Hello friends! Today, I’m sharing a “twofer” post. First up, a cocktail called the Caliph of Baghdad. This recipe is from a 1933 book, Del Monte – Cocktail Recipes Mixed by Famous People for a Famous Hotel. I chose it because of its connection to this month’s Dining with The Dame book, They Came To Baghdad. This book was originally published in 1933 for the Del Monte Hotel but has been brought back into circulation by my old pal, Jenny of Silver Screen Suppers and Dinner and A Movie.
The Book
The book was inspired in 1933 around the same time as the the repeal of Prohibition.
“John Caitlin, the eccentric Mayor of Carmel-By-The-Sea in California, established the Association for the Advancement of the Fine Art of Drinking and invited the great and good of the stage, screen and typewriter to submit their concoctions for consideration”
Submissions were evaluated at the Del Monte Hotel in Monterey in December 1933, leading to the creation of the book.
Ernest Hemingway, Marlene Dietrich, W.C. Fields, and the Marx Brothers were but a few of the great and the good to submit recipes. I will definitely be featuring the Marlene Dietrich cocktail down the track, it sounds amazing!
The Hotel
The Hotel Del Monte still exists and it looks beautiful!!!! And, the rates are not exorbitant. I have never been to America, but my best friend lives in California so it is high on my list of places to go! I wonder if we could have a night or two in the Del Monte when I am there so we can pay homage to the Association for the Advancement of the Fine Art of Drinking!
The Caliph of Baghdad – The Drink
There is a warning that this drink packs a punch. And it certainly does! This is one that you want to sip slowly all night and / or add a lot of ice! Having said that, savouring one of these over a evening is quite pleasant because the sweet / sour of the brown sugar and the lime combined with the rum is delicious!
I can absolutely recommend the Del Monte Cocktail book! There are many delicious sounding cocktails from so many famous names! It is truly a little piece of history!
My first attempt at blogging involved writing about the food contained in, or inspired by, the books I was reading. It was not successful because, after the first book, the next three books I read did not contain any food to blog about! But I have never lost the desire to blog about food in fiction. This year one of my goals was to (re)read the novels of Agatha Christie. And, as I began to read, I started to think that maybe it was time to give combining food and fiction another try. Which is why today you are reading the first in a series called Dining with the Dame. We’re getting things started with rum-spiked cocoa as featured in…
The Mysterious Affair At Styles
We’ll start at the very beginning. It’s a very good place to start, after all. The Mysterious Affair At Styles was Agatha Christie’s first novel to be published way back in October 1920.
“Styles” is also the first Hercule Poirot mystery. Poirot is a war refugee, living in the village of Styles St Mary with 7 of his chums. And whilst this series will focus mainly on the novels, there is an absolutely delightful moment in the Poirot tv series where Poirot’s crew of Belgian refugees are walking through the British countryside singing “It’s a long way to Tipperary” before becoming acquainted with the pleasures of the English public house. That moment occurs at around the 13-minute mark if you want to see it for yourself!
The eponymous mysterious affair is the death of Emily Inglethorpe, owner of the country manor Styles. Mrs. Inglethorpe did not pass away quietly in her sleep but was poisoned! Enter Hercule to exonerate the wrongly accused and, of course, find the real murderer.
The Covers
I made a tier of some of the covers for this novel. There were many, many more. I have so many opinions that this would become the longest post ever if I started to voice them – but take a look. What is your favourite?
What would you move up? Or down?
The Recipe – Rum Spiked Cocoa
Poirot is talking to Annie, one of the maids at Styles.
“Now I want to ask about something else. There is a saucepan in Mrs. Inglethorpe’s room with some cocoa in it. Did she have that every night?”
“Yes sir, it was put in her room every evening, and she warmed it up in the night – whenever she fancied it.”
“What was it? Plain cocoa?
“Yes sir, made with milk, a teaspoon of sugar, and two teaspoonfuls of rum in it.”
