Woolworth's menu, circa 1958

[vitanola]

Vinegar, that's interesting. Our family recipe calls for 1/8 cup of orange juice.
A butter and lard combo, Vitanola? I wouldn't say yours is a heart-friendly recipe.

Actually, these saturated fats have been discovered to be healthier than the hydrogenated fats. Lard and butter contain no trans-fats.

Of course, Pastry is NOT a healthy food. It is a delicacy, and should be partaken of only on occasion. Since there is really no such thing as a truly healthy pastry, when we make it it should at the very least be heavenly!

As for the vinegar, the acid in the vinegar breaks down some of the gluten that becomes activated in the process of making up the paste. A substantial amount of activated gluten tends to make a pie crust tough.

 

[Lincsong]

A ham salad sammich, slice of pie and a Coke for 55 cents. Jeez. What would you leave for a tip back then, a dime?!

Not that much. Probably a nickel.

 

[ET]

Remember that living expenses then were much lower. A waitress in one of these places could make a living, if not get too far ahead, which is why they had time to grow into the profession. These days you rarely see a professional waiter or waitress except in high end dining establishments. Kind of off topic, sorry, but a nickel dime quarter tip would have sufficed.

 

[LizzieMaine]

John D. Rockefeller was legendary for leaving dime tips, whether he was eating in a lunchroom or the Waldorf. And he was considered a piker by all the waiters and waitresses who served him.

 

[Miss Neecerie]

I've found that a mixture of half lard and half butter (and the substitution of at least one tablespoon of vinegar for an equal amount of water) makes the flakiest, most tasty, and tenderest pie crust.

Mine uses vinegar and egg with the crisco.

Don't go around saying its the -ist and -est crust without having tried every single crust on the planet....

You might find yourself challenged to a bakeoff sometime.lol

 

[Matt Crunk]

I'm just old enough (42) to remember the lunch/soda counters inside the Woolworth's and TG&Y stores downtown where I grew up, that existed at least up until the early '70's. This being in the South, they may have hung on to them here a little longer than the rest of the country.

But I distinctly remember the wonderful smell inside those stores that, as singer/songwriter Nancy Griffith so aptly put it, "Smells like popcorn and chewing gum rubbed around on the bottom of a leather-soled shoe."