August 9, 2015
This issue of Gourmet, January 1951, has lost its cover. Which is too bad; according to the copy inside, the illustration was a pig's head in honor of the magazine's tenth anniversary. (The first cover also sported a pig's head.) But what's left is rich indeed. A great article by Louis Diat about the Ritz. Some fine Food Flashes from Clementine Paddleford. An article about halibut by the great Robert P. Tristram Coffin. Samuel Chamberlin on Franche Comte (along with a recipe for cherry soup that I'll print tomorrow).
Then there is this rather remarkable article that tells you how to cook the pig's head – along with every other part of the pig. Herewith, a small sampling. Personally, I find La Pompadour's recipe really does make me want to eat my heart out.
August 8, 2015
Heading off to the farmers market, where I know I'll buy some corn. Who could possibly resist this time of year? And so, as promised, a vintage corn recipe from the stack of old Gourmet magazines. This one is from an October issue; in 1974, was there still corn in the markets in October?
This year summer has been so lush that the corn will certainly be gone by the time fall rolls around. So the time to make corn soup is now.
And here, from the same issue's article on breakfast sausages, are
Corny Sausage Puffs
Couldn't resist this ad from the issue. Not because I find the idea of a long cigarette so compelling, but because whatever these two are traveling in (train? plane?), I'd like to join them. Look at those seats!
August 7, 2015
This is another recipe from yesterday’s vintage issue of Gourmet, June 1983.
Looks very appealing to me.
Tomorrow: a couple of corn recipes from the past.
August 6, 2015
It's June 1983, and on the cover of Gourmet two chefs in Wales head out to the kitchen garden to gather food for dinner. Early farm to table!
Inside the ads are primarily for cigarettes and booze – although there is this rather wonderful ad which says a great deal about what people worried about at the start of the eighties.
As for recipes…. this one, for a sort of Spanish chicken, impressed me as very much of its time. (Although I am puzzled by the size of the chicken; when was the last time you saw a bird this small?)
August 5, 2015
Peach Upside Down Cake
This is from this September 1974 issue of Gourmet. Please not that this cover dates from a time when the magazine had no thoughts of newsstand sales, and was confident that its readers did not need to be persuaded to open the magazine. (The doors belong to the Beau-Rivage Hotel in Lausanne; inside Joseph Wechsberg "details the delights of this splendid hotel on Lake Geneva's shore.")
And here, for your further entertainment, is my favorite ad from the issue:
