I love July's variety, thank you for curating all of these tidbits. I just started your Cottage Tales series (on book 2) and love the map and list of characters in the front. I feel an echo to Angela Thirkell's Barsetshire novels, which I recall searching for in every library and used bookstore when I discovered them in the 1990s.
I love the avocado mention, too. I just began studying herbalism in May, and have been learning to practice the Doctrine of Signatures (nature’s intelligence gives us hints to the uses of plants in their appearance). When I followed the link you provided to medicinal uses, the picture of the avocado immediately made me think of a uterus, and ta da! Among the uses: to induce abortion and promote menstrual flow.
What a treasure this month’s newsletter is, with so many ideas and information. The Joy of Cooking has been my mainstay for years, but I had no idea of Rombauer’s use of Martha as her mascot! A little disappointed that Canada Day on July 1st wasn’t included in the dates to remember; I’m sure you have subscribers from your neighbour to the north. You have at least one enthusiastic follower from Nova Scotia! Thanks, too, for at least one more China Bayles story (I haven’t read it yet but it’s on my summer reading list).
Carol Anne, on "days," I look for holidays with strong food/plant associations: Victoria Day=Victoria Sponge, Fourth/July=native teas. Is there such an association w/Canada Day? And yes, TP&S has 700+ subscribers in Canada, so I'd love to include it!
Since Canada Day is our national holiday (like July 4th for Americans) and the first holiday of summer, the most common foods would be summer salads, BBQ foods, etc. But the maple is our national tree, the maple leaf features on our flag, and maple syrup products are strongly associated with our country (the provinces of Quebec and New Brunswick are large producers of maple syrup, maple sugar, maple candy). Maple tree tapping takes place in late winter, which is when maple sugar festivals occur, so maple products may not necessarily be consumed on Canada Day itself. Each region would be serving local specialties for their Canada Day celebrations. For instance, here in Atlantic Canada, it would be seafood, strawberries (the height of the season), and fresh produce. However, our chefs are always coming up with interesting recipes featuring maple syrup in international culinary competitions, so it definitely is one of the defining foods of Canada.
As we are settling back down after a truly stressful week, I'm reminded that some herbs will be useful to us over the next few weeks, starting with comfrey. I'll have to research what else to serve up to my wife, who managed to break both her elbow and her hip (femur only, fortunately) on Monday evening. After 4 days in the hospital, she has pins in the femur and a splint on the arm, a special attachment on our new walker to allow her to use it with the broken elbow, and in-home PT starting later today. She's managing extremely well for a woman of 78.
One of the cats contributed to the chaos by developing a urinary tract infection. She spent a day at the vet but added three medications to the daily cat medication routine. And she's also well on the way to recovery.
Meanwhile, I'm leaving for a 9-day trip on Saturday and we need to have more helpers lined up before I get on the train. I'm not the best at organization and coordination, nor at asking for help. I asked my Threshold Choir chapter members to send healing to my wife and calming energy to me. I will be asking neighbors for more concrete stuff.
I'd like to go see what's left in the strawberry patch after a week of neglect, but don't want to leave the house for longer than 5 or 10 minutes at a time right now. Hoping you all have calmer waters in your life.
So sorry to hear about your wretched week, Patricia, and I’m sending healing thoughts to your wife. Do learn to ask for/ seek help! It’s a lesson I had to learn too, but there comes a point when ‘it takes a village’ is the right path. Stay strong and keep yourself healthy ❤️
Patricia, please tell your wife a little lady in the Olympic Mtns is send healing thoughts her way. As well as all good thoughts for you Patricia and your kitty. Getting the word out that your wife will need help while you are gone is a good starting point. The good news is that healing can happen even in our mid 70's. Get your rest as best you can. It is so important at a time like this. Loving peace to you all.
Oh, Patricia--sending strongest healing wishes to your wife. Traditional for broken bones: comfrey/boneset poultices (hard to apply w/splint). And so difficult for you to be gone! Hope you can find comfortable ways to manage all you have to do over the next couple of weeks!
