Cooking Hints and Tested Recipes

by Crisco Shortening, The Proctor & Gamble Company, 1937

 

This is a booklet I have come across many times when checking out vintage recipe books on eBay. It must have had a pretty wide distribution. Admittedly, it's not much to look at. No color pictures, or even queer/funny pictures inside. On the cover it claims to be "From Winifred S. Carter". Winifred... now there's a name you don't really see anymore. In fact I've never known anyone with that name. Who, oh who, is Winifred S. Carter? A brief scan of the internet tells us Mrs. Carter was a noted American celebrity chef and cookbook author. Okay, now that is established. 
Inside the booklet it is stressed how "digestible" Crisco is. It's a plus to use digestible ingredients in your recipes, I always say. Maybe not necessary...but a plus just the same.
Some other tidbits:
Miracle!   It's super-creamed! (No more disconcerting lard chunks - yea!)
Miracle!   It makes extra-digestible pastry! (Eliminating completely the need for table-side spittoons for those indigestible bits and pieces found in other brands!) 
Miracle!   You can use Crisco for everything. (Everything? Yes, apparently, everything. At this very moment I have a space heater plugged into a can of Crisco and it is chugging away just fine!)
There were a couple other Miracles! listed, but I think these are far and away the top three. 
 Even though I am a mere human and not qualified to perform miracles I will try a couple recipes. First up...

Hashed Brown Potatoes

6 medium-sized cold boiled potatoes (I left the skins on and just scrubbed them)
3 small raw green peppers
salt and pepper
Crisco

Chop potatoes fine, season with salt and pepper. (You can, of course, add more later if you so choose). Remove seeds and stems from peppers. Wash, drain, and chop fine. (I used just 2 green peppers because they only sell the "Gilligan's Island Radioactive Seed Giant Green Peppers at my local grocery store.) Mix with potatoes. Put about 1/8 inch of melted Crisco in large frying pan. (You'll just have to kind of eyeball this measurement.) At this point we are again reminded by the author that "Crisco is a digestible frying fat.) Heat slowly. When hot, add potatoes and peppers and cook slowly, stirring with a fork. (Note: I chose to stir with a wooden spoon as I did not care to ruin the finish on my non-stick frying pan.) When partly brown, fold into omelet shape in one side of pan. Fry until a rich brown. Turn out on platter, keeping omelet shape. 
I did not bother with the omelet-folding business. I try to steer clear of food origami unless I see a real purpose for it. I mean, folding it into an omelet shape was not going to fool anyone into thinking it was an omelet. 
These took forever. I don't know if it's just me, but hash browns always take forever to brown for me. Well, I was in no hurry anyway. 
They turned out nice. Soft here, crispy there. No indigestible bits. The green peppers were a nice switch-up for me. If I made these again though I think I would like to add some onions. They were just a tad bland, even with my copious use of black pepper (which I am inordinately fond of).  

Gird your loins... here comes...

Lady Baltimore Cake

I have been meaning to make this one for some time now. It is, in fact, the first recipe in the book. Also, for whatever reason, it is a cake my father wished to try. I wish I had made it for him in his lifetime, but I dedicate this cake to him. 
There are a few reasons I have put this one off. Number one: the amount of work that goes into it just seemed daunting. Number two: the number of dishes, utensils, etc. seem like an awful lot for someone whose dishwasher is on the blink. And number three: boiled icing!

Here are the particulars:

1/2 cup Crisco
1 1/2 cups sugar
2 1/2 cups cake flour
2 tsps baking powder
1 tsp salt
1 cup milk
1 Tbsp lemon juice
4 egg whites, beaten stiff

Blend Crisco and sugar until light. Sift flour, baking powder, and salt together. Add alternately with the milk. Add lemon juice and then the beaten egg whites. Pour into two round layer pans (9 inch) rubbed with Crisco and dusted with flour, and bake in a moderate oven (350 degrees F). When cool, spread Lady Baltimore Filling between layers. Ice with Boiled Icing. (Note: my layers were done in 30 minutes.)

