Bismarck; Mexican Bunny; Bubble-and-Squeak; Sailor Duff

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    A few more from the BOSTON COOKING SCHOOL MAGAZINE/AMERICAN COOKERY.
Whenever I'm in the mood to cook.
    I checked the Boston Public Library's site at www.bpl.org (curiously,
available only until 9 p.m.).  AMERICAN COOKERY evidently survived until 1947.

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BISMARCK (continued)

     DARE (and Mariani's ENCYCLOPEDIA) has "1930s."
     From AMERICAN COOKERY, April 1929, pg. 718, col. 2:

QUERY No. 4767.--"Will you please publish a recipe for Bismarcks?"
     _How to Make Bismarcks_
     In one cup and one-half of warm milk, water, or a mixture of the two,
dissolve one tablespoonful of sugar, and blend one cake of compressed yeast.
Add one cup and one-half of flour, and beat to a smooth batter.  Cover, and
let stand in a warm place for an hour, or until spongy and full of holes.
Then add to the sponge one-half a cup of sugar and three tablespoonfuls of
butter, creamed together with one-fourth a teaspoonful, each, of mace and of
common salt.  Add also one well-beaten egg, and enough flour to make a soft
dough--this should be from two cups and one-half to three cups.  Knead
lightly, place in a well-greased bowl, cover, and let stand again in a warm
place until double in bulk.  When thus risen, roll on a large, floured board
to a sheet not more than one-fourth an inch in thickness--and better if only
three sixteenths.  Cut with a doughnut cutter, and pipe over half of the
rounds so cut some good, thick jam, jelly, or preserve, making a line of the
jam along the center of the rings.  Cover each of the filled rings with a
plain ring, moisten the edges and press together and maybe twist a little
like a turnover.  Let stand, covered with a cloth, until nicely puffed up,
then drop into hot fat, with the side uppermost that has been next to the
board while rising.  The quantities given should make three dozen bismarcks.

     From AMERICAN COOKERY, November 1932, pg. 297, col. 2:

QUERY No. 5024.--"(...) What are Bismarks?"
     _Bismarks_
     Bismarks, sometimes called Bismark rings, or Berliner Pfannkuchen, or
even--though not quite correctly--jellied doughnuts, are delicious little
cakes made of a raised dough that has a little extra butter and sugar in it.
WHen ready to handle, this dough is divided into pieces about the size of a
tennis ball, these are rolled into squares, each square spread with almond
cream (or any good preserve) and rolled up like a jelly roll.  The ends are
joined to form rings, they are allowed to rise again until very light, then
baked after slashing each in several places.  Excellent served hot as coffee
rolls.

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MEXICAN BUNNY

     It'll be an uphill fight to get "Mexican Bunny" into the OED.  I didn't
see it in DARE.  Please post your "bunny" feeling about this dish.
     From AMERICAN COOKERY, January 1923, pg. 437, col. 1:

     _Mexican Bunny_
     Melt one tablespoonful of (col. 2--ed.) butter; in it cook one green
pepper, cut in squares (disgarding the seeds), until softened a little; add
one pound of cheese, cut in thin bits, and stir constantly until melted; add
two-thirds a cup of canned corn and one-half a teaspoonful of salt, and stir
until well blended, then add two eggs, beaten and mixed with two-thirds a cup
of canned tomato, and stir until the mixture is hot and smooth.  Serve in
patty cases with a roll of bacon on the top of each.  A typical southern dish.

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MACKINAC ISLAND SAUCE

     See "Mexican Bunny."  Another "M" not in the OED and not in DARE.
Mackinac Island Sauce is not as popular as Thousand Island Dressing, but this
Island deserves to be recorded.
     From AMERICAN COOKERY, November 1922, pg. 275, col. 1:

     _Mackinac Island Sauce_
     Put through the meat chopper six ounces of breakfast bacon, and let cook
on a hot pan with one chopped onion until the fat is tried out from the bacon
and the onion is slightly browned.  Strain off the flavored fat, and blend
with it six tablespoonfuls of flour and one-fourth a teaspoonful of white
pepper.  Heat in the pan in which the bacon was cooked one cup of stock, and
melt in this one-half a cup of apple or currant jelly.  Add the bacon fat,
thickened with flour, and stir until the whole boils.  Lastly, add the juice
of one lemon, and pour at once into a sauce-boat.  The sauce should be about
as thick as a cake batter.

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DIXIE DISHES

     "Dixie Dishes" by Eunice Coston is an excellent short article in
AMERICAN COOKERY, October 1934, pages 153-155.

Pg. 153, col. 1:  But turnip greens, cooked properly, that is with a
seasoning of salt pork--or, colloquially, "fat meat"--make a delicious dish.
The water in which the meat and greens are boiled constitutes the famous "pot
liquor" but recently the (col. 2--ed.) subject of headlines and editorials
when the relative merits of "dunking" or sipping were hotly discussed.
Pg. 153, col. 2:  Down in Florida this corn bread is fried in deep fat as an
acompanimentto "fish fries" and the thin pones bear the euphonious name of
"hush puppies."  The origin is obscure but one who has eaten thereof
understands that the delectable dish would hush any number of puppies' cries
of hunger.
Pg. 154, col. 2:  Hominy, made of the large whole grains of corn and prepared
with the aid of lye, which removes the husks, is known in some parts as "big
hominy" to distinguish it from grits, sometimes called "hominy."
Pg. 154, col. 2:  There was great indignation among staff members of a
library in a southern city when one of their number, "born and raised" in the
South, claimed not to know the meaning of "roas'n' ears."  Now, any good
southerner knows that "roas'n' ears" is simply another name for corn on the
cob.  The name was probably handed down from the days when Indians and early
settlers roasted the tender ears of corn in the ashes.  Even today the corn
is occasionally placed in the oven and roasted, though it is usually boiled
on the cob.  But the name survives; and no easy-going southerner will say
"roasting ears"--no indeed!--"roas'n' ears," (pg. 155, col. 1--ed) elided as
in French, is the correct term.

