DEUTSCHES KOCHKUNST

As you drive through the beautiful country around Durant, you will see the rich green fields, the well built and well kept homes, mute testimony of the thrift and industry of these solid citizens. If you know your way around, you will manage an invitation to dinner at one of these homes, or, better still, an invitation to a Kaffe Klatsch or a birthday party. All through the years Durant housekeepers have been known far and wide for their hospitality, and their wonderful and unusual regional cooking as they tempt you with their generous servings of plain, delicious, wholesome, stick-to-the-ribs kind of food.

Following are a few recipes collected over a period of years and from various sources, but all from this vicinity. It is difficult to get these recipes down to small, accurate proportions for all these directions have been lovingly passed from mother to daughter or friend to friend with instructions to “take a bowl of flour,” “butter the size of an egg,” “a heaping tablespoon of baking powder” or “a pinch of salt”. Once, when I asked my mother how to make gooseberry pie, she told me, “Put in as much sugar as you think you can afford. Ten shut your eyes and pour.” This is no attempt to compile a great number of recipes but rather a few of the tried and true ones which have never been written down. For example, have you ever see n a recipe for making sauerkraut?

SAUERKRAUT

It is usually made in a barrel. Take the desired number of firm cabbages, remove the tough outer leaves and slice into shreds. In the bottom of the barrel put a layer of coarse salt, then a layer of sliced cabbage and salt again until the desired amount is packed. With each layer of cabbage pound down with a heavy wooden potato masher or mallet until the juice flows on the surface, then a fresh layer may be added. When the sauerkraut is made, place in a dry cellar, cover with a clean, dry cloth. On top of the kraut a plank should be placed and on this a heavy weight. At the end of a few days it will begin to ferment, then draw off the liquid and replace with a little fresh water. Repeat this each day until liquid stays clear, then remove cloth, wash and cover again and put weights back. Let stand for a month, and then it will be ready for use. If the kraut is too sour, pour clear water over it and press out again. When you wish to use some, put desired amount in a granite kettle with enough water to partially cover and cook it for fifteen or twenty minutes.

They tell us that many of our grandmothers used kraut for stuffing fowl. However, more popular today is the famous Sweet Dressing. I believe this is the first time this recipe has been published.

SWEET DRESSING

6 slices white bread, broken in small pieces
½ cup seedless raisins
2 cups tart apples, cubed
2 tablespoons cinnamon
½ teaspoon salt
3 tablespoons melted butter


Mix together thoroughly. Pack lightly into fowl which has been prepared for roasting. This amount is sufficient for a five or six pound duck. Some cooks also add ½ cup pitted prunes and a slice or two of lemon.

Another favorite that usually accompanied a fowl dinner was Hinquin Pudding.

HINQUIN PUDDING

1 cup Molasses (dark Karo or Brer Rabbit will do)
1 cup soft butter
1 cup washed seedless raisins
1 cup water


Mix thoroughly, then add one teaspoon soda and three cups flour, or enough to make a stiff batter. Fill one large or three small pudding molds half full. Steam three hours in a closed mold. This makes about eighteen servings. If not used at one time, this will keep for some time and may be reheated as it should be served hot.

The following sauce is used:

HINQUIN PUDDING SAUCE

1 cup granulated sugar
1 cup soft butter
1 well beaten egg


Mix together until creamy. Just before using, add one tablespoon cold water.

POTATO PANCAKES

1 beaten egg
2 tablespoons flour
¼ teaspoon salt
1 tablespoon finely chopped onion
¼ cup milk
2 cups grated raw potato


Mix all together and fry in butter on hot griddle.

GERMAN CHRISTMAS COOKIES
Every housekeeper baked these cookies for Christmas.

1 cup dark molasses
1 cup sugar
1 cup shortening (1/2 butter and ½ lard)
Combine in pan and put on stove and heat until sugar is dissolved (don’t boil). Let cool and add the following ingredients:
6 cups sifted flour
1 heaping teaspoon of salts of tartar (baking potash) dissolved in a little warm water
1 large teaspoon cinnamon
¼ teaspoon nutmeg
¼ teaspoon cloves
grated rind of an orange
grated rind of one-half lemon


Add flour a little at a time and if it gets too stiff to stir, knead it in. Put dough in cool place for several hours or until the next day. Then put it in a warm place so you can roll it. Roll quite thin. Cut with cookie cutter. Bake in a medium oven about 375 degrees. Makes seven or eight dozen cookies.

