Harrison Hunter
SPANISH RICE
WO tablespoons of bacon fat in a largesized frying pan; cut up two onions and fry until brown, add one cup of rice and stir until it has soaked up fat and commences to brown. Add one (Chili) pepper, one can of tomatoes, small quantity of water, salt and let simmer over an hour.
Harrison Hunter
MARY FULLER'S MUSHROOM PATTIES
Puff pastry, a quarter pound mushrooms, one shallot, one ounce dripping, one teaspoonful grated lemon peel, one ounce flour.
Bake in a quick oven some little pastry cases and fill with the following: mushrooms, washed, dried, peeled and chopped. Rub a stew pan with a shallot, melt the drippings, add the mushrooms. Cover and let stew for ten minutes. Flavor with salt, paprika and lemon juice. Thicken with a little flour and when cool fill the patties; heat very hot and serve at once. Although I am not a wonderful cook, my friends always enjoy what I prepare for them.
A skillet rice cooked pilaf-style, with the mushroom patties following on. Both are straightforward once a few period conventions are translated.
- The opening measureThe fat quantity for the rice reads as two tablespoons of bacon fat in a large frying pan. That is right for one cup of rice; a heavy 10-inch skillet with a lid is the vessel to use.
- Toast the rice properlyThe instruction to stir until the rice has soaked up the fat and begun to brown is the hinge of the dish. Nutty, opaque grains give the finished rice its flavour and keep it separate; skip it and you have tomato porridge.
- Simmering timeAn hour is far longer than modern long-grain rice needs. White rice in a covered pan is done in 18-20 minutes; the long simmer here suits a less refined grain and a wetter, saucier result, so check at 20 minutes and add water only as needed.
- One can of tomatoesCan sizes were not standardised as they are now, and the usual period tomato can was larger than the modern 14-oz tin. Whole tomatoes crushed by hand suit this better than puree, and with the tomato liquid you will need very little extra water.
- One chili pepperThis means a single fresh or dried hot pepper, left whole or split, not chili powder. Heat varies enormously; taste and remove it once the rice is seasoned to your liking.
- Dripping and quick oven, for the pattiesDripping is rendered fat from roast meat, usually beef, and butter substitutes at the same weight. A quick oven is a hot one, in the region of 400-425F, suitable for baking the puff pastry cases.
- Rubbing the pan with shallotAn old technique for a whisper of flavour: the cut shallot is dragged around the pan interior rather than chopped into the filling. If you want more presence, mince it and soften it in the fat first.
- Mushrooms and thickeningPeeling mushrooms is unnecessary with cultivated ones; wipe and trim. The ounce of flour is enough to bind a quarter pound of mushrooms into a paste stiff enough to hold in pastry, which is the point of filling the cases cold.
- YieldThe rice serves about four as a side or three as a main. A quarter pound of mushrooms makes only a small quantity of filling, enough for a few little cases.
Community cookbooks assembled from stage and screen personalities were a staple of early twentieth-century charity fundraising, and their contributions tend to be short, unfussy dishes a performer could actually cook in lodgings. "Spanish rice" in American books of this era rarely has much to do with Spain; the name attached itself to any rice browned in fat and stewed with tomato, onion and pepper. The mushroom patties belong to a different tradition entirely, the English savoury of puff-pastry cases filled at the last moment, served hot as a first course or a supper dish, and the disclaimer about not being a wonderful cook is very much the house style of these volumes.