The Food of a Younger Land by Mark Kurlansky Read Free Book Online

little sugar in it.
    8. Sour Milk Doughnuts: No native Vermonter goes without doughnuts for breakfast, even if mother has to get up before-hand to make them. The recipe?—2 cups of flour, ¾ teaspoon soda, 1 teaspoon of cream of tartar, ¾ teaspoon of salt, and a dash of nutmeg sifted together. Add a beaten egg, ½ cup sugar, tablespoon melted butter, and ½ cup sour milk. Knead on the board adding flour, if necessary; cut and fry in deep fat. For Sugared Doughnuts, when cool, shake in a bag with some confectioners’ sugar. Blueberry griddlecakes are a Vermont Sunday morning breakfast.
    9. Apple Pan Dowdy: Have ready a baking dish lined with pie crust. Mix a quart of sliced apples, scant ½ cup sugar, and add a dash each of nutmeg, cinnamon and salt. Fill the baking dish, add ¼ cup dark molasses, dot with 3 tablespoonfuls butter cut in pieces, and two tablespoonfuls of water, and pour into the dish; cover with a punctured crust and bake. When the crust has browned and the apples are tender, chop with a silver knife, crust and all so that it is thoroughly mixed with the apples. Bake another hour or more. This recipe is direct from Aunt Hetty’s own “receipt” book and everyone in northern Vermont knows that Aunt Hetty’s pan dowdy was dee-licious. Served usually as a dinner dessert.
    10. Apples and Red Cabbage: A small red cabbage and about 5 apples, pared and quartered in a pan with a piece of butter, salt, pepper, a clove or two, and water enough to cover, placed over a slow fire to cook until tender. Then the cabbage and apples are removed to a platter, a sauce of a tablespoonful of currant jelly and another of vinegar is poured over, and the whole served very hot. Often served as a supper dish with hot biscuits or as a vegetable for dinner. Again, in place of a salad which Vermonters have never taken to very kindly. Cabbage salad is an exception.
    11. Vegetable Hash: A supper dish. Made with about equal quantities of leftover vegetables, a bit of butter, seasoned as desired, and served with ketchup.
    12. Baked Beans: A typical Saturday night dish. The beans must be put to soak in cold water the night before and in the morning placed in a kettle and covered with boiling water to which ½ teaspoon of dry mustard has been added for each pint of beans. They should then cook until soft but not mushy. When nearly done, add a piece of salt pork to the kettle to cook with the beans. Next pour the beans into a “bean pot” and add 2 tablespoons of sugar or molasses according to the individual taste, as some prefer the beans a rich golden color which the molasses gives, moisten with liquid in which the beans were cooked, place pork on top of beans, cover and bake for 2 hours in a slow oven.
    13. Spiced Currants and Horseradish Relishes: Much liked with meat. For the former, 3 lbs. currants, 2¼ [lbs.] brown sugar, and a cup of vinegar are required. A stick of cinnamon and a dozen cloves are tied in a muslin bag and all cooked for about an hour then turned into jam pots or glass jars. Well worth the trouble. The horseradish relish is made nowadays by adding a little pectin to the readymade radish and boiling for a couple of minutes.
    14. Mush & Milk: Breakfast dish. Corn meal added to boiling salted water and stirred constantly.
    15. Apple Dumplings: Made like apple bird’s nests—a square of biscuit dough with sliced apples, the four corners of the dough brought together in the center, and cooked in a steamer or baked. Eaten with cream, maple syrup or hard sauce.
    16. Salt Salmon: Boiled or broiled and served with cream or a cream sauce.
    17. Codfish Cakes: A breakfast, dinner or supper dish in Vermont. Salt codfish that has been boiled the day before is minced and mixed with warm mashed potatoes, and a beaten egg added; made into inch-thick cakes about the size of a tea-cup top and fried in butter or other shortening.
    18. Hot Pot: A favorite farm dish. Cut about 2 lbs. lamb chuck into 2-inch pieces, add a pound of dried