kelp

Applehood and Motherpie

This is another regional Junior League cookbook, this time from Rochester, New York, but it seems to be a step above Memphis’s Party Potpourri. The first printing was in 1981, and I apparently have the 12th printing in 1993, with over two hundred thousand copies printed at that point.

My mother’s family is actually from Upstate New York, which means I recognize a lot of the place names referenced. But it also means I can…easily roast some of the more boastful claims. For example, in the introduction, they tout that the “wine industry centered around our Finger Lakes is the U.S.A.’s second largest wine producer”. I didn’t need google to tell me that California makes the vast majority of US-produced wine, with 84% a common number being thrown out. Even if you, dear reader, haven’t attended a university with a viticulture and enology major, with multiple buildings named after a famous winemaker, and have multiple friends working in said industry, you probably also tilted your head at this misleading attempt to sound important. “But it could be technically true!” Sure, but depending on what time you grab the info, New York is either just barely beating out the state of Washington, or sitting in third. 

Okay, my imaginary reader familiar with the Genesee Valley says, they are good at apples up there though, and that’s true! But they can’t help themselves. Immediately before the sad wine claim:

Our Upstate New York area is a fruit belt abounding in cherries, peaches, and grapes. Climatic conditions here provide the ideal growing environment for many vegetables as well and we lead the nation in producing cabbage for sauerkraut.

Does this make California a fruit fukuro obi

First off, my partially Polish self loves that they have to specify “cabbage for sauerkraut”. Us hippies in California are clearly too busy growing stuff for kimchi or whatever, like ‘napa cabbage’ or this ‘bok choy’ nonsense.

A recipe for sauerkraut salad, with the claim that even non-sauerkraut eaters enjoy this. It's followed by this anecdote: Linda's dad, Ken Williams, like many others in the Finger Lakes area, spends hours in the garage each fall making sauerkraut. Sauerkraut lovers for miles around Canandaigua Lake stand impatiently in the yard with fork in hand waiting for the first taste. Non-lovers, however, threaten all sorts of retaliation for the wafting odors permeating the area.

Linda’s dad, known neighborhood nuisance

Anyways, as you might have guessed, these claims are all…claims, alright. According to the numbers in a 2024 report by the USDA, the cabbage one is actually their strongest, weirdly enough, despite it being quantified. (I also learned that cabbage does well in poor soil with poor drainage, so any gardeners out there take note!) Cherry production numbers are divided by variety, but California and the Pacific Northwest dominate for sweet, and Michigan for tart. A website for the Montmorency variety puts New York’s share of the national tart crop at 5%. Michigan’s tart contributions are listed at about 75%, for comparison. As for peaches, New York isn’t even on the shortlists, because of course it isn’t. In fact, neither cherries nor peaches are mentioned on their 2024 USDA State Agricultural Overview. And you can guess where they stand on grapes.

Sharing this at the dinner table, my parents immediately volunteered some helpful information for those unfamiliar with the greater Finger Lakes area

Both: You know what they got a lot of? Prisons. (someone starts listing off prisons)
Mom: We have our own Wall Street, and it’s the wall guarding the prison…We had the first [execution by electric chair]!
Dad: You know what’s great about that, Edison paid off the prison to do it with alternating current, so that they could claim direct current was safe, but alternating current killed a guy…[Upstate New York is] actually a nice area, there’s just no jobs.
Mom: Well the jobs at the prison were pretty good, but yeah, once the factories closed down…
Me: You know later in the introduction they also claim it’s a melting pot (Dad chuckles)
Mom: Well there was [three different varieties of Catholic churches]

And yes, I fact-checked the Edison claim, and it’s mostly true! The short version is Edison had a mole in the company that made the chair. 

Are You Just Going To Ridicule These Poor Ladies

No, no. Let me give them some credit – their cookbook is very well designed. It has a folding cover to allow it to stand on counters, something I rarely see. The cover itself is the same sort of plastic-coated deal a school binder might be, meaning easy cleaning. And the three-ring binder construction also means you can easily remove individual pages for your convenience. 

The title page of Applehood and Motherpie, with a blurb about a couple awards it's won. Also a diagram showing how the book with stand upright when you fold the cover as shown.