This is soooo good. The little hit of rum adds a lovely little kick to a drink that is 100% as comfort! And we all can use a little bit of comfort in our lives!
Heat the milk in a small saucepan over a medium heat. A pan with a pouring spout is ideal.
As it heats, add the sugar and the cocoa.
Use a small whisk to get rid of any cocoa lumps.
Just before the mixture reaches boiling point, take off the heat, add the rum
Serve immediately.
Notes
Marshmallows would be great with this. I did not include as they were not mentioned in the “recipe” in the book. To really boost the rum flavour in the cocoa, you could even made some rum marshmallows!
This book was written 100 years ago and contains passages that are (or should be) abhorrent to the modern reader. I do not share these views nor wish to repeat them. But nor do I want to ignore that they exist. They are there and they are horrible.
I do not think that the views expressed were necessarily that of Christie but were certainly opinions that were held at the time, and let’s be totally honest by the very worst members of our society today.
I personally think we can still enjoy reading Christie while vehemently disagreeing with the views of some of her characters but please let me know what you think.
Next Up
For anyone who wants to read along and / or cook along my plan for April is to feature The Secret Adversary. Now that we are all pretty much living in social isolation, maybe a joint project is something we need to keep us connected! Let’s just hope there is some mention of food in it – I don’t have a good track record when it comes to this!
Stay safe friends. And by that, I mean avoiding money-hungry relatives dosing your cocoa with narcotics and adding strychnine in your coffee. And of course, looking after yourself in these crazy times.
So remiss of me, we’ve been celebrating a while now and I haven’t offered you a drink. Well, my parched friends, this is worth the wait. Meet the Rum 007!
This may be my favourite cocktail EVER.
It’s sooooo good.
And to think, because of the apricot brandy, I was a bit scared of making it. A few years ago I needed to buy some cherry brandy for a cocktail and it was disgusting. Like that revolting fake cherry cough syrup you had to drink when you were young. I was a very sickly child and I must have drunk a ton and a half of that stuff and the thought of it still gives me the horrors.
Thankfully, Apricot Brandy is utterly delicious. Almost too good if you know what I mean.
Of course if anything is called 007, you automatically think of Bond. I could find no links to this recipe and JB although a Rum Collins apparently features in Thunderball.
So, when in doubt, make it up…that’s totally a thing isn’t it?
My explanation for the story behind the name has nothing to do with a certain spy. It’s simply that when you take you first sip, thinking the Apricot Brandy will be disgusting and cloying and sickly sweet, you say “Oh”…then the nutty sweet, tangy pineapply, rummy wonderfulness hits you and you say “OH”. Then you want six more. Because it’s THAT good.
I found this recipe in the Margaret Fulton Cookbook which happens to be the selection current selection over at The Cookbook Guru. My edition of this book, which incidentally is STILL in print dates from 1977 which is the same year The Spy Who Loved Me was released.
For those of you not familiar with Margaret she is a complete cooking Australian legend. It says so right on the Margaret Fulton stamp. And Australia Post does not lie. Or make stamps of just anyone. This lady is the grande dame, the mec plus ultra of Australian cooking.
…And, as a heads up, back in the day, she made the most amazing cake, which I will attempt to replicate for my own birthday later in the year. You’ll have to wait til August to see that but, if I can pull it off it will be worth the wait.
There are many reasons to love Margaret Fulton, but in terms of inventing an awesome cocktail, possibly based on James Bond?
Nobody does it better!
And because it’s my favorite Bond song, here it is
‘Kay, I’m done here, I have another six five 007’s to drink….I like to call it quality control. I couldn’t possibly give you a recipe that I hadn’t personally tested multiple times.
Here’s the recipe.
Enjoy and have a fabulous week!
Eight days to Pieathalon 2….I can hardly wait!!!
Two weeks still to go in the win a vintage cookbook comp! Sign up, tell your friends!
One of the reasons I love old cookbooks is sometimes you get a little insight in to the lives of the people who owned them previously. My latest favourite vintage find, Salads For All Seasons is no exception.
