Baconized Corn

A few weeks ago I was thumbing through some cookbooks looking for recipes for fresh corn when I stumbled upon this gem:

Baconized?  I didn't realize it was a thing to baconize foods, but I have to think almost anything could be made better by the baconizing process!

The recipe was found in the Mennonite Community Cookbook by Mary Emma Showalter (1950). 

I didn't have any bacon that particular day, but I did make a note to try some baconized corn in the near future. The future is here.

I followed the recipe exactly as written (crazy, right?).  I cut the corn off the cobs and mixed it with sugar, salt and pepper.  Placed it in a buttered casserole dish and topped it with diced bacon.  Easy peasy.  I did have to bake it slightly longer than the recipe called for, but my bacon was probably not "finely" diced.

Before baking

After baking.  The bacon is crispier than it looks, I promise!

For such a simple process, this was really good.  I think the key is the fresh corn, which came out very tender and corn-y.  I think the skin on frozen corn would be a touch on the leathery side.  Canned might work, but it's not something I usually have on hand.  We had a little bit leftover, which I mixed into some cornmeal pancakes the next day.  Which sounds odd, but it worked. 

Baconized Corn (Printable recipe)

from the Mennonite Community Cookbook by Mary Emma Showalter (1950)

Ingredients

• 4 cups fresh corn
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1/4 teaspoon pepper
• 1 1/2 teaspoons sugar
• 1 cup finely diced bacon

Directions

Place corn in a greased baking dish.  Season with salt, sugar and pepper.  Cover entire top of dish with finely diced bacon.  Bake at 350F for 35 minutes or until bacon is crisp.  Serves 6.

Scalloped Eggplant

I'm baaa-aack! My garden luck this year has been pretty spotty, some issues due to weather, some to the local varmint population (I curse you, pocket gophers and squirrels!), but the thing that is doing awesomely is a single Japanese eggplant. It is huge and loaded with long, skinny fruits. I can only justify frying them so often and I've already got enough roasted and frozen to make baba ganoush all winter long. Time to find something else to do with eggplant... enter the Mennonite Community Cookbook by Mary Emma Showalter.

I picked this little gem up a few years ago and while I haven't explored a lot of it, I do appreciate all the great vegetable dishes it contains.  There is one for "Baconized Corn" that I haven't tried yet, but it's on my to-try list.  I need more baconized foods in my life.

The eggplant: not just a vegetable, also a good book flattener!

As usual, I took a few liberties with the recipe so I could use what I had on hand, starting with about 8 long skinny eggplants instead of one large.  I'm guessing that my skinny eggplants did not add up to a large one, but I liked the end result. For my second variance, I replaced the tablespoon of green pepper with some fresh minced basil and then added some cubed marinated mozzarella that needed to be used up.  And in one final act of rebellion, I diced the bacon instead of just laying the strips across the top. 

Baconized eggplant!

Farm Boy and I really liked this.  The whole eggplant/tomato/basil combo really works and is complimented by the mild cheese and the bacon. The original recipe claims 5 servings, but we got 4 side-sized servings out of this.


Scalloped Eggplant (Printable recipe)
based on a recipe from The Mennonite Community Cookbook by Mary Emma Showalter, 1950

Ingredients

• 1 large eggplant
• 1 cup diced tomatoes
• 1 Tablespoon minced fresh basil
• 4 ounces Italian-marinated fresh mozzarella, cubed
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/8 teaspoon pepper
• 1 cup soft breadcrumbs
• 2 Tablespoons butter, melted
• 3 strips bacon, diced

Directions

Preheat oven to 400F.

Peel eggplant and cut into 3/4" cubes.  Cook in salted water until tender and almost dry.  Add tomatoes, basil, mozzarella, salt and pepper and stir well.  Pour into a greased baking dish.  Combine the bread crumbs and melted butter and spread over top of eggplant mixture.  Top with diced bacon.

Bake for 20 to 25 minutes, or until bacon is cripsy and breadcrumbs are golden.

Baked Onions

This cookbook is a recent addition to the hoard.  After a few weeks of finding nothing on my treasure hunting outings, I was ecstatic to see a vintage cookbook at a reasonable price.  When I opened the book and saw a recipe for sweet potato pone - which I had recently read is supposed to be pronounced as, "poon"-  I knew it was going home with me.

While thumbing through it, the recipe for baked onions caught my eye.  Farm Boy's mother used to make baked onions that were delicious (although I admit to being skeptical the first time she served me a whole onion...).  I hadn't thought about them in years, so when I came across this recipe, I decided it was time to bake onions again.

Alas, I didn't pay attention to the bit about cooking the onions first and then filling them.  I put the filling in and baked them with foil over the pan, then removed the foil for browning.  This resulted in a pan coated with really, really hard cooked cheese.  The onions were still delicious, but it required several soaks to get the pan clean.  The second time I made them, I buttered the dish first and added the cheese and bread crumbs only for the last 15 minutes of baking.  Much less mess!

