Year-Round Turkey

By this time, everyone might be stuffed full of turkey and not want to think about it anymore. I couldn't let the opportunity slip by, however, without showing you two Turkey Store cookbooks which always remind me that turkey is available in several convenient forms all year round.

I'm not sure if The Turkey Store Cookbook (1983, 84 pages) is the same booklet that was in the 1983 mail-in offer on the brochure I posted about here, but it may be, despite the fact that I don't see anything inside this booklet that resembles the offer illustration in the earlier post.

The cookbook contains 122 recipes using Turkey Store brand turkey breast roasts, turkey breast slices, turkey breast tenderloins, turkey drumstick steaks and fresh ground turkey. There's also some turkeymeat educational information.

I like this visual presentation they provide to help you remember turkey-compatible seasonings:

They also tag each recipe with a barcode for the needed turkey cut. Again, aother quick and easy visual reference.



A later Turkey Store booklet, A Fresh Approach (1990, 82 pages) seems to highlight using more fresh fruits and vegetables in the recipes (hence the tagline "creative cooking that's lower in fat, sodium and calories" on the front cover.)

They've dropped the green barcode in this cookbook, but added nutritional information for each recipe. They've also increased the number of recipe to 135.

The following recipe calls for boneless turkey breast tenderloins but I don't see why you couldn't just as easily use some of your leftover turkey from yesterday.

LEMONY TURKEY NOODLE SOUP

1 pkg. (about 1-1/4 lb.) THE TURKEY STORE Boneless Fresh Turkey Breast Tenderloins
1/2 cup thinly sliced leeks or green onions
1 teaspoon dried dill weed
1/8 teaspoon pepper
2 tablespoons lemon juice
3 (14-1/2 oz.) cans (6 cups) chicken broth
1-1/2 cups uncooked egg noodles
4 oz. (1 cup) fresh mushrooms, sliced
9-oz. pkg. frrozen cut green beans
3 or 4 thin fresh lemon slices

Cut turkey breast tenderloins crosswise into 1/2-inch slices. In 6-quart saucepan or Dutch oven, combine turkey, leeks, dill weed, pepper, lemon juice, Worcestershire suace and chicken broth. Bring to a boil; reduce heat to medium. Cook 10 minutes, stirring occasionally. Add egg noodles, mushrooms and green beans. Cook an additional 10 to 15 minutes or until noodles are tender, stirring occasionally. Add lemon slices; cook 2 minutes.

Makes 6 (1 1-1/2 cup) servings

Happy Thanksgiving

This lovely 1960s Thanksgiving table is from the Better Homes and Gardens New Cook Book (1963, 400 pages).

Have a Great Thanksgiving Day!

California Turkeys

Just when I think I've exhausted my supply of turkey-related advertising cookbooks, I manage to ferret out another one.

The stained, browning pages and numerous edge tears on the cover bear testimony to the fact that this copy of Collectors' File of Delectable California Turkey Recipes for Every Occasion (not dated, 14 pages) was once well-used in someone's kitchen come turkey time.

The booklet was published by the California Turkey Promotion Advisory Board, a state advisory board that appears to have been in existence from sometime in the 1940s until the 1980s. The one digit postal zone on the rear cover puts the booklet's publication date sometime prior to 1963.

The booklet gives general directions for the purchase, preparation and carving of turkeys, roasting instructions, other cooking methods, and a variety of recipes that include sandwiches, casseroles, salads, soups and entrees.

Turkey is relished all year 'round for its versatility, especially in California where almost twice as much is eaten as in the rest of the nation. Hearty, stick-to-the-ribs casserole dishes and sparkling salads such as these help explain turkey's popularity.

CALIFORNIA SALAD

3 cups diced cooked Turkey
1 cup diced fresh pineapple
1 cup diced cantaloupe
Salt and pepper
Fresh lemon juice

Combine turkey, pineapple and cantaloupe. Season with salt and pepper and a generous squeeze of fresh lemon juice. Moisten lightly with Rosey Mayonnaise. Serve immediately in hollowed out pineapple shell with additional dressing.

Rosey Mayonnaise: Whip 1 can jellied Ocean Spray cranberry sauce with fork and blend into 1-1/2 cups mayonnaise.

