The social media accounts for the blog have had a temporary pause as I have been dealing with some particularly vicious trolls this week. And while I acknowledge that there is historical ephemera and cookbooks that can be viewed through our modern lens as being offensive, that doesn’t mean that I am going to sit on the side and do nothing when the mob demands that they be burned. Thanks to the patrons over on my Patreon for reminding me that what I do is important historically, I can’t take attacks personally, and I am coming from a place of power that people will always want to destroy. However, I do not now, nor will I ever, take threats to Tom and my children lightly. Ever.

So, the current status of things is this:

Social media accounts have been paused until the trolls find someone else to pick on.

The Lamb Cake Contest will totally proceed. (Email your entries to ruthmidcenturymenu@gmail.com)

The blog, as it stands, will stay online. Unfortunately, commenting on the blog will be impossible or made difficult for culling out trolls.

Future posts on the blog will be presented monthly, and will be more of a round-up style, depicting dishes I have tried and cookbooks I have digitized.

Future posts of recipe testing and anything involving Tom and my kids will be moved to Patreon. I have never wanted to move things behind a paywall, but safety demands it. Recipe testing posts will be available for all support tiers. Access to my unedited digital cookbook and historical ephemera collection (which is ever-growing) will also be available for all support tiers. I will also be making my courses from my currently-on-hold cooking school available to all support tiers.

Hopefully, this is all temporary, and we will be able to go back to cooking together soon. I am dedicated to preserving the culinary past of this country, and nothing has changed. Keep cooking and collecting out there, guys, and know that I am with you!

The post Blog Format Change And Temporary Changes To Social Media appeared first on Mid-Century Menu.

Oh, that’s right. The whole internet is judging him, aren’t they? Anyway, here is Whipped Fudge Frosting!

AuthorRetroRuth

Rating

From Rawleigh Recipe Gems, 1964 

Oh, and here is the prune cake I made his insides out of!

For a couple of years now, I have been testing fluffy chocolate frosting recipes behind the scenes. I mean, you could probably just whip a ganache or make chocolate whipped cream and call it good, but I still wanted to see if there was a vintage recipe that would give fluffy, very chocolatey lamb cake frosting.

And no, I’m not going to put cocoa in 7-minute icing, even though if you do that I’m not judging. I made a coffee version once, which was really good, but for some reason making 7-minute icing flavored with chocolate seems wrong to my OCD. Like drinking a glass of milk after you brush your teeth kind of wrong. Unsettling.

So I found this recipe, and the great thing about it is that I was able to get the two eggs tempered into the chocolate base and up to temp so they weren’t raw anymore. Raw eggs are another OCD for me, but I still wanted the frosting to get the smooth, creaminess from the egg yolks.

After I cooled and whipped the frosting, it was light, fluffy, creamy, and had a great flavor. But it did NOT hold a peak at all, and so wasn’t very useful for making lamb cake fleece. In fact, I made this white 7-minute frosting to cover up the fact that the fudge frosting underneath was sliding off the lamb. In fact, it only held up for pictures, and Larry proceeded to slowly lose all the frosting off his body in about 12 hours. This was sad for me, but not for Tom, who would scrape the sagging frosting off the platter and into his mouth every time he walked past.

Anyway, onto the taste test!

“This tastes like really good fudge frosting! Very creamy.”

“Yeah, but it keeps sliding off the lamb.”

“Who cares? That’s not going to stop me from putting it in my face.”

The Verdict: Soft But Delicious

Overall, I wouldn’t call this a fail, just a step in the right direction. This frosting was smooth and incredibly creamy and rich. It had a great chocolate flavor as well. Even though it was too soft to pipe, you could use it for filling or just to frost the top of a non-lamb cake. And I think to firm it up I could either add more powdered sugar or sub the milk in the recipe with cream so that it becomes more of a true ganache. Either way, I am making this again!

The post Whipped Fudge Frosting And Larry, The Chocolate-Prune Lamb appeared first on Mid-Century Menu.

This is Chocolate Prune Cake!!!

