Desert Island Cookbook: Kim Beeman

Name: Kim Beeman

Occupation: Librarian (and student) at the French Culinary Institute in New York.

Desert Island Cookbook: Bull Cook and Authentic Historical Recipes and Practices by George Leonard Herter.



Why Bull Cook? Kim explains:

I bought a copy of Bull Cook and authentic historical recipes four years ago, after seeing it described as a "bombastic comic-culinary masterpiece." With recipes for "Spinach Mother of Christ," "Olives Forum of the Twelve Ceasers," Hors d'Oeuvres Turkistan," and the ever-popular "How to Make Shallots from Onions," it did not disappoint.

George Leonard Herter, sportsman and amateur historian, self-published Bull Cook in 1960. Proprietor of Herter's, a sporting goods store in Waseca, Minnesota, ("Tenacious for Quality since 1893"), his cooking credentials remain obscure. In the first paragraphs of the book, he set out his intentions.

For your convenience, I will start with meat, fish, eggs, soups and sauces, sandwiches, vegetables, the art of French frying, desserts, how to dress game, how to properly sharpen a knife, how to make wines and beer, how to make French soap, what to do in case of hydrogen or cobalt bomb attack. Keeping as much in alphabetical order as possible.

Of all the cookbooks, I have ever come across, I think that this is the only one that deals with cobalt bomb attacks.

Herter, confident and enthusiastic, filled his book with dubious historical and culinary claims. The Italians don't know how to make a tomato sauce! The Virgin Mary loved both spinach and bagpipes! Genghis Khan liked his ducks cooked in rhubarb and honey! Escoffier had a fondness for canned kidney beans! The recipes that accompany these stories are mostly unremarkable, if suspiciously American-sounding (onion powder and cream of mushroom soup make frequent appearances).

I love this cookbook, not because I trust Herter or his recipes, but because I love the way he forges ahead, unfettered by footnotes or references, and tells the story of food as he sees it. Lucky for me, this book was such a success that he followed it up with two more volumes, each more exciting than the last. A singular contribution to the world of cookbooks, to say the least!

Hors D'Oeuvres Turkistan
(taken from Bull Cook and authentic historical recipes and practices)

The prune, although often thought to be of European origin, originated in western Asia in the area south of the Caucasus Mountains to the Caspian Sea. Prunes came to Europe fairly recently by being introduced into Hungary from Turkistan late in the 15th century. They were introduced as a before-the-meal appetizer and were at first so expensive that you could actually buy good quality Turkish harem girls by the pound much cheaper than you could prunes. The rage of Europe became Hors d'Oeuvres Turkistan.

Here is the original recipe and I must say that it is a welcome change from the junk that you see on most hors d'oeuvre trays today.

Buy a package of good quality prunes. Boil them in water until barely done, according to the instructions on the package. Drain the prunes and place them on a plate. Take a sharp, pointed knife and make a slit lengthwise across the top of the prunes and remove the pit. Take a 3 oz. package of soft white cheese. Philadelphia cream cheese is excellent for the purpose. Place the cheese in a bowl. Add two level tablespoons of honey or sugar. Three level tablespoons of chopped walnuts and one-eighth teaspoon of anise liquid flavoring. Now with a fork mix everything together to form a smooth paste. Take the paste and stuff the prunes with it. Place the prunes on a plate and serve. They make fabulous eating.


Herter's other works are also worth reading, including Professional guide's manual (1960) which contains nuggets of philosophical wisdom ("You cannot stay lost in the woods unless you want to)" and provides crucial information about the outdoor life such as "Using beer cans to help attract ducks and geese into picked corn fields," and "How to make a moose call from bark or tar paper."




Another Herter classic is the Truth about hunting in today's Africa and how to go on safari for $690.00. Beyond its striking cover (see below), one can also learn how best to shoot a lion.





His other titles include Herter's professional course in science of modern taxidermy, European and American professional sourdough cooking and recipes, and perhaps his pièce de résistance: How to make the finest wines at home in old glass or plastic bottles and jugs for for as little as 10 [cents] a gallon!

