Monthly Archives: November 2019

Ridpath Salad, from the mid-20th century

20th Century American Recipes, 20th Century Foods, Bacon the qualities of the best, Childhood Recipes, History of American Cuisine, History of nitrates and nitrites used in curing, History of Spokane's Davenport and Ridpath Hotels, Salad Dressings, Salad Fixings, Salads, Traditional and modern-day industrial curing of meats Leave a comment

Ridpath salad

Let’s examine what is the healthiest bacon on the market,  as we indulge in an outstanding 1950’s salad,  while reminiscing about the historical Davenport and Ridpath hotels, in Spokane, WA.

This Ridpath salad dates back to my early childhood days in the mid-twentieth century; then my family traveled to Spokane, from our little mountain village of East Glacier Park, MT, on such special occasions as school-clothes-shopping.  During these trips, we always stayed at the Davenport, and ate at least one of our meals at the Ridpath, where their signature salad was served, with its pickled beets, eggs, bacon, and more.

The Healthiest Bacon

Today, with our high health-consciousness, we may be reluctant to indulge in regular bacon, but fear not, for there are safer alternatives out there.  The three recommendations in choosing the best bacon are: the uncured, reduced-sodium, and center-cut options.  1

Uncured bacon has no nitrates or nitrites and generally tastes no different.  (For more on the history of curing and nitrates/nitrites, see respectively: The Best Corned Beef  and Disguised Ham .)

Reduced-sodium bacon may not appeal, for it may present a small taste adjustment, which is quickly overcome.  This change is important, as the salt used in producing bacon isn’t the high quality pink salt-Himalayan and Real Salt, which is actually critical for optimum health.  Rather, the sodium in bacon is harmful to our bodies; thus, reduced-sodium bacon may be the best choice, if you are planning on having more than one serving (2-3 pieces)-and this only on rare occasions.

The final instruction is to look for center-cut bacon.  This is bacon that has less fat; being mostly meat; thus, it is healthier and tastes even better.  It also is easier to cook, for it doesn’t curl so readily.

To get a brand that has all the above three qualities, you may have to go to a health food store, such as New Seasons or Whole Foods, but it’s really worth it.   You will also be able to find some of these three recommendations, in various brands at your local supermarket.

Davenport Hotel  2

The Davenport Hotel, which my family stayed at during the mid-twentieth century, was built in 1914.  Louis Davenport, however, neither provided the idea or the finances for it, but because of his already strong name in the city-as a restaurant owner widely established in hospitality-he was made its overseer and first proprietor.  Rather, it was it was commissioned by the Davenport Company, a group of Spokane’s leading businessmen, who desired a large public house for boarding and entertaining their guests.

Along with engaging Davenport, this group chose Kirkland Kelsey Cutter as the architect, for it had been Kelsey who had expanded Davenport’s highly acclaimed restaurant in 1904.

Davenport and Cutter employed lavish architectural elements from Italy, France, England, Spain, and Imperial Russia, with the lobby being inspired by the Spanish Renaissance style.  Among its lush details were Irish linens from Liddell, which came over on the Titanic; all this lent to the establishment’s promoting itself as “one of America’s exceptional hotels.”

It was on the roof of this hotel that the first commercially licensed radio station in Spokane was set up in 1922.  KHQ featured Harry “Bing” Crosby, a drop-out from Spokane’s Gonzaga University, who later became world famous for his singing.

Having sold the hotel in 1945, Davenport died in his suite in 1951.  It was shortly after this that my family first began staying here.  My brother Paul, two years my junior, can recall being taken in the arms of the bellhops around the lobby to gaze into the large fish tanks.  I remember the beauty of this majestic room, as well as the scurrying about of those attending to us.

The Davenport was closed in 1985; it was re-established, after a $38 million dollar renovation, by local entrepreneurs Walt and Karen Worthy, in 2002.

Ridpath Hotel  3

While we stayed at the Davenport in the 1950’s, we always ate at least one dinner at the Ridpath Hotel, which doesn’t exist anymore as a hotel, but rather is the Ridpath Club Apartments, a renovated, low-income, apartment complex, since 2017.

This grand hotel, the Ridpath, was known as Spokane’s longest, continuously run hotel, with its original building, built in 1900 and destroyed by fire in 1950.  Being promptly rebuilt, the doors of the second iteration of the Ridpath closed in 2008, a half a century later; thus, its continuous existence covered 108 years.

