Chapter 43 (Sunday Dinner at the Dixons’ continued)

How It Tasted

Fried Chicken

Foul! (pun not intended)

Sadly, the chicken was indescribably bad—an assault on practically all of the senses that left everyone at the table rather stunned. Despite reaching an internal temperature of 175 degrees Fahrenheit the chicken was a rubbery as if it had just fluttered onto the table—our jaws were working double time to get it down.

And of course the look of the bird was equally appalling (see above). As I’d noticed during the frying process the browned part of each piece stuck to the bottom of the pan and then broke down, leaving each piece with a layer wallpaper paste well-spiked with oil.

This dish was so terrible that no one even realized it was supposed to fried chicken (I was too embarrassed to enlighten them). I doubt Mrs. Dixon’s version came out as badly as mine, but there’s no doubt in my mind that, had that been the case, her husband would have called for an immediate end to the domestic experiment and moved back to the hotel that night.

Dixie Sweet Potatoes

Another failure—not on as grand a scale as the chicken, but still pretty bad.

The main trouble with the potatoes was not that they were too sweet but rather failed to cook evenly. In the allotted cooking time some became tender, some mushy, and some seemingly as tough as when they first went into the oven.

The dish’s appearance was also something of a stunner to everyone: great, knobby potatoes covered with slices of frizzled bacon and unidentifiable gooey bits of something [pineapple] that everyone nervously avoided.

Corn on the Cob

Filip: This I like.

This simple dish was a godsend and ultimately saved us from the expense of a delivery pizza. After passing on the chicken and potatoes (not that I could blame them) DH and Son were ravenous, and the corn filled them up nicely. I had cooked three ears and that really wasn’t enough—they easily could have twice as much.

Bread and Butter

I’m not a corn fancier so for me this dish was manna from heaven—after eschewing the poisonous chicken and potatoes I too was ravenous and stuffed myself with bread. Certainly there was nothing special about this commercial, pre-sliced loaf, but at least it was there and really pretty decent.

Sliced Cucumber, Tomato and Onion Salad

A confession: I cheated here with the dressing. One taste of Mr. Dixon’s specialty sent me straight to the bottle of Kraft Zesty Italian I keep tucked away in the refrigerator. Unlike my husband and son I don’t mind an acid tang in dressings, but this was just too much—like chugging vinegar straight from the bottle.

The vegetables themselves were less successful than expected—I think we all would have preferred thin slices rather than adobe-like blocks (although my son did derive some entertainment by stacking them into towers).

Vanilla Ice Cream with Peaches

Milomir: I’ll have some more of that.

This was the one true success of the meal, and it was a huge relief to have something come out well. The ice cream was far superior to any commercial brand I’ve ever tasted—smooth and creamy, not overly sweet, and with just a touch of vanilla.

The peaches meant to accompany the ice cream however were something of a flop. They were purchased frozen (as noted above) and, even properly defrosted, had an unsettling crunch that clashed with the oh-so-smooth cream.

White Cake

Milomir: Are there any nuts to sprinkle on top?

I really enjoyed this cake—DH and Son were somewhat less enthusiastic.

The cake itself was what I’ve come to expect from Bettina-style cakes: dense, weighty, anything but delicate. But the frosting was excellent, with a pleasant color and a nice caramel-like flavor. My husband thought some chopped nuts would have improved it but, in my opinion, that would have been gilding the lily.

Iced Tea

Again, I appreciated this beverage more than my husband and son (the caffeine thing again, I suppose), but they both dutifully drank a glass. It helped some that besides adding lemon slices I’d pre-sugared the tea—certainly made it more palatable and saved everyone the trouble of searching for the sugar bowl.

Would I Make This Again?

Heck, no…taken as a whole this meal took far too long to prepare, and two of the dishes were completely inedible. Quick and easy it isn’t—Mrs. Dixon would have had to have rocks in her head (or a secret helper in the kitchen) even to attempt this…it’s definitely not for a kitchen newbie. But I don’t believe even Bettina could make the chicken and sweet potatoes appealing—for the sake of domestic harmony one can only hope the Dixon’s dog upended the table before the guests had a chance to dig in.

Chapter 43 (Sunday Dinner at the Dixons’)

Introduction

Turnabout is fair play—for once Bob and Bettina have gathered around the Dixons’ table, and my! what an interesting meal has been set before them.

