Broken Ovens and Horror Sandwiches of Days Gone By

Hi Everyone,

I do apologize for my very long absence. Due to illness and a broken oven I haven't had much time to post which is really depressing since I've only posted once on this site. I hope to rectify this soon.

As I've told my readers in my other blog PittsburghOtaku.com my oven broke the other week.
This has been a major hindrance in my recipe plans. But I hope to push on.

I wonder if the following story is the type of thing chefs tell at campfires to younger chefs to scare them....I mean...if chefs were like boy/girl scouts that did that sorta thing....let me imagine it ok?

 Really there's nothing like making a pizza from scratch, the dough, the sauce, picking out your favorite toppings, it's a fun experience because you realize how simple it can really be until you're about to put your glorious pizza pie into the oven and realize.....it hasn't preheated.  You begin to wonder why, you think oh you idiot you didn't turn it on....then you realize you DID turn it on. The little light indicator is on, you stick your hand in the oven you feel no warmth no over powering heat nothing, just coldness.......and then you force yourself to learn how to grill a pizza at 9 o'clock at night on a weeknight where your neighbors think you must be smoking something to be out doing such a thing so late at night.

I'll will have you know that you can grill a casserole....hey I was desperate neither my mom or I went grocery shopping and I was left with ingredients where the only thing I could think of making was a casserole, so I did, don't let anyone tell you, that you can't grill a casserole, you can and if it's with a charcoal grill it gets a great smokey flavor added to it.

Then again that kind of fits in with the whole vintage theme I guess, stoves originally weren't electric or gas, they were wood burning stoves and to this day people will tell you food tastes far better if it was cooked on a wood burning stove. Now I wish I had taken pictures -___-; way to go me.


But since I haven't been able to make anything lately I want to share with you a few sandwich recipes from my little booklet "500 Tasty Sandwiches" Published for the Culinary Arts Institute copyright 1941.

I have to treat this booklet with kid gloves. I bought it off ebay and it's not in mint condition it's falling apart but it's still quite lovely. It has some nice ideas and some....not so nice ideas. It really makes you see how creative we were back in the day.

Today I share 2 horror sandwich recipes. These are at least horrors to me.
If any of you have had these or know of a relative who's had this, share your story I'd love to hear it ^_^

Liver and Raisin

This recipe is used as a meat filling for sandwiches.

3/4 cup chopped cooked liver
1/3 cup chopped raisins
1/8 teaspoon salt
2 tablespoons mayonnaise
1/4 teaspoon mustard
1/4 teaspoon grated onion
1/8 teaspoon pepper
3 tablespoons chili sauce

Mix all of this together and you're ready to go.

I've honestly never had liver before but I'm not too sure how liver and raisins would taste together.

Anchovy Butter

...it's what it sounds like

1 cup butter

1/2 cup minced anchovies

2 teaspoons lemon juice

4 drops onion juice

3 hard cooled egg yolks

Mix all of the ingredients until blended and use as a sandwich filling.

The recipe also says:

"Use herring bloaters, crawfish, lobster, smoked salmon, white fish, sardines, or 4 tablespoons anchovy paste instead of anchovies."  I don't know about you but the lobster one kinda has me curious...that one might actually taste good.

More recipes hopefully less frightening coming soon!

Since it's coming to fall it's perfect for the soup recipes I have in mind ^_^

Thanks for visiting.

Love,

Caroline

National Loaf Recipe

Hi Everyone,

My very first recipe I thought I'd try a recipe from www.the1940sexperiment.com.
I think Carolyn Ekins the author of that site is truly inspirational I really hope to have the guts to try the 1940's ration way of eating in the future. I'm a rather cup cakey girl...ok I'm like a ginormous tort cake and I just love how she was able to eat 1940's recipes and lose so much weight.

So today I made War Time Loaf from her site. I was trying to do some reading and learned that in England there was a National Loaf and it was made of about 85% whole wheat/whole meal flour.
This was done so there would be less waste since whole wheat flour used more of the grain than white flour did.

I would think this was hard to adapt to if you were used to white bread. I remember being a teenager and my mom switching us from white bread to multi-grain bread telling my dad and I it was healthier for us. Boy did we whine and it took us quite a while to get used to it.

Now before I share pictures and the brands of ingredients I used I just want to warn you I am terrible at baking bread, you want a cake? sure I'll make you a cake, cookies? no problem bread?.....is it no yeast?....no? you want the kind with yeast in it......ummm I'll try and promise you you won't die?

The picture below is of my second attempt at making this bread, my first attempt I used the salt Carolyn says to add but for some reason I can't get the darn dough to rise and I think maybe I killed the yeast with the salt...maybe? It never doubles in size it just goes "I can do it I can do it!....uh is 1/4 larger ok? ya I'm done growing" If any lovely bakers have any tips please let me know. I know whole wheat flour if that's the only flour you use it will make one dense loaf of bread but..I would expect to at least get some rise from the dough still.


The ingredients (along with the brands I used):


600 ml warm water (about 2 and 1/2 cups)
5 TSP quick rising yeast (Red Star Brand)
a few pinches of sugar (Domino Brand, and second time around I actually tried 3 TBS sugar to see if I could get the yeast to eat and create more gas)
2 LB whole wheat flour (Bob's Red Mill Organic whole wheat flour)
* Bob's Red Mill has a 2 pound bag of whole wheat flour which is perfect, I don't have to measure ^_^
1.5 TSP salt (I omitted this in my second attempt)
1 TBS rolled oats
Drizzle of Vegetable oil (Giant Eagle Brand)

Link to her recipe is here:  https://the1940sexperiment.com/2009/08/08/return-to-the-1940s-wartime-loaf/

I think this attempt was better than my last one, Last time it was much shorter and denser than this one. This one is still pretty darn dense but it tastes great ^__^

Now if I was around in the 1940's ration period I would so have just used up half my ration for the week in margarine but it was worth it.

I had this with a bowl of Caldo Verde which is a Portuguese soup that I think would have been able to be made in the 1940's Ration Time.  I'll post a recipe when I make it again with a step by step.

The ingredients for it are just broth, potatoes, collard greens, sausages, salt, pepper, and if you have it garlic and onion.

I hope to give you some recipes from my 1940's booklet collection soon and some pictures ^_^
Until then I hope you give Carolyn Ekins site a visit and her recipes a try.

Welcome!

Hi Everyone,

My name is Caroline and welcome to my second site Vintage Otaku. I originally wanted to call this Retro Otaku...but that name was taken so Vintage it it is!

What is an Otaku?
An Otaku is a word that describes someone that has a mania for a hobby that is beyond normal.
In Japan it is considered negative to be called an otaku but outside of Japan it pretty much means you're a die hard fan of Anime, Manga and the Japanese culture.

For this site Otaku is pretty much anyone who just loves anything vintage. WW2, the 50's, 60's, Victorian Era, the sky's the limit, and you know why not some Anime and Manga if I get my hands on it.

I am the blog author of Pittsburgh Otaku and for a while I've been very interested in vintage items. I'm a bit of a sucker for 1940's items especially recipe and craft booklets.

On this site I hope to recreate vintage recipes and crafts and any interesting bits of information I pick up on the way.

Hope you enjoy your stay ^__^

Caroline