There is an inscription on the front inner cover that reads “To Ann, Happy Christmas 1985. Love Aunty Ev & Uncle Bill.
Thing is…the book was published in 1971. I don’t want to judge but I dunno….unless it’s an absolute classic, giving someone a 14 year old cookbook makes me think that some regifting may have been at play here.
I suspect Ann may not have been the favourite niece.
Avocado and Aguacate Dressing
In the foreward Elizabeth Durack Clancy O.B.E. says:
“I commend this book because it is so useful and practical. “The wilful extravagant maid” can learn some fresh devilment from these pages but the “housewife that’s thrifty” is equally catered for.”
Hmmm…I’m thinking Aunty Ev may have been one of those “thrifty housewives”. And good old Ann, a maid of will and extravagance. It’s all starting to come together….it certainly explains the parsimony of the Christmas present. And the lack of a term of endearment in the greeting.
Next up, the introduction where author Rosemary Mayne-Wilson tells us:
“Salad used to something served on Sunday evenings. It consisted of neatly shredded lettuce, tomato wedges, hard boiled eggs and a slice of cheese. It was served with the sliced leftovers of the Sunday roast. Generally it was put straight on the plate, but when there were visitors it was served in a crystal salad bowl. To make it daring, a blob of mayonnaise was added, but this ‘extra’ was confined to adults”
Personally, I’d be quite happy eating that salad. But more importantly, who knew mayo was a rite of passage?
Wasabi Leaves
Then again, have you heard of those Menarche Parties that people are throwing their daughters these days? I swear, if my parents had ever done anything like that to me, I would still be locked in the bathroom, listening to The Smiths on repeat and sobbing “You hate me don’t you? You really fucking hate me.”
You can view the full horror by clicking on the link below but just to whet your appetite, included in the party pack provided by…
wait for it…
Menarche Parties R Us.com ((2021 Update – sadly this site no longer exists))
(I swear you couldn’t make this shit up if you tried)
…are 2 games. One of these is called “Pin the Ovaries” and the other is called the “Puberty Marshmallow Game”.
(2021 Update – sadly this site no longer exists)
Pinning ovaries sounds like something a serial killer would do. And I never want to know what a puberty marshmallow game entails.
For the love of God, bring back the dob of mayo on the Sunday Night Salad. “You’re a woman now Ann, have some Hellman’s”.
“Gee thanks Aunty Ev. Any chance of some tips on frugality?”
Wow,that was a spectacular digression. Where we we? Salad. Yes. Right. Ok. Sorry, I’m still being gobsmacked by the puberty marshmallow game.
Salad. We’re here to talk about salad.
Cuban Aguacate Salad 2
Back to the Introduction of Salads For All Seasons – after dropping in the comment about the mayo, in a lovely piece of randomness, Rosemary Mayne-Wilson tells us:
“Of course this has all changed and now nearly everyone owns a wooden salad bowl”
Bear with me while I nip across to Ebay because I am one of the few who own nothing of the sort. And now I desperately want one. I really want one that looks like this:
But I’m guessing I might have to make do with something a little more mundane.
And it will come in handy because I’m thinking that this could be a long haul. There is so much that is both amazing and godawful in Salads for All Seasons, that I think it’s worth spending some time here.
I was going to work through it from start to finish…until I read some of the recipes and paused for a moment of sanity. So we’ll be kind of working our way through in a fairly random order but skipping some of the truly awful and the just plain boring.
But just to get us off to a to an extravagant and devilish start, put your hot pink dancin’ shoes on, because your tastebuds are going to be doing the Rhumba with this awesome Cuban inspired salad.
[amd-zlrecipe-recipe:2]
Cuban Aguacate Salad
Who knew you could put rum into salad dressing? It’s certainly efficient – you can toxify and detoxify at the same time!!! And it tastes great!
I”m going to be spending my week, trying not to think about marshmallows! Hopefully Salad dressing liberally dosed with Bacardi will help that act of forgetting.