Taking a leaf from Bettina’s book Mrs. Dixon has ensured husband Frank’s cooperation by letting him plan the meal: fried chicken “with all the accessories”—and “so simple” to throw together!

Part 1

The Menu

Fried Chicken

New Boiled Potatoes

Dixie Sweet Potatoes

Corn on the Cob

Bread

Butter

Sliced Cucumber, Tomato, and Onion Salad

Oil Dressing

Vanilla Ice Cream with Peaches

White Cake

Iced Tea

This menu contains a puzzler: both new boiled potatoes and Dixie sweet potatoes are listed. The first appeared in the first version of the book; both in the 1932 edition. As much as I’ve become accustomed to following Bettina’s menus without question (well, most of the time) I’m going to assume this was a typo and two different kinds of potato aren’t required for the meal.

Probably I should stick with the plain boiled potatoes in the interests of simplicity, but I think I’ll go with the latter…sweet potatoes are loaded (as we now know) with beta-carotene, and I haven’t yet found an enjoyable way to prepare them…today may be my luck day!

Preparing the Meal

Fried Chicken 

Well, locating a whole chicken is simple enough—breaking it into usable parts much more of a challenge.

Fortunately I have Bettina’s chicken-snapping process (Chapter 32 Bettina Attends a Morning Wedding) to serve as a guide. It’s so very graphic it makes me a tad uncomfortable, but hey! whatever works.

Legs quarters broken off the carcass.

Separated into legs and thighs.

Mister (or I guess Mrs.) Chicken has lost her wings…

…and breast.

The breast broken/cut into two—plus an unidentifiable bit of white meat that seemed to appear from nowhere.

The back. Yes, supposedly it’s a usable piece (certainly considered so by Depression cooks) but no way I’m frying this up and slapping it on the table. I’ll freeze it for a soup or stew.

The pieces sprinkled with salt and paprika.

Then dredged in flour.

After melting butter and lard in my Dutch over I put in the chicken pieces.

Thoroughly browned. Now I add ½ cup water, lower the temperature, and clap on the lid. According to the recipe it should take about forty-five minutes to fry.

Uh-oh. Somehow the browned part of the chicken stuck to the bottom of the pan and dissolved. Now I have a collection of sad chicken parts boiling in what appears to be wallpaper paste.

(This doesn’t look good. Now what? Wonder if KFC delivers…)

Dixie Sweet Potatoes

Six whole potatoes—quite a lot (hope this is good as we’re going to be eating it for at least the next two  meals).

The recipe says they must be peeled (obvious).

Unfortunately the peeled potatoes started discoloring immediately and I had to put them cold water while I prepared the pineapple.

This pineapple was absolutely green when I purchased it, so I wrapped it in paper in hopes it would ripen some…now, three days later, it’s the moment of truth.

Perfect!

Looking good. The paper bag trick really works.

The pineapple is to be chopped into bits and then spooned over the potatoes before they go into the oven. Sounds kind of odd to me, but maybe it will cut some of the potatoes’ sweetness.

½ cup of brown sugar sprinkled over the potatoes (as if they weren’t sweet enough!)

Umm…this looks a little strange.

And lastly strips of bacon are laid over the top. Yow.

And finally add some water to the baking dish and cook it in a “moderate” oven for approximately forty-five minutes. This all seems pretty unusual, but we’ll see.

Corn on the Cob

Happily fresh corn has just come on the market. I used that Jolly Green Giant pre-fab corn last time, and the result wasn’t too satisfactory.

Three ears should be enough.

Ugh, the one drawback with loose ears of corn is the husks and the silk. No matter how carefully I shuck it the stuff gets everywhere.

And that’s that…just need to put the ears in boiling water about five minutes before the meal. Nice.

Bread and Butter

This Sunday meal is so fussy I decided to play it safe and choose the most uncomplicated bread possible. No, not Wonder Bread but the next best thing: wrapped, pre-sliced French bread.

Sliced Cucumber, Tomato and Onion Salad

“This was an acquired taste with me,” says Mr. Dixon—but not for my family. We eat this type of salad quite often, and it always goes well with heavy meat dishes. Even the fact that here it’s to be served in ladylike scoops over lettuce leaves can’t diminish my enthusiasm.

