A Munch Down Memory Lane

Ah, school days, when our palates were young and innocent.

We grouched about cafeteria food, sure, but that was just to impress our friends. It’s amazing how many people remember--even crave--particular old-time cafeteria dishes. Rose Dosti’s Culinary SOS column gets requests for Los Angeles city schools recipes all the time, especially for cakes and cookies.

I remember the cakes and cookies (and countless puddings, gelatins and fruit cups) served at my San Fernando Valley high school and junior high during the ‘50s, but I remember other things too. Tuna sandwiches made with so much pickle relish they were sweet; odd effect, but I actually grew fond of them. Trays of pickled beets always topped, for some reason, with sliced onions. Cole slaw with sesame seeds in it. A meaty, cuminy chili mac that is still my standard of chili mac excellence; wish I had the recipe.

But the chili mac recipe no longer exists, so far as the Los Angeles Unified School District knows. Only a few old-time cafeteria recipes survive.

“There are some recipes from the ‘40s through ‘70s, when there was more scratch cooking,” says Laura Chinnock, the district’s senior nutrition specialist. “We’ve pulled all the recipe cards. We stopped putting recipes on cards eight years ago.” The current recipes are kept in a printed recipe book, at the moment being revised.

In her office on the second floor of the school district’s Newman Nutrition Center, Chinnock hauls out a filing drawer tightly crammed with old recipe cards for 100 or so dishes. There are several copies of some recipes; for others there may be nothing but the recipe’s name.

These are only the tip of the iceberg, of course, but you can watch the iceberg slowly shifting. From the ‘40s, there are humble, homely scratch pies and cakes and several recipes calling for government surplus canned meats, left over after World War II. More convenience foods seem to show up in the ‘50s and, in the ‘70s, more of the cheery encouragement of good nutrition that now marks public school food.

All these recipes are ancient history now. You’ll scarcely find a single dish from before the ‘80s in a city school cafeteria today, apart from the “secret sauce” for hamburgers. (Psst--it’s ketchup, mayo, pickle relish and minced onions with a dash of Worcestershire sauce.)

Tastes change, for one thing. Bagels, quesadillas and Asian food no longer seem foreign and “yucko,” so they appear freely on menus.

And nutritional ideas change, an important factor now that the federal government subsidizes school lunches and can dictate nutritional guidelines.

“The recipe we get the most calls for is old-fashioned coffee cake,” says Chinnock, “and we always get requests for the ranger cookie, but it’s not made anymore [by school kitchens]. It calls for coconut, which contains sulfites.”

And the work force changes. “We don’t have the labor we had then,” Chinnock points out. Fewer people know how to cook from scratch these days, and those who do are likely to find better-paying jobs than cafeteria work. More and more preparation and even cooking is now done before the food ever arrives at the cafeteria.

Suppose, decades from now, the current generation of schoolchildren feels like indulging its own nostalgia for cafeteria food. Would it be able to re-create today’s dishes--assuming that the current district recipe book survives?

Not likely. “You couldn’t cook many of the new recipes at home,” Chinnock says. “A lot of them call for mixes and prepared foods, such as prepared meats, from the [district’s] manufacturing kitchen.”

To make today’s peanut butter cookies, for instance, you’d need the peanut butter bread mix. The red beans and rice requires a flavoring packet. The funnel cakes are frozen.

And these days, the old-fashioned coffee cake comes from old-fashioned coffee cake mix.

Banana Logs

This was a special-occasion dish. The recipe card, dated September 1949, says, “Place in refrigerator until time to plate salads,” which suggests that these were served on lettuce leaves.

Active Work and Total Preparation Time: 15 minutes plus 1 hour for chilling * Easy

3 bananas

1/4 cup mayonnaise or salad dressing

1/4 cup fruit juice

1/2 cup corn flakes or Grape-Nuts

1/4 cup chopped peanuts

2 teaspoons brown sugar, lightly packed

2 teaspoons granulated sugar

2 teaspoons cinnamon

* Peel bananas and cut crosswise to make “logs” of desired length.

* Mix mayonnaise and fruit juice.

* Crush corn flakes, add nuts, sugars and cinnamon and mix well.

* Dip bananas into mayonnaise, then into dry mix. Line on trays and chill at least 1 hour.

18 (2-inch) logs. Each log: 59 calories; 56 mg sodium; 1 mg cholesterol; 2 grams fat; 10 grams carbohydrates; 1 gram protein; 0.22 gram fiber.

Jellied Raw Cranberry Salad

The recipe card, dated December 1953, suggests serving this with sour cream icing on special occasions.

Active Work and Total Preparation Time: 20 minutes plus 2 hours for chilling

2 oranges

1 (12-ounce) package cranberries

3 (3-ounce) packages strawberry gelatin

1 1/4 cups sugar

4 cups hot water

Cold water

1 (8-ounce) can crushed pineapple, drained

1/2 cup chopped walnuts, optional

* Squeeze juice from oranges and reserve. Grind orange rinds and cranberries together.

* Dissolve gelatin and sugar in hot water. Add cold water to orange juice to make 2 cups. Add to gelatin mixture. Chill.

* When gelatin is thick and syrupy, add cranberry-orange mixture, pineapple and walnuts. Pour into 13x9-inch baking pan and chill until set, about 2 hours.

16 servings. Each serving: 103 calories; 6 mg sodium; 0 cholesterol; 0 fat; 23 grams carbohydrates; 4 grams protein; 0.39 gram fiber.

