Leftover Usage

[JPA Cate]

I've been thinking about how the past has been influential to me, and how I provision, and, also how times have changed. In the Unites States, some people have been emphasizing vegetables, more and more in their cooking, though not all by any means.

Here is a recipe from around 1850, from an old friends' mother, to me many years ago, who grew up on a farm and raised her daughter on a farm. People who had pigs, would also have used lard, stored in sterile jars, and kept a used fats jar. In Agnes' case, she always had a dry cookie crumb jar, thus her recipe for Molasses Crumb Cookies. Interesting that it calls for shortening. I wonder if olive oil would substitute, or did it go through a margarine or Crisco (hydrogenated vegetable oil) phase. I'm quite sure butter or lard might have been used, according to what was available when one was isolated. The recipe calls for spices (how sparingly they are used!), and "tart jelly", which made me wonder how many jellies she put up annually....

Agnes Lykken's Molasses Crumb Cookies:

1/2 c. shortening + 1 c. sugar, cream together
2 well beaten eggs, and 1 c. molasses, add and beat well
2-1/2 c. dry cooky crumbs*, stir in to egg mixture.

2-1/2 c. flour +1.4 tsp salt, +1 tsp. soda + 1 tsp. cinnamon & 1/2 tsp. cloves. Sift flour once then sift all together into the egg mix.

additional sugar for sprinkling on cookie tops.

Tart jelly for tops.

Method:

Roll small pieces of dough in hands, place on a baking sheet and flatten with a fork. Sprinkle with sugar. With a teaspoon, press a bit of jelly in center of dough.

Bake at 350 deg. F (~190 deg.C) 12-15 min., remove to cool on racks.


* Use any old, stale, or broken cookies. [She was a lady with enough resources, time, and pride to not serve broken cookies, but save them for uses such as this!] My, how things have changed!

Send me a PM if you try them, and tell me if you liked them. I never had the gumption to buy fresh cookies to turn into crumbs!

******

For the concept of leftover usage on a boat with limited/no refrigeration, how's this, for a small frozen NZ leg of lamb?

On morning arrival in Papeete, after completing the entry formalities, go buy the frozen leg. Also (if it isn't too much for the budget) a 6 pack of Hinano beer. Put the lamb in the bucket you brought, place the Hinano around it. It will be ready to drink by the time the lamb is thawed. Season the lamb leg with garlic and rosemary, dust with salt and pepper, and barbecue it carefully, and enjoy a beer. If you have no BBQ, it can be roasted in a Dutch Oven on the stove top, with the ports open and the windscoop deployed. That meat will keep overnight, cooked of course, till next afternoon when you can make lamb rogan josh or some other curry out of it.

Ann