A Harte Appetite: Look back in hunger

Do you remember the little ditty that Archie Bunker sang at the opening of each episode of "All in the Family"? It conjured up memories from the past and concluded, “Those were the days.” It was one of the most memorable paeans to days gone by ever written.

Research suggests that these days nostalgia for days gone by is even greater than it used to be. The reasons for this surge in nostalgia, a term coined by a Swiss physician and originally denoting an undesirable medical condition, are no doubt many. But not the least of them is the fact that we often remember the past more positively than it actually was. As Franklin P. Adams, a member of the famed Algonquin Round Table, once observed, “Nothing is more responsible for the good old days than a bad memory.”

The culinary world is not immune from this longing for the past – in the form of recipes. If you log on to YouTube, for instance, you’ll find any number of people demonstrating how to make dishes that are anything but modern. For example, there’s Tasting History, where Max Miller recreates truly old recipes going back to ancient and medieval times; Early American Cooking, which is just what it sounds like; and YesterKitchen, a program which tells the stories behind retro dishes.

The most successful exponent of this genre is clearly B. Dylan Hollis. He parlayed his YouTube videos, demonstrating how to make largely forgotten recipes from community publications, into a cookbook, “Baking Yesteryear”, which at its release became the best-selling book in the country. Not the best-selling cookbook, mind you, but the best-selling book, period. It was one of the most pre-ordered books in its publisher’s history. Only Michelle Obama and Prince Harry did better.

Hollis’ goal is to re-introduce not gourmet classics but rather, as he puts it, the ancestors of “humble classics, the ingenious personal curios of home bakers, and the collections of unconventional family recipes from the average kitchens of those rosy days of old.”

To tell the truth, when you read his book and especially when you watch his videos, you get the feeling that Hollis, as he chronicles, decade by decade, the foremost recipes from the 1900s to the 1980s, is having fun selecting recipes more for their curiosity value than anything. He freely admits that 50% of the recipes he reveals on Tik Tok aren’t very good. Indeed, the book even has a section on simply weird recipes, what he refers to as the worst of the worst – like Pickle Cheesecake, Prune Whip Pie and SpaghettiOs Jell-O Ring.

But much of what he offers, like Whipped Cream Cake or Mock Apple Pie, is downright tempting. Even dishes with unappetizing names, like Pork Cake, which he himself calls an absurd recipe (it’s essentially a fruitcake) are surprisingly good.

Which just goes to show. Though I’m glad to be living in the modern age which saw inventions such as the food processor, the microwave, and the chocolate chip, often old recipes can connect us to our past and make for a good old day.

Poor Man’s Pudding

This recipe from the Great Depression was developed in Quebec, where despite the economic challenges of the times, there was always maple syrup. This recipe, which calls for less maple syrup than you might expect, is adapted from B. Dylan Hollis’ “Baking Yesteryear.”

• 1 stick softened butter, divided

• 1/2 cup sugar

• 1/2 cup plus 2 tablespoons maple syrup, divided

• 2 egg yolks

• 1-1/2 cups flour

• 1/2 teaspoon baking powder

• 1/4 teaspoon baking soda

• 1-1/4 cup milk, divided

• 1-1/2 cups dark brown sugar

Cream together ½ stick butter, sugar, and 2 tablespoons maple syrup. Combine flour, baking powder and soda, and add to creamed mixture alternately with 3/4 cup milk. Beat until smooth. Combine remaining 1/2 stick butter, remaining 1/2 cup milk, brown sugar, and remaining 1/2 cup maple syrup. Bring to a boil over high heat, stirring occasionally, and let boil for 5 minutes. Grease eight 5 ounce ramekins and divide batter evenly among them. Pour equal amounts of the sauce mixture over the batter in each ramekin and bake at 350 degrees for 15 minutes until cake tests done. erve warm.

Tom Harte’s book, “Stirring Words,” is available at local bookstores. A Harte Appetite airs Tuesdays at 7:42 a.m. and 5:18 pm on KRCU, 90.9 FM. Contact Tom at semissourian.com or at the Southeast Missourian, P.O. Box 699, Cape Girardeau, Mo., 63702-0699.