I have found out a great deal more about the Rumford Complete Cookbook since I posted last.“In 1816, Benjamin Thompson (1753-1814), also known as Count Rumford, a British physicist, inventor, and social reformer, bequeathed an annuity of $1000, a reversion of a $400 annuity he bequeathed his daughter, and his residuary estate, to Harvard College for the establishment of a professorship to "teach regular courses of academical and public lectures" in the field of the practical sciences.” (Reference found here.)
Another source clarified that Thompson was born in America, but emigrated to England: “In 1753, Benjamin Thompson, an American born in Woburn, Massachusetts, escaped from "political complications" in this country by moving to England. There he served in the English army until 1784 when he entered the service of the Elector of Bavaria. For the following 14 years, Thompson devoted his time investigating ways of supplying nutritious foods at the lowest possible costs to the State. For his brilliant success in this endeavor, he was knighted "Count Rumford." “ The same source indicated that in 1854 Harvard Rumford Professor Eben Horsford joined with George Wilson to found the Rumford Chemical Works in Rhode Island (or Massachusetts, depending on where the state boundaries are drawn!). Their most popular product was “Horsford’s Acid Phosphate”, and was marketed as a remedy for “mental and nervous exhaustion” and a myriad of nondescript ailments. It was to be stirred into water or milk, and drunk as a “tonic” refresher. (I want to insert here that having grown up in Southeastern Mass, what is today known as “soda”, “soda pop” , or just “pop” is still commonly referred to as “tonic” in that geographic area. I suppose this history may be why that is.) I believe this may have preceded, or introduced the popularity of sugary flavored drinks with “fizz”, such as “cherry phosphate”, “lime rickey”, etc. I don’t know why they are now carbonated instead of phosphate, though.
(With special thanks to myclabbergirl.com, from whose home page I “borrowed” this picture.)Eventually the company marketed a mixture of calcium acid phosphate, sodium bicarbonate, and cornstarch: originally Horsford’s Baking Powder, and later (and to this day) Rumford Baking Powder! (For more on baking powder, read this. As a biochemist, I find this fascinating, but I don’t expect everyone to feel this way….)
Now, about the cookbook: as far as I can tell, the first cookbook was published in 1908, although there were pamphlets before then, most likely promoting the use of Rumford Baking Powder. I was thrilled to discover that they employed recipes of Fannie Farmer, of the Boston Cooking School. (I am on the lookout for an old edition of her cookbook, that would really shine in my little collection.) After her death, they employed the expertise of Lily Haxworth Wallace, a home economist who emigrated from England, and lectured all over America, on domestic science topics in the early part of the 20th century. (Oh, how I would love to have been in the audience!) In my research on the cookbook, I discovered that there were printings from 1908 into the 1950’s, and there are many fans and collectors out there! I feel so lucky to have stumbled across this one. (And it’s a crime that I got it for a quarter!)
As a coastal-dweller, I always try to serve fish or seafood on a regular basis, both for the health benefits, and to support the local economy. It does take a little more planning, as it does not keep well, and it’s best to prepare and serve as fresh as possible.
.Well, this time they had a little markdown on flounder, and having never had flounder (I usually serve haddock, cod, or tilapia), I decided to give it a go. I wish I had taken pictures of the process, but frankly it didn’t occur to me that it was a blog-worthy topic until I had a dish ready to serve to my
Stuffed Flounder Casserole
This was inspired by my vintage "Rumford Complete Cookbook", in a section describing how to bake fish, and giving a stuffing recipe. Prep time: 20 min
Cook time: 35 min
Yield:
Serving size: 6
Calories per serving: 498 Ingredients:
2 pounds (approx) flounder filets
cooking spray
3 slices stale bread (I used a torpedo roll, torn up)
3/4 cup milk
1/2 cup grated Parmesan cheese
1/3 cup instant potato flakes
1 tablespoon dried cilantro
1-1/2 teaspoon onion powder
1/2 teaspoon black pepper
1 beaten egg
1/2 cup seasoned bread crumbs
1/4 cup grated Parmesan cheese
1 sweet onion
1/4 stick butter
paprika
Directions: Prepare a large (9"x13") baking dish by spraying generously with cooking spray. Wash and pat dry the flounder fillets. Lay most of the fillets in the bottom of the dish, aiming to create a uniform thickness layer of flounder. This will take more than half of the fillets. Tear up the bread into small pieces and put in a bowl with the milk, allowing it to soak while you measure out the other ingredients. Add potato flakes, parmesan cheese, egg, pepper, onion powder and cilantro. Mix it up with a fork. If it is soupy, add bread crumbs to thicken. It should be a little like pancake batter. Layer this stuffing all over the fillets, spread it evenly. Lay the remaining fillets over this stuffing layer. Mix together the bread crumbs and grated cheese, and sprinkle about 2/3 of it over the top layer of the fillets. Slice the sweet onion into rings, and separating them, scatter them on the top. Sprinkle the rest of the crumbs and cheese, dot with butter, and sprinkle with paprika.
