tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-25945115726594536502024-03-16T14:49:27.880-04:00the five o'clock teaspooncultural perspectives on the art of cookerythe five o'clock teaspoon :: fiveoclockteaspoon.comhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11117337257103249287noreply@blogger.comBlogger68125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2594511572659453650.post-19571045632854639712015-08-25T10:44:00.006-04:002015-09-03T16:18:56.941-04:00Picnics for Motorists
While the picnic is an immemorial custom all over the world, convened to celebrate a beautiful day outdoors, the most exciting advancement in picnicking may have been the introduction of the motor car in the early 20th century. For those who could afford one, a car increased the element of spontaneity and luxury in picnic travel, allowing picnickers to travel easily and comfortably to the five o'clock teaspoon :: fiveoclockteaspoon.comhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11117337257103249287noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2594511572659453650.post-38273113077924166192015-04-07T16:00:00.000-04:002015-07-18T00:38:31.928-04:00Kitchen Economy in the United States, Part I, or How To Cook a WolfThe economy cookbook genre provides tips for cooking and living on a budget, and therefore is a unique historical artifact, detailing aspects of daily life such as income, living conditions, and personal and family care. As Sarah Leavitt points out in From Catharine Beecher to Martha Stewart: a Cultural History of Domestic Advice (2002), advice manuals were often literary works, stylistically the five o'clock teaspoon :: fiveoclockteaspoon.comhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11117337257103249287noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2594511572659453650.post-34726772336235882912014-08-31T22:15:00.000-04:002015-07-18T15:33:00.001-04:00Quotation Menus, Part III: Four and Twenty Blackbirds
A person's eating habits can be a revealing reflection of character and lifestyle. Consider the rigidity of a man who orders the same meal at the same restaurant, on the same day of the week, every week for 10 years. For 10 years he does not engage in conversation while in the restaurant, except to place his order, and sits alone for the duration of the meal. We understand him to be a the five o'clock teaspoon :: fiveoclockteaspoon.comhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11117337257103249287noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2594511572659453650.post-74669996690349714462014-04-25T12:47:00.000-04:002015-07-18T15:37:17.826-04:00Quotation Menus, Part II: A Suspicion of Mushrooms
Des champignons comestibles, suspects et vénéneux [Edible, Suspicious, and Poisonous Mushrooms], Wellcome Library, London. Various fungi - 20 species, including the fly agaric (Amanita muscaria), death cap (Amanita phalloides) and Boletus and Agaricus species. Coloured lithograph by A. Cornillon, c. 1827, after Prieur.
Unlike the cuisines of Continental countries such as France andthe five o'clock teaspoon :: fiveoclockteaspoon.comhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11117337257103249287noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2594511572659453650.post-50572174436236421862014-02-07T22:36:00.003-05:002015-07-18T15:42:46.171-04:00Quotation Menus: Imagination of a Feast, Part IWhen food appears in literature it can be as striking and full-bodied as the most memorable characters or as mundane as the ground beneath them. In either case, it can be interesting to explore the edible element further, as have many scholars in genres ranging from myth to mystery. Such readings of food typically analyze the relationship between the characters, the food they eat (or don't eat)the five o'clock teaspoon :: fiveoclockteaspoon.comhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11117337257103249287noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2594511572659453650.post-64886708462580157042013-10-07T21:11:00.000-04:002013-10-08T14:20:08.166-04:00Le Bon MotBecause recipes are written in the imperative, they can often sound unconsciously droll, particularly as food is often described using words that have a different, though similar, non-food meaning. And so as we peruse recipes, we sometimes see sentences like "Choose round lettuces with good hearts" (Hilda Leyel, Picnics for Motorists, 1936) and my favorite line