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Half-A-Can Recipes: Cheese
Asparagus Shortcake with Cheese Sauce can asparagus 2 cupfuls flour teaspoonful salt ½ cupful milk 4 teaspoonfuls baking powder 4 tablespoonfuls butter 1 egg, beaten very light Sift the flour and measure and sift again with the salt and baking powder. Cut the butter into the flour, add the milk and eggs together, and mix lightly. Turn out on to a floured board and roll to three quarters of an inch thick. Cut in oblong pieces, and with a floured knife crease through the center of each; fold, and bake for fifteen minutes in a hot oven. Split into halves and place the heated asparagus between. Serve with cheese sauce.
Cheese Sauce 1 tablespoonful flour 1 tablespoonful butter 1 cupful milk 1/4 cupful cheese teaspoonful salt Half-a-Can Recipes Melt the butter in a saucepan, add the flour, stirring until smooth, add the milk slowly, and let the mixture cook up for three minutes before adding the finely cut cheese. Stir until the cheese melts, and remove from the fire.
Macaroni, Cheese, and Tomatoes 1 cupful elbow macaroni 1/4 cupful chipped cheese cupful tomato soup or 1 cupful canned toma- 1 tablespoonful butter toes 1 teaspoonful salt Cook the macaroni until tender, blanch, and add the tomatoes or tomato soup with half a cup of boiling water. Cook up and add the butter and cheese; stir until thoroughly melted, and serve at once.
A Two-Egg Omelet for Two cupful milk 1/4 teaspoonful salt 2 tablespoonfuls butter 2 eggs 2 tablespoonfuls flour Pepper Make a white sauce of the butter, flour, and milk; when thick and well cooked, cool. Beat the yolks of the eggs until thick, add the seasoning and yolks to the white sauce; fold in the whites, which have been beaten until stiff, heat the omelet pan, butter both the sides and bottom, light the oven gas and pour the omelet into the pan, spreading evenly. Place on the stove and cook slowly until well puffed and browned underneath. Now place the pan on the center grate in the oven to cook the top.
The omelet is ready to serve when it is firm to the touch when pressed by the finger. Turn out on to a hot platter and serve at once with Spanish sauce.
Spanish Sauce 1 green pepper 1 onion 2 tablespoonfuls butter 1/2 can tomatoes 1 cupful cooked rice teaspoonful salt 6 or 8 stuffed olives Half-a-Can Recipes Brown the sliced pepper and onion in the butter and add the tomatoes. To this add the cooked rice, and, just before pouring on to the omelet, add the olives, which have been cut crosswise into slices.
ALUMINUM CUP, 6 INDEX Canned goods, How to keep, 97 Double boiler, 14 Four-piece set, 13-14, 15 List of, 24 Washboard, 11 Cheese sauce, 104-105 Asparagus on toast, Creamed, Chicken à la King, Prepara- 56 Asparagus shortcake, 104 Autumn breakfast menus, 47-49 tion of, 68, 69-70 Chicken, Roast, 80-84 Dressing for, 82 Cleaner, Steel wool, 14 Clover leaf rolls, 70-71 Cocoa, How to make, 53-54 BAKER SUNSHINE CAKE, 18- 22 Icing for, 22 Recipe for, 21 Beans, Boston baked, 74-76 Beet salad, 70 Jellied, 102 Biscuits, Hot tea, 66 Boston baked beans, 74-76 Box luncheons, Essentials of, 59 Sandwiches for, 60-61 Breakfast, Preparation of, 42-44 CAKE, BAKER SUNSHINE, 18- 22 Snowdrift angel, 67-68 Coffee, How to make boiled, 53 Cooked salad dressing, 58-59 Cooking tools, 6, 7 Corn and tomatoes, Escalloped, 103 Corn fritters, 102-103 Pudding or timbales, 103- 104 Crab, Creole style, 91 Cream cheese toasted wafers, 89 Creamed asparagus on toast, 56 Dishes, 98-99 