After reading this July post, I like July even more! With days for blueberries, ice cream, sugar cookies, apples and peaches it sounds so heavenly! Throw in some ginger snaps and avocados and it sounds perfect to me.
Remembering The Joy of Cooking. I was a next to broke barmaid living in quaint little LaConner, Wa. I was in the habit of stopping by The Bookery our wonderful little bookstore on my way to work where one could catch-up on all of the news of the day and local gossip. While there I also often looked up recipes in The Joy of Cooking. So-much-so that when The Bookery closed some years later the owner (coincidently named Martha) kindly gifted the shelf copy to me! Over the years I have read it stem to stern. I still can sit down with it and a cup of tea for a happy read. Perfect for July reading!
Oh, what fun, Sandy! I wonder if you've noticed the Cheese Custard Pie on p 60 (in my facsimile edition, or check the index), which Irma attributed to that "vile-tempered" Swiss cook. I'm not a food historian, but to my knowledge, this is the first quiche recipe in an American cookbook.
Susan, must admit I was usually looking up the Quiche Loraine just above the Cheese Custard Pie on page 255 in my copy. Interesting to know of the American history of Cheese Custard Pie! This reminds me of one of my early uses of Joy of Cooking. A group of us were giving an older friend a gala send-off for a trip to Mikonos and were serving a wide variety of homemade Greek foods for the occasion. Stuffed grape leaves, baklava, and many other Greek favorites. I was asked to make a grape flavored pudding - of all things!?! There I was stirring my arm off because the pudding would not set. Then I checked Joy of Cooking, which did not have the recipe, but did suggest making a steamed pudding in the oven!! Yes! 🤗✨
You are welcome, Lynne. Oh yes, these days we are all on a continuous learning path. My bank just informed me that I can no longer use my phone for depositing checks because I need a new phone. It is a smart phone and I have been using it quite nicely for depositing checks until yesterday. GRRR .... I may need to go bite somebody's ankle over this. 😅
I think they are getting a lot of flak over this. The customer service has an hour long wait to speak with anyone! It is good to know that I am not alone in saying, "Wait a minute, you change the bank online operation and I have to buy a phone to use it now?" This is crazy. Maybe I better write a letter .... to our local paper. 😉
Say Lynne, see those 3 little dots off to the right of each of our posts? You can click them to edit your post at any time. 😃 As to how spellcheck decides what we are talking about... lord only knows!! I think streusel topping for a grape pies sound very, very good!! 👍
Of course I had to check my JoC (I have two, one very battered copy from 1964, one replacement copy from about 1980) - no Shrimp Wiggle, no bad-tempered Swiss cook. Such a pity! One of my favourite cookbooks is Around the World in 80 Dishes by Lesley Blanch - as wife of a French ambassador she lived in various countries and each recipe has a story of some kind. Great recipes too, a very entertaining read.
Lynne, here's the intro to Irma's Cheese Custard Pie, from the 1931 facsimile edition. "In Switzerland, we had a vile tempered cook named Marguerite. Her one idea, after being generally disagreeable, was to earn enough to own a small chalet on some high peak, where she could cater to mountain climbers. While she was certainly not born with a silver spoon in her mouth – although it was large enough to accommodate several – I am convinced she arrived with a cooking spoon in her hand. If she has attained her ideal, many a climber will feel it worthwhile to scale a perilous peak to reach her kitchen. The following Cheese Custard Pie was always served in solitary state. Its flavor varied with Margarita's mood, and her supply of cheese. It was if she has attained her ideal, many a climber will feel it worthwhile to scale perilous peak to reach her kitchen. The following cheese, custard pie was always served in solitary state. It’s flavor varied with Margarita's mood, and her supply of cheese. It was never twice the same, as she had no written rule, but I have endeavored to make one like hers for it would be a pity to relegate so good a dish to in accessible roosts. "
There are wonderful little notes like this throughout. It's a shame that those were deleted from the later editions!
