Congealed Meal

A treasure from tonight's trip to the library (as mentioned in the previous post) was finding, on the book cart of cheap books for sale, a cookbook* from 1981 called "Favorite Brand Name Recipe Cookbook". I always like these, and this one is just old enough to have some fantastic recipes from a slightly earlier time that simply will not be found in current incarnations of the same concept. It also has weird looking color photos of dishes that look slightly alien.

The thing that really committed me to spending the $1 on this cookbook was spotting the recipe for "Braunschweiger Ring". Although it sounds vaguely euphemistic with the word "ring", those of us who are big fans of congealed salads (as they once were known in the days that appreciated the artificial and technological) will squeal with delight at the thought of finding what is the next best thing to a recipe for liverwurst Jell-O.

And then, much to Isaac's disgust, it struck me on the way home that I probably now had enough recipes in the collection to do an entire congealed meal. Several courses of shimmering elegance, both cunning and smart (as the Sterns# might say). Just imagine this sequence of removes:

To bed, to dream, perhaps to gel.

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*Sometime, when I have the leisure for it, I will write about my uncontrollable compulsion for buying cookbooks, especially remaindered cookbooks.
#One of my all-time favorite cookbooks is Jan & Michael Stern's Square Meals, in which they discuss the craze for "pink parties", in which all the food was tinted pink, as an example of the creative output of a smart and cunning hostess.

Posted on September 27, 2005 at 00.23 by jns · Permalink
In: All, Food Stuff

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  1. Written by Roguish Smurf
    on Wednesday, 28 September 2005 at 09.57
    Permalink

    Thought you might find this strangely synergistic: The Gallery of Regrettable Food.

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