Have you ever looked through a cookbook and seen a recipe that was so bizarre, with such a unique list of ingredients, that you could not imagine what it tastes like? It recently happened to me.
I checked out the New York Times Heritage Cookbook by Jean Hewitt from the library. It is an out of print tome from the 1970s celebrating regional American cooking. While glancing through the dessert section from the Midwest, I stopped at Dymple’s Sausage Cake. If I were driving a car, I would have slammed on the brakes so hard, whiplash would have set in. Among the usual list of sugar, flour, and spices, were a few ingredients that made me stop in my tracks. Listed were: lean sausage meat, raisins, walnuts, pulverized gumdrops, and cold, strong coffee.
I read it again and again. There were no eggs, and only a very little bit of additional leavening in the form of baking soda and powder. I showed the recipe to a few friends, both adventurous cooks in their own right, and they couldn’t imagine what it would taste like either. Rightly intrigued, we made a date to bake this cake; and this is what it looked like:
Fruit cake, right? And I guess it tasted like fruit cake too, at least that was what we all imagined as we took slices of Dymple’s Sausage Cake, still warm from the oven. But it was hard to forget what it felt like to plunge your hands into the meaty dough to fold in the raisins. We just didn’t think about the black coffee cascading into the batter, darkening the raw sausage, or the brightly colored gumdrops getting tarnished by the warm spices. Right.
Surprisingly enough, it wasn’t the sausage that was the biggest turn-off. Upon baking it sort of disappeared, leaving behind only a trace of porkiness. It was actually those gum drops that tossed this cake over the edge. I imagine they were intended as substitutes for candied fruit; but yellow gumdrops do not a candied citron make.
But we had to give it try. We came, we saw, and we sort of conquered. The closest thing that I could find to Dymple’s Cake on line, was this one. It however, omits the gum drops– good thinking.
You are a brave soul indeed, and well done for sharing with us your adventure.
You are a brave soul indeed, and well done for sharing with us your adventure.
You are a brave soul indeed, and well done for sharing with us your adventure.
You are a brave soul indeed, and well done for sharing with us your adventure.
You are a brave soul indeed, and well done for sharing with us your adventure.
you cooked it so we didn't have to.
you cooked it so we didn't have to.
you cooked it so we didn't have to.
you cooked it so we didn't have to.
you cooked it so we didn't have to.
Sausage cake? Eww.
BTW< loved your book. Will you be writing another one soon?
Sausage cake? Eww.
BTW< loved your book. Will you be writing another one soon?
Sausage cake? Eww.
BTW< loved your book. Will you be writing another one soon?
Sausage cake? Eww.
BTW< loved your book. Will you be writing another one soon?
Sausage cake? Eww.
BTW< loved your book. Will you be writing another one soon?
Well, I guess the idea of sausage meat in cake has a kind of similarity with the English tradition of mincemeat pies – the early recipes for them called for lean ground meat with dried fruits, alcohol and spices, and over time the meat has been left out in favour of fruit-only mixtures. I think you're right, though, the gumdrops seem to be a worse idea than the meat!
Well, I guess the idea of sausage meat in cake has a kind of similarity with the English tradition of mincemeat pies – the early recipes for them called for lean ground meat with dried fruits, alcohol and spices, and over time the meat has been left out in favour of fruit-only mixtures. I think you're right, though, the gumdrops seem to be a worse idea than the meat!
Well, I guess the idea of sausage meat in cake has a kind of similarity with the English tradition of mincemeat pies – the early recipes for them called for lean ground meat with dried fruits, alcohol and spices, and over time the meat has been left out in favour of fruit-only mixtures. I think you're right, though, the gumdrops seem to be a worse idea than the meat!
Well, I guess the idea of sausage meat in cake has a kind of similarity with the English tradition of mincemeat pies – the early recipes for them called for lean ground meat with dried fruits, alcohol and spices, and over time the meat has been left out in favour of fruit-only mixtures. I think you're right, though, the gumdrops seem to be a worse idea than the meat!
Well, I guess the idea of sausage meat in cake has a kind of similarity with the English tradition of mincemeat pies – the early recipes for them called for lean ground meat with dried fruits, alcohol and spices, and over time the meat has been left out in favour of fruit-only mixtures. I think you're right, though, the gumdrops seem to be a worse idea than the meat!
Okay, I’m going to be honest here. You have balls. I would never, ever try that. No way. I think I would cry putting it into my mouth. Lol. Brave souls! It’s people like you that keep the human race going.
my family is of German origin and we have cooked a similar fruitcake for many generations. Sometimes with eggs if you had them but always with pork. To do this receipte or any other like it, proud, you absolutely must realize that it will take at least a month. the fruitecake should be made with coffee and sausage and baked in a very slow over 225 with a pan of hot water under the baking pans. When done a liquor, anything almost at hand, should be liberally brushed over the cakes. They should then be sealed and stored for a month, basting them occasionally with additional liquor. This is delicious and the cake allowed the cook to use what she had at hand. Got eggs? use them, any kind of fruit or nuts would do, the addition of apple sause or a touch of maple sugar or sorgum is not unusally since these items we collected about the same time of year as the fruitcakes are made. It takes a month to make a good fruit cake. The best part is, you can put almost anything you like into the batter and it will still be good. I am off to my kitchen to make my sausage cakes in time for the Holiday Season.
Addendum; Another favorite is Buckwheat pancakes, yeast raised with a started batter saved for the next morning. We covered these pancakes with something called
Lahm (not sure of the spelling as I have never seen it written) It is browned sausage with a tiny bit of milk or cream and lots of strong coffee. It is very watery and may be a n aquired taste but if you ever do acquire the tastes you yearn for a breakfast of this when the first fronts come.