Great Old-Fashioned American Recipes

212 Pages·2005·12.47 MB·English

by  Beatrice Ojakangas

Great Old-Fashioned American Recipes
Also by Beatrice Ojakangas
Great Old-Fashioned American Desserts
The Great Holiday Baking Book
The Great Scandinavian Baking Book
Great Whole Grain Breads
Scandinavian Feasts
Scandinavian Cooking
Quick Breads
Pot Pies
Great
Old-Fashioned
American
Recipes
Beatrice Ojakangas
University of Minnesota Press
Minneapolis • London
For Mom and Lisa
Illustrations by Mark Tucci
Copyright 1988 by HPBooks
Originally published by HPBooks, 1988
First University of Minnesota Press edition, 2005
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system,
or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or
otherwise, without the prior written permission of the publisher.
Published by the University of Minnesota Press
111 Third Avenue South, Suite 290
Minneapolis, MN 55401-2520
http://www.upress.umn.edu
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Ojakangas, Beatrice A.
[Country tastes]
Great old-fashioned American recipes / Beatrice Ojakangas.
p. cm.
Originally published as: Country tastes : best recipes from America's kitchens, 1988.
Includes index.
ISBN 0-8166-4810-7 (pb : alk. paper)
1. Cookery, American. I. Title.
TX715.O413 2005
641.5973—dc22
2005018042
Printed in the United States of America on acid-free paper
The University of Minnesota is an equal-opportunity educator and employer.
14 13 12 11 10 09 08 07 06 05 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
CONTENTS
Acknowledgments 4
What Is American Country Cooking? 5
Beef 8
Pork, Lamb & Game 25
Poultry 38
Fish & Seafood 53
Grains, Beans & Pasta 62
Hearty Soups & Stews 74
Finger Foods, Snacks & Sandwiches 89
Vegetables & Side Dishes 105
Salads & Relishes 119
Breads 131
Cakes & Cookies 153
Desserts 174
Beverages, Confections & Jams 195
Index 206
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
When I write a cookbook, everybody around Lokken, Marcia Lothner, Jean McKinnon, Avis
me gets involved. Luckily, my surroundings Opheim, Brenda Sproat, Annette Stevens, Beth
contain my support group. I want to thank Storaasli, Norma Jean Strommen, Joanadelle
my family and friends for help and encourage- Tetlie, Jean Elton Turbes, and Gudrun Witrack.
ment to complete this book. These include my In addition, I would like to express my grati-
parents, Esther and Ted Luoma, my nine broth- tude to professional friends for their ideas, help,
ers and sisters, Leonard, Marion, Lillian, Betty and encouragement. Thanks to Arlene Wander-
Mae, Rudy, Eugene, Nancy, Alvin, and Dawn. man and Howard Helmer at Food Communica-
Much gratitude also to my immediate family, tions in New York and to the home economists
Dick, Cathy, Greg, and Susanna, and to my at General Foods, General Mills, and Pillsbury
parents-in-law, Grace and Earl Wold. Mills.
Friends play an important role, especially I wish to acknowledge the help of the Du-
those who will happily "test" recipes, as is the luth Public Library and staff, who willingly re-
case with the members of the Sarah Circle of First searched answers to off-the-wall historical ques-
Lutheran Church. Thanks for the two "Decem- tions about early America.
ber" testings to Marj Bergeland, Peggy Cooke, Thanks, too, to my friendly editor, Roni
Chris Coyner, Rose Drewes, Kay Eckman, Diane Durie, who has been so great to work with,
Ellison, Helen Gildseth, Sharlene Hensrud, Mary and Jeanette Egan at HPBooks. I count both as
Holt, Jeannette Huntley, Lois Jaeckel, Nancy friends and coworkers.
4 •
WHAT IS
AMERICAN COUNTRY
COOKING?
American country cooking is a story of cows try folk discovered that the tedium of paring
and chickens and barnyard animals, of wild and slicing apples could be broken by commu-
berries and fruits and vegetables. Although it nity effort. Festivals today celebrate the abun-
may be a picture we have of our own growing- dance of everything from catfish to dates, sea-
up years, there are still farm kitchens that spill food, mushrooms, chickens, tomatoes, aspar-
over at times with eggs and milk, or tomatoes, agus, strawberries, blueberries, wild rice,
green beans and other garden abundance. The watermelon, rhubarb, cherries, pumpkins,
kitchen turns into a factory in the summertime zucchini, hot chiles, okra, pecans, cranberries
as the rhubarb is ready, the strawberries ripen, and even garlic! They are more an excuse for a
the cucumbers and zucchini proliferate. community party than to do any real work.
This seasonal abundance birthed the idea of American country cooking has been a story
festivals. Apple festivals were probably the of ingenuity and "making do." When the right
