Cranberry Calavo Salad - Addendum!

I was wandering around one of my favorite parts of the internet:  archive.org AKA The Internet Archive.  Since my interest lie in historical cooking, this site is a treasure trove of resources.  It is fascinating to explore!  Sometimes what I find is what I hoped to find, other times I find something completely unexpected.

This adventure was learning more about Genevieve Callahan and the columns she wrote while food editor of Sunset Magazine.  In looking for those, I stumbled across the recipe and description of the Cranberry Calavo Salad.  What is exciting is that it is given as pictures!

Here it is, as found by clicking this link.  Note that their scan of the pages cut off the title.

Cut calavos length-wise; peel and dress with lemon juice-

With French cutter, cut balls from canned cranberry jelly --

Peel and section oranges; cut segments in halves -

Pile cranberry balls and orange pieces in calavo shells --

Add French dressing, and serve on lettuce.

So I was close in my rendition.  I did one big spoonful of cranberry sauce, not balls.  (I used whole berry sauce, so for balls I think you would need the jellied cranberry sauce that was uniform in consistency.)  I also sliced my calavo halves instead of using them as a bowl.  I did not cut my orange segments in two.

But I also loved the way my presentation looked, I think I would like it better than hers.  (I'm just a little biased on that point!)

While looking around even more, I found variations that skipped the orange segments and used smoked turkey pieces or ham with the avo and cranberry.  These recommend putting the French dressing on the side.

What fun!

Cranberry Calavo Salad - a recipe from the 1940s

It is the beginning of another New Year.  And again, I am astonished that I have been successfully maintaining this blog.  This is the start of my 15th year of food blogging!  I would not have predicted that I would keep it going, but it is so much fun to explore the worlds of food and food histories that writing the posts are not a burden.  They are a joy!  I love picking out a recipe, shopping and planning for it, then cooking and serving.  

One thing I've learned is that many historical recipes are very forgiving.  As they often don't have measurements associated with the ingredients, it is understandable that to be successful does not require a lot of nitpicky measuring and preparation.  Use your tastebuds, your observations (visual and olfactory), and your prior cooking experiences to help you get it right.  It doesn't always work out, but more often than not, it does.  

If you have an interest in being an historical cook, fear not!  Jump in and try it.  And have a contingency plan if the recipe just doesn't seem right.  I have, in the past, added an uncalled-for ingredient, cooked it longer, started over, adjusted the amounts called for, and well, thrown it out and ordered take out (or opened a can of soup).  Just be careful when you experiment on friends -- they need to understand the challenge you are facing and be willing to give it a try, as well as give very honest feedback.

As of this writing, the blog has had over 280,000 page views and this is my 340th post.  

Previously I wrote about several persimmon salad recipes from Genevieve Callahan's 1946 cookbook, The California Cook Book for Indoor and Outdoor Eating.  (You can search the blog for "Callahan" or "persimmons" to find them.)

For Indoor and Outdoor Eating

I've been learning more about Ms. Callahan and her influence on California cuisine, including reading a detailed thesis called "The evolution of Sunset Magazine's cooking department: The accommodation of men's and women's cooking in the 1930s" by Jennifer Hoolhorst Pagano.  Click here to see view it.

Callahan used her editorial position at Sunset Magazine to help people who lived in the West learn about interesting foods and how to prepare and serve them.  One salad that caught my attention was called "Cranberry Calavo Salad."  It is described rather than given as a recipe with specific measured ingredients:

A typical "salad" topped with French dressing and served on a lettuce leaf, but composed of canned cranberry jelly, California avocado halves, and California orange sections.

Intriguing!  I wondered how I would compose and present this salad, so of course I had to give it a try.

My Redaction

Cranberry Calavo Salad

Per person, as served on a small salad plate:

two small decoratively cut or torn lettuce leaves to cover the plate

1/2 ripe avocado, cut into slices

1 large spoonful canned cranberry sauce

5 orange segments

a significant drizzle of French dressing

Wish-Bone dressing, a taste from my childhood

Put the ingredients decoratively in layers on the plate:

Lettuce, then avocado slices (tilted slightly to the side).