Lady Baltimore Filling

3/4 cup chopped raisins
3/4 cup chopped walnuts
1/2 cup chopped steamed figs
1/2 cup drained and chopped maraschino cherries
1/4 cup icing

Mix chopped fruit and nuts together. Add  one-quarter cup of icing prepared for top. Blend thoroughly. (Note: I "steamed" my figs by taking my dried figs and placing them in a bowl with a small amount of water. I then put them in the microwave for a few minutes until they had absorbed the water and "reconstituted")

Boiled Icing

2 cups sugar
1/3 cup light corn syrup
1/3 cup water
2 egg whites
1 tsp vanilla

Cook sugar, corn syrup, and water, stirring until sugar is dissolved. Boil to 242 degrees F, or until syrup forms a soft ball in cold water. Pour this syrup over egg whites beaten stiff. Beat constantly until mixture holds its shape. Add vanilla. (Note: do not become discouraged if it looks like it's never going to thicken up. I almost quit twice, but I carried on and it eventually became maybe even a little too firm.)

The result:
Well, I was right. It was a massive hassle. It used a boatload of bowls/pans/utensils/racks etc.  Also, I now have to figure out what to do with 6 lonely egg yolks. But... I can now say that I have made and eaten Lady Baltimore Cake. The cake itself is pristine white and is somehow both firm and soft. It has a tasty fruity-nutty filling and the frosting is a dentist's dream. I ate one piece and I feel I have consumed enough sugar to last me three days. But...I conquered boiled icing! Yea! 

I just read online that the counterpart to the Lady Baltimore Cake... the Lord Baltimore Cake, was created to use up all those egg yolks. This recipe pamphlet does not include that recipe. Not that I would make another whole cake just to use those egg yolks! I'm only one person!!

  

Meat: Selection - Preparation and Many Ways to Serve

by Department of Food Economics - Armour and Company 1934

This booklet is, as it says on the cover, "a souvenir of your visit to the Armour building". It includes, as well as recipes, a description of what meat is made up of, its place in your diet and all the major cuts. Of course many of these cuts have been renamed and renamed again since 1934. There is a "centerfold" of the many products that Armour produced at the time which include not just meat products, but eggs, butter, and my favorite "pure lard!"

I went to the store a couple of days ago intending to purchase some "pure lard". I was unable to find any. I know I saw some on one of my previous visits (in a handy lard bucket), but it seems that if they carried it before, they no longer do. Too bad. I understand nothing is better for pie crust.
(Lard bucket, lard bucket, lard bucket! Sounds so funny to me. Sorry, I'm a big weirdo.)

First recipe...

Broiled Porterhouse Steak

Select a porterhouse steak from 1 to 2 inches thick. Trim off excess fat, wipe with a damp cloth. Grease heated broiling rack and lay steak on it. Place under heat unit with the temperature set at broil. If gas is used, do not close broiling oven door. (???) When seared on both sides,  lower pan in broiling oven to permit a greater air space between heat unit and meat. Turn occasionally until cooked to the desired doneness. A one to two inch steak requires from 18 to 25 minutes to cook medium rare under the flame of a gas oven. When done season with salt and pepper and spread with Cloverbloom (Armour Brand) Butter. 

My observations: I was unable to find a steak that thick. Maybe I could have asked the butcher to produce one cut just for me, but the steak was expensive enough as it was. It was maybe 3/4" thick. Good enough. 
This is certainly easy enough to prepare. Obviously, I didn't have it in the oven anywhere near 18-25 minutes. After the initial searing I only had to cook it a few minutes per side (flipping it only once). It was done very nicely, very tender. The only thing (for me) that was unusual was putting butter on it. It tasted very rich, but was an awfully big piece of meat for one person to eat. Way too big!

Next on the menu:

Portuguese Toast

Skin 1 cold cooked Star Pure Pork Sausage Link and cut into slices 1/8 inch thick. Put 3 Tbsp tomato sauce into small pan with 1 Tbsp cold cooked rice and season to taste. Heat. Arrange slices of sausage on pieces of finger shaped toast, let them slightly overlap each other. Spread the sauce over them, heat in the oven for a few minutes and serve at once.

