Guardian Service Recipe: Knickerbocker Nut Bread, a September Song

In previous posts, we've put the Duplex Utility Pan to its most traditional use, frying omelets. But as the product leaflet notes, this pan was intended to handle everything from "quickie meals" and "dolling up left-overs" to baking meatloaf, loaf cake or quick bread. After a failed brownie mix experiment in our last post, I returned to the original recipe leaflet.

I assume "Knickerbocker Nut Bread" was named by the Century Metalcraft marketing department to give the recipe book  neo-colonial charm—to the best of my knowledge there's no traditional bread by this name. Though Knickerbocker is a Dutch surname dating to the colonization of Manhattan, Washington Irving's satirical A History of New York (1809) was written under the pseudonym "Diedrich Knickerbocker" and became so enduringly popular that the name has graced everything from knee-pants to Hollywood apartments to the NY Knicks since that time. Kurt Weill and Maxwell Anderson based their 1938 musical satire "Knickerbocker Holiday" on Irving's short stories (minus Rip Van Winkle and The Legend of Sleepy Hollow, the two for which he's perhaps best known) and gave us the classic "September Song").

On a personal note: I'm eternally indebted to Sleepy Hollow—it's Andrew's birthplace.

Knickerbocker Nut Bread

(from the Century Metalcraft/Guardian Service "Duplex Utility Pan" product leaflet)

3 cups flour

4 tsp. baking powder

1 tsp. pure vanilla extract*

1/2 cup sugar

1 egg

1 1/2 cups milk

1 cup chopped nuts

Sift dry ingredients. Add egg, milk and nuts. Bake in buttered Duplex Pan, allowing 13 minutes to each side.

*Note, erratum: The original recipe lists sugar twice on separate lines: "1 teas. sugar" and "1/2 cup sugar". I've substituted vanilla (optional), though I suspect the authors may have intended 1 tsp. of soda... it doesn't need it. The 4 tsp. of baking powder provide all the leavening required for this quick bread to fill the pan once completed.

Additional Notes: Begin with ingredients at room temperature. Heat 1 Tbsp. butter in one side of the Duplex Pan (in open position) until butter turns light brown. 

Spoon bread batter into buttered side until almost full. Close unit, reduce heat to "low," and bake for 13 minutes.

Open the pan, butter and heat the opposite side, then close and reverse unit, baking the unfinished side for an additional 12-13 minutes (watch it—even on low heat it can burn quickly).

Unmold loaf to wire rack and allow to cool for ten minutes before slicing.

This recipe spares the fat and sugar, yet baked in the aluminum pan produces a dense, almost coffee or pound cake like consistency: a knockout served fresh for breakfast with butter and jam or cream cheese and jelly and rich enough to serve with ice cream for desert. It slices and toasts up beautifully. Wrap it in foil and it will keep well in the fridge (I'm sure for over a week... ours hasn't lasted that long). Vary with cinnamon and raisin or lemon zest and poppy seed.

Guardian Service Roast Chicken and Potatoes

Here in the San Fernando Valley, daytime temperatures are already climbing into the 80s, so when the afternoon sun floods our mid-century kitchenette and we muse over what to fix for dinner, roasting a chicken isn't the first thing that springs to mind. But cooking stovetop with the Guardian Service roaster means there's no need to fire up the oven—we can cook most of the meal over a single low burner. And no need to burn still more energy running the air conditioners. In the dog days of summer, we've even cooked this meal over coals on a hibachi (sans gravy).

Roast Chicken and Potatoes

We started with an organically-fed, hormone-free, free-range, whole chicken and organic vegetables (russet potatoes and a white onion, though carrots, turnips, parsnips are welcome additions). The groceries came out to just over $20, but we'll use every bit of this bird to make several meals that will feed us over the week, finishing with a soup from the carcass. Now that's Depression Era cooking the Guardian Service Way.

First, prepare the chicken: with a commercially processed chicken, this typically means removing a bag of giblets from the cavity and rinsing, drying and salting the bird.  If you're prepping a minimally processed chicken (perhaps through a Community Supported Agriculture co-op or Farmers' Market), similar to those available when this cookware was manufactured, Betty Gay notes, "singe over an open flame, remove pin feathers with a small knife or tweezers. Cut out oil sac above the tail." My grandmother Pauline butchered her own chickens and little was wasted: our pillows were stuffed with the feathers, she canned the chicken feet along with its meat, and she'd reserve any yolks forming inside the chicken for making egg noodles.

