Happy International Spaghetti Day! We must have been pretty gauche back in the 1970s because in her eponymous cookbook, Margaret Fulton had to show us how to eat spaghetti. Lord only knows what we’d been doing before this. Launching face-first into the plate? Lady and the Tramping it? Employing scissors a la Buster Keaon?
Thank goodness we had Margaret to tell us how to do it with a modicum of grace and class.
Three Steps to Spaghetti Eating Heaven
I very clearly remember my parents teaching me this exact method of twirling spaghetti in our favourite Italian restaurant (Leo’s Spaghetti Bar) when I was around 5. I’m not sure if they had been taking lessons from Margaret or were just trying to prevent the tabletop from looking like Armageddon. Apparently, though this is not the proper way of eating spaghetti at all.
It would be remiss if I left this post without commenting on the model in the spoon twirling shots. That woman has quite hairy arms. Nowadays she would be epilated, waxed and / or photoshopped into hairless conformity. The 1970s were content to let it all hang out. Except for their spaghetti which was tightly coiled around a fork, thanks to Margaret Fulton!
If you would like to celebrate today by eating some spaghetti, you can find a recipe here!
We can all take a lesson from the French when it comes to cooking eggs. In France the egg comes into its own, not only as a simple as delicious breakfast food, but as gourmet fare as well
– Margaret Fulton
We can also all take a lesson from modern sensibility in creating an introductory photo for a chapter.
1977 says…Copper pots, geraniums, mushrooms and tomatoes on top of omelettes, more tomatoes, more mushrooms, is that some cheese on the left? There’s definitely a teapot and some mugs and some eggs. So busy…
I’m not a pork eater….although I have been known to steal a bit of crackling off his plate if he orders it when we go out.
On the basis of crackling alone, both of these look pretty good. The apples in Maragaret’s 1977 port look weird and not very nice. But the modern version could do with one of the two bowls of applesauce from the vintage version.
Roast Pork – Then & Now
I’m really not fit to judge on this though. So, pork eaters, which of these appeals to you you more?
And whislt they are not chops, these pictures did remind me of one of my favourite bits from the Brady Bunch …
Like rock and roll and dancing in that town in Footloose, burgers must be the work of the devil. There is no other explanation for something so simple tasting so good! And that’s just normal burgers. Once you have tried Margaret Fulton’s Devilled Burgers you will be ready to sell your soul for the recipe!
Not that you have to of course. The recipe is at the end of the post. No soul selling involved!
So what makes the Devilled Burger so special?
Oh and warning ahead…I am going to drop the dreaded M word. You know, the one that rhymes with foist. Haters beware!
One thing I have noticed about a couple of old hamburger recipes is that they use bread soaked in evaporated milk. This may both look and sound pretty gross but I think this combo really helps to keep the burgers moist. There. I’ve said it.
This mixture turns into something that resembles either wallpaper paste or the gruel from Oliver but I think it does the job. I had these two nights running and I was expecting that reheating them on the second night would make them dry but no, they were as juicy as ever! Possibly even better than the first night.
Other ingredients are finely chopped mushrooms (sorry Jenny), mustard, tomato ketchup, green Habanero sauce, horseradish and Worcestershire Sauce! No wonder these are tasty little demons!
These are so good. Who could believe ground beef could be so tasty? These have rocked straight in at number two on my best burgers ever (right behind my spicy feta burgers)! Hmmm..,.now what would happen if you added some feta and cumin to this recipe? The burger to end all burgers? Burgergeddon? I now so want to try it out!
Top these burgers with your favourite toppings, mine are in the recipe below and enjoy!!!!
If serving at your own devil theme party, why not lay out your salad ingredients and condiments and any other trimmings you like and let your guests create their own version of the Devilled Burger?
1/4 cup tomato ketchup or mild chilli sauce (I used a combination of ketchup and green habanero sauce)
2 tsp prepared horseradish
2 tsp Worchestershire sauce
1/4 cup mayonnaise
2 tsp green Habenero sauce
Lettuce leaves
Tomato Slices
Vintage Cheddar, thinly sliced
Red Onions, thinly sliced
Pickles
Instructions
Remove the crusts from the read, cut into squares and soak in evaporated milk for 10 minutes, then beat with a fork.
