A Glimpse at Recipes of The Past: Gateau Grand Marnier - Orange Liqueur Cake

Gateau Grand Marnier - Orange Liqueur Cake
recipe from A Treasury of Great Recipes by Mary and Vincent Pride 1965

This unfrosted cake, saturated with orange juice and orange liqueur, is a special favorite, marvelous with tea or coffee. This recipe came from a little inn in Lorraine, a province of France noted for its fruits and liqueurs, and where the rum-saturated cakes known as babas were invented.



Ingredients for cake:

• 1 cup butter + one more tsp for greasing a pan
• 1 cup sugar
• 3 eggs
• 1 tsp Grand Marnier
• 2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 1 tsp baking soda
• 1 1/4 cup sour cream
• grated rind of 1 orange
• 1 cup chopped walnuts

Ingredients for topping:

• 1/2 cup sugar
• 1 cup orange juice
• 1/3 cup Grand Marnier
• 1/2 cup slivered almonds

Direction:
1. Preheat oven to moderate 350F.
2. Cream butter with sugar until pale and fluffy.
3. Beat in egg yolks, one at the time.
4. Add Grand Marnier.
5. Sift together flour, baking powder and baking soda.
6. Add dry ingredients to butter, alternating with sour cream, beginning and ending with dry ingredients and mixing until smooth.
7. Stir in grated rind of orange and chopped walnuts.
8. Beat until stiff egg whites and fold into batter. Pour batter into a greased 9-inch cake pan.
9. Bake in the moderate oven for 50 to 55 minutes, or until cake tests done.



Topping:
Combine sugar, orange juice and Grand Marnier. Pour over hot cake while it is in pan. Sprinkle with almonds and let cake cool before removing from cake.

The Noncollapsible Cheese Souffle with Mushrooms and Wasabi

Souffle Demoule Mousseline
This recipe adapted from 
The Noncollapsible Unmolded Cheese Souffle
by Julia Child from The French Chef Cookbook, 1961



"Most souffles are prima donnas in the kitchen: they have to be baked just so, and served just when, and are always trembling on the verge of collapse. They are the boss of things, not you. Here's a recipe that turns the tables on the souffle, and puts you in command: you can keep it warm in the oven, you can reheat it, and best of all, you can serve it unmolded so it makes a splendid effect, standing serenely on its platter."



Preliminaries:

• A Baking Dish to hold the souffle dish
• A 2-quart straight-sided baking dish 4 to 5 inches deep, for the souffle
• 1/2 Tbs softened butter
• 2 Tbs finely-grated cheese (recipe calls for Swiss cheese, I used Parmesan)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Put enough water in the baking dish so it will come at least halfway up the souffle dish; place dish of water in lower third of oven (remove souffle dish). Spread butter inside souffle dish, being sure bottom is especially well-coated; roll cheese around in dish to cover bottom and sides.



The Souffle Sauce Base:

• 2 1/2 Tbs butter
• Heavy-bottomed saucepan
• A heavy-bottomed 2 1/2-quart soucepan
• A Wooden spoon
• 3 Tbs flour
• 3/4 cup hut milk
• A wire wisk
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1/8 tsp pepper
• A pinch of nutmeg (I did not use nutmeg, I used Wasabi 1/4 tsp)

Melt butter in pan. Stir in flour with wooden spoon and cook slowly, stirring for 2 minutes without browning. Remove from heat, let cool a moment, then beat in all hot milk, stirring vigorously with a wire wisk. Boil, storring for 1/2 minute (my mixture was way too thick to do anything like "boil," so I just turned on the heat for a moment. I doubt this did anything, but it made me feel like I was following directions.) Remove from heat, beat in salt, pepper and wasabi (or nutmeg).



