Retro Dishes: Butter Dips & Duchess Potatoes

Butter Dips

Apparently butter dips were a popular option for an appetizer back in the day. The recipe I used came from a book published in the '50s. They were described in the book as biscuit strips dipped and baked in butter. How can this be bad, right? The recipe was really easy to make and I happend to have all of the ingredients, as most people would. It called for flour, butter, milk, salt and baking powder. Simple and very tasty. As you can see from the picture I couldn't wait to try them. They were like really buttery rolls, best warm, tender and tasty! Not greasy at all as you might think. All the butter soaks in during baking so there isn't any left in the pan. A great start to any meal.

Duchess Potatoes

These are basically a fancy way to serve and portion mashed potatoes. Also very easy to make, all you do is take your usual mashed potatoes and use a piping bag to make little mounds on a baking sheet. Then brush them with butter and bake until browned. I thought they seemed a little dried out to me, even though they were plenty moist before the baking. Otherwise, they tasted ok. They would be good for a party or for entertaining because they look pretty.

Retro Dishes

Recently, I have become curious about retro cooking (we're talking prior to the '70s here). Do you know that margarine commericial where there is the 'Butterton' family? It is a black and white picture in a retro looking kicthen. They are all sitting around the dinner table, each with a baked potato with an entire stick of butter on top. When I think of retro cooking, this is usually the image that comes to mind. So after discovering a few websites devoted to retro recipes, I decided to do some sleuthing of my own.

I soon realized that I had heard of many of these dishes before, but I didn't really know what they were. I have decided therefore, to try out these recipes for myself. I am planning on posting about many of the recipes that I try out so that we may all be enlightened. No, this is not an attempt to recreate 'Julie & Julia' for this is not a personal challenge to me, but merely a way to expand my culinary know-how. I also plan to include in these posts a little of the history about the dish.

Here are some of the dishes I am contemplating: Coq au Vin, Beef Stroganoff, Chicken a la King, Coquille St Jacques, Crepes Suzette, Eggs Mornay, Quiche Lorainne, Steak Diane, Vichysoisse, Ratatouille, and various canapes. I am particularly interested in retro casseroles. If you have any further suggestions or curiosities about a dish, please feel free to leave a comment.