Creamed Kale and Onions

“Because fall and winter diets are often deficient in vitamins, A, B, and C, and important minerals, kale should be served at least two or three times a week.” – 8/7/1953 Hagerstown Morning Herald

I recently acquired this little community cookbook, “Kitchen Kapers,” put out by Bethel 31 of The International Order of Jobs Daughters in 1952. I had a hard time finding any history specific to this Masonic organization chapter, which is located in Westminster. The basic gist of their mission as stated on their website is that they teach “leadership, charity, and character building.”

The recipe’s contributor, Virgina Stoner, appears to have been about 31 when the book came out in 1952. Her family owned a Westminster home that had been surveyed by the Maryland Historical Trust for some unique architectural features. It was noted in their report that the home had been in the family since it was built in 1890.

There are a few things that I found interesting about this cookbook. The first is the 1950’s graphics which actually look so much like kitschy clip-art that I originally assumed the book was much newer. This style is so ubiquitous now that it is hard to imagine it in its contemporary context.

The same community cookbook – title, artwork and all – appears to have been used all over the country with recipes from different organizations. It has little corny comics throughout the book – an interesting inclusion for a book design that is basically a template.

As for the recipe itself, I find its open-endedness to be a little surprising. You can either use milk or just use the pot liquor to make the sauce for the kale. Those are two very different options. I suspect the latter option may be a holdover from WWII-era thriftiness.

Cumberland News, June 14th, 1943

I opted for the milk because, as a 1959 headline declared in the Salisbury Daily Press: “Kale Tastes Good in Cream Sauce.”

Creamed kale recipes appear to have been pretty popular during that decade, although recipes for a similar dish appeared in the 1930s under the moniker “panned kale [or spinach].” In the 19th century, it’s predecessor was known as “spinach a la creme.”

Despite its current undeserved punch-line status, kale has been in the U.S. since European colonization. The word probably comes from the same root as colewort, which is now basically known as collards.

In the 1890s, the Baltimore Sun occasionally reported on the thousands of barrels of kale that were shipped north from Norfolk. It was fairly popular in markets as well as gardens.

Hagerstown Morning Herald, June 26, 1950

It was in the 1930s that the health benefits of kale really started to get attention. The Afro-American published a recipe for panned kale in 1930 under the headline “Pure Food Builds Health.” Articles in women’s columns continually provided recipes and boasted of kale’s nutritional value thereafter.

I was surprised to learn that kale was even eaten raw in salads historically. I am partial to raw kale salads myself, but somehow I bought into the hype and just assumed that raw kale was some modern-health-food era reverse-innovation.

Never-mind the fact that many of the nutrients in kale may not even be bioavailable when kale is consumed raw. In fact, the vitamins are probably all in that pot liquor that I set aside to replace with milk. Ah, well.

Recipe:

• 1.5 Lb kale
• water
• salt
• 2 Lb onions
• .25 Cup shortening
• 3 Tablespoon flour
• 1.5 Cup milk
• salt
• pepper, black

“Wash well 1 ½ lbs kale
Cook in boiling salted water – enough to come half-way up around kale – until tender, about 15 minutes.
Peel  2