88-Lancaster Fanning, Saturday, October 7, 2000
If you are looking for a recipe but can’t find it, send
your recipe request to Lou Ann Good, Cook’s Question
Corner, in care of Lancaster Farming, P.O. Box 609,
Ephrata, PA 17522. There's no need to send a self-ad
dressed stamped envelope. If we receive an answer to
your question, we will publish it as soon as possible.
Check your recipe to make sure you copy the right
amounts and complete instructions for making the reci
pe. Sometimes we receive numerous answers to the
same request, but cannot print each one.
Answers to recipe requests should be sent to the
same address. You may also e-mail questions and an
swers to lgood.eph@lnpnews.com
Notice: Several readers write that they have
problems accessing this address. The common
mistake is that readers are substituting an “i”
for the lowercase “I (L)” needed in two places.
If you are having problems reaching this ad
dress, please check to make sure you are typ
ing a lowercase “I (L)” in both places and not a
lower or uppercase “i” or “I.”
QUESTION S. Duggan, Swanton, Md.,
writes that she is embarrassed to ask for a rec
ipe for chocolate banana drink published in
this paper within the last several weeks. She
cut out the recipe and lost it. We are embar
rassed that we don’t know which recipe she
means. But if anyone clipped out the recipe,
please send it in to be reprinted.
QUESTION Barbara Blank, York, would
like a recipe for homemade sauerkraut and the
best time to make it.
QUESTION Gerald Myers, Wellsviile, is
looking for a recipe for preserving eggs.
QUESTION Fay Strickler would like a reci
pe for Ezekial bread.
QUESTION Linda Fletcher wants a recipe
for roasted sunflower seeds.
QUESTION Marsha Wagner, Mount Wolf,
wants a recipe for the “Snickers” dessert
served at Shady Maple Smorgasbord.
QUESTION Helen Kofron, Claymont, Del.,
wants a recipe for ground beef barbecue that
tastes like that served at Shady Maple patio.
QUESTION - Pat Elligson, Millers, Md.,
wants a recipe for Devil’s Food Tunnel Cake
with a creamy white filling baked in the center.
It is baked in a tube or a bundt pan. Pat recalls
that there used to be a cake mix for this but
she hasn’t seen it for a long time. She prefers
to make it from scratch.
QUESTION A reader requested an old rec
ipe for clear bean soup made with fresh pork.
QUESTION W. Elicker, Dillsburg, wants an
old-time recipe for sour pickles.
QUESTION Elam Lapp, Myerstown, wants
a recipe for making homemade hard cheese
similar to farmers’ cheese by using Jersey cow
milk.
QUESTION Durwood Tuttle, Knoxville,
makes sweet pickles in a crock that he stores
in a cellar. About three weeks ago, a gray fuzzy
mold formed all over the crock. He washed the
crock thoroughly with bleach water but it
doesn’t keep the mold from forming again. Any
help would be appreciated.
QUESTION Rachel Musser is searching for
a spaghetti sauce recipe that tastes similar to
Prego pasta sauce (traditional).
QUESTION Charles Cramer, New Market,
Md., would like a copy of the “Lancaster Level
Flo Cookbook (Recipes From the Land of the
Pennsylvania Dutch).” His family enjoyed a rec
ipe that they believe was originally published in
this 1970’s cookbook. The potato salad recipe
had a delicious salad dressing.
QUESTION A Newburg reader would like
recipes for jams and jellies or fruit spreads
without sugar or artificial sweetener. She’d like
recipes that taste similar to brands such as Po
laner’s All Fruit, Spreadable Fruit, or Smucker’s
Simply 100% Fruit.
ANSWER A reader wanted to know why
there are strings and other sediments that at
tach to mixer beaters while mashing potatoes.
Irvin Conover, Gettysburg, writes that the prob
lem stems to the potato, which either got too
cold or frozen. -Potatoes that got too cold gen
erally have a black ring under the skin, or, are
watery if frozen.
Thanks to Fawn Bartieson, Martins Creek,
for writing that the reader isn’t using the wrong
potato or the wrong speed, but the wrong too.
Cooks
Question
Corner
When potatoes are boiled, the starch granules
swell. If those cells are repeatedly and vigor
ous! broken with electric beaters or food pro
cessors, too much starch is released and you
have paste. To avoid this, cook the potatoes by
simmering. Let cool at least 30 minutes. When
ready to mash, bring them to a boil quickly
again and drain. Add as much butter and hot
milk (which has been brought to a near boil) as
desired. Mash, don’t use electric appliances to
beat.