Vegetables, 56 Index Cream soups, Basic recipe | Foods - Continued DINNER, CHICKEN A A LA Four-piece cooking set, 13for, 97-98 KING, 68-71 High-pressure, 72-74 79,88 Roast beef, 63-68 Serving of, 62-63 Quantity of, 30-33 Selection of, 29 14, 15 French dressing, 57-58 Menus for, 65, 69, 74, 77- Fritters, Corn, 102-103 Fruits and vegetables, List of, 25, 28 Dishes, 7, 36-37 List of, 40-41 Dish washing, 11-12 Divisions of foods, 27-28 Double boiler, Use of, 14-15 Dressing for roast chicken, 82 Salads, see under Salads EGG SANDWICHES, 60 Escalloped corn and tomatoes, 103 Potatoes, 66 FATTY FOODS, LIST OF, 27 Fig or date sandwiches, 60- 61 Fish salad, 93 Flavorings, List of, 24-25 Flesh (or protein) foods, 27, 29 Foods, Divisions of, 27-28 Fatty, 27 Flesh or protein, 27, 29 Prices of, 26 GLASS JARS OR CONTAINERS, 3, 5, 17 Glassware, List of, 41 Groceries, List of, 23-24 HALF-A-CAN SALADS, 99-101 Hot tea biscuits, 66 ICE BOX, 9-10 Icing, White Mountain, 22 JAM OR JELLY SANDWICHES, 60 Jellied beet salad, 102 Pimiento and cabbage salad, 101-102 KITCHEN CABINET, 5 Cooking utensils, List of, 39-40 Kitchenette, Arrangement of utensils and supplies in, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7 Convenience of, 18, 20-21 List of furnishings of, 38- Kitchenette door, Use of, 5 LAMB, BREAST OF, 85-87 Preparation of, 88 List of canned goods, 24 Dishes, 40-41 Fatty foods, 27, 29 Flesh foods, 27 Index Fruits and vegetables, 25, 28 Groceries, 23-24 Menus - Continued Spring breakfast, 44-46 Summer breakfast, 46-47 Winter breakfast, 49-50 Midnight sandwich, 92 Montevista lobster, 91 NUT AND OLIVE SANDWICHES, 60 Kitchen cooking utensils, OMELET, TWO-EGG, 105-106 39-40 Kitchenette 38-39 Orders, Sample, 31 furnishings, Oyster salad, 93 Seasonings and flavorings, 24-25 Silver and glassware, 41 Starchy foods, 27 Sweets, 28 Time and fuel saving utensils, 39 Twenty half-a-can salads, 38-39 Lobster, Montevista, 91 Luncheon salads, 57-59 Luncheons, Kinds of, 51 Box, 59-61 MACARONI, CHEESE, AND TO- MATOES, 105 Marketing, 25-35 Mayonnaise dressing, 95 Menus, Autumn breakfast, 47-49 Dinner, 65, 69, 74, 77-79, PEPPER, GRAPEFRUIT, AND TO- MATO SALAD, 94 Percolator, Two-cup, 17 Pimiento cheese wafers, 90 Potatoes, Escalloped, 66 Prices of food, 26 Pudding, Corn, 103-104 ROAST BEEF, COOKING OF, 63-65 Rolls, Clover leaf, 70-71 SALADS, BEET, 70 Fish, 93 Half-a-can, 99-101 Jellied beet, 102 Jellied pimiento and cabbage, 101 Luncheon, 57-59 Oyster, 93 Pepper, grapefruit, and tomato, 94 Shrimp, 94 Index Salad dressing, Cooked, 58- | Steam pressure dinners, 72- 59 French, 57-58 Mayonnaise, 95 Thousand Island, 58 Sandwiches, Egg, 60 Fig or date, 60-61 Jam or jelly, 60 Midnight, 92 Nut and olive, 60 Sardine, 61 Sardine sandwiches, 61 Sauce, Cheese, 104-105 Spanish, 106-107 Seasonings and flavorings, List of, 24-25 Shrimp salad, 94 Wiggle, 92 Silver and glassware, List of, 41 Sink, 10 "Slum Gulley," 90 Snowdrift angel cake, 67-68 Soup, Cream, 97-98 Cream of peanut butter, 54-55 Cream of tomato, 55-56 Spanish sauce, 106-107 Spring breakfast menus, 44- 46 Starchy foods, 27, 29 Steam pressure cooker, Uses of, 15-16, 72-73, 75-76, 74, 86-88 Steel wool cleaner, 14 Stove, 8-9 Supplies, Disposition of, 3, 4, 5,6 Summer breakfast menus, 46-47 Sweets, List of, 28 TEA, HOW TO MAKE, 52 Tea biscuits, 66 Thousand Island salad dressing, 58 Timbales, Corn, 103-104 Time and fuel saving utensils, List of, 39 Toweling, Uses of paper, 7-8, 11 Two-egg omelet, 105-106 UTENSILS, ARRANGEMENT OF, 3, 4, 5 Example of use, 18-19 List of, 38-40 VEAL, STEWED, 72-73 Vegetables, Creamed, 56-57 List of, 25, 28 WASHBOARD, ALUMINUM, 11 Winter breakfast menus, 49- NON REFERT BONOS HABEASZ LB&C EDOVAM QVAM・MVLTOS
