Date: Thu, 17 Jul 2008 06:39:32 -0700 (PDT) From: John Smart <jnsmart@yahoo.com> Subject: Price County Historical Society creates new cookbook Message-ID: <502072.42429.qm@web52206.mail.re2.yahoo.com>
The Daily Press
Northern Wisconsin's Daily Newspaper
http://www.ashlandwi.com/articles/2008/07/16/community/doc487e0c1e89b9899
0959423.txt
Price County Historical Society creates new cookbook
The Price County Historical Society has just created its own cookbook,
"Recipes and Remembrances."
By John Smart
Published: Wednesday, July 16, 2008 4:38 PM CDT
By JOHN SMART
For The Daily Press
The
Price County Historical Society has at long last published its
cookbook, ”Recipes & Remembrances” — at long last because this
project has been in the works for several years now — and it's well
worth the wait. It will be a welcome addition to every cookbook
collector's library. The recipes were collected from members of the
society and other long-time residents of Price County, and come
complete with tales of long ago.
Lapskaus, a Norwegian stew that
uses both beef and pork with potatoes and onions, represents many of
our early immigrants' connection with their home country, as does
Alsatian Potato Salad, with bacon, celery, onion and sweet peppers
seasoned with caraway and dill.
Alsatian Potato Salad
2 1/2 lbs. little red potatoes, cut in half
3 or more scallions, chopped
6 slices bacon, chopped
1 cup chopped celery
1 red or green pepper, chopped
1/2 cup chopped parsley
Cut
little red potatoes in half and boil until tender. Do not overcook.
Saute bacon until crisp, and add scallions until tender. Toss potatoes
with bacon and scallions, celery, peppers and parsley with the sauce.
Sauce:
2-3 Tbls. bacon fat
1/2 cup cider vinegar
3-4 Tbls. sugar
1 tsp. salt
1 tsp. caraway seed
1/2 tsp. dill weed
1/4 tsp. garlic powder
Mix all ingredients together and bring to a boil. Remove from heat and pour
over the salad.
This
recipe came from the Edward Hines Lumber Co.'s kitchen records. In the
great logging days of our area, thousands of board feet of lumber were
cut at the Hines Lumber Mill in Park Falls, employing many locals, and
this is one of the remembrances from that mill.
There are
recipes in the book for such forgotten delicacies as pickled tongues
and gizzards, and lots of instructions on how to make dumplings of all
kinds, from raw potato and mashed potato to bread dumplings.
One
contributor remembers the wild rice hotdish that her mother always
brought to church potlucks, and another tells about her mother's
"fibber" beef stew, a fib because it was made with venison but she told
people who said they didn't like venison that it was beef!
A
wonderful recipe from Mrs. Albert Saetebeer, a Polish immigrant who
arrived in Price County in 1889, uses venison to make mincemeat, not
that raisiney, meatless stuff that's sold in jars, but the real, savory
thing: chopped venison and suet, apples, raisins and currants all
seasoned with cinnamon, ginger, cloves, nutmeg, allspice, mace, brown
sugar and moistened with real apple cider. Now that's mincemeat!
One
of the recipes in this book is a family treasure from my 96-year-old
mother, Dixie Smart: Mother's Onion Pie. She writes, "Our mother, Mrs.
Eugene Paquin, often made this dish when we were children. It was
inexpensive, tasty, and one our father liked a lot. She never had a
recipe for it and, after her death, our father asked if we could make
it. So we fiddled around until it came close to the way we remembered
it." For our family, this is comfort food.
Mother's Onion Pie:
1 lb. salt pork, cut in cubes
flour
lard or other shortening
water
3-4 potatoes, peeled and cubed
1 cup chopped onions
1 pt. milk
ground pepper
1/3 cup flour
1/4 cup butter
baking powder biscuits
Dredge
the salt pork in flour, seasoned with pepper, and brown in a small
amount of shortening in a Dutch oven or large iron skillet. Add water
to cover and simmer for about 10 minutes. Add potatoes and onions and
simmer for 10 more minutes. Add milk and stir. Make a paste of flour
and butter and stir into mixture until thickened. Place baking powder
biscuits on top of the mixture and bake in a 350-degree oven until
biscuits are done.
A prize recipe comes from an old newspaper
article that was saved by Pat Schroeder, the PCHS's late curator who
was the originator of the cookbook idea. "The Northwoods Inn, in the
heart of Wisconsin's famed northern vacation-land, is at the junction
of state highways 13 and 70 in Fifield. Eli Nicholas is the owner and
manager. Lunch and dinner served daily from 11 a.m. to 11 p.m." Mr.
Nicholas is long since gone, but the Northwoods Inn is still there.
Northwoods Inn Cranberry Pudding
Pudding:
1 1/2 cups flour, sifted
2 Tbls. sugar
2 tsp. baking soda
1/3 cup boiling water
1/2 cup molasses
1 cup cranberries, chopped
pinch of salt
Dissolve
soda in boiling water and stir in molasses. Combine with other
ingredients and pour into a greased mold or coffee tin. Cover and steam
for two hours, and serve hot with sauce.
Sauce:
1 cup butter
1 cup cream
2 cups sugar
2 Tbls. brandy
Combine
ingredients and cook over bubbling water in double boiler for 1
hour. Serve hot over cranberry pudding, plum pudding or fruit cake
slices.
There is a recipe for dandelion jelly which demonstrates
that, in lean times, everything was used in the kitchen, and a gall
bladder cure recipe that calls for steeping chopped red onions in
Holland Gin and then taking 1 tablespoon of the mixture 3 times a
day. Sounds like a good cure for almost anything!
There's a
recipe for "horse cookies" that are really cookies to feed to your
horses and a "roach inhibitor" made from lard and boric acid to
discourage those creepy-crawlies from invading your home.
Some
of the recipes included are novelties (nobody expects readers to
actually make roach inhibitor with lard and boric acid) but most of
them are encouragement to head for the kitchen.
The Price County
Historical Society, incorporated in 1959, is responsible for
discovering, preserving and passing on the history of Price County,
Wisconsin. The society is based in the Old Town Hall Museum in Fifield,
at the intersection of highways 13 and 70. The Old Town Hall served as
Fifield's seat of government from 1894 until 1967, at which time it was
acquired by the PCHS.
The Old Town Hall Museum provides a
fascinating glimpse into the early logging and railroad days of this
part of northern Wisconsin. The Museum is well worth a visit, and is
open from 1-5 p.m. on Fridays and Sundays from Memorial Day to Labor
Day or by appointment for groups.
Everyone interested is invited to check out the Website at pricecountyhisto
ricalsociety.com. And
you can order your copy of Recipes & Remembrances there too —
simply click on to "Gift Store." The cookbooks are $10 each (plus $3
shipping), and can be purchased by sending a check to the Price County
Historical Society at PO Box 156, Fifield WI 54524-0156. Wouldn't they
make great gifts?
John Smart, from Park Falls, is a member of the board of directors of the P
rice County Historical Society.
Copyright © 2008 - The Daily Press - Ashland, WI