Waterford's 1963 Cookbook -- Three Sample Pages

 

A Century of Good Food and Cuisine at the Rabbit Hill Inn: Let's Talk About It, July 25

Now that the Fourth of July is over, it's time to focus on the excitement of the Rabbit Hill Reminiscence Reunion -- on Wednesday July 25 at 6:30 pm, in Lower Waterford across the road from the Rabbit Hill Inn.

Did you work there? Have a strong connection because of a wedding or other special event? Do you have one of the inn's old signs or perhaps the mysteriously vanished white rabbits (non-living!) that used to be given to the innkeepers by many guests? Or just curious about the stories and history of Waterford, Vermont's outstanding focus for so many years? Come join us! We'll provide the snacks; you provide the conversation.

Speaking of snacks ... today's delicious recipe taken from the Rabbit Hill Inn's "recipe file" online is for Soba Noodle Summer Vegetable Salad. And check out more of the inn's recipes here, including its traditional oatmeal bread.

Here, from one of the community members who may be telling some tales of earlier years at the July 25 event, are two recipes from John and Ruth Carroll, innkeepers at the Rabbit Hill in 1968. (Come tell us more details ...)

Interested in more about Lower Waterford, the inn, and local history? Here are some other "reports" from the Waterford Historical Society.

Butternuts, for Old Time's Sake -- and Next, Rhubarb

Butternuts

Singing makes any task more fun, right?

Last November we were able to purchase four pounds of butternuts from Native Nuts in North Troy; two pounds headed to New Hampshire to catch up with Geneva Powers Wright, and the other two pounds, in a basket, came to visit at a Waterford Historical Society meeting in February, when a few brave folks took a couple of them home to try cracking.

Most of this two-pound batch ended up at my house, and I was glad to catch my son Alexis and his NYC friend Jem as labor for cracking them in March. Based on a description from an East St Johnsbury resident of having cracked them using her dad's workshop vice, we tackled the task with a pair of large screw-type carpenter clamps. (We did test an ordinary nutcracker, and it was totally useless for this job!) Sorting the nuts from the shell fragments turned out to be quite a challenge.

It took the three of us TWO HOURS of steady work to crack all the nuts and set aside the nutmeats -- which added up to slightly less than one cup full. For the April meeting of the Waterford Historical Society, I baked cookies with the little flecks of nuts -- which were delicious, but in every cookie there was at least one tooth-jarring bit of nutshell, and in some there were half a dozen. And we thought we had these well sorted!

I'm glad we tried this, for the sake of knowing how to handle butternuts, which used to be a traditional food in this region, before the trees were stricken by a mostly fatal disease. All things considered, though, I don't think we'll repeat this!

Next on my old-time cooking schedule will be rhubarb recipes, figuring out the best ones for the Waterford Historic House and Garden Tour and Rhubarb Café, being held June 20!

Recipes from Waterford's Earlier Years

Apple cranberry crisp.

The amazing Barn-to-Table event held at the Waterford church this past June, as a co-benefit for the church and the library's Waterford History interest group, served a capacity crowd of 80 people with delicious tastes of recipes connected with the barns that the history group is documenting for the town. Organizer Helen Chantal Pike saw clearly that people can enjoy learning while tasting!

My contribution was a half gallon of the old-time haymakers' thirst quencher known as switchel. I used a recipe from a collection of traditional Vermont cooks, adapting it to include maple syrup, which I've often heard as an ingredient in this drink, although the original wasn't written for it. Here's the switchel recipe, from the "Vermont Grange Favorites," modified the way I made it for the Barn-to-Table event:

SWITCHEL

2/3 cup brown sugar
1 cup cider vinegar
1/3 cup molasses
1/2 cup maple syrup
1 teaspoon ground ginger

Put all ingredients into a two-quart pitcher, Add cold water to make two quarts and stir well. Chill.

***
While we're on the topic of earlier recipes, Waterford has two cookbook collections of these, with the more recent one being a fundraiser for the fire department. For our July get-together, I baked 

BLUEBERRY BUCKLE CAKE from Laura Goodwin’s recipe in the fire department cookbook.

Doing this reminded me to look up, again, the differences among the various fruit dessert terms that were common a century ago, and even a generation ago. We're headed to apple crisp next, right? Or apple pan dowdy? Or apple brown betty? How many have you baked?

Here are some definitions of those dessert names (with thanks for some tips from baking pro Carol Pellegrinelli):

BUCKLE: Buckles are baked and are usually made in one or two ways. The first way is that bottom layer is cake-like with the berries mixed in (as in Laura’s recipe). Then the top layer is crumb-like. The second way is where the cake layer is on the bottom of the pan, the berries are the next layer and the top is the crumble mixture. Blueberry Buckle is the most prevalent Buckle recipe found.

COBBLER: The fruit filling is put in a deep baking dish and topped with a biscuit dough. The dough may completely cover the fruit or it may just be dropped in handfuls. Either way, a cobbler is baked.

CRISP: In this baked dessert, the fruit filling is covered with a crunchy topping that is crumbled over the top. (Similar: the CRUMBLE, in which the topping is crumbled on top.)

GRUNT: A grunt is a stewed or baked fruit dish. Biscuit dough is rolled and put on top of the fruit. The name of grunt may have come from the noise people made while eating it. Grunts are also known as slumps.

PAN DOWDY or PANDOWDY: You'll find both spellings in this baked dish. The dough is on top of the fruit and although it is rolled out, it ends up being crumbly.

SLUMP: Same as grunt.

BROWN BETTY: Traditional baked American dessert made from fruit (usually apples, but also berries or pears) and sweetend crumbs, which are in layers between the fruit. Dates back to at least 1864, and an 1877 recipe uses apple sauce and cracker crumbs. Also known as one of the favorite desserts of Pres. and Mrs. Reagan in the White House.