The original Ridpath Hotel, established by Colonel William Ridpath, suffered its first fire in 1902, but was subsequently restored.  The other fire, in 1950, totally destroyed this 5-story building.   It was 1952, the year of my birth, that San Francisco architect Ned Hyman Abrams completed the design of this second rendition, a twelve story building, with the architectural style of modernism.  It was during this decade that my memories of this establishment were formed.

History Translated into Personal Experience

The memory of their famous Ridpath salad is vivid to me, as is Caesar salad at this hotel (for history of the latter’s origin, see Creative Caesar Salads).  For Caesars, they would coddle the egg with a Bunsen burner table side; this fascinated my young mind, as did the strong garlic, tantalizing my tongue beyond imagination.

Food holds a power over our souls; we look for the good in this.  Tastes can invoke recollections of the past in our hearts; certain recipes call forth experiences from our childhood, as well as strengths and weaknesses found in our present existence.  We watch these, as they surface in our minds, tending to these impressions with care-allowing positives in and rejecting negatives.  This ordering of our life’s palate always produces good fruit in us.

References:

  1. https://www.self.com/story/weekend-approved-bacon and https://www.healthline.com/health/cured-vs-uncured-bacon
  2. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Davenport_Hotel_(Spokane,_Washington)
  3. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ridpath_Hotel

light olive oil good for dressings

Ridpath Salad  Yields 6-8 servings.  Total prep time: 20 min (only if preparing your own pickled beets and croutons, total time for these two items: 1 hr 10 min/  prep time: 10 min/  cooking time: 1 hr).

2-3 small fresh beets, or 1-15 oz can of pickled beets

1 c raw apple cider vinegar, if pickling your own beets

1/2 lb bacon

3 lg eggs

3 Roma tomatoes  (Organic is best.)

1-6 oz package of organic greens  (Available at Trader Joe’s for $2.29.)

croutons  (Use ready-made, or see recipe at Healthy Greens .)

1-2 garlic cloves, for optional rubbing of serving bowl

Dressing

1/4 c vinegar of your choice  (I used lavender.)

1/3 c olive oil  (See photo above, for a light olive oil from Trader’s, for $7.99/liter, that works well in dressings.)

2 med/lg cloves of garlic  (For easy prep, may substitute 1 cube frozen garlic from Trader’s.)

1/8 tsp oregano  (Organic is inexpensive at Trader’s-$1.99.)

1/8 tsp basil  (Also available at Trader’s.)

1/8 tsp salt  (Himalayan, pink, or Real Salt is critical for optimum health; a fine grind Himalayan salt is available at Costco for $4.95 for 5 lbs.)

  1. rubbing skin off cooked beets

    If pickling your own beets, cut roots off beets, spray with vegetable spray (an effective, inexpensive spray is a combination of 97% white distilled vinegar and 3% hydrogen peroxide); let sit 3 minutes and rinse well.  Boil until tender.  Remove from hot water, cool, and rub off skin with your hand (see photo).

  2. Next, cut beets in 1/2”x1/2”x 2” slices.  Put beet slices in a small container and cover with apple cider vinegar.  Refrigerate for 24 hours.
  3. Boil eggs.  Cool, peel, and set aside.
  4. Place bacon in a large, cold frying pan.  Turn heat on to medium and brown well on one side before turning.  This method helps some with curling of bacon, as does using center-cut bacon, which is mostly meat (see photo below).

  5. center-cut bacon in cold pan

    Shake all dressing ingredients in a pint jar; set aside.

  6. Place greens in a large bowl, optionally rubbed with garlic.  Top with all other ingredients, toss with dressing, and serve.