Bake in a preheated 375 deg oven for 25 minutes. Then broil for 8- 10 minutes to brown the topping and caramelize the onion rings.
Serve with lemon slices for garnish. Recipe formatted with the Cook'n Recipe Software from DVO Enterprises.
I over-broiled it by a minute or two, so it looks scorched, but I must say that my finicky family found my flounder fresh, flakely and flavorful, not foul or “fishy”. (Forgive me, if I have failed to be funny.)
I steamed some broccoli rabe (which I had never done and will likely not do again, as it was terribly bitter) to serve with it. That is the green stuff in the RevereWare saucepan above. Pretty but not too tasty.
Are you still awake? Thanks for reading all the way through this long post! Happy Weekend!
One feature I habitually passed by was the recipes. But if I was particularly bored and looking for some more entertainment from an issue, I would go through it again, page by page. One time, I looked at the recipes, and discovered an interesting aspect. They featured recipes from foreign countries. I think the first one I took notice of was for Christopsomo, a traditional Greek Christmas bread. 
For some reason, this intrigued me, and I wanted to try making it. My mother was always baking bread, so raising and kneading a yeast dough didn't seem too daunting. Mum responded enthusiastically to my giving it a try, and agreed to get the needed ingredients for the coming weekend, (and be on standby for assistance). Waiting for the weekend, I looked at back issues and discovered that they too had recipes from other countries. 
I chose a German Sauerbraten recipe and suddenly had a menu for a meal for the family for Saturday night. I think it came out okay, as far as I remember. Mum still calls it to mind as "the time you made dinner for the family". That says it all right there, that I wasn't often in the kitchen, beyond washing dishes after supper. There was a glitch, though. The sauerbraten recipe required slow cooking in a sealed pot for a few hours. I had to make a flour and water paste to make a seal around the edge of the lid, to keep the steam in, I guess. I don't know if I did something wrong, but the paste became like cement, and my brother had to use a flat-head screwdriver like a chisel, and a hammer to get it open and in the process, put a chip in the lid of my mother's bean-pot.
Everything in the magazines my mother read was so wholesome, and happy. The sun always shone, and the homes were neat, orderly and very attractive. She got Woman's Day, Family Circle, Good Housekeeping and McCall's. I liked McCall's the best. If you're roughly my age, you probably know why. Oh, come on, it was the Betsy McCall paper dolls in the back, silly. She had the best adventures and travelled places, and had great clothes and a Dachshund. 
I don't know what I saw in the rest of the magazines, mostly fashions and hair and makeup, I guess. I looked at the home dec features, but was completely uninterested in the cooking stuff. I would even read the advice columns and Heloise's Hints. But not the recipes. I could not wait until Mum came home from the grocery store, to see if she had picked up another mag. Sometimes she even bought me a "Jack and Jill" magazine. Did anybody ever read those? 
Our town had a supermarket called Fernandes', located in a strip mall with a dry cleaner, drug store, liquor store, hardware store, and a barber (yes, like Floyd).
There was a lunch counter at the front of Fernandes', with stools with seats that spun. (Mum always made you stop and get down and come with me.) There were donuts and cakes and pies on cake stands with glass domes. The waitresses wore polyester uniforms of "Harvest Gold" with white aprons, white nurses's shoes and bouffant hairdos. The coffee cups were that ubiquitous heavy-thick white ceramic -- Buffalo China. 
The cashiers had similar "Harvest Gold" smock coats over their clothes, but the same bouffants and sometimes cats-eye glasses. No one left the house without lipstick. The bag boys wore bow ties and aprons and put your frozen foods in thick brown paper bags to insulate it on the drive home (2.5 miles!), and pushed your cart out to your station wagon, unloaded it and took it back inside for you. My mother always wrote a check in her neat handwriting, sometimes with the purple pen she had from selling Fashion Two-Twenty cosmetics. That was grocery shopping and magazines in my childhood. Tune in for more tomorrow.
