Prince Charles of Wales

On July 26, 1964 , Clementine Paddleford's article  "Royal recipes" featured Alma McKee, chef for the Royal Family. One section of the article is subtitled "Charles loved meat balls."

Paddleford wrote:
"Prince Charles was about three when Mrs. McKee arrived on the scene as chef. She worked in a starched white overall and Prince Charles called her 'The Lady in White.' It was a nickname that caught on with the press. Mrs. McKee has never believed that nursery meals need be dull and she went to great trouble to please the young prince. He fell in love with her meat balls made from chicken or veal, sometimes rabbit. 'At that time,' Mrs. McKee notes, 'Prince Charles loved using the house telephone, much to the confusion of the office staff. He would frequently call the kitchen and order the meat balls for dinner.'"

McKee was from Sweden and in Sweden the meat balls are called Frikadeller.
Here is the recipe:

• 1/2 pound raw chicken
• 6 tablespoons bread crumbs
• 3 eggs
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 teaspoon pepper
• 1/2 pound raw veal
• 1 1/2 cups light cream
• 1 1/2 teaspoon sugar
• Juice of 1/2 lemon
• 5 cups boiling chicken or veal stock
• 2 tablespoons flour

Put meats through grinder 3 times. Moisten bread crumbs with a little of the cream and add to meat. Stirring all the time, gradually add remaining cream and eggs. Blend in salt, sugar, pepper and lemon juice. Chill for 2 hours. Roll into balls or sausage shaped. Drop balls into boiling stock and boil for 15 minutes. Thicken stock with flour. Yield: 6 portions.

How America Eats

Foreword from How America Eats by Clementine Paddleford, published by Charles Scribner's Sons, New York, 1960.

The Foreword was written by Paddleford.

"This book has been twelve years in the writing. It was in January 1948 I started criss-crossing the United States as roving Food Editor for This Week Magazine--my assignment, tell "How America Eats." I have traveled by train, plane, automobile, by mule back, on foot--in all over 800,000 miles.

"I have ranged from the lobster pots of Maine to the vineyards of California, from the sugar shanties of Vermont to the salmon canneries in Alaska. I have collected these recipes from a wide variety of kitchens: farm kitchens, apartment kitchenettes, governors' mansions, hamburger diners, tea rooms and from the finest restaurants with great chefs in charge. I have eaten with crews on fishing boats and enjoyed slum gullion at a Hobo Convention.

"I have eaten many regional specialties I had never eaten before--cioppino on Fisherman's Wharf in San Francisco, Alaskan King Crab of the North Pacific in Seattle, mango ice cream in Tampa, chawed on cuts of fresh sugar cane in Louisiana, eaten roasted young goat in San Antonio, and roasted fresh truffles flown in from Italy at the Four Seasons in New York City.

"This book is based on personal interviews with more than 2,000 of the country's best cooks. And I have eaten every dish in the book at the table where I found it. I have eaten each dish again when the recipes were tested by the home economists in This Week's kitchen.

"Now a pause to look back. How does America Eat? She eats on the fat of the land. She eats in every language. For the most part, however, even with the increasingly popular trend toward foreign foods, the dishes come to the table with an American accent.

"From the very beginning, American dishes came from many countries, made from recipes German, Swedish, Italian, ad infinitum....In some regions these dishes have kept their original character. But more often, over the years, they have been mixed and Americanized.

"The pioneer mother created dishes with foods available. These we call regional. It is to these, perhaps, I have given the greatest emphasis here. However, I am not given to food favorites, hold no food prejudices. Good food is good food, wherever you find it. Many of these recipes were salvaged from batter-splashed, hand-written notebooks. The great majority have never been printed until they appeared in This Week. They are word-of-mouth hand-downs from mother to daughter. To get such recipes takes everlasting patience, and a dash of effrontery, too.

"Recipes are included for the quick-cook artists, who love doing things the easy way. Some dishes are for gourmets who are happy to spend two days a week preparing one great dinner.