I suspect that Rosey Mayonnaise might have turned out to have a color close to that of Pepto Bismol, a visual that doesn't do much for my appetite. Only cupcake icing should be that color. Maybe plain mayonnaise might be better with some cranberry sauce on the side.

According to this newspaper article, the pop-up turkey timer we're all familiar with was the brainchild of one of the board members of the California Turkey Promotion Advisory Board, Eugene Beals. That must have been after the publication of this booklet because there is no mention of the handy pop-up timer in here. In fact, one of the photos shows the meat thermometer tucked into the side of the bird.


Before the advent of large, propane-fueled outdoor turkey fryers and fancy Cajun injectors, one might simply barbecue their turkey over coals.


The booklet does give directions for roasting turkey in a brown paper bag. Since I don't have any idea what chemicals they use to manufacture paper bags these days, I'm reluctant to use that method, although I remember my mom trying it a long time ago. I didn't realize this method was was used in the 50s or early 60s.

This must have also been about the time they started pre-packaging turkey parts in addition to the whole turkeys since they refer to this as "new."

The following three sections are concerned with the new, "further-processed" turkey products now making their appearance regularly in more and more food markets. These and other convenient, smaller-package ways of buying and preparing America's favorite Holiday entree open up a whole, new world of turkey possibilities for homemakers and their families.

The booklet gives recipes in another section that just requires the use various turkey parts: Boneless Turkey Roasts, Turkey Breasts (with bones), drumsticks, wings, thighs and a small 4-6 lb. Fryer-Roaster Turkey.

The Turkey Board teamed up with Ocean Spray for this booklet. Their cranberry sauce is used in the recipe above and there's an illustration of the cans on the rear cover.

A PET Milk Thanksgiving

It seems as if I've been away from this blog for quite a while. While I was off exploring San Francisco again, the days of November seemed to slip by altogether too quickly. Here it is Thanksgiving week already.

My brief visits into the supermarkets out there for water and coffee yielded only one small recipe booklet, one published by Reynolds Wrap Aluminum Foil: Signature Family Recipes (2008, 12 pages). Suprisingly, for this time of year, it doesn't contain any holiday recipes, though it does have some manufacturer coupons which one might find useful during the next month or so. Look for the booklet in your supermarket aisles; odds are there's probably a display near you.

Back home again, having resumed my regular routine (and reunited once again with my trusty scanner), I find that the website searches and requests for PET Milk recipes have rolled in as they always do, as Thanksgiving dinner preparations draw closer.

I have no way of knowing for sure, but I'll bet Pet Evaporated Milk sales are the highest at this time of year. I think PET Evaporated Milk is an ingredient that goes into a lot of comfort food for many people. Folks seem to be more nostalgic about recipes and dishes from their past during the holiday season.

Pet Recipes and Money-Saving Meal Plans for 2 or 4 or 6 (not dated, 16 pages) has a lovely illustration of a pumpkin pie set against a dark green background along with colorful fall leaves and acorns on the front cover. It's an appropriate book cover for this time of year.

This booklet is but one out of a whole series of booklets that were published in conjunction with the Mary Lee Taylor Radio Program which aired from the 1930s to the 1950s. One day I'll do a post on the series, but for now we'll just concentrate on this particular booklet.

Several menus and recipes are presented inside, one of them being a simple holiday menu. Perhaps this old menu will serve to give you some ideas for your own meal. Many people are turning towards simpler and less fussy celebrations during this holiday season due to the economy.

MARY LEE TAYLOR'S FAVORITE HOLIDAY DINNER
Small Servings of Cranberry Orange Salad*
Roast Turkey, Chicken, Duck or Guinea Hen
Harvest Stuffing*
Giblet Gravy*
Buttered Broccoli or Brussels Sprouts
Pumpkin Pie*
Hot Coffee

* Recipes are in the booklet

From the small print found inside, I suspect this booklet may have been published in 1944. Those were lean times and the theme of economy is prevalent throughout the booklet.

Below is a portion of the Introduction found inside the front cover:

The use of Pet Milk can help you save money in many ways. For example ...

Pet Milk provides the kind of protein your family needs for body-building and growth--so you can use it to prepare meatless and meat-saving dishes such as Deviled Macaroni Squares and Tamale Casserole.