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BUBBLE-AND-SQUEAK

     DARE has this from 1930.
     From AMERICAN COOKERY, June/July 1925, pg. 41, col. 2:

     _Bubble-and-Squeak_
     Put two tablespoonfuls of butter on a hot pan, and cook in this one
thin-sliced onion.  Add enough slices of cold meat of any kind to cover the
bottom of the pan, and over them lay two cups of chopped, cold, cooked
cabbage, well seasoned with salt and pepper.  Cook until the cabbage is hot
through, and the steam bubbles up through it with little squeaky noises.
Slip the whole from the pan on to a hot platter and serve with baked potatoes.

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SAILORS' DUFF

     From AMERICAN COOKERY, April 1925, pg. 698, col. 2:

QUERY No. 4501.--"Will you please publish a recipe for Sailors' Duff, if you
know anything about this? (...)"
     _Sailors' Duff_
     A young relative of ours, who follows the sea, often mentioned "Plum
Duff," as one of the best of the goodies from the cook's galley.  He
described it as a boiled dumpling, with raisins in it.  We are inclined to
think that this must be the "Sailors' Duff" you inquire about, or something
closely akin to it.

     From AMERICAN COOKERY, March 1937, pg. 502, col. 1:

QUERY No. 5709.--"Can you send us a recipe for a pudding called 'Sailor
Duff'? (...)"
     _Sailor Duff_
     When Favorite Recipes from Women's Clubs were printed in the magazine
during 1935, a recipe for Sailor Duff Pudding was sent to us by Miss Bertha
L. Cable, manager of the Women's Athletic Club, Los Angeles, California.
Beat one egg and add two tablespoonfuls of sugar and one-half a cup of
molasses.  Dissolve one teaspoonful of soda in one-half a cup of boiling
water and add to the mixture, alternating with one scant cup and one-half of
flour, add one tablespoonful of melted butter.  Beat well and steam for one
hour in individual moulds.  Serve with St. Cecilia Sauce.
     _St. Cecilia Sauce:_  Beat two egg-yolks and add gradually, while still
beating, one cup of powdered sugar.  Fold in one cup of (col. 2--ed.) heavy
cream whipped, and flavor with one tablespoonful of sherry.
     We have heard the story that a sailor in the galley mispronounced the
word "dough" as "duff" but we are not able to quote any authority for it.
Perhaps some of the readers of the column can tell us more about the term and
its origin.

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UPSIDE-DOWN CAKES

    A long recipe for "Upside-Down Cakes" is in AMERICAN COOKERY, June/July
1925, pg. 54.  From pg. 55, col. 1:

     The cake is variously named Pineapple Cake, Pineapple or Apricot Torte,
Caramel Pudding, Frying Pan Cake, Skillet Cake, Griddle Cake, Pineappple
Glace, Different Pudding, Chesterfield Pie; but Skillet or Upside-Down Cake
are the commonest names.  The recipe originally seems to have come from
Belgium, and was given to the mother of one of our friends by a famous
Belgian general.

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TOMATO JUICE COCKTAIL

     This is a famous but often forgotten cocktail.
     From AMERICAN COOKERY, January 1934, pg. 370, col. 2:

QUERY No. 5167.--"I wish you would tell me how to make a good Tomato
Cocktail."
     _Tomato Juice Cocktail_
     We have had so many requests for a recipe for this kind of cocktail that
we think if published in this department of our magazine it will be welcome
to many readers.  Here is one form of it:
     Strain the liquid portion of a can of tomatoes through a fine strainer,
and add to it a tablespoonful of the following sauce or bottled mixture.

Pinch of salt
2/3 tablespoonful of tomato catsup
Sprinkling of lemon juice
1/2 teaspoonful Worcestershire sauce
1/4 teaspoonful horse-radish
1 tablespoonful chili sauce
Dash of tabasco

     Mix all these ingredients thoroughly together before adding the required
amount to thetomato juice.  One tablespoonful should be enough for a cup of
the juice, and this should be enough for four cocktail glasses.  If you use
fresh tomatoes, a pound should yield a cup of juice.  They may be put through
the food chopper before the straining, and this should not be through so fine
a sieve that every minute bit of tomato pulp is removed if you wish to
preserve the pretty red color.  If you wish one more highly seasoned you may
add more of the sauce.
     _A Simpler Cocktail_
     A simpler cocktail may be made by flavoring a cup of tomato juice with
two teaspoonfuls of sugar, one-fourth a teaspoonful of salt, and one
teaspoonful of meat extract.  The extract darkens the clear crimson of the
tomato juice, but gives a good bouillon flavor.