The Truth About Baked Beans: An Edible History of New England by Meg Muckenhoupt

The history of food has interested me for a long time. I wrote a paper at Temple University on the roots of American cooking, how the first Europeans adapted their traditions to the foods available in the New World.

Meg Muckenhoupt's The Truth About Baked Beans: An Edible History of New England caught my eye a looked like a fun read. I expected it to cover regional and social history and regional foods and cooking.

I was pleasantly surprised to discover that the author goes further--considering the wide variety of immigrants whose contributions to American cooking have been overlooked and eclipsed.

The first European settlers did not have sweeteners available. They imported honey bees! Later, maple syrup and molasses were added to the kitchen basics, and plain recipes using cornmeal and baked beans became sweetened--and sweetened!

Corn, squash, and beans are considered essential New England foods...and they all came from Central America.

Mythic idealizations of historical New England cooking arose during the Centennial and 'scientific' movements promoted non-ethnic foods in favor of white, bland foods.

Readers learn of the real first Thanksgiving foods and how the traditional eating holiday developed over time. And, finally, settled the question of what are 'real' New England foods; would you believe it includes Marshmallow Fluff and Whoopie Pies?

The book includes recipes for those mentioned in the book, including historic, updated, regional favorites, and restaurant favorites.

I found the book to be as enjoyable to read as I had hoped.

I was given a free egalley by the publisher through NetGalley in exchange for a fair and unbiased review.

The Truth about Baked Beans: An Edible New England History
by Meg Muckenhoupt
NYU Press
Pub Date August 25, 2020 
ISBN: 9781479882762
hardcover $29.95 (USD)

Meg Muckenhoupt begins with a simple question: When did Bostonians start making Boston Baked Beans? Storekeepers in Faneuil Hall and Duck Tour guides may tell you that the Pilgrims learned a recipe for beans with maple syrup and bear fat from Native Americans, but in fact, the recipe for Boston Baked Beans is the result of a conscious effort in the late nineteenth century to create New England foods. 

New England foods were selected and resourcefully reinvented from fanciful stories about what English colonists cooked prior to the American revolution—while pointedly ignoring the foods cooked by contemporary New Englanders, especially the large immigrant populations who were powering industry and taking over farms around the region.

The Truth about Baked Beans explores New England’s culinary myths and reality through some of the region’s most famous foods: baked beans, brown bread, clams, cod and lobster, maple syrup, pies, and Yankee pot roast. 

From 1870 to 1920, the idea of New England food was carefully constructed in magazines, newspapers, and cookbooks, often through fictitious and sometimes bizarre origin stories touted as time-honored American legends. 

This toothsome volume reveals the effort that went into the creation of these foods, and lets us begin to reclaim the culinary heritage of immigrant New England—the French Canadians, Irish, Italians, Portuguese, Polish, indigenous people, African-Americans, and other New Englanders whose culinary contributions were erased from this version of New England food. 

Complete with historic and contemporary recipes, The Truth about Baked Beans delves into the surprising history of this curious cuisine, explaining why and how “New England food” actually came to be.

Ruth Ellen Church's Career as Mary Meade and Her Tragic End

Last week I shared from the vintage recipe book Pancakes Aplenty by Ruth Ellen Church, who wrote for the Chicago Tribune as Mary Meade. This week I will share more about Ruth's career and life.

Born Ruth Ellen Lovrien in Humbolt, Iowa, to George Washington Lovrien (1880-1918) and Jessie Marilla Carter (1876-1959), her ancestor John Loveringe was born in England in 1635 and died in New Hampshire in 1668. Samuel Lovrien fought in the 1812 Revolutionary War and his son Peter was a veteran of the war of 1812.

Sixteen-year-old Ruth Ellen Lovrien

 Ruth graduated from Iowa State University.

Ruth Ellen Lovrien

In 1942, Ruth married Freeman Sylvester Church (1908-1968), who graduated from the Univesity of Illinois and became VP and art director of Chicago ad agency Dancer-Fitzgerald-Sample.

Freeman Sylvester Church

Freeman's father was Charles Freeman Church (1874-1959) and Anna May Dogherty (1880-1971). His father was an artist and art director for Lord & Taylor.

Charles F. Church obit

Freeman served in WWII.

Lt Church

During the War, Ruth engaged in projects to support service men.

 Freeman's died in 1968 of heart disease.