So I'm going to raise a glass of (homemade) wine to Kim for bringing George Herter into my life!

Desert Island Cookbook: Irini Mia Arakas

Name: Irini Mia Arakas

Occupation: Accessories Designer. Label: PROVA

Desert Island Cookbook: The Spence Collection: A Book of Recipes (1987)

Why The Spence Collection? Irini explains:

Perhaps I am taking this question a pinch too literally, but if I were on a desert island, I wouldn't take Suzanne Goin's Sunday Suppers at Lucques or Patricia Wells' Bistro Cooking, or any of the many Nigel Slater cookbooks in my home that I refer to often. I would take The Spence Collection: A Book of Recipes.

I went to the Spence School, an all-girl school on the Upper East Side of Manhattan, and this cookbook was published by my mother and my classmates' mothers in 1987.

The one thing I love most about cookbooks -- and this one has in spades -- is the ability to transport you to another time. For example, I found three salmon mousse recipes (this was the late 80's, people), but I also found recipes for bubble and squeak, guava cake, borscht, avgolemono, and hot and sour soup. Recipes that reminded me of the culturally rich and diverse families that helped make up the student body.

I recently found my mother's copy of the Spence Cookbook (moving twice in one year, you'd be surprised at what you uncover), and as I was flipping through it, a steady swirl of high school memories filled my head; some memories linked to food, most that did not. I found my Aunt Toula's long-lost chocolate chip-cream cheese cupcake recipe. I found my mother's cheesecake recipe, and countless others written by my classmates' grandmothers, fathers, and one recipe written by our head mistress Edes P. Gilbert, who writes in the foreword, "This cookbook is a collection of good ideas about good food which we hope will lead to fine meals and lively conversation in your household. Both are essential to civilized living and pleasurable for all who participate and enjoy!"

Most nights, I am happy to say, my dinner table experiences are filled with friends, great food, and wonderful conversation. But I don't know how civilized we turned out....

Chocolate Chip - Cream Cheese Cupcakes
(contributed by Toula Pappas)

These cupcakes are moist and incredibly delicious.

1 cup flour
1/4 cup Droste cocoa
3/4 cup sugar
1 t. baking powder
1 T. vinegar
1 t. vanilla
1/3 cup vegetable oil
1 cup lukewarm water
1 8-ounce package of cream cheese
1 egg
1/3 cup sugar
1 6-ounce package semi-sweet chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Combine flour, cocoa, sugar, baking powder, vinegar, vanilla, oil, and 1 cup water.

Blend well for two minutes with a whisk and pour into cupcake trays.

Combine cream cheese, egg, and 1/3 cup sugar and beat in blender. Stir in chocolate chips and spoon chip mixture over cake batter.

Bake for 25 minutes at 350 degrees.




The Library has two Spence School cookbooks in the collection. Recipes from Spence and the Spence Cookbook 1965: Father and Daughter Recipes.






Community cookbooks often reflect recipes that the contributors would like people to think that they cook — rather than the dishes they actually cook. This makes for a social phenomenon that has fascinated some food researchers. The subject heading "Community Cookbook" will provide a large variety of examples to peruse. For a history of community cookbooks, consult Recipes for Reading: Community Cookbooks, Stories and Histories, edited by Anne Bower.

David Ferriero's Desert Island Cookbook

Name: David Ferriero

Occupation: Andrew W. Mellon Director of the New York Public Libraries   Archivist of the United States, National Archives, Washington, D.C.

