Peter's Always Nattering About Baked Onions
I have a lot of random cookbooks, but easily the most random is a booklet I bought in a South African thrift store, called "What's Cooking in United Party Circles At Parow." When white supremacists bake! They do a nice-looking milk-tart, actually, but...Inside this book was a set of newpaper clippings of this bizarre comic-strip. Each strip is an awful recipe, presented by this scary, Nazi henchman looking lady to her clueless friend. Check it out. (Many thanks to John for scanning and building this li'l site.)
jholbo-at-mac-dot-com
It's like travelling in time, but instead of going to where people ate sparrows' tongues and gold leaf and would make lots of eggs into one big egg (and who hasn't secretly dreamed of doing just that? I know I have), you end up in BakedOnionville. I think my grandparents used to live there.
Posted by: Anthony | February 17, 2005 at 08:53 PM
I love how the onion is boiled hard for an hour (presumably to ensure the banishment of all remnants of onion flavor) and then smothered in "white sauce".
Posted by: Vance Maverick | February 18, 2005 at 01:02 AM
I have to admit a morbid curiosity about white supremacist milk tart.
Also, I'm trying to think of an occasion for the lots of eggs into One Big Egg (smaller version) recipe. Easter?
Posted by: Carlos | February 18, 2005 at 09:40 AM
I think the benign circumstance of having two pigs' bladders of suitable size (not to mention a surfeit of eggs) would be grounds enough for celebrating with a Great Egg.
Posted by: Anthony | February 18, 2005 at 11:45 AM
Belle, I think you've got the United Party confused with the postwar National Party. UP was formed from the merger of the prewar NP with the South African Party, and was relatively progressive. It lost power in 1948, to a new National Party, which was formed by fascist sympathisers unhappy with South Africa's involvement in WWII (on the British side).
Posted by: Neil | February 18, 2005 at 12:41 PM
I was thinking six eggs, and balloons instead of pig's bladders -- which I could get, I suppose, but then I would have pig's bladders around, and that's a slippery slope.
There are food coloring possibilities here. And it would be in the medieval spirit! All those color-coded dishes that match, like Garanimals.
Plus I could tell my friends it's from an emu or something.
Posted by: Carlos | February 18, 2005 at 05:27 PM
What's the difference between a "Breakfastcup" and a "Teacup"? (Yes, I actually read the recipes closely enough to wanna ask).
And the big egg sounds like it would be a blast to serve, though I'd have to cogitate on how to cook it. Maybe a centerpiece at a spring party? It beats having that yukky coconut covered "bunny" cake.
Posted by: Orthoclase | February 18, 2005 at 10:10 PM
What would lie at the bottom of this particular slippery slope?
Posted by: Jeremy Osner | February 19, 2005 at 03:32 AM
The bun loaf recipe reminds me of the one my grandmother used to make for special occasions. It goes like this:
1½ lb self-raising flour
¾lb sugar
¼lb butter
12oz mixed dried fruit
2oz peel
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon mixed spice
1 egg
1 pint warm milk
Rub together the butter, flour, spices and dried fruit. Add the egg and milk. Bake 1½ hours at gas mark 3½.
(These are British imperial measurements, so if you're used to American or metric measurements you'll need to convert them).
It's extremely good!
Posted by: SusanC | February 19, 2005 at 06:30 AM
My favorite line is "And more baked balls of the forced meat, if you like".
Posted by: Aunt Deb | February 19, 2005 at 09:48 AM