AuthorRetroRuth

Rating

From Prunes For Epicures, 35 Intriguing Recipes - United Prune Growers of California, 1933

So, as I mentioned above, this recipe was about two missing ingredients away from being a disaster. I realized as soon as I started making this that I was going to have to sub a lot of ingredients. And we weren’t getting a grocery delivery until the next day, so if I was going to make any cake that day, I was going to make it with substitutions.

So, I had to sub brown sugar for white sugar, butter for shortening, buttermilk for milk, and dark chocolate for baking chocolate.

The only one I was nervous about was the brown sugar, but I’ve seen lots of vintage chocolate cake recipes with brown sugar in them, so I figured it was worth a shot.

This is a bunch of cooked prune goo. So…I didn’t have to sub that.

Oh, and the reason I was so worried about using the brown sugar was that I wanted to make a chocolate prune lamb!! You know, a lamb cake that keeps you regular?

Anyway, when this recipe was chosen by the patrons over on Patreon, a vision of chocolate prune lamb cake appeared in my mind. And I have enough experience with weird food visions at this point that I knew the only way to get rid of it was to make it.

And it woooooorrrked!!!!! It worked! I couldn’t believe it. I think I even nerdily high-fived myself.

Here he is! Cooled and sitting up and full of prunes.

But you have to wait until next week to see him all gussied up with frosting and sprinkles. For now, we are stuffing cake in Tom’s face.

“What’s that face? Is it bad?”

“No, it’s actually good. It’s moist. It just doesn’t have a lot of flavor.”

The Verdict: Good!

From The Tasting Notes –

I don’t think that I’m qualified at this point to say whether or not this cake worked, because I goofed it up with all my substitutions. BUT I feel like if I would have used baking chocolate, and possibly added an extra ounce of said chocolate, this would have had a much better chocolate flavor. And it maybe needed more vanilla. In terms of the prunes, you really couldn’t even taste them. On the structural end of things, this was a bouncy and moist cake, and it actually was a good cake for molded cake pans! I made mini bundts, which are kind of finicky, AND a lamb and both turned out really well. I actually turned the baby bundt pan upside down and the little prune cakes just fell out. So, that’s a win. And that is why I didn’t just scrap this whole post, because I felt like this cake has potential. Let me know in the comments if you try this, with or without the subs, and let me know how it turns out!

The post Chocolate Prune Cake, 1933 – A 1930’s Recipe Test appeared first on Mid-Century Menu.

It’s the 10th Lambieversary of the Lamb Cake Contest!

Can you believe it? The 10th year! Ten! That’s crazy and so amazing. This year we are celebrating ourselves, our ability to adapt, our families, our friends, our teachers and students, and essential workers! And what better way to do it than with a cake in the shape of a lamb.

Well, not just lambs. You can make an Easter treat, in any shape really, and send a picture to me for the submission gallery. Last year we had 124 submissions! That’s crazy! And I know that some people are still having issues getting ingredients, so I will again be accepting lambs of all types, not just cake. So make one of bread, banana bread, gelatin, cereal treats, butter, meatloaf, tears, booze, I will take them all!

So send me your 2021 Lamb Cake photos so I can post them here on the blog for everyone to see AND to be entered in a contest and random drawing! Last year we gave away 18 (!!!!) prizes, and I am hoping this year we might be able to give away a few more!

Speaking of prizes, we have some fun new lamb cake stickers in the shop that are almost certainly going to be part of the prize packages. And speaking of those packages, all the money made selling the merch in our shop this month is going to be going towards prizes for the Lamb Cake Contest winners! If you would like to contribute, or if you just want some flipping cute lamb cake merch, please check out our shop and get yourself some glorious lamb cake gear. Everything is 20% off this weekend in honor of the contest launch! You know that your cake will taste better if you make it wearing a lamb cake apron, right?

We also have some Limited Edition Special Order Lamb Cake Patterned merch for this year!!! We have some pillows (either just the zippered case or with a pillow form) and some facemasks. Because life right now, right? If you would like to order any of the Limited Edition Patterned merch, please email me and I can hook you up! It’s all special order, so you know it’s going to be really, really good.

Lamb cake patterned mask!!! This mask is hot-water washable, dryer safe and is made of microfiber.

One size (adult-only) high-quality, lamb-patterned mask is $22, and that includes U.S. Shipping!

These lamb cake patterned pillows are super-cute, and are custom printed on upholstery-weight fabric. They also have a hidden zipper so you can easily remove them from the pillow form and pack them away with your other holiday goods. Though, I don’t know why you would ever want to put them away. I mean, look at those faces!

18×18 pillowcase – $27, with pillowform – $32 (price includes U.S. shipping!)

22×22 pillowcase – $29, with pillowform – $39 (price includes U.S.shipping!)

Remember, send me an email if you would like to order these limited edition beauties!

If you would like to contribute to the prize fund, but you don’t want any merch, please check out our Patreon page, where you will not only support our amazing, riveting, ad-free blog, but also get access to my personal, digital cookbook library, and get to vote on what recipes I try out on Tom! If you would just like to give a one-time gift for the purchase of prizes, you can use our secure tip jar here. Thank you so much for all your support!!

Now, onto the details!!!

The contest will be a mix of random-drawn prizes (so you have a chance to win no matter what) AND prizes judged by me, Tom, the readers aaaaaaannnnnnnd –

Karen and Jennye from The Mid-Century Supper Club Potluck!!!

That’s right! Wave your excited Kermit arms and dance a jig, because Karen and Jennye are here to judge your lamb cakes. You can check out their excellent Facebook Page here.

And now THE RULES:

Deadline for photo submission is April 23rd, 2021 at midnight Eastern Time. A picture of your lamb should be private messaged to me through Instagram, the Mid-Century Menu Facebook page or emailed to me. (Just tagging on social media accounts doesn’t count because there are tooooooo mannnnyyyyyyy submissions!). I will acknowledge receipt of your submission with an email or with a private message. Anything lamb-shaped is accepted as an entry for the giveaway (Cake, gelatin, bread, cereal treats, popcorn, butter), any Easter-themed cake in any shape (lamb, bunny, turkey, duck, square or one of those boring round ones).  As mentioned above, winners will be chosen BOTH with a random drawing and judged in categories of our choosing. You can send in as many lamb cake photos from the current year as you want! Good Luck!

So, here we go!

Start here with the Lamb Pan Video Tutorial! Alex helped me make it a few years ago, and it turned out pretty darn adorable. I *may* have cried a little when it was done.

(To subscribe to my YouTube channel, go here:
https://bit.ly/2GzP8aG)

Then go here for the written tutorial:

And then pick a cake:

This Golden Orange poundcake-textured lamb was so, so good!!!

This Sour Cream Cake Mix lamb cake is super easy and was a favorite of Alex!

The Chocolate Pound Cake Lamb was a bit sweet, but it was moist and dense and unmolded well.

Tom’s favorite lamb cake:

The Pope Family Lamb cake has a caramel and butter flavor and is dense but moist. It also has a great pound cake texture!

My favorite lambie:

The Renalde Lamb Cake is light and fluffy, with a great bouncy texture and good flavor. I love it!

Oh, and here is a frosting recipe that is highly requested:

Creamy Whipped Frosting (aka High Humidity Buttercream)

From Mail Box News from Maid of Scandinavia

1 1/2 cups high ratio shortening (available through mail order) or regular shortening

2 T dry Dream Whip Powder

1 T Vanilla

3-4 T unsifted flour

2/3-3/4 cup milk (lesser amount in hot weather)

2 lbs confectioner’s sugar

Blend shortening, Dream Whip Powder and flavoring in large bowl. Beat until light and fluffy like stiff whipped cream. Then add flour, milk and confectioner’s sugar. Beat until smooth. Refrigerate until ready to use.

If you need some decorating inspiration, you can check out the previous Reader Galleries from 2020, 2019, 2018, 2017, 2016, 2015, 2014, 2013 and 2012 .

Also, feel free to ask any questions below in the comments, send me an email at any time or message me through our Facebook page or our Instagram page if you are having trouble with your lamb cake and I will try my best to help you out. And I am sure other readers will also be able to pitch in as well. I usually try to answer questions as quickly as I can up until Easter day, so if you have a question on Saturday at midnight feel free to ask, because you will get an answer.