"My files are bulging with America's best eating. I had a hard time to choose this small sampling, which I sincerely hope you will enjoy to the last mouthful."

Clementine Paddleford

Clementine Paddleford Papers

"Secret Salad"

Source: This Week Magazine, January 2, 1949, p. 21

"Secret Salad"

"Found: the world's best potato salad, 20 cents a side portion on the Speck's menu--that century-old coffee house on Market Street in St. Louis. This restaurant-kitchen of the antiquated equipment has been dishing up the salad and other hearty German dishes since before the city's great fire in 1849. Good cooks of the town all have their own versions of the Speck's specialty--but always something is lacking. It took Thelma R. Leson [Lison], home economist for an advertising agency, to spy out its secret. Here's Thelma's recipe, and the real McCoy, say those in the know. Divine stuff served with boiled tongue, with baked ham, with corned beef."

Recipe

3 lbs. potatoes
1/4 c. diced bacon
1/4 c. chopped onion
1 tbs. flour
2 tsp. salt
1 1/4 tbs. sugar
1/4 tsp. pepper
2/3 c. cider vinegar
1/3 c. water
1/2 tsp. celery seed
3 tbs. chopped parsley

Wash potatoes. Put potatoes in a pan of water (make sure water covers potatoes), bring to boil. Cook until tender. Cool, peel, slice thin.

While potatoes are cooking, fry bacon until crisp, add onion to cooked bacon and cook 1 minuted. Blend in flour, salt, sugar, and pepper. Stir in cider vinegar and water. Cook 10 minutes, stirring well. Pour mixture over sliced potatoes. Add celery seed and parsley. Mix thoroughly. Serve warm. Yield: 6 portions.

I love potato salad! This is good with sandwiches, BBQ, and as a side dish for any meal.

Some people do not like potatoes cooked in their skin/jackets. Feel free to peel your potatoes before boiling.

Enjoy!

How Does America Eat?

"The Great Food Speed-Up" from February 6, 1949, This Week Magazine, pages 4-5, 10, and 20.

This article by Paddleford has no recipes. Instead she wrote about jaunting about about the country.

She wrote:

"At the request of the editors of THIS WEEK Magazine I've just traveled 8,000 miles from the East Coast to West into the South, into big cities, little towns, to see how America eats, what's cooking for dinner.

"I have knocked at kitchen doors, spied into pantries, stayed to eat supper. I have visited food laboratories to see what's cooking in test tubes.

"I have interviewed food editors in 24 cities and questioned bigwig nutritionists and ferreted facts from researchers and market analysts of 93 companies. I have shopped corner groceries, specialty food shops, supermarkets, public markets, push carts.

"How does America Eat? She eats in a hurry. Women are streamlining menus to put more hours in their day. What goes on the plate must get there in jig time; it must fit a tight budget, yet be jam-packed with nutrition. To keep the family well-fed is every homemaker's aim--those wartime nutrition classes are paying dividends. But no fiddle-fussing. Dinner in half an hour? Old stuff to cooks. It's dinner in 10 minutes when in a really big rush."

WOW!

Paddleford's beat was everywhere she decided to go. And this on the heels of WWII. Her article continues to describe "Ready Mixes" for rolls, cakes, cake frosting, pie crust, and biscuit mix.

Another section described "Canned Goods." The goods include meat, vegetables, fruit, soup, juice and fish & seafood.

"Frozen Foods" section mentions that refrigerators in 1949 are starting to have a section for freezing. Today we call this unit a 'freezer.' Not everyone had a new refrigerator with a freezing compartment in 1949. It they desired they could rent space in a meat packing plant.

Paddleford wrote, "Frozen orange-juice concentrate is everyone's drink. No other frozen item ever before had caught public fancy so quickly."

In 1949, the Pressure Cooker was being used like the 'Crock Pot' today, but the Pressure Cooker could not be left alone. Today we put ingredients in the Crock Pot, plug it in, turn it on, and forget about it until we are ready to eat.

"Minute-Saving Foods" include items such as homemade tomato sauce, instant coffee, instant tea, and instant cocoa. Even homemade ice cream took a back seat to store bought.

