hot. Turn the spit very often.