There’s also a crapton of recipes in here. My estimates start at 600 total and go up, in the following categories:

appetizers and beverages (i.e., stuff you’d serve at a party)
soups & sandwiches
breads
salads & dressings
eggs, cheese, & pasta
vegetables
meats
poultry
fish & seafoods
desserts
cakes
cookies
and of course applehood

I did a cursory corpus search for the string “applehood” and mainly got mentions of this cookbook along with a few philosophical treatises. The section bearing its name also has no recipes, just some general information about apples.

American apples have become an institution as respected and delicious as motherhood and apple pie. They were introduced to this country by Governor John Endicott of Massachusetts nine years after the landing of the Mayflower. Fifty years later when milk was scarce New England mothers were very grateful to John E. when they were able to feed diluted apple cider to their babies. Apple nurseries were first established in the East in the 1730's. The early plantings of seedling and grafted trees on Long Island and in Rochester, New York were rapidly disseminated across the country. John Chapman started apple nurseries in Ohio and Indiana and singlehandedly distributed the seeds to pioneers moving westward. He became the real life legend, Johnny Appleseed. Apple Brandy, a tempting concoction, was made in the late 1700's and could be used to pay one's land taxes. Would that it were so today! Over a century later a popular social event known as the "Apple Bee" evolved. Iowa pioneers would gather around the kitchen hearth swapping stories as the apples were pared, cored, strung, and hung on a long pole in preparation for drying. The following spring ox teams and wagons were loaded with nursery stock and hauled to the Pacific Northwest. These early plantings became the basis for Washington State's apple crop. Today, new strains of apples are created through cross-breeding at the N.Y. Agricultural Experiment Station in Geneva, New York. But all apples, regardless of their breeding, are healthy. They contain the A B C vitamins, average less than 100 calories apiece, are high in potassium, low in sodium and may very well be an effective deterrent to the common cold. In time, "an apple a day keeps the doctor away;" may be scientifically proven. But for now, it's enough to know that something that tastes so good is good for you, too! No matter where you live in this country you can obtain apples which are suitable for both cooking and eating out of hand. Some of the best recipes are created from mixing different varieties so don't be afraid to experiment as apples are truly a versatile fruit.

Interestingly, they mention the “N.Y. Agricultural Experimental Station in Geneva” working to create new varieties, but left out the sort of important bit all locals would know – this is Cornell University’s Great Apple Work. It’s even since been rebranded “Cornell AgriTech” (boy do the techbros love CamelCase), but yeah. Weird to make all these vague claims about fruit and vegetables and not explicitly name drop your local famous agricultural research powerhouse. 

Recipe for cornell barbecue sauce, said to originate by a professor in the agriculture school. the ingredients are oil, vinegar, salt, poultry seasoning, and pepper.

I promise they are better at apples than they are at barbecue sauce

Related storytime: my offices on my agricultural school campus happened to be next to the pomology lab. For years I wondered why the alley between our buildings smelled vaguely of spoiled alcohol. Years. One day when I saw a crate of mangos with a small slice taken from each one, neatly placed near the dumpster, the researchers subtle way of letting locals know “this fruit is safe to eat but legally we can’t give it to anyone”, only then, did it finally hit me – those dumpsters were constantly full of rotting fruit in 100F degree Central Valley summers. I was very ashamed it took me so long to put two and two together like that. 

