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I love old recipes. Things like molasses don’t get nearly enough credit these days. On that note, I came across an issue of Home Arts magazine from April of 1937 recently, and it was chock full of recipes for Easter. Below, you’ll find a selection of meal menus and recipes.

Four Easter Menus

*Find these recipes below!

Broiled Grapefruit

“You may think this is taking trouble to spoil a grapefruit with its delicious cool tang, and I thought so too at first but am gradually being converted. There are several ways to do this. Always first you snip out the core with the useful kitchen scissors, run the thin curved knife around the edge and take out the dividing membranes (some merely separate the slices but the membranes are rather bitter and I like mine out). For Baked Grapefruit Hawaiian, dribble molasses between the sections and put a teaspoonful in the center, sprinkle with cinnamon and place under the broiler for five minutes. Another way is to sprinkle with white sugar, dot with butter and broil. For a luncheon or dessert service, a marshmallow may be put in the center one minute before removing from broiler. And at any time a sprinkling of sugar and two tablespoons of sherry wine or flavor is delicious. The pink grapefruit so treated makes a most satisfying dessert and is more refreshing to my mind than when offered to an empty stomach at the beginning of a meal. When so served they should be chilled.

Another sweetener for the grapefruit, cold or hot, is honey. Many like a little salt added before the sugar. As always, in salad dressings and cookery, salt and sugar complement each other and if balanced are used to bring out the flavor of food, not obscure it. They should never be obtrusive. A sprig of mint is a fine addition, and some use a cube of red jelly in the center when it is served for dessert. And by the way, sections of grapefruit sprinkled with salt, rolled in sugar and dotted with butter and broiled make an excellent fowl and meat accompaniment, just as we have always used broiled orange or pineapple with duck and ham.”

Ham Loaf for a Dozen

1 1/4 lbs ground ham
1/2 lbs fresh pork
1 1/4 lbs veal
4 eggs
1 cup milk
1 cup cracker crumbs or dry cereal
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 tsp pepper

Basting Sauce

3/8 cup brown sugar
1/2 Tbls dry mustard
1/8 cup water
1/8 cup vinegar
1/4 tsp paprika

Mold into a loaf, surround with half a cup of water and bake covered in a moderate oven (375 degrees) for about an hour and forty-five minutes, basting every fifteen minutes with the sauce and drippings. Uncover for last fifteen minutes to brown.

This loaf is most unusual when basted as directed and the horseradish sauce with either raw or cooked apples is a perfect accompaniment for any cold meat or fowl.

Horseradish Sauce for Ham Loaf

3/8 cup brown sugar
1/2 Tbsp dry mustard
1/8 cup water
1/8 cup vinegar
1/4 tsp paprika

Mix and serve on top of each piece of ham loaf

Savory Chicken Casserole

1 four pound fowl
2 quarts water
2 tsp salt
1/4 tsp pepper
1 medium onion, sliced
6 small white onions, diced
3 Tbsp butter
3 eggs
2 1/2 cups chicken broth
1/4 cup crumbs

Cut fowl in eight pieces. Place in kettle with the water, salt, pepper and sliced onion. Cover and simmer till tender. Fry the white onions in butter till lightly browned. Place the cooked chicken in a greased casserole or baking dish, cover with the fried onions. Add the beaten eggs to the chicken broth reduced to two and one-half cups and pour over the chicken. Sprinkle with crumbs and bake for thirty-five to forty minutes in a 375 degree oven (moderate). This will make about six servings.

“A new and savory way to slow-cook a fowl to tenderness is good news for any season.”

Veal Scaloppini

2 lbs veal steak or cutlet
4 Tbsp olive oil
3 1/2 cups veal broth or beef or chicken consomme’
3 Tbsp flour (browned)
salt and pepper to taste
2 Tbsp lemon juice or
8 Tbsp sherry
1 Tbsp Worcestershire

Have veal cut thin in three-inch squares. Pound well. Brown slowly in olive oil. Add broth thickened with the browned flour (canned chicken broth or bouillon cubes, or a knuckle of veal may be used to make stock). Season to taste with pepper and salt and add Worcestershire. Simmer meat in broth, covered, until very tender. Sprinkle with lemon juice or add sherry and serve very hot. Serves about eight. (If sherry is used one Tbsp more flour may be needed.)

Stuffing for Breast of Veal or Lamb

1 cup whole-wheat cereal
1 cup bread crumbs
1/2 to 1 tsp poultry seasoning
1/2 cup celery, minced
1 Tbsp minced onion
1/4 cup melted butter
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 tsp pepper
1/2 cup hot water

Combine raw cereal and bread crumbs. Add seasonings and mix in pan with melted butter until hot. Add hot water and mix well. Especially good for breast of veal and also fine to spread flank steak, roll up, tie and bake; to be served cold, cut through like a jelly roll.

Baking and desserts have changed some through the years, as people became more concerned with calories. Recipes from bygone days are often more rich and delicious, but should probably be enjoyed in moderation.

Molasses Parfait Praline

8 egg yolks
1 cup New Orleans molasses (Note: This is a light and sweet variety of molasses)
2 cups boiling milk
2 cups heavy cream
1/2 cup chopped almonds

Mix egg yolks and molasses and slowly stir in the boiling milk. Cook over hot water in a double-boiler, stirring with a wooden or enamel spoon slowly, and do not let boil. When the mixture begins to thicken, remove from the fire and let cool, continuing to stir. When cool, add the cream and chopped roasted nuts. Freeze. (Pack in equal parts ice and salt and let stand for four hours without stirring.) Serves six to eight.

“This rich parfait mixture using the “Easter eggs” generously is just right for a festive meal.”