Minced Bologna Sandwich Filling

Recipe revision dated July 1963. This was more or less tuna salad made with bologna.

Active Work and Total Preparation Time: 15 minutes

1 (12-ounce) package bologna

1 1/2 cups finely diced celery

3/4 cup pickle relish, well drained

1/2 cup mayonnaise

* Chop or coarsely grind bologna. Add celery, relish and mayonnaise. Use as sandwich filling.

2 1/2 cups. Each 1/4 cup: 181 calories; 571 mg sodium; 22 mg cholesterol; 14 grams fat; 10 grams carbohydrates; 4 grams protein; 0.24 gram fiber.

Baked Cheese and Rice (Green Rice)

The recipe card, dated August 1951, notes, “This is a flaky casserole dish. Should not be taken from oven until moisture has been absorbed by rice.”

Active Work Time: 25 minutes * Total Preparation Time: 1 hour

3/4 pound rice

Salt

2 eggs

2 cups milk

1/2 pound Cheddar cheese, grated

1 cup chopped parsley

2 tablespoons butter, melted

3/4 teaspoon grated onion juice

1 tablespoon paprika

* Cook rice in plenty of rapidly boiling lightly salted water until tender, about 20 minutes. Chill in cold water to stop cooking, then drain.

* Beat eggs slightly. Heat milk over medium heat just until warm, add 1 teaspoon salt and stir to dissolve. Add to eggs. Add cheese, parsley, butter, onion juice and rice and place in buttered 13x9-inch baking pan.

* Bake at 350 degrees until set, 30 to 40 minutes. Garnish with paprika and serve.

12 servings. Each serving: 232 calories; 368 mg sodium; 63 mg cholesterol; 10 grams fat; 26 grams carbohydrates; 9 grams protein; 0.26 gram fiber.

Salmon Supreme

This recipe will epitomize old-time cafeteria food for many people--for better or worse. It’s like a tuna casserole made with canned salmon. Recipe card dated September 1949.

Active Work Time: 25 minutes * Total Preparation Time: 1 hour

1 (14 3/4-ounce) can salmon

Milk

1 egg yolk

1/2 teaspoon salt

1 cup fine bread crumbs

1 cup diced celery

1/2 teaspoon paprika

3 tablespoons butter, melted

1 egg white

1/3 cup mayonnaise

* Drain salmon, reserving liquid. Combine liquid with enough milk to make 1 1/2 cups. Beat egg yolk and combine with milk, salmon liquid and salt.

* Flake salmon. Fill buttered 8-inch square baking pan with 1/2 of crumbs, then celery, flaked salmon and remaining crumbs. Sprinkle with paprika and melted butter. Evenly distribute milk-egg liquid over all and bake at 500 degrees until top is golden, about 20 minutes.

* Beat egg white until stiff and fold in mayonnaise. Spread lightly and evenly over baked salmon. Return to hot oven (or place under broiler) until golden brown, about 5 minutes.

6 servings. Each serving: 307 calories; 862 mg sodium; 96 mg cholesterol; 17 grams fat; 19 grams carbohydrates; 20 grams protein; 0.25 gram fiber.

Sauerkraut Relish

Recipe card dated February 1965.

Active Work and Total Preparation Time: 10 minutes plus 24 hours chilling time

1 (1-pound) jar sauerkraut

1/2 cup chopped celery

1/4 cup finely chopped onion

1/4 cup chopped green bell pepper

1/2 cup sugar

* Drain sauerkraut and chop fine. Add celery, onion, green pepper and sugar. Mix well. Cover and refrigerate 24 hours before using.

2 1/2 cups. Each tablespoon: 13 calories; 76 mg sodium; 0 cholesterol; 0 fat; 3 grams carbohydrates; 0 protein; 0.14 gram fiber.

Sour Cream Raisin Pie

A staggeringly luscious pie that could easily have come from the ‘30s or ‘40s, but the recipe card is dated February 1968.

Active Work Time: 25 minutes * Total Preparation Time: 1 hour 25 minutes plus 45 minutes for chilling

FILLING

1 1/3 cups raisins

Boiling water

2/3 cups sugar

1/4 teaspoon salt

1/4 cup cornstarch

1/8 teaspoon nutmeg

1/4 teaspoon cinnamon

Pinch cloves

1 1/2 cups sour cream

1/2 cup buttermilk

3 egg yolks, beaten

2 teaspoons lemon juice

1 (9-inch) prepared pie shell, baked until light brown

* Barely cover raisins with boiling water; let stand 1 hour. Drain well.

* Combine sugar, salt, cornstarch, nutmeg, cinnamon and cloves. Add sour cream, buttermilk, egg yolks and lemon juice. Add drained raisins.

* Cook over low heat, stirring constantly, until thickened to pudding-like consistency, about 5 minutes. Chill until firm, about 45 minutes.

* When cool, spread filling into pie shell.

MERINGUE

3 egg whites

1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

Pinch salt

1/4 teaspoon cream of tartar

1/4 cup sugar

* Beat egg whites, vanilla and salt until light and foamy; add cream of tartar and beat to soft peaks; add sugar gradually and beat to stiff peaks.

* Spread meringue on top of pie and bake at 425 degrees to brown meringue, about 5 minutes.

6 to 8 servings. Each of 8 servings: 394 calories; 279 mg sodium; 122 mg cholesterol; 16 grams fat; 59 grams carbohydrates; 6 grams protein; 0.36 gram fiber.