It's nice to have baked onions back in our food rotation, especially when the locally grown sweet Noonday onions are available. Now I just have to not let them fall off my mental list again...

What's that on the bottom of the pan?  Oh, it's burned-on cheese.  Glad I'm not on the clean-up crew! 

Baked Onions (Printable recipe)

loosely interpreted from Crestview Culinary Collections Crestview Christian Church, Greenville, Texas (1962)

Ingredients

• 1 medium onion per serving
• Salt and pepper or seasoning mix of your choice (I have used both Greek and Cajun)
• grated cheese
• Panko bread crumbs tossed with melted butter

Directions

Preheat the oven to 375F.

Peel the onions.  Cut a small slice off the root ends, so that the onions will sit flat.  Cut the tops off and remove a cone-shaped piece from the inside of each onion.  Sprinkle the inside with the seasonings, then place the onion in a buttered oven-proof dish.  Place a top on the dish or cover with foil.  Bake for 30 minutes.

Remove the cover and fill each onion with grated cheese.  Top with buttered bread crumbs.  Bake, uncovered, for another 15 to 20 minutes, or until the cheese is melted and the bread crumbs are browned.

Warm Bacon Salad Dressing

While trying to figure out what was considered a French dressing in the 1940s for another recipe (it's a vinaigrette with a little paprika added for color, in case anyone is wondering), I came across a blurb about making a warm bacon dressing for salad in Cooking on a Ration (1943). I have had wilted spinach salads before, but it never occurred to me that the bacon dressing might be good on something besides spinach.  Which for the purpose of this post really doesn't matter because spinach was what I had on hand.  But still, it made an impression.  Clearly I am easily impressed!

Cooking on a Ration

It's even autographed!

The introduction to this book really intrigues me because the author bemoans the fact that everyone will have to learn to cook now that they won't be able to find or afford convenience foods.  I had no idea that processed foods were so prevalent prior to 1943.

The spinach salads I've made before involved hard-boiled eggs, but I was low on eggs and decided to just go with simply spinach and some red onions cooked lightly in the bacon fat.   I really did follow the directions to just "add a dash of sharp vinegar, a little brown sugar, a shake of salt and pepper" instead of measuring, then I poured the dressing over the spinach in a mixing bowl and tossed it until it was slightly wilted, and topped it with the bacon.

This was delicious!  And a nice, simple side to make while the rest of supper was baking.  I will definitely make this dressing again and I might even branch out to using it on warm potatoes or Romaine lettuce.  If, that is, I can conquer my fear of non-crispy lettuce.  Flaccid lettuce just seems so wrong, but maybe bacon can save it.

Warm Bacon Salad Dressing (Printable Recipe)
from Cooking on a Ration, 1943



Ingredients:
2 slices bacon
1/4 of a red onion, sliced (optional)
dash of sharp vinegar (I used about 2 tablespoons of apple cider vinegar)
a little brown sugar (about 1 tablespoon)
salt and pepper to taste


Directions:
Fry the bacon until crispy.  Remove and chop coarsely.  If using the onion, fry it in the bacon fat in the pan until soft.  Remove the pan from the heat and add the remaining ingredients, stirring well.  Toss with the salad ingredients of your choice and top with the chopped bacon.

Malaga Sweet Potatoes

I had a couple of sweet potatoes that needed to be used, but I didn't want to just bake them like I normally do.  Growing up, I had only had plain baked sweet potatoes and always liked them.  Farm Boy had only been served the really sweet ones with marshmallows* on top and he hated them. I finally talked him into trying a sweet potato fry and he was all over it.  I'm pretty sure he heard bells ringing and romantic music playing, he liked it so much.


*Is that a thing outside of the southern U.S.?  My parents moved here from North Dakota (Nor-da-KO-ta), so most of my childhood food experiences were of the Midwestern variety.

Since I was already looking something up in my Idle Hour Cook Book, I checked for sweet potato recipes and found Malaga Sweet Potatoes.

I didn't have any grapes, but I did have raisins and raisins are just really sad grapes, right?  So I poured some boiling water over some raisins and proceeded like it was meant to be.

A recurring theme in my cooking life is that if a recipe calls for both raisins and nuts, I am going to leave one of them out.  I can't tell you how many times I've pulled cinnamon rolls, cookies, etc., out of the oven and then noticed the bowl of raisins or pecans waiting patiently on the counter. At that point, foul language is used.

Looks good!  Wait, where are the #$%& nuts?!?

I didn't peel the sweet potatoes because I thought the skin made them a little easier to work with.  Farm Boy always eats the skin, but I just scrape the the flesh away from the skin when I eat them.  (Hmmm... that sounds a little Silence of the Lambsish... perhaps I should have an old friend for dinner...)

Nut-less and especially raisined raisins.  Roasted broccoli and pork chops in the background.

Ta da!  The pecans magically appeared!  Too bad they didn't magically toast...