Okay. This one is kinda weird, thus my selection. I was unable to find the brand listed, but I purchased some Italian sausages that I figured would do the job. I had some difficulty slicing the sausage that thin, but I tried. The recipe was super easy and in fact, though strange, it was quite tasty. I will definitely make this again... because it was good, fairly low in calories, and well... because I have to use up the rest of the can of tomato sauce. Whether this is genuinely Portuguese is certainly up for debate.

Mirro-Matic Pressure Pan: Recipes Directions Time-Tables

 by Mirro Aluminum Company 1958

 

Why does it seem I have so many pressure cooker recipe books? I don't know, and I don't know if I'll ever truly get over my fear of using a pressure cooker. This time as per usual I was hiding around the corner in the living room waiting for the explosion.
According to the Mirro Aluminum Company of Manitowoc, Wisconsin their product  is America's Most Wanted Pressure Pan! Yea!

Stuffed Pork Chops

This is a very simple recipe and I'm sure would have turned out just lovely had I thoroughly read the instructions before I set out to make it.

4 pork chops cut 1 1/2" thick with pocket along side of bone
1 1/2 c croutons (bread cubes browned in butter)
2 Tbsp parsley
3/4 tsp Salt
dash Pepper
 2 Tbsp Butter or margarine, melted
1 10 1/2 oz. can Consomme
1/2 cup water

Stuff pork chops with croutons and parsley. Season with salt and pepper.
Brown chops in hot fat in Mirro-Matic! (emphasis mine)
Place browned meat on rack in pan.
Add consomme and water.
Cover, set control at 10 (or however 10 lbs pressure translates on your cooker) and cook 12-15 minutes after control jiggles. (Ah, how far kitchen technology has come! We no longer need expect our cooking implements to jiggle as a sign from the Great Almighty that some action is required of us! That verb now only designates Jell-o or cellulite!) But I digress....
Cool pan normally for 5 minutes, then place under faucet (just follow directions for your particular cooker). Thicken gravy. See below.

Gravy

1 cup stock (liquid from cooked meat)
2 Tbsp flour
1/2 cup cold water

Blend flour and cold water together until it is smooth.
Gradually add to the stock, stirring constantly.
Cook over medium heat, stirring, until gravy is smooth and thickened.

Confessional time:
Okay, now for my big screw-up! My pressure cooker did not come with a rack and I don't own one small enough to fit! So my poor pork chops had to sit in the bottom of the pan with all their juices leaching out. I was so bummed because the flavor of the gravy was really good. So let my stupidity be a lesson to you. Always make sure you have all the equipment you need on hand. It's not just about having all the ingredients!


Next up...

Potato Salad and Frankfurters

This one sounded kind of strange.. so I figured it was right up my alley.

5-6 medium size potatoes
1 lb. frankfurters, sliced
3/4 tsp. salt
1/4 tsp. pepper
1/4 cup cooking oil
1/4 cup vinegar
3 Tbsp. sugar
1/2 cup onions, chopped
2 Tbsp. parsley, chopped

Place the sliced potatoes in your pressure cooker. 
Put frankfurters on top of potatoes.
Thoroughly mix salt, pepper, oil, vinegar, and sugar.
pour this mixture over potatoes and add the onions.
Cover, set control at 15 (or whatever that is on your cooker) and cook 2 1/2 minutes after control jiggles.
Reduce pressure instantly.
Add parsley, mix well before serving.
Serves 4

This recipe, I am sorry to say, was a bomb! I timed it very carefully but I knew even as I was taking the cooker off the burner that it was burnt. I used the immediate pressure release but the damage was done. The entire bottom of my pressure cooker was charred. 

In order to give some sort of review I salvaged what wasn't burnt onto the bottom and put it in a bowl. Blech! Nothing, just nothing. It tasted exactly like each individual ingredient, cooked potatoes, hot dogs, onions, and a slight tang. The ingredients didn't meld to become a "finished product" and I would never call it a salad, potato or otherwise. 
Just a big dud! What a disappointment!

Oven Cookery by Anchor Hocking 1974

Here we have some kind of psychedelic colors on this booklet. Pinks and oranges...wow! Now let me tell you how I make my selections. Since I have come back to my blog I have decided to do two recipes from each pamphlet: one, a normal sounding recipe, and one, the weirdest sounding thing I can find in the book. There aren't always really weird recipes, but I do my best to find them. I struck pay dirt here. At least I thought so. This is a recipe I couldn't ever get anyone in my family to even try a teaspoon of...cowards! It is...