Freeman S. Church obit

ad for Mary Meade

Ruth had a long career as a staff writer, editor, and food critic for the Chicago Tribune and published numerous cookbooks, all under the pseudonym of Mary Meade.

Ruth wrote as Mary Meade for the Chicago Tribune

Mary Meade 1931

Mary Meade proved to be hugely popular. There were Mary Meade recipe booklets, recipe cards, and books published.

Mary Meade wrote numerous cookbooks

Mary Meade kept up with the times. Ruth won the 1971 Wine and Health Writing Award.

1971

In 1991, Ruth was murdered in her home. From the New York Times obituary:

Ruth Ellen Church, an author of books on cooking and wine who was a longtime food critic for The Chicago Tribune, was found slain Tuesday in her Chicago home. She was 81 years old.

The police said Ms. Church had been strangled, apparently by a burglar.

Ms. Church, who wrote under the name Mary Meade, was food editor, cooking editor and a columnist for The Tribune for 38 years before retiring from the newspaper in 1974. She guided the development of The Tribune's test kitchen, one of the first at a newspaper, and in 1962 became the first American writing a regular wine column.

Among her books were "The Indispensable Guide for the Modern Cook" (1955), "The Burger Cookbook" (1967), "Entertaining With Wine" (1970) and "Mary Meade's Sausage Cookbook" (1967).

Surviving are two sons, Carter of Chicago and Charles of Montello, Wis., and five grandchildren.

It was a horrible crime. Ruth suffocated while bound and gagged. A friend's sixteen-year-old daughter who was in the home and sexually abused by the man identified him. In January 1992, it was reported that the police had identified the murderer. 

January 1992 

I never thought that a vintage cookbook would lead me to such a horrible and tragic story.

Pancakes Aplenty, a Vintage Cook Book Written by a Murdered Food Critic

I love vintage finds at a library book sale. This winter I came home with Pancakes Aplenty published in 1962. The illustrations alone are worth the 50 cents I paid! I do love Mid-Century illustrative art!

For those planning on a pancake dinner for Fat Tuesday, here are some recipes to consider. Author Ruth Ellen Church reminds us that pancakes freeze well and can be reheated in the oven or on a griddle; using a toaster makes them tougher.

Don't worry about lumps--"most pancakes are lighter and more tender if they aren't mixed too well." Also, don't fry them but use a lightly greased griddle. Heat the griddle until a drop of water sizzles. Flip the cake when bubbles form but before they burst.

You can create shaped pancakes, even adding blueberries or raisins for eyes.

The recipes are drawn from across time and continents and include some I have never heard of. They use sweet-potatoes and squash, chocolate and carrots,  orange juice and eggnog.

Old-Fashioned Batty Cakes have no flour and are recommended as an accompaniment for fried chicken! 4 servings

• 1 cup cornmeal
• 1/2 tsp soda
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1 well-beaten egg
• 1 1/4 cups buttermilk

Mix the dry ingredients. Add egg and buttermilk and beat until smooth. Drop by spoonfuls onto a greased skillet and bake until brown, turning once.

Another corn-based pancake is Fluffy Corn Cakes which used cream-style corn. For 5-6 servings.

• 2 cups flour
• 3 teaspoons baking powder
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 2 well-beaten eggs
• 1 lb cane of cream-style corn
• 2 cups milk
• 1/4 cup melted butter

Combine dry ingredients. Combine eggs, corn, milk, and butter. Stir into the dry ingredients, mixing lightly. Bake on a lightly greased griddle until golden brown, turning once. Serve with maple syrup or with quick chicken filling.

Quick Chicken Filling

• 1 can cream of chicken soup
• 1/2 soup-can of milk
• 1 can (5 oz) of boned chicken
• 1 tablespoon chopped pimento

Dilute soup with milk and add chicken and pimento. Heat. Fill and top 8 pancakes. Add 2 tablespoons of toasted slivered almonds if desired. Tuna or ham may be substituted for chicken.

Some recipes are quite strange!

Onion-Pimento Pancakes with Cheese Sauce
5 servings
These red-and-green speckled cakes are easily prepared for brunch, lunch, or supper when you are in a hurry. Add a green salad and brown-and-serve sausages to the meal.

