The wonderful foods of the Golden Era

[vitanola]

We serve hot dogs at the Super Bowl party we host each year at work, and I always buy ten pounds of franks, a big jar of Gulden's mustard, a jar of Cain's Relish, and NO KETCHUP. One of the office people chewed me out about this, and I gave them a withering look of derision. NOBODY I would care to know puts KETCHUP on a HOT DOG.

I am rather fond of Mushroom Catsup with frankfurters when I can find the stuff. That vinegary tomato preparation which has hijacked the name is fitted at most for potatoes, I think.

 

[2jakes]

Actually, "Victory Meat Patties" can be pretty tasty. A little tomato sauce, or a tiny splash of Tabasco can make them quite exotic.
Where did your meat come from? Aqueduct? Santa Anita?

 

[2jakes]

I am rather fond of Mushroom Catsup with frankfurters when I can find the stuff. That vinegary tomato preparation which has hijacked the name is fitted at most for potatoes, I think.

As long as it's not in the shape or prepared like a hot dog.
I think I would like the frankfurters with catsup in the manner
you've described.
I rarely use catsup, except once in a while on french fries.

Anybody know why they are called "french-fries" and
is there a difference between "catsup" and "ketchup"?

 

[LizzieMaine]

"Frenching" a vegetable means to cut it in long, thin strips. Hence, "french fried potatoes," which is how the item was listed on menus in the Era. "French Fries," as a product name, came along after the war with the rise of McDonald's and similar franchises.

Heinz makes Ketchup and Hunt's makes Catsup. Let's call the whole thing off.

Garry Moore used to tell a joke on the radio about being sponsored by a condiment company whose catsup was made with real cats.

 

[Haversack]

vitanola wrote: "I am rather fond of Mushroom Catsup with frankfurters when I can find the stuff."

The 18th C. reenactment merchants, Jas. Townsend & Sons, regularly carry Mushroom Ketchup. http://jas-townsend.com/mushroom-ketchup-p-1404.html

Another frankfurter type sausage eaten with ketchup is Curry Wurst. German street-food. Thick frankfurter sliced up, slathered with curry ketchup, and dusted with curry powder.

One wartime rationed foodstuff I remember my older UK relatives vilifying was canned snoek. This was/is an ocean fish caught and canned in South Africa and shipped to the UK during the war. It apparently smelled and tasted pretty bad. (Perhaps not as bad as Surstromming). The government ended up relabeling the cans as cat food.

 

[BlueTrain]

Some people put ketchup on everything and, sometimes, even catsup.

And by the way, my wife says "to-mah-to" instead of "to-may-to." Old Virginia accent.

 

[LizzieMaine]

A while back I came across a menu from "The Brass Rail," a popular New York middlebrow restaurant of the Era, with locations in Manhattan and Brooklyn. It's dated Saturday, September 11, 1943, and carries the following important notice at the top:

"ALL PRICES ARE OUR CEILING PROCES OR BELOW. BY OPA REGULATION OUR CEILINGS ARE BASED ON OUR HIGHEST PRICES FROM APRIL 4-10, 1943. OUR MENUS OR PRICE LISTS FOR THAT WEEK ARE AVAILABLE FOR YOUR INSPECTION."

That note is followed by this one, printed in red:

"MEAT AND OTHER RATIONED ITEMS ON THIS MENU ARE SERVED WHENEVER AVAILABLE within the limitations imposed by our full cooperation with Government regulations. We endeavor to have a representative selection at all times, but if we are temporarily out of your choice please accept an alternate in the same spirit in which it is offered."

The menu itself is a good look at what mainstream American food was like in the Era. The "Brass Rail Specialities" include sauteed calf's liver with fresh garden peas and Lyonnaise potatoes (sort of like home fries, to us proles) at $1.25, Maryland Fried Chicken with corn fritter, peas and carrots, and candied sweet potato at $1.24, a milk-fed breaded veal cutlet with tomato sauce and spaghetti at $1.45, "Our Famous Corned Beef" with new green cabbage and boiled potato at $1.35, baked Virginia Ham steak Southern Style with Hawaiian pineapple and candied sweet potato, at $1.45, and "Our Famous Roast Prime Ribs of Beef" with natural beef pan gravy and baked Idaho potato at $1.50. Special for the day is the Seafood combination, featuring a half-cold Boiled Portland Lobster with jumbo shrimps, crabmeat, celery, and Russian dressing, at $1.35.

If those don't appeal, you can get a whole broiled Long Island flounder with string beans and mashed potatoes at 75 cents, a grilled young Jersey pork chop with peas and candied sweet potato at ninety cents, a breaded milk-fed veal chop with french fries at $1, Chopped Sirloin Steak (Hamburger, Brass Rail Quality) smothered in onions with French Fries at $1.10, a charcoal broiled tenderloin steak with fresh broiled mushrooms and minute potatoes at $2.25, a whole broiled Live Maine Lobster with french fries and drawn butter for $1.50, or if you're ready to shoot the works, filet mignon on toast "en casserole," served with fresh mushrooms, french fries, and assorted fresh vegetables at $2.45.