Apple Hint 1. A cake will stay fresh several days longer if an apple, cut in half, is stored with the cake. 2. One pound of apples (3 medium) yields 3 cups pared and sliced or diced. 3. Apples will not crack while they are baking if you peel a 1-inch band around the middle or top. 4. Glaze cooked fruits with with contrasting fruit jellies, especially apple or quince. 5. Lemon juice is good to prevent discoloration of pears, avocados, bananas, and mushrooms. 6. To ripen fruit. put it in a paper bag in a dark place for a few days. 7. For a different type of frozen treat, make a "cider cicle." Simply put a wooden stick in small paper cup with cider, and freeze! 8. Add apple juice to your favorite stuffing, instead of the usual broth, for a delicious change - great for stuffing pork, turkey or chicken. 9. Apple juice added to a ham or meat loaf will make a delicious difference and makes it more juicy. 10. Stir apple juice into a spicy red dip for shrimp - it will mellow its taste and make it richer. 11. Sprinkle crumbled English toffee or maple sugar over canned applesauce and garnish with a rosette of whipped cream. 12. Instead of baking apple turnovers, fry them in deep hot fat (375F) until a delicate brown. Drain. Sprinkle with powdered sugar, and serve hot or cold. 13. Old-fashioned bread pudding can be spruced up by adding apple slices and raisins, and topped with brown sugar. After baking, serve with lemon sauce or whipped cream to which crushed peanut brittle has been added. Delicious! 14. Try apple pancakes for a change. Simply mix apple slices into the batter, or top the stack of pancakes with a generous serving of warmed, drained apple slices with a little brown sugar and butter. 15. Melt apple jelly in a double boiler over hot water; mix butter or margarine with it; keep mixture slightly warm. Spoon over pancakes. Or mix half honey and half melted apple jelly with butter or margarine. 16: Mix apple juice half and half with orange juice, tomato juice, or beef broth for exciting new flavor combinations.

Deep Hot Fat is my favorite R&B group

So You Made An Apple Recipe?

Not yet, no. There’s so many recipes in here I decided I should try to make two, a savory and a dessert. And of course, I could make a savory apple recipe, but I didn’t want to limit myself. And it doesn’t help that available apple varieties here in California don’t really overlap with New York – I’ve never seen Cortlands at my local grocery stores, for instance, and now here in the Apple Future we have all sorts of wild stuff, like Sugarbees, or babby apples especially made for small children a la Cuties.

A list of apple varieties, including aforementioned Cortland, as well as Duchess, Gravenstein, Idared, Jonagold, Jonathan, McIntosh, Northern Spy, Rome Beauty, Stayman, Wealthy, and York Imperial.

Well, I recognize some of these…

I immediately turned to the eggs, cheese, & pasta section thinking that’s where the good stuff was. After being slightly horrified by this fun little anecdote, I wondered if maybe I should jump ship to a different section.

Every pasta lover knows that the only palatable way to eat spaghetti is "al dente" which, in translation, means "to the tooth, " and in general usage means "firmly cooked. " There is a point at which, in the boiling of spaghetti, that the hard, starchy pasta softens so that the solid center just disappears. It is at this moment that the spaghetti must be drained, and a small amount of cold water must be added so that overcooking cannot occur. Tracy's father absolutely refuses to eat anything but perfect pasta. He has sent the spaghetti back in many restaurants. Once he threw out a whole batch Tracy 's mother-in-law had cooked, then cooked a new potful before her astonished gaze. She was quietly appalled at his high-handed manner, but has never cooked soggy spaghetti since.

Yikes.

All the recipes have a line of copy under the title by the way, something I do not envy the copywriter for. Every recipe. That’s rough. I bookmarked rochester’s italian quiche since it also had an apple icon next to it, which I’m assuming meant it was extra recommended. (Also, if you haven’t figured it out yet, every title is in lowercase. No, I don’t know why.)

a recipe for a vitality drink, with milk, protein powder, a banana, ice, and molasses-grown yeast. the copy claims it's tasty, but is followed by a hint to put in only 1 teaspoon of yeast to start, as it takes a while to get used to the taste.

Tasty*

Heading to soups & sandwiches, I was tempted by cabbage soup…and then realized I should probably aim to select the apple-marked recipes, if only to help quell the decision fatigue of looking through hundreds of recipes.

A recipe claiming to be a dupe for an almost legendary orange drink that originated in New York's Times Square. Based on the ingredients, it looks very much like an Orange Julius.