Refrigerator Almond Ice Cream

2/3 cup sweetened condensed milk
1/2 cup water
1 1/2 tsp almond extract
1/2 cup finely shredded almonds
1 cup whipping cream

Blend condensed milk, water and extract and chill. Add the nuts and fold in the cream, whipped only to a custard-like texture, not stiff. Pour into freezing pan and place in freezing unit. When half-forzen, scrape mixture from bottom and sides of pan and beat quickly till smooth. Replace in freezing unit until frozen for serving. Six portions.

Delicious served in meringue shells or garnished with canned apricot halves, halved sweetened fresh strawberries, or cooked and chilled canned peaches, or any fresh fruit, especially peaches in season. You may also use this same base and flavor with coffee or one teaspoon orange and half teaspoon lemon extract if the almond flavor does not appeal.

Special Prune Muffins

1/4 cup brown sugar
1/4 cup white sugar
4 Tbls melted butter
1 cup milk
2 cups flour
1 egg
4 level tsp baking powder
9 cooked prunes
1/4 tsp salt

Cream butter and sugar, stir in the melted butter and lightly beaten egg. Sift flower before measuring, then add baking powder and salt and sift again. Add to first mixture alternately with milk. Do not beat any more than necessary to mix well. Cook the prunes without sugar, cut very fine and stir in last. Bake in greased tins in a moderately hot oven (400 degrees) for twenty to twenty-five minutes.

“Something exceptional in muffins is hard to find and for either the Easter breakfast or supper they will give the meal a flair.”

Lime Chiffon Pie

1 Tbsp gelatin
1/4 cup water
4 eggs, separated
1 cup sugar
1/2 cup lime or lemon juice
1/8 tsp salt
Baked pastry shell

Sprinkle gelatin on cold water. Beat egg yolks with half of the sugar. Add lime juice, salt and soaked gelatin and cook in top of double-boiler over hot water till slightly thickened. Chill. Fold in egg whites beaten until stiff and combined with the remaining half cup of sugar. Turn into baked pastry shell and chill till firm. Makes a nine-inch pie. Garnish with maraschino cherries around the rim, if desired.

I love old recipes. Things like molasses don’t get nearly enough credit these days. On that note, I came across an issue of Home Arts magazine from April of 1937 recently, and it was chock full of recipes for Easter. Below, you’ll find a selection of egg dishes, and in the weeks heading for Easter I’ll post additional recipes and meal ideas from this magazine.

“Easter breakfast eggs should be very special and the possibilities are endless. These two suggestions merely point the way. Eggs scrambled in a double-boiler, really creamed, with chopped chives are delicious; a poached egg on half toast, spread with potted chicken or ham is another touch. Hard cooked eggs, sliced and creamed are excellent. Just keep away from the eggs and bacon of winter, for variety and also for spring lightness.”

Poached Eggs Hollandaise

6 slices of half toast
6 eggs
1/2 cup mayonnaise
1 cup white sauce
1/2 cup grated cheese (optional)

Fold the mayonnaise into the hot white sauce (two level Tbsp flour to one cup of milk, one Tbsp butter, a quarter teaspoon salt and an eighth tsp pepper). Place poached eggs on toast and pour sauce over whole. Serve at once.

Egg Fluff

Separate six eggs. Add a quarter tsp salt to whites and beat until stiff. Pile egg whites in a buttered, shallow baking dish. Drop the egg yolks onto the beaten whites, sprinkle with white pepper or paprika (and, if desired, with a little grated cheese) and bake in a slow oven (300 degrees) for eighteen minutes. Serve at once.

If you are a crafty person, you may already be familiar with a paper craft technique called Iris Folding. The craft is most associated with greeting cards, but is also used by scrap-bookers and mixed media artists, and even quilters who duplicate the effect in fabric. Strips of folded paper are laid in a pattern resembling the iris of a camera, to fill the negative space cut from a piece of cardstock or other base. Any light-weight papers can be used for the folding, on a base of heavier cardstock, and there are numerous templates available for free online. All right, now that, spurned by my enthusiasm, you have rushed to the WWW to thoroughly familiarize yourself with this craft…

I’m afraid I’m a sort of rebel. The precision of iris folding appealed to me from the very beginning, and also the fact that it reminded me of a type of drawing I was taught in grade school to illustrate infinity. But I’ve tried my had at various methods of greeting-card making, and the truth is, I just don’t use them, and don’t enjoy making them. Also, I found a lot of the standard free templates a little too cute. It just wasn’t my style.

Some time after my introduction to iris folding, I was leafing through a book I’d been given; an old sample book of hand-made Japanese papers. The papers are all so beautiful, but of each there was only a 3″ x 6″ sample page, with writing printed in several places and holes punched in. I considered various ways I could use this paper in a sort of patchwork effect, to get the most bang for the buck, and eventually I hit on iris folding. It uses only small amounts of paper for the folded bits and with only a few exceptions, the Japanese papers were a good weight. But if I was going to use these very special papers, so precious because of their rarity, at least in my world, then I wanted a special project, and nothing I’d seen online would do. I understood the basics of the craft, so I set out to design my own template, and what could be more appropriate for Japanese papers than a Japanese koi?

It worked. It turns out I knew exactly what I was doing. I used a wide variety of papers, even for the white bits, to lend the fish the variety of texture and color of a real koi. Rather than leave it in a flat cardstock frame, I hand-painted a coffee filter to be reminiscent of water. The entire effect is subtle and pleasing, and it does a good job of showcasing the papers themselves.

If you’d like to try the koi, I’ve written basic instructions and drawn out the template. You can download it here. But I encourage you to spend some time squirreling away a little stash of special papers (if you don’t have one of these already) and then strike out on your own in a way to best showcase what you have.