Desert Island Cookbook: The Classic Italian Cookbook
by Marcella Hazan

Why The Classic Italian Cookbook? David explains:

An inspiring, relaxed approach to food preparation, in keeping with the Italian ethos. As she writes in the "Afterthoughts" section of her book:

What people do with food is an act that reveals how they construe the world.... What we find in the cooking of Italy is a serene relationship between man and the sources of his existence, a long-established intimacy between the human and natural orders, a harmonious fusion of man's skills and nature's gifts. The Italian comes to his table with the same open heart with which a child falls into his mother's arms, and with the same easy feeling of being in the right place. (Hazan 393)

For me good cookbooks nurture creativity and experimentation. Hazan's cookbooks do that. Her polenta with gorgonzola and fried polenta recipes lend themselves to experimentation with other ingredients. Her sauces, likewise, encourage experimentation. Among my favorite recipes: chicken livers with sage, roast chicken with rosemary, fennel braised in olive oil, and the pasta dishes -- cappellacci to cappelletti, tortellini to tortelloni!

Chicken Livers with Sage
(from Marcella Hazan's Classic Italian Cookbook)

1 1/2 lb. chicken livers
2 T. finely chopped shallots or onion
2 oz. butter
1 dozen dried sage leaves or a handful of fresh sage
6 T. dry white wine
Salt, to taste
Freshly ground pepper

Examine the livers for any green spots and cut them out. Remove any bits of fat and wash the livers thoroughly in cold water. Dry well on a paper towel.

Sauté the shallots in the butter over medium heat in a frying pan. When they turn pale gold, raise the heat and add the sage leaves and chicken livers. Cook over high heat for just a few minutes, stirring frequently, until the livers lose their raw, red color. Transfer the livers to a warm dish.

Add the wine to the pan and boil briskly until it has almost completely evaporated. Scrape up and loosen any bits of cooking residue. Add any liquid the livers may have released in the dish, and allow it to evaporate.

Return the chicken livers back to the pan, turn them quickly for a few minutes over high heat, add salt and pepper, and then transfer to a warm serving dish.

Jessica Pigza's Desert Island Cookbook

Name: Jessica Pigza

Occupation: Rare Books librarian, Handmade Librarian, and half of the duo behind NYPL's Handmade: Crafternoons!

Desert Island Cookbook: The Cook and the Gardener by Amanda Hesser (1999)

Why The Cook and the Gardener? Jessica explains:

Amanda Hesser’s The Cook and the Gardener is part cookbook and part meditation on four seasons of local growing and cooking (the locale here being Burgundy, France). It’s one of those great cookbooks that are as satisfying to read as they are to cook from.

Produce takes center stage on these pages—both in Hesser’s recipes as well as in her tale of befriending and working with the taciturn gardener Monsieur Milbert throughout the year. And along the way, Hesser also reveals her great respect for those who tend and coax food from the land. Each seasonal chapter includes a variety of dishes that reveal Hesser’s knowledge and wide-ranging curiosities. Her recipes for meats, jams, vegetables, breads, liqueurs, and sorbets never overwhelm or intimidate, and in each she shows her enthusiasm for well prepared foods eaten at their peak.

A few favorite recipes that I return to again and again are for carrots. The delicious Carrot and Bay Leaf Salad possesses an elegance sometimes lacking in carrot salads. Although Hesser doesn’t call for it, I like to splash a tiny bit of white wine vinegar or a squeeze of lemon over the carrots as well before serving, to counter the oil. I’m also a big proponent of her Roasted Carrots with Thyme, as well as the sweet and savory Carrots and Calvados. These, like many recipes in The Cook and the Gardener, offer tasty reminders that you needn’t do much to a vegetable to coax out its flavor.

(photo courtesy of the Library of Congress, American Memory Project)

Favorite Recipes:

Carrots, Three Ways

Roasted Carrots with Thyme

Carrot and Bay Leaf Salad

Carrots and Calvados


Carrots and Calvados (adapted from The Cook and the Gardener):

8 medium carrots, trimmed and peeled
Sea salt
1/4 lb. thickly cut bacon, cut into 1/4 inch strip (lardons)
1/2 c. Calvados
1/2 c. winter stock (beef based stock) or water
1 T. butter
Salt

Bringing a medium saucepan of water (seasoned with salt) to a boil. Add the carrots and boil until just tender on the outside but still crisp in the center, 4-5 minutes. Drain and cut into 1/2 inch diagonal pieces.

