Moss/Mousse; Spoon Bread

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     In a few hours, it'll be three weeks of the Asian Wall Street Journal.
I need a thick book to take on the long plane trip to Japan, so I was
thinking about Mike "Clueless" Wallace's GOTHAM.  It won a Pulitzer Prize, so
it's gotta be good.  Also, I can use the book as a weapon to throw against
Samurai attacks.

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MOSS/MOUSSE (continued)

     I went through my papers and found FROZEN DAINTIES: FIFTY CHOICE
RECEIPTS FOR ICECREAMS, FROZEN PUDDINGS, FROZEN FRUITS, FROZEN BEVERAGES,
SHERBETS AND WATER ICES (1889) by Mrs. D. A. Lincoln, pg. 21:

     _Moss Ice-cream.  Mousse._
     This form of a "Frozen Dainty" has a frothy, moss-like texture, produced
by freezing whipped cream without stirring it during the process of freezing.
 A great variety of delicate dishes may be made by varying the flavoring and
by moulding the mousse alone, or in sherbet or ice-cream of a contrasting
shade and agreeable flavor.  The following rules will illustrate the
preparation of the cream and the manner of freezing.
     No. 1.  Sweeten andflavor a pint of cream.  Use vanilla, lemon, caramel,
melted chocolate, sherry wine or maraschino.
     (Pg. 22-ed.)  Place the bowl containing the cream in a pan of broken ice
or snow and have ready a granite or bright tin pan placed in another of
broken ice.  Put a sieve or puree strainer into the pan.  Pack a plain mould
or the freezer can, minus the beaters, in broken ice and salt, that it may
become icy cold.  Whip the cream with a syllabub churn, skim off the froth
and put it into the strainer.  If any liquid part drain through into the pan,
put it back into the bowl and whip again.  When all is whipped put it into
the mould or can.  Pack it in closely enough to fill all the spaces, but be
careful not to break up the froth.  Cover the mould and let it stand three or
four hours.  When a fluted or fancy mould is used the mousse will turn out
better if the mould is first lined with ice-cream or sherbet just stiff
enough to pack in smoothly.

(A recipe for "Fruit Mousse" follows--ed.)

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SPOON BREAD

     "Spoon bread" is such an unassuming name, I forget to look for it.
Mariani's AMERICAN FOOD & DRINK has: " Also, 'spoonbread' or 'spoon
cornbread.'  A soft, custardlike dish usually made with cornmeal.  The term
may come from a Native American word for porridge, _suppawn_,  or from the
fact that the dish is usually eaten with a spoon.  Its first mention in print
was in 1905."
     I'll have to look at my Good Housekeeping, Harper's Bazar, and Ladies'
Home Journal recipe files when I get back in three weeks.
     HOW TO COOK FOR THE SICK AND CONVALESCENT (1901) by Helena V. Sachse has
this index entry:

Bread, spoon or quick, 164

     It also has "Open sandwiches, 154."  (OED?)