Lyonnaise Potatoes

I have a lovely book, Dining on the B&O -- Recipes and Sidelights from a Bygone Age, by Thomas J. Greco and Karl D. Spence.

ISBN 13:  978-0-8018-9323-0

Published in 2009 by The Johns Hopkins University Press and written in association with the B&O Railroad Museum, it is a compilation of recipes used on the B&O Railroad dining cars, many of which came from other sources and contained notes from the chefs who used them.  The authors believe they were compiled in the 1930s or 40s, with the chef notes added possibly in the 1950s.

I like what the authors said about the company's attitude:  "The Baltimore and Ohio viewed its passengers as friends and family and did what any good host would do:  strove to make them feel welcome aboard its trains." (pg. 3)

Apparently it worked:  "The Baltimore and Ohio Railroad was noted for its dining car cuisine and service.  The Dining Car and Commissary Department rarely turned a profit, but the railroad believed that if it provided superior dining and impeccable courtesy, it would attract passengers, shippers, and investors." (pg. 3)

What amazes me is the description of the kitchen.  "Entrees were prepared from scratch in a kitchen that occupied a space about 16 feet long and only 7 1/2 feet wide. ... The kitchen was a marvel of efficiency, with only a few feet between the oven, broiler, charcoal grill, and steam table on one side and the icebox, sinks, and vegetable storage on the other.  No space was wasted..." (pg. 3)

The recipe I decided to try was originally taken from Charles Fellow's The Culinary Handbook, published in 1904.  It is considered "the first purely American institutional cookbook" because Mr. Fellows attempted to reduce the French influence in the American kitchen.  He focused on "no-frills mid-western cooking methods."  (pg. 9)  His book can be downloaded here:  http://ia700506.us.archive.org/8/items/culinaryhandbook00felliala/culinaryhandbook00felliala.pdf

Lyonnaise Potatoes (pg 111 in the B&O book)

Cold boiled potatoes, either minced or sliced thinly, seasoned with salt and pepper, mixed with a little chopped parsley and fried onions; fried with butter in the form of an omelet.

Chef's Comments
Ingredients for 4 servings

2 Potatoes, boiled, cold
3 tablespoons Butter
1 Onion, 1/4-inch dice
4 tablespoons Parsley, fresh, chopped fine
Salt and Pepper, to taste

Peel the potatoes and place in a pan of cold water.  Bring to a boil and reduce to a simmer for 10 - 20 minutes, depending on the size.  When the potatoes are tender, drain them thoroughly and cool.  Then mince or cut into thin slices.

Melt the butter in a frying pan over medium-high heat and fry the onions until they are soft and beginning to turn translucent.  Add the potatoes, chopped parsley, salt, and pepper to the pan and fry, turning with a spatula until evening browned.  

This recipe can be made without simmering the potatoes, but the frying time is a bit longer.  Add the onions and potatoes to the pan at the same time, cover, and lower the heat for 10 minutes or so, then add the parley, salt, and pepper.  With the pan covered, cook until brown and tender.

Dried parsley can be substitutes for fresh; cut the amount to 2 tablespoons.  If the potatoes seem to be getting too dry while cooking, add a little more butter to keep them nice and moist.

I updated the recipe just a little:  Instead of boiling the potatoes, I microwaved them until they were cooked through.  Then I chilled them in the refrigerator.  This was done a few days before I needed them.  It seemed to me that the point was to start with cooked potatoes, so boiling, baking, and microwaving were all valid options.  Also, I didn't peel the potatoes.

So basically I started with cooking the onions and proceeded from there.

Slow cooking makes them sweeter

Once they were starting to look translucent, and smelling heavenly, by the way, I added the rest of the ingredients.

I noticed I needed to scoop carefully with a spatula and turn the potatoes to keep them from breaking up too much while cooking.

The directions, "until evenly browned", I interpreted as "Let sit in the skillet until they smelled good and were crusty" and that was a good decision!

The Verdict
This dish is not pretty to look at.  It does not contain fancy ingredients.  But it sure is tasty and was a marvelous side dish to the Paper Pork (see the July 1, 2013 post).

The onions make the dish.  Because they are cooked so much they are sweet and add little blasts of oniony flavor to offset the blander potato.  I was concerned at first about using an entire onion with only two potatoes but that is just right.  You need lots of onion here!

The butter keeps everything moist and the salt and pepper give it a needed kick.

Normally I fanatically put tomato ketchup on anything potato-related (not baked, though!) and was surprised to discover this dish didn't need it.

So "Success", definitely.  I think it would be a good accompaniment to any robust meat dish because it will not compete with it.

It seemed that Lyonnaise Potatoes would be good also with paprika or bacon or ham added to it.   

