Cooking from cookbooks - corn chowder

-
As you know, I have a cookbook problem. I've written about this before, about my tendency to buy cookbooks and not use them. Sometime ago I set a goal of cooking from cookbooks weekly. I completely failed. Instead I'm trying to cook from cookbooks regularly. Sometimes good enough is good enough.

The Yankee Cookbook by Imogene Wolcott is one of several I acquired from my partner's mom. She loved to cook when younger and all of her cookbooks are well used. It's copyright 1939 though this edition is from 1963. I especially love the subtitle: An Anthology of Incomparable Recipes From the Six New England States and a Little Something about the People whose Tradition for Good Eating is herein permanently recoded. Lovely! I am charmed by the interstitial comments in this book, including attribution and other cultural notes.

I made corn chowder, more or less following the recipe in this book. Here it is, with surrounding recipes for your use and amusement:

I replaced canned corn with fresh (since I had some from my farm share) used half-and-half instead of cream and skipped the crackers.

The soup was really tasty, but boy, was it rich. Recipes like this remind me that not too long ago, fat wasn't the enemy. You got your calories where you could and savored every drop.

I hope you make this soup. Or deerfoot chowder, or any of the other recipes on this page. Let me know how it turns out, I'd love to know.

(c) 2011 Laura S. Packer

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Cookbook addiction

-
Image
I love cookbooks. As you can see, I buy far more cookbooks than my life realistically needs. I read them, ponder the recipes and commentary and consider their cultural context with great joy; when I find scribbled notes beside recipes or scraps of paper in used volumes it thrills me. What I don't tend to do is cook from them. This strikes me as kind of silly, a waste of paper and space. It's time to change that. I'm going to explore some of these volumes, especially the older, odder ones, and record my adventures here. I look forward to some gloriously unpleasant dishes (because our gastronomic sensibilities in 2010 are not the same as they were in the 1940s - who boils broccoli for 30 minutes anymore?) and some gems. I hope you'll keep me company on the journey and let me know what you think. I'd like to thank my step-daughter, Cara , for the off-handed remark that led to this idea. To start, let's take a look at my bookshelves. For a librarian's daught
Read more

Blog Jog!

-
Image
Thank you for stopping by cookpot stories! Please explore all this blog has to offer, then jog on over to www.cruisebugchatter.com . If you would like to visit a different blog in the jog, go to http://blogjogday.blogspot.com. If you leave a comment with a link to your own page, one lucky winner chosen at random will receive a vintage cooking pamphlet from me!
Read more

KC adventure: El Pollo Rey

-
Image
The first time I ever ate anything calling itself Mexican food was probably when I was little and my mother prepared tacos at home. If you grew up in the U.S. anytime before 2000 you have probably had these, too. Brown some ground beef with the seasonings in the packet; chop up some lettuce, tomatoes and onions; stuff it all into hard taco shells with some grated cheddar cheese. Tacos. Or something resembling them, anyway. It was years before I had real Mexican food, but somehow I caught the idea that Mexican cooking is one of our great cuisines and often overlooked. The balance of seasonings, the emphasis on fresh ingredients and the incredible range of what we call Mexican cooking have won me over. Give me a good mole´ any day. Since moving to Kansas City I've had excellent Mexican food, from mole´ to menudo and various things that I can't really identify but taste great. It's been a delight. My local supermarkets have aloe, cactus pads, dried chiles and more. Yum.
Read more