grrlTravels

Meaningless hobby no more

Chicagomama has gotten me all fired up about recipes. And I've had this idea for a new section to my site for a while. (My site, you ask? Is there more to my site than just the blog? Why yes, but it's currently residing in my head and isn't available for public consumption just yet. Unless you know a way to crawl inside my brain, and if you do I need you to call my therapist right away.) It's not a new idea¹ although I'm pretty sure that I had this idea before I ever saw that book.

I'll just come right out and say it—I collect cookbooks. I don't cook all that often, and when I do it tends to be very basic stuff, but for some reason I love cookbooks. It's the same reason that I collect vintage tablecloths but never have the guts to have people over I'm sure. But we aren't really here to psychoanalyze. (Unless you really do know how to do that brain crawling thing. See above.) My favorite cookbooks are from the 50s.² They have great little pithy statements about life, super retro drawings, and the most disgusting recipes³ you've ever imagined with boldly colored photos to match.

I shall share just such a recipe with you, and will do so on an ongoing basis. I needed to find something bad with an accompanying photo to kick things off, because the photos are the best. And this recipe has the added bonus of the title "Ways with Leftover Beef..."

Jellied Pot Roast⁴
Makes 4 servings
[And if you're left with 3 at the end of the night you've done pretty well for yourself.]

1 envelope unflavored gelatin
1/2 cup cold water
1 can consomme madrilene
1 C. cubed cooked pot roast
1/2 C. cooked peas
1/2 C. diced cooked carrots
6 green onions, finely chopped
[With only 6 ingredients this recipe could be included in those 8 ingredients or less cookbooks. Also eligible for the Using Up Leftovers cookbooks, the Get Rid of the Old Gelatin In Your Cabinet books, and the Make Sure Your Guests Never Steal Your Secret Recipes genre.]

1. Soften gelatin in cold water in cup.
2. Heat consomme in small saucepan; add softened gelatin, stirring until dissolved; remove from heat; chill until syrupy.
   [According to my google sources Consomme Madrilene should be served "thick and syrupy but not set" which doesn't sound like consomme to me, but does remind me of the consistency of cod liver oil.]
3. Arrange meat in layer in bottom of well-oiled 1-quart ring mold; spoon in enough syrupy gelatin almost to cover meat; chill until firm. (Keep remaining gelatin at room temperature.)
   [The thought of oily pot roast laced gelatin is certainly appetizing.]
4. Fold in peas, carrots, and onions into remaining gelatin; spoon over meat layer in mold; chill until firm.
   [There was a missed opportunity to use the word "syrupy" again, and those opportunities don't come along every day.]
5. Unmold onto serving dish. Serve with chili sauce, if desired.
   [Doesn't it just seem wrong to "unmold" a meat dish? All I can visualize is scraping green slimy stuff.]

From: The Family Circle Meat Cookbook. Family Circle Inc., 1954.

The garnishes are way below par for these types of cookbooks. Parsley springs? That's all you came up with? The gelatinous ring is certainly shown to advantage, with the large and small bits floating unsymmetrically and pleasingly distributed. I'm sure my bits will be all pressed against the top of the ring as if trying to escape. And notice the nice shiny glow of the ring and the shadowing—perhaps foreshadowing a night of horror spent in the ER with a stomach pump? And lastly the sauce presented in a lovely manner in the middle of the ring. The white bits of debris floating in the sauce certainly seal the deal on an appetizing presentation.

¹If you are familiar with one of the funniest books I own, you will see a much better treatment of the subject by the supremely wacky James Lileks.
²e$Bay is packed to the gills with this stuff, which is why I love e$Bay and e$Bay loves me back.
³I have asked everyone I know who was alive and entertaining in their own home during the 50s if any of them made any of the these types of things and much to my chagrin they didn't. Some day I will find someone, and then I will become their constant companion because I have a LOT of questions.
⁴If you are reading this recipe and thinking that it doesn't sound that bad and your great aunt used to make this and it was your favorite and you requested it each year on your birthday then you aren't getting into the spirit of the thing. I'm sure someone, somewhere on this earth makes a recipe close to this one, but honestly why?

Posted by grrlTravels at November 4, 2005 5:28 PM