The giblets: In a saucepan (1/2 qt cooker pictured), simmer the neck, heart and gizzard with some chopped onion and celery (we substituted lovage, which has a similar flavor) and enough water to cover. This giblet stock can simmer on low until you're ready to add it to the stuffing and/or gravy.

After removing and rendering the fat deposits near the tail, we used one Tbsp. of fat to sear and brown the chicken in the roaster and the remainder to make the roux for the gravy and to fry the chicken liver for the stuffing. (Note: When cooking a chicken or a smaller roast, we sometimes use the inverted platter in place of the higher, domed lid because it affords an additional cooking surface—pictured above cooking the surplus stuffing in the "Tom Thumb" unit).

Chicken Stuffing
I rarely fuss over a stuffing recipe—bread crumbs, corn bread, challah, herbs, fruit, nuts... keep a varied larder and the sky's the limit. Here's what we had on hand:

1 onion, chopped

3 large slices stone-ground, whole wheat bread, cubed

1 lb. mushrooms, diced

1 chicken liver, chopped, fried in chicken fat

2 Tbsp. chevre

1/2 cup raisins

4 leaves sage

2 sprigs rosemary

giblet stock

freshly ground salt and pepper to taste

Sauté the onion and chicken liver in butter or chicken fat for five minutes, add mushrooms and continue to cook for another ten minutes, stirring frequently, until the mushrooms have released some liquid. Remove from heat and mix with remaining stuffing ingredients.

Roast Chicken and Potatoes

After stuffing and trussing the chicken, lather with butter or, as our friend Nancy Lamb prefers, mayonnaise. Heat a tablespoon of the chicken fat in the roaster over medium heat, add the chicken and sear the skin, turning on all sides until browned. Remove chicken to platter and layer the bottom of the roaster with:

6 potatoes, cut in wedges  (russets pictured above)

1 onion, sliced

Return chicken to roaster over bed of potatoes and onions and set over medium flame. Cover and roast for 20-25 min/lb.

Cooked in the roaster, the potatoes and onions will absorb the chicken fat and caramelize together as a delectable, mealy side dish. If you prefer to roast the potatoes separately, any additional excess fat can be poured off from the roaster and reserved to make the gravy*.

When the chicken is cooked, remove the chicken to the tray and, if further browning is desired, cook using the stove-top browning technique, reflecting the burner heat back onto the chicken.

At this point, we added a cup of broccoli flowerets around the chicken on the platter, covered it, and set the lidded plater over a barely lit burner for twelve minutes. The radiant heat and low additional burner heat was just enough to cook the broccoli to perfection as I prepared the gravy:

Add flour to the last of the rendered chicken fat, cook the resulting roux and add the giblet stock (I also added some left over pasta water) to bring it up to a gravy. Salt and pepper to taste.

*It should be noted, tomorrow being Mother's Day, that my mother's method for turkey gravy (a family tradition) begins with caramelizing all the drippings until they stick to the roaster pan, then pouring off the excess fat and creating a roux from the bottom of the roaster drippings—and nothing compares. BUT, when all that essence is cooking directly into the potatoes, the result is equally delectable. (Pictured below, the Guardian Service gravy boat—a beautiful and functional design—warming over a barely lit burner).

  

Sweets for the Sweet: Devil's Food Cake

I say "The devil is in you" and to resist you I try...
- Lorenz Hart, "Lover" (1932)

I'd planned to make a carrot cake as my first adventure in "Top Stove Baking" in the Guardian Service Kettle/Canner... but the approach of Valentine's Day inspired me to bake a Devil's Food Cake for my beloved. For Andrew, if it doesn't contain chocolate it's not truly a dessert...

"Top Stove Baking the Guardian Way Brings a New Fascination to this Art," begins the cakes section in the Guardian Service Tested Recipes cookbook. As I lowered the two-tiered rack of cakes into the Kettle/Canner unit, I was fascinated—baking an entire cake on one burner, in an aluminum canner seems like a hare-brained scheme/mad culinary science project... but the results are moist and tender, with a savings in fuel.

I've posted a quick slideshow of the highlights below the recipe to help walk you through the process.

DEVIL'S FOOD CAKE

for the Guardian Service Kettle/Canner

Baking Time: 30-40 minutes. (Two 9-inch layers)

3/4 cup cocoa

3/4 cup brown sugar

1 1/4 cups milk

1/2 cup butter*

1 tsp salt

1 1/2 tsp vanilla

1 cup granulated sugar

3 eggs

1 tsp baking powder

3/4 tsp baking soda

2 cups sifted cake flour

*The original recipe calls for shortening... to lighten it, I substituted 1/4 butter, 1/4 cup applesauce and three minced prunes.

