Category Archives: Farm Recipes

Udderly Syllabub

Cow being milked in front of a crows
“Doris Dougan, ” set and ready–able and willing– and the expert milker on the job
I’ve been cruising through an old cookbook and found this recipe for you dairy and brewery fans. This cookbook is too recent for Eunice to have used, not that she would have served anything with alcohol anyway! But I bet it would’ve amused Ron to bring Vera’s elegant houseguests out to the barn for this “treat.”

Beer Syllabub
from The Gold Cookbook, by Master Chef Louis P. DeGuy,
Galahad Books, 1947
“This is a great drink to prepare for summer country house guests. Making it is great fun for the crowd.
Get ready a handful of dried currants which have been washed and allowed to swell up nice and plump in boiling water, then seed them. Into a large punch bowl, put 1 pint bottle of beer and the same quantity of hard cider—using light beer and good bottled cider. Sweeten to taste and add a dash or so of nutmeg. Now have your cow set and ready—able and willing—and the expert milker on the job. Hold the bowl a safe and convenient distance from the cow and milk directly into the bowl about three pints of milk. Milk infused in this way is creamy and frothy and the syllabub is a picturesque drink.”

p.s. …but what are we supposed to do with that handful of currants?

Fish soup

No, not that Norway  (JJ on far right)
No, not that Norway (JJ on far right)

About that last post, I had a package of soup mix with directions in Norwegian, from a San Francisco store—Marie Lang-Ree gave it to me. But you can make it this way: make a good sized roux of butter, flour, and gradually add a can of fish broth; I got mine at a fish store. Poach fish: cod, tilapia, or whatever you choose, until barely tender, and add to that the broth, too. Same for scallops. Use cooked shrimp. Small size, or maybe medium size (you don’t want the great big fatties.) Have ready some small peas and small cooked carrots – for color. Maybe one chopped potato. Add in lots of whole milk or cream til you get the right consistency. Cook until hot, but don’t overcook – you don’t want your fish tough. Sprinkle chopped chives on top. When I made it, I made several visits to the fish store and six calls to California. If I count the trip to Norway, this soup cost me some big bucks, but I can take it all off my income tax.

Mommy’s Orange Cookies

Lately it’s been circulating around the family, “Where is the orange cookie recipe?” Not that these are particularly Christmas cookies, but were the family’s favorite cookie. Turns out my sister Jo and I both have the recipe, and Jo wrote me that when one of her boys told Scottie Cook, who was helping Mother, that Scottie made the best cookies he ever had (the orange!) that Mother was quick to say that it was her recipe and not Scottie’s. Question: where did Mom get it? Anyway, here is the famous Orange Cookie recipe some of you have been asking about and others of you who read this might want to try.

Mommy’s Orange Cookies
1 C sugar
1 C shortening
2 eggs
1 C orange juice
grated rind of one orange
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp soda
3 C flour

Put together in the usual way: (Cream sugar, shortening, add eggs, sift flour, b.p., soda together, and add alternately with o.j.) Drop spoonsful on greased cookie sheet, not too close together. Bake in a preheated moderate oven (I think that’s about 350° – 375° in today’s language). Frost with powdered sugar moistened with orange juice, to which the grated rind has been added. Makes four dozen or more.

Note: Jo has our grandmother’s much battered (pun intended) cookbook with Grama’s famous Thanksgiving cookies in it. When I get a copy of that recipe, I’ll add it to this blog.

*edited to warm up the oven temp!