Spoon the cranberry sauce into the middle of the avocado.

Arrange the orange segments in a star formation around the avocado.

Drizzle the dressing around the edges of the cranberry.

Serve with a knife and fork!

See how I tilted and spread the slices?

My Notes

I used green leaf lettuce because that looked fresh and inviting in the store.  In the 1940s, I would imagine that iceberg lettuce would be the more common choice simply by availability.  I have not researched it but am relying on my personal experience in the 1960s.

I had homemade cranberry sauce in my kitchen, but I stuck to the recipe and used canned, whole berry sauce.  

My orange was a Naval because who wants seeds?

The French dressing poured out faster than I expected but I don't think I over did it.

The Verdict

First, look at how pretty it is!  The colors are inviting, eye-catching, appealing.

I served it with a knife and fork (as the side salad to the main course) because you want to cut up the lettuce and the orange segments.  My goal for the first few bites was to get avo, orange, cranberry, and dressing on the fork, and maybe a little lettuce, too.  I wanted to see how those flavors combined in my mouth.

Wow!  They did well together, and I was impressed with how fresh the salad tasted.  My guest taster and I really enjoyed the combination.  I felt it was a light, refreshing accompaniment to the chicken and potatoes main dish.  After several bites, the idea of getting some of each flavor on my fork was over and that was not a problem.  I also enjoyed the extra dressing on the lettuce.

Success!  Easy to assemble and serve, looks great, tastes wonderful.  I recommend it for a small dinner party.  It would certainly be easy on the host to prepare.

Happy New Year 2026!!

Vanilla Caramels, one of my Most Favorite recipes

I reserve the last post of the year for one of my favorite recipes.  (I still did a Pinedo recipe posted today but on the Pinedo-only blog, pinedo1898.blogspot.com.)  This year I dithered and fretted and wondered which recipe to pick.  I'm not sure why; it is not like I don't have any choices.  I have a little book which I purchased in the mid-1980s that I designated as my "Favorite Recipes" book.  It is one of those blank books with lined pages so you can fill in as you please.

When I bought it, I had no idea I would ever be writing a blog.  I didn't even know what a blog was, and the internet wasn't very developed, so writing in a book was a great way to document what I liked so I could find those recipes again easily.  I have tapped into this book several times over the 14 years of writing this blog.  So, while dithering yet again, I brought it down off the shelf and perused it.  

Aha!  My vanilla caramel recipe appealed so much, because it is a good recipe (hey, it is a favorite for a reason!) and I have an upcoming social gathering where I wanted to bring something to share.  This group has tasted my experiments before, so I had a standard to uphold...

The recipe is dated 12/21/87 and is the second recipe in the book.  I put a note that I got the recipe from the San Diego Union-Tribune newspaper (does anyone know what a printed paper newspaper is these days?).  It is fun and easy to make, and I added a comment at the end which I will add at the end of this post.  Here goes!

Vanilla Caramels

1 cup white sugar (see my notes below)

1 cup light corn syrup

1/4 cup butter (or margarine, but really.)

1 cup cream

2 teaspoons vanilla 

A simple list for such a good candy.

Mix all ingredients in a heavy saucepan.  Let boil over medium heat, stirring constantly, until a few drops of the mixture in cold water form a firm ball.  (240 degrees F or soft ball stage on a candy thermometer).  Remove from the heat and pour into a buttered 8 x 8 inch pan.  Cut when cool and wrap in waxed paper.

My Notes

It is important to expand on the simple directions regarding cutting and wrapping the candies.  See the end of these notes.

Be generous in buttering the pan.  It is easier to remove the candy if it is not sticking to the pan.  Prepare the pan before starting the cooking process.

I used a 6 x 10 inch pan instead of an 8 x 8.  I used a glass pan.  Metal also works.

I used my homemade vanilla sugar instead of just white sugar.  Either is fine, but I really like hitting hard on the vanilla flavoring.  I also used my homemade vanilla extract, which is vanilla beans soaking in vodka.  You can read about vanilla sugar by clicking on this sentence.

