Home › Meat Substitutes › Rice Fondue
Rice Fondue
1 cup boiled rice 2 tablespoons milk 1 cup of grated cheese 1/2 teaspoon salt 1 teaspoon some commercial sauce or similar flavoring Heat the rice in the milk, add the other ingredients, and cook slowly until the cheese is melted. Serve on crackers or toast.
A three-minute cheese-and-rice spread from the era when "meat substitute" meant protein from dairy rather than from a factory. Two points matter: the heat stays low, and "fondue" here is not the Swiss pot.
- Keep the heat gentleCheese held above a bare simmer breaks, and with only 2 tablespoons of milk there is nothing to hold the emulsion together. Melt it over low heat or a double boiler, stirring, and pull it off the moment it is smooth.
- "Fondue" in this bookIn American cookbooks of the period a fondue is commonly a soft baked or stirred cheese dish, usually bound with breadcrumbs or eggs. It is not the communal pot and long forks of later Swiss service.
- 1 cup boiled ricePlain white rice, cooked in water and drained, roughly 1/3 cup raw. Day-old rice works well; break up clumps before it goes into the milk.
- "Some commercial sauce"Shorthand for a bottled table sauce of the day: Worcestershire, mushroom ketchup, or a similar brown sauce. A teaspoon of Worcestershire is the closest match; soy sauce also fits the savory-salt role.
- Which cheeseA firm aged cheddar or American cheese, grated fine so it melts before the rice overcooks. Pre-shredded cheese is coated in starch and anti-caking agents and will thicken the mixture more than intended.
- ConsistencyThe original is nearly a paste rather than a sauce. If it seizes up, another tablespoon or two of milk will loosen it; add it off the heat.
- YieldEnough for two as a light lunch on toast, or a dozen or so crackers as a savory. Serve straight away, since it stiffens badly as it cools.
Meatless Cookery belongs to a wave of American cookbooks written for households cutting back on meat, whether for Lenten and vegetarian reasons or, in the World War I years, because meatless days were a matter of public appeal and thrift. The "meat substitutes" chapter in such books leans on cheese, eggs, beans and nuts, the foods then understood to carry comparable protein, and rice appears as a cheap extender that stretched an expensive cup of cheese further. The instruction to use "some commercial sauce" is a small period marker in itself: bottled Worcestershire and mushroom ketchup were by then common pantry items, and the recipe names no brand.