World Cooking - Retro Food For Modern Times

Category: World Cooking

26
Dec
2021

Saratoga Torte

categories: 1980's Food, Australasia, Desserts

You may be thinking that the recipe for Saratoga Totre comes from the American chapter of Good Housekeeping’s World Cookery. It does not. I found this recipe in the October 1986 issue of the Vogue Entertaining Guide I had never heard of Saratoga Torte and assumed it was an American dish. I was very surprised to learn that it is actually an Australian recipe. There is a small town called Saratoga on the Central Coast of New South Wales so it may have originated there.

Madelaine’s Saratoga Torte

Technically this recipe is called Madelaine’s Saratoga Torte however, as there is no mention of who Madelaine is or how her Saratoga Torte differs from anyone else’s, I am taking the liberty of dropping her name. The recipe comes from an article entitled “Anyone for Tennis?” focussing on mother and daughter entertainers Maria and Helena Law.

This is also the same edition of Vogue Entertaining that gave us this recipe for crumbed lamb cutlets.

Sao Biscuits

Sao (Say-O) biscuits are key to making Saratoga Torte. These are a savoury cracker biscuit that have been made by Arnott’s biscuits since 1906. Sao is possibly an acronym for Salvation Army Officer as one of the Arnott’s Brothers was indeed an officer in the Salvation Army.

If you are not in Australia and you want to make a Saratoga torte I would suggest substituting water crackers. However Sao’s are quite large so I would use double the number of water crackers.

Also, if you happen to be researching Sao biscuits stay away from any mentions of the soggy Sao. This is a practice apparently indulged in by groups of teenage boys. As with most things done by groups of teenage boys it is highly unsavoury.

You have been warned. Proceed down that path and anything that comes at you is on you. Which is potentially a very bad choice of words.

Let’s swiftly move on!

What is Saratoga Torte?

Imagine if you made a meringue mixture and you added crushed-up crackers and crumbled walnuts to the mixture. Then you baked that and topped it with whipped cream and flaked chocolate.

That, in essence is Saratoga Torte.

And it is delicious!!!

The nutty meringue with a little hit of salt every now and again from the crackers is so good! And the cream and little hints of chocolate are the perfect foil. A little hit of Amaretto or Frangelico in the cream would also not be entirely out of keeping.

This was a bit sweet, the next time I make this I will drop the sugar down to 3/4 of a cup and not a whole cup. The key to a lovely thick and glossy meringue is to add the sugar quite slowly and to make sure that each spoonful melts before you add the next one.

The Recipe – Saratoga Torte

Saratoga Torte is utterly delicious, very easy to make and also a little bit out of the ordinary. Why not make it as part of your New Year’s festivities?

Also, if anyone knows the origin of Saratoga torte or who Madelaine might be, please drop me a note in the comments!

I hope you all had a lovely Christmas!

I’m on holiday from work so hope to have another post for you before the new year. Whatever you are up to, I hope you have a wonderful week!

12
Dec
2021

A Man’s Barbecued Chicken?

categories: 1970's recipes, Chicken, Chicken & Poultry, Good Housekeeping World Cookery, United States of America

When I first saw the recipe for A Man’s Barbecued Chicken, I assumed it was so called because it had a hefty slug of booze, most likely Bourbon, in the barbecue sauce. Because God forbid that the women of 1973 were getting sozzled on Maker’s Mark while cooking chicken. Then I read the recipe and there is no alcohol at all in it. So that theory went down the gurgler. I am actually baffled as to why this would specifically be a man’s barbecued chicken.

This was really delicious. I particularly liked the sauce. I find a lot of barbecue sauces far too sweet for my palate but this had a lovely balance of sweet and sour. The recipe does contain that mysterious ingredient “piquant table sauce” which a couple of readers have suggested will likely be A1 steak sauce. I still don’t have any of that so I used Worchestershire Sauce.

I used skin-on thigh cutlets instead of quarter chickens and tomato passata instead of the tomato juice in the recipe.

The sauce really did become finger-licking good! Hmmm…Is that why it’s A Man’s Barbecued Chicken? Maybe the women of the 1970’s didn’t lick their fingers?

The method of cooking the chicken was weird, you put it in the dish skin side down for the first half an hour then turned it over. The chicken stayed very moist – I am not sure if that was this method of cooking or the frequent basting with the sauce that did that but either way, it worked!!!

I served this with a very simple potato and watercress salad and some of the additional sauce on the side. Corn would also be a great accompaniment as would a green salad.