Agreed! The notes, for me, enhance the recipe. One of the reasons I love the Hairy Bikers series of cookbooks, which my sister sent me, is the notes on where they first tasted or cooked something, or how mum did it this way. Speaking of mum, mine used to make what she called egg and bacon, a favourite Saturday lunch - it was years before I realized it was Quiche Lorraine 😁
Well, that was the style back in the 1950s/60s, when cookery was being "professionalized." Now, cookbooks are personal again, and cookbook publishers appreciate that foods are stories and that cooks have stories to share.
Around the World in 80 Dishes sounds fun! I have made a note and will look for it at my favorite online book finder sites. I do enjoy a good cookbook read. 🙂
You might check which edition you have. I believe there are 9. Another of my favorites 😂 from the first (facsimile): Shrimp Wiggle. Did that make it into your edition? How did the steamed pudding turn out?
And does your JoC Cheese Custard Pie recipe have the intro paragraph about that bad-tempered Swiss cook?
Susan, thanks for the update with the Wikipedia JoC link! So interesting!! My JoC is apparently a printing of the 6th edition - the most popular according to the information. Sadly, it does not have a reference to the bad-tempered Swiss cook. But there is an overall sense of Irma with little comments before and after many recipes and sections that are not attributed ... but surly implied as her thoughts.
With the family/publisher history this looks like a historical fiction in the making. Thank you for drawing my attention to this background of JoC!!!
When one reads what prompted her to compile the recipes and get them published at that time in our country and having just lost her husband to suicide, my yes, I do admire her! I also feel for her daughter and now later family members who have tried to restore some of the flavor of Irma's original cookbook after wrestling with the various publishers to gain some control of future editions. Will be keeping my eye open for possible reprints of the original or perhaps a book about it!
Yes, I had to start over, but the steamed grape pudding was a success!
Sad to say Susan, that there is no Shrimp Wiggle in my 5th printing of the 1975 version. It is quite a tome of 915 pages. I love that it has all of Irma's insights through-out. Here is another funny coincidence, I just looked Shrimp Wiggle up on the Internet and the recipe is remarkably similar to one shared in one of Mary Daheim's Bed and Breakfast mysteries where it is called Shrimp Dump! LOL The cousins argue through-out the book as to whether something called Shrimp Dump can be served a Church Women's Luncheon. Rather imagine Shrimp Wiggle might have the same concern. I say Bring it on!
BTW - page 60 in my version is in the middle of a section of mixed drink recipes. Which has also proved helpful over the years. I rarely drink liquor and have needed some help with serving drinks. Irma is full of lots of help like glasses to use and how to make things festive.
Now that you mention it, I see Shrimp Wiggle all over the internet. Apparently first in the 1898 Fannie Farmer Cookbook. I used the earliest JoC and Farmer as reliable sources for recipes in the Dahlias.
I love July's variety, thank you for curating all of these tidbits. I just started your Cottage Tales series (on book 2) and love the map and list of characters in the front. I feel an echo to Angela Thirkell's Barsetshire novels, which I recall searching for in every library and used bookstore when I discovered them in the 1990s.
I love the avocado mention, too. I just began studying herbalism in May, and have been learning to practice the Doctrine of Signatures (nature’s intelligence gives us hints to the uses of plants in their appearance). When I followed the link you provided to medicinal uses, the picture of the avocado immediately made me think of a uterus, and ta da! Among the uses: to induce abortion and promote menstrual flow.
I really enjoyed this Susan. I also loved your latest China Bayles book, Forget Me Never! Thanks so much for writing it.
Thanks, Linda. In that book, China taught me some things I really wanted to know about herbs!