1. Assemble all ingredients so everything is handy and at room temperature.
2. Mix cocoa with brown sugar.
3. Heat milk in unit over medium heat (a trio pot, or the 1 1/2 or 2 qt dome cooker work well). The recipe says "scald," but it only needs to be warm enough to dissolve the sugar. Add gradually to brown sugar/cocoa mixture. Beat until smooth, cool.
4. Cream together butter, salt and vanilla. Add granulated sugar gradually, cream until light. Add eggs one at a time, beating after each addition.
5. Sift baking powder and soda with flour. Add to egg mixture alternately with cooled cocoa mixture, stirring until smooth. Pour into greased layer pans.
6. Meanwhile, remove rack from unit and preheat—(place covered unit over high heat for 15 mins). Bake on medium heat 20 mins or until batter is firm, then shift positions from bottom to top and visa versa (This maneuver takes a little careful planning: make sure you've got a place to unpack the hot lid, the hot racks and two hot, filled cake pans before you disassemble and pack it up again. You may also want to give the heat a boost for a minute or two to recoup any loss during this transition). Cook until a tooth pick stuck into center of cake comes out dry. (Cake should be slightly shrunk from sides of pan).
7. Remove from Kettle oven, let stand about 5 min. on a cake rack, then turn out, finish cooling.
8. When cold, ice as desired. "(Don't become impatient and go ahead of the game," writes GS Director, Betty Gay, "The icing will be come thinnish and the cake soggy—very, very sad for the two of 'em)."
9. Try icing this cake with Caramel Icing, sprinkle with chopped nuts or coconut. (It's what later came to be known as a "German Chocolate Cake," originally published as "German's Chocolate Cake" in a local Dallas, TX newspaper in 1957. I frosted with the Caramel Icing, sprinkled pecans between the layers and finished the fondant with a mixture of more pecans, shredded coconut, grated chocolate, cocoa and spices (nutmeg, mace, clove, cinnammon, cardamom, white pepper, ground sea salt).

CARAMEL ICING

1 cup brown sugar

1/4 tsp salt

1/3 cup canned milk or cream*

3 tbsp butter

1 tsp vanilla

Confectioner's sugar

optional: 1 cup chopped nuts or shredded coconut or chocolate, etc.

1. Combine brown sugar, salt and cream in unit. Bring to the boiling point and leave on medium flame, about 5 min., or until slightly thickened.
2. Remove from unit, add butter and vanilla, cool slightly. Add sifted confectioner's sugar to give spreading consistency (about 1 cup). Beat until smooth.
3. Spread between layers and on top and sides of cake. Cover with cocoanut, if desired.

NOTE: Don't worry if icing becomes too thick, beat in cream or milk to give spreading consistency. *I used half-and-half, then brought it back up after cooling with a little more... plus some brandy...

Stove-Top Steaks

The Griddle/Broiler is another "combination" cooker in the Guardian Service line: it handles everything from grilled cheese sandwiches to greaseless pancakes (the subject of an upcoming post) and broils meats, vegetables or fruits efficiently; simple to serve and clean up.

BROILED STEAKS

on the Guardian Service Griddle/Broiler

1. Brush lean cuts with melted butter, fat or oil (or marinate).
2. Place Griddle/Broiler over a 2/3 flame and preheat 5 to 7 min. Test for temperature by sprinkling cold water over the surface. "If drops retain shape and dash about like mad, you're ready to start," notes Betty Gay in Guardian Service Tested Recipes; and "dash" they do—like little glass marbles (see below). "If water spreads out, Griddle is not hot enough; if water evaporates immediately, Griddle is too hot—just set off the flame for a while."
3. Put steaks on Griddle and broil over 1/3 flame (or 2/3 for medium to well done steaks) for about 5-7 minutes, turn and brown on other side.

NOTE: "Surplus fats drain into the groove around the edge so that foods are broiled instead of fried in grease and juices and flavors remain in meats rather than evaporating through contact with a direct flame." For added "New Recession" thrift cooking: retain the excess fat as basis for a gravy; and if you're broiling a bone-in steak, save the leftover scraps and bones for stock (pictured below: the 1/2 qt cooker with left over sirloin scraps and vegetable scraps).

Cottage Pie (Shepherd’s Pie)

An economical and elegant meal and a perfect dish for the Guardian Service Casserole/Tureen cooker.

