Not Even Close To Your Grandmother’s Pop-Overs!
Roberta Rosa is a public school substitute teacher in Connecticut. She is married and the mother of 2 sons. She can be found on twitter @Roberta87
We begin an historical and perhaps hysterical experiment today that will hopefully ‘rock’ the way we think about American food! I am in possession of perhaps hundreds of vintage recipes that were left to me from my ‘grandmother by courtesy’. Most of these recipes are undated, but judging by the ingredients and instructions I can place them anywhere from 1915 to 1920. The recipes are fragile, the ink is fading and time is of the essence.
I’ve written about Juddy before, in my first post for Farm to Table. Her life was the absolute personification of grace. She would never think about serving ‘prepared food’. For her, the essence of grace and dignity was the care that she put into her food, her table and her garden. If you were invited to have dinner at her home you could be sure of the nobility of the experience. I know the act of recreating these recipes, of resuscitating and sharing theme would make her proud. Let’s see how we do with (what I thought) was a simple pop-over recipe!
The best way to proceed is for you to see what I had to work with.
The recipe follows exactly as written:
Pop-Overs
1 cup milk
1 cup flour
1 egg
1 tea spoon butter
1 tea spoon baking powder
A little salt
the cream
Butter and sugar creamed together, fruit of any kind. Heat milk and
stir into the creamed sugar and butter, then add the fruit.
That’s it! If you can believe it? No temperature, no time or mixing instructions. I’m sure you can see other issues that the recipe unearths. Sugar is mentioned in the instructions but nowhere to be found in the ingredients, what fun! I found a website that was helpful and was able to locate a similar pop-over recipe from that time period. It called for 1 Tablespoon of sugar – crushed. Are you kidding me?! What was life like then!!! Visit this website if you ever find yourself in a similar ‘jam’, www.foodtimeline.org . It saved the production of these important breakfast breads!
Before I begin lamenting my cooking process with you let me tell you that I had in my head that Pop-Overs would be so very I don’t know…Pillsbury like! What was I thinking?? I guess it goes to show how far we have to go to even become familiar and unafraid of cooking with care.
According to the definition in “The Food Lover’s Companion,” a Popover is
“A puffy, muffin-size bread with a crisp brown crust and a somewhat hollow, moist interior. Basic popovers begin with a simple batter of eggs, milk, butter and flour. The high proportion of liquid in the batter creates steam that LEAVENS the bread. Popovers may be baked in muffin tins or special popover pans, which have six extra-deep cups. The name is said to come from the fact that as the batter bakes and expands, it ‘pops over’ the sides of the cup-shaped indentations. Popovers can be plain or variously flavored with items such as cheese, spices or herbs.”
As I began to cook I was so grateful that I consulted the ‘Companion’ above because I was so ready to put these puppies on a cookie sheet! That would have been super messy. I located a muffin tin and sprayed the tins with cooking spray. I could have greased and floured them but I was already getting a headache. The next thing I had to attack was creaming the butter and sugar together and fighting the urge to not add more sugar. That was easy, how hard is it to cream together 1 tsp. Butter with 1 tbsp. of sugar?
Now for the dry ingredients: I mixed the flour and baking soda together and had to deal with the ‘little’ salt I had to add. So we have a salt mill and I turned the mill about 5 times. Whatever.
For the wet ingredients I noted that the milk had to be warmed. Not a problem, one more pan to wash, but not a problem. Once the milk was heated I stirred the creamed sugar and butter in and decided to throw the egg in for good measure. Where else was I going to put it? I added about a cups worth of chopped fresh peaches I had picked up at the farmer’s market and then slowly added the wet ingredients to the dry. This makes a very wet mixture. It is not doughy at all. Now I see why these had to go in tins. I poured the mixture into the tins about ¾ full remembering that they were supposed to ‘pop-over’. Now the hard part. What temperature do I set the oven for and how long will they cook. I decided to set the oven for 350° and hope for the best. The best didn’t show up. These popovers must have cooked for an hour before they looked done. They did indeed pop over but shortly after I removed them from the oven they fell – just like a soufflé! Next! So the next batch goes in at 375° (can you see the problem already?) and again I wait. Definitely, these pop-overs were cooked at a very high temperature for perhaps just 20 minutes! Oh well, live and learn. These also fell but they were slightly browner.
I let them rest in the tins and removed them after about 5 minutes. They came right out and really didn’t look bad at all. I believe that if they had cooked faster at a much higher temperature that I would have seen (for a longer period) that beautiful puff! You’re wondering what they tasted like. Well, remember that this is a breakfast bread from many years ago and not one loaded up with sugar like a cinnabon. I was worried that with so little sugar it would be bland but with the added natural sugars from the fruit it was remarkably sweet. I ate mine warmed and added a spoonful of strawberry/rhubarb jam both because it looked pretty and added another dimension of flavor.
All in all this wasn’t a bad attempt at cooking from such an old recipe. I learned a lot and felt somehow connected to a different time and place. My next recipe will be a surprise to both you and myself! I have a lot of recipes to look through and will need to find one that would be fun for us all to try. I’ve included a photo of the finished product.
Remember ‘the proof is in the pudding’! It must be because you wouldn’t believe how many pudding recipes are in this collection!
Roberta – Thanks for this. It makes me think of some of my GGrandmother's recipes (though most weren't written down at all). I was wondering about the flour. If her recipe was created before WWI it is possible she was still buying flour that was high-protein, high gluten.