ANSWER Donna Balascad wrote that she
tasted a wonderful mint tea at the Hay Creek
Fall Festival. The tea was yellow and looked
like lemonade. Donna has a garden filled with
mint and doesn’t know what to do with it. Any
one able to help her? Thanks to several read
ers who sent recipes to help out Donna. Here is
one from Walter Durling, who e-mailed that the
tea was served at his parents’ 50 anniversary,
and many requested the recipe, which orginally
was submitted by Ann Kreider of Viv’s Varieties
and printed in the cookbook, “Recipes from
Central Market.”
Orange and Lemon Iced Meadow Tea
2Vz cups water
2 cups sugar
1 cup meadow tea (mint) leaves, firmly pack
ed (use only tender tips and leaves)
12-ounces frozen lemonade concentrate
4-ounces frozen orange juice concentrate
Boil water and sugar for 5 minutes. Pour
water over tea. Cover tightly. Let stand for one
hour. Strain and squeeze out tea leaves. Add
frozen lemonade and orange juice to tea water
to make concentrate. When serving, dilute one
part concentrate with two parts water.
Thanks to Pat Sweetman from Stonehaus
Herb Farm, who sends many ideas for those
who have excess mint. Pat writes that mint
often gets a bad rap because it is so prolific. If
you grow it in a bit of shade, it won’t take over
so easily. Mint tea is either pale yellow or light
tan depending on the type of mint grown and
how you prepare it. The general consensus for
the best mint tea is either made with apple
mint of chocolate mint. Just fill a pitcher up
with it and pour water over it and let it sit in
the sun for a few hours tastes absolutely
wonderful.
Some mints have too much camphor in them
and are not so great tasting. Most mints lose
most of their flavor when dried, but peppermint
is a good one to dry and keep for use in the
winter. A cup of mint tea after dinner is a good
tummy settler. Dried mint is good as part of a
bath bag that you put in your tub or snbwer to
wake you in the mornings. Add dried mint to
cream and let it sit overnight before whipping it
adds great flavor as a topping for pound
cake.
The strong fragrance of mint is supposed to
keep mice away. Because the fragrance fades
as it dries, you must change often; however,
Pat writes that she hasn’t had much success
with using it as a mouse deterrent. Be careful
with mint if you have sheep. Mint can take over
sunny places and sheep won’t eat it. If you
plant it too close to a sheep pasture, it will ruin
your pasture. Mint farmers of the Northwest
rent sheep to eat the weeds in their mint fields
knowing the mint is safe from sheep.
You can use dried peppermint when you cre
ate castile soaps. If you use enough the soap
will be green, but if you use too much mint, the
soap will turn black but still smell good.
Mint hybridizes itself very easily so it may be
hard to tell Just what type of mint you have.
Thanks to Erla Shirk, Ephrata, who sent reci
pes to can and to freeze tea for use during win
ter months.
Tea Concentrate To Freeze
1 quart tightly packed tea leaves
4 quarts boiling water
2-3 cups sugar
Steep tea in boiling water for 15 minutes.
Teka tea out and add sugar. Boil 15 minutes.
Cool and freeze. Mix together one quart con
centrate to 3 quarts water.
Tea Concentrate To Can
6 quarts boiling water
6 cups loose tea
Boil water, remove from heat. Add loose tea
and let tea set for 15 minutes. Strain. Add 10
cups sugar and dissolve. Put in quart jars and
add 1 teaspoon lemon juice (keeps tea from
getting dark) to each quart. Process in boiling
water bath for 20 minutes. One quart concen
trate will make one gallon tea. Tastes just like
fresh tea.
ANSWER L. Groff, Denver, wanted a reci
pe for pie made with ground cherries. Thanks
to Erla Shirk, Ephrata, and Shirley Schwoerer,
Wysox, for sending recipes.
Ground Cherry Pie
1 Vi to 2 cups washed, ground cherries
Put into saucepan, add enough water to
cover cherries. Add:
1 tablespoon lemon juice
1 cup brown sugar
Pinch salt
Bring mixture to a boil, thicken with Clear
Jel. Reduce heat and boil 2 minutes. Remove
from heat and add one tablespoon butter. Pour
into unbaked pie shell. Bake at 450 degrees
until golden brown.