World War II brought changes to the table. Cheese was recognized as protein. Fish was no longer a Friday dish. And powdered milk was used for cooking.

"Shopping Practices" saw Saturday as the big shopping day with Friday coming in second. Supermarkets were coming in to play. Women could now go shopping and not have to wait at the counter to make their selections such as meat, which was already pre-packaged. Still, not everyone had the luxury of shopping as we do today. Yet, Paddleford acknowledged that "The day is not far off when a woman can walk into her favorite food store and help herself to pre-packaged and chilled (not frozen) fresh produce ready for the pot."

Wonder what Miss Paddleford (Miss P) would think about one stop shopping like I do at Wal-Mart?

Clementine Paddleford

Clementine Paddleford Papers

"Spareribs and Oranges"

Paddleford's first article in the series "How America Eats" found her at the kitchen door of Mrs. John Powell (mother of Coralyn-age 6), 25 miles out of Los Angeles, California at the foot of Mount Wilson.

The article, "California: Citrus Secrets" is all about oranges: eating and cooking with them.

Recipes:

Take an orange, peel, cut into sections, cut sections in half, dust with powdered sugar. Enjoy!

Take an orange, peel, cut into round sections, dust sections with granulated sugar or powdered sugar, top with moisten grated coconut.

Citrus Spareribs
4 pounds spareribs
1 large lemon
1 large orange
1 large onion
1 cup ketchup
1/3 teaspoon Worcestershire Sauce
1 teaspoon chili powder
1 teaspoon salt
2 dashes Tabasco Sauce
2 cups water

Cut ribs into serving-size pieces. Place in shallow roasting pan, meaty side up. On each piece arrange slice of unpeeled lemon, slice of unpeeled orange and a slice of onion. Roast in hot oven 450 degrees F. for 20 minutes. Combine remaining ingredients, bring to boiling point and pour over ribs. Continue baking in moderate oven, 350 degrees F. until tender, about one hour, basting twice. Yield 4 to 6 servings.


I love the orange sections dusted with powdered sugar!

Source: This Week Magazine, February 13, 1949, pp. 28-29.

Clementine Paddleford

Clementine Paddleford Papers

"Oregon: Cake for the Governor"

Source: This Week Magazine, February 20, 1949, pages 20-21

Miss P (Paddleford) arrived at 395 Jerris Avenue, Salem, Oregon, the home of Mrs. Douglas McKay--or as we would say today, "the Governor's Mansion.

As Miss P traveled around the state of Oregon everyone told her to go see Mabel McKay who made "this fabulous angel cake."

"From 1933 to 1940," Paddleford wrote, "the McKay cake had taken the first prize annually at the State Fair. In 1941 it came off with the grand prize and Mrs. McKay retired from the contest to give other good bakers a chance."

Gee, our County Fair was on Friday, July 24. Maybe I will need to keep this recipe in mind for next year. And I will want to make the cake a few times to see how it turns out. As always, a few practice runs before entering it into a contest is a good idea and if the cake turns out, it will be good eats also. Plus, I will have time to learn how to make the perfect cake.

If you decide to use this recipe for a County or State Fair, let me know how you placed.

Recipe

1 1/2 cup egg whites (about 13 large)
Pinch of sale
1 1/4 teaspoon cream of tartar (*note* make sure this had not gone beyond expiration date)
1 1/2 cups sugar
1 cup and 1 tablespoon sifted cake flour (*note* be sure to use cake flour)
1 teaspoon vanilla

Put egg whites into a large mixing bowl, dust with two shakes of salt. Beat with a wire whip until whites are frothy or use an electric mixer. Add cream of tartar and continue beating until the mixture makes little mountains, but not too stiff. Sift sugar six times, add this to the eggs, one tablespoon at a time, folding it in gently, so gently. Next add the flour, this too is sifted six times, and added one tablespoon at a time. Add the vanilla last. The batter is poured into a 10-inch flour dusted aluminum tube pan.