The saucepan shape I recommend is tall and narrow.  Not that I have that, but using a narrow pan (small diameter bottom) allows the mixture to be high enough to properly cover the candy thermometer, and tall gives room for the mixture to rise while cooking so as not to overflow.  I chose small diameter.

To get medium heat, I set the burner to 4 or 5 out of 10.  There is a point in the cooking where the mixture bubbles up and rises quite high, even though you are stirring it constantly.  Turn the heat down as needed to keep it from overflowing, then turn it back up again when the mixture settles back down again.

You really do have to stir it continuously.  Don't worry, you won't have issues with the candy sugaring or other problems.  Stand at the stove and keep the mixture moving the whole time it is cooking.  It doesn't take a long time to reach the right temperature.

Mostly pour the candy out into the pan.  Be careful about using a scraper to get the mixture sticking to the pan, because it is typically cooked to a higher temperature than the bulk of the mixture, and will change the way you feel it when you are eating it:  it brings in a crunch or other hard parts.

Ready for cooking.

At about 200 degrees F, the level rises, threatening to overflow.

At temperature.  Note the level is back down.

Cooling now.

I let it cool overnight.  To remove it from the pan, I used a wide spatula slid between the candy and the pan's side and pushed to separate the two.  Once I had gone all the way around, I used the spatula to start lifting the bottom up.  This is when generously buttering pays off.

Once the candy slab was free, I flipped it out of the pan and onto a piece of waxed paper.  

Then I buttered the blade of a butcher knife and cut the slab into rods.  After that, I cut the rods into small, bite-sized pieces, about 1/2 by 1/2 inch.  Not much bigger!  

The waxed paper wrappers are cut into no smaller than 2 by 3 inch pieces; 3 x 3 is probably better.  You need enough to go around the candy with overlap (the smaller dimension) and then "wings" that are twisted to hold the wrapper closed.  My preference is to twist so that the edge of the overlap is being pulled toward the candy.

I recommend cutting the wrappers while the candy is cooling.

Push!

Cooled candy, ready for cutting

Rods, about 1/2 to 3/4 inches wide

Cut candies, ready to wrap.

Wrapping process.

The Verdict

One batch produced about 120 candies.  A good supply for trying and sharing!

Ooo!

This batch was very good.  The candy cooked to 240 degrees F stuck more to itself than to the pan or my teeth.  It was soft so as not to stress my jaw with chewing but firm enough to hold its shape without flowing.  It had a lovely vanilla flavor without being too strong.  Success!  Adults like this because it is not bitingly sweet.

In the past I have cooked it to 250 degrees F, which is still softball stage but makes a firmer candy.  I recall it being stickier and chewier, which is not always pleasant.  Aim to 240 degrees and pull it off the stove right away.

I have wondered if I should add the vanilla extract after the cooking is done.  I have never tried it. 

The final comment in my written book is this:

Variation - leave out the cream, boil until it forms a crunchy ball in cold water (soft crack stage), add sliced almonds to make almond brittle or anything else that sounds good!

I vaguely recall doing that a few times, but can't really comment on it other than it must have worked or I would not have written it in.

Also, in the past I have kept some candies for a while to see how they would store.  I recall that they absorbed water from the air and their texture changed, not for the best.  This gives you an excuse to eat them, I'd say within a month, and to share them with friends.

Cormary - Roast Loin of Pork with Red Wine

I decided to use one of those pork loins I bought on an incredible sale.  I wanted something medieval and different to serve to company (who know that I experiment with cooking on them!).

I found an intriguing recipe in The Medieval Kitchen:  Recipes from France and Italy by Odile Redon, Francoise Sabban, and Silvano Serventi.  

ISBN 0226706850

On page 107-8 they offer "Cormary," which they took from The Forme of Cury, where it was spelled "Cormarye."  The Cury book is a collection of 14th century English recipes that was republished in the 1800s.