Dueling Cantaloupes, The Return Fire

The first recipe for Cantaloupe Pie from Dining in the Diner did not work out the way I think it was intended.  Now is the chance for the second recipe, this one from The Historical Cookbook of the American Negro, to have its shot.

On page 90 and dedicated to Mary Church Terrell, one of the first African-American women to earn a bachelor's degree in the United States (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mary_Church_Terrell), is the recipe.

Cantaloupe Pie

1 large canteloupe [sic]
1 cup sugar
2 tablespoons cornstarch
2 eggs
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 large pastry shell

I didn't put the pastry shell in the picture

Cut canteloupe [sic] in halves, remove seeds, cut up pulp and put into a double boiler with sugar.  Mix cornstarch with a little cold water and add to canteloupe.  After mixture thickens add beaten egg yolks and salt and cook a little longer.  Cool  Pour into baked pastry shell.  Spread with meringue made from egg whites and 1/4 cup sugar, flavored with lemon.  Brown meringue in oven at 325 degrees.  Cool before serving.

My Process
Instead of cutting up the pulp, I put the peeled, chunked cantaloupe through the shredder of my food processor.  After all, it worked so well for yesterday's recipe!  It takes very little time and I appreciated that.


When I added the sugar, I stirred until it was all dissolved before I added the cornstarch solution.  Also, I had the double boiler already simmering before I put in the cantaloupe.

It took a long time to cook the mixture in the double boiler.  About an hour, with me occasionally giving it a stir and checking on the temperature.  It was the longest thickening-with-cornstarch experience I have had!  The nice part is I didn't have to worry about overcooking the cornstarch and losing the thickening feature.

It was a little hard to tell when the mixture was thick enough to add the egg yolks and salt.  When I looked at the pictures it was obvious -- before it was thick it looked juicy and afterwards it looked creamy.  The cornstarch, when first added, made the mix look cloudy but that only went away a little bit once it was cooked since the cantaloupe juice is somewhat cloudy on its own.

Getting hot but still liquidy

It looks thicker

But I guessed when it was thick enough and then cooked the mixture about five minutes longer once I added the yolks.  Then I put the whole thing out on the counter to cool before I put it into the refrigerator.

There was more filling than would fit the crust so I tasted the leftovers.  Oh my!  What I got was a fresh cantaloupe flavor, lightly sweet, and very appealing.  The previous recipe was sweeter and a little more cloying and, although I originally liked the nutmeg flavor in it, in a re-taste, the nutmeg was more of a shocking flavor than nice.  I definitely liked this version's flavor better.

After an hour or so in the 'fridge the mixture was cool enough and thick enough I was willing to put it into the crust.  Then the entire pie went into the 'fridge with hopes it would get solid enough to be viable.  I figured I would put the meringue on later.

It took several hours but it looked thick enough to warrant putting on the meringue.

Then I browned the meringue first in the 325 degree oven (for ten minutes) as suggested, which dried it nicely but did not do more than brown the tips.  So I switched it to under the broiler and was pleased with the results.

It went back into the 'fridge to chill out before the grand taste-test.

The Verdict
I would call it a "success"!  Although the filling was not as thick as I'd like it to be, it was still thick enough to cut and maintain its shape.  It took another day before I felt like the juicy part was starting to soak through the crust, although that was not a bad thing.

I liked the flavor -- still fresh and not too sweet -- much better than the first recipe.  There was more filling than would fit in the crust, so I got to eat that separately (another treat!).  My guess is that our modern cantaloupes are bigger on average than what was available in the 1940s to 1950s and that is why I had so much trouble getting the filling to thicken correctly.  If I made this again, I would add more cornstarch.  I would would also consider using a puree of cantaloupe to see if I liked the smoother texture better.

Either way, the flavor was lovely, especially if you like cantaloupe, and I do.

I would recommend this recipe over the first unless you really love the flavor of nutmeg.

Dueling Cantaloupes, The First Shot

I recently reread one cookbook (see the Feb 2013 post, "Lemon Smothered Chops") and acquired a new old cookbook.  Both had their versions of a recipe that caught my eye, cantaloupe pie.  Doesn't that just sound weird/intriguing/curious?  I decided the only thing to do would be to make them both and compare their processes and results.