If you just want a sandwich, the Famous Brass Rail Roast Beef Sandwich and french fries will cost you fifty cents. A "Cheese Dream," which is an open-face toasted cheese sandwich with bacon is sixty-five cents, as is the "Tongue Temptation," consisting of beef tongue, tomato and "Indian relish. Eighty five cents gets you the Tavern Club sandwich, three layers made with turkey, bacon, lettuce, tomato, and Russian dressing. Ninety cents brings the Brass Rail Special, consisting of turkey, swiss cheese, ham, and cole slaw. And for a buck fifteen, you get a Hot Turkey Sandwich including mushroom gravy, compote of cranberries and candied sweet potato.

Candied sweet potatoes weren't rationed, in case you hadn't guessed.

For dessert a slab of Our Famous Coconut Custard Pie is 30 cents, your choice of Assorted French Pastry will cost you a quarter, as will a dish of Jell-O with whipped cream, a dish of ice cream, a dish of rice or tapioca pudding, or a slab of chilled watermelon.

Beverages are limited to one cup per customer, and include a cup of coffee, tea, or Postum for ten cents, Sanka, Hot Chocolate, Iced Tea, Iced Coffee, or Iced Chocolate for fifteen cents, or milk or buttermilk for a dime.

And if you just want to nibble, Welsh Rabbit with crackers will cost you 75 cents, and Roqueford, Camembert, Liederkranz cheese with crackers is 35 cents.

For a comparison, wages during the war were frozen by the War Labor Board, but in the last years before the war, an ordinary American factory worker or common white-collar clerk might expect to make about $30-$35 a week, so a meal at such a restaurant as the Brass Rail would be a special occasion treat only. More often you'd eat at a cheap lunch room, a punch-card cafeteria, or a hamburger stand.

 

[vitanola]

"Frenching" a vegetable means to cut it in long, thin strips. Hence, "french fried potatoes," which is how the item was listed on menus in the Era. "French Fries," as a product name, came along after the war with the rise of McDonald's and similar franchises.

Heinz makes Ketchup and Hunt's makes Catsup. Let's call the whole thing off.

Garry Moore used to tell a joke on the radio about being sponsored by a condiment company whose catsup was made with real cats.

My favorite reciept for catsup comes from one of my favorite cook books; Mrs. Tyree's famous "House-Keeping in Old Virginia" It is right up there with "The White House Cook Book", "The Settlement House Cook Book", and "The Gold Cook Book".

MUSHROOM CATSUP.
Break one peck large mushrooms into a deep earthen pan. Strew three-quarters pound salt among them, and set them one night in a cool oven, with a fold of cloth or paper over them. Next day strain off the liquor, and to each quart add one ounce black pepper, one-quarter ounce allspice, one-half ounce ginger, two large blades mace.


Boil quickly twenty minutes. When perfectly cold, put into bottles, and cork well, and keep in a cool place.--Mr. J. B. N.


Cucumber Catsup is nice, especially in summer:

Cucumber Catsup.
Chop three dozen large cucumbers and eight white onions, fine as possible, or grate them. Sprinkle over them three-fourths of a pint of salt, one-half teacup ground pepper; before seasoning, drain off all the water through a sieve; mix well with good vinegar, and bottle.--Mrs. P. W.


Walnut Catsup, and Bay Sauce are both excellent with heavy, cheap cuts of meat in Wintertime:

WALNUT CATSUP:
To one gallon vinegar:
Add 100 Black Walnuts pounded.
2 tablespoonfuls salt.
A handful horseradish.
1 cup mustard-seed, bruised.
1 pint eschalots, cut fine.
1/2 pint garlic.
1/4 pound allspice.
1/4 pound black pepper.
A tablespoonful ginger.
If you like, you can add cloves, mace, sliced ginger, and sliced nutmeg. Put all these in a jug, cork tightly, shake well, and set it out in the sun for five or six days, remembering to shake it well each day. Then boil it for fifteen minutes, and when nearly cool, strain, bottle, and seal the bottles.--Mrs. A. C.



Bay Sauce.
Get young (Black) walnut leaves while tender. Make a mixture of the following ingredients: one quart salt, one handful horseradish, one-half dozen onions chopped up, two teaspoonfuls allspice, one tablespoonful black ground pepper.
Put in a layer of the leaves, and then one of the mixture, so on till the jar is nearly filled; cover with good cold vinegar. Put it in the sun for a fortnight, then bottle. It will not be good for use until it is six months old.
This is an excellent sauce for fish. It will improve it to add a tablespoonful of ground ginger.--Mrs. E. C. G.

