Today’s Vintage Recipe is Very Surprising

July 15, 2015

You will instantly notice a change from the past couple of covers: we've jumped to 1982, and new possibilities in printing. Say farewell to illustrated covers as we enter the age of photography.

But this pretty cover hides some serious surprises; the food inside is not nearly as docile and ladylike as the photograph would lead you to believe.  I sat staring at this menu for the fourth of July, trying to imagine a modern magazine (other than Lucky Peach) brave enough to list some of these recipes:

Smoked tongue and goat cheese triangles?  When was the last time you saw a recipe for tongue in a contemporary publication?  As for the now-ubiquitous goat cheese, the first American goat cheese (made by Laurie Chenel in Napa), appeared a mere three years before this issue was published, so it was an extremely arcane ingredient.  Who would believe that the magazine was advocating raw fish in 1982? And finally, what on earth is a "Caroline"?

Here are those intriguing little tongue tidbits:

And here's the (not exactly uncomplicated) recipe:

Tomorrow we'll look into that cured scrod recipe, and try to solve the mystery of "caroline."  (Trust me, those carolines are cute.) 

But for now, another surprising recipe from this issue.  Who would have suspected that thirty-five years ago Gourmet was publishing tofu recipes?  It came, incidentally, from an Atlanta restaurant called Eat Your Vegetables. 

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