Good luck and have lots and lots of fun!

P.S. If you want to get vintage recipes monthly in your email inbox, go here to subscribe to my email newsletter:
https://bit.ly/2UWp3VM

It. Is. LAMB CAKE TIME!!!!!!

The post 10th Lambieversary Lamb Cake Contest – Tips, Recipes, The 10th Annual Reader’s Lamb Cake Gallery and Giveaway! appeared first on Mid-Century Menu.

This is Black and White Fluff!

AuthorRetroRuth

Rating

From Prunes For Epicures, 35 Intriguing Recipes - United Prune Growers of California, 1933

Now, if you don’t recognize this book, it is the book I made California Prune Cream Salad out of a couple of years ago. It was terrible. So I have ankle-high expectations for this recipe. If you want to see this whole cookbook, it is available in the Digital Cookbook Library for all patrons on my Patreon. (Only available on Patreon for copyright reasons!) This recipe, and one other prune gem, were chosen recently by the patrons in a poll. It was a big poll because there are lots and lots and lots of recipes in that book that would be very at home on this blog.

So, you can tell by my picture above that I opted to use large marshmallows and cut them into 8 pieces each. And you can tell by this picture that it was a huge pain in my kitchen shears. That mess on the cutting board is all the cornstarch I needed to add to be able to cut the mallows.

But that is a small complaint, in the grand scheme of things. At least I didn’t have to add chili sauce to this whipped cream.

I always forget how much better prunes taste after they have been boiled for a little bit. I might have snacked on a couple while I was putting this together. But I didn’t eat any marshmallows, because I was mad at them.

Here it is all goo-ed up! This looked pretty plain, but it smelled really good, like lemons and marshmallows. So I guess the marshmallows are forgiven.

I also got to use some new footed glasses I ordered online recently because I love everything that can be used as a mid-century kitchen prop. Oh, and all the extra cornstarch really helped this fluff keep its shape.

But now it was time to see how it made the fluff taste.

“Can you tell what’s in it?”

“Banana, marshmallows, and something liquidy.”

“Prunes.”

“Prunes?! That’s excellent, I was just saying I need to eat more prunes.”

The Verdict: Surprisingly Good!

From The Testing Notes – 

Overall, the Black and White fluff was really good. I thought it be a little on the mush side, but I enjoyed it and so did Tom and the kids. The marshmallows were a total pain to cut up, and I would just recommend using mini mallows if you don’t like sticky. I took the time to snip them all up because I wanted to make sure that I made as accurate a fluff as possible, and I’m not sure that I did because I ended up adding extra cornstarch. But, the fluff was very creamy and squishy. It wasn’t overly sweet, and you could taste marshmallows, but not really bananas and only occasionally taste prunes.  The prunes also tasted less prune-y just by doing that 10 minute boil. If you need texture in your food, like TJ, and you can’t just choke goo down, you might want to add some nuts or chocolate chips. Oh, and do NOT leave out the lemon extract, because the flavor hinges on that little bit of lemon flavor. (P.S. Video taste testings are available on my Patreon! If you think Tom is hilarious on paper, you should hear him on video. And those videos are only available on Patreon because my kids are in them a lot, and so is my messy house.)

P.S.S. Lambcake season is upon us! Start getting your lambs molded and frosted, because the 10th Annual Lamb Cake contest will be announced and begin on March 12th!!!!

The post Black and White Fluff, 1939 – A Vintage Recipe Test appeared first on Mid-Century Menu.

These are 7-Up Baked Beans!

AuthorRetroRuth

Rating

7-Up Baked Beans - You're Really Cooking When Your Cooking With 7-Up 1957

This was another recipe chosen by Patreon patrons! There was a tie in the poll from a few weeks ago, between this and the Avocado Bread. So, I did the only thing that I could do, which was to make both of them.

Also, I wanted to buy mini cans of 7-Up.

Which segues well into my most exciting discovery from this recipe: The mini cans that soda comes in now are almost the same size as soda bottles used to be! Which I think is really interesting. And hopefully will be part of a trend towards scaling back sweets in general. Because honestly, I’ve never wanted more than 7 oz of any kind of soda.