FRITTERS (FURTEN)

4 eggs, beaten separately
1 cup sugar
1 cup milk (warm)
1 yeast cake
1 cup butter and lard melted
½ teaspoon vanilla
½ teaspoon cardamom
1 cup raisins
4 cups flour


Soak yeast in mike for one-half hour. Cream butter and sugar. Add egg yolks, spices, salt. After yeast is raised, add to butter mixture. Stir in flour and raisins. Last stir in beaten egg whites. Let raise until light. Stir it down. Drop by teaspoonfuls into fritter pan or hot deep fat.

SAND TARTS

2 cups sugar
1 cup lard and butter
1 egg
2 ¼ cups sifted flour
2 rounding teaspoons baking ammonia
1 teaspoon vanilla


Cream shortening and sugar. Add whole egg. Mix thoroughly. Stir in vanilla. Sift flour and ammonia that has been finely crushed and add to creamed mixture. Drop on tins and bake in 350 oven.

NEVER FAIL PIE CRUST
(This recipe is known to be over one hundred years old)

3 cups flour
1 heaping cup lard
1 teaspoon salt
½ teaspoon baking powder


Stift flour into bowl. Add other ingredients. Beat 1 whole egg and add one tablespoon vinegar and 5 tablespoons ice cold water to egg. Pour over flour mixture in bowl. Mix all together until well blended and if forms into a ball. This will make three one crust pies of will keep some time in the refrigerator.

GROTEN-HANS

Cook a piece of ham. In a large bowl soak 6 or 8 or 10 slices of dry bread or sweet rolls in milk. Then into this beat 2 or 3 eggs, 1 teaspoon vanilla and a little cinnamon. Add at least 1 cup flour to this and pour this into a white cloth, tie shut and hang this into the kettle in which the ham is cooking. Let this cook for at least 1 ½ hours.


SAUCE
Soak 1 pound prunes and simmer until tender. Thicken with cornstarch and eat this over the groten-hans.

BUTTERMILK SOUP
(an old German favorite)

1 quart buttermilk. Put in pan over medium hot fire. Stir constantly until it boils. Stir in 1 tablespoon sugar and ¼ teaspoon salt and ½ cup washed rice. Boil slowly until rice is soft. Instead of rice, one may drop in dumplings.

ICED FRUIT SOUP

2 cups fruit juice (grape, orange, elderberry, raspberry, etc.)
¼ cup sugar
1 stick cinnamon
5 cups water
4 tablespoon sago or minute tapioca


Boil cinnamon in water for a few minutes. Stir in tapioca and sugar. Cook until thickened. Cool and add fruit juice. Chill thoroughly and serve.

POTATO CAKE

2 cups sugar
4 eggs
1 big high cup cold mashed potatoes
1 cup lard
1 cup sour milk
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 teaspoon cinnamon
3 cups flour
½ cup cocoa
1 heaping teaspoon soda


Cream lard and sugar. Add cold mashed potatoes. Beat the 4 eggs and add to creamed mixture. Sift the dry ingredients together and add to the creamed mixture alternately with the milk. Bake in layer pans (will make 2 large layers or 3 small), starting in 350 degree oven and increase to 375 degrees when batter has raised and is bubbly. Bake for about 20 minutes.

DUMPLINGS

2 cups flour, stir in enough boiling water to make a thick dough. Stir in one unbeaten egg and pinch of salt. Drop into boiling spoup. Don’t peek for 7 or 8 minutes. Dumplings are done when they come to the top of liquid.

And, last, but not least, here is a recipe that was used in nearly every household, and was brought from Germany in 1865. Of course, there are variations, but this one is highly recommended. This yields about two quarts, but they tell us most families made it in five gallon batches.

SWAT-SAUER

When butchering arrange to catch the blood from a hog. But, first, pour a half cup vinegar in the kettle and stir blood in slowly as it drops into the container.


Put in a kettle three pounds of lean pork cut in two inch squares. Make a pickling solution of two cups vinegar, one cup water or enough of this solution to cover the meat. Let come to a boil. Remove scum. Add 2 teaspoons salt, one half cup sugar, eight (8) Kernels whole black pepper, eight (8) kernels whole allspice and one bay leaf. Let boil slowly until meat is done. Then add blood very slowly one half cup at a time until thickened. About two cups of blood will be required. Boil ten minutes. Store in fruit jars in a cool place. When desired for use heat slowly and serve with dumplings and potatoes boiled in their jackets.