Orr's Famous 1001 Recipes (1930)

 

When it comes to books - especially old cookbooks - I struggle to resist adding to my collection. This copy of Orr's Famous 1001 Recipes had been on my wish list for several weeks until I finally purchased it. Now that I've read through it, I have no regrets about buying it.

Cabbage Layer Cake

1 good size cabbage, 1 lb. round steak and 1/2 lb. pork (ground together), 1 teaspoon salt, 1 teaspoon pepper, 1 egg, 6 crackers, or stale bread, rolled. Cook cabbage 10 minutes in salted water. Mix other ingredients well together. Put one layer cabbage leaves in bottom of a deep baking dish; next, a layer of meat mixture. Alternate layers until meat and cabbage has been used, finishing with cabbage. Bake in a medium oven 1-1/2 hours. When ready to serve, place on a platter and cut it as you would a cake. Serve with cream sauce.

Luncheon Dish

1 lb. round steak, ground, 1 can tomatoes and half can water, 1 cup cold boiled rice, 1 onion cut fine, 1/2 teaspoon baking soda, 1 teaspoon sugar, salt and pepper to taste. Butter baking dish and mix ingredients all together; sprinkle top with stale bread crumbs and dots of butter. Bake from 1 to 1-1/2 hours.

Luncheon Potatoes

Use cold ends of steak or any mixture of cold meats. Put them through the food chopper, place meat, tomatoes, and sliced raw potatoes in alternate layers in casserole. Season to taste, dot with butter until done.

Grapenut Bread

1 cup sugar, 2 tablespoons butter, 1 tablespoon lard, 2 cups buttermilk, 1 cup grapenuts, 4 cups flour, 2 teaspoons soda, a pinch of salt.

Bake in a covered pan for 50 minutes. This makes three in (one pound) baking powder cans. Two one pound coffee tins make ideal little loaves.

Weary Willie Cake

1-1/2 cups flour, 1 cup sugar, 5 tablespoons melted butter, 2 teaspoons baking powder, 2 eggs (not beaten), pinch of salt, flavoring, milk.

Put butter in cup, then eggs and then milk; sift flour, sugar, baking powder, salt; pour cup mixture into the flour and beat well; bake in shallow pan.

These Are Very Good Drop Cookies

1-1/2 cups sugar, 1/2 cup butter, 1/2 cup sweet milk, 3 eggs, 2-1/2 cups flour, 2 teaspoon baking powder, flavor with vanilla or lemon.

Drop on buttered pans.

Egg Ring Cookies

4 hardboiled egs, 1 egg yolk, 1/2 lb. butter, 3/4 lb. flour, 5 oz. sugar, grated rind of lemon. Form in rings and bake.

Dom-Econ Cake (Domestic Economy Cake)

3 ounces chocolate (grated), 3/8 cup butter, 3/4 cup boiling water, 1-1/2 cups flour (before sifting), 1-1/8 teaspoons soda, 3/8 cup sour milk, 1-1/2 eggs, 1-1/2 cups sugar, 1/2 cup chopped nuts if desired.

Mix in order given; batter is thin; not necessary to wait for water to cool before adding other ingredients; bake in two layers. Cream Filling: 1/2 cup sugar, 3 tablespoons flour, 1/16 teaspoon salt, 1 cup scalded milk, 1 ounce chocolate (grated), 1/2 teaspoon vanilla, 1 or 2 egg yolks. Mix dry ingredients; add to scalded milk; cook 15 minutes in double boiler, stirring until mixture thickens; cool and add vanilla; spread filling between layers and ice cake with any white frosting desirec. A simple one is 1 egg white, 1/2 cup granulated sugar. Beat egg white; stir in sugar and put in top of double boiler until it is warm; this melts the sugar and makes the frosting smooth; care should be taken not to let the frosting get hot.

"Don Econ" Cake

2 oz. chocolate, 1/4 cup butter, 1/2 cup boiling water, 1 egg, 1 cup sugar, 1 cup pastry flour, 1/4 cup sour milk, 3/4 teaspoon soda. Pour water over chocolate and butter, stir until melted, add sugar, flour, with which soda has been sifted, and milk. Bake in two layers and use this filling: 1 cup milk, 2 tablespoons flour, 1 oz. chocolate, 1/2 cup sugar, 1 egg yolk. Scald milk and melt chocolate in it. Beat egg yolk, add sugar and flour, mix together, pour hot milk over egg mixture. Cook in double boiler until it forms custard. Cool and place between layers. Ice top of cake with any white frosting.

"Fatti Mans"

6 egg yolks, 6 tablespoons cream, 8 tablespoons sugar, 4 tablespoons brandy, 1 grated lemond rind, 3 or 4 tablespoons butter, 1 or 1-1/4 lbs. flour, 4 egg whites, beaten stiff, cardamom to taste.

Fattigmands Bakkelse

12 egg yolks, 6 egg whites, 12 tablespoons cream, 12 tablespoons sugar, flour, 12 tablespoons melted butter, 1 teaspoon cardamom, wineglass full of fruit juice (peach or apricot, original recipe calls for brandy). Beat the egg whites, then the egg yolks, then combine and add sugar. Then add butter, cream, cardamom, fruit juice, and flour enough to handle, add just enough flour so mixture will leave the hands. There is dnage of toughening the mixture with too much flour. When thoroughly mixed, place in a cool place over night. Roll as thin as possible, without flour. Cut in diamond shapes and make a slit in the center with a cookie cutter. Then pull one corner through the slit. Fry in deep fat until a delicate brown color. Sprinkle with powdered sugar as soon as they have been fried.

Fattigmands Bakkelse

12 egg yolks, 2 whites, 18 tablespoons sugar, small bottle cream, scant teaspoon cardamom, 5 tablespoons melted sugar, 3 tablespoons brandy. Beat yolks, add sugar and beat. Add in order melted butter, cream, whites of eggs, and brandy, flour enough to handle. Roll thin, cut in diamond shapes and cut a slit in center of each cake. Fry in hot lard until a very light brown.

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The three versions of Fattigmands Bakkelse intrigued me so much that I spent a bit of time looking at other recipes for Norwegian "Poor Man's Cakes". That search led me to the Milwaukee Public Library's Digital Collections Historic Recipe File (https://www.mpl.org/special_collections/images/historic-recipe-file), which sent me down an hours-long rabbit hole.

Fattigmands Bakkelse

3 eggs
1 cup sugar
1/4 cup cream
1/2 cup melted butter
1-1/2 teaspoons vanilla
3-1/2 cups sifted all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon baking powder
About 3 pounds fat for deep frying
Confectioners' sugar

Beat eggs at medium speed of electric mixer until very light and fluffy. Add sugar gradually. Beat well. Add cream, butter and vanilla. Sift flour three times with salt and baking powder. Turn to a low speed. Add dry ingredients to egg mixture. Blend. Chill several hours or overnight.
Roll small portions of dough one-sixteenth inch thick on well floured canvas. The crispness of the bakkel depends on the thinness of the dough. Cut with pastry wheel or knife into small diamond shapes. Cut a three-fourths inch lengthwise slash in center of diamond. Pull one end of the diamond through the slash.
Fry at 365 degrees until delicately browned. Drain on absorbent paper. Sprinkle with confectioners' sugar. Makes about nine dozen depending on size of diamond.

Source: Milwaukee Journal (November 12, 1964), via  MPL Digital Collections Historic Recipe File (https://content.mpl.org/digital/collection/histrecipe/id/2839/rec/1).