We liked these.  They were sweet without being overpoweringly sweet, although the raisins did dry out a little more than I would have liked.  I'm having a hard time imagining what it would be like cooked with grapes instead of raisins (does baking them just turn them into raisins?), so I might have to try it the way it was originally written.  And maybe I can overcome my mental raisin/nut hurdle if I trick myself by using grapes.  But after so many failed attempts, I have my doubts.


Malaga Sweet Potatoes (Printable Recipe)
from the 1950 edition of the Idle Hour Cook Book

Ingredients:
3 or 4 large sweet potatoes
salt and pepper
white grapes (or raisins, if you want to be like me)
brown sugar
butter
chopped nuts

Directions:
Scrub sweet potatoes and steam or bake until tender.  Peel (or not!) and cut in half lengthwise; scoop out a small amount of the flesh from each half to make a boat shape.  Place halves on baking pan and season with salt and pepper to taste.  Fill each section with grapes; sprinkle with 2 tablespoons brown sugar and dot with 1/2 tablespoon of butter; sprinkle with chopped nuts.

Bake at 375F for 20 to 25 minutes or until the sugar and nuts are browned.

Or if cooking with a Chambers, bake at 450F for 15 minutes and retained heat for 30 minutes or up to several hours, if needed.

Almond Crunch Green Beans

I had some green beans that needed  to be used and after perusing a few cookbooks for ideas, I came across Almond Crunch Wax Beans in my 1969 edition of Betty Crocker's Cookbook.

Being the rebellious sort, I decided to substitute my green beans for the wax beans.  Yeah, that's right.  I run with scissors, too.  Well, I would if I ever ran.  But I do walk fairly fast with scissors now and then.  Fine, I saunter with scissors.  (Please don't tell my mother!)

I did make a few changes to the recipe.  I left the beans whole, because they were the small, thin French beans.  I only had sliced almonds and I chose to toast them in the butter because, well, anything toasted in butter is better than anything that is dry toasted.  I then used the lovely browned and almondy butter when I cooked the beans.  Mmmm, almondy browned butter!

I like to use this old baking pan because Farm Boy is convinced that all old enamelware pans are bed pans.

We really liked these.  The almonds were nice and crunchy and were a nice contrast with the beans.  They even tasted good as leftovers, but the almonds lost their crunch after being refrigerated and reheated.

Almond Crunch Wax (or Green) Beans (Printable Recipe)
from the 1969 edition of Betty Crocker's Cookbook

Ingredients:
3 tablespoons slivered almonds
1 pound fresh wax or green beans
1/2 cup water
2 tablespoons butter
3/4 teaspoon salt
salt and pepper to taste

Directions:

Cut beans into 1" pieces or leave whole, if the beans are small.

In a saucepan, melt butter over medium heat.  Add the almonds and cook until fragrant and beginning to brown.  Remove almonds with a slotted spoon and set aside, leaving the browned butter in the pan.

To the saucepan, add beans, water and salt and stir well.  Cover; cook 20 to 25 minutes* or until beans are tender.  When tender, drain the beans, season with a little salt and pepper, if needed, and top with the toasted almonds.

*My beans were really thin, so they cooked much faster, about 15 minutes total.

Lyonnaise Potatoes

I picked up a 1959 edition of the Farm Journal's Country Cookbook at an estate sale a couple of weeks ago.  The book looks to be unused, except for the potato section, which includes a note that reads, "I used this book for potato soup." 

Lacking the dustcover, the front isn't particularly photogenic

I had a few extra baked potatoes leftover from meatloaf night and rather than just reheat them as baked potatoes, I decided to make Lyonnaise potatoes. Well, I was originally just going to fry them, but 'Lyonnaise' sounds so much more impressive than 'fried taters'.

It wasn't until after I started chopping that I noticed that the potatoes were supposed to be raw. Oh well, it's just a head start, right? I also didn't have pimientos, but I did have Anaheim chiles from the garden, so I used those. And instead of shortening or oil, I used bacon grease (because I am from Texas). Aside from changing three ingredients out of six total, I followed the recipe exactly! 

Mmm, onions and peppers cooking in bacon grease - a heavenly aroma!

Golden brown flecked with red and green. And leftover meatloaf pan-frying in the background.

Lyonnaise Potatoes (Printable Recipe)
from the 1959 edition of the Farm Journal's Country Cookbook

Ingredients:
1/4 cup shortening or oil (or bacon grease!)
4 cups raw potatoes, peeled and cut into 1/2" cubes (or diced leftover cold potatoes)
1 small onion, chopped fine
1 teaspoon salt
4 pimientos, chopped (or fresh peppers of your choice)
2 tablespoons minced fresh parsley

Directions:
Heat shortening in a skillet over high heat.  Add potatoes, onion and salt.  Cook until potatoes are almost tender.

Add pimiento and parsley.  Mix carefully.  Cook until potatoes are golden brown.  Serve at once.

Makes 4 servings.

Oh dear.  I had to edit this post after I published it because, much like Dan Quayle, I misspelled 'potatoes' in the title.  Oops!