The cake is started in a cold oven, set at 150 degrees F. for 10 minutes, then 200 degrees for another 10 minutes. Next increase the temperature 25 degrees every 10 minutes until the oven is at 300 degrees F. Now give the cake another full 10 minutes and at this point, increase the temperature to 350 degrees and leave it 10 minutes longer to take on the delicate macaroon color. In all, one hour and 10 minutes and out comes the cake to turn upside down on a rack and let cool for two hours. Then the cake is removed from the pan, frosted or left plain. Yield: 12 servings.

Douglas McKay
In 1952, Douglas McKay was named by President Dwight D. Eisenhower as head of the Department of Interior.

Clementine Paddleford

Clementine Paddleford Papers

"Southwest: Dinner on the Katy"

Source: This Week Magazine, February 27, 1949, pp. 48-49

Miss P (Paddleford) hopped on the Katy Railroad at Dallas, Texas, but she wrote that she got on at Denison, Texas. Leave it to Miss P to tweak things just a bit. Yes, she occasionally tweaked things to her liking.

Paddleford wrote, "A handsome train, streamlined, its red and silver engine sleek and powerful. It hurled itself into the station and with a long leap sprang out again, out of the city and into the dark."

Miss P went to the dining car for dinner. First shrimp cocktail. She stated the shrimp hanging over the glass looked like "pink commas." Next Miss P was served onion soup. Her entree was a Kansas City steak, potatoes au gratin, and green beans.

During the meal, the kornette boy came through her dining car. "He wore a huge stainless-steel warmer like a breastplate held by a strap fastened 'round the neck," Miss P jotted in her notebook. When he offered her a kornette, she could not resist.

Recipe
1 quart boiling sweet milk
1 pound white corn meal
1/2 cup butter
1 tablespoon sugar
1 teaspoon salt

Slowly pour the boiling milk over corn meal. Stir well to make a thick batter. Stir in butter, sugar, and salt. Let stand five minutes. Fill into a pastry bag and drop to greased baking sheet in small cakes about the size of a silver dollar; chill five hours. Bake in a hot over (375 degrees F.) about 20 minutes. Yield: 6 portions.


Six portions, you say? Well, actually this should make more than 6 silver dollar size kornettes. Miss P stated, "Here's something that should be eaten in sets of a dozen."

Read more about Paddleford's trip on the Katy Railroad in Hometown Appetites.


www.clementinepaddleford.com
www.lib.k-state.edu/depts/spec/findaids/pc1988-19.html

"The Getting-Aroundest Person"

"As the propellers of the DC-6 slowed for a landing in Hilo, Hawaii, the passengers found the vista a curiosity. It was 1962 and Hawaii's Big Island was not the well-touristed spot it is today: No boutique hotels, no swim-up bars, no strip malls. The natural scenery was practically the only attraction. But what an attraction: Royal Palm trees, their shaggy green-brown leaves flapping skyward, beckoned the travelers from Honolulu to pause awhile on the flat stretches of land and sand in the flittering ocean. Peering below, the passengers began their usual rustlings, gathering bags, opening and closing compacts, folding newspapers. One woman, in her early sixties with a thick mane of bobbed gray-white hair secured by a headband, wearing a shawl and a swirling skirt, kept her big cornflower blue eyes focused on the vew."

Who is this woman?

Clementine Paddleford.

Read about her in Hometown Appetites: The Story of Clementine Paddleford, the Forgotten Food Writer Who Chronicled How America Ate by Kelly Alexander and Cynthia Harris.

While it has been a while....

While it has been a long while since I posted on this site, I have posted on other sites.

To bring you up to date. The book Hometown Appetites: The Story of Clementine Paddleford, the Forgotten Food Writer Who Chronicled How America Ate, by Kelly Alexander and Cynthia Harris was published last year (September 2008) by Gotham Books. The book made the 2009 Kansas Notable Book List.

You can purchase the book at your local book store or at Amazon or Barnes & Noble.

If you would like to get you book signed by the authors you can post a comment to this blog and one or both of them will get in contact with you.