Their translated version says this:

Take finely ground coriander and caraway, pepper powder, and ground garlic, in red wine; mix all this together and salt it.  Take raw pork loins, skin them, and prick it well with a knife, and lay it in the sauce.  Roast it when you wish, and save what falls from the meat as it roasts and boil it in a pot with good broth, and then serve it with the roast.

They also provide their redacted recipe, which I mostly followed.  I'll provide my version.

Cormary

1 pork loin, about 3 pounds (mine was boneless)

1 cup good red wine

4 large cloves garlic (mine were already chopped)

1 teaspoon whole coriander

1 teaspoon caraway seeds

1/2 teaspoon black peppercorns

1/4 teaspoon salt

scant 1/2 cup chicken broth

The baking dish asked to join the picture.

Mix the coriander, caraway, peppercorns, and salt in a mortar.  Grind well.  Add chopped garlic and grind some more.  Grind it to a paste.

Put the paste into a glass baking dish; add wine and mix well.

Poke the meat all over with a knife.  

Put the meat into the dish, turning it several times to coat it with the marinade.  Cover the meat and dish, and refrigerate for at least several hours, up to overnight.  Turn occasionally.

Once the marinating time is almost done, preheat oven to 350 degree F.  Pour off the marinade into a cup.

Bake the meat, uncovered, basting every 15 minutes with the marinade.  Stop when the meat is done to your taste, roughly 60 to 90 minutes for a 3-pound roast.

Pour the drippings off the meat and let the meat rest.  Put the drippings and the broth into a pan and boil to reduce.

After 10 minutes of resting, slice the meat and serve with some of the gravy poured over the top.

Spices and salt

All ground up

Adding the chopped garlic

Resulting paste.

Stabbing the meat

Meat in the marinade

Ready to roast!

My Notes

The spices smelled wonderful while they were being ground!  It was an interesting combination of scents.  

I turned the meat three or four times during the about 7 hours it was marinating.  

I put the meat in the pan fat side up for roasting.

I basted mostly by pouring the marinade over the top.  I only did a little bit of brushing.

It helped to have a timer set to remind me to baste.

I think 1/2 cup broth was too much.  I would use at most that much, depending on how much pan juices you end up with.  I probably could have used less than 1/4 cup.

I sliced the meat to about 1/4-inch thick pieces for serving.

Done!

Too much liquid.

The Verdict

I served it with green beans and stuffing.

It smelled lovely.  The spice mix scent along with the wine which, combined, didn't smell like any one singular scent, just mouthwateringly-tempting: spicy and sweet.  (I have to add that the leftovers, when reheated, still smelled that way!)

My guest tasters noted that the basted top had a nice, almost crunchy layer.  

We all enjoyed eating it.  Several of us thought perhaps I could have cooked it less, say 15 to 30 minutes less because while it wasn't dry, there wasn't any pink and it wasn't as moist as we would have liked it to be.  We can have pink in the center because we are confident the pork supply in my area is clean.

I thought the marinade flavor had intruded into the meat somewhat, and not too much.  I liked the idea of poking it with a knife to allow the marinade in; it seemed to work well.  

So, success!  We had enough for four people at dinner to have what they wanted and some left over.  Reheated tasted just as good, because I saved the extra drippings/broth and poured a little over the meat before putting into the microwave.

That being said, I think I am torn between the feeling that 1/2 cup broth was too much for the first time it was served and was just right for putting over the leftovers.  So judge your table guests:  Will there be leftovers?  Then may don't add as much broth so the flavor of the drippings is not diluted.  

Also, I wish I had defatted the drippings before heating them with the broth.  They were pretty greasy, which didn't seem to impact my guests' enjoyment at all.  I did defat the leftover broth with ice cubes before storing it in the refrigerator.  (I know, I could have done that after the broth chilled in the 'fridge, but that is what I did.)

I would do this again.  

Adobo para lomos, Marinade for loins -- a Pinedo recipe

The grocery store had an incredible sale on pork loins the other day, so I partook with the idea of finding a Pinedo recipe for it.  And I did.  On page 4 is a "Marinade for loins" that looked intriguing.  I had some questions with the instructions, so I experimented a little bit which you will see in the notes.