prototype and began in the 1800's when coun- ingredient was not there, it was either elimi-
Introduction • 5
ated or a substitute found. Country cooking is Country cooking recalls the first Thanksgiv-
simple and honest and touched with nostalgia, ing as we relish the aroma of stuffed turkey in
a bit of ethnicity, regionality and history. the oven and pumpkin pies cooling, and sing
The American country scene pictures a cool, hymns of thankfulness. It also makes us
refreshing glass of iced tea in a small town on a remember all that we have learned from each
hot, lazy, summer day. It's kids selling lem- other's heritage and from the bounty shared by
onade on the corner. It's also a cup of steaming the Native American Indians who were the first
coffee at 40 below zero shared in a small town cooking teachers on this side of the Atlantic.
cafe over sweet rolls by farmers in buffalo- Our Statue of Liberty makes this invitation:
check wool shirts and bib overalls. It's the stew ". . . Give me your tired, your poor,
and apple pie that awaits at home. It's the loaf your huddled masses, yearning to
cakes, breads, cheese and cookies that are there breathe free—the wretched refuse
to snack on. Country cooking includes meat of your teeming shore. Send these,
loaves, chicken pies and cole slaw, freshly the homeless, tempest and tos't to
baked breads, pies and shortcakes. It is tamale me. I lift my lamp beside the golden
pie, cowboy steak, hangtown fry, chicken and door." (Emma Lazarus).
biscuits, mulligan stew, clam chowder, pump- Our ancestors came from teeming shores.
kin soup, or meatballs in cream gravy. You'd think we would be a nation of lame
6 • Introduction
own telephone book. Ours in Duluth, popula-
tion of about 90,000, ranges from Aaberg, to
Franckowiak, to five pages of Johnsons, to Pier-
ret, to Rauschenfels, to Ylitalo to Zywot, with
hardly an ethnic group that is not represented
in between.
The big migration from Europe was in the
century between 1820 and 1920 when 33 mil-
lion emigrated to America. Eighty percent of
these people came from nine countries, Ger-
many, Ireland, Italy, Austria, Russia, Great
Britain, Norway, Denmark and France. The
remaining 20 percent came from many other
countries.
It has often been said that America is a "melt-
ing pot," as if we were all put together into
some kind of cream soup. Rather, we are more
like a colorful stew to which we all add our own
color and texture to learn and share with each
other, so that while we blend^ogether, we also
retain our own identity.
Good cooking depends on what the country
has to offer. The fanciest of restaurants still
depends on food grown on farms. We are not
talking about "fancy" cuisine in this book. I
remember as a girl reading about hors
d'oeuvres and canapes and all kinds of fancy
pastries and wondering when you'd ever serve
those things. Like exotic dress, there wasn't the
occasion for such "exotic" fare on the farm.
Instead of being inventive, in this book we are
concentrating on dishes that in some way re-
flect many parts of the country and many dif-
ducks. Rather, we are a country of survivors. ferent cuisines. But, each recipe has been
Our immigrant grandparents may have been tested and reworked to make it easy to prepare
poor and wretched, but they did not arrive with today's ingredients. In many cases, the
empty-handed. They brought with them their recipe that originally served a large number, is
taste for their native cuisine, their cookery worked down so it now serves four to six.
skills, and their adaptability to use new and There was when I grew up, and may still be,
unfamiliar grains, fruits, vegetables and meats one distinctive difference between "country"
in dishes that reflect what was familiar to them. and "city" meals. It was what they were called.
This has resulted in an American "foreign" In the city, they were called breakfast, lunch
cuisine of dishes that are non-existant in the and dinner. In the country, it was breakfast,
"old country." Swiss steak cannot be found in dinner and supper. "Lunch" was what you had
Switzerland or Russian dressing in the any other time, like in the middle of the after-
U.S.S.R. Try to get French dressing in France or noon, or after an evening meeting or event. Or,
cioppino in Italy! The Chinese consider chop even after a wedding or a funeral.
suey and chow mein "peculiar American This collection is in no way complete. It can
hash." never be. It is a selection of recipes and stories
To read the menu of country cooking across biased by my own interests and those around
America has some similarity to reading your me in this time and this place.
Introduction • 7