What a treasure this month’s newsletter is, with so many ideas and information. The Joy of Cooking has been my mainstay for years, but I had no idea of Rombauer’s use of Martha as her mascot! A little disappointed that Canada Day on July 1st wasn’t included in the dates to remember; I’m sure you have subscribers from your neighbour to the north. You have at least one enthusiastic follower from Nova Scotia! Thanks, too, for at least one more China Bayles story (I haven’t read it yet but it’s on my summer reading list).
Carol Anne, on "days," I look for holidays with strong food/plant associations: Victoria Day=Victoria Sponge, Fourth/July=native teas. Is there such an association w/Canada Day? And yes, TP&S has 700+ subscribers in Canada, so I'd love to include it!
Since Canada Day is our national holiday (like July 4th for Americans) and the first holiday of summer, the most common foods would be summer salads, BBQ foods, etc. But the maple is our national tree, the maple leaf features on our flag, and maple syrup products are strongly associated with our country (the provinces of Quebec and New Brunswick are large producers of maple syrup, maple sugar, maple candy). Maple tree tapping takes place in late winter, which is when maple sugar festivals occur, so maple products may not necessarily be consumed on Canada Day itself. Each region would be serving local specialties for their Canada Day celebrations. For instance, here in Atlantic Canada, it would be seafood, strawberries (the height of the season), and fresh produce. However, our chefs are always coming up with interesting recipes featuring maple syrup in international culinary competitions, so it definitely is one of the defining foods of Canada.
Butter tarts! They have my vote 😁
Carol Anne, would this work? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Poutine
This dish is certainly ubiquitous throughout Canada now, and extremely popular. It’s not my favourite since I don’t appreciate soggy fries, but many
people adore it (I imagine I’m in a minority!).
I updated the post--best I can do for now but I'll rethink it for next year, when I have more time. Thanks for the nudge! https://susanwittigalbert.substack.com/p/all-about-thyme-july-2024
I'm glad the ice cream and sugar cookies are honored in the same month. It only seems right.
Just picked up the new book at the library!
Wonderful! Hope you enjoy it, Marylouise.
As we are settling back down after a truly stressful week, I'm reminded that some herbs will be useful to us over the next few weeks, starting with comfrey. I'll have to research what else to serve up to my wife, who managed to break both her elbow and her hip (femur only, fortunately) on Monday evening. After 4 days in the hospital, she has pins in the femur and a splint on the arm, a special attachment on our new walker to allow her to use it with the broken elbow, and in-home PT starting later today. She's managing extremely well for a woman of 78.
One of the cats contributed to the chaos by developing a urinary tract infection. She spent a day at the vet but added three medications to the daily cat medication routine. And she's also well on the way to recovery.
Meanwhile, I'm leaving for a 9-day trip on Saturday and we need to have more helpers lined up before I get on the train. I'm not the best at organization and coordination, nor at asking for help. I asked my Threshold Choir chapter members to send healing to my wife and calming energy to me. I will be asking neighbors for more concrete stuff.
I'd like to go see what's left in the strawberry patch after a week of neglect, but don't want to leave the house for longer than 5 or 10 minutes at a time right now. Hoping you all have calmer waters in your life.
So sorry to hear about your wretched week, Patricia, and I’m sending healing thoughts to your wife. Do learn to ask for/ seek help! It’s a lesson I had to learn too, but there comes a point when ‘it takes a village’ is the right path. Stay strong and keep yourself healthy ❤️
Patricia, please tell your wife a little lady in the Olympic Mtns is send healing thoughts her way. As well as all good thoughts for you Patricia and your kitty. Getting the word out that your wife will need help while you are gone is a good starting point. The good news is that healing can happen even in our mid 70's. Get your rest as best you can. It is so important at a time like this. Loving peace to you all.
Oh, Patricia--sending strongest healing wishes to your wife. Traditional for broken bones: comfrey/boneset poultices (hard to apply w/splint). And so difficult for you to be gone! Hope you can find comfortable ways to manage all you have to do over the next couple of weeks!
After reading this July post, I like July even more! With days for blueberries, ice cream, sugar cookies, apples and peaches it sounds so heavenly! Throw in some ginger snaps and avocados and it sounds perfect to me.