• 2 cups pancake mix
• 2 cups milk
• 2 tablespoons chopped onion
• 2 tablespoons chopped pimento
• 2 tablespoons chopped green pepper

Add milk to mix and stir lightly. Fold in onion, pimento, and green pepper. Pour 1/4 cup batter for each pancake onto hot, lightly greased griddle. Bake until golden brown, turning once.

Cheese Sauce

• 1/2 pound processed cheese
• 1 cup milk

Cut cheese into pieces. Heat with milk over boiling water, stirring, until cheese melts. Serve over pancakes.

Mom made Potato Pancakes served with "heat and serve" sausage and applesauce. Church suggests also serving them with sour cream or gooseberry sauce. Mom soaked the grated potatoes in cold water to remove the starch.

• 2 cups grated raw potatoes
• 1/3 c milk
• 1 egg, slightly beaten
• 2 tablespoons flour
• 1/4 teaspoon baking powder
• 1 tablespoon finely chopped onion
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1/8 teaspoon pepper

Stir grated potatoes into milk, add remaining ingredients and mix. Drop onto buttered frying skillet and cook slowly until well browned and crisp on both sides.

Gingerbread Pancakes

• 7-9 servings  Bake on a moderately heated griddle and turn carefully.
• 1 1/4 cups flour
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/4 teaspoon soda
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1 teaspoon cinnamon
• 1/2 teaspoon ginger
• 1/4 teaspoon allspice
• 1/2 cup  molasses
• 1 well-beaten egg
• 1 cup milk
• 1/4 cup oil or butter

Stir dry ingredients; combine liquids. Blend until smooth. Bake on very lightly oiled griddle at moderate heat, turning carefully when browned underneath. Serve hot with applesauce and whipped cream. 

Quick Calas (Rice Cake) These cakes are especially nice for Sunday morning breakfast served with jam or syrup or pineapple sauce.

• 2 cups cooked rice
• 3 well-beaten eggs
• 1/4 tsp vanilla
• 1/2 tsp nutmeg
• 1/4 cup sugar
• 6 tablespoons flour
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 3 teaspoons baking powder

Mix rice, eggs, vanilla, and nutmeg. Add sifted dry ingredients and mix. Bake on lightly greased hot griddle.

Pineapple Sauce

• 1 9-oz can crushed pineapple
• 1 cup sugar
• 1/2 cup water

Mix and simmer 10 minutes.

 Tortillas are just another kind of 'pancake.'

This book includes waffle recipes.

 And French toast, yeast pancakes, and fritter recipes.

Ham Fritters with Bananas
4-6 servings

• 2 cups ground cooked ham
• 2 beaten eggs
• 1/4 cup flour
• 2 tablespoons milk
• 1 tablespoon chopped onion
• 4 small bananas peeled and halved
• lemon juice 
• flour

Add ham to eggs with flour, milk, and onion. Add salt and pepper if the ham is bland. Drop into deep got fat at 365 degrees. Coo, 3-5 minutes until done. Dip bananas in lemon and coat with flour. Fry in the kettle until brown.

 Another section offers recipes for Omelets.

French Omelet
one serving

• 2 eggs
• 2 tablespoons milk or water
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/8 teaspoon pepper

Mix eggs, milk, salt and pepper with a fork. Avoid foaminess. Heat 1 tablespoon butter in a 7- or 8-inch omelet pan or skillet, rotate pan to coat well, and pour off the excess. The pan just be just hot enough to make a drop of water sizzle.

Pour in the egg mixture and reduce heat. As the eggs begin to thicken at edges, draw the cooked portions toward the center with a fork so that the uncooked portion flow to the bottom. Tilt pan as necessary to hasten the flow of uncooked eggs. Do not stir and keep the mixture as level as possible. Shake skillet occasionally to keep from sticking. When eggs no longer flow and the surface is still moist, increase heat to brown bottom quilting. Loosen edge, roll with a fork onto a serving plate. Cooking time should be about 5 minutes.

Other omelet recipes incorporate codfish, potato and bacon, shrimp, and cooked noddles!

The last section of the cookbook gives recipes for butters, 'sirups', sauces, and fillings. Sauces with rum, avocado, and even white grapes are included!

WHO WAS RUTH ELLEN CHURCH? Check in next Saturday and learn about her career as Mary Meade and her tragic murder!