from a recipe for the confection, the five o'clock teaspoon :: fiveoclockteaspoon.comhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11117337257103249287noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2594511572659453650.post-10055740608883691712013-07-01T21:53:00.001-04:002015-07-18T15:44:15.317-04:00The Elderflower and Its Berries"The scent of an elder-blow...is event enough for him." So said Ralph Waldo Emerson of a poet's heightened sensibilities. Indeed the lacy blooms of the common elder bush, Sambucus nigra, cast a fragrance with the pungent verdure of sweet, fresh cream -- a scent that only June flowers lay claim to. From late May to June, the flowers are used in culinary preparations such as the five o'clock teaspoon :: fiveoclockteaspoon.comhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11117337257103249287noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2594511572659453650.post-89175298974174692502013-06-26T16:44:00.000-04:002015-07-18T15:44:56.484-04:00Recipe: White Mulberry Peach Lattice Tart
In North America, the white mulberry, morus alba, (native to China) is one of very few trees that produces berries that are desirable for human consumption. While white mulberry leaves are valued as a feed for animals and silkworms, the fruit is often passed over for the sweeter red or black mulberry varieties. It is a prolific bearer of fruit and if the berries lack the rounded the five o'clock teaspoon :: fiveoclockteaspoon.comhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11117337257103249287noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2594511572659453650.post-88419255469832018022013-06-18T18:10:00.003-04:002015-07-18T15:51:00.534-04:00A Thousand Damask Roses
In pre-industrial society, common herbs and flowers were frequently used for their medicinal and culinary properties. The rose, with its intoxicating fragrance and edible petals, leaves, and fruit, was used in food and scent preparations as well as in decorative display. In previous posts I've discussed rosewater and cooking with roses. Rose Recipes, a 1939 English the five o'clock teaspoon :: fiveoclockteaspoon.comhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11117337257103249287noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2594511572659453650.post-75605291258255679302013-05-31T21:03:00.002-04:002013-06-21T12:45:23.996-04:00Banana Economics, or How to Peel a Banana
As commercial printing became more affordable and widespread in the late 19th century, food companies in the United States increasingly published promotional material designed to educate the consumer about new foods, production and preparation methods, and brands. With commodities such as milk and fruit, these booklets were often published by a central source that represented a the five o'clock teaspoon :: fiveoclockteaspoon.comhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11117337257103249287noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2594511572659453650.post-22147064958316154002013-03-17T19:10:00.002-04:002013-05-31T16:05:34.913-04:00Book Review: Hsa*ba
Burmese food blends the pungent sweet-sour flavors of Chinese Southeast Asian cuisine with the robust aromatics of the Indian subcontinent. While there are a handful of Burmese cookbooks on the market, one need look no further than hsa*ba (2008), written by Tin Cho Chaw, a Rangoon native currently living in the UK. The author translates the Burmese greeting, "hsa ba" as "please eat,the five o'clock teaspoon :: fiveoclockteaspoon.comhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11117337257103249287noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2594511572659453650.post-63124241850455718702013-01-10T17:57:00.000-05:002013-01-10T18:02:38.719-05:00Pain Au Cumin: Cumin and Other Members of the Parsley Family in French Pastry
In preparing the last post on pains au chocolat, I came across a recipe for petits pains au cumin, or cumin rolls, in Urbain-Dubois's, La Boulangerie d'Aujourd'hui (1933). Although cumin has a long history in European cuisine and is often seen in recipes from the Medieval period, particularly in Northern and Eastern Europe, I was not familiar with its use in the five o'clock teaspoon :: fiveoclockteaspoon.comhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11117337257103249287noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2594511572659453650.post-46200499888378206372012-11-08T20:59:00.000-05:002015-01-09T12:44:07.520-05:00Elizabeth David and the Mystery of Petits Pains au Chocolat