Mix meat, bread, salt, pepper, onion, mushrooms, mustard, tomato ketchup and/or chilli sauce, horseradish and Worchestershire Sauce in large bowl. Mix in the eggs with a fork.
Shape into 10 even sized patties.
Heat some oil in a frying pan and gently fry the red onions .
Preheat the grill and grill the hamburgers on one side for 7-8 minutes on one side and ^ minutes on the other. Add a slice of cheese using and grill for a further minute or so until the cheese has melted.
Whilst the hamburger is cooking, toast your buns.
Mix the mayonnaise and the green habanero sauce together and spread over the buns.
Top with a lettuce leaf and a slice of tomato.
Place the burger on top of the tomato and top with the fried onions and the burger bun.
Pickles can be served on the side or in the burger or not at all!
Oh and look! Is that a bottle of Lychee Beer in the background? Yes indeed. Just doing a little taste testing for the margarita to come. Or should that be a lagerita?
Have a fab week! Next time, we’ll be wrapping up our devil themed party with an appropriately titled cake from the Domestic Goddess herself!
They say it’s your birthday
It’s my birthday too, yeah
They say it’s your birthday
We’re gonna have a good time
I’m glad it’s your birthday
Happy birthday to you
Hey there
So yes, it was my birthday…and I made us all a cake. And, oh boy, what a cake. Just in case you thought that after that weird stroking meat hand we were done with Margaret Fulton? No way. No how. Nyet.
Birthday Cake
Because I saved the best for last. Because back in the 60’s Margaret Fulton made a very special cake. Which I totally copied for my birthday. And it was awesome.
What made it so good?
The burnt sugar cake? Incidentally a first for me (and utterly delicious)…
Beatles Cake 2
The caramel icing?
That it came with four….huh…maybe fab four friends to help get the party started?
Beatles Cake4
Yes, I made The Beatles Cake!!!! Which of course, you already knew if you read the heading so my attempt at suspense was all for nought.
Here is Margaret Fulton’s original version, made back in the day.
And here is mine:
beatles cake5
I think I did a pretty good job of this. I was very pleased with my Beatle cookies. Dare I say they may possibly even look slightly more like their counterparts than Margaret’s original? And I know they’re not going to win any form of identikit prize and it may not be the face of Jesus on a grilled cheese sandwich but it’s almost recognizably The Beatles. If you squint. And look from far away…
Beatles Cake – John
I found the recipe here, although the burnt sugar cake is also included in the Margaret Fulton cookbook.
I changed it only slightly, I used the same icing pen for the eyes as I used to pipe the yeah, yeah, yeah biscuits and I rolled my liquorice flat (9-10 seconds in the microwave and it became soft enough to roll out). Then I cut the hair shapes out with a pair of scissors.
Beatles Cake – Paul
Also, the template in the link did not work so I had to make my own face templates. I looked at a few things and I decided my best option was actually to use some of the images I found looking under Beatles cartoons. I printed them, cut them out, then cut around them to get the face shapes.
I felt very sorry for Ringo. The original recipe called for a peanut for each of the other Beatles’ noses and THREE cashews for Ringo’s! Too cruel Margaret, too cruel. I used a whole peanut for Ringo and a half peanut for the others.
Beatles Cake – Ringo
To be honest with you I did not think I could pull this one off. There were so many points of worry – the shape of the cookies, decorating them, the right amount of burnt for the burnt sugar cake, the caramel icing. This whole thing was FRAUGHT with a lack of confidence in myself more than any real complexity in the cooking. I mean it wasn’t the easiest thing I have ever made but it also was not as hard as I made it out be in my head.
Beatles Cake – George
The secret was like most things to give myself plenty of time and to break the recipe into little pieces. I baked the cookies on Friday night, baked the cake on Saturday and did the icing and all the cookie decorations on Sunday. For me this was about right. I think trying to do more would have lead to madness.
Did I mention this was delicious? And in the end….haha…worth all the bother. Margaret Fulton sure knew how to make a cake! It was also HUGE.
But only fitting this time round to finish some words from my favourite Beatle, George Harrison:
All the world’s a birthday cake,
So take a piece….but not too much
Thank goodness we had Margaret to tell us how to do it with a modicum of grace and class.
