Author: Deborah M

The Myths and Making of Mayonnaise

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A few of years ago, NPR aired a segment called “Happy Birthday, Dear Mayo — We Hold You Dear” in order to mark the 250th ‘birthday’ of that useful and ever-present condiment, mayonnaise.

Mere condiment? Did I say condiment? Isn’t it so much more than that? It is the stuff of culinary creativeness. I don’t even like the stuff that much and even I admire its usefulness. It is the basis for sauces, the glue for salads, the moistener for many a sandwich – even a home remedy for aching joints.

That last one is according to Wikipedia and while I’ve not heard that myself (and I’m well aware that Wikipedia isn’t 100% to be counted on) why would someone make up something that weird and that random? We shall take it as given until someone makes a case otherwise.

There is no existing culinary celebration of mayo on any list I’ve found. So I am, partly because I can and partly at the request of a friend whose hubby puts mayo on everything, declaring that May 21st is, from this day hence, to be known as Fabulous Foodie Mayo Day. (insert sound of cheering crowds here)

And so that we all know what we’re talking about by then, I’ve dug around and herein lay bare the truth, the assumptions and the mechanics of mayonnaise, our fabulous food friend. Continue reading “The Myths and Making of Mayonnaise” →

Cobbling Together Easy Cherry Cobbler

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As I mentioned over on the Fabulous Foodie Facebook group, today (May 16) is Coquille St Jacques Day.

If this is the kind of thing that gets you cookin’ to get cookin’ – by all mean, go forth and seize the scallops. Me, I’ll be over here prepping for tomorrow – which is Cherry Cobbler Day.  Prepping for Cherry Cobbler Day is about as easy a prep as you can get. You need only an hour (10 minutes prep, 45-50 minutes cooking) and a measly 3 ingredients.

Ingredients

  • 1 box yellow cake mix
  • 1 stick butter (slightly softened)
  • 1 can cherry pie filling

Optional Flourishes

  • chopped pecans (or nut of your choice)
  • extra bits of butter

Preparation

  • Cut one stick of butter into the cake mix, then press and crumble them together until you get a sort of rubble. Some bits bigger than others, nothing too uniform. This is a rustic kind of thing.
  • Spread the pie filling (undrained!) over the bottom of a the baking dish. Sprinkle cake mix/butter rubble over the pie filling until it’s completely covered. Then if you opted for the optional flourishes, sprinkle the chopped nuts lightly over the rubble and dot the top of the whole thing with small pieces of butter.
  • Bake at 350 degrees for about 45 minutes – you’re shooting for a golden toasty brown across the top

And that’s it. Let it cool. It’s outstanding at room temp or out of the fridge the next day. If serving fresh and warm, put some vanilla ice cream on top. If your house is anything like my house, you’ll want to check on the pie a few times while it cools. Not because the PIE is likely to develop problems but because certain members of the household will pick chunks of topping off and eat it.

Variations

  • topping – there are a lot of very similar recipes that skip the whole crumbling/pressing thing entirely. They call for the cake mix to be poured and spread over the filling and then melted butter poured over that. I’ve seen and tasted that variation and it’s quite not a bad way to go but I love the texture of the rubble topping so it’s my version of choice. That said, there have been times when I have melted the butter a bit before crumbling it together with the cake mix. I think I thought it would save time. It really doesn’t.
  • filling – it doesn’t have to be cherry. It works well with apple, peach, blueberry, etc. If you want a taller cobbler (or have a really deep dish) use two cans of pie filling.

Enjoy! And if you’re still in a pie mood, check out Musings on Great American Pie Month

In the Pie of the Beholder

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Today is Pie Day. Now, there are a lot of culinary observances during the year – and I note many of them myself. But this one particularly charms me. Why?

Because it was just some individual deciding to make it so. Not a committee. Not an official industry group. Just a guy named Charlie. See Back in the mid-70s, Charlie Papazian– nuclear engineer, teacher, founder of the Great American Beer Festival, and pie lover – declared to his students that his birthday, January 23, would ever more be known as National Pie Day. He just really loved pie.

Eventually it became THING enough that people noticed in 1986, the American Pie Council (did you even know there was such an entity?) took on sponsorship of Pie Day and that is where we are today.

What is your favorite type of pie? Cherry sits quite happily at the top of my list if it is my mother’s pie. But I am not opposed to a good apple pie (as long as the apples still have some structural integrity). Hmmm … I would appear to be a bit of a pie fussbudget. Never mind – cut me another slice!

Crafty Cardinal Creates Cutlery

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Ah, Bastille Day – I’d say something about it in French but my French is lousy. So rather than subject us all to that, let’s celebrate it by looking at a few French moments and highlights in culinary history.

Rich in dukes and cardinals – but also rich in culinary trivia.

Imagine it. It is 1637. Cardinal Richelieu, for reasons known only to himself – maybe his own safety (he wasn’t universally popular) or maybe he was put off his dinner watching people pick their teeth with pointy ends – suddenly orders the blades of his dinnerware to be ground down and rounded off.

Behold, the modern dinner knife was born. Continue reading “Crafty Cardinal Creates Cutlery” →

The Foodie Link Between Banbury and the Bard?

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Banbury is, as you may know, forever entwined with Banbury cakes – flat-ish oval pastry filled with spiced currants. They’re not unlike Eccles cakes and they’re still available in Banbury though not in the two shops most associated with them in days or yore. I present to you – the days of yore.

E. W. Brown’s Original Cake Shop, 12 Parsons street.

There was some dreadful idea being tossed around about turning that A. Betts High Street space (very much present and in use lately as a pop-up shop) into an arcade.

Betts’s Cake Shop on Banbury High Street in 1878

Yes, a gaming arcade. I am very much hoping the request for the change of use required will be denied. But never mind that now. I will complain about that elsewhere.

Banbury has another eponymous foodstuff lurking in its past and today seems a good time to mention it. Why today? Because today is April 23rd — anniversary of both Shakespeare’s birth and his death.

Banbury Cheese!

“Banbury cheeses, for which the town was noted until the 18th century, were first mentioned in 1430” (*). It was a cow’s milk cheese, yellow in colour and quite strongly flavoured, made in thin (about 1 inch) rounds.

“But wait!” I hear you cry. “What does this have to do with Shakespeare?”

In “The Merry Wives of Windsor,” Bardolf addresses Slender as “You Banbury Cheese!” – and this would have been commonly understood by the playgoers as an insult implying there wasn’t much to him (Banbury cheese being only about an inch thick.) That’s not to say Banbury cheese wasn’t popular – it was; in fact, it was better known than Banbury cakes at the time. It was just  … well, thin.

It was made in various places around the area but mostly in Grimsbury and Nethercote – what was then the Northamptonshire end of things (**)

And that’s not the only bardish thing about Banbury. No, there was a Shakespeare Inn on Parsons’ Street and we can still see the bust (sitting over the door at 46 Parsons St) that used to greet visitors to the Shakespeare Inn (1871-1891, I believe). *waves* Hi, Will!

And that is my culinary history trivia for the day. Happy birthday, Will.
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* A History of the County of Oxford: Volume 10, Banbury Hundred

** Boundaries tended to move around a lot and originally Banbury straddled two counties.