Now beer, on the other hand…

I just thought this looked like the ketchup was erupting out of the pot of beans like a volcano. And yes, I have been spending a lot of time in my house lately, why do you ask?

Side note: I didn’t use my instant pot or slow cooker with these because I wanted to make sure they would turn out as close to the original as I could get. But if you make these, please use an instant pot or slow cooker if you can. Because these ended up cooking FOREVER. About two hours longer than the recipe suggested.

But they ended up smelling very good, which is almost always a good sign.

“Say something! How are they?”

“The mushrooms are a weird addition.”

“I know. So, are they bad?’

“No, they aren’t bad. They’re….different.”

The Verdict: Different

From The Tasting Notes – 

These were fine overall. They weren’t too sweet, which I totally thought would be a possibility, and they had a good, if not confusing, flavor. I’m really not sure if adding the 7up really did anything at all, honestly. I mean, molasses is one of those scorch everything else off your taste buds flavors. So these tasted like tomato and sweet and molasses. Maybe the 7up had a part in the sweet, but if so that was the least offensive part of these beans. In fact, they were less sweet than normal baked beans. The most offensive thing was the mushrooms. And that wasn’t bad enough to be a dealbreaker.

And we still can’t agree what they taste like. Alex says spaghetti sauce, I think chili, Tom still doesn’t know and TJ flat out refused to eat them. So the best way we can describe them are like baked beans, but different. Kind of like barbecue beans, but with more depth of flavor. So, if you have some dried beans in your hoard and some 7up, this wouldn’t be the worst thing you could do with them.

The post 7-Up Baked Beans – A Vintage Recipe Test appeared first on Mid-Century Menu.

Avocado Bread!

Oh, sorry. I mean, “Avacado” Bread

AuthorRetroRuth

Rating

Avacado Bread -  A Book of Favorite Recipes Compiled by Woman's Society of Christian Service, 1971

It took a bit to get the avocado for this bread. First, my grocery order came without one. Then, TJ came home with a bug from preschool (not covid, no worries), but that slowed us down a bit as well. So it took us at least two more grocery orders to score some green guys. (I know this looks like a lot of avocado, but it’s really not. This was a teeny little avocado. You can see the standard egg yolk for scale. It was about the same size as a large chicken egg. The entire, unpeeled avocado fit snugly into a 1/2 cup measuring cup.)

The good news is that our local drive-thru dairy has buttermilk, so that was an easy score.

I was really excited about this bread. It actually smelled very good while I was making it, and the green color was pretty.

In addition, this was a recipe chosen by the lovely patrons over on our Patreon, and they picked it out of the goodness of their hearts. I couldn’t believe it! They wanted to pick a good one for us this week! I can feel the love.

It baked up well, and was very easy to remove from the pan. Now, time for the test!

“What’s it taste like?”

“It’s not right.”

“Oh no!”

“Something’s not right!”

The Verdict: Not Right

From the Tasting Notes –

Yeah, this one was a little weird. The bread itself was a good recipe with a good crumb and not too sweet. And maybe that was the issue?  It was…you know the fatty avocado-ness that coats the inside of your mouth? Well, this bread had it. And it was weird. It also had a slight aftertaste of avocado, but the worst was the mouthfeel. It wasn’t disgusting, it just wasn’t that pleasant to eat. Which was a real shame, because this was a good sturdy quickbread with a good crumb. I was hoping for the holy grail of turkey sandwich bread, and instead we got fuzzmouth. I wonder if you dial back the sugar and add some cornmeal and jalapenos instead of pecans if this would be better. Or just throw yourself into the sweet hole and add extra sugar and some lemon peel. Either of those would have improved it, I think. But the weird halfway-ness just wasn’t cutting it for us.

Oh, and if you do end up trying this bread, make sure you store it in the fridge! The second day the bread tasted distinctly of old avocado. And THAT was gross.

The post Avocado Bread, 1971 – A Vintage Recipe Test appeared first on Mid-Century Menu.

This is Jessica’s Frosted Chicken Loaf!