 

[2jakes]

Bay Sauce.
Get young (Black) walnut leaves while tender. Make a mixture of the following ingredients: one quart salt, one handful horseradish, one-half dozen onions chopped up, two teaspoonfuls allspice, one tablespoonful black ground pepper.
Put in a layer of the leaves, and then one of the mixture, so on till the jar is nearly filled; cover with good cold vinegar. Put it in the sun for a fortnight, then bottle. It will not be good for use until it is six months old.
This is an excellent sauce for fish. It will improve it to add a tablespoonful of ground ginger.--Mrs. E. C. G.

Where did your horseradish come from? Aqueduct? Santa Anita?
They're out of it at the Victory Meat Market.

 

[BlueTrain]

Twenty years later prices hadn't changed all that drastically but all the change was upwards.

I must have lead either a very provincial or very sheltered life because before I left home, there were all kinds of foods I either never ate or had never heard of. That even includes spaghetti. Never really knew what steak was, although we had beef fairly regularly. No kind of fish or other seafood was ever served, either, except for "fish sticks," and I don't know if that counts.

 

[ChiTownScion]

And look... I'm not going to fight over whether Chicago pizza is better than New York pizza. I love it all. I'll never say No to a good slice no matter from whence it comes.

 

[LizzieMaine]

I despised steak as a kid. On the rare occasions that we had it, it was always a flat, dry, thin thing that looked like a half-sole that had fallen off an old boot. You had to chew it until your jaws hurt, and it had no flavor at all. Ham was much more palatable.

Usually when we had beef it was hamburger, served as part of a cheap canned tomato sauce and elbow macaroni casserole we called "slum." We'd usually have this a couple times a week, and it was usually badly watered down so the tomato flavor was more of a suggestion than a reality.

I always looked forward to any kind of fish supper though. My favorite seafood -- and still is -- finnan haddie, a Scottish speciality which consists of heavily salted smoked haddock poached in evaporated milk. The trick is that you don't rinse the salt off the fish, and you use the milk as it comes straight from the can, without adding water, so it comes out thick and heavy, and forms a lazy excuse for a cream sauce as it cooks. You can prepare this meal in less than ten minutes, and it's very very satisfiying. The middle of the fish is tender, and the edges of the fillet become hard and chewy, which makes for a very pleasant combination. Then you sop up what's left of the milk with a piece of bread. That is a real meal.

 

[Fading Fast]

We serve hot dogs at the Super Bowl party we host each year at work, and I always buy ten pounds of franks, a big jar of Gulden's mustard, a jar of Cain's Relish, and NO KETCHUP. One of the office people chewed me out about this, and I gave them a withering look of derision. NOBODY I would care to know puts KETCHUP on a HOT DOG.

How many people stayed around for the insane comeback and how many left in the 4th quarter when the game looked over?

I'm a mustard-on-hotdogs guy, but have seen others use ketchup. Were there any crowd request for ketchup on Super Bowl Sunday? If so, I assume said "withering look of derision" took care of that.

 

[Fading Fast]

Oh Lizzie...should we call the whole thing off?

Haven't seen that scene in awhile - what an absolutely outstanding number.

• Both Rogers and Astaire show the subtly of their skills by knowing how to look when the other is singing. Check out how they each do it differently, but both look comfortable and that enhances the effect. It's hard to know "what to do" when the other person is singing, but these stars do
• Rogers was Astaire's equal in all of it
• The roller-skate dancing is incredible
• Fun finish and probably hard to make it look casual, accidental, but enjoyable

All those Astaire-Rogers movies, despite being all-but plotless or plot nonsense, are gems.

 

[Fading Fast]

I despised steak as a kid. On the rare occasions that we had it, it was always a flat, dry, thin thing that looked like a half-sole that had fallen off an old boot. You had to chew it until your jaws hurt, and it had no flavor at all. Ham was much more palatable.

Usually when we had beef it was hamburger, served as part of a cheap canned tomato sauce and elbow macaroni casserole we called "slum." We'd usually have this a couple times a week, and it was usually badly watered down so the tomato flavor was more of a suggestion than a reality....

Growing up, we'd have steak at home once in awhile as a "treat" and, like you, I didn't get it as it was tough, grey and grizzly. I knew not to complain, so I acted like it was a treat, but in truth, I much preferred hamburgers which had a much better texture and always tasted pretty good.

It wasn't until I started working in finance and going out on business dinners that I learned what all the hubbub was over steak. A good cut of steak, professionally cooked is a wonderful piece of meat: charred on the outside (love the char), tender, juicy and favorable inside. Then, I discovered filet mignon and knew heaven had descended to earth. These steaks had nothing - absolutely nothing - in common with what I ate growing up other than the name.