Clam and Eggplant Casserole!

What! Clams and eggplant! What fresh Hell is this?? What sadist put this together? Anchor Hocking, that's who!

1 med. eggplant, peeled and cubed
1 med. onion, chopped
1/2 clove garlic, finely chopped
1/2 stick margarine + 1 Tbsp for the buttered crumbs
1/4 cup chopped parsley
1/2 cup finely chopped celery
1 1/2 cup bread crumbs
2 7-oz. cans minced clams, reserve juice
1 Tbsp lemon juice
1/2 cup cream
1/4 cup buttered crumbs

Cover eggplant with cold water in saucepan. Simmer 2 minutes, then drain. Saute onion with garlic in margarine until tender. Add parsley, celery, and bread crumbs. Mix with eggplant and place in buttered 8 inch square casserole. Add clams mixed with lemon juice. Pour milk and clam juice over all.  Sprinkle crumbs on top. Bake at 350-degree oven 40 minutes. Yield: 4 large servings.

All right! Results time! It smelled really good. It looked very nice with the crispy breadcrumbs on top. But I knew what was hiding beneath...eggplant and clams!
Guess what? You probably won't believe me...it was...really good! I was shocked! I don't dislike clams, especially in clam chowder or smoked, but with eggplant? I practically did a little happy dance in the kitchen after I tasted it. A weirdo recipe that was actually good; really good. I know you probably don't believe me. Let me put it this way: if you like clams and are at worst, ambivalent to eggplant, give it a try. See for yourself.

One caveat: eat it all in one sitting because it didn't fulfill my expectations on the reheat. Maybe I need to reheat in the oven instead of the microwave. I will try it that way and see.

Next up...

 Pineapple Swirl Cake

Sounds good! I was up at 4:30 this morning baking this cake because... I live vampire hours. Me and Bela Lugosi.  

I can (8 3/4 oz.) crushed pineapple
1/3 cup shortening
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1 egg
1 tsp. vanilla
1 1/4 cups sifted all-purpose flour
1 1/2 tsp. baking powder
1/3 cup brown sugar
3 Tbsp. butter or margarine, melted
1/2 cup flaked coconut
1/3 cup chopped walnuts

Drain pineapple well, reserving 1/2 cup syrup. Cream shortening and granulated sugar. Add egg and vanilla; beat until light. Sift together flour, baking powder and salt; add to creamed mixture alternately with reserved syrup, beginning and ending with flour mixture. Spread half in a greased 8-inch square baking dish; spread with pineapple. Top with remaining batter. Combine remaining ingredients; sprinkle over all. Bake in a preheated 350 degree oven about 35 minutes. Yield: one 8-inch cake. 

Okay. This is obviously the "normal recipe" from this booklet. A couple of notes on the ingredients: As we all know, every year cans are getting smaller and smaller. You are paying the same (or more) and getting less and less. I was unable to find a 8 3/4 oz can of pineapple. They are now only 8 oz. That's almost a full ounce less (obviously) and is going to affect how much pineapple flavor you are going to get. This also affects the amount of juice. I was just barely able to squeeze out the required 1/2 cup of liquid. I really hate this, as I am sure all "vintage" cooks do. Nevertheless I made it do.
Also.. I was unable to locate my walnuts so I substituted pecans. I usually prefer pecans so this was no great loss. 
The result: A really easy and quick-to-make cake! (Except for the sifting. I am not a huge fan of sifting.) It turned out very moist and flavorful- would have been nice with a bit more pineapple. The topping was delicious. This would be great for breakfast as a coffee cake or for dessert with your after dinner coffee.  Enjoy!  

 

 

Selected Recipes featuring Salad & Cooking Cream by Lansing Dairy Company 1937

Hi all! What a fun booklet this is! It was a gift from my sister. I love this lady's attractive Marcel wave. I knew it was from the thirties before I even looked. Oh, if only I looked this lovely in the kitchen. Heck, you could serve a plate of almonds floating in a sea of yellow cream with tomato sharks swimming around and who would be looking at the food. 