AuthorRetroRuth

Rating

From Knudsen Dairy

I’m just going to let Jessica narrate this one. And then maybe I’ll take a nap or something.

Jessica writes:

I found myself cleaning my pantry and freezer this week, clearing out some of the pandemic over-stocking I had done back in the spring. Among the items I decided to use up was a frozen package of chicken parts and a package of instant mashed potatoes. It occurred to me that I’d just seen a recipe that would work, and so here’s my take on the frosted chicken loaf.

I added a little extra marjoram and rosemary, and also some fresh thyme.  All was looking pretty good.

This is when I remembered that I don’t like cottage cheese, and also that there’s an ungodly amount of dairy in this meatloaf.

Oh well.

Happily baking in its water bath.  The pan wasn’t as full as I expected, but it was plenty.

It made an indescribable sound on the way out of the pan, but it did hold together nicely.

I’m no artist, or cake decorator, so I was just happy that the potatoes were on the loaf.

I probably should have left it in longer, but my broiler tends to smoke and I didn’t want to send all of my neighbors out into the cold for the sake of a browned chicken loaf.

The Verdict: Good

From Jessica’s Tasting Notes – 

This was good. It tastes like chicken with stuffing and potatoes, all in one bite.  I thought it was going to need gravy, but I think all the dairy in there kept it moist.  There’s no distinct taste from all of the dairy either – definitely my preference.  Gravy wouldn’t hurt, of course, and I had my piece with some of the fresh cranberry sauce I’d just made for Thanksgiving.  It would be a good place for holiday leftovers.

The post Frosted Chicken Loaf – A Vintage Recipe Guest Post appeared first on Mid-Century Menu.

This year also introduced the Patreon account, which has really been a big, big financial help to the blog. At almost 12 years old, this blog is hefty and hosting is a bear, so I really appreciate the support I’ve received from a rotating cast of patrons. It has enabled me to remove questionable ad serving code from the site. It also turned out to be fun in its own right, as the most popular perk has been the ability to vote on what recipes I test on Tom!

But enough yakking. Time for the countdown! Click on the title or image to go to the post!

#5 – Peanut Butter Sandwich Bread

This year had some really, really low lows. One of those for us was navigating the grocery-store system. This was compounded by the fact that many stores in our area ran out of food. This is terrifying at any time, but when you are a parent it is so, so much worse. (Please donate to your local food bank!) This got better as weeks went on, but it still continues today with sporadic shortages in products and ingredients. One of these hard-to-find items was bread. While others turned to bread machines, I turned to my vintage cookbook and made loaves and loaves of quick bread for sandwiches. This was by far the favorite in the house.

#4 – Beer Cheesecake

This was one of those Patreon-chosen recipes that I mentioned above, and I have been really enjoying how they are making me stretch myself when I usually would go for an easier recipe. Plus, this recipe came from my collection of radio and TV personality cookbooks, which I think might be my favorite section of my cookbook collection. At the end of the test, it was determined that this is more of a savory cheesecake than a dessert, but that it might be possible to change this one up with your choice of beer addition. It also was added to the fun and unusual breakfast menu in our house, as Tom and I mostly ate this for breakfast.

#3 – Cranberry Cold Cake

What was I just saying about unusual breakfasts? This is another one in that category. It’s also a great dessert, especially if served with pumpkin ice cream. It seems like kind of an obvious recipe if you are a fan of icebox cakes, but for some reason, layering cranberry sauce with graham crackers never occurred to me before this. And I don’t know why, because this was actually a good recipe. The bonus was that it was really easy to throw together.

#2 – Jellied Hamburger Loaf

Okay, now this is getting nuts. Another recipe chosen by Patreon, this one was strangely…good. I mean, it was salty as all get out and was hilarious with the alphabet macaroni (which is actually time period appropriate!), but if you like cold meatloaf then this recipe could be your jam. Especially with mustard. This recipe was also one that met with the ingredient shortage block. Can you believe at one point this year there was a shortage of plain gelatin?  That seems really apocalypse-y to me. And also proof-positive that there are more of us out there.

