Hello! Last time I wrote that I wasn’t sure when I’d resume the newsletter, but here I am. I decided I need a small commitment, something to keep the ol’ writing muscles loose while I continue the editing and recipe testing project that I’ll tell you about someday.
For the next several newsletters, I’m going to choose something from my collection of vintage recipes, make that recipe, and share the results.
These recipes have range, from marketing material to slim cookbook collections to spiral-bound booklets full of family secrets. I even have a tin of hand-written ones from Braeden’s great-grandma and a bag of random newspaper clippings. I expect there to be unexpected hits (and perhaps a few misses).
Does this mean I feel slightly obligated to try one of the oh-so-tempting “congealed salads” from the Rival Kitcheneer Meat Grinder and Salad Maker instruction manual (circa 1970s, obviously)?
Yes.
(Besides, jelly is back, baby.)
On the other hand, I will probably skip Annie’s Special Tostados — ingredients: salad oil for frying, 10 tortillas, 1 cup grated Cheddar cheese — from McCall’s World-Wide Cooking (part of their 1965 cookbook collection).
And I’ve always wanted to try Aunt Helen’s Sour Cream Apple Pie from the 1978 reversible (!) cookbook, Cakes & Pies.
To start, I’ve got a recipe for Old-Fashion [sic] Buckwheat Cakes from a little number called Sugarin’-Off in the Bullpasture Valley, by Alice Vance. (Yes, I, too think “sugarin’-off” sounds like you’re doing something else.)
The 36-page booklet came out in 1978, printed for the Vance’s Country Store in McDowell, Virginia, and goes into all things maple syrup from the state’s mountain region, between the Allegheny and Shenandoah mountains. (I *think* my copy of it came from Braeden’s Vermont family — maple syrup lovers that they are — but there are several notes written in it that doesn’t match family handwriting, suggesting it was previously owned.)
Featuring a little history on maple syrup (including its indigenous origins) and recipes like Baked Beans with Maple Syrup, Sassafras Tea, and Maple Sponge Cake Custard, old-timey (old-fashioned, even) sketches of maple syrup-making equipment decorate the pages, along with little tips and phrases on using and attaining maple syrup, like “Try some maple syrup over vanilla ice-cream” (it’s true, it’s a delight), “The higher you tap the sweeter the sap” and “One pound of the first run is worth two of the last.” My personal favorite: “The only way you will know how good maple syrup is, is to start using it.”
To that end, here’s the recipe for buckwheat pancakes, the highest calling for your maple syrup, according to the book. I used Arrowhead Mills buckwheat flour, but if you can find a freshly ground, coarse buckwheat flour, I’m willing to bet they’d be that much better. Alternatively, you could grind your own flour from buckwheat groats (apparently an easy thing to do in a blender or coffee grinder), a thing I wish I’d tried but only just occurred to me.
Buckwheat pancakes
from Sugarin’-Off in the Bullpasture Valley, by Alice Vance
As you’ll see above, the recipe instructions are vague. While I’m providing a little more detail below, I’m also leaving a lot up to you. Pancakes are subjective, anyway — are you a soft, just-cooked pancake person, or do you want them approaching burnt so they’re nice and crispy? Do you want big ones or tiny rounds? Do you cook them in butter or coconut oil? Do you have a griddle or do you use a nonstick skillet? Do you heat up your maple syrup or serve it cold? That’s all up to you. (In general, I’m a crispy pancake, cold syrup gal.)
One more thing: I’m really more of a waffle person. My biggest complaint about pancakes is that they absorb syrup much too quickly, becoming sad, soggy little rounds of disappointment. But, if you pour your maple syrup into a tiny mug or espresso glass, you can dip the pancakes into the syrup as you go and have structurally sound pancakes by the end.
Makes about 20 small (3- to 4-inch diameter) pancakes
3/4 cup buttermilk or sour milk
3/4 cup warm water
1/3 teaspoon baking soda (an annoying amount; eyeball it)
1/4 teaspoon salt
Stir the above ingredients together in a 4-cup liquid measuring cup, then stir in enough buckwheat flour (135 grams, or about 1 cup) to make a “good batter.” Let stand for a minute while you heat your preferred pancake pan. Cook the pancakes however you usually cook pancakes. Serve with maple syrup, preferably in an obnoxiously small mug or bowl on the side.
Happy new year! This is a fun project! For awhile, I made it a habit to try to stop in to a local used bookshop when traveling and go to the cookbook section and pickup a local cookbook as a souvenir, although not necessarily vintage. I have a few local church cookbooks and even a lady auxiliary collection, a now-gone local cafe cookbook, and if I didn’t come across a used bookstore , I sometimes instead picked up generic ones representing the area cuisine from the gift shop of some attractions. I generally haven’t cooked/baked out of them either, with the only exception is that local cafe cookbook from upstate New York, I bought the book pretty much for the walnut multigrain bread recipe and have in fact made that recipe many times. Thanks for taking us on this journey! I look forward to the recipes and seeing the fun old pamphlets and recipe books! My daughter definitely does the dipping thing with her pancakes too! It keeps the syrup on the surface and maximizes the texture and temperature contrast!