Cottage pie, or Shepherd’s Pie as its often called, is a favorite wintertime comfort food; a traditional English meat and vegetable stew with a mashed potato crust. “Cottage” was a reference to the rural poor and this dish is an economical way to squeeze another meal out of leftover roast meat and vegetable odds (hash and mash). While the term “Shepherd’s pie” has become associated with the lamb variation, this recipe works equally well with any left over meats (poultry, beef, pork, venison, rabbit, etc., or a mixture), vegetables (carrot, celery, onions, corn, peas, etc.) and any starchy mashed vegetable for the “crust” (potato, yam, parsnip rutabaga, even a cornmeal/polenta, etc.). A stick-to-your-ribs meal, cooked in a single dish, top-of-the-stove; easy prep and easy clean up.

Cottage Pie (Shepherd’s Pie)

Guardian Service cooker: The Casserole/Tureen cooker

Serves: 4 ; Preparation: 15 mins; Cooking: 1 hr 10 mins

INGREDIENTS

Mashed Potato Crust

1 ½ lbs russet potatoes (5-6 large potatoes)

1/2 cup stock (chicken, beef, vegetable) and/or milk

2 tbsp butter

Stew Filling

1 lb ground lamb (or beef, chicken, turkey, pork, etc.,)

1 tbsp butter, olive oil or bacon fat for frying (optional, depending on leanness of meat)

1 large onion, chopped

2 cloves garlic, minced

2-3 carrots, chopped

a handful of fresh or frozen corn, peas, or mixed vegetables

2 tbsp tomato purée

1 tbsp flour

1 tsp fresh herbs (thyme or rosemary are especially nice)

1 tsp freshly grated nutmeg

1 cup stock (chicken, beef, vegetable, etc).

coarsely ground black pepper and sea salt

METHOD

1. Prepare potatoes The Guardian Service Way. Remove from heat, add butter, milk and stock, mash, adjust seasoning and set aside (these can be done in advance, or leftover mash works perfectly well).
2. In the Casserole unit, sautée the chopped onion until translucent in a little butter (or bacon drippings, olive oil, etc. I like to use a mixture of two or three fats). Cook until translucent.
3. Add the ground meat and brown. If you wish to make an accompanying gravy you can strain and reserve excess fat and drippings, add flour to make a roux, brown and reconstitute with stock, wine, sherry or milk; set aside to accompany the pie!).
4. Add the chopped carrots, minced garlic and additional vegetables and cover. Simmer on low heat for 5-10 minutes.
5. Remove from heat, dust with flour, add seasonings and tomato purée; set aside.
6. Set the larger Tureen unit over a medium flame to preheat while spreading the mash mixture over the stew. Rough up the surface a little to create peaks and valleys, and brush with melted butter.
7. Nest the filled Casserole unit inside the preheated Tureen unit, cover and set over medium high flame, cook 30-40 minutes until bubbling.
8. Optional: place the Casserole under a broiler to brown the top or, if your cooker has a metal lid, try the Top-Stove Browning technique*

A note on the “Top-Stove” Baking with the Casserole/Tureen:

It wasn’t until we used the Guardian Service Casserole/Tureen that we understood the true meaning of the term “Dutch” oven—the modifier being a synonym for “thrifty.” The outer Tureen cooker creates a stove-top (or in the cookbooks' parlance: "Top-Stove") oven that insulates the inner Casserole cooker, keeping the food from excessive heat, baking with an economy of fuel and without heating up your entire kitchen (especially if you have an older, drafty oven as we do). Just preheat the outer Tureen unit, add the inner Casserole liner and bake any escalloped dish in the combined units.

*A note on “Top-Stove” Browning and pre-war metal lids:

In the lead-up to WWII, the worldwide aluminum shortage apparently prompted the Century Metalcraft Corporation to switch to manufacturing glass lids. These newer glass lids provide the ooh-aah “science project fun” of watching the food’s vapor in action, but the durability of the older metal lids also offer a unique and flashy trick: Top-Stove Browning. To brown crusts more crisply (as with the Cottage Pie) set the cooker to one side of the flame, completely off the burner and rest or angle the cover so that it juts out over the flame creating a canopy that reflects the heat back onto the crust to brown it. This is a trick that takes a little patience and practice, but it’s a showy final touch before you bring the casserole directly to the table.

Pictured below: Using a metal lid to brown the potato crust on the Cottage Pie; an excerpt from the 1935 “Guardian Service Tested Recipes” cookbook: the method for “Top-Stove” browning through reflected heat.
NOTE: We have done this with the glass lid—it obviously takes longer and is less effective (and beware that some modern reproduction lids are NOT oven proof and may not be able to withstand the direct heat).

An excerpt from the 1935 “Guardian Service Tested Recipes” cookbook: the method for “Top-Stove” browning through reflected heat.

Using a metal lid to brown the potato crust on the Cottage Pie