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Nut Loaf
1 1/2 cup bread crumbs, soft from inside of loaf. 1 cup nut meats. 1 scant cup cream or stock. Pepper, salt and parsley. 1 scant cup cream or stock, pepper, salt and parsley. Blend thoroughly with nuts. Shape into round roll, bake half hour. Serve with celery sauce.
A very short recipe even by Mrs. Wilson's standards, with a line of type accidentally repeated and almost every useful number left out. What it needs most is a binder and an oven temperature.
- The duplicated line"1 scant cup cream or stock, pepper, salt and parsley" appears twice — a compositor's error, not a second addition. Use one scant cup of liquid in total, about 7 fl oz.
- Oven temperatureNo heat is given. A loaf of this kind belongs in a moderate oven, 350F, for the half hour stated; hotter and the outside sets before the middle warms through.
- Nut meats"Nut meats" simply means shelled nuts — walnuts, pecans or peanuts in this period, often a mixture. Chop or grind them fairly fine, or the loaf will not hold together at all.
- BindingThere is no egg and no flour here, so the mixture depends entirely on soft crumbs and a fairly stiff paste. Add liquid gradually and stop when it just coheres; a wet mix will slump into a mound on the sheet.
- Soft crumbs, not dryCrumbs "from inside of loaf" means torn fresh bread, not the dried and sifted crumbs sold today. Dried crumbs absorb far more liquid and will make a dense, pasty loaf.
- Cream or stockCream gives a richer, softer loaf; stock keeps it lean. If serving as a meatless dish, use a vegetable stock.
- Shape and pan"Round roll" means hand-formed into a cylinder and baked free-standing on a greased pan. A small loaf tin is easier and gives a tidier slice, though it will not brown on the sides.
- YieldAbout a pound of mixture — three to four servings as a main course with the celery sauce and a vegetable.
Nut loaves belong to the American vegetarian and health-food movement that grew out of the Battle Creek sanitarium kitchens in the late nineteenth century, where ground nuts were promoted as a protein substitute for meat and turned into loaves, roasts and canned "nut meat" preparations. By the time Mary A. Wilson was writing, the idea had moved well beyond vegetarian circles: she made her name in the Philadelphia press during the First World War, when the Food Administration urged households toward meatless meals, and dishes like this one were meant to stand in for a roast. The celery sauce — a white sauce built on cooked celery — suggests it was to be served in place of a joint rather than as a side dish.