Hey, my mom used to make that!

Happy Easter no matter how you eat your ham

Last week I posted all kinds of recipes for baked ham. One thing they all had in common was a sweet glaze. 

In my family, we've always preferred our hams savory.

There's always prepared horseradish on the table. Once I grated some fresh, too, but it wasn't as strong as the prepared stuff — we like our eyes to water.

We also have to have three kinds of mustard: Dijon, Gulden's and French's. Why? Because my brother Tomo, a.k.a. The Condiment King, insists.

I'd love to know about your family's Easter traditions.

Have a wonderful Easter Sunday!

Via AtHomeInNapa

Retro Recipe: Edible Easter Baskets

 These edible baskets are adorable. And full of fiber, if you care about that sort of thing.

Really, you could fill these baskets with just about anything — even fresh fruit if, like me, you had your fill of fruit cocktail in your elementary school cafeteria.

 

Crunchy Fruit Baskets

2 cups* (16 - 17 oz.) of Del Monte Fruit Cocktail
5 shredded wheat biscuits
1/2 cup shredded coconut
1/2 cup melted butter or margarine
1/4 cup sugar
1 pint vanilla ice cream

 Chill the fruit cocktail in the refrigerator. Crumble biscuits with your fingers until very fine. Mix with coconut, sugar and butter. Butter 6 custard cups. Cut 6 strips of plain paper (1/2" x 7") and place strip down sides and across bottom of each cup so ends extend over edge of cup. Now divide the crust mixture evenly into cups. Using back of a teaspoon, press firmly onto bottom and sides of cups. Bake in moderately hot oven (375˚ F) for 10 minutes. Cool at least 20 minutes in cups. Carefully lift out by paper ends. Drain fruit cocktail. Spoon ice cream into baskets, fill with well-drained fruit cocktail and serve.

* The original 1953 recipe calls for 2 No. 303 cans of fruit cocktail.

 Click here for another retro-tastic recipe that uses fruit cocktail.

Via saltycotton

Retro Recipe for hatching Easter egg cake

Honestly, I don't think this is a cake for beginners. Or people who aren't slaves to detail.

Applying the dyed coconut exactly where you want it — and not letting it fall where you don't — is a daunting task.

This recipe is from a 1969 ad for Baker's coconut.

Using 1 box of cake mix, bake an 8-inch and a 9-inch layer cake. Cool. Cut 9-inch layer as show in diagram A and 8-inch as shown in diagram B. Split 2 ring sections from diagram B. Arrange pieces as shown in diagram C, placing split rings sections above and below smaller zigzag piece.

Next, make 4 1/2 cups (2-egg white) Seven Minute Frosting; secure cake pieces with frosting. Tint 3 cups frosting pink with red food coloring; frost egg portion of cake. Frost rest of cake with remaining frosting.

Now, using 1 package (7 oz.) Baker's Angel Flake Coconut and food coloring, tint 1/2 cup coconut yellow, 1/3 cup coconut pink and 1 cup coconut green. Sprinkle yellow coconut over head, neck and beak. Sprinkle green coconut over nest, and remaining white coconut around diamonds.

Decorate with string licorice sticks and jelly beans.

Here's a close-up of the diagram.

Click here for a recipe for individual Molten Spiced Chocolate Cabernet Cakes. (They're mush easier to make than it sounds.)

Via one of my other blogs, Found in Mom's Basement

 

ADDENDUM posted 28 March 2013

Am still feeling guilty for discouraging you from trying the above recipe. Hope this makes up for it.

I just came across photos of a super-easy bunny cake idea from 1956. And when I say super-easy, I mean a child could put together this Easter rabbit — which is a good thing because the type is too small to be readable.

Click the image to enlarge it.

Via alsis35

Retro Easter Egg Cake

This recipe calls for Swan's Down cake and frosting mixes, though you could easily use your favorite mix brand instead or, better still, make the cake and frosting from scratch.

The directions make much more sense if you can see the illustrations in the ad. To enlarge the ad, just click it.

This recipe is from 1953.

Bake Swans Down Yellow Cake Mix in two 8-inch layers, following direction on package. Make Easy Chocolate Frosting, using the recipe on the back of the blue and yellow package of Baker's Unsweetened Chocolate. 

1. Cut each cake layer in two, about 1/4-inch off-center. This will make two large and two smaller pieces.

2. Place these four pieces together with frosting between them, the smaller pieces on the outside. Stand them upright, cut side down, on cake plate.

3. Trim outside pieces at the top outer edges to help round off the sides of egg for egg shape.

4. Then trim off lower ends of outside pieces, slicing diagonally, to give cake an oval shape at base.

Cover the whole mound with remaining frosting. filling in to make an egg shape. Decorate with white and tinted frosting and jelly beans. Make a nest of green-tinted Baker's Coconut around egg. To serve, cut across the egg, making four-layer slices of cake.
 