Sage Turkey Delight

21st Century American Foods, Diabetic Friendly Recipes, Entrees, Essential Oils in Food and Medicine, Healthy Recipes, Information on Sage, Sage Recipes, Turkey Recipes Leave a comment

sage turkey delight

Learn about the term essential oils, as applied popularly to medicine and traditionally to food; in the later it is used for the flavorful material in herbs and spices.  With the approach of Thanksgiving, consider this great recipe for leftover turkey or chicken, which employs the fresh herb sage; we will look at more closely below.  1

Essential Oil as Found in Food

Flavor is a composite quality, a combination of sensations occurring in the odor receptors in the upper reaches of our nose and the taste buds in our mouths.  Both sensations are chemical in nature: we are smelling odors and tasting tastes, when our receptors are triggered by specific chemicals in foods (in medicinal essential oils, these concentrated chemicals are either inhaled through the nostrils or applied to the skin).  2

Flavor Is Mostly Derived from Aroma

Most of what we experience as flavor is odor, or aroma (this can be seen in the  effect odor molecules have on us, when biting into a fresh apple, and from the sensations derived from indulging in a roast, hot from the oven).  3

Herbs and spices heighten flavor by adding their characteristic aroma molecules (an exception is pungent spices and herbs, such as pepper and chilies, which stimulate and irritate nerves in the mouth, rather than provide aroma).  These aroma molecules of herbs and spices are small, light, invisible, intangible, making them volatile, especially when heated-they evaporate from their source and fly through the air, which allows them to rise with our breath to the receptors in our nostrils.  4

Defensive Aroma Chemicals in Plants

In herbs and spices, these were actually defensive aroma chemicals in the plants themselves, which we have adopted as potent, intense sources of flavor.  God placed these chemicals in plants to make them resistant to attack by animals or microbes.  These defensive chemical weapons are stockpiled carefully in specialized oil-storage cells, in glands on the surface of leaves, or in channels that open up between cells, as they can have disruptive effects on the plants themselves-as well as on predators-and thus are kept from the internal workings of the plants.  For more on defensive chemicals in plants see Braised Cabbage.  5

When eaten as is, most herbs and spices are acrid, irritating, numbing, and actually toxic, such as a whole oregano leaf, a clove, peppercorn, or vanilla bean.  But through the art of cooking, man dilutes these, thus bringing much pleasure.  6

Term Essential Oil as Applied to Food

In food history, the traditional term essential oil reflects an important practical fact: the aroma chemicals that make up flavor are more similar to oils and fats than to water, making them more soluble in oil than water.  For this reason, cooks add the deep flavor  of herbs and spices to foods, by the infusing of them in oil, not water (two exceptions to this are: tea, a dried leaf, and coffee, a roasted seed).  We also sometimes infuse herbs in watery vinegar and in alcohols, but the acetic acid of both are small cousins of fat molecules; thus, vinegar and alcohol help to dissolve more aromatics than plain water could.  7

When cooking with an herb, it is important to add it to our food-cooked in fats-at the last minute to preserve the fullness of its flavor.

How Medicinal Essential Oils Are Made

Likewise, medicinal essential oils are aromatic chemicals extracted from plants and combined with the carrier oil.  There are eight removal methods (steam distillation, water distillation, water and steam distillation, cold-press extraction, CO2 extraction, maceration, enfleurage, and solvent extraction).  Some extractions methods are best suited for the particular plant types and parts.  8

These liquefied versions of a plant have obtained the active botanical constituents from that species, thus allowing its “life force” to reach the blood stream faster than eating the plant would.  9

These essential oils, compounds extracted from plants, are indeed the plant’s captured essence, or flavor and scent, as seen with food above.  Medicinal essential oils are concentrated plant extracts, and true ones must be obtained through non-chemical processes, such as distillation (via steam and/or water), or mechanical methods like cold-pressing, such as used for obtaining oils from citrus peels.  10

Flavor Components in Sage

Sage, as called for in this holiday receipt, has the following flavor notes, lending to its general sensory qualities as brought on by their contributing chemicals.  Some of the major chemicals found in sage are cineole, providing a fresh note, and pinene, lending a pine flavor quality.  Both of these chemicals are in the terpenes family, which as a family tends to be especially volatile and reactive, meaning these chemicals are often the first molecules to reach the nose.  They thus provide the initial impression of these lighter and more ethereal notes, and for this reason, they disappear quickly in cooking.  11

Cineole and camphor add a penetrating sensory quality, while the distinctive chemical thujone-found almost exclusively in sage-contributes much of its character.  All of these flavor notes pair ideally with poultry; thus, sage is the perfect herb for my recipe below.  12

Lesson Applied

It takes concentration and purposeful effort, to achieve our optimum health.  We must study all the options; then, make an educated decision how best to meet our individual needs with food, medicine, and life, all three.

