Random Saturday - Cookbooks, part 2

In 2012, I told you about the Gas-Koch- und Backrezeptkalender, here and here, and in 2014 I even made something from it!
It translates to "Gas Cooking and Baking Recipe Calendar".
Being a librarian, I wanted to look up when it was first published and for how long, but the listings in the different library catalogs differ.
For example, one listing says that it was first published in 1927 under the title "Hamburger Gaskalender" - I don't think I need to translate that - and under the long title from 1959 until 1973. Here it says that's when it ended, there it says it still exists, but without indication of any holdings. Several listings say it started under the longer title in 1952, however, which is also not true as I happen to own one from 1950, but don't mention the Gaskalender at all although they were all published by the Gasworks in Hamburg.
You probably wonder why I'm even telling you all that, but it's an occupational disease. It drives me nuts not to know exactly!

Fact is that I have several of them myself - with another one on the way - between 1950 and 1970, some are smaller, some are taller (sorry, couldn't resist). Only two of them are missing the top leaf.
I think it's fabulous that calendars from that time, whose leaves were meant to be torn off, still exist at all today. I remember that we often had the grocery store's calendar hanging in our kitchen which also had stories on the back of the leaves if I remember that right, but it was actually used.

The calendars are full of information, recipes, and little stories praising the advantages of gas-operated appliances.
The one from 1956 the extra info is all about spices, for example.

I think my favorite is the story - also from the 1956 one which has been the latest addition - about a lady inviting her friends for a "Kaffeekränzchen", a gathering of ladies for coffee and cake. They have to be on time, though, which surprises them all. They are even more surprised when their hostess ushers them down to the laundry room telling them her "big wash" is about to start; they are almost afraid they are going to be asked to help.
But no, their hostess has taken them there to show them her new gas-operated washing machine. Not quite convinced at first, the guests are quickly changing their mind when they hear that the machine does it all itself, even turning off!
Can you imagine being without a washing machine? I think I would have been just as enthusiastic about it and am not surprised the hostess felt the need to brag a little.

Of course I also chose another recipe for you, not randomly this time, but the recipe of my birthday 1950 (no, I'm not that old, but I don't have the calendar from the year of my birth).
Remember that this was not too long after the war and the Wirtschaftswunder had only just begun, so the ingredients are not too unusual.

It's a sponge cake with potato marzipan for four people.

Sponge:
3 separated eggs, 3 - 4 tbsp. water, 150 grams of sugar, 1 baggie of vanilla sugar, 150 of grams flour, 50 grams of starch, 2 level tsp. baking powder

Filling:
3 tbsp. jam
for the potato marzipan: 200 grams of unsalted boiled potatos, 125 grams of sugar, bitter almond aroma
for the cream: 1/2 pack of instant pudding, 1/4 liter of cider, sugar to taste

Decoration:
50 grams of oatmeal, 25 grams of fat, 1 tbsp. sugar

Make the sponge and cut it twice.
Put the potatoes through a fine sieve, mix well with the sugar and add the almond aroma.
Use the cider, sugar and instant pudding to make a blancmange and stir until cold.
Spread the jam and 2/3 of the potato marzipan on the bottom layer and the cream on the second layer.
Use the rest of the marzipan for the top and around the cake and add the roasted oatmeal.

What do you think, would that have made a good birthday cake for me? 😉
Actually, a family member of mine has birthday tomorrow, I think he would be quite surprised if I offered him this cake!

Random Saturday - Cookbooks, part 1

I have probably mentioned one or the other time that I'm not much of a cook. That doesn't mean I'm not cooking at all or that I can't cook at all, but I rarely ever had the passion or the patience for elaborate recipes, and to be honest, these days it's even more difficult, also because I can't stand for too long and also don't really see why I should do some big cooking just for myself.

A few days ago, a friend mentioned having many cookbooks, but not using them anymore because of online recipes.
That made me think of my own cookbooks. Yes, I have a bunch of cookbooks, old vintage ones and new vintage ones. No, honestly, that makes sense. I bought vintage cookbooks at fleamarkets or online and I bought new cookbooks so long ago that they are also vintage now 😉 at least most of them.

I remember when we got a new kitchen. The saleslady showed us a hanging cabinet for cookbooks, very uncomfortable for me to use because I would have needed a footstool to open and close it. I said I'd prefer an open shelf and she said that the cookbooks would get greasy that way. She was so surprised when I said that that was absolutely fine for cookbooks in my opinion if they were used. She was even more surprised when she heard I was a librarian, but being used to what textbooks look after long use, a bit of grease can't shock me.
Actually, the cookbooks in my kitchen are not very greasy, but tend to get dusty on top because I hardly use them. Some of them have never been used except for looking at recipes and thinking how nice they looked.
At the moment I don't need the space they are taking up and they add to the kitchen look.

Of course only the "new vintage" and younger are there, not the really old ones.
I thought I could share one of my vintage ones with you every, now and then, something I haven't done often on the blog. I fear it will be completely theoretical, though. While I like the thought of trying out some of the old recipes, I'm very well aware it's probably not going to happen. Gotta stay realistic.