A small cluster of cheese-and-canned-goods dishes scaled for one or two people cooking in an apartment kitchenette. The proportions work, but several quantities in the printed text have lost their fractions and need judgment.
- Missing quantitiesSeveral amounts have lost their fractions in the printing: the asparagus ('can asparagus' -- presumably half a can, per the chapter's premise), the salt in the shortcake, the milk in the omelet, the tomatoes in the Spanish sauce and the tomato soup in the macaroni. Note that the shortcake's milk is printed in full as ½ cupful. Any figures supplied for the lost fractions are guesses; treat them as starting points and adjust by feel.
- "A hot oven"The book gives no temperatures; in period usage a hot oven is generally taken as somewhere around 400–450°F. Baking powder biscuits set fast at that heat, and fifteen minutes suits pieces rolled ¾ inch thick.
- The fold-and-crease trickCreasing the dough through the center with a floured knife and folding gives you a seam that splits cleanly after baking, so the two halves separate without crumbling. Do not press the fold shut.
- Cheese sauceA thin white sauce with cheese stirred in at the end. The recipe cooks the milk mixture three minutes before the cheese goes in and takes the pan off the fire as soon as the cheese has melted; held longer over direct heat, cheese can break and turn grainy. Grating the cheese rather than "finely cutting" it will help it melt quickly.
- "Blanch" the macaroniIn this period the word means to rinse the cooked pasta with cold water to stop it cooking and wash off surface starch. Drain it well afterward or the tomato will thin out.
- Canned asparagusModern canned asparagus is very soft; heat it through in its own liquid and drain it thoroughly, or the shortcake will go soggy. Cooked fresh spears work in its place with no other change.
- The omeletThis is a soufflé omelet — white sauce base, whites folded in, started on the burner and finished in the oven. Use an ovenproof skillet, keep the burner low so the bottom does not scorch before the top sets, and serve immediately; it collapses within a few minutes.
- "Light the oven gas"An instruction to get the oven going before the omelet is started on the stovetop; gas ovens of the period were lit by hand. A moderate oven, around 350°F, will do for setting the top.
- YieldThe omelet serves two, as its title says. No yields are given for the shortcake or the macaroni; how many pieces the shortcake makes depends on how the oblongs are cut.
Kitchenette cookbooks were a product of the American apartment boom of the early twentieth century, when small city flats came with a curtained alcove holding a two-burner gas plate, a shallow sink and an icebox. The "half-a-can" premise addresses the era's central problem for one- and two-person households: a can of asparagus or tomatoes served more people than lived in the flat, and without reliable refrigeration the remainder was a liability. Hence dishes built to consume half a tin at a sitting, with cheese doing the work of meat. The soufflé omelette and the biscuit "shortcake" split around a hot vegetable are both often associated with the chafing-dish and luncheon cookery of the period, adapted here to a stove with one oven grate and very little counter.