Melt the lardons of bacon in a large saute pan over medium-low heat for 5-7 minutes. Brown them on all sides and then remove them to a plate. Pour off all but 2 tablespoons of the fat from the pan, and then return the pan to the stove over medium heat. Add the carrots and toss to coat with the bacon fat. Add the Calvados and increase the heat to high to reduce the liquid to a syrup, about 2 minutes.

Add the stock. Bring to a boil and let it reduce until most of the liquid has evaporated and the carrots are tender all the way through and are beginning to brown lightly, 5-6 minutes. If the carrots are colored but aren't cooked through, add more stock and reduce again. Remove from the heat and add the lardons. Stir in the butter. Taste and adjust seasoning. Serve.

Be sure to check out the Handmade: Crafternoons! at the New York Public Library this Saturday, October 10th, from 2-4 pm for an afternoon of knitting with KnitKnit author Sabrina Gschwandtner, and two of the knitters she profiled in her book: Teva Durham, author of Loop-d-Loop and Annie Modesitt, author of Confessions of a Knitting Heretic.

Desert Island Cookbook

Jason Hernandez-Rosenblatt
Restaurant Reviewer, NY Daily News
Brooklyn, NY

Nourishing Traditions by Sally Fallon and Mary G. Enig

WHY DO YOU LIKE IT? More than just a cookbook, Nourishing Traditions is a philosophy of food. The 700 or so recipes contained within are based on fundamental human dietary principles that are universally consistent throughout history all over the world since the beginning of time.

Gleaning from diets ranging from the Masai to the Maori, Laura Ingalls Wilder to the Lakota, Incas to Indonesians, Nourishing Traditions challenges modern and new-fangled (what author Sally Fallon refers to as “politically correct…nutritionally incorrect”) ideas about food in favor of traditional and ancient methods of preparing and preserving.

Fallon is profoundly influenced by the writings of Weston A. Price, a renowned Alfred Kinsey-esque figure in early twentieth century American Dentistry who published a series of ethnographic nutrition studies across a vast and diverse spectrum of indigenous cultures. He found that those who stuck to “traditional” diets, relying on fermented grains, raw milk, organ meats and animal fats maintained almost perfect teeth, bone structures, and physiques while often reaching the century mark free of disease. Those that switched over to “Western” diets based on bleached grains, pasteurized milk, processed foods and an emphasis on low fat became, within a generation, in Price’s words “punier”, “sickly”, “weak” , “malformed”, and devastated by a host of diseases and ailments that their ancestors had never experienced.

For added kicks, each page also features sidebars presenting recipe-related culinary literary excerpts.

Here’s a pair of go-to recipes (using ingredients found on any self-respecting desert island) I’ll share with three of the mermaids that can often be found basking on my desert island.
-- Jason Hernandez-Rosenblatt

MARINATED FISH IN COCONUT CREAM
(recipes adapted from Nourishing Traditions)
1 pound whitefish, cut into ½ inch cubes
1 teaspoon sea salt
½ cup lime juice
1 tablespoon whey
¾ cup coconut milk
1 bunch scallions, chopped
1 tomato, peeled, seeded, and chopped (optional)
1 clove garlic, crushed (optional)
Boston lettuce leaves
1 tablespoon sesame seeds, toasted

Mix salt with lime juice and whey. Toss with fish and marinate at least 4 hours in the refrigerator. Drain the fish. Add coconut milk, scallions and optional tomato and garlic. Serve on Boston lettuce leaves and garnish with sesame seeds.

Note: I usually use 3 or 4 cloves of garlic and skip the lettuce and tomato. Serves 4.

FRIED BANANAS
4 very ripe large plantain bananas
or 8 small red bananas
¼ cup extra virgin olive oil or lard
¼ cup of honey
½ teaspoon of cinnamon
Piima cream or crème fraiche for garnish

Peel bananas and cut lengthwise. Saute in batches in olive oil or lard, transferring with a slotted spoon to an oblong Pyrex dish. Make a mixture of orange juice, honey and cinnamon. Pour over bananas and bake at 300 degrees for about 15 minutes. Serve in bowls with a dollop of cultured cream. Serves 4.

