Sunday, February 20, 2011

Good Maine Food

Last year I was looking over the wares at our town swap-shop located at our recycling center (aka town dump to most of us) and came across an old, hard-bound cookbook. While I do like to cook occasionally, I don’t go out of my way to collect cookbooks as my house is already overflowing with a wide variety of books new and old. But I couldn’t pass up acquiring this particular volume: Good Maine Food by Marjorie Mosser, with an intro by Maine author Kenneth Roberts.

Copyrighted in 1939, mine is a 1940 edition with these Yankee gems: Cod Tongues and Cheeks; Fiddleheads; Fish Hash; Haymaker’s Switchel (a molasses drink); Spruce Beer; and Maple Syrup Pie.

Of course there were plenty of wild game recipes as you might imagine would well-suit a rural state like Maine: venison, quail, rabbit, partridge and woodcock.

Fitting the world events at that time and the required rationing of some food items, the cookbook offers up War Cake – made with brown sugar instead of white.

A recipe for Indian Dinner calls for a common preparation and cooking, but then servings separated into three dishes for: beans & corn; corned beef & salt pork; and chicken, turnips & potatoes.

About the only recipes that turned me off were ones for Tripe and for Stewed Eels. Ummm, I’ll pass on those and have another piece of Maple Syrup Pie.

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