Remembering The Joy of Cooking. I was a next to broke barmaid living in quaint little LaConner, Wa. I was in the habit of stopping by The Bookery our wonderful little bookstore on my way to work where one could catch-up on all of the news of the day and local gossip. While there I also often looked up recipes in The Joy of Cooking. So-much-so that when The Bookery closed some years later the owner (coincidently named Martha) kindly gifted the shelf copy to me! Over the years I have read it stem to stern. I still can sit down with it and a cup of tea for a happy read. Perfect for July reading!
Oh, what fun, Sandy! I wonder if you've noticed the Cheese Custard Pie on p 60 (in my facsimile edition, or check the index), which Irma attributed to that "vile-tempered" Swiss cook. I'm not a food historian, but to my knowledge, this is the first quiche recipe in an American cookbook.
Susan, must admit I was usually looking up the Quiche Loraine just above the Cheese Custard Pie on page 255 in my copy. Interesting to know of the American history of Cheese Custard Pie! This reminds me of one of my early uses of Joy of Cooking. A group of us were giving an older friend a gala send-off for a trip to Mikonos and were serving a wide variety of homemade Greek foods for the occasion. Stuffed grape leaves, baklava, and many other Greek favorites. I was asked to make a grape flavored pudding - of all things!?! There I was stirring my arm off because the pudding would not set. Then I checked Joy of Cooking, which did not have the recipe, but did suggest making a steamed pudding in the oven!! Yes! 🤗✨
Thanks, Sandy 😍 Another day, another lesson!
You are welcome, Lynne. Oh yes, these days we are all on a continuous learning path. My bank just informed me that I can no longer use my phone for depositing checks because I need a new phone. It is a smart phone and I have been using it quite nicely for depositing checks until yesterday. GRRR .... I may need to go bite somebody's ankle over this. 😅
Go for it! I’ve been in a war with banks for ages, they must have a Department to Drive Customers Mad, don’t you
think? I’d be out thousands if I weren’t so stubborn (yes, I admit it😁)
I think they are getting a lot of flak over this. The customer service has an hour long wait to speak with anyone! It is good to know that I am not alone in saying, "Wait a minute, you change the bank online operation and I have to buy a phone to use it now?" This is crazy. Maybe I better write a letter .... to our local paper. 😉
Never made grape pudding but every year when the Concord grapes come in I make at least one
Grape pie. They must be Concord grapes and it’s a labour of love to make but SO good. Google Canadian grape pie and you’ll see several recipes.
Good to know Lynne! Thanks for tell us about it. I love Concord grape jelly! 😃
How did grapes become gears?? Have to read more carefully! I do the version with streusel topping, family likes it best.
We've all learned to read *creatively.* :)
Say Lynne, see those 3 little dots off to the right of each of our posts? You can click them to edit your post at any time. 😃 As to how spellcheck decides what we are talking about... lord only knows!! I think streusel topping for a grape pies sound very, very good!! 👍
Of course I had to check my JoC (I have two, one very battered copy from 1964, one replacement copy from about 1980) - no Shrimp Wiggle, no bad-tempered Swiss cook. Such a pity! One of my favourite cookbooks is Around the World in 80 Dishes by Lesley Blanch - as wife of a French ambassador she lived in various countries and each recipe has a story of some kind. Great recipes too, a very entertaining read.
