Do you know of Helen Corbitt? Well, I hadn’t until just over a week ago. Brian and I had taken a few days in Philadelphia. I had never seen the Liberty Bell, or Independence Hall, or had eaten at Reading Terminal Market (amazing!). While we were strolling through Old City, we stopped in a used book store. It smelled musty, with creaky floorboards, and bookshelves that were so tall and crammed so tightly with books, the Californian in me was immediately made wary of earthquakes. I love a good used bookstore, and New Haven, although it is ultimately a college town, has a paucity of them. So I made a beeline for the cookbook section in this particular store, and there I stumbled across Helen Corbitt’s Cookbook.
I love vintage cookbooks, they tell stories of times past, what foods were in fashion, and what sorts of dinner parties were being thrown. It makes me wonder what future generations will be thinking when they glance through titles such Sunday Suppers at Luques or Chez Panisse Vegetables or read the chronicles of molecular gastronomy. Helen Corbitt’s book was from 1957, and was splattered with remnants of food from some other cook’s experimentation. With retro recipes for Chop Suey and Mushroom Rarebit, this book is a compendium of mid-century American cooking. As I continued to glance through it, my eyes fell upon a recipe that sounded so bizarre, yet so oddly delicious, I knew that this book would be coming back to Connecticut with me– Peanut Butter Bacon Bread.
Later that week, I had the book sitting on the coffee table, when one of our guests for the Thanksgiving feast proclaimed, “Oh, Helen Corbitt! I love Helen Corbitt!” I was surprised, asking him who Ms. Corbitt was. “She was the director of Neiman-Marcus department store’s food service program. She is a really big deal in Texas.” A little post-holiday Googling and it turned out Ms. Corbitt, a New York native, went on to have a successful career as a cookbook author, food writer, and chef in Texas, where she was hired originally to manage the tearoom of The University of Texas, but was wooed away by the head of Neiman-Marcus. She died in 1975, leaving behind an illustrious career, and many recipes that the restaurants at Neiman-Marcus still use today. Oh, and she was also known for her intriguing food combinations– hence the Peanut Butter Bacon Bread.
The recipe reads like the delicious, artery-clogging quick bread that it is. With very little leavening, only one egg, and a handful of heavy ingredients, I felt like the recipe could be tweaked a bit for a more modern palate. But I just had a feeling the bones of this recipe would be a winner. That salty-sweet combination, rich peanut butter, smoky bacon, and a fair amount of sugar, the bread sounded just weird and wonderful enough.
After mixing, loading the bread pan (which now seemed to weigh a ton) into the oven, and smelling the rich peanuty fragrance, I could hardly wait to taste this concoction. Well, let me say that this bread was terrific. Dense, with a crust that was sturdy and shielding the moist interior, this quick bread highlights its two stars– the peanut butter and the bacon. The crumbled bacon was chewy, almost dissolving into the bread itself, and added the perfect salty foil for the sweetness of the bread itself; and the peanuts were crunchy, especially those lodged into the surface of the crust. If you are looking for just something bizarre enough to be utterly delicious this holiday season, I would highly recommend baking a loaf of this bread. And you can thank Helen Corbitt for the recipe.
Peanut Butter Bacon Bread
adapted from Helen Corbitt’s Cookbook
The original recipe called for both a cup of chopped peanuts and crumbled bacon chips. This seemed like a bit much to me, so I cut both portions down to one-half a cup, and I used crunchy peanut butter.
Makes 1 loaf
1 cup sugar
1 tablespoon melted shortening
1 cup milk
1 egg, well beaten
1/2 cup crunchy peanut butter
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 cups flour
3 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 cup chopped unsalted peanuts
1/2 cup bacon chips, crumbled (from approximately 6 slices of bacon)
Mix sugar, shortening, and milk with beaten egg. Mix in the peanut butter, using an electric beater if necessary. Add salt, flour and baking powder, mixing until all ingredients are well-incorporated. Fold in nuts and bacon chips, and let stand in a greased, floured bread pan for 20 minutes.
Bake at 350 degrees, for 1 hour, or until a tester (toothpick) comes out clean from the center of the bread.
Hello, I’ve linked to you from my post . . . in which I mention Helen Corbitt. This cookbook was my favorite when I was a little girl! I used to sit in our gold velvet armchair and read it for hours. (I liked the anecdotes better than the food, perhaps.)
Funnily enough,I don’t remember this recipe. It has the same salty/sweet thing as her famous poppy seed dressing, though.
I grew up in Dallas. Helen Corbitt’s was the most used cookbook in my mom’s kitchen. Her green bean casserole is THE standard for our family. Most of us will brook no change from the original recipe!
Helen Corbitt’s cookbook was my very first at the age of ten in 1959. A self-taught gourmet, Helen has always been my “hero” – the go to source regardless of the decade – the first thing I would grab if my house caught on fire! Although a native Texan, I say this without prejudice. Her recipes are are the most consistently trustworthy I have ever found and should be followed first and altered, should one wish, later. The holiday season always Helen’s Sand Tarts for Christmas and Marinated Black-eyed Peas for New Years.
Helen Corbitt’s cookbook was my very first at the age of ten in 1959. A self-taught gourmet, Helen has always been my “hero” – the go to source regardless of the decade – the first thing I would grab if my house caught on fire! Although a native Texan, I say this without prejudice. Her recipes are are the most consistently trustworthy I have ever found and should be followed first and altered, should one wish, later. In our family, the holiday season always includes Helen’s Sand Tarts for Christmas and Marinated Black-eyed Peas for New Years. Summer would not be compltete without the strawberry pie she once made for Dwight Eisenhower. I could go on forever…
I LOVE Helen Corbitt. She’s my food goddess. My mother and grandmother didn’t make a move in the kitchen without her when I was growing up in the 1950s. I do not remember life without her cornbread, poppy seed dressing or popovers. Yum-o.