Lisa Shock

Yes. Here is a link to Volume I. Here is a link to Volume II. Volume 2 has more in-depth coverage of pastry, charcuterie and desserts. But, it covers many topics in more depth and has valuable resources. IIRC it was first published in 1970. I recommend purchasing both. If one is thinking of purchasing Mastering the Art, the second volume has some really wonderful recipes and lots of illustrations.

What about online shopping? At the very least, I'm sure that a bunch of eBay sellers would love to ship you exactly what you are looking for.

Honestly, this was my first thought on the subject. If there's one thing I learned from the Cooking to Honor Julia Child thread & my own experiences with MAFC is that the recipes really work. It is a big book, but part of the reason for that is the extreme attention to detail in the instructions. The reader is not expected to be an expert, yet is not treated like an imbecile.

I can't give any recommendations, but, as a vegetarian I'd like to offer a reminder to ask about how places prepare their beans, rice, and flour tortillas, as lard and other pork products are often involved.

-Entertainment options were limited as well... Green Goddess dressing was also very popular. It was the #1 salad dressing in restaurants from the late 20's through the 50's. (before ranch conquered the world) Cesar salad was for two and made by a waiter, tableside, with large flourishes, in a garlic rubbed wooden bowl larger than a sink basin. -All on a cart which was wheeled to your table with great fanfare.

My cookbooks from the period don't even have canape/Hors d'Oeuvres category. -Except the Gun Club Cookbook, 1930. (written by men) It suggests that canapes are larger and softer than Hors d'Oeuvres, and are served on a plate to seated guests who eat them with a knife and fork like an appetizer -a sort of pre-appetizer. Hors d'Oeuvres are described as being made/served in fancy hotels. They can be: savory spreads on crackers, raw oysters, sausages, smoked fish, various pickles/olives, or caviar and blinis. The savory spreads include chopped ham with butter, anchovy paste, and scrambled eggs. They do suggest serving a wide variety of pickles and olives -plain or mixed in butter. One of my cookbooks from the 1920's does suggest mixing mayo with curry powder and sugar for an exotic sandwich seasoning, served with standard sliced meats. So, a curry spread might be a possibility. Two cookbooks have spaghetti recipes, but they are very pedestrian and call for very long cooking times. No other Italian dishes are mentioned. I cannot discern and Chinese influence at all. (my recollection is that the early 1970's was when home cooks started attempting Chinese food in earnest, following the 1940's tiki craze with ersatz Chinese, Japanese & Polynesian creations) My guess is that people went out or got carry-out for exotic Chinese or Italian food. Remember that at the time, chicken was not being mass-produced. So, it was costly like steak or lobster. The trendy dessert at the time, although I cannot recall the name, was canned pineapple ring supporting a half-banana (standing up like a slightly bent finger pointing upwards), with a maraschino cherry on top. Yes, it's bizarre and vaguely obscene. It would have been an expensive dish at the time.

I don't like the modern tall 'Belgian' style waffles, so, I use a couple of vintage waffle irons that I re-wired. I have a large round Edison that belonged to my grandmother, but I prefer to use my Sunbeam duo brunch model that makes two six inch waffles at once. Both irons have built in thermometers. There are some really great old commercial models as well. -Made back during a time when these things were expected to last through several lifetimes.

How did you find that? I spent a half hour searching last night and came up empty handed. But then I ignored all the spanish written links, since I couldn't read them. The google translation isn't bad on that particular recipe. I had to laugh when it translated the title, "Orange Mattresses". ← I like to use AltaVista, and I searched for 'Colchones receta'. (I learned Spanish as a little kid, my husband lived in Mexico for a couple of years as an adult, so we know enough Spanish to get by in most situations.) Since dictionary.com and other places have text translators, I figured that most people wouldn't have too much trouble translating a short recipe.

mini fruit tarts mini chocolate chiffon pies mini eclairs (only if you can assemble and serve quickly) mini cheesecakes (in silicone molds, bases baked as separate cookies) hand rolled truffles dipped in cocoa or nuts (can make several flavored truffle bases) spritz cookies with different toppings/dipped in chocolate decorated (maybe filled) cupcakes

Here's a recipe for orange flavored ones. You could eliminate the orange juice, extract and zest for plain ones adding plain sugar as a topping. But, the orange ones are very tasty.