Desert Island Cookbook

Judson Kniffen
Theater Director
New York City

Cookbook: Bistro Cooking by Patricia Wells.

Why do you like it?: On my desert island there is room for lemon tart, potato and celery root gratin, leek terrine with truffles, and oxtail stew. And despite not knowing her personally, being stuck on a desert island with Patricia Wells very well might be my idea of heaven. In Bistro Cooking her recipes range from a ten minute sauté to a three day stew. The ingredients are simple and affordable. I trust each recipe to the letter. Never has she let me down. I bought the book for the desert chapter – it still has the best chocolate mousse, tarts, and poached pears ever – but quickly devoured the chapters on meats, salads, even pastry dough and stocks!

When not cooking the recipes, I find myself rereading the introductions. Wells makes each recipe personal with a story about the Parisian bistro it is from, the Provencal neighbor who taught it to her, etc. She has a respect for ingredients and traditional French cuisine that makes for a wonderful read, and the most delicious dishes.

Poires au Vin Rouge (Pears in Red Wine)
Adapted from Patricia Wells' Bistro Cooking.

Bold, beautiful, vermilion red pears, infused with a spicy, fruity sauce make one of the simplest and yet most impressive desserts. Make these a day in advance, to allow the pears to soak up all of the fragrant, spicy sauce. And use rather green, or unripe pears, or they will fall apart as they cook.

4 large or 6 very small pears, peeled with stems intact (I use red pears)
½ cup vanilla sugar
1 bottle fruity red wine, such as a good Beaujolais
½ cup crème de cassis
2 tablespoons freshly squeezed lemon juice
1 sprig of summer savory or rosemary
1 vanilla bean, split lengthwise
4 whole cloves
4 black peppercorns

In a deep nonreactive saucepan that will hold all the pears snugly, combine all of the ingredients. Cover and bring to a simmer over medium heat. Turn the pears from time to time, so they are evenly coated. Simmer until the pears are cooked through, about 30 minutes.
Remove from the heat; allow to cool. Transfer the pears and liquid to a serving dish. Cover and refrigerate for 24 hours before serving.

Desert Island Cookbook

Andrea Buman
Mother/Photo Editor
New York, NY

Cookbook: Tender at the Bone by Ruth Reichl

Why do you like it?: It's not only a memoir, it also includes her favorite recipes from important times in her life. Ms. Reichl is an amazing story teller and she knows a thing or two about food. The recipe for fried chicken is worth the long prep time.

Favorite Recipe:
Claritha's Fried Chicken

2 1/2 to 3lb chicken, cut up
Salt
3 cups buttermilk
2 onions, sliced thin
1 cup flour
3 teaspoons kosher salt
1/2 teaspoon cayenne pepper
1 teaspoon cracked black peppercorns
1 cup vegetable shortening
1/4 cup butter

Put chicken pieces in bowl and cover with salt. Let sit for 2 hours.
Remove chicken from salt, wash well, and put into a bowl with buttermilk and sliced onions. Cover and refrigerate overnight.
Place flour, salt, cayenne, and black pepper in a paper bag and shake to combine. Drain chicken one piece at a time and put in bag. Shake to coat thoroughly. Place on waxed paper. Repeat until all chicken pieces are coated.
Leave for 1/2 hour to dry out and come to room temperature.
Melt shortening and butter in large skillet over high heat, add chicken pieces, and cover pan. Lower heat and cook 10 minutes. Turn and cook, uncovered, 8 minutes for breasts, 12 minutes for dark meat.
Test for doneness by piercing thigh; juices should run clear.
Serves 4

Desert Island Cookbook

Ganda Suthivarakom
Web Editor, Food Writer, Singer (and food blogger)
Brooklyn, NY

