A look at upper Midwestern food in the early 1950s, through the lens of the 1951 Zion Ladies Guild cook book from Zion Lutheran Church in Thief River Falls, Minnesota. Be they good, or be they filled with gelatin and mayo, I'll be making these dishes and feeding them to my family.
Programming note: I'm not yet done with the cookies post promised. It'll be along in time.
I am enjoying working through the Zion Ladies Guild cook book, but it is not often that I am actually excited about making a recipe. Angel or Lemon Pie looked exciting, and yes it is listed as "Angel or Lemon Pie" and I don't really know why. Last year for Mother's Day, I made Sarah a pavlova. The pavlova was first made in honor of Russian ballerina Anna Pavlova during a visit to Australia in the 1920s. The pavlova has a meringue base and is topped with whipped cream and fresh fruit. It is light, airy, beautiful, and delicious. Just like Anna Pavlova... minus the delicious part. I don't think she was very edible.
A. Pavlova - the dancer
A pavlova - the dessert
Don't get these confused. That would be pretty embarrassing. Though the pavlova I made wasn't as pretty as it could have been, I was satisfied with how it turned out considering it was my first attempt at making something like that. Sarah was pretty happy with it, and so between the two of us we licked the platter clean, as they say. The Angel or Lemon Pie (ALP, hereafter) looked to be similar to what I made for Sarah last year. It had a baked meringue base, and a custard-like topping. As good as the pavlova was, surely ALP should be alright. But you know, this is the Zion Ladies Guild cook book, so who can really say?
Before we start, I had some music playing while Thomas helped me make this recipe. This devil's food cake has been brought to you by the letters K., C., and the number Funk. You know, 'cause the Ladies of Zion were totally funky for their time
Cake. What can I say about cake? I'd much rather talk about pie, but I'm not on the pie section this time around. There are so many more options for pie. Pie is so much more fun to make than cake. But this isn't the pie section, it's the cake section. So cake, it is. Previously when I came to the cake section, I made Scripture Cake (a crazy, ugly, adventure that wasn't so bad), and Sour Milk Orange Cake (puzzling, messy, strange, and edible). Let's see how devil's food cake stacks up. This recipe is by Mrs. J.O. Botten who previously showed up with Orange Cookies (unusual texture, but not too bad).
Though I prefer pie to cake, I have certainly made cakes before. This will be the first time I will have made a cake from scratch rather than from a mix. A certain mother of mine alleges that back in high school I would make cake mixes and just eat the batter instead of making the cake. Can I claim plausible deniability?
Came across this video of Hank Green of the Vlog Brothers making and sampling some period-looking (not going to pass judgment) recipes. Thought I'd post this while I am very very slowly working on the post for the Devil's Food Cake recipe I made last week.
It's been almost three and a half months. Clearly I am neglecting my duties as a blogger. It's like I've been putting nursing school, staying home with short stuff, and visiting family before cooking the recipes of the Ladies of Zion. I should probably reexamine my priorities. Upon finishing my first semester of nursing classes, I intended to do a bunch of recipes and posts, but traveling north, then southwest, and all of the prep and recovery from that hasn't exactly been conducive to doing much extra cooking. Perhaps I can make an effort to do more cooking and blogging this spring semester.
So now that that is out of the way, let's get on to the bread at hand. As you can see below, I'm on a page with three recipes for rolls/buns, and a banana loaf. I did applesauce nut bread previously, so the banana loaf was out. The lack of directions regarding an ice box was intriguing for the ice box rolls. I had to ultimately go with the raisin rolls though because despite knowing that Sarah would be unhappy with the choice, making a recipe with no directions at all seemed like it might be a fun project. I've made enough bread in the past to have a fairly good sense of the process... more or less.
No directions. What could go wrong?
Preparation
There are immediately a few questions. The first one is about the yeast. I'm sure yeast cakes can be found somewhere, but it's not common. I've got instant yeast, as well as active dry yeast, but no clue how they compare to cake yeast. Thanks to the magic of the internets, I found someone who does know. Please meet Father Dominic. I've only watched the video below, but it looks like he's got quite a few good tips that are worth learning. I've been making much of our bread for a few years now, and though what I make is decent I know I still have a lot to learn. Anyway, here is Father Dominic with the lowdown on cake yeast. Take notes, kids.
Now that I know I can use my active dry yeast, it is time to get our mise en place.
Once again, I'm doing my best to keep my cluttered counter out of the picture.
I debated whether to use butter or shortening instead of the called for lard, but these folks look so happy, I think I made the right choice in pulling the lard out of the freezer.