A Man’s Barbecued Chicken – The Recipe

We here at Retro Food for Modern Times believe that one of the joys of food is the sharing of it with our friends and fam. So, today we are changing the game on A Man’s Barbecue Chicken by changing the name.

Cook it, eat it with people you love, or share it with strangers. Either way, you and everyone else who eats it will be happier, even just for a few sticky-fingered moments.

Have a great week!

And if you have any insight into the original name, drop me a note in the comments!

05
Dec
2021

Cabin Casserole

categories: 1970's food, 1970's recipes, Good Housekeeping World Cookery, Meat, United States of America

The very name Cabin Casserole conjures up something hearty and comforting. Something the Ingalls family might have eaten on Little House on The Prairie. And the recipe for Cabin Casserole from the American Chapter of Good Housekeeping’s World Cookery did not disappoint. For my readers in the Northern Hemisphere who are heading into winter and who are looking for an easy tasty meal, this one needs to go onto your rotation list ASAP.

What is Cabin Casserole?

Cabin Casserole is layered tomato and onions with bacon and chops that have been sprinkled with curry powder and salt. I used lamb chops for my casserole but pork chops would also work. Also, don’t stint on the salt. I only used a little salt because I thought the bacon would bring enough but I had to add salt at the end. Having said that, for a recipe with so few ingredients, this is really tasty!

I also did not use dripping to fry my chops, I fried the bacon first then used the bacon fat to fry the chops.

I served my cabin casserole with little potatoes wrapped in Proscuitto and a sage leaf and some grilled zucchini with feta cheese. The Cabin Casserole would be super with mashed potatoes!

Little House on The Prairie – The Lost Cabin Casserole Episode

Further to my mention of Little House on the Prairie, I can almost imagine the episode which would be called “Give them curry, Laura”. The Olesen’s start selling the very exotic ingredient of curry powder in the Mercantile. Nellie teases Laura that her family is too poor to ever even taste it. A fight ensues a little like this one. Just substitute “Your pa’s too poor to buy curry powder” instead of smelling like a horse.

Laura is required to go to the Mercantile and apologise to Nellie. She also has to help out in the store for a week. We see in a store work montage that she works very hard and is so polite to the customers that through the week she makes a little tip here and there.

At the end of the week, she has enough money to buy herself some candy or maybe a toy. Instead, she asks for some curry powder which she takes home and gives to Ma.

That night the Ingalls family feast on Cabin Casserole.

The moral of the story is that hard work and not giving someone curry is the key to getting curry.

Here’s the recipe

Have a wonderful week!

28
Nov
2021

The BLT – An American Classic?

categories: Bacon, Classic Recipes, Sandwiches, United States of America

I was very surprised recently to learn that what I thought was a quintessentially American sandwich was actually British in origin!!! Taste Atlas says that the BLT first appeared in British cookbooks in the 1920’s but that it only gained popularity in the U.S.A in the post-war period. It further surprised me to learn that the BLT was, in 2019 ranked as the UK’s favourite sandwich but only came in 6th in the United States!

I guess though, for anyone who is new to Earth…first, hi, welcome, glad you found me! Second, BLT stands for bacon, lettuce, tomato being the three key ingredients of this sandwich.

I LOVE a BLT and it’s avocado-ey cousin the BLAT.

I was hoping to find a classic BLT in the American chapter of Good Housekeeping’s World Cookery. Not that I need an excuse to make one. However, I was simultaneously delighted and horrified to see their idea of a BLT. Here’s their recipe:

The GHWC BLT – The Pros

You will notice that Good Housekeeping calls it a Bacon, Tomato and Lettuce Sandwich. Which if you look at my picture above is actually my preferred way of layering. I don’t understand why you would go to the bother of getting nice bread and toasting it, only to have the tomato making it all soggy and gross half way through eating it.

My preferred version – from the top-down: toasted bread, bacon, tomato, lettuce mayo, toasted bread. So, thank you Good Housekeeping for getting the order correct!

An potato chips and pickles on the side are always a good idea!

I am ambivalent about whether or not you have a double or single decker BLT. I do think though that the second piece of bread requires either another condiment or another dab of mayonnaise. My preferred option is some Dijon Mustard.

I made my BLT on holiday and we only had some very hefty olive sourdough which normally would not be my choice for a BLT. This was a very heavy bread so double decking my sandwich was not an option – the bread would have overpowered everything. (The olives did make a tasty, if not traditional, alternative!).

The GHWC BLT – The Con

In the words of Amy Winehouse, what kind of fuckery is this?

Who puts processed cheese on their BLT?

