The Rural Voice, 1980-03, Page 33from Northside United Church, Seaforth
Cookbook
HOT MULLED CIDER
1/2 c. brown sugar
1/4 tsp. salt
8 c. apple cider (or juice)
1 tsp. whole allspice
1 tsp. whole cloves
3" stick cinnamon
Combine brown sugar, salt and cider in a
Targe saucepan. Add spices tied in a small
piece of cheese cloth. Simmer covered for
20 min. Remove spice bag. Serve hot with a
twist of lemon peel. (20 servings)
Shirley Snell
From St. Clair Michigan Cookbook
NO KNEAD CINNAMON ROLLS
Combine:
'/a cup scalded milk
3 T shortening
3 T sugar
1-'/a tsp. salt
Cool to lukewarm by adding:
1/2 cup water
Add: 1 cake yeast or 1 dry yeast. Mix well.
Blend in: 1 egg
Add: 31/4 cups sifted flour, gradually.
Mix well. Let stand 15 min. covered.
Roll on well floured board to 18 x 12 in.
rectangle. Spread with:
2T melted butter
'4 cup sugar
2 tsp. cinnamon
May add a few nuts if desired. Roll as for
jelly roll. Cut in 12 slices and place on well
greased 9 x 13 pan. Let rise till double in
bulk about 1 hour. Bake at 375° for 20 to 25
minutes.
Frost with thin Butter Cream Frosting
while hot.
from Ripley Junior Farmers' Cookbook
COLD SALMON MOUSSE
2 env. unflavored gelatin
'/a c. cold water
1 - 63/. oz. can condensed tomato soup
2 - 3 oz. pkg. cream cheese, cut into small
pieces
2 Tbsp. minced peeled onion
Few drops Tabasco sauce
1 c. mayonnaise
2 - 8 oz. cans salmon, drained and mashed
Sprinkle gelatin over water in small bowl
and let stand a few minutes to soften. In a
large saucepan heat soup over moderately
low heat; add cream cheese and stir until
completely dissolved. Add softened gelatin
and stir to dissolve. Remove pan from heat,
mix in onion, Tabasco, mayonnaise and
salmon. Pour into a well oiled, 6 c. gelatin
mold and chill until firm, 2 hours or longer,
unmold onto a serving plate and serve as a
spread with crackers.
Making maple syrup
BY GISELE IRELAND
Nostalgia. We seem to be wallowing in
it, bombarded at all sides by back to the
'good old days.' Do you ever hear a song
about someone remembering his childhood
days on the 17th floor of a high rise? Nope,
it's always, pack home on the farm. One of
these memories has to be the making of
maple syrup. It was definitely one of the
basics a few years back and now is classed
as a luxury. We've made it here for the
past seven years and though we don't
regard it as lucrative, it is definitely
therapy for the anxiety -riddled farmer and
a taste of the 'good old days' for the
children.
To start you have to have of course a
goodly number of maple trees. We tap
around fif ty, which grow around the house
and yard and realize about 30 gallons of
syrup with a good run. A good run is
determined when the days are balmy and
the temperature at night goes below zero.
You have to be careful when you tap that
it's not too early or late. Around here, a
few of the neighbours congregate and
decide when the spiles should be driven. It
is all done outdoors with an open pan and
hand collecting. The children all help,
taking lies of the sap as they go along.
The most tun seems to be all piling in the
back of the pick • up as they do the
collecting.
When a few barrels have been collected,
they build the fire. This the opportunity for
all neighbours to bring scraps of wood
littering their premises because it takes a
pile of wood to make a little syrup The
men ah" 's : C.0 iu be minus hair on their
hands and eyebrows as they light this
occasion. Of course, the more neighbours
that come and help , the more help you
have and the more time for them to stand
around while waiting for the fire to get
going and discuss world markets and
machinery prices. There seems to be such
an air of easy friendship as they watch the
sap bubble and send forth great clounds of
steam. We always put this fire near the
road so that we can attract a few passers by
too. Usually a couple of classes from the
schools come out and watch how it's done.
Then they come in the house for waffles
and maple syrup. It keeps you hustling to
feed around 30 kids in a short time but Tin
never short of willing help in this
endeavour.
The days go by with more sap until you
have enough for the first boil off. The men
who come out to make it year after year
seem to know when it is the right
consistency to boil off. Word seems to get
around fast, because the boil off is usually
at night after chores and quite a group
seem to have collected by this time. It is
understood that anyone who makes wine
brings a sample for the first boil off. There
are some pretty good winemakers in the
area too. They usually put the syrup into
milk cans brought by anyone who has them
and they come to the house with their
prize. We used to clear the syrup after it
was ready and seal it. We don't anymore.
Any woman who has stood over the stove
for pots of this stuff dropping eggs into it or
milk and skimming and stirring knows that
you end up with the yuckiest job.
Invariably I boiled one batch over on the
stove every year until one year my husband
had to help clean it. It took us four hours to
clean the stove and the next year we had a
marvellous contraption, bought at the
hardware store to strain the impurities out
of the syrup. If you immediately put it into
sealers, it is hot enough to seal and keeps
well. It freezes beautifully too. Maple
syrup seems to take such a short time to
unthaw too. This will definitely depend on
how much freezer space you have. Some-
one suggested putting it into used liquer
bottles, capping it and then dunking the
top of the bottle into melted parafin wax. 1
haven't tried it yet but it sounds ideal.
This home made syrup can run a gamut
of consistencies. It can be as thick as used
motor oil and ideal for cooking. Especially
if it has a burnt taste which is quite
possible in the last stages of boiling if not
watched all the time. You never throw any
away. They try harder with the next batch.
It is always thicker, with a richer colour and
flavour than syrup made in a condenser.
The first boil off is always celebrated
with a waffle, ice cream and maple syrup
feast. They sit around and decide whether
it is as good as it was last year or whether
not enough leaves had blown into it during
the process.
The syrup made each spring is certainly
a welcome addition to the year's meals but
the real bonus lies in the therapeutic value.
After months of snow and often bad
weather, getting outdoors to gather and
boil the sap seems like kind of a release
and everyone that gets together plans the
things they will plant in a couple of months
and discuss what weather the spring will
bring. The lines of communication are
definitely humming and that a lot of times
is what keeps the farmers going for another
year. Shared triumphs and troubles make
life worth living.
THE RURAL VOICE/MARCH 1980 PG. 31