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2013

Eudora Welty's White Fruit Cake

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
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
This is the recipe.  She made it and said it turned out exactly as 
she remembered.  Thank you sooo very much.

Denise


Nutmeg Bread with Sour Cream

-----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


Brotherton's Farm House

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


Walmart Hypermart Ranger cookies

-----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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