Here it is, "Adobo para lomos":

My Translation

My Redaction

3.4 pound boneless pork loin

1 cup apple cider vinegar

1 cup water

1/2 teaspoon salt

1 tablespoon pepper

1 tablespoon cumin seed

1 tablespoon ground cinnamon

1/2 teaspoon ground cloves

2 fresh bay leaves

8-inch long piece of fresh rosemary

1 tablespoon loosely packed fresh oregano leaves

<The usual picture with all the ingredients disappeared!>

Day 1

Slice the loin into 1/2 to 3/4 inch thick pieces

Strip the leaves off the rosemary stem; discard the stem.  Mix marinade in plastic tub with a lid.  Whisk the ingredients well together.

Immerse the meat in the tub.

Refrigerate.

Shake the container once in the evening.

Day 2

Shake the container 2 (or more) times during the day.

Day 3

Shake the container in the morning.

Heat up a little olive oil in a Dutch oven or fry pan, then reduce the heat to low (2 of 10 or so).

Fry the meat slowly over that low heat until it looks done about 2/3 of the way up the sides.  Flip the meat and continue to cook slowly.

Serve hot.

A lot of meat.

Herbs and spices of the marinade

Altogether now!

My Notes

I wasn't sure if I should cut the meat or not, but since she indicated "frying," I decided to cut the loin into individual servings.  It is possible she meant to fry the entire loin, keeping in mind that "frying" doesn't always mean to fast cook it in hot oil.

I had to guess on the spice quantities, and I know marinades are supposed to be strong in flavor.  I kept in mind that cloves "tend to be full of themselves," so I kept their quantity low in relation to the rest of the ingredients.  I had fresh bay leaves because of a cute little dwarf bay bush called "Little Ragu" that is now growing in my yard.  (It helps to find a foodie who works at the local nursery!)

When removing the meat from the marinade to cook, I pulled all the leaves off before putting the meat in the pan.  I didn't worry about the spices.  

For the first batch, I considered her directions to "add broth," which seemed to be another ingredient and not the liquid from the marinade.  I tried that, adding a little beef broth to the pan, just enough to bring the liquid level up to about 1/4 inch.  Then I realized that it would take a long, long time to get the food "almost dry."  I risked overcooking the meat.

So for the second batch I used just olive oil to slowly cook the meat.  When it appeared done, I noticed the pan was almost dry but, of course, the oil did not evaporate.  Perhaps I could have used less oil.

I had 16 slices of meat, so I cooked two batches of four in the Dutch oven and four in a skillet.  I didn't see any cooking time or result differences between the two pans.

I noticed that the meat released a lot of liquid into the pan while cooking, making the addition of broth unnecessary.

Done marinating

The Verdict

We weren't very hungry, so we split a piece of meat.  It was ... interesting.

We both noticed the fruity flavor right away.  I attribute that to the apple cider vinegar.  The spices were dominant, and I felt they were on the edge of being too strong.  It wasn't off-putting, but my guest taster asked, "What kind of meat is this?"

In other words, the spices and fruit flavors dominated each mouthful, and we couldn't really enjoy the taste of the pork.  He felt the meat was just a touch chewy; I thought it was fine.

My conclusion was that either I should not have cut the meat into slices or I should have marinated the slices for a shorter amount of time, perhaps just overnight.  I suspect that having the whole loin cooking in the Dutch oven for a long time (over low heat) would probably have allowed the food to be almost dry.  

There were no issues with the meat getting a chalky texture after three days in the marinade.  

So I will declare it a success, although I wasn't entirely thrilled with it.  

The leftovers were consumed in a variety of ways, and I think the strong flavor, while still there, was mellowed with time.  Sometimes I served the pork with a sauce. (Try making a passionfruit coulis and add some broth, or something similar with mulberry molasses.  Fruit with pork is always a winner with me.)  Sometimes I served it as it was but with butternut squash soup and toast.  Reheating the meat made it a little drier, but the sauce helped.  My guest taster would dunk the meat in the soup.  More success!