The Secret Garden Cookbook by Amy Colter

I read Francis Hodgson Burnett's The Secret Garden after my mother told me she had read it as a girl, and that her mother had read it as a girl. It was the only book my mother ever mentioned having read as a child.

The beloved children's classic story tells the story of Mary Lennox who had lived a life of ease in India; after cholera takes her family, she is sent to live in England. Adjusting to her new life, the lonely girl meets local boy Dickson and together they discover and revive a neglected garden. Although rife with dated colonialist and racist attitudes, the basic story of regeneration is timeless.

Food plays an important role in the book, and cookbook author Amy Colter shares recipes inspired by the story, newly revised and updated to appear with the release of the new The Secret Garden movie. Quotations from the novel regarding food are interspersed.

Colter's chapter introductions informs readers on many subjects from the typical Victorian meals to what was in a kitchen garden to the history of tea.

So many of these recipes are homely and wholesome and nostalgic. 

Chapters include: 

• Yorkshire Breakfasts; Coddled Eggs are so simple--why don't we made them every week? I do make my own cocoa mix--this recipe has a dash of cinnamon!
• A Manor Lunch; this casual meal could include Potato Snow, Roasted Chicken with Bread Sauce, or Welsh Rabbit.
• An English Tea; I am now dreaming of Warm Cranberry Scones with Orange Glaze and Fruit Tea Loaf!
• From the Kitchen Garden; Wholesome fresh food including Sweet Glazed Carrots and easy Summer Berry Pudding.
• Dickon's Cottage Food; Tattie Broth, Pease Pudding, Yorkshire Oatcakes--this is my idea of comfort food!
• A Taste of India; Exotic recipes from Colonial India includes Fruit Lassi, Mulligatawny Soup (which I make frequently!), and Fresh Magno Chutney.
• Garden Picnics; Including the easy to transport Cornish Pasties, brought to my home state of Michigan by immigrants working in the copper mines--a complete meal.

This is a delightful book.

I was given access to a free egalley by the publisher through NetGalley. My review is fair and unbiased.

from the publisher:
Experience the magic and enchantment of The Secret Garden whenever you like, right at home in your kitchen. The Secret Garden Cookbook, now newly revised, is the only cookbook that celebrates the delicious and comforting foods that play such an important role in the novel and its world.

Frances Hodgson Burnett's wonderful tale The Secret Garden celebrates its young heroine, Mary Lennox, as she brings an abandoned garden back to life. It also delights in good food, robust appetites, and the health and strength they can bring. It describes a world where water, light, and loving care bring soil and plants back to life—and also one in which fresh milk, homemade currant buns, and hearty, simple fare renew and bring pleasure to the novel's complex and fascinating characters.

Amy Cotler serves up in these pages 50 recipes, all updated for the modern kitchen, that are at once true to Mary's world and completely appealing for today's tastes. You will find a bounty of baked things, including English Crumpets, Cozy Currant Buns, Jam Roly Poly, Dough Cakes with Cinnamon and Sugar, and The Best Sticky Gingerbread Parkin. (A parkin is a cake rich in molasses, honey, and sugar that often is served on Guy Fawkes Day.) There is more-substantial and savory fare for teatime and dinnertime, too, and for breakfast and brunch, along with drinks and snacks for the daily whirl—all guaranteed to keep the magic of this beloved tale alive for years to come.

The Secret Garden Cookbook is an essential companion—and the pitch-perfect gift—for anyone, young or old, who loves the book.

The Secret Garden Cookbook, Newly Revised Edition
Inspiring Recipes from the Magical World of Frances Hodgson Burnett's The Secret Garden
by Amy Cotler
Publisher: Harvard Common Press
Publication: Jan 14, 2020
Hardback, 112 Pages, $19.99 / £12.99
ISBN: 9781558329935

The Little Women Cook Book: Tempting Recipes from the March Sisters and Their Friends and Family

For one hundred and fifty years readers have identified with the March sisters. Louisa May Alcott drew from her family members and life, making Little Women a beloved story with relatable characters.

Set during the Civil War, with Mr. March at war far from home, the March sisters and their mother struggle to obtain their basic needs. Food insecurity impacts their home and the community. The novel begins with the preparation of a Christmas breakfast feast which the girls valiantly donate to an immigrant family. The women content themselves with a meal of bread and milk. The book ends with a meal as well, a picnic supper.