*squints* An orange julius, right? But the location isn’t right…

I ran into what looked like a pretty good ratatouille recipe with the Apple Stamp of Approval, but alas. Whilst one of my taste testers loves zucchini, to me, it tastes like soap, regardless of how it’s prepared. And while I have made recipes I occasionally can’t eat, this was not the time. As I slogged through the rest of the savories, I gave myself more parameters:

The latter criteria I decided disqualified pheasants in sour cream, as much as I wanted to see how easy it was to find pheasants at my local grocery store. Maybe that could be the complicated part. Before I knew it, I had no clear winner and I was at the end of the savories- well, for me anyways. I’m allergic to fish, so I could skip that section. I left my flagged sections with an explanatory note for my primary taste-tester’s second opinion…and she too was quickly overwhelmed. So I decided to give the ladies of the Junior League a break and make one of the few recipes that did imply some level of cultural diversity – babi kecap.

A table of rice? In this economy?

Update: Longtime reader Langstrand pointed out this prolly refers to the Dutch Indonesian Rijsttafel, literally “rice table”, a very large assortment of various dishes along with rice. I did find a few restaurants offering this in New York City proper, but none in the Finger Lakes area.
So it remains to be seen if the recipe writer is a) Dutch, b) a frequent city traveler, or c) a transplant

Don’t get excited now – nearly every “Oriental” recipe in this weighty tome is barely recognizable even as Americanized Chinese food, which is to be expected of these sort of cookbooks in the 80’s.

A recipe for Korean Salad, featuring spinach, sliced hard boiled eggs, bean sprouts, water chestnuts, crumbled bacon, and halved cherry tomatoes.

I have questions

There just wasn’t going to be the same level of “Asian aisle” in most local grocery stores as there is now, which inherently limits your options. Babi kecap however, has few ingredients, and so mainly has what I call “the cooking liquid rule”. That is, if you’re making a region’s cuisine, you should ideally use their region’s cooking liquid (kecap manis, in this case) to have it taste right. 

That, however, would be cheating in this case. I’ll be using the readily available low sodium Kikkoman in my fridge door, as the recipe just says ‘soy sauce’, and that’s likely what an average Junior League member would have. I checked the rest of the ingredients and general cooking method against some actual Indonesian bloggers’ recipes, and yeah. It’s close! The main other difference is I think the Junior League recipe uses cream of coconut to sweeten the dish as opposed to solely relying on sweet soy sauce.

Did It Come Out?

It did! So well I’d make it again. A nice little “just dump it over a bowl of rice” type recipe. I didn’t cook it as long as I should have for it to be fully tender, because I forgot to factor in I’m a Slow Chopper, and we were all hungry, and it smelled so good.

This took me A Long Time

But this is, as I hoped, a very forgiving recipe. I used boneless pork chops instead of pork belly, cause that’s what they had at the store, and just cut them into cubes. I also used jarred minced garlic, and I decreased the red onion by half for the two out of three of us with the ol’ acid reflux. I’d say as made, this isn’t really babi kecap so much as like…a generic Asian dish based on babi kecap made from stuff you can easily find at any US suburban grocery store, but that’s what I expected. My version is below:

Recipe

Babi Kelp (Braised Pork Bowl)
Makes enough for 3 people-ish

Rice of choice
1 pound boneless pork chops
Half a (red) onion
Garlic cloves (or jarred minced garlic)
Ginger root
Cooking oil
~¼ cup soy sauce
~¼ cup coconut milk
Sugar or some type of sweetener (optional)
Chili oil type deal (optional)

  1. Get the rice going in the rice cooker. You might also want some vegetables – I personally would make some steamed broccoli as a side dish.
  2. Finely chop whatever sort of onion deal you went with, and mince garlic and ginger to preference, and set aside.
    (For me this was about 2 tablespoons of garlic and 1 tablespoon ginger…the latter I would just microplane next time. Much easier.)
  3. Cut the pork into bite-size cubes, and stir-fry them in a large saucepan or wok at high-ish heat until sides are evenly browned.
  4. Add in aromatics from earlier and continue to stir-fry for a minute or two until everything’s a bit softened up, then lower the heat to medium-ish.
  5. Pour in soy sauce, coconut milk, and sweetener and/or spicy product of choice and thoroughly combine. Let simmer for an hour or so, or until the pork is tender.
    (The original recipe says uncovered, but I left it covered, otherwise you might have to re-up the liquid.)
  6. Take off heat and ladle over rice. Voila!