Thursday, May 5, 2011

Bean Croquettes, Pickles, and A Dainty Dessert

Armour's Monthly Cookbook [1913]



Baked Beans- A National Dish

To many people baked beans means just one thing—baked beans, served hot or cold. To the woman, however, who is really interested in furnishing variety in diet, and this in a very economical way, baked beans offers boundless possibilities. First of all, she lays in a stock of Veribest Baked Beans—Veribest, because she knows that in this particular brand the beans are even more thoroughly cooked than she herself could do them. There are two kinds of Veribest Baked Beans, plain, and with tomato sauce, and with both the mellow richness of the bean is preserved with all its natural flavor, making it a most toothsome dish as well as nutritious and economical. Having a good stock to draw from the economical housewife proceeds to serve baked beans to her family every day for a week, varying the dish each day.

Following this paragraph is a helpful guide for serving beans once a day for a week. Hoorayyy!

Monday: "New England Supper", beans and brown bread.
Tuesday: bean croquettes
Wednesday: mashed bean sandwiches
Thursday: bean, celery, and mayonnaise salad
Friday: beans in beet shells
Saturday: some kind of soup made by mixing pureed beans with milk. And a couple spices.
Sunday: bean loaf

That is variety in diet indeed. Since I am not totally lacking in compassion, I did not subject Husband to the entire week. Instead, you only get one. As you will see, this was entirely for the best given the tragic results that followed.



Tuesday, for lunch.—Bean Croquettes. Drain Veribest Pork and Beans (without tomato sauce), and pass them through a colander. Measure and allow one teaspoon of dry bread crumbs to each cup of beans. Season with cayenne pepper and a little minced parsley. For a pint of the mixture, beat one egg. Save enough of the egg to dip the croquettes in, and add the remainder to the beans. Mix and form into small croquettes, or balls, then roll in fine bread crumbs. Dip them in egg and again in the crumbs, and fry in deep boiling Simon Pure Leaf Lard. Border with slices of dill pickles or sweet green peppers.


Although a meal satisfies your hunger you should have dessert, because the educated palate craves that particular spice as a proper finish. Scientists tell us that a dinner digests better because of a tasty dessert, which, they say, gives the final stimulus necessary to dispose of the food previously received.

A Dainty Dessert
Lemon and grape juice frappé is another cool dessert that is also light. To make it, boil a pint of water with two cupfuls of granulated sugar for ten minutes and cool it. Then add a little cinnamon and half a cupful of lemon juice, and lastly a quart of Armour's grape juice. Freeze and serve in cups, with a little of the grape juice.


Verdict:

Bean Croquettes: These were so frustrating to make! I must not have drained the beans very well, because they were still pretty liquid. I tried making a patty and dipping it out of the dribbly mixture, but it did not work well. I added a ton more bread crumbs, and then it worked better, but it was still annoyingly messy. I will confess I used olive oil instead of lard. I ended up with ten or twelve.

I ate a couple. They were fine, just kind of bland. The pickle is absolutely necessary, though. It complements the bean croquettes to an extent I did not think possible. Husband thought they were reasonably tasty with ketchup, mustard, and pickles, and ate the rest of the batch like they were chicken nuggets.

Ten minutes after dinner, he threw them up. He did say that they were just as good coming up as going down though so... no. No. That... does not make it any better. On the plus side, this is a landmark first in Time Travel Kitchen history! Hooray! I guess!

A Dainty Dessert: Tasty! We both liked it very much, but felt it would be better and easier in a popsicle application. The cinnamon was quite nice.




Rejected: Many people find it difficult to take raw eggs when recommended by their doctor. This difficulty is removed by breaking the egg into a glass of Armour's Grape Juice. The egg is swallowed easily and in addition to the nourishment obtained there is the tonic value of the rich fruit from which the grape juice is taken.

6 comments:

~~louise~~ said...

I must say, I have a few unusual bean recipe books that I find quite amusing. I may even have an Armour Monthly hanging around here too however, I have never been brave enough to tread the balance of actually preparing a week's worth of bean recipes. It's probably a good thing you chose not to also:)

Hope hubby is feeling better. I'm sure the dessert was just what the doctor would have ordered.

Thanks for sharing, Jana:)

Jana said...

Yes, he is feeling all better! Poor Husband. Some more Dainty Dessert might not go amiss, though. ;)

Kathleen said...

Say what you want. There are times in life when one must consider how something will be on the way back up.

Jana said...

Yes. That is true.

Nonna said...

Well done !

I was doing just fine with this post UNTIL you quoted your Hubs reaction to the taste of food being thrown up...ewwwww...poor guy, but I think part of his problem was he ate too much and maybe used too many condiments. You must give him major props for supporting your trips and cooking adventures...he is a real sweetheart !

The dessert looks simply divine...
Have a wonderful Mother's Day !

Jana said...

Probably that did not help, no! He is a sweetheart indeed. Happy Mother's Day to you, too!