I started with the recipe out of this book, a new one to my railroad cookbook collection, Dinner in the Diner by Will C. Hollister.  It was published in the early 1980s and discusses many rail lines including the Texas and Pacific Railroad which was first organized in the 1870s.  The text on page 127 says, "Among the delicious dishes favored on Texas and Pacific dining cars has been cantaloupe pie, the recipe for which is given here." (Page 128)

ISBN 0-87046-011-0

 Cantaloupe Pie a la Texas and Pacific

1 well ripened cantaloupe
2 tablespoons flour
1/8 teaspoon nutmeg
1 1/2 cups sugar
3 tablespoons butter
1 cup cold water

The eggs are for the meringue

Strain juice from seeds of the cantaloupe and put meat of cantaloupe through a ricer.  Preserve both the meat and juice.  Pour this mixture into a sauce pan and add the cup of cold water.  Place on stove and boil for five minutes.  Mix flour and sugar together and slowly add to the hot mixture, stirring constantly.  Add the butter and nutmeg.  When the mixture is cool, pour into ready-baked pie shell and cover with meringue.  Brown in oven.

For Meringue:  Whiles of three eggs (well beaten) with one teaspoon sugar.

My process
I don't have a ricer so I put the peeled and chunked cantaloupe through the grater of my food processor.  I think it achieved the same goal.

There wasn't much juice with the seeds until much later, after I had already started cooking the mix. 

The recipe wasn't clear about how to handle the heat after the cantaloupe had boiled for five minutes, so I turned it down to low for the rest of the steps.

I'm not sure how slowly I should have added the flour/sugar mix but I did make sure each part was well-mixed before I added another.

After getting the whole mix cooked and blended, I let it sit on the stove top to cool.  It never got any thicker than soup.  This would not do for a pie filling.  One cut and it would all leak out over the pan, if it hadn't already soaked through the crust!

Soupy.  Not good.

I thought perhaps I needed to cook the filling longer, to give the flour a chance to thicken it.  So I brought it to a boil for three minutes and then let it cool again.  I even put some of it in a little dish into the refrigerator to see how it would thicken.  Again, it didn't get thick, not even the chilled portion.

At this point I would call the recipe a failure!

Not wanting to just toss the whole thing out -- after all the flavor was lightly sweet and cantaloupe-y with just enough texture from the shreds -- I mixed in one tablespoon of cornstarch mixed with 1/8 cup of water, and brought it to a boil again, this time for two minutes.

The mix was definitely thicker.  But even after having it sit in the refrigerator overnight, it did not get thick enough to put into the pie crust.  Perhaps I should have used two tablespoons of cornstarch.

I think it would a wonderful topping over vanilla ice cream so it won't go to waste.  Tomorrow I will try the other recipe!

Hash with Dropped Eggs

Today I was in a "Rufus Estes" mood, after looking back on my first blog post in January 2012.  I wanted to do something like a main course and it needed to be something I wouldn't normally do.

ISBN 0-486-43764-7

I chose "Hash with Dropped Eggs" on page 18.  The mental image I got of the eggs on top of the whole thing tickled my fancy, so here it is.

Mince or grind cold cooked meat and add two-thirds as much cold chopped vegetables.  The best proportions of vegetables are half potato and one-quarter each of beets and carrots.  Put a little gravy stock or hot water with butter melted in it, into a saucepan, turn in the meat and vegetables and heat, stirring all the time.  Season with salt, pepper, and a little onion juice if liked.  Turn into a buttered baking dish, smooth over, and set in the oven to brown.  Take up and press little depressions in the top, and drop an egg into each.  Set back into the oven until the egg is set, but not cooked hard.  Serve in the same dish.

I used smoked pork shoulder and minced it.  I didn't have a lot of it, so I added more vegetables than he suggested in order to make a significant layer in the dish.  He doesn't say it, but the vegetables also have to be cooked.  I used potatoes, beets, and carrots as mentioned and to get the onion juice, I grated an onion on my microplane grater until I had about 2 teaspoons of onion mush.

Much of the meat is under the veggies.

It was hard to guess how much water with melted butter to use, so I guessed about 1 cup.  That was too much, I think, because the mix was liquidy when I put it into the dish.  As I expected, the beets turned everything pink!  It is not bad and kind of cute, actually.

I put it into a hot oven, 400 degrees F, in order to brown it.  It smelled good!

After 20 minutes I checked it -- it was bubbly and just starting to brown, so I left it in for another 7 minutes.  That was just right.

To make the depressions, I pressed with the bottom a small bowl.  I couldn't press deeply as the hash wouldn't let me but I got enough that the eggs sat where I put them.  I noticed the whites started to cook a little as soon as they hit the hot surface.

I had no idea how long it takes eggs to set in the oven, but after 7 minutes the white was set and the yolk looked like a "sunny-side up" egg.  That is the way I like them (I love hot, runny yolks!) so I pulled it out of the oven.  If you like them firmer, you could probably leave them in for 10 minutes but be aware the eggs continue to cook after the dish is out of the oven.

