Wednesday, March 17, 2010

Cooking with Ketchup.

As explained yesterday, short recipe curiosities are the order of the day until the IT issues are sorted out at the Old Foodie residence. Today’s treat is the joy that can result from cooking with commercial condiments – specifically, Heinz Tomato Ketchup. If you are having a ‘secret ingredient’ dinner, the following fruit crumble might do nicely for dessert.

Major League Rhubarb
Combine ½ cup sugar with 2 teaspoons salt, ½ teaspoon cinnamon, ¼ teaspoon nutmeg and 2 cups soft breadcrumbs. Stir 1 ½ cups of this mixture into one 12 ounce package of frozen rhubarb that has been thawed in a greased 1 ½ quart casserole. Add 1 medium banana and 1 medium tart apple, each peeled and thinly sliced. Pour over casserole contents a mixture of ½ cup ketchup and 1 tablespoon each lemon juice and rind. Sprinkle with remaining breadcrumb mixture, dot with 2 tablespoons butter or margarine, and bake, covered, in a moderate (350 degree) oven 30 minutes. Uncover, bake 20 minutes longer. Serve warm or cold, garnished with either whipped cream, cottage cheese, sour cream or ice-cream.
[Sarasota Herald-Tribune, Oct 3, 1957]

Of course, you may prefer something a bit more conventional, and considerably less scary, so, from a Heinz advertisement of 1957, we have:

Almond Chick-Up.
Heat oven to 375 degrees F (Moderately hot.)
Shake 3 lb cut-up frying chicken in paper bag with ½ cup flour, 1 Tabs. Salt, ¼ tsp pepper, 1 Tbs. paprika. Brown chicken in ½ cup melted shortening. Place in 2-qt. casserole. Sauté ¼ cup blanched almonds, slivered, in same shortening. Blend in remaining flour mixture. Stir in ¾ cup water and 1 can Heinz Consommé, undiluted. When thick, add 14oz. Heinz Tomato Ketchup, ½ cup dairy sour cream. Pour over chicken – cover – bake 50 min. Top with ½ cup grated process American cheese. Bake, uncovered,10 min (8 servings)


Today is also a fine opportunity to remind you of the history of Tomato Soup Cake:


Quotation for the Day.

“Blessed relief for Mother and the other women in the household!”
Heinz slogan for ketchup, 1876.

5 comments:

Fay said...

I feel quite unwell now. Might have to go and have a lie down in a darkened room.

The Old Foodie said...

I felt the same way myself, Fay.

SometimesKate said...

A friend's mother gave me her recipe for sweet and sour sauce. It sounds ghastly, but it really is good. One cup each grape jelly and Heinz ketchup, cooked till it's clear. Well, as clear as it gets, anyway. I also have a recipe for a fantastic BBQ sauce involving ketchup and southern comfort.

One last useless bit of trivia, when I was very, very small, I considered it a treat when we had "Magic Ketchup", which was just adding a bit of water to the bottle so that the last dregs would pour out when the bottle was pretty much empty. I was only three or four, so it seemed quite impressive to me.

tasteofbeirut said...

Interesting and speedy way tp prepare a delicious chicken meal.

The Old Foodie said...

Hello tasteofbeirut: the chicken sounds OK, it is the rhubarb that sounds very odd!