The Baltimore Harley's Sandwich Shop Burger

      I won't go through the history of the Harley's Sandwich Shop chain as I have it all laid out in the tuna salad article, just suffice it to say that Harley's was THE fast food chain in Baltimore long before Gino's and McDonald's.  Harley's restaurants were open all night and so were a favorite of the night shift crowd and police officers.  These burgers were always simmering in Harley's secret sauce ready to be served to hungry customers.

Little Tavern Sliders Recipe

     There are many places that sell sliders, or little burgers usually steamed on a griddle and sold in multiples.  White Castle, Crystal and even Burger King with their burger shots but in Baltimore you had 2 locations that advertised for you to "Buy them by the sackful," Little Tavern and White Tower.  Both of these chains were found in the Baltimore - Washington area and their flavor was quite different from the Northeast's White Castle chain.  Opened in 1927 in Louisville, Ky, Little Tavern eventually made their way over to Baltimore opening 13 locations.  Their menu was simple, sliders, drinks and a tasty coffee served in a heavy mug.

Hashed Leftovers

     Many times after the holidays we're left with mounds of leftovers from an overindulgent feast of Brobdingnagian proportions and we're completely flummoxed as to what to do with them.  I didn't even cook this much for Christmas but I did have a rather large turkey and now I'm left to decide what to do with the leftovers.  Part of it is getting mixed up into turkey salad using the Chicken Salad Recipe but with the rest I'm left to get creative.

1930's Meatloaf Recipe

 

I've been holding on to this recipe for quite some time now and for a really odd reason.  I just kept misplacing the handwritten recipe paper.  Yeah I feel like I'm addlebrained at times but you have to understand that I've moved, twice, in the past 2 years (and we're moving again soon) and stuff always gets misplaced when that happens.  In the meantime I cooked this recipe every time I found the recipe card for it and then promptly misplaced it again.  Well I finally found it again and decided to cook it last night for dinner.  Usually I have a side of mashed potatoes and some sort of vegetable with it and my wife loves it.  Try it with some Southern Cucumber Relish and the vinegary sweetness balances out the rich taste of the meatloaf.

Recipe: Bacon Meat Roll With Olive Stuffing

I found this ad online and I immediately became intrigued because we seem to think that wrapping everything in bacon before cooking it is a modern invention.  That point of view couldn't be any more misguided as this 1936 ad for Armour Bacon shows.  Unfortunately the recipe was not included in the ad, just a note to "Ask your grocer for the recipe folder".  Hmm, another thing we still do to this day, grocer inspired recipes.  I posted this ad to my blog's Facebook page and immediately started getting requests for the recipe, I suppose the siren call of crisp bacon is too much to ignore so I set about searching for the lost recipe.  Now this is where I truly shine when it comes to vintage cooking because I am the Jedi Master of the search.  It didn't take long to hunt down the recipe on an old edition of the Deseret News thanks to Google and the Gutenberg Project.  While the ad may claim this is a frugal recipe, that is not the case today as it calls for 1/2lb of ground veal and veal is very dear right now.  I replaced the veal with ground chuck and the recipe came out fine.  The article claims you get "10 generous servings per roll" and they are quite right.  We ate it for dinner 2 times and I had enough for lunch for a couple of days.

Cincinnati "Skyline" Style Chili

I've been wanting to write about this recipe for a long time now but of course life has gotten in the way and I've been reduced to a full week of "Bisy Bakson" syndrome (read the "Tao of  Pooh" if you want to know what I'm talking about, I highly recommend it.)  I became familiar with Skyline Chili when I was passing through Cincinnati years ago as part of a work related conference.  It's an interesting take on chili as it involves no beans in the recipe like we're used to with the Tex-Mex style chili's.  Invented by Nicholas Lambrinides in 1949 and so named because he could see the Cincinnati Skyline outside of his first restaurant, it incorporates spices and flavors he learned from watching his family cook back in Kastoria, Greece.¹  When done right, the spices meld together in a intense dance of flavor on your tongue.  While the original recipe remains a secret, I have been able to piece together what I feel is the closest recipe to the original.  Dad, who is also very familiar with Skyline Chili, gave it two thumbs up.

Mock Tenderloins

Depression era cooking is a fascinating aspect of vintage recipes.  Much of the recipes that have survived are frugal recipes that cook for a family using very little money yet still striving to stay healthy.  The others are what I call "make do" recipes that are often in imitation of something that would have been more expensive.  Such austere recipes were often tasty in their own right, even if they fell short of what they were trying to imitate.  Here is one such recipe, mock tenderloins of course are a frugal replacement for true tenderloin that would have hit the purse hard for someone not making as much as before.  This recipe comes from 1930 or 31 and luxuries such as this would be fondly remembered after '32 when the depression was at it's worst.  Today we are locked in the Great Recession, sugarcoating what is otherwise a repeat of the last great depression.  We've much to learn from these frugal recipes of yesteryear since they are every bit as cost effective now as the were then.

Traditional Recipe Steak Fajitas

I went looking some time ago for a really traditional fajita recipe.  Actually the only real recipe you need is for the marinade as everything else is just straightforward.  After sifting through many many marinade recipes I finally came across one that was supposed to have originated in Northern Sonora in the 1920's.  It blends in at least 2 ingredients that definitely mark it as Norteño cuisine, Red Wine Vinegar and Worcestershire Sauce. You can use any cut of steak you wish, but skirt steak is the most traditional although it may be out of the price range of some people (including myself).  I chose to use Organic Sirloin and it came out excellently so don't be too worried about using a cut other than skirt steak.  You will need to grill the steak to get the optimal flavor.

Country Chicken Fried Steak Recipe

This was a challenge levied by one of my likers on Facebook to come up with a good chicken fried steak recipe... Challenge accepted.  It had been literally over 20 years since I had eaten chick friend steak and even the mere mention of it conjures up thoughts of white haired Southern gentlemen in their seersucker suits and lapel pins sipping mint juleps on the verandah.  Well it's not as bad as all that.  It's certainly a recipe that goes back quite a bit but started out as a way of making use of tougher cuts of meat.  I used sirloin when I made it and although it was good, I think if I do it again I'd make use of the more traditional round steak.  The key to an awesome crispness is the double dip coating method and of course the meal is not complete without the gravy.  Far from being the nasty wallpaper paste gravy found in so called Southern restaurants, this is a creamy bechamel, the original incarnation of White Sauce.