PC’s Grandma had many recipe books, and after she died, I inherited one she had been given as a wedding gift back in 1948.
In it, there is a recipe for Turtle a la King. Not kidding. Hard cooked egg yoks, butter, cream, salt, cooked turtle meat…all combined and put over toast.
There’s also a chart for how to recognize different cuts of mutton.
A recipe on page 245 is entitled “Beef Balls.”
Page 261 details how to make souse. That’s apparently another term for pickled pig’s feet. The next page tells us how to make headcheese. No cheese involved, just boil an entire pig’s head, including the tongue in seasoned water, drain it, chop it up, put it in a container and weight it down in the icebox for three days until it is a gelatinous mass. Then slice it up and God knows what you do with it after that.
Stewed calf’s heart? Spanish kidney? Smoked beef tongue? Braised brains? All there.
And you know what else?
Page 273 has a paragraph about how “…government breeding of reindeer has brought the meat back on the market in modern form…”
You’re right… bad things to eat… not one of those items sounds as though I could swallow without gagging… urp.
Di
The Blue Ridge Gal
I don’t know I am willing to try just about anything once. Some of it doesn’t sound too bad. Hey and with the economy as it is some of us maybe looking for a cook book like that soon. :)
Wow, I guess it really was everything but the oink.
You know, trying all of those recipes would make a really cool blog … might conflict with my vegan(ish) blog (just a little), so anyone else can feel free to steal the idea. Don’t all volunteer at once.
I formally accept your dinner invitation now (provided you serve one of those tasty dishes you just described).
*shudder*
Most of those recipes were developed by people who knew they had to make do with what they had…and they were hungry. I’ve made souse and head cheese, and they are both delicious..if you’re hungry enough. I think if they had been given more delectible ( meaning “french sounding”) names, it would be different. If head cheese was listed on a menu as ‘morceaux de porc en gelée’ I’m sure not a single person would immediately think, “ewww…unwashed carnie!”
I think it would have been a blast to serve Turtle a la king in small turtle shells, like Oysters Rockefeller.
I love old cookbooks. I have some old Meta Givens cookbooks that tell you how to cook just about everything too!
Um….well I WAS on my way to make breakfast…….
Ya know…I’m just not into “exotic” parts of animals. I don’t want to eat tongue or brains. The idea of eating a turtle makes me nauseous. It just…does.
Thanks. You just saved me at least 5,000 calories for the weekend. Appetite has officially left the building!
I tried beef tongue when I was in Costa Rica. It’s not all that bad, actually.