Cooking Fail

[calzephyr]

The recent theme of vintage ads with recipes reminded me of the useful tome that is The Christian Home Cook Book, a vintage cookbook that I picked up from the Mennonite restaurant in Linden, Alberta. As I noted before, the recipes don't have pictures and after so many years, the recipes are merely suggestions. What's a family sized tea bag? How large is a large can? Where do I get young chickens?

Unfortunately I accidentally made myself lunch for the week with this failed recipe. It sounded good (click for larger):





I substituted frozen meatballs for the chicken, used a can of condensed chicken noodle soup instead of Lipton's and added a cup of sautéed celery and onion to fill it up. Unfortunately the casserole came out humble, if not bland to me. I should have also stopped at one cup of breadcrumbs as two turned it into a strange interplanetary landscape. My husband said that the spices in the meatballs overpowered everything. Some spaghetti sauce rescued it, but after two lunches in a row I don't think I can finish the pan. I hate to throw food out, but you know, sometimes you just have to.

Oh, one more little insult to injury - the casserole pan wasn't big enough and during cooking, a large dollop of soupy cream sauce escaped, making for a nice burning smell to go along with tonight's dinner. Sorry Mrs. Orval Johnson of Walnut Hill, Florida, I gave it a shot!

Comments

[theidolhands.livejournal.com]

It's true, sometimes you do just have to. Consider adding cheese? Or something creamy?

Too many substitutions with a recipe you weren't familiar with, imho. I often find a splash of soy sauce can add umami (rich flavor) where some is lacking.

My mother said that there used to be such a thing as soup chickens and roasting chickens. Young chickens can be obtained at farmer's markets, but I believe the standard chicken (or default chicken) is a young chicken at this point. I also think you might be able to get a nice organic, feet attached chicken as they probably ate then at a nice butcher. And it would probably be smaller in general and resemble what things were like in the past.

[calzephyr77.livejournal.com]

Yes, I agree, there were just way too many substitutions and experimentation. Sometimes it works to be creative in the kitchen, other times not so much :-D

Soy sauce is really a miracle sauce. There's a recipe somewhere in my LJ where you combine soy sauce and sour cream to make an easy zingy sauce for pork chops. I haven't made this in a while.

Huh...with today's farming it's hard to know what's what anymore - and I wouldn't have guessed that there was a difference between the food type of chicken. I am sure I could find something at the farmers market. This weekend I am going to make some spare ribs from pork we bought a month ago. We bought sausages from the same place and they were so delicious. Gotta support the little guys :-)