You may as well just take a dump on it.

A little bit of Brie, some vintage cheddar? I”m here for it.

Processed cheese?

A Few BLT Questions For You

Do you love a BLT? Or do you prefer a BTL?

Double or Single Decker?

What’s your preferred bread?

Iceberg or fancy lettuce?

What degree of crisp of the bacon? I like my bacon so crisp it is snappable!

Mustard?

Avocado?

Other additions? (If you say processed cheese, you’re dead to me)

Is the BLT the best sandwich ever? Or only the 6th best?

If not your number one, what is better?

Leave your answers in the comments!!!

Have a great week!

24
Oct
2021

Coeur A La Creme – Murder on The Orient Express

categories: 1970's recipes, A-Zof Cooking, Dining With The Dame, France, Poirot

Hello crime readers and food lovers! Welcome to part two of my Murder on The Orient Express Trilogy! We started last week with the fun collab with Jenny from Silver Screen Suppers. Today is a regular Dining with The Dame and next week we will have an added bonus. For now though, let’s focus on my recipe of choice for Dining with the Dame which is a classic French dessert – a Coeur A La Creme, the recipe for which comes from my old favourite, The A-Z of Cooking!

And just to be clear, this dessert is French, not Belgian!

Murder on The Orient Express – The Plot

We touched on this last week but here is a quick recap. Hercule Poirot boards the Orient Express in Istanbul, the train is unexpectedly crowded for the time of year. On the first night, Poirot is approached by an American, Samuel Ratchett who offers Poirot money to protect him as he has been receiving death threats. Poirot does not like him and refuses. Later that evening, after a course of events that either awake him or keep him awake, Poirot learns that the train is stuck in a snowdrift in the middle of Yugoslavia.

The next morning, Poirot wakes to find that his neighbour, the odious Mr Ratchett has been stabbed 12 times and is now resoundingly dead! With no one able to get on or off the train, due to the snowdrift, the murderer has to still be on board. As the police can also not reach the train, Poirot takes on the job of hunting down the killer.

We have:

A mysterious red kimono
A burned letter with the words “member Daisy Armstrong” still legible
A handkerchief bearing the letter H
A pipe cleaner and a box of matches different to those used by Rachett
And twelve passengers who may not be entirely who they seem!

This book is so amazingly plotted, so well written that it brings my obsessive little heart joy to think about it. Every little detail in this is plotted to the nth degree, and yet when you are reading it, it feels effortless.

Murder on The Orient Express- The Covers

The American version of Murder was called Murder on the Calais Coach. Not quite as catchy is it? I love the pulp fiction cover with the woman in the red kimono and am completely baffled by the one on its right. What are those things? They look like some weird brass band instruments!

The Recipe – Coeur A La Creme

Murder on the Orient Express has a surprising lack of food. I was hoping we would have some Turkish food from the Istanbul scenes and then some very posh French food while onboard. No such luck! My choice of a Couer a la Creme came from this passage:

‘Poirot sat down and soon found himself in the favoured position of the table which was served first and with the choicest of morsels. The food too, was unusually good.

It was not until they were eating a delicate cream cheese that M.Bouc allowed his attention to wander to matters other than nourishment. He was at the stafge of the meal when one becomes philosophic”

Agatha Christie, Murder on the Orient Express

Coeur A La Creme is my take on that delicate cream cheese. And I am so glad I chose it. It is absolutely delicious!!! Next to that Ingrid Bergman Trout that I made last week, it is one of the most gorgeous, delicate, delicious things I have ever eaten. Think the lightest most delicious cheesecake you have ever eaten and you are nearly there! And it comes from something as gross as cottage cheese!

Coeur a la Creme is traitionally associated with romantic occasions such as Valentine’s Day. But as we are talking Murder on The Orient Express and we are in spooky season, I hope all those romantics out there will forgive me for making it a bit stabby!

Other Food Mentioned in Murder on the Orient Express

Perrier

Coffee (Multiple times)

Eggs – Eggs always make an appearance in these books! I wonder if writing about Poirot’s egg-shaped head so often made Dame Agatha hungry for them!

Orange juice

Mineral Water

Chicken no sauce

Boiled fish

Tea and biscuits

Cognac

Stay tuned next week for the third and final instalment of the Murder on the Orient Express Extravaganza!!! If you are reading along, next up is Three Act Tragedy so get reading!

Breaking news!

Dining with the Dame now has its own instagram page so if you are reading along or cooking along or just want to share Agatha Christie related recipes or book posts you can now hit me up there too!