The pain au chocolat one sees in bakery displays in and outside of France is made with a flaky puff pastry dough also used for the crescent, or croissant. I've always found the combination of puff pastry and chocolate a bit too rich and cloying. If you've ever dipped a French baguette in melted chocolate, you might agree that a crusty bread dough, made without butter fat,the five o'clock teaspoon :: fiveoclockteaspoon.comhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11117337257103249287noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2594511572659453650.post-27112239470434789712012-09-24T19:32:00.000-04:002012-09-24T21:22:45.109-04:00"And the Dish Ran Away With the Spoon": Mythical Foodscapes in Children's Literature Part IV: Raggedy Ann in Cookie Land
In Part III, Raggedy Ann and the Magic Wishing Pebble, many adventures followed when Raggedy Ann found a magic wishing pebble and wished for a magic ice cream soda fountain and a lollipop field. The story takes place in the countryside, a make-believe tale in the setting of the physical real world. In Raggedy Ann in Cookie Land (1931), however, the Raggedys enter a fantasy the five o'clock teaspoon :: fiveoclockteaspoon.comhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11117337257103249287noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2594511572659453650.post-22695879001757153852012-07-03T16:25:00.000-04:002013-07-02T12:53:31.608-04:00Blancmange: Affordable Elegance
As promised in my post on the Cream Top Milk Separator, I've tested one of the recipes from the Cream Top booklet-- Vanilla Cornstarch Pudding. Also known as blancmange, this classic white dessert came to be known as vanilla pudding in the United States by the 1930s. The lovely and elegant blancmange was perfectly suited to the Depression era recipes of the Cream Top booklet and its the five o'clock teaspoon :: fiveoclockteaspoon.comhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11117337257103249287noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2594511572659453650.post-36134414248596523152012-06-30T20:11:00.000-04:002012-06-30T20:11:03.176-04:00I Made a Fool Out of Gooseberries
Like its close relation, the currant, the gooseberry (Ribes) grows in perfect harmony with the long days of summer. The fruiting season is slow and measured, beginning in the early spring, when the lanky bush sprouts tiny green shoots and eventually shy, white blossoms. In the summer, the branches bend toward the ground with neat rows of green, delicately veined fruit, slowly the five o'clock teaspoon :: fiveoclockteaspoon.comhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11117337257103249287noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2594511572659453650.post-32995083360373589242012-05-23T19:17:00.001-04:002014-09-06T15:29:16.060-04:00The Cream Top Milk Separator
The Cream Top separator, a humble metal ladle, was designed for the purpose of separating cream from milk in a particular type of milk bottle. Before homogenized milk became widespread in the late 1940s, milk bottles typically featured a top layer of cream-- the fat that naturally rises to the milk's surface. Cream Top bottles featured a bulge at the cream line where the ladle could the five o'clock teaspoon :: fiveoclockteaspoon.comhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11117337257103249287noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2594511572659453650.post-52448548661146057862012-02-28T13:53:00.000-05:002013-07-14T18:31:05.580-04:00Culinary Ephemera: New York's One and Only PresidentFrom the humble Automat to the grand Delmonico's, many well-known New York restaurants and eateries have been remembered by history. But there are still more stories to tell of others that have surpassed the brevity of the average New York restaurant's lifespan. The President was one such place, lasting for over 40 years at the same location in midtown Manhattan.
President the five o'clock teaspoon :: fiveoclockteaspoon.comhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11117337257103249287noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2594511572659453650.post-90643869318233007242012-01-20T19:06:00.002-05:002013-10-07T21:12:24.304-04:00Book Review: Brazilian Cookery (1965)
Brazilian Cookery by Margarette de Andrade, Charles E. Tuttle Co., 1965, 349 pp.