Visually very appealing

The Verdict:
Success!  I really liked the flavor of this.  It was hearty, stick-to-your-ribs, with an old-fashioned touch that is a blend of the veggies and the meat and the pepper/onion/salt.  The egg adds a nice touch, especially when the yolk broke and ran all over the hash.  I like beets but some people don't, so use veggies you like cooked.  I think chopped, cooked onions or even mushrooms would be good.

The dropped eggs looked exactly as I envisioned and I was pleased.  The beets cooked to a dark red, not pink, and it almost looked like the mixture had ketchup in it.

I do think I should have used about 1/2 cup of water with butter (or gravy, if you make that choice) but I wouldn't use much less or the hash would risk being dry.

When I went back for seconds (!), the hash was thicker (I guess it had soaked up some of the liquid) and the egg more firmly cooked.  Still very tasty!

This recipe is obviously designed to use up leftovers -- hash dishes usually are.  I didn't have the meat and veggies already cooked, so I popped them all into the oven and baked them, getting this done a few hours before I started the recipe so everything had a chance to cook and then cool.  The meat in one dish, covered, and the veggies in a tray.  That worked well and smelled heavenly. I ended up using one potato and one beet and all the carrots you see in the picture.  Next time I think I will use more meat.  He doesn't specify what kind, so I think this would be good with just about any kind.

I would say this serves 4 with other food (like sourdough bread and a tossed green salad) or 2 as is.  I considered each serving as having one egg on it.  I used a wide spoon to scoop it out so as not to break the egg.

More on Meatose

Today I took about 1/2 cup of the meatose, mashed it with a fork, then mixed in a few teaspoons of mayonnaise.  I mixed it until it was spreadable and moist.  Then I added some finely chopped dill pickles.  This made a great spread on crackers!  I think it would be a good sandwich spread, too.

Now that the meatose has been chilled, it comes across as a bit dry.  I think if I did a half recipe again, I would pull it out of the steamer after about 1 hr and 30 minutes, instead of 2 hours.  Or as soon as it seemed firm.

I wonder what else I can do with this?  : )

Peanut Meatose

Last year (an easy thing to say in January!), I visited the California State Railroad Museum in Sacramento (http://www.csrmf.org).  In their museum store I discovered and purchased this book:  Rufus Estes' Good Things to Eat.  (Dover Publications)

Mr. Estes was born a slave in 1857, was employed by a restaurant-keeper at the age of 16, and then became a cook for the railroads at age 26, where he continued for most of the rest of his life.  His culinary skills were so valued that he was assigned to cook in a special car that catered to celebrities.  Mr. Estes prepared food for presidents, princesses, famous actors and singers, and more.  He was trusted to provide them with a good meal and, upon viewing his recipes, I can see that that trust was not misplaced. 

His book offers nearly 600 recipes and they made my mouth water when I read them.  Well, all but one.  It is called Peanut Meatose, found on page 47 in the Lunch section.

Here it is:

"Dissolve one cup of cornstarch in two cups of tomato juice, add two cups of peanut butter and two teaspoons of salt.  Stir for five minutes, the pour into cans and steam for four or five hours."

Peanut butter, tomato juice, salt, and cornstarch?

It sounded pretty icky to me, to be honest.  But after trying some tomato bread toasted and spread with peanut butter, I realized that the combination of tomato and peanut butter might just be fine.  At this point, I had to try it!

So here goes.  I decided to make a half recipe.  I gathered the ingredients, mixed as directed, and placed it into a ceramic container for steaming.

A quick double-check with The Joy of Cooking confirmed my thoughts that the container needed to sit on a rack over water.  The lid fit tightly so high heat got the water boiling and then a low heat kept the steam going.  I wasn't sure how fast the water would boil off or how quickly a half recipe would cook, so I checked in on it every 30 minutes.

The water never got low enough for me to refill the container.  After about an hour, the mixture looked puffy.  After two hours, it was solid and was pulling away from the sides of the container.  I deemed it "done."

I removed it from the hot water and let it cool for about an hour.  The mixture settled a bit when cooled.

The result?  It was firm and had a nice crumb and texture.  I spread it on crackers and ... and ... and it tasted pretty good!  The flavor was nutty with a light tomato undertaste.  I think it would be good spread on bread with a little mayonnaise and lettuce.

My curiosity was aroused:  Why "meatose"?  A Google search of the name reveals that it was a brand name in the late 19th century.  Basically this recipe provided a meat substitute based on nut proteins.  This was popular during the Victorian era, during a period called "Reform Cookery" where choosing foods to be more healthy was all in vogue.  You can think of this as Victorian tofu!

I think if I had steamed this in cans as Mr. Estes suggests, I could have pushed it out as a whole cylinder and then sliced it for serving.

The Verdict:  I would do this recipe again, especially to serve to unsuspecting victims, uh, cheerful guests, to surprise them with something new and unique.