God gave us doctors; it is wise to seek counsel from them, in both medicine and food.  Be led by the Spirit: go to one you trust and then ask lots of questions.  Follow through with personal research; then, prayerfully consider your choice, for ideally meeting your specific health needs-and we all have health issues, with which we find victory!

Let us be as wise as a serpent and gentle as a dove with ourselves, as we press in for this ideal concerning our bodies, minds, and hearts.

References:

  1. Harold McGee, On Food and Cooking (New York: Scribner, 1984, 2004), p. 389.
  2. Ibid., p. 387.
  3. Ibid.
  4. Ibid.
  5. Ibid., p. 389.
  6. Ibid.
  7. Ibid.
  8. https://www.newdirectionsaromatics.com/blog/articles/how-essential-oils-are-made.html
  9. Ibid.
  10. https://www.healthline.com/nutrition/what-are-essential-oils
  11. Harold McGee, On Food and History (New York: Scribner, 1984, 2004), p. 392.
  12. Ibid.

finished product

Sage Turkey Delight  Yields: 4 servings.  Total prep time: 45 min.

16 oz frozen broccoli  (Trader Joe’s has organic for $2.29/ lb.)

1 lg yellow onion, cut in 1/8” slices

3 1/2 tsp oil  (Avocado or coconut oil is important, as olive oil is carcinogenic when heated to high temperatures.)

4 lg carrots, about 2/3 lb, chopped in thin diagonal slices  (Organic at Trader’s costs $.79/ lb.)

10 oz pkg of sliced crimini mushrooms  (Trader’s has this for $2.49; though, any kind of mushrooms will do.)

sage plant from Trader Joe’s

4 tbsp ghee or butter  (If making homemade ghee, plan on 12 min to prep; see  recipe at Ukrainian Spinach with Noodles.)

3 c of leftover turkey, or chicken, in bite-size pieces

1 small herb plant of fresh sage, about 3/4 c whole leaves  (This organic plant is available at Trader Joe’s for $2.49; see photo.)

Salt and pepper to taste  (Himalayan, pink, or Real Salt is critical for optimum health; a fine grind Himalayan salt is available at Costco for $4.95 for 5 lbs.)

  1. clean, easy method of scraping carrots into grocery bag

    Take broccoli out of freezer, open bag, and set aside, to begin thawing for quicker cooking.

  2. To caramelize onion, slice it in half at root and then in even 1/8” slices.  Heat 1/2 tsp oil in a skillet, over medium heat, and when a small piece of onion begins to sizzle, add the rest.  Cook, stirring every several minutes, until a light color starts to form.  Then stir every minute, until onions are a dark brown and caramelized. May add a small amount more of oil toward end, if they look like they might burn.  Watch carefully, while proceeding to next step.

  3. carrots after cooking for 2 min

    Spray carrots with a vegetable spray (an inexpensive, effective spray that works well is a combination of 97% white distilled vinegar and 3% hydrogen peroxide).  Rinse thoroughly and set aside.

  4. In a large sauté pan, heat butter or ghee (for  ghee recipe see Ukrainian Spinach with Noodles.)  Add mushrooms and cook for several minutes, or only until slightly limp; remove to a bowl, carefully leaving juices in pan.  Take pan off heat when done.

  5. chopped sage

    Be sure to watch onions.  (May set a timer and keep hitting repeat, as a reminder.)

  6. For easy, clean prep, scrape carrots with a knife in a plastic grocery bag hung over sink nozzle (see photo at direction #1).  Cut carrots in thin, diagonal slices.
  7. Add remaining tbsp of oil to mushroom juices in pan and heat, until a small piece of carrot sizzles in pan.  Add rest of carrots, distributing juices; cook for about 2 minutes (see photo above).
  8. With a paring knife, cut large broccoli florettes in half; add to pan, stirring well, so oils are mixed in evenly.  Cook until desired tenderness, stirring occasionally.
  9. Meanwhile remove stems from sage and chop leaves into small pieces, set aside.  See photo above.
  10. When vegetables are finished, stir in poultry pieces and chopped sage.  Season with salt and pepper to taste; cook until heated thoroughly; when hot, adjust seasonings.  (See photo at top of recipe.)
  11. Serve it forth!