Pet Milk, because it is double-rich whole milk, gives a dessert like Pumpkin Pie a wonderful richness of flavor--and helps you to save on expensive ingredients such as cream and eggs.

Pet Milk whips easily, so you can use it for making delicious dishes such as Halloween Salad and for Whipped Lemon Topping. You can save money by doing this because Pet Milk costs a great deal less than whipping cream.

In fact, you save whenever you purchase Pet Milk because Pet Milk costs less generally than ordinary milk, and much less than cream. That's one reason why many thrifty homemakers use Pet Milk, not only for cooking, but also in coffee and on cereals.

I've included scans of the recipes suitable for serving at a traditional Thanksgiving dinner, as well as a couple of others that also seem appropriate. You can click on the photos to enlarge them.

One of the things I like about this series of recipe booklets is that quantities are given for serving sizes of two, four or six people. Sometimes it's hard to find recipes that are just right for two.

The rear cover shows an advertisement for the Mary Lee Taylor Program which aired on the radio on Saturday mornings.


These days we are inspired and influenced by the television programs and recipes brought to us on television via the Food Network.

A delightful glimpse into the past to a time when homemakers tuned in their radios to listen to their favorite cooking shows can be found at this link. There you can hear what they heard and be transported for a few minutes back in time by listening to an actual old Mary Lee program. Being able to listen to a radio show advertised on the back of an old cookbook over half a century later, is to me, one of the wonders of the internet. It's no wonder I spent too much time here.

Each episode told how to send away for Mary Lee's latest recipe booklet. I'm one of the women who would have faithfully sent away for each one. (Although I'm not sure what I would have done without my DVR -- not having to be tied to a TV during a certain time slot is another wonderful modern innovation.) I find that being able to hear these old radio cookbook offers is as wonderful as discovering an offer in a printed ad in a magazine.

Sucaryl Recipe Book

Today's featured booklet, Calorie Saving Recipes with Sucaryl (undated, 32 pages) was chosen primarily because it includes illustrations of the product on the rear cover.

Regular readers of this blog already know that I have an unusual (and somewhat useless) preoccupation with documenting the food packaging of the past. I mean, if you can't find a picture of an old cheese package on the internet, it's not going to be the end of the world, but just in case someone does want to see that, why not do my part to make sure it's there? After all, aren't we supposed to be able to see everything on the internet? It frustrates me when we can't.

Sucaryl, one of the brand names for the artificial sweetener Cyclamate, was banned in the U.S. in 1969, although it's still sold in some other countries today. At the time of publication, it was made by Abbot Laboratories in Chicago, IL. Fine print in the booklet describes it as a sweetening agent containing cyclamate and saccharin.

During the late 1950s and the 1960s, if you were on a "reducing diet," or happened to be a diabetic who was instructed to avoid sugar by the doctor, you might have been familiar with Sucaryl.

Sucaryl was available in a liquid form, a tablet form and also as a powder. I think I remember seeing bottles of the little tablets around my aunt's house when I was a child.

The liquid Sucaryl came in a 4-ounce bottle and an Economy Size one-pint bottle. The booklet says it was ideal for cooking, sweetening beverages, even suitable for use in canning and freezing foods.


The tablets came in both 100-count bottles and the Economy Size, which held 1,000 tablets. You got a pocket-sized carrying bottle when you purchased the larger quantity bottle. Tablets could be used in cooking and for sweetening beverages.


The sweetening powder came in a 2-ounce bottle with a special sprinkling cap and the booklet says it was good for sprinkling on cereals and fruits.


There are recipes for beverages, breads and muffins, cakes, cookies, desserts, preserved foods, salads and salad dressings. The recipe instructions give teaspoon measurements for the liquid, or alternately, the number of tablets needed. The tablets needed to be crushed before adding them in with the other ingredients. That sounds like a hassle, crushing all those little tablets. The Apricot Upside Down Cake calls for 12 tablets, the Orange Salad Dressing calls for 16 tablets and the Cranberry Gel calls for a whopping 32 tablets.

Each recipe also shows the contents of each serving in an abbreviated code. For example: P 1; F 0.6; C 1.6. The letters translated as P = Protein, F = Fat, C = Carbohydrates. The number showed the weight in grams. The calorie count was also given.


This is one more recipe booklet to add to the growing pile of those containing recipes calling for discontinued products.