You can clean them, removes seeds and stems, and freeze them for later. Some things to try: Posole Green Chile Stew Green Chile Enchilada Sauce And, my personal favorite, put them on a regular red-sauce and mozzarella pizza! I freeze some in small bags every year, just for pizza fixings.

I have a tub of Drivert Sugar which can be used to make poured fondant by simply adding hot water and beating til smooth. It's approximately 8% invert sugar, and is a very fine powder. There's a recipe on the tub for icing: 3 Cups Drivert Sugar 1 1/8 Cups Sweetex 1/4 Cup (scant) hot water 3/4 tsp Flavoring pinch of salt Mix the sugar with ½ of the Sweetex and very hot water until smooth. Add the rest of the ingredients, mix, then slowly add the rest of the Sweetex a little at a time until fluffy. So, it's an American type. My guess is that the Drivert doesn't tend to get grainy. The Sweetex is a high-ratio shortening developed specifically for icing. It would be interesting to see how the Drivert acts in a butter-based American buttercream. It is a lot more expensive than 10x sugar, so hopefully it performs better at room temperature or something.

Could be almond flavored pastry cream. Have you tried asking them what it's made of?

Doesn't salt decrease the life of fryer oil?

You might also wish to consider a gift of a scale.

Could the filling be frangipane, like the filling in pithivier? The dough could be: Blitz Puff Puff Danish Croissant

Are any firm enough to cut into squares? Are the right-hand ones darker, or is it just the photo? I think the ganache method preserves some chocolate flavor, since chocolate does burn at 120°. In regular fudge, it has a little protection from other ingredients. The two lower pieces appear to have a cracked crust, is there a crust or is it a result of how they were formed/cut?

One of the newer, early 20th century, creamy/smooth kinds of fudge is made with sweetened condensed milk. The basic formula is: 14oz (1 can) sweetened condensed milk 16-18 oz dark chocolate or chocolate chips 1tsp vanilla You simply heat over low heat and mix. To mimic the canned milk product one could make a heavy sugar syrup that's fairly heavy on corn syrup/glucose to prevent crystallization. Some soymilk powder could be added to the syrup. Margarine could be added to the mix during the melt.

What about compound butter? In particular, using butter you made yourself?

You can try it with certain margarines or shortening, but the mouthfeel won't be there. Food industry people have been trying to do the same thing for a long time to extend shelf life and cut costs. I think there's a reason that you don't see commercial dairy-free fudge. It's not like, say, shortbread cookies, where you can get a workable, though inferior tasting, product by using shortening. I'm a vegetarian (I do eat dairy and eggs) and have come to accept that there are certain foods made possible only via animal products (gelatin-based mousses come to mind) that are simply not going to be part of my diet.

Well, most ganache contains cream or butter and a lot less sugar, usually just what is contained in the original chocolate. So, since there's less of it, the sugar isn't as noticable in terms of mouthfeel, and, it doesn't start out as a super-saturated solution that wants to form large crystals.

Replacing the recipe's butter with cocoa butter will just give you a bittersweet chocolate bar like you started with. Chocolate is just cocoa solids mixed with cocoa butter according to the buyer's specifications. Adding more cocoa butter to bittersweet chocolate will just give you more chocolate with a different 'split'. Adding sugar will lower the % of chocolate. If you keep adding more sugar, at some point the chocolate bar (in or out of temper) will simply become chocolate hard candy or a crumbly pile of sugar crystals cocoa butter and cocoa solids -depending on how it's handled. Fudge is a combination of untempered chocolate with a super-saturated sugar solution. The sugar wants to make large crystals which would give a very grainy, chunky texture. The fats and protein surround the sugar crystals and help keep them small, giving a smooth texture. The butter also becomes solid at cool room temperature, helping the confection stay together and giving it flexibility. Related topics include tabling poured fondant, and cooking with chocolate. Essentially, without the fat & milk, what you will get is chocolate flavor poured fondant. -Which is a perfectly acceptable product. When it has dried and firmed up it has a crumbly texture.

They prevent the fudge from being chocolate hard candy.

You mentioned that you held the molds...hot hands by any chance?

Hope you get better soon!