One of my daughters picked these 1950s, 1960s, and 1970s cookbooks up at Goodwill for me, knowing my affinity for vintage cookbooks. The (c.1959, p. 1965) holiday one has a multipage section devoted to Thanksgiving. I love reading vintage holiday menus. Although the specific recipe may be different from what my mother prepared, they conjure up what my memory wants to believe holidays were actually like, maybe in a different home or as featured in an advertisement or movie. I thought it would be fun today to go through their suggestions.
First of all, they provided 3 different menus, one featuring turkey as the main dish, the next featuring a roast chicken, and the third with rock Cornish game hens. Poultry, whichever you choose, was the featured type of meat.
In the section for the turkey menu, they provided a handy guide for how to carve a turkey.
Cooking instructions, from what I understand, are outdated, as turkeys that you purchase today cook faster than those in the past. The turkeys today are different, as well as our now preference for slightly less done poultry.
There was even a handy guide for spiffing up some of the traditional foods you might serve.
Dinner Accents: appetizers, salads, hot side dishes
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| apple-pineapple slaw, cranberry jello ring I think the dish at the top is mayonnaise |
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| creamed onions |
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| an assortment of side dishes -- pretty serving dish |
Some side dishes are what we might find on the table today, like baked butternut squash, buttered green beans, orange-glazed sweet potatoes, green peas, Waldorf salad, and pickled beets. But others were less familiar to me, such as creamed onions, a cranberry-strawberry-cream cheese-marshmallow-pineapple-lemon-mayo jello ring, and an apple-pineapple slaw.
The starchy dishes included herb and bread stuffing, corn bread, mashed potatoes, mushroom wild rice, and biscuits.
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| hot tomato starter |
All menus had a starter dish -- hot tomato soup, hot oyster stew, or harvest fruit cup.
And I think there was a lot of coffee poured at holiday meals, if the menus are any indication. Hot coffee is the only beverage listed for all three menus.
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| mincemeat pie, pumpkin custard pie, cranberry mincemeat pie |
Happy Endings
Let's get to the desserts.
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| pumpkin chiffon tarts, date-orange pudding, steamed cranberry pudding |
The list is extensive: classic pumpkin custard pie, mincemeat pie, cranberry mince pie (that sounds interesting), pumpkin chiffon tarts, cheesecake mince tarts, date-orange dessert (a cake-like pudding topped with na glaze and hard sauce), cranberry steamed pudding, and something called pilgrim hats made with upside down, flat-bottomed ice cream cones, puffed rice cereal, and caramel candies made to look like a pilgrims hat. The hat band is made from jelly candies cut into strips. I think that last one was meant to appeal to children at Thanksgiving.
The cookbook also provided instructions for crafting table favors/place cards for each place setting, little pilgrim men.
So, tie on your apron, put on your string of pearls, and get those high-heeled pumps on. We've got a Thanksgiving meal to make!
That was interesting. Everything is beautifully served-as I would expect if the dish were being photographed for a book. 😁 Are you going to use anything from here for your Thanksgiving dinner?
ReplyDeleteHi Live and Learn,
DeleteThe cookbook probably had a team of cooks, pastry chefs, and display artists putting together each photo. So I won't feel too badly when my own holiday meal falls short of these visuals.
No, I won't be trying any of the recipes. My family members are pretty specific when it comes to all of the dishes served. I'll be making everyone's favorites. I would enjoy the cranberry jello ring and the cranberry mincemeat pie. I love cranberries. But I'm the lone wolf in the family when it comes to that opinion. I once made a cranberry, raisin, nut, apple pie that was a lot like a mincemeat. I was the only one in the family who liked it. Maybe now that my kids are grown I could try it again sometime. They might have a different opinion now.
If I had kids with us I would try the Pilgrims Hats made with an ice cream cone, puffed rice cereal, and caramel. I think children would enjoy those quite a bit. Do you know what you will be bringing to your family gathering?
Aren't old cookbooks fun? Did the recipes mention cooking differences for store-bought turkey vs wild turkey? Enjoy your new reading materials. :)
ReplyDeleteHi Kris,
DeleteThis cookbook doesn't provide instructions for a wild turkey. However, my old copy of Joy of Cooking does!. It also has instructions for partridge, grouse, wild duck, pheasant, prairie chicken, wild goose, quail, dove, and woodcock. This Joy of Cooking also has instructions on how to skin a squirrel. Like I said, it's an older copy of Joy of Cooking. In a different time period and in a more rural setting, knowing how to prepare these meats would be helpful. As for wild turkey, I would think you would need to baste it regularly, as the wild turkeys I've seen look pretty lean.