Let me inform you first off that "Salad & Cooking Cream" is a very fancy term for what we call sour cream. Good. I was afraid I might not be able to use this recipe booklet if it was something bizarre and discontinued.  

In the spirit of trying the strangest recipe I could find...

Buckle yourself in, it's going to be a bumpy ride... I present to you:

Liver in Soured Cream

1 1/2 pounds liver, unsliced (I couldn't find unsliced, I mean, really! So I used sliced)
1/4 pound salt pork
1 cup soured cream
1/4 teaspoon pepper
1 medium onion
1 teaspoon salt

Use either beef or pork liver (I used beef). Place in casserole. Dice salt pork and insert the pieces into the top surface of the liver. (Or do as I did and line them up like little tin soldiers on top of the liver. Honestly, I was tempted to take a picture of this bloody monstrosity with its little dead pork soldiers lined up in their fatal formation and post one of those, "NAILED IT" photos, but I just couldn't.) Arrange onion over this, add salt and pepper. Pour over this the soured cream and bake until tender  in moderate oven. The liquid remaining in pan may be mixed with flour and milk and served as gravy. (I didn't bother with this.)
I set the oven at 350 degrees and cooked for 1/2 hour. At this point it was still quite bloody. I put it in for 15 more minutes and that seemed to do the trick.
Let me tell you, this dish is not going to win any awards for presentation  But...God help me...I liked it. Perhaps I should have mentioned beforehand, but I am a real liver fan. I know...I'm sick. But seriously, if you are a liver lover like myself this is a very tasty dish to make when the rest of the family is on vacation and no one will see you consuming it. Or..if you live in a cave and can hide in a corner and eat it, that will work too. Happy consuming, my fellow golems.

Holey cheese, you guys. This is THE most disgusting looking thing I have ever tried to reheat. I must be honest with you when I say it looks like someone used my casserole dish as an emesis basin. Nevertheless, I was stout-hearted and pushed through. Tasted swell. Plus, found a new use for my sleep-mask (blinder).

This next recipe also sounds kind of strange, but I love pie and have never had anything that sounded like:

Soured Cream Honey Pie

3 eggs, separated
1/2 cup honey
2 Tablespoons flour
1/2 to 3/4 teaspoon cinnamon (according to taste)
1 cup soured cream
1/4 cu sugar for meringue
1 baked pie shell

Separate the eggs and beat the yolks. Add the honey, which has been blended with the flour and cinnamon. Stir in the soured cream. Raisins or chopped dates may be added, if you like them. Cook in a double boiler until thick. Pour the filling into a baked pie shell. Beat the egg whites until a stiff froth is formed. Add 1/4 cup of sugar, beating until stiff. Spread this fluffy topping over the pie and brown quickly in slow oven (Google says 300 degrees, if you were wondering). 

I kept putting off making this recipe because of the meringue. My meringues turn out about 95% of the time.  It's that remaining 5% that makes me hesitant. Anyway, I finally sucked it up and gathered my ingredients. 
The recipe was very easy to put together; used mostly ingredients I already had on hand, and... turned out great. Even my meringue was beautiful. Yea! 
The resulting pie has a kind of custard-y texture and a flavor reminiscent of a very mild pumpkin pie (the cinnamon, I guess).
Oh, by the way, regarding the meringue: I don't know if I have a lousy oven or what, but it did not brown exactly "quickly". I did keep a constant eye on it to make sure I didn't end up with a hard brown crust. I took it out the minute it had a pale golden-brown appearance... and it was just right.
I did not add raisins or dates, though I'm sure that would have been just dandy.

So... two yummy recipes, probably some more good ones in here too. Thanks to my sis!  

 

Family Suppers

By Shake 'N  Bake / General Foods Corporation 1980

 
This particular recipe booklet isn't super vintage, but hey, 25 years old still counts. The booklet contains mostly recipes for chicken with an occasional recipe using pork.
I have honestly never bought Shake 'N Bake in my life. I remember my mother making it on occasion and I remember her letting me do the shaking every now and then. What can I say, cheap thrills.
So, this is my introduction to Shake 'N Bake:

Yep! Taco Chicken!