Wini Moranville, "writer, cookbook author, and lover of historic and heirloom recipes," was asked to write The Little Women Cook Book in conjunction with the 2019 Little Women movie.

With charming illustrations and quotations from the novel, it is a delight. I enjoyed revisiting the novel through the lens of communal meals. Well-chosen quotations from Little Women keep our attention on the inspiration source for the recipes.

Wini researched American cookbooks from the mid 19th c. Some foods from the novel, like the pickled limes traded between schoolgirls, would not appeal today, so Wini gives us "Pickled Lime" Sugar Cookies.

Milk-Toast was a simple meal of warm milk poured over buttered toasted bread, perhaps seasoned with salt or sugar and cinnamon. I recall my grandfather, born in 1905, enjoying it as a dessert from his country childhood.

From the passage, "The omelet was scorched, and the biscuits speckled with saleratus",  Wini gives two recipes, omelets and Maple-Cornmeal Drop Biscuits, and a history of baking powder.

Other recipes from the past include:

"Meg was already covering the buckwheats..."~Buckwheat Pancakes

"It was too bad to laugh at the poor little jelly pots."~ Meg's Currant Jelly Sauce

"We'll have lettuce and make a salad."~ Jo's Lettuce Salad

"...and Amy made lemonade..."~Amy's Lemonade

Also appearing are Mr. Bhaer's Chocolate drops; Bonbons and mottoes, candies wrapped in papers printed with riddles and sayings; Jo's Gingerbread; the apple turnovers from the picnic; and Meg's Plum Pudding.

Where the novel is silent on specifics, Wini turns to recipes popular during the time period.

Newlywed Meg uses a popular cookbook, The Young Housekeeper's Friend. Indian meal--cornmeal--was popularly used in many dishes. Wini offers us Indian Meal Griddle Cakes, with a version with blueberries that caught my attention.

Meg also has Mrs. Corneliu's Receipt Book and Wini shares Meg's Macaroni and Cheese from that book. It is very like the recipe I have used all my life.

The recipes are tempting!

I was given access to a free ebook by the publisher through NetGalley in exchange for a fair and unbiased review.

The Little Women Cookbook: Tempting Recipes from the March Sisters and Their Friends and Family
by Wini Moranville; Louisa May Alcott
Harvard Common Press
Publication October 1, 2019
Hardback $19.99 / £12.99
ISBN: 9781558329911

South Meets North in Hell's Kitchen

Hell's Kitchen is home to Donna Bell's Bake Shop with its Southern style baking. For Mother's Day I received the new cook book Donna Bell's Bake Shop: Recipes and Stories of Family, Friends and Food.  The recipes, each with a photo, will bring on a bad case of sugar craving and an itching to get into the kitchen. (Or a sudden desire to visit New York City.)

The bake shop was started and is owned by friends Pauley Perrette, Darren Greenblatt, and Matthew Sandusky. The store name honors Pauley's mother Donna. "Cooking and baking down South were a part of every day and every experience," Pauley writes.

Essays by the three friends are interspersed between the recipes. We learn about Pauley's family, her career, and the friends she made along the way.

Darren Greenblatt grew up in Philadelphia and was designing jewelry when he meet Pauley in New York City. "I felt like I had found my long lost sister," he writes. Meeting Donna he helped her in her kitchen and became obsessed with Southern cooking. Matthew Sandusky came from Pittsburgh and meet Pauley in LA where she was breaking into acting. Each of the friends sacrificed something to make the bake shop become a reality. It is a labor of love.

Pauley Perrette is one of the most recognized and beloved media figures in America. She plays Abby Sciuto in the television show NCIS. I first watched NCIS when my dad was in the hospital during his last months and I was staying across state to be with Dad. At the end of the day my brother and I would go back to Dad's house and chill out watching NCIS reruns. After dad's passing I returned home and introduced my husband to the show.

Recipes include biscuits, muffins and scones, quick breads, bread pudding, bar cookies, cookies and cakes. Some that I can't wait to try include:

• Hummingbird Bread Pudding with Cream Cheese Glaze made with crushed pineapple and coconut
• Champagne Cake with Strawberry Buttercream Frosting, yes it uses champagne
• Cranberry White Chocolate Rise Krispies Treats; this is not your kiddie's cookie
• Strawberry Scones with Lemon Glaze, yum!

The book from Simon and Schuster can be found in hard cover at your local bookstore or online shop.