When a friend of mine visited Brazil last year, her intrepid account of the trip on her always witty and entertaining blog, One for the Road Travel, brought to mind a classic cookbook that has long been out of print. Published in 1965, Brazilian Cookery: Traditional and Modern, written by the five o'clock teaspoon :: fiveoclockteaspoon.comhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11117337257103249287noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2594511572659453650.post-40264467184646315822011-09-30T20:23:00.000-04:002011-10-01T20:24:35.294-04:00Spice Garden: Mustard Seed
While the leaves of the mustard plant are edible and quite tasty when cooked or raw in a mixed greens salad, it is the seeds of this brassica that I most look forward to. Mustard fruits in the summer, with green pods that grow to about 2 inches long. By October, the pods turn into brown husks, cracking open to reveal tiny balls that hold a pungent fragrance. Depending on the variety, thesethe five o'clock teaspoon :: fiveoclockteaspoon.comhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11117337257103249287noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2594511572659453650.post-61419018742314826142011-08-27T17:41:00.056-04:002011-08-30T16:23:21.357-04:00A Plant to Plant: Strolling Through the Late Summer Flower Garden
With the late summer bounty of herbs, fruit, and vegetables throughout August and into early September, it is easy to overlook quieter perennial flowers that bloom at this time of year in the northeastern United States. A close look at one section of my garden yields several noteworthy specimens that are a charming, subdued interlude between the showy midsummer lilies and echinacea (the five o'clock teaspoon :: fiveoclockteaspoon.comhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11117337257103249287noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2594511572659453650.post-85708307344246280252011-07-31T14:08:00.001-04:002011-08-03T12:46:55.293-04:00Selling Milk Between the Wars: Two Pre-WWII U.S. Milk Industry Booklets Part IIBorden-Wieland. 1937. "Delicious Dairy Dishes," presented by Crowley's Milk Company, Inc. (promotional booklet). Meta Given and Ruth Cooper (contribs.) 62pp. Illustrated in color.The Crowley Dairy Company was founded in Poughkeepsie, NY in 1904 by J.K. Crowley. In 1915 the company moved to Binghamton where its headquarters remain today. Because "Delicious Dairy Dishes" (hereafter DDD) is the five o'clock teaspoon :: fiveoclockteaspoon.comhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11117337257103249287noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2594511572659453650.post-60787626957600514662011-06-25T17:11:00.000-04:002013-06-21T16:34:23.529-04:00Recipe: Carnation Milk Bread
The Story of Carnation Milk, Booklet, 1915. Things Made with Carnation Milk .
As mentioned in the last post on a 1915 Carnation Milk booklet, the recipes included are adaptations of conventional contemporary favorites such as Perfection Salad, Welsh Rarebit, and Macaroni and Cheese. The bread recipe below includes detailed instruction but omits information about oven temperature and baking the five o'clock teaspoon :: fiveoclockteaspoon.comhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11117337257103249287noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2594511572659453650.post-29703472629544170622011-06-18T18:17:00.004-04:002011-06-26T20:05:48.388-04:00Selling Milk Between the Wars: Two Pre-WWII U.S. Milk Industry Booklets Part ICarnation MilkPacific Coast Condensed Milk Company. 1915. "The Story of Carnation Milk" (promotional booklet). 32pp. Illustrated, with some color illustrations. Printed by the American Lithographic Co., NY.Although first available in the mid-19th century, it took almost a century before canned milk became a trusted product. Booklets such as this one, published in 1915 by Carnation Milk, the five o'clock teaspoon :: fiveoclockteaspoon.comhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11117337257103249287noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2594511572659453650.post-83719233453479789162011-04-12T14:41:00.004-04:002012-09-24T21:23:51.196-04:00"And the Dish Ran Away With the Spoon": Mythical Foodscapes in Children's Literature Part III: Raggedy Ann's Wishing PebbleAmerican writer and illustrator, Johnny Gruelle (1880-1938), created the Raggedy Ann character in 1915 for his daughter, Marcella, and in 1918, published the first of many books recounting the delightful adventures of the playroom rag doll, Raggedy Ann, and her brother Raggedy Andy. Although they live in an idyllic world of bucolic settings and benign fairies and animal friends, the Raggedys the five o'clock teaspoon :: fiveoclockteaspoon.comhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11117337257103249287noreply@blogger.com3