#1 – Lima Beans and Marshmallows

Here it is! The most popular post of 2020. Seems kind of appropriate, right?  And not in a flavor way, because this was actually, legit good and my family ate it all. But it hit all the categories from this year, made up and real. It was made from dried beans, it had cured meat on it, (apocalypse food) it was unexpected breakfast food, AND it was a Patreon-chosen recipe. But on the serious side, it showed me that I don’t actually hate lima beans, and bacon and marshmallows work really well together. I’m not sure if that last one is going to be practical knowledge, but you never know what 2021 might bring!

Thanks to everyone who followed the blog this year, commented here or on social media, became a patron, sent me an email, or shared a post. You guys keep this weird blip of a blog going into it’s 12th (!!!) year. I appreciate all of you, even if I suck at returning said comments and email. I read everything and I really appreciate it. Knowing you guys were all waiting for a post got me through some iffy days of quarantine, and I hope my posts were able to help you get through some of your own iffy days. Stay strong and stay sane! 2021 is going to be another wild year!!

The post Top Five Tested Vintage Recipes From 2020 appeared first on Mid-Century Menu.

This is Overnight Hot Dog Sandwich!

AuthorRetroRuth

Rating

Overnight Hot Dog Sandwiches - The New Hot Dog Cookbook, 1970

Honestly, this is less of a sandwich and more of a strata. And instead of ham or peppers or bacon or breakfast-y things like that, it is packed with hot dogs and cream cheese.

And honestly, that’s not that bad either.

The cookbook that this recipe comes out of is based on one fact: That hot dogs can be substituted for pretty much any other meat, and that it makes meals more economical and you waste less. I can’t argue with that concept, though it was hilarious to see so many recipes using chopped up hot dogs. (I recently scanned The New Hot Dog cookbook and made it available in my Digital Cookbook Library for my patrons on Patreon. Memberships with access to the library of cookbooks start at $1!)

But I am not afraid of subbing hot dogs for meat. It’s a good concept, and my youngest, TJ, basically will only eat hot dogs and chicken nuggets so it works for my family. Though I still don’t know if I’m onboard with these sandwiches. I’m not a huge fan of strata to begin with. Soggy bread and undercooked eggs really aren’t my thing. But Tom will slurp down almost anything, so let’s pack these sandwiches with hot dogs and see how it shakes out.

See, I’m not lying. These are packed with chopped hot dogs.

So, I poured an amazing amount of milk mixed with eggs over the sandwiches and let them sit overnight. Here is what they looked like when I uncovered them in the morning, right before I tossed them into the oven.

And here they are fresh from the oven! Overall, these smelled pretty good.

But after I cut them, I was totally regretting it. They looked like they hadn’t set in the middle at all!

I wanted to put them back in the oven, but Tom said he wanted them runny (noooooooooooo), so I just kept on keeping on.

Oh, and while I was baking the sandwiches I was also stirring up a concoction of half-and-half, cream of mushroom soup, and, of course, hard-boiled eggs and parsley. Because what mid-century baked sandwich would be complete without a bunch of hard-boiled eggs? I joke, but this was probably the most edible cream of mushroom soup sauce I’ve ever made from a vintage recipe. So it has that going for it.

Then it was only time to cram it down Tom’s throat.

Oh, yes. Do you see that?  While Tom was tasting, TJ ran through the room, completely naked, and threw his shirt on top of what Tom was eating. At the time I was not a happy mom, but in retrospect I can see the humor.

I think.

Oh, and the patrons over at Patreon were treated to my full-scale rant AND a video of it actually happening.  I need to get that video out and make a meme out of it.

Anyway, back to sandwiches.

The Verdict: Bland But Edible

Surprisingly, the biggest complaint Tom had about this was that it was bland. Otherwise, he ate his whole serving and had another. The soaked bread actually didn’t turn out too soggy, and though this could have benefited from 15 more minutes in the oven, this sandwich delivered what it promised: A novel way to make a hot dog dinner. The sauce on the top was rich and also bland, but didn’t have any objectionable flavors. It tasted like you were eating hard-boiled eggs with cream over them, so creamed eggs. If that is your thing, you might just want to leave out the hot dog gibberish and serve the sauce over some thick buttered toast. It will probably be almost the exact same flavor profile. 

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