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From: Denise
Sent: Friday, December 07, 2012 1:15 PM
To: phaedrus@hungrybrowser.com
Subject: Southern White Fruit Cake Recipe from 1972
Hello. My 80 year old neighbor lost her favorite fruitcake recipe
and I've tried everything I know to find it. She says it's called a
Southern White Fruit Cake. She remembers the author of the
recipe was Eldora Witty (sp???) and it came out of the 1972
Better Homes and Gardens 50 years of great Christmas recipes.
I found the magazine on Ebay and ordered for her but the recipe
she specifically wanted was not in there. Now she thinks it may
have been an insert in the magazine. Any help you can provide
would be appreciated. I have looked up white fruit cake recipes
and southern white fruitcake recipes on google, but she says
they are not it. She would recognize it if she saw it, but is unable
to give me more information.
Thank you,
Denise
Hello Denise,
Let’s set aside “Better Homes and Gardens”, and let’s also set aside the “Southern” part of “Southern White Fruit Cake”.
Now that we’ve done that, let’s think of a famous Southern individual with a name like “Eldora Witty”. The most famous
Southern individual that I can think of with a name like that is the noted Mississippi author – Eudora Welty. Ms. Welty
was an American author of short stories and novels about the American South. Her novel The Optimist's Daughter won the
Pulitzer Prize in 1973. Welty was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom, among numerous awards. She was the first
living author to have her works published by the Library of America.
Ms. Welty‘s fruitcake recipe is well known, although it appears to be known simply as “White Fruit Cake”, without the
“Southern”. See here: Cookbook of the Day
There is a photo of the cake on that site, along with the recipe. For easier printing, the recipe is also below.
Phaed
Eudora Welty’s White Fruitcake
1 1/2 cups butter
2 cups sugar
6 eggs, separated
4 cups flour, sifted before measuring
flour for fruit and nuts
2 tsp. baking powder
pinch of salt
1 pound pecan meats (halves, preferably)
1 pound crystallized cherries, half green, half red
1 pound crystallized pineapple, clear
some citron or lemon peel if desired
1 cup bourbon
1 tsp. vanilla
nutmeg if desired
Make the cake several weeks ahead of Christmas of you can.
The recipe makes three-medium-sized cakes or one large and
one small. Prepare the pans -- the sort with a chimney or tube --
by greasing them well with Crisco and then lining them carefully
with three layers of waxed paper, all greased as well. Prepare the
fruit and nuts ahead. Cut the pineapple in thin slivers and the
cherries in half. Break up the pecan meats, reserving a handful
or so shapely halves to decorate the tops of the cakes. Put in
separate bowls, dusting the fruit and nuts lightly in sifting of
flour, to keep the from clustering together in the batter.
In a very large wide mixing bowl ( a salad bowl or even a dishpan
will serve) cream the butter very light, then beat in the sugar until
all is smooth and creamy. Sift in the flour, with the baking powder
and salt added, a little at a time, alternating with the unbeaten egg
yolks added one at a time. When all this is creamy, add the floured
fruits and nuts, gradually, scattering them lightly into the batter,
stirring all the while, and add the bourbon in alteration little by little.
Lastly, whip the egg whites into peaks and fold in.
Set the oven low, about 250. Pour the batter into the cake-pans,
remembering that they will rise. Decorate the tops with nuts.
Bake for three hours or more, until they spring back to the touch
and a straw inserted at the center comes out clean and dry.
(if the top browns too soon, lay a sheet of foil lightly over.)
When done, the cake should be a warm golden color.
When they've cooled enough to handle, run a spatula around the
sides of each cake, cover the pan with a big plate , turn the pan
over and slip the cake out. Cover the cake with another plate and
turn right-side up. When cool, the cake can be wrapped in cloth or
foil and stored in a tightly fitted tin box.
From time to time before Christmas you may improve it with a
little more bourbon, dribbled over the top to be absorbed and so
ripen the cake before cutting. This cake will keep for a good while,
in or out of the refrigerator.
-----------------------------------------------------------------
This is it!!! Thank you so much. She also says thank you.
Merry Christmas.
Denise
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This is the recipe. She made it and said it turned out exactly as
she remembered. Thank you sooo very much.
Denise
-----Original Message-----
From: Christina
Sent: Sunday, December 09, 2012 2:35 PM
To: phaedrus@hungrybrowser.com
Subject: Nutmeg Bread
I hope you can help me. I have been searching for years for a recipe for
a quick bread called Nutmeg Bread. It was given to me as a gift one
Christmas season. It was so good I asked for the recipe. The lady gave me
the recipe from an older hard back cook book. I hand copied the recipe,
but it was lost shortly after I made it the first time. I remember the
recipe had sour cream and baking soda. Any help would be great!
Thanks,
Christina
Hi Christina,
What other ingredients did it have, if any? Bananas? Nuts of some sort?
There's one with sour cream here, but it has pecans:
Foodgeeks
Phaed
From: Bonnie
Sent: Sunday, December 09, 2012 3:21 PM
To: phaedrus@hungrybrowser.com
Subject: Brotherton's Farmhouse Glendale and Pasadena, California
Brotherton's Farmhouse was in Glendale and Pasadena, California up until about the 1980s.
I am looking for their fried chicken recipe, their fried halibut recipe, their Stuffing recipe,
and their fried rabbit recipe.
Thank You,
Bonnie
Hello Bonnie,
I searched for any recipes at all from Brotherton’s Farm House. The owner appears to have been C. G. Brotherton.
I found no recipes at all, just a few reminisces.
I’ll post your request(s) on the site in case a reader can help.
Phaed
-----Original Message-----
From: Kaye
Sent: Monday, December 10, 2012 3:01 AM
To: phaedrus@hungrybrowser.com
Subject: WalMart's ranger cookies
Uncle Phaedrus,
Several, several years age Sam Walton opened a HyperMart here in Topeka, KS.
There very best thing they had to sell was Ranger cookies.
In time several other stores began selling them, also but WalMart's were
without equal. I've asked about them several times but I guess personnel
turn over has done away with any who might remember the cookies.
And so, I turn to you for help. I believe they were around late 80s or
early 90s.
Thanks,
Kaye
Hello Kaye,
I had no success at all locating a ranger cookies recipe from Hypermart or
Walmart. I believe the Topeka Hypermart was converted to a Walmart
Supercenter. Did they stop selling the ranger cookies when they converted
the store?
I think you'd have to find someone who worked in the Hypermart Bakery
Department in order to have any hope of success with the actual recipe. I
didn't find any "tastes-like" recipes for them, but perhaps a reader who
remembers the Hypermart ranger cookies might be able to recommend one. I'll
post this - perhaps someone will respond. it will be about a month before
this request will appear on the site.
Phaed
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