However, now in my early 50s, I don't care that much for red meat as it seems heavy to me and I feel too full after eating it.

And look... I'm not going to fight over whether Chicago pizza is better than New York pizza. I love it all. I'll never say No to a good slice no matter from whence it comes.

As a proud New Yorker who has visited and loves Chicago - and enjoyed both its thin-crust and deep-dish pizza - I agree completely. Good pizza is something to be enjoyed wherever it happens to be found.

...For dessert a slab of Our Famous Coconut Custard Pie is 30 cents,....

Based on its popularity on old menus, it seems like coconut custard pie was more popular back in the GE than it is today. I almost feel like it would disappear without Thanksgiving and old diners keeping it alive.

... or Iced Chocolate for fifteen cents...

What is Iced Chocolate? I can guess, but wouldn't it solidify / how'd they keep it liquid? And was it common?

 

[LizzieMaine]

It was basically milk cocoa with ice in it. Very popular in warm weather for some people.

What I find most interesting about the beverage selection is what *isn't* there -- no soda. Having a Coke with food was still a relatively new idea in 1943 -- Coca-Cola had run ads in the late 1930s trying to drum up interest in serving Coke with meals, but outside of drugstore luncheonettes it hadn't really caught on. A soda fountain installation was a large and complicated thing in the early 1940s, requiring constant maintenance, and had to be filled from gallon jugs or five-gallon kegs of syrup, which was a messy, vermin-attracting process. And serving from bottles was even worse, because you needed storage space for both the full bottles and the empties. A restaurant offering any pretense of "class" wanted nothing to do with soft drinks until the Cornelius pre-mix system eliminated the need for an elaborate fountain setup.

 

[LizzieMaine]

How many people stayed around for the insane comeback and how many left in the 4th quarter when the game looked over?

I'm a mustard-on-hotdogs guy, but have seen others use ketchup. Were there any crowd request for ketchup on Super Bowl Sunday? If so, I assume said "withering look of derision" took care of that.

About half the crowd left after Lady Ga Ga got done, and I was apologizing at the door for the poor experience. "Wait'll next year!" and all. Those who stayed to the end, however, were carried away on a cloud of euphoria.

As for ketchup, we got a bottle for the office person who wanted it, but she didn't show up, and it's still sitting in the fridge downstairs unopened. "Wait'll next year!"

 

[Fading Fast]

It was basically milk cocoa with ice in it. Very popular in warm weather for some people.

What I find most interesting about the beverage selection is what *isn't* there -- no soda. Having a Coke with food was still a relatively new idea in 1943 -- Coca-Cola had run ads in the late 1930s trying to drum up interest in serving Coke with meals, but outside of drugstore luncheonettes it hadn't really caught on. A soda fountain installation was a large and complicated thing in the early 1940s, requiring constant maintenance, and had to be filled from gallon jugs or five-gallon kegs of syrup, which was a messy, vermin-attracting process. And serving from bottles was even worse, because you needed storage space for both the full bottles and the empties. A restaurant offering any pretense of "class" wanted nothing to do with soft drinks until the Cornelius pre-mix system eliminated the need for an elaborate fountain setup.

I believe in other posts I've referenced how of all my somewhat physically demanding jobs - loading dock, warehouse, landscaping (shoveling, raking, cutting, etc.) - bartending was the most physically challenging and repulsive because the bartenders had to maintain the utterly disgusting, complex and antediluvian drink system of pumps, pipes and jugs in the Edgar Allen Poe basement of creepiness under the bar. You had to crawl into nasty dark nooks, walk through sticky puddles of God knows what (in truth, the entire basement floor, walls, ceilings, beams were all sticky) and despite endless exterminator spraying (which I'm sure was great for ones skin and lungs) encounter some fiercely ugly bugs to keep that nightmare of a system working.

 

[LizzieMaine]

Yup, dealing with soda syrup is like that. It's the spreadingest stuff there is, and if you have a leak anywhere in your lines, it will form a thick, adhesive puddle that will attract every kind of bug native to your climate. Flies, especially, love it, and will often become stuck in it flypaper-style, making it even more fun to clean up. Most soda syrup is handled now in bag-in-box containers, which are a million times more sanitary than glugging it into a metal holding tank from an open glass jug, but they are also highly vulnerable to mishandling, poor connections, and leaks.

The absolute worst method of dispensing soda ever devised was the paper-cup vending machines that became popular in the late 1950s, and remained so into the early 1970s. These had an internal syrup tank that had to be refilled regularly, and it was easily breached by curious insects. If you lived in cockroach country, you could get an extra special treat in your drink from one of these machines.

 

[MisterCairo]

It looked gross, tasted worse and got the nickname, frogspawn. I give you: "Tapioca Pudding."

I love tapioca pudding!

As for organ meats, unless it's served as haggis, I won't touch it....