Adding Eggs To Sauce Base:

• 3 eggs + 3 extra egg whites
• A Clean, dry bowl
• A Wisk or mixer
• A Pinch of salt
• 1/4 tsp cream of tartar
• 1 cup coarsely grated cheese (Julia said swiss cheese, I used 1/2 cup cheddar + parmesan, and 1/2 cup cooked chopped shitaki mushrooms)

  

Break the eggs one by one, dropping the whites into the clean bowl and beating the yolks into the hot sauce. Add the 3 extra egg whites to those in the bowl, and with a clean, dry whip or electric mixer, beat them for a moment at moderate speed until the begin to foam. Add the salt and cream of tartar, and beat at top speed until egg whites hold in a mass in the beater, and when beater is lifted the egg whites form stiff peaks with slightly drooping points.
Stir one fourth of the egg whites into the hot sauce, to lighten it. Stir in the cheese and mushrooms; scoop the rest of the egg whites on top. Fold the egg whites into the sauce, using a rubber spatula and plunging it down through the center of the mixture, drawing it to the side of the pan, turning it, and lifting it out.You will thus bring a bit of the sauce up over the egg whites, and prevent the whites from collapsing. Fold rapidly, turning the pan as you go; the whole operation should not take more than half a minute.

Baking:
I will paraphrase the author's lengthy instructions:
Pour into prepared dish, place carefully into pan of water, then bake at 350F for 85 minutes.
The souffle is now baked, quite brown on top and much softer on the bottom -- I'd place it in the lowest rack of the oven next time. But! It's pretty delicious. Very cheesy and eggy, soft with crispiness on top and edges. I will definitely try again, with spinach or some other addition.

Serve the souffle with tomatoes, or shellfish sauce, or with cooked peas, asparagus tips or chicken livers. A dry white wine, such as a Riesling, would go nicely, along with French bread and tossed green salad.

A Glimpse at Recipes of The Past: Lumberjack Cookies

I have a small but very treasured collection of cooking books. I have Russian cooking books with recipes prepared for the Czarist family and recipes cooked for the French Aristocracy, as well as a collection of recipe books that I bought here in America, dating back to our American ancestors.
Why do I like these old books so much?
Firstly, the illustrations found in these books are a rare sight indeed nowadays, because each illustration is beautifully drawn in detail, giving insight to a modern-day person of the dedicated and personal atmosphere that emanated from that time period.
Secondly, each recipe in these books has its own story. It’s not just a list of ingredients thrown into a pot and boiled---it’s an entire experience beginning from the detailing of the recipe’s origination to its eventual passage from generation to generation. This is why I have decided to begin a column on this blog dedicated to posting and discussing recipes taken from these books. There’s something very sentimental about making history come back to life.
Feel free to add to our historical recipe collection.



From "Favorite New England Recipes" 1972

Lumberjack Cookies
Lumbering is a unique occupation and projects a day-to-day life unlike any other. In the upper reaches of the rivers, when spring freshets deepen the water enough to float the logs, men of a particularly courageous breed shepherd the raw wood down the rivers, sometimes for hundreds of miles, to the sawmills. They spend many days on the logs and on a raft with a shanty on it that brings up the rear. In the shanty is a man at whom the others characteristically jeer but deeply value - the cook.



One morning early in this century, such a log drive was moving along the Muskegon past a riverside farm, when a dignified little woman marched to the water's edge and waved to them. She wished to parley with the lumberjack cook. Just why is explained by Mrs.Paul V.Bretz of St.Paul, Minnesota. "The great lumbering industry of Michigan was beginning to wane, but there was still some lumbering along the Mu. When the logs where being floated down the river to the mills, there was always a cook shanty on a raft following the log drive. It was a great treat for children to have a meal with the lumberjacks on this river raft. They could look forward to fried salt pork, boiled potatoes, boiled beans, hot breads, cookies, and strong black coffee. Good hearty fare.
"These were molasses cookies and so good that my husband prevailed upon his mother to go to the river and learn the recipe from the cook. We always called them 'Lumberjack Cookies,' and here is the recipe:"

Ingredients:

• 1 cup sugar
• 1 cup shortening
• 1 cup molasses
• 1 cup sour milk
• 1 teaspoon salt
• ginger, vanilla, and mace (or nutmeg) to taste
• flour enough to make a soft dough

Directions:
Drop by tablespoons on a lightly greased cookie sheet and bake in a moderate oven (350F) until done, about 10 minutes.