Attelets Sauce - An American Civil War recipe

Do you know what an attelet is?  I didn't.  I had to look it up.  Autocorrect wanted to change the word to "athlete," but I insisted I had spelled it correctly.  That taught me that an attelet is a small, metal skewer, often decorative and made of precious metals such as gold or silver.  Attelets are used to hold food, often hors d'oeuvres, to display it elegantly.

So now you know.  An attelet is basically a small, decorative metal spit used to show off food in a fancy way.

An attelet.  Click here for attribution.

I was preparing for a Civil War reenactment and looking through the 1833 cookbook for recipes that I could make as a demonstration item.  That is, I was cooking over charcoal while wearing a period outfit and talking to the public about what I was making.  I needed to be able to fix it in front of the public, with the exception of when I walked into the tent to get items from the ice chest.

This sauce looked interesting and tasty.  I didn't have metal attelets, but hey, we were in a war setting, so wooden skewers would have to do!

My plan was to make the sauce to serve with thinly sliced, grilled beef on skewers.  I did that and then made the recipe again at home for this post.

The recipe is from Mrs. N.K.M. Lee's The Cook's Own Book, page 182, in the sauce section, which is why the "________" is in the title.  Click here to see an 1854 reprint of her book.  

My Redaction

1 to 2 tablespoons each of finely chopped parsley, mushrooms, and shallots

1 tablespoon butter

1 tablespoon flour

1 cup beef broth

1/4 teaspoon pepper

salt to taste

2 egg yolks, well beaten

1/2 pound thinly sliced beef

Sauce ingredients.

First, soak wooden skewers in water while preparing the sauce.  Cut the beef into 1-inch-wide strips and set aside.

Mix the mushrooms, shallots, and parsley and then sauté them in the butter over low heat until the shallots are translucent.  

Sprinkle the flour over the mixture (avoid lumps) and stir well.  Let it cook for 1 to 2 minutes.

Whisk in the broth, stirring it vigorously.

Bring the mixture to a boil, then reduce the heat to make the mixture simmer.  Add the pepper and salt to taste. 

When the mixture thickens slightly, remove from the heat.  Add the yolks by pouring them in while stirring the broth briskly.

Once the yolks are thoroughly mixed, put the sauce back on the heat while stirring well to slightly cook the yolks.

Put the beef strips on the skewers and grill the meat.

Serve the skewers on a plate and the sauce in an open cup or bowl.  Dunk the beef in the sauce to eat.

Roughly equal parts.

The finished sauce.

Grilling the meat.

My Notes

At the reenactment, I didn't have parsley.  I aimed for roughly equal parts of shallots and mushrooms.  In both attempts, I used baby portabella mushrooms.

The idea is to make a roux with the butter and flour, then use the roux to thicken the broth.  The egg yolks make it even thicker and richer.

The broth I used had salt in it, so salt your sauce to taste.

The Verdict

Oh my, that is one good sauce.  At the reenactment, I walked around with the platter of skewers and a cup of sauce.  People used their fingers to pull the meat off the skewer and dunk it into the sauce, then pop the meat into their mouths.  You could see the sauce was thick enough to stick to the meat and not drip all over when transported to a mouth.

It was similarly thick when I made the sauce at home.  

Note the thick sauce.

The flavor was rich with shallot and mushroom flavors, enhanced by the savory umami of the beef broth.  The pepper added a nice bitter flavor, too.

Everyone in both attempts enjoyed it.  I had sauce left over from the reenactment, so I served it as a gravy over mashed potatoes, which was quite excellent.  At home, I used the extra gravy as a sauce over baked chicken thighs; this was also good.

I think the reenactment version was a bit tastier; I probably used more shallots.  I wasn't measuring except by visually comparing quantities.  I am usually moving quickly, too.  

Success!  Quite a wonderful success, really.  Make this sauce as it is easy and tasty.  

I think I would use bigger chunks of beef instead.  The very thin slices grilled quickly (a bonus, so the sauce didn't get cold or get overcooked) but they did get chewy.  I probably need to improve my grilling skills.