X marks the spot (these tomatoes unfortunately have to be peeled).

Sixty seconds in boiling water is generally enough, and then the tomatoes are dunked in cold water…

…and the skins slide right off.

Now the peeled cucumber and tomatoes have to be cut into “one-third inch cubes” and then mixed with chopped onion. Frankly I prefer thin slices, but OK.

Oil Dressing

This dressing is too easy—no surprise that Mr. Dixon was able to handle the job.

Way to go, Frank! (any idiot could prepare this).

Vanilla Ice Cream with Peaches

I confess I’m a little leery about making ice cream…last time I misplaced the top to my electric ice cream, and without it the darn motor refused to work. I had to stir the ice cream by a hand for an hour and, believe me, it wasn't worth the effort.

Really amazing how few ingredients go into homemade ice cream…compare these few, simple ingredients (sugar, salt, cream, vanilla) to the list of ingredients on a carton of Dreyer’s!

Pouring the cream into the tub.

Adding sugar…

…and vanilla.

A pinch of salt.

This is going to be a messy business, so I believe I’ll place the ice cream maker in the sink.

Or maybe not (cord won’t reach the electric socket).

OK, up on the countertop.

Before adding ice and salt I have to churn the ingredients in the machine for a couple of minutes.

Mixed. Now for the ice and the salt.

The ice in my freezer had frozen into a lump, so I had to break it up with my meat tenderizer.

The metal tub holding the ingredients is to be surrounded by layers of ice and salt.

It took six pounds of ice and a box and a half of rock salt to reach the top. But, mission accomplished.

Ignition!

This freezing process took about forty minutes…despite the layers of salt the ice did in fact melt some, and I had to use ice cubes from the freezer to refill a couple of times.

Houston, we have ice cream!

Now I’ll put the ice cream in the freezer to firm up…won’t need it until tomorrow, anyway.

Following day

The ice cream is to be served surrounded by peach slices, but fresh peaches are simply unavailable in April. I had to substitute frozen.

Draining the de-frosted peaches.

Mixing them with 2/3 cup sugar (ouch). Now they’re to sit for some ten minutes (in reality about two hours…it took me that long to get the meal on the table).

White Cake

 

Weirdly enough this recipe was difficult to track down—I had to go back to the 1918 edition for it.

Ugh. A total of seven egg whites are needed for this recipe (four for the cake and three for the icing). What in the world am I going to do with all the leftover yolks?

At least the ingredients are simple enough…certainly nothing fancy or exotic.

Sifting the flour.

Adding the rest of the dry ingredients.

Creaming the butter and sugar.

Adding the dry ingredients alternately with a cup of milk.

This is so thick it’s difficult to beat, but of course I haven’t added the eggs yet.

Folding in the stiffly beaten egg whites.

I had disposable pans in my pantry and decided to use those—and happily they were pre-lined with parchment paper!

Despite the pans’ small size there doesn’t seem to be quite enough batter to fill them. I’m really hoping the five (yes, five) teaspoons of baking powder in the batter give it enough oomph to rise well.

Fortunately the batter did its stuff and rose sufficiently.

Now for the icing…

The frosting is to be made with brown sugar rather than white…should give it a nice caramel color and flavor.

Melting the sugar and water to form a syrup.

While the sugar syrup boiled I beat the egg whites (the syrup is to be poured over them).

The syrup “clicked” when placed in cold water (in modern terminology it reached the soft-ball stage).

(Pouring the boiling syrup over the egg whites without burning myself was a trick worthy of Houdini—no pictures of the process unfortunately)

Syrup has been incorporated into the white…a little more mixing shoulder render it “thick and creamy”.

And it did! This is by far the best cooked icing I’ve ever concocted.

Frosting the cake.

Messy, messy. I had to surround the cake with strips of paper towel to keep the frosting from oozing onto the cake plate.

Well, this doesn’t exactly look like a bakery cake, but I’m pleased.

Iced Tea

Haven’t seen this on the menu for a while…thank goodness it’s quick and easy and, most importantly can (in fact must) be made ahead of time.

Tea bags steeping in boiling water for some ten minutes.

Poured into a pitcher, and then into the fridge until dinner (I’ll add the lemon slices just before serving).

How It Looked