Lynne, here's the intro to Irma's Cheese Custard Pie, from the 1931 facsimile edition. "In Switzerland, we had a vile tempered cook named Marguerite. Her one idea, after being generally disagreeable, was to earn enough to own a small chalet on some high peak, where she could cater to mountain climbers. While she was certainly not born with a silver spoon in her mouth – although it was large enough to accommodate several – I am convinced she arrived with a cooking spoon in her hand. If she has attained her ideal, many a climber will feel it worthwhile to scale a perilous peak to reach her kitchen. The following Cheese Custard Pie was always served in solitary state. Its flavor varied with Margarita's mood, and her supply of cheese. It was if she has attained her ideal, many a climber will feel it worthwhile to scale perilous peak to reach her kitchen. The following cheese, custard pie was always served in solitary state. It’s flavor varied with Margarita's mood, and her supply of cheese. It was never twice the same, as she had no written rule, but I have endeavored to make one like hers for it would be a pity to relegate so good a dish to in accessible roosts. "
There are wonderful little notes like this throughout. It's a shame that those were deleted from the later editions!
Agreed! The notes, for me, enhance the recipe. One of the reasons I love the Hairy Bikers series of cookbooks, which my sister sent me, is the notes on where they first tasted or cooked something, or how mum did it this way. Speaking of mum, mine used to make what she called egg and bacon, a favourite Saturday lunch - it was years before I realized it was Quiche Lorraine 😁
That should have read ‘egg and bacon pie’!
Susan, I agree about the stupid mistake to have cut Irma's notes!
Well, that was the style back in the 1950s/60s, when cookery was being "professionalized." Now, cookbooks are personal again, and cookbook publishers appreciate that foods are stories and that cooks have stories to share.
Around the World in 80 Dishes sounds fun! I have made a note and will look for it at my favorite online book finder sites. I do enjoy a good cookbook read. 🙂
Sandy, see my reply to Lynne's note about 80 Dishes.
You’ll probably find a good used copy! Think you’ll enjoy it 😁
You might check which edition you have. I believe there are 9. Another of my favorites 😂 from the first (facsimile): Shrimp Wiggle. Did that make it into your edition? How did the steamed pudding turn out?
And does your JoC Cheese Custard Pie recipe have the intro paragraph about that bad-tempered Swiss cook?
Update: just found a history of the editions here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joy_of_Cooking
Susan, thanks for the update with the Wikipedia JoC link! So interesting!! My JoC is apparently a printing of the 6th edition - the most popular according to the information. Sadly, it does not have a reference to the bad-tempered Swiss cook. But there is an overall sense of Irma with little comments before and after many recipes and sections that are not attributed ... but surly implied as her thoughts.
With the family/publisher history this looks like a historical fiction in the making. Thank you for drawing my attention to this background of JoC!!!
It's such a wonderful piece of work--and self-published, too. Gotta admire that woman!
When one reads what prompted her to compile the recipes and get them published at that time in our country and having just lost her husband to suicide, my yes, I do admire her! I also feel for her daughter and now later family members who have tried to restore some of the flavor of Irma's original cookbook after wrestling with the various publishers to gain some control of future editions. Will be keeping my eye open for possible reprints of the original or perhaps a book about it!
Yes, I had to start over, but the steamed grape pudding was a success!
Sad to say Susan, that there is no Shrimp Wiggle in my 5th printing of the 1975 version. It is quite a tome of 915 pages. I love that it has all of Irma's insights through-out. Here is another funny coincidence, I just looked Shrimp Wiggle up on the Internet and the recipe is remarkably similar to one shared in one of Mary Daheim's Bed and Breakfast mysteries where it is called Shrimp Dump! LOL The cousins argue through-out the book as to whether something called Shrimp Dump can be served a Church Women's Luncheon. Rather imagine Shrimp Wiggle might have the same concern. I say Bring it on!
BTW - page 60 in my version is in the middle of a section of mixed drink recipes. Which has also proved helpful over the years. I rarely drink liquor and have needed some help with serving drinks. Irma is full of lots of help like glasses to use and how to make things festive.
Now that you mention it, I see Shrimp Wiggle all over the internet. Apparently first in the 1898 Fannie Farmer Cookbook. I used the earliest JoC and Farmer as reliable sources for recipes in the Dahlias.
👍✨😊
July is going to be a good month. Interesting to learn that avocado is an herb with medicinal uses. Something to look into.
Green history has plenty to teach us!