I consider myself lucky that the two main ingredients in this recipe (besides the chicken) are still available, and in their original form. It is a common problem when using vintage cookbooks to find that an ingredient is no longer on the market or that the size of the product has been reduced drastically. (You ought to see how huge regular rolls of toilet paper used to be in the day. But I digress.) Here we go:

1 cup taco-flavor tortilla chips (read: Doritos)
1 envelope Shake 'N Bake Seasoned Coating Mix for Chicken - Barbecue Style
2 1/2 pounds cut-up chicken
1/2 cup shredded cheddar cheese

Place chips in shaker bag and crush finely. (Note: make them really fine so they don't sink to the bottom.) Add the Shake 'N Bake: shake to blend. Prepare, coat, and bake chicken as directed on package. Sprinkle with cheese and bake 5 minutes longer, or until cheese has melted. Serve with shredded lettuce, if desired. (I couldn't think of one reason why I would desire this, so I skipped it.)
Makes 4 servings 

I used 5 chicken thighs so for me it was 5 servings. There was plenty of the mix so no problem. As you can see, this is a really easy recipe. Great for evenings when you don't have a lot of prep time available to you. This turned out really great. One bad thing...all those leftover Doritos in the bag calling out to me!

Next up...

Pizza Chicken

I like pizza. I like chicken. Win-win, I figure.

1 envelope Shake 'N Bake Seasoned Coating Mix for Chicken - Barbecue Style
1 teaspoon oregano
2 1/2 pounds cut-up chicken
3/4 cup shredded mozzarella cheese

Place Shake 'N Bake and oregano in the shaker bag; shake to blend. Prepare, coat, and bake chicken as directed on package. Sprinkle with cheese and bake 5 minutes longer, or until cheese has melted. Do not spoon pan drippings over chicken. Makes 4 servings.

I, once again, used chicken thighs. (All out of those now.) Once again, easy. Unfortunately, not as good as the Taco Chicken. Contrary to the recipe's name. It tasted nothing like pizza. The small amount of oregano just wasn't enough to compete with the overpowering barbecue flavors. I even used a brand new bottle of very fresh, very fragrant oregano. Don't get me wrong. The chicken was good, but I might just as well have made the chicken just as directed on the box.

So.. I recommend trying the Taco Chicken. It's easy and it's a different take on the plain barbecue style Shake 'N Bake

Presto Cooker Recipe Book

by the National Pressure Cooker Company 1946

As you can see, this booklet is pretty beat up.  I think it's seen a lot of action. I think that's a good sign. Must be good recipes within!
I decided to select two recipes again. I think I will try to do that with all my booklets I try. The first recipe I wanted to try was cornmeal which you make up in the cooker and then slice and fry later, after it sets up. I haven't had cornmeal mush in ages, but I remember I thought it was quite tasty.
Bad news though. Firstly, I don't own a Presto Cooker (model 40) or any other Presto Cooker. Nor would I use a vintage one if I had it. My mother used to tell horror stories about pressure cookers exploding every time she used hers to make us dinner. I always stayed out of the kitchen when she was using it. Apparently if you didn't know what you were doing a pressure cooker could be a regular time bomb.
I purchased a Fagor pressure cooker for myself. Nice and new and much less scary. The Presto model 40 was a 4 quart pressure cooker, so that's what I used for my recipes.
Back to the bad news. The Fagor pressure cooker stresses most strongly that you are not to use it for cereals. These cereals include cornmeal as well as oatmeal, cream of wheat, wheat meal, malt-o-meal, and gruel. Darn it! No gruel! Ever since seeing Mr. Henry Woodhouse gumming it down in Emma I have wanted to try that sweet cure-all myself! And I had to change my plans.
Look how yummy those cereals look, though:

Well... maybe not so much.

`Onward...to... Swiss Steak!

