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December 4
Menu: Corn; Clear Soup with Rice; Peas; Mashed Potatoes; Cold Slaw; Plum Pudding, Hard Sauce; Individual Mince Pies; Cheese Wafers; Coffee Individual Mince Pies-Roll out Crisco paste 1/8 inch thick, stamp into rounds and line gem pans, place in each 2 teaspoons of mince meat; roll out more pastry rather thicker than first, stamp into rounds size of top of pans, wet edges and cover pies, brush over with beaten egg, sprinkle with sugar, and bake 20 minutes in hot oven. For mince meat, put into jar 1 pound chopped apples, 1 pound sultana raisins, 14 pound chopped figs, 1/2 pound currants, grated rind, strained juice 3 lemons, 1 cup Crisco, 1 teaspoon salt, I/2 pound chopped almonds, grated rind, strained juice 3 oranges, 2 grated nutmegs, 1/2 cup sherry, 1 cup brandy, 1 ounce mixed spice, 1/2 pound each chopped candied orange and lemon peel, and 2 cups brown sugar. Mix well and keep in well sealed jar. Steamed Clams Roast Ribs of Beef, Currant Jelly Rice Croquettes Stewed Tomatoes Apple and Celery Salad Mince Pie Coffee Steamed Clams-Wash and scrub clam shells; place in kettle; add water, allowing 1/2 cup water for each peck of clams. Cover kettle and cook until shells open. Serve hot with the following sauce: 3 tablespoons Crisco, 3 tablespoons lemon juice, 4 tablespoons chopped parsley, salt, pepper, and red pepper to taste. Cream Crisco and add remaining ingredients. Kettle should be removed from range as soon as shells open, otherwise clams will be overcooked.
A two-part recipe: hard-shell clams steamed dry in their own liquor, and a cold seasoned fat whipped up as a dipping sauce. The whole thing turns on the last line of the original — pull the pot the moment the shells gape.
- A peck of clamsA peck is 8 dry quarts. The recipe does not say which clam is meant. Reckonings of what a peck weighs vary with size and packing, roughly 8 lb upward. For four people figure about a quarter peck, and scale the water down in proportion: a quarter of 1/2 cup is 2 tablespoons.
- Why so little waterHalf a cup per peck sounds like a misprint but is correct: clams release a great deal of their own liquor as they open, and the water is only there to generate the first burst of steam. Adding a cupful dilutes the broth you will want to drink afterwards.
- TimingOver a high flame, clams begin opening in 4-6 minutes and most are done by 8. Check at five minutes and lift out the open ones with tongs rather than waiting for the stragglers — a clam left steaming another three minutes shrinks to rubber, which is the failure the original is warning against.
- Clams that stay shutDiscard any that refuse to open after the rest are done, and before cooking discard any that are cracked or that gape and do not close when tapped.
- GritScrubbing alone will not empty a sandy clam. Hold them 20-30 minutes in cold salted water (about 1/3 cup salt per gallon) before scrubbing, then lift them out rather than pouring, so the grit stays behind.
- The sauce"Cream Crisco" means beat the solid shortening smooth as you would butter, then work in the lemon juice and parsley — it is a compound butter in all but name, and Crisco appears here because the book exists to sell it. Softened unsalted butter gives a far better sauce for the same effort, and 3 tablespoons will not dress more than a quart or two of clams.
- Red pepperPeriod shorthand for cayenne, not paprika and not crushed chile flakes. A pinch is enough alongside the black pepper.
- "Removed from the range"The range is the stovetop. On a modern burner the pot keeps steaming from residual heat, so take the lid off as well as the pot off the heat.
- ServingStrain the liquor left in the kettle through a fine sieve and pour it into cups to drink alongside; it is the best part of the dish and the recipe does not mention it.
The Story of Crisco (1913), credited to Marion Harris Neil, was published by Procter & Gamble two years after Crisco itself came on the market, and its recipes exist to demonstrate that a hydrogenated cottonseed shortening could stand in for butter and lard anywhere in the kitchen — including, as here, in a raw seasoned sauce where butter's flavor is the entire point. The companion Calendar of Dinners with 615 Recipes assigned a full menu to every day of the year, which likely explains why this page carries the date December 6 and the heading "Coffee" apparently left from the end of the preceding menu. Steamed clams themselves need no promotion: dry-steaming hard-shells in their own liquor is a simple and long-established treatment on the American Atlantic coast, in print well before Procter & Gamble had a shortening to sell.
A two-part recipe: hard-shell clams steamed dry in their own liquor, and a cold seasoned fat whipped up as a dipping sauce. The whole thing turns on the last line of the original — pull the pot the moment the shells gape.
- A peck of clamsA peck is 8 dry quarts. The recipe does not say which clam is meant. Reckonings of what a peck weighs vary with size and packing, roughly 8 lb upward. For four people figure about a quarter peck, and scale the water down in proportion: a quarter of 1/2 cup is 2 tablespoons.
- Why so little waterHalf a cup per peck sounds like a misprint but is correct: clams release a great deal of their own liquor as they open, and the water is only there to generate the first burst of steam. Adding a cupful dilutes the broth you will want to drink afterwards.
- TimingOver a high flame, clams begin opening in 4-6 minutes and most are done by 8. Check at five minutes and lift out the open ones with tongs rather than waiting for the stragglers — a clam left steaming another three minutes shrinks to rubber, which is the failure the original is warning against.
- Clams that stay shutDiscard any that refuse to open after the rest are done, and before cooking discard any that are cracked or that gape and do not close when tapped.
- GritScrubbing alone will not empty a sandy clam. Hold them 20-30 minutes in cold salted water (about 1/3 cup salt per gallon) before scrubbing, then lift them out rather than pouring, so the grit stays behind.
- The sauce"Cream Crisco" means beat the solid shortening smooth as you would butter, then work in the lemon juice and parsley — it is a compound butter in all but name, and Crisco appears here because the book exists to sell it. Softened unsalted butter gives a far better sauce for the same effort, and 3 tablespoons will not dress more than a quart or two of clams.
- Red pepperPeriod shorthand for cayenne, not paprika and not crushed chile flakes. A pinch is enough alongside the black pepper.
- "Removed from the range"The range is the stovetop. On a modern burner the pot keeps steaming from residual heat, so take the lid off as well as the pot off the heat.
- ServingStrain the liquor left in the kettle through a fine sieve and pour it into cups to drink alongside; it is the best part of the dish and the recipe does not mention it.
The Story of Crisco (1913), credited to Marion Harris Neil, was published by Procter & Gamble two years after Crisco itself came on the market, and its recipes exist to demonstrate that a hydrogenated cottonseed shortening could stand in for butter and lard anywhere in the kitchen — including, as here, in a raw seasoned sauce where butter's flavor is the entire point. The companion Calendar of Dinners with 615 Recipes assigned a full menu to every day of the year, which likely explains why this page carries the date December 6 and the heading "Coffee" apparently left from the end of the preceding menu. Steamed clams themselves need no promotion: dry-steaming hard-shells in their own liquor is a simple and long-established treatment on the American Atlantic coast, in print well before Procter & Gamble had a shortening to sell.