Cookbook:
The French Laundry Cookbook by Thomas Keller

Why do you like it? : It's like an Oliver Sacks glimpse into the mind of an extreme OCD case who happens to be OC about food. The pictures and stories are so fetish-y. You go from a gorgeous page of meticulously shaped vegetable cuts to a story about Thomas Keller bashing a rabbit's brains in. Between all of these Stepford photographs of white plates and fish packed on ice in the direction they swim in, you have stories about the chef's isolation from society at a remote restaurant with no address, another of a shepherd being ordered to lie in hay soaked with sheep excrement. When you read it, it's easy to believe the rumors about him, that he is a difficult master whose perfectionist demands border on abuse. He's the tortured genius, hiding away in the idyllic countryside, manipulating nature with religious fervor. How much is myth and how much is truth? I don't know, but it makes for a great story.

I love freaks and outsiders, perhaps because I am not a very extreme person. I'll never make anything in the book. It requires way more patience than I have. The closest I've ever come was using half the recipe for braised short ribs. Who knows if I'll ever make it to the French Laundry or Per Se, either. Doesn't matter to me -- the recipes stand alone for their plays on flavor, words, imagery, and the ridiculous amount of detail that go into them.

Favorite recipe?:
Oysters and Pearls
Sabayon of Pearl Tapioca with Malpeque Oysters and Osetra Caviar

Desert Island Cookbook

Nicole Brown
Librarian, The American University in Cairo.
Cairo, Egypt

Cookbook: Simple to Spectacular by Jean-Georges Vongerichten & Mark Bittman

Why: The novice cook, the advanced chef, and everyone in-between will find something to love in this book. As the cover boasts, each recipe is taken to "four levels of sophistication." For example, the Mesclun Salad section progress like this: Mesclun and herb salad, Mesclun salad with grilled lemon chicken, Salade Nicoise, Mesclun with scallops Maltaise, Mesclun salad with porcini, artichokes, and foie gras. The recipe arrangement inspires invention and creativity. I use it all year long and consult it frequently for methods, techniques, and ideas.

Favorite Recipe: I love the desserts: the clafouti tart and the chocolate tart in a chocolate crust are outstanding. But, since it's summer, here are two recipes in honor of the tomato.

Tomato-melon gazpacho
One 3-pound cantaloupe; 5 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil; 4 tomatoes (about 1 1/2 pounds), cored, peeled, seeded, and cut into 1-inch chunks; 1 1/2 cups water, or 1 cup water and 1/2 cup ice cubes; 10 leaves basil; Salt and freshly ground black pepper; Juice of 1 lemon, or to taste 1. Halve and seed the melon. Remove the flesh from the rind; cut into chunks. Place 1 tablespoon of the oil in each of two 10 or 12 inch skillets and turn the heat under both to high (you can do this sequentially if you prefer). Add the melon to one and the tomatoes to the other and cook, stirring, until they become juicy, no longer than 2 minutes. 2. Put the melon, tomato, water (and ice cubes), and basil in a blender, along with the remaining 3 tablespoons oil, and salt and pepper to taste, and puree until smooth.Chill. 3. Add the lemon juice and adjust the seasoning. Serve.

Tomato confit
12 plum or 6 large tomatoes ripe but not too soft; 1/3 cup extra-virgin olive oil; 6 cloves garlic, peeled and lightly crushed; 6 sprigs thyme; 1 teaspoon coarse salt 1. Preheat the oven to 275F. Cut out the hard core of each of the tomatoes and make an X in the smooth flower end. Plunge into boiling water for about 15 seconds, or until the skins loosen, then plunge into ice water; drain. Peel; cut plum tomatoes in half, regular tomatoes into quarters, then remove all the seeds and pulp. 2. Cover a baking sheet with aluminum foil and brush with olive oil. Place the tomatoes cut side down on the pan. Scatter the garlic and thyme around and sprinkle with salt. 3. Bake for 2 hours or more, turning the tomatoes every 30 minutes or so to make sure that they are not browning (if they are, lower the heat) and turning the baking sheet so the tomatoes cook evenly. The tomatoes are done when they are very soft and shriveled. They will keep, refrigerated, for a few days.

