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Mock Sausage
1 cup dried Lima beans or 3 cups cooked beans of any kind 2/3 cup bread-crums 3 eggs 2 tablespoons butter 1/2 teaspoon sage Salt and pepper Pick over and wash beans, cover with water and let soak overnight. Drain, cook in boiling salted water until tender, then force through a strainer. Add remaining ingredients, shape into form of sausages, roll in crums, egg, and crums again. Saute until brown. Serve with tomato sauce. This recipe makes six to eight sausages, three inches long and three-fourths of an inch thick. It should be accompanied by some milk, egg or cheese dish.
A bean croquette shaped and seasoned to stand in for breakfast sausage. The whole thing hinges on getting the bean purée dry and stiff enough to hold a cylinder in the pan.
- Dry the puréeBeans forced through a strainer carry a lot of water, and a wet mixture will slump or burst its coating. Drain the cooked beans well, and if the mass still feels loose after the crumbs and eggs go in, stir over low heat a few minutes to drive off moisture, then chill it an hour before shaping.
- How many eggs whereThree eggs are listed but the method uses egg twice, once in the mixture and once in the breading, and the recipe does not say how they divide. Two beaten eggs in the bean mixture and one beaten with a spoonful of water for dipping works out about right; the same ambiguity applies to the 2/3 cup of crumbs, which also serves twice.
- Bean quantityOne cup of dried limas yields roughly 2 1/2 to 3 cups cooked, which matches the alternative given. Canned beans, well drained and rinsed, substitute directly.
- SageThe half teaspoon is presumably dried sage, rubbed or ground, and it is what makes the thing read as sausage. If using fresh, chop about 1 1/2 teaspoons. A pinch of ground fennel or a little grated nutmeg pushes the flavour further toward the real article.
- Breadcrumbs"Crums" is simply breadcrumbs. Dry, fine crumbs both bind the mixture and coat it; fresh soft crumbs will make the interior gummy, so dry them in a low oven first if that is all you have.
- SauteingShallow-fry in butter or a neutral oil over medium heat, turning to brown all sides, about 8 to 10 minutes total. Too high a heat colours the crumb crust before the centre is hot. A greased sheet pan at 400F for 20 minutes, turning once, gives a drier but reliable result.
- Yield and servingSix to eight small sausages, enough for two or three as a main course with the tomato sauce. The instruction to serve alongside a milk, egg or cheese dish reflects period thinking about making a meatless meal nutritionally complete.
New Delineator Recipes came out of the Butterick publishing house, which ran The Delineator as a women's magazine alongside its sewing patterns, and this recipe belongs to a moment when meatless cooking in mainstream American books meant chiefly beans, eggs, cheese and nuts arranged to look like meat. "Mock" dishes were a whole genre: mock turtle soup, mock duck, mock oysters, mock apple pie. The name signals frugality more than principle, and recipes like this one had a long run through the First World War meatless days and into Depression-era household economy. The closing note that the sausages should be accompanied by a milk, egg or cheese dish is the era's protein arithmetic showing through.