1911 Midday Luncheon Menu: Tomato Shortcake, Pine Nut Cheese, Lemon Egg Cream or Lemon Peaches

Woman's World Cookbook (1922) 

1911 Midday Luncheon Menu

Evora Bucknum Perkins
The Laurel Health Cookery (1911)

Tomato Shortcake

Crackers

Pine Nut Cheese

Lemon Egg Cream

Alternative: Lemon Peaches

Tomato Short Cake

Short cake (see below)

Cream of Tomato Sauce (see below)

Cover layers of split hot short cake crust of universal dough with Cream of Tomato Sauce and serve. Or, prepare unstrained tomatoes the same as for sauce and serve over the crust. Bake universal crust in flat square or round tins. Split, spread with butter or not, and cover lower half with a generous layer of tomato sauce. Turn the upper half over so that the cut side is up, and cover that, too, with tomato sauce. Two very thin crusts may be used, but the tomato sauce does not penetrate them as it does the split crust. Make the crust stiff enough to give a fine grain but not so stiff as to be hard. It may be baked in not too thick biscuit for individual serving. Crusts may be baked several days before and kept closely covered. To serve, dip in cold water, slip in paper bag, set in hot oven for about 10 m. and use as fresh baked crust. They must be served as soon as prepared. 

Universal Crust

1 cup skimmed milk

1/3 cup (large 4 tbs) oil

¼ tsp salt

½ tsp sugar

1tbs liquid yeast or 1/3 cake compressed yeast

Pastry flour

For shortcakes, fruit tarts, meat and vegetable pies, pot pie dumplings, crackers, buns, steamed puddings, loaf cake, doughnuts and cookies, rusk and Sally Lunn. Mix all ingredients except salt and add flour for sponge batter; beat; when light, add salt and warm flour for moderately stiff dough. Knead a little and cut into biscuit for the top of fruit tarts or meat or vegetable pies, or place on tins for shortcake crusts. The crust may be kneaded stiff at first and allowed to rise twice. If the crusts are not fine grained it is because you have not used enough flour or have not kneaded them enough; but they do not want to be quite as stiff as bread is usually mixed. Shortcake crusts or tins of thin biscuit may be made and kept on hand and just warmed up when needed, or laid over meat or vegetable pie fillings or hot cooked fruit fillings and left in the oven long enough to warm through. We consider this one of the most valuable recipes in the book since it can be used in so many ways in the place of baking powder crusts. 

Cream of Tomato Sauce

1–1½ tbs butter

Finely-sliced onion

1-1 ½ tbs flour

1 pt. tomato

2-3 tbs cream

Salt

Simmer onion in butter without browning, add flour, hot tomato, cream and salt.

Pine-Nut Cheese

½ lb coarse pine nut butter

4 tbs, thick tomato pulp either red or yellow tomatoes

3-4 tbs water

1–1½ tsp salt

Steam 3-4 hours.

Pine Nut and Banana Cheese

½ lb coarse pine nut butter

5 tbs banana pulp

1-2 tbs, water

1½ level tsp salt

Steam 3-4 hours

Lemon Egg Cream

Salt

1 egg white

1 tbs sugar

3 tsp lemon juice

1 egg yolk

Sprinkle a trifle of salt onto the white of an egg in a bowl and beat with a revolving egg beater to a very stiff froth; then add I tablespn. of sugar and beat until smooth and creamy. Remove the egg beater, chop in lightly 2 teaspn. of lemon juice and remove some of the beaten white to a cold plate. Add the yolk and another teaspoon of lemon juice to the white remaining in the bowl. chop them in lightly and quickly, not mixing very thoroughly. Drop this egg mixture into a cold glass and on top of it lay the white which was taken out. Serve at once. All of the white may be beaten with the yolk if preferred. The whites of-2 eggs and yolk of one may be used. 

Alternative: Lemon Peaches

1 cup lemon juice

1 cup water

1 cup brown sugar

Peaches to fill 3 pint jars

Wash and rub the peaches well, drop into boiling syrup of lemon juice, sugar and water, cook until tender, put into jars and seal.