Desert Island Cookbook

Claire Fallender
Country Directory, Mozambique
OIKOS - Corporation and Development
Maputo, Mozambique

Cookbook: Ciro & Sal's cookbook : recipes, tips and lore from the acclaimed chef of Provincetown's famous Italian restaurant, Ciro & Sal's by Ciro Cozzi.

Favorite Recipe: Pasta Puttanesca and the Procidana sauce.

The puttanesca is not only the first dish I ever made, but many think is the only dish I make. I have adapted to go light on the capers or, when in a bind, leave them out all together, but double up on the black olives.

Spaghetti alla Puttanesca

(adapted from Ciro & Sal's Cookbook)

1 lb. spaghetti

1/4 c. olive oil

3 garlic cloves, finely chopped

1lb., 12oz. can plum tomatoes, drained, seeded and coarsely chopped

1T. capers, rinsed and drained

15 pitted black olives, thinly sliced

2oz. anchovy fillets, rinsed, drained and chopped (about 16 fillets)

1/2 to 1 dried chili pepper, finely chopped

1t. dried basil

1t. dried oregano

2T. finely chopped fresh parsley leaves

Heat the oil in a large saucepan. Add the garlic and saute until it is golden. Do not burn.

Add all the remaining ingredients except the parsley, and cook slowly for 15 minutes.

While the sauce is simmering, cook the spaghetti in salted boiling water until it is al dente.

Drain the spaghetti and transfer it to a warm serving bowl. Pour the sauce over the spaghetti and toss quickly. Sprinkle with the chopped parsley. Serve immediately.

Desert Island Cookbook

Justine Heilner

Landscape Architect, FARM

Brooklyn, NY

Cookbook:

The Little House Cookbook: Frontier Foods from Laura Ingalls Wilder's Classic Stories

by Barbara Walker

Favorite recipe: Doughnuts

Why: I actually haven't made them, but this cookbook looms largest in my imagination. In grade school I checked it out a lot. I think I was the only person who did in 6 years. I was always trying to get my mom to make the doughnuts and also the molasses on snow candy. It was totally fascinating to know how pioneers cooked and what they used. A lot of lard. I am still searching for the perfect old-fashioned doughnut.

Doughnuts:

"That night was Saturday night. All day long Mother had been baking, and when Almanzo went into the kitchen for the milkpails, she was still frying doughnuts. The place was full of their hot, brown smell...."

2 lb. lard

1 egg

1t. baking soda

1/2 t. salt

1 c. sour cream

2 1/4 c. unbleached all purpose flour

a shaker full of powdered sugar

Melt lard in kettle over low heat. Beat egg, baking soda, and salt into the sour cream in the bowl. Beat in 1 cup of the flour until well mixed. Continue to work in flour, 1/4 c. at a time, until you have a dough that can be rolled. Roll the dough in a strip about 4 x 16 x 1/4". With a floured knife cut into 4" strips about 5/8" wide.

Heat lard to 375 degrees. Twist a strip like a corkscrew (it will stretch as you d0); bring ends together and pinch them. Drop twisted dough in hot fat. In two minutes the dough should be brown on both sides, crisp and cooked through. If browning takes less time, the fat is too hot; if it takes more than three minutes, the fat is not hot enough.

Remove cooked doughnut to brown paper to drain and coat it with powdered sugar. Continue twisting and cooking the remaining dough strips. Serve the doughnuts immediately.

RIP Schultz's....

Desert Island Cookbook

Rebecca Federman

Librarian

Brooklyn, NY

Cookbook: Essentials of Classic Italian Cooking by Marcella Hazan.

Why: Every recipe that I've tried is delicious, but also easy and not too fussy to make on a weeknight. I can't imagine life without it.

Favorite Recipes:

Chicken with Red Cabbage

Al Amatriciana

Asparagus Risotto

Walnut Cake