The metamorphosis of goulash

[Jenise]

I consulted my Betty Crocker cookbook, copyright 1961, and find no recipes for either goulash or slumgullion. I found cube steak stew, hash hats, Cellini pies, Pink Bunny (a variation of Welsh Rarebit using canned tomato soup), and a host of other dishes that alternately amuse and terrify me.

Also caught a glimpse of "coffee around the world" - Hawaiian coffee is made with coconut soaked in hot milk overnight, strained, mixed with an equal amount of coffee, and topped with toasted coconut - I had never heard of this one but then I don't drink coffee. Coffee for the Crowd, for 40 cups, involves mixing 1 egg with shell into 1 lb. of coffee, adding 1 cup of cold water. You tie this into a cheesecloth bag large enough to allow room for the coffee to swell. Immerse this into 7 quarts of cold water and bring to a boil in a large coffee pot. Remove pot from heat and leave bag in water for 3-4 minutes. Remove bag and stir. Again, not a coffee drinker but isn't this a bit primitive?

Just imagine how good it would be at your in-laws when they ran the grounds through a second time!

There's always Allan Sherman's recipe:

If you like Hungarian food,
They have a goulash which is very good.
Or if you wish a dish that's Chinese,
Somewhere down in Column B there's Lobster Cantonese.
Enchiladas, that's what people eat in Mexico.
Shish kebab is skewered, in Armenia you know.

Then there's blubber, the favorite of the frigid Eskimo.
Such delicious dishes, no matter where you go.

Chicken cacciatore is Italian.
Kangaroo souffle must be Australian.
Mutton chops are definitely British.
Chicken soup undoubtedly is Yiddish.

Pumpernickel comes from Lithuania.
Hassenpfeffer comes from Pennsylvania.

Wiener schnitzel's Austrian or German.
Kindly pass the sauerbraten, Herman.
Borscht is what they're eating in the Soviet.
Wait, I think we've got some on the stove yet.

See the Mau Maus underneath the jungle sky.
Jolly Mau Maus, eating missionary pie.

Frenchmen eat a lot of bouillabaisse there.
Dutchmen eat a sauce called Hollandaise there.
Smorgasbord in Swedish is the winner.
In America it's TV dinner.

So there you have one food from each land.
Each one delicious, each one simply grand.
Mix them all up, in one big mish mash.
And what have you got? Hungarian goulash!


Jeff