While the blog probably deserves a decent post about our Christmas holiday (which has been awesome), it won't happen this time around.
I gave my sister a waffle maker for Christmas. I thought I was such a cool cucumber getting the question about whether she owned a waffle maker a few weeks - she indicated she didn't own a waffle maker. However, she didn't mention that she had otherwise requested a waffle maker so received two machines on Christmas morning.
Our family has waffles or pancakes most every Sunday. So, this evening I offered to make waffles tomorrow. I picked my favourite cookbook for waffles - Joy of Cooking - from her shelf (had eyed it several days ago) to ensure we had most of the ingredients (no yeast for raised waffles or buttermilk for buttermilk waffles) for some variety of waffle. I was surprised to note that her cookbook version had yellowed pages and was published in the early sixties. This cookbook edition doesn't have my favourite waffle recipe but has numerous others that certainly aren't in vogue today. The bacon and cornmeal waffle - interesting but likely unappealing to this crowd.
Unappealing became much more evident as I leafed through this old-school cookbook. Out of curiosity, I was looking for chicken parmigiana (under the p's in the index) but wandered a bit too far and somehow managed to end up in the 's' section. The 1964 version of the Joy of Cooking has a section about 'Squirrel - about; to skin.' Oh crap. Can't let that one go by without a bit more of a perusal. Interesting to know, according to the cookbook, that "gray squirrels are the preferred ones; red squirrels are small and quite gamey in flavor." The dialogue provides an extensive description of how to skin a squirrel. The section also reminds the cook to never handle rabbit or any wild meat without using gloves, because of the danger of tularemia infection. I have heard of a lot of infections but never tularemia (bacterial infection common in rodents), especially not in a COOKBOOK! The section on wild game also contains instructions to eat opossum (feed it milk and cereals for 10 days before killing), bear (remove fat at once, as it turns rancid very quickly), raccoon (soak in salt water), muskrat (poach and serve with creamed celery), and woodchuck (follow recipe for rabbit but remove sacs or kernels in the back) and beaver (young animals only).
The best of all peccary! Even my brother-in-law who is very long on tidbits of information had never heard of a peccary. Wikipedia of course has a definition - a musk hog (impressively helpful, mustn't be Canadian!).
Bless the Joy of Cooking. My version, less than 10 years old, is one of my favourite cookbooks - I can find practically anything in that book. It has very good recipes for pancakes, waffles, chicken stews and curries (Country Captain is in the older version as well), beef, pork, soups - a compendium of highly practical advice. I guess it has simply evolved to the needs of the new generation of cooks.
In the end, my sister simply recommended I follow the recipe provided with the new waffle maker - not bad advice at all.
2 comments:
Huh, I have a similar story! I killed my belgian waffle maker a few months ago (long story) and my sister asked what I wanted for Christmas and I told her I needed a waffle maker but had already given that idea to my mother in law. My sis went ahead and bought one for me anyway but luckily my mother in law got us the other thing I had told her (a countertop grill that I also broke a few months ago when it fell off the shelf in my pantry). She also gave us some fancy waffle mixes. Gingerbread, whole wheat and chocolate! We love waffles!
Huh. I guess I could go hunting and survive quite well in my own backyard with that old cookbook. How about that!
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