Got this from the King Arthur Flour site: “hard, red, spring wheat from Minnesota and Canada. This high-protein wheat produced more gluten, which absorbed moisture better, made yeast-baked goods rise better, and kept baked goods fresher for a longer time. “
Just wondering.
Thanks for sharing the adventure! Was Juddy of English ancestry? I'm wondering if all your “pudding” recipes are what we think of (cornstarch, milk, and flavoring) as pudding. My husband is English and his mother's Christmas pudding is a fruitcake while her Yorkshire pudding is a popover made with roast meat drippings. They have dozens of puddings, but their cornstarch, milk, and flavoring dessert is called “custard” rather than pudding, LOL! I think it is perfectly normal for the popovers to collapse. I got this from cookstr.com: “Don’t use muffin tins to bake popovers. Use individual Pyrex cups or popover pans, if you have them, because the secret to making high and mighty popovers is to bake them in containers that are separate, so that the oven heat completely surrounds each individual popover container.If you are using individual Pyrex cups, place them 2 inches apart on a baking sheet and put the baking sheet into the center of the oven. Or put the popover pans in the oven.
Set the kitchen timer for 25 minutes. When the timer bell goes off, start checking the popovers. Popovers bakes in Pyrex cups usually take about 25 to 35 minutes. They should stand tall and be puffed up, looking like giant golden balloons. When they are nice and brown on top, they are done. When the popovers are done, remove them from the oven with pot holders. Quickly pierce each popover in 3 or 4 places around the top and sides with the pointed tip of a paring knife. The holes let the steam escape, which helps prevent the popovers from falling, or flattening out. (By doing this trick of piercing the popovers quickly, you can reheat them, if you don’t eat them all up at once, and they will again puff up a little.) Remove the popovers from their pan or cups. If they don’t come out easily, run a knife around the sides of each popover. Eat them hot with butter and strawberry jam.” I never heard of putting fruit into a popover batter. That may have contributed to the collapse, as well.
Not only is this an intriguing look into food history, it's an absolutely compelling style of writing – telling a story with an ease
that captivates the reader. For all of us who enjoy reading cookbooks, this is a style with tremendous information and a flair for creativity. Why not write a book, instead of blogging? Your recipes are valuable; so is your writing.
I love this! My great-grandmother was a professional cook and I have inherited her recipes as well. One day I'll delve in.
Roberta – when I was in baking school we used specific popover pans for popovers – ALWAYS – and never started with anything less than a 400 degree oven. The POP that happens is because of the steam build up within the cup.
Thanks so much for sharing! I'd love to know where your blog is!
Dina thanks so much! I know both Roberta and myself appreciate your support!
I encourage you to delve into your great grandmother recipes as soon as
possible. We need to connect ourselves to our culinary pasts, now more than
ever. If you are interested in a forum to share, you are welcome to do so
here! I just know my readers and the community here would appreciate it!
As for now, Roberta does not have a blog. I have told her to consider Farm
to Table her home for as long as she wants, and she has carte blanche to
publish whatever she wants. That being said I have also told Roberta that
when she is ready to start her own thing I would lend a hand
Z
Renee, It's very possible that this recipe originated prior to WW1! Some of them may have come directly from her mother. Juddy's family was a farming family in CT. Anything is possible. Thanks so much for the info. This is going to be a wild ride for me and I'm sure some of you will see the train coming before I do!!
Cathy, Thank you so much for all that great information. This is going to be so much fun and I can't wait to see what's in store next. You asked about Juddy's descent and English it is! That could very well be the reason for the large amount of pudding recipes. You've inspired me to try one of those dastardly things next. If my 'fallen' popovers made you laugh, let's see what damage I can do with a delicate pudding!!
Thanks Dina! My home is here! This is going to be such fun and I've learned so much just today from interacting with all these wonderful remarks. Spread the word and let's all share a laugh along the way!
Oooh… a mission for Roberta? Create a blog where people can contribute all of those old recipes BEFORE they're lost. Scan 'em, send him, volunteers interpret them, bake 'em and show 'em off? It would feel like a “Love Letter to Our Grandparents and Great Grandparents” to me. Thank you all for sharing YOUR table and the love you poured into everything that was set before your family on that table… we need it so badly.
…Just thinkin.
and that would be the first appearace of the word “dastardly” on the blog,
mazel tov!!!
like a library of alexandria to be stored on the cloud to protect against,
you know…pillaging, raping, and cities being laid siege to
and that would be the first appearace of the word “dastardly” on the blog,
mazel tov!!!
like a library of alexandria to be stored on the cloud to protect against,
you know…pillaging, raping, and cities being laid siege to
and that would be the first appearace of the word “dastardly” on the blog,
mazel tov!!!
like a library of alexandria to be stored on the cloud to protect against,
you know…pillaging, raping, and cities being laid siege to
[...] the mixed success I had with last weeks recipe for 80-year old Popovers, I decided to chose a recipe from Juddy’s collection that I thought I would have a modicum of [...]
Wow! Renee, I'm speechless. I'm going to try and do that right here for now. This place feels like home and I truly love the feeling of community. More wild recipes to come this week. My boys loved the 'Delmonico Potatoes' but I'm anxious to see how they react to 'Celery Cutlets'!