Today I brought you "Die fleischlose Küche für Gesunde und Kranke" by chef Kurt Klein, "The meatless kitchen for healthy and sick people".

You may see from the Fraktur typeface (not something everyone can still read, especially without practice) that this is an old book - and from the mold stains, fortunately the book doesn't smell bad - and although there's no year of publication, an inscription in the front tells us that Walter G. got it from his mother "for perpetual remembrance" in May 1937. I wonder if he was just interested in cooking or if he was or wanted to be a vegetarian and if he moved out from home at the time.

This book would have been a good start because it has 769 recipes including beverages (some longer, some just two or three sentences long, such as the one for lemonade for example)! I even found a few online recommendations for this book from not ten years ago.

Vegetarianism is nothing new.
I have to admit, however, that I hadn't been aware when they started making veggie meat, sausage, and cheese. Now there are so many companies jumping on the trend. When I stopped eating meat in the late 80s, there was nothing like that in sight. It was hard to get something vegetarian in restaurants and sometimes still is, depending on what kind of restaurant it is.
I remember my first visit to the US when in one place the waiter said he could only offer me a shrimp cocktail as vegetarian and was confused because I politely declined and in another place the waiter said they would just whip up a veggie plate for me if I was okay with that, and it was so good it made the others jealous.
In the Klein book there's an ad for "plant meat" by De-Vau-Ge, a company that still exists today. From what I have seen, some of their products are used in the book's recipes, not just veggie meat etc., but also granola and other cereals.

I thought I'd choose a random recipe to share with you. Just a second .... poke .... my finger chose recipe 292 "Kartoffelkruspeln". I didn't even know what that means, but it seems "Kruspeln" is an Austrian word for "cartilage", here used in the sense of "crunchy". If you suspect something now, you may be right. This is a recipe for potato croquettes (from the French "croquer" = "crunch").
- 1 kilo potatoes - peel, wash, boil until soft, and mash
- add 3 egg yolks, 100 g butter, salt and some grated nutmeg
- make little ball or sausage shapes, use egg and breadcrumbs or granola (semolina-like and of course from De-Vau-Ge) to bread them and deep fry them 3 to 4 minutes

Yeah, I also would have wished for something more exotic, but that's random choice for you. Maybe we will have more luck with the next cookbook.

The Victorian way - The fifth door

I don't remember how I first discovered Mrs Crocombe on English Heritage's YouTube channel or which one was the first video I watched, but like many others, judging from all the comments, I became a fan of the good lady immediately. Those videos are made so beautifully.
Avis Crocombe is no fictional character, she was the cook to the Braybrooke family who spent the summers at Audley End House, their country mansion in Essex (I wish I had known about it when we were in Cambridge, so we could have gone there). A visitor to the house recognized the name which had been mentioned in a book handwritten by his aunt. This aunt was Avis Crocombe and it was her recipe book that he then donated to English Heritage. Most of The Victorian Way shows Mrs Crocombe preparing some of those recipes.

This Christmas punch looks like something I could make. I'd just need some ginger wine and some more people to help me drink it unless I find out the perfect measurements to make some only for myself ;-)

Gas cooking and baking recipe calendar

Gotta hand him this. He's good at finding stuff I like. I'm talking about the tall guy. Today the "Gas-Koch- und Backrezeptkalender 1952" landed in our mailbox or for those who don't understand German - the "Gas cooking and baking recipe calendar 1952".

You don't know what to cook? Do not despair, your calendar brought to you by the Hamburg Gasworks has thought about it for you - well, not the calendar itself, but some smart people with gas stoves, I guess - and offers you a recipe for each day of the year. Now that does make planning easy.

And this is what you'll get:

Sunday .......... meat recipe

Monday ......... something simple for every day

Tuesday ......... supper or appetizers

Wednesday .... vegetables, prepared in many different ways

Thursday ....... sweet desserts

Friday ............ fish

Saturday ........ cakes, small baked goods and fancy cakes

In week 30 there are only recipes for preserving and in week 51 only recipes for Christmas baking. Boy, they thought of everything, didn't they?

And of course you get cute pictures with funny little captions, so you can hang up the calendar without having to look at recipes only. You think that's it? Wrong. There are also little stories on the back from time to time.

If you think I'm being ironic, you are wrong again. I love things like that and what I did first was to look up the recipe for my birthday (the day, I wasn't born in 1952 yet although I like to play the age card a lot).

Anyone for "Spanish sandwiches"?

You'll need

- 2 anchovies

- ½ gherkin

- some parsley

- 3 table spoons capers

- 1 tea spoon mustard

- 1 table spoon oil

- 2 table spoons vinegar

- 2 hard boiled eggs

- salt, paprika, white bread and butter

Chop up the anchovies, the gherkin, the parsley and the yolk, mix it with the capers, mustard and oil and season with salt and paprika.

Cut the bread into thin slices, cut off the crust und put butter on. Put the mixture on the bread und add the chopped egg white on top.

Wow. I do have a real 50s feeling now. Too bad I don't eat anchovies, but like always, if someone of you wants to go for it, let me know how it turned out! ;-)