This Square Dance Party Cake would also make a nice Easter dessert.

Via SaltyCotton

Retro Recipe: Deviled Eggs

I've always been a little weird about eggs.

As a child, I would only eat eggs prepared by mother or one of my grandmothers. Scrambled eggs at slumber parties, made by friends' mothers, grossed me out. They looked wet and slimey, even though I'm pretty sure that was just me.

I've gotten better as I've aged. However, I continue to be repulsed by deviled eggs made by anyone other than my mother or me.

Go figure.

I like to make deviled eggs for Easter. So here's a deviled eggs recipe from the 1950s.

4 hard-cooked eggs
1 tbsp. Heinz Sweet or India Relish
1 tbsp. Heinz Tomato Ketchup
1 tbsp. mayonnaise or salad dressing
1/2 tsp. Heinz Prepared Mustard
Salt & pepper to taste

Remove the shells from the eggs. Cut eggs lengthwise; remove yolks. Mash yolks; blend with remaining ingredients. Refill egg whites with mixture. Chill. Makes 8 deviled eggs.

It's me again. You can fill the egg whites with a spoon, but I find it's worth the effort to fill them using a pastry bag and a star-shaped tip.

Click here for a recipe for a retro deviled egg salad. 

                                                                            Via Chronically Vintage

Retro Recipe: Baked Ham with Ginger Pears

1 Swift's Premium Ham (fully cooked)*
1 28-oz. can pears
1 tsp. grated lemon rind
2 tbsp. lemon juice
1/2 tsp. ginger
Brown sugar

Drain pears. Pour pear juice into saucepan. Add lemon rind, lemon juice and ginger. Boil 5 min. Add pears and simmer 5 min. longer. Score surface of ham and place in roasting pan. Pour pear juice over ham. Pat brown sugar (about 1 cup) over surface of ham. Bake at 325˚ F for 30 - 35 min. To serve, arrange pear halves around ham on platter. Fill centres with cream cheese rolled in chopped nuts or coconut.

* To heat ham through: Bake 1 hour at 325˚ F before adding brown sugar glaze.

Via Shelf Life Taste Test

Retro Recipe: Baked Easter Ham

 Here's another easy retro ham recipe you could use for Easter.

 

10 - 12 lb. tenderized smoked ham
Whole cloves
1 cup brown sugar
2 tbsp. flour
4 tbsp. French's prepared mustard

Wrap ham loosely in wrapping paper (translation: aluminum foil); place fat side up in uncovered roaster. Add no water. Bake in moderate over (325˚F) 3 1/2 - 4 hours or as directed. After baking, remove paper and skin the ham, Score fat into squares. Stud each square with cloves. Mix together sugar, flour, mustard. Spread ham with mixture. Bake at 400˚F 15 - 20 minutes or until golden brown.

Click here to learn how to fold your napkins into bunny rabbits.

Via Shelf Life Taste Test

How to make a classic American glazed ham

So little effort for such a great-looking result.

Here's the 1947 recipe for Glazed Baked Ham.

1 whole cooked ham
cloves and cherries
1 1/2 cup Grandma Molasses
bread crumbs

Remove ham's skin and some of the fat. Place ham in open roaster with water to cover bottom of pan. Score fat and skewer cherries with cloves. Pour molasses over it and sprinkle lightly with bread crumbs. Bake in very hot oven (450˚F) for 10 minutes, then reduce to moderate heat (350˚F) and bake 1 hour, basting occasionally.

 Click here for another glazed baked ham recipe.

Via Look Homeward, Harlot

Old-Fashioned Cherry Sauce for your ham

Let me state up front that I have no evidence whatsoever to support my theory, but I suspect this is one of those "secret" recipes Southern belles use to impress their guests. It wouldn't surprise me to find this Old-Fashioned Cherry Sauce recipe in Junior League cookbooks across the South.

1 16-oz. can pitted sour cherries
1 tbsp. cornstarch
1/4 cup sugar

Drain cherries, reserving syrup. Combine cornstarch and sugar in saucepan; gradually add syrup. Cook, stirring constantly, until thickened; add cherries. Continue cooking untill cherries are heated. Serve sauce over ham.

 Click here for a 1954 recipe for ham glaze made with PBR beer.

 

Via Shelf Life Taste Test

Hipster ham glaze from 1954

Here's how to make a Blue Ribbon Ham Glaze.

One hour before ham is done, remove rind, score ham and stud with cloves. Spread with glaze made by combining 1/2 cup Pabst Blue Ribbon Beer, 2 cups brown sugar, 2 tablespoons flour and 1 teaspoon dry mustard. Return to oven and bake one hour longer.

Click here for another retro recipe for baked ham.

Via Charm and Poise