Ground Cherry Pie
Line pastry crust in deep 9-inch pie dish.
Sprinkle pie shell with a mixture of 1 table
spoon flour and 1 tablespoon sugar before add
ing the following mixture:
3-4 cups ground cherries
V* cup light Karo or honey
Vs cup flour or 3 tablespoons minute tapioca
Vs cup sugar or honey
Top with pastry crust. Bake at 425 degrees
for 15 minutes. Reduce heat to 375 degrees
and bake an additional 25 minutes.
Shirley shares this hint: Before frost hits,
pull entire bush up containing berries that have
not fully ripen. Hang bush by root in barn.
Place a plastic tablecloth beneath the bush to
catch berries that will fall as they ripen.
ANSWER Pat Elligson, Millers, Md., want
ed a recipe for Sweet and Sour Cucumber
Salad that tastes like that served at the Colum
bia Family Restaurant, Columbia. Thanks to
Shirley Schwoner, Wysox, for sending this reci
pe.
Sweet and Sour Cucumber Salad
Mix together:
1 cup water
Vi cup white vinegar
V 2 cup sugar
V 2 teaspoon salt
Vi teaspoon celery seed
Add sliced cucumbers and onions. May add
sliced tomatoes if desired.
ANSWER Harry requested an apple dump
ling recipe in which the apples are not baked
but boiled or steamed. Thanks to Shirley
Schwoener, Wysox, for sending a recipe.
Boiled Apple Dumplings
Mix together
2Vi cups biscuit mix
% cup water
Roll out dough into four rounds. Core and
peel 4 apples. Stuff dough with apples sprin
kled with brown sugar and cinnamon to taste.
Top with a little butter. Fold dough around
apples, moistening folds with water so they
stick together.
In large Dutch oven or pan, bring salted
water to a rolling boil. Drop dumplings into
water and boil 20 minutes.
You can substitute pie dough for the biscuit
mixture, but Shirley said the biscuit mixture is
quicker and works just as well.
ANSWER Elaine Fyock, Windber, request
ed a cookie recipe called Cow Patties and
other dessert and snack recipes with a cute
farm title. Thanks to Dorothy Stoms, Deerfield
St., N.J.; Mildred Miller, Hershey; Pat Elligson,
Millers, Md.; S. Duggan, Swanton, Md., and
others for sending the same Cow Pie recipe.
Dorothy writes that a barnyard birthday party
would not be complete without cow pies.
2 cups milk chocolate chips
1 tablespoon shortening
V 2 cup raisins
Vi cup chopped slivered almonds
In a double boiler over simmering water,
melt chocolate chips and shortening, stirring
until smooth. Remove from heat, stir in raisins
and almonds. Drop by tablespoons onto waxed
paper. Chill until ready to serve. Yields 2
dozen.
Thanks to Mildred Miller, Hershey, for send
ing a recipe for Farmhouse Barbecue Muffins.
Farmhouse Barbecue Muffins
10-ounces refrigerated buttermilk biscuits
1 pound ground beef
Vi cup ketchup
3 tablespoons brown sugar
1 tablespoon cider vinegar
Vi teaspoon chili powder
1 cup shredded Cheddar cheese
Separate dough into 10 biscuits; flatten into
5-inch circles. Press each into bottom and up
sides of greased muffin cup; set aside. In a
skillet, brown ground beef; drain. In a small
bowl, mix together ketchup, brown sugar, vine
gar, and chili powder; stir until smooth. Add to
meat and mix well. Divide the meat mixture
among biscuit-lined muffin cups, using about %
cup for each. Sprinkle with cheese. Bake at
375 degrees for 18-20 minutes until golden
brown. Cool 5 minutes before removing from
tin and serving. Yield: 10 servings.
ANSWER Mary Gothel, Millerstown, want
ed a listing of cholesterol counts in all meats,
especially venison. Thanks to Wendy Furie for
sending the following information from a New
Jersey meat dealer named D’Artagnan.
The meats listed include the cholesterol
count in milligrams within parenthesis. Counts
are for meat portsions of 100 grams.
Chicken, 83; Quail, 56; Pheasant, 49; Guinea
hen, 53; bottom round beef, 92; ground beef,
85; pork shoulder, 101; rabbit, 57; venison, 66;
buffalo 40; and wild boar, 51.
Cow Pies