Tag Archives: cheese

Elsie the Cow’s cookbook

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Botsford, Harry. Elsie’s Cookbook. New York: The Bond Wheelwright Company, 1952.

I remember Elsie the Cow from my childhood in the 1960’s, when she showed up in all kinds of advertising pamphlets – made to look like “real” children’s books – we were given in school to extol the many health properties of milk.   The Borden Company must have spent big on all that targeted advertising back in the day, and people were not as sensitive to companies taking advantage of children as a captive audience and laying who-knows-what on them.

Elsie, created as a cartoon character in the 1930’s based on a real cow  purchased by the Borden family,  is still around as the Borden/Dairy Farmers of America spokescow.

I thought this cookbook would be corporate nonsense, but it’s actually very good.  Then again, milk is a more versatile subject for a cookbook, than, say, Cool Whip or Jell-O.  There are classic sauce and potato recipes here, and there is no reason this book could not stand as one of a cook’s workhorses when it comes to cooking with dairy products.  Sure, if has some scariness, as all cookbooks from that period do, but it’s minimal.

All in all, a highly usable piece of corporate advertising.

First pages of Elsie’s Cookbook

Fromager des Clarines

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a hunk of fromage des clarines

Wedges of Fromage des Clarines

We all took it easy today, laying around in one form or another.  Matthew went into San Francisco for his Dignity service and we ate leftover pulled pork on rolls with roasted red pepper strips and sweet pickles for dinner. 

This might be a good time to report on a new, quite decent cheese that Costco is now carrying:  Fromager des Clarines.  Like brie on mild steroids – and a steal at about $15 for 10 ounces – this is a soft cow’s milk cheese from the French region of Franche-Comté.  It’s made by Jean Perrin of Vacherin Mont D’or fame, the raw milk taste explosion that is illegal here because of the dumb-asses who make these kinds of decision.  Think about it.  There is so much absolute crap sold in the US that passes for food — products that are science experiments, like Cool Whip, and cake frostings with no butter, for example — yet they are worried about raw milk cheeses from European companies whose practices most US outfits can only dream of.  Give me a break.  Anyway, Fromager des Clarines, which is milder than Vacherin Mont D’or, needs to be eaten very ripe, with the center like custard. 

I saw a whole array of ripeness represented in the Costco stock, from white and firm to yellow and collapsed – with and without mold on the rind, I might add.  I chose one that was off-white but starting to sink down; normally I get one that’s more far-gone, but I was dealing with guests who might not appreciate it that way.  You should choose one that is more questionable looking – more yellow and concave – and smells strong.  Don’t be afraid to open up 20 wooden boxes to get the perfect specimen!  Eat at room temperature.  Let me say this again:  Eat at room temperature.  If you serve this cold you might as well go buy cheap brie.  When warm and ripe, the texture is very smooth and creamy, and the buttery flavor a little acidic with musty tones and other funkiness that is the hallmark of a good cheese.  While the impact of this cheese on the palate is more limited than real Vacherin Mont D’or (meaning the original made with raw milk and not the versions produced for the American market, which are made with pasteurized milk), it is full-flavored with a great mouthfeel.  Serve with crusty bread – and spoons, if really ripe.  I kid you not.  You can even heat this in the oven; just follow the instructions on the box.

A box of fromage des clarines french cheese

One recipe of Nigella’s bites

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I like Nigella Lawson’s cookbooks.

I got a used copy of Nigella Bites (2002) the other day and prepared two recipes thus far:  chocolate fudge cake (page 47) and liptauer (page 161).  I am always on the lookout for a good chocolate cake recipe, but I can honestly say that this isn’t one.  The cake itself came out dry and bland and is not worth the ingredients or multiple bowls you’ll need.  I have numerous “toss everything in one bowl and let her rip”- type recipes that turn out a much better product.  The frosting was also just so-so.  That said, my mother loved the cake because it was not overly sweet and she liked the heavy, buttery frosting.

The liptauer, however, was great.  (Liptauer is what Californians would incorrectly call a schmear for bagels, even though schmear means “a little,” as in, “a bagel with a schmear,” which, when ordered in New York City, would get you a bagel with a little plain cream cheese.) . I had an Austrian chef-instructor in cooking school who talked fondly about liptauer.  It’s a cheese spread that you make by processing everything together in one fell swoop and then pressing the resulting mass into a mold.  You eat this stuff on bagels or good, hearty bread – the kind that can stand up to the caraway seeds, which provide a pronounced flavor to the mix.  The only thing I suggest is to drain the cottage cheese she calls for – since I assume you’ll be using the runny cottage cheese that is prevalent in the US.  My guess is that people in Europe use quark, which is something like cottage cheese but not easy to get here and considerably more expensive.  If you can find dry curd cottage cheese, that’ll solve your problem altogether.  Please do not use fat free cheese or you won’t get a good mouth feel – and that goes for the cream and cottage cheeses.  Use real block cream cheese, sil vous plait.  I have no photos of the items, so I substituted Berry, just to add a little color to the entry.

Berry the akitachow looking mellow in 2008

A little Manchego

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I found shards of Manchego on Berry’s futon today.  Who the hell is feeding the dog Manchego? Is it really necessary to give him sheep’s milk cheese?  I know full well he is the main consumer of all the mozzarella sticks I buy, so let’s get real here.  While we are on the subject, I know many people are pooh-poohing Manchego in favor of other Spanish cheeses these days, but I still enjoy and purchase it now and again, usually from Costco.  It is a semi-hard cheese that lasts a long time if you treat it right, so it is perfectly fine to buy it in those Costco-sized hunks.  I love the strongish, zesty, salty flavor and eat it with some type of marmalade rather than quince paste, which is the traditional accompaniment.  If you have Manchego on hand, a baguette or two, a good marmalade, perhaps some sweet butter and most certainly a strong Spanish or Italian red, you are set for dinner.  If you have young children you can serve them grape juice.