Home › Vegetarian Dishes › Nut and Macaroni Savory
Nut and Macaroni Savory
4 tablespoonfuls melted Crisco 1/2 lb. chopped Brazil nuts 1 cupful boiled macaroni 1 3/4 cupfuls breadcrumbs 2 eggs 3 cupfuls milk 2 tablespoonfuls chopped parsley Salt, pepper, and powdered mace to taste Brown sauce Cut macaroni into small pieces and put into bowl, add nuts, breadcrumbs, seasonings, eggs well beaten, and milk; turn into well greased earthenware dish, dot with tiny pieces of Crisco and bake in moderate oven forty-five minutes. Serve hot with brown sauce.
A meatless main course from a Crisco promotional book, built like a savory bread pudding. It reads lean on instruction, so a few numbers help.
- Moderate ovenBake at 350F. At that temperature 45 minutes in a shallow dish is about right; in a deeper dish the center will still be liquid, so bake until a knife inserted at the middle comes out clean, up to an hour.
- The custard ratio is the hingeThree cupfuls of milk to two eggs is a very loose set, carried mostly by the breadcrumbs. Use dry crumbs, not fresh soft ones, and let the mixture stand 10 minutes before baking so they swell; otherwise the milk separates out and pools.
- CriscoThe book exists to sell it. Any neutral solid or liquid fat works, and butter improves the flavor. Four tablespoons melted is a quarter cup.
- Boiled macaroniOne cupful means already cooked and drained, roughly two ounces dry. Cook it a minute short of done since it bakes on in the custard.
- Brazil nutsHalf a pound is a large amount, roughly 1 1/2 to 2 cups chopped depending how coarse, and it is what makes the dish substantial. They are high in oil and go rancid quickly, so taste before using. Chop coarsely for texture.
- Powdered maceThe dried aril of nutmeg, milder and more floral. A quarter teaspoon is plenty for this quantity; grated nutmeg substitutes at slightly less.
- Earthenware dishA 2-quart shallow baking dish. Grease it well and set it on a sheet pan, as the mixture rises a little and may weep at the edges.
- Brown sauceAssumed knowledge in 1915: a roux browned in fat, moistened with stock, simmered and strained. A well-made mushroom or onion gravy serves the same purpose here, and the dish needs it, being mild on its own.
- YieldFour to six as a main course, more as a side.
A Calendar of Dinners was one of a series of cookbooks published by Procter & Gamble to teach American cooks what to do with Crisco, the hydrogenated cottonseed shortening introduced in 1911. Because the fat was vegetable-derived, it was marketed to households avoiding animal fats, including observant Jewish kitchens. The word savory here follows British usage: a small hot dish served late in the meal, though a nut loaf of this size clearly stands as a main course. Nut-and-crumb bakes of this kind appear in early twentieth-century meatless cookery, promoted by health reformers and sanitarium kitchens as a protein substitute.