There were two different recipes for Swiss Steak. I chose number one because it didn't have any tomato products in it. I remember my Mom's Swiss Steak being very good, but I absolutely do not remember a tomato sauce base. Yet, everywhere you look for Swiss Steak recipes they all have tomatoes in them. I was beginning to think I was crazy. My Mom made it in a brown gravy. So I was thrilled to find this recipe.
Here it is:

Swiss Steak - No. 1

2 lbs. round steak, 1 inch thick
2 Tbsp. Flour
1 small onion, cut fine
2 Tbsp. horse-radish
Salt and Pepper
2 Tbsp. fat (I used Crisco)
1/4 cup water

Method: Cut steak into serving pieces. Mix flour with salt and pepper.  Pound steak on both sides. (Had a frustrating day? Take it out on your steak). Roll steak into seasoned flour. Heat cooker; add fat. Brown meat in hot fat on both sides. Sprinkle onion and horse-radish over meat and add water. Place cover on cooker. Allow steam to flow from vent pipe to release all air from cooker. Place indicator weight on vent pipe and cook 15 minutes with stem at cook position. Let stem return to down position. 

Ta-da, you're done! Well, not exactly. First of all, modern cookers aren't built quite the same way. You will just have to read the instructions for your specific cooker to understand how yours works. The main thing is that once your cooker is at it's full steam it should take 15 minutes to cook. Then do as the instructions say and let the food sit in the cooker for 10 to 15 minutes or however long it takes your "stem" to return to a down position.  I made a mistake and did not do this. I was unsure what to do after the 15 minutes so I turned the dial on mine to instant pressure release. My high-pitched squeal was no doubt heard throughout the entire neighborhood as a powerful blast of steam went shooting across the kitchen! Not only that, but by not waiting for it to sit for a bit it was not as tender as it should of been. You see, during those 10 or 15 minutes while you wait for the pressure to go down, the food is actually still cooking.

The results: a tender piece of meat created from a notoriously tough cut of beef. I read online that this dish got it's name because the Swiss are well-known to be cheap and that's why they created this way to make a cheap, tough meat tasty and tender. Now...I did not say this, I only read it online. Probably just a bunch of hooey. 

Other notes: This did not end up tasting like my Mom's recipe. I'm pretty sure there was no horseradish in hers, but it was still good, and I found that it was actually better tasting as leftovers, which is unusual, for me anyway.

Now, this next recipe was supposed to be the cornmeal mush recipe. As I mentioned earlier, my Fagor cooker said "No way, Jose". Apparently the cereal bubbles up into the lid and gums up the works. So I peeked through the book to see what I could make with ingredients I already had on hand. I found:

Barbecued Chicken

I love barbecued chicken, but I don't have it too often. Rarely actually. Also, I didn't have a whole chicken, cut in pieces, but I did have 2 1/2 lbs of chicken drumsticks I bought because they were on sale pretty cheap. They're actually my least favorite cut of chicken, but cheap is cheap. (Hey! maybe I'm Swiss!...just kidding).

2 to 3 1/2 lbs chicken
Paprika
2 Tbsp. Shortening
Salt
1/2 cup chili sauce
1 onion, minced
2 Tbsp. vinegar
1 Tbsp. water
1/4 tsp. pepper

Method:  Cut chicken into serving pieces. Sprinkle with paprika. Heat cooker and add shortening. Brown chicken and then season with salt. Combine chili sauce, onion, vinegar, water, and pepper and pour over chicken. Place cover on cooker. Allow steam to flow from vent pipe to release all air from cooker. Place indicator weight on vent pipe and cook 15 minutes with stem at COOK position. Let stem return to DOWN position. 

Now, as with the Swiss Steak recipe you have to follow the instructions given with your cooker. This time I waited 10 to 15 minutes before I used the release steam valve.  It made all the difference. The chicken was just fall-apart tender and very juicy. I would not say that this tasted like barbecued chicken, however. But if you like super tender chicken in a tangy tomato-based sauce I recommend this recipe. It really made the house smell delicious. In fact the smell was so strong I could hardly get to sleep that night from smelling it. Today (two days later) I just had some of the leftovers, and, once again, like the Swiss Steak, it was even better than the first time around.     

I am really liking food that comes from the pressure cooker. I will not lie though. I still fear it somewhat. Childhood fears really stick with you... and did you know that if you make faces at people, your face might stick that way? I learned that in my childhood too!