Memory Monday: Cooking from a Male Perspective, Part 1

My dad and his dad

COOKING FROM A MALE PROSPECTIVE, Part 1

I recently came across a most delightful cook book from 1922. The title is THE STAG COOK BOOK, WRITTEN FOR MEN BY MEN. My grandfather would have been married about twelve years when this came out and had two very small children (my father and his younger sister).

Since I have enjoyed this book so much, I plan to take two weeks to share some of the recipes from it. I hope you enjoy reading the recipes (and the editor’s notes) just as much as I have.

Warren G. Harding (29^th US President—serving from 1921 until his death, August 2, 1923)

WAFFLES

2 eggs

2 tablespoons sugar

2 tablespoons butter

I teaspoon salt

pint milk

flour to make thin batter

2 large teaspoons of baking powder

Beat yolks of eggs, add sugar and salt, melt butter, add milk and flour; last just before ready to bake add beaten whites of eggs and baking powder.

Bake on hot waffle iron.

EDITOR'S NOTE:—There is a great deal of argument about the proper dressing for waffles. Various gravies are used by one school of waffle eaters; while honey, maple syrup, and various specially flavored sugar powders are preferred by another.

President Harding is a staunch upholder of the gravy school and likes his in the form of creamed chipped beef.

Jules J. Jusserand (Ambassador to the United States from France) RADISH SALAD

The French ambassador presents his compliments and begs to state that he does not believe that any dish, or food, is more palatable than a salad of radishes, the radishes to be cut in very thin slices and to be seasoned with the usual salad dressing.

EDITOR'S NOTE:—This salad will be at its best if the foundation, upon which the thin slices of radish are placed, is made of small crisp leaves of romaine. The usual dressing—french, of course—is prepared in this way:

To one tablespoonful of lemon or vinegar add three table-spoonsful of the best olive oil, a dash of black pepper, and a half teaspoonful of salt. Beat well with a silver fork, and add enough paprika to give it a ruddy color, and a rich flavor. If the salad dish is rubbed with garlic it will do no great harm to the mixture!

Bruce Barton (American author, advertising executive, and politician)

RICE PUDDING

I am president of the S. R. R. R. P.—the Society for

Restoration of Raisins to Rice Pudding.

I have made a list of New York hotels and clubs and rated them according to the number of raisins they put in a portion of rice pudding as follows:

Class D—no raisins

Class C-1 raisin

Class B-3 or more raisins

Class A—plenty of raisins

To my mind, rice pudding without raisins is like Hamlet without the eggs.

1 cup rice

4 cups milk

3 eggs

cup sugar

teaspoonful salt

package seedless raisins

teaspoon of vanilla

Bake one hour in a hot oven. Set the pan inside of another containing hot water.

Serve with whipped cream and garnish with Dromedary dates.

EDITOR'S NOTE:—Cook the rice twenty-three minutes.

I hope you enjoyed this look at the past and the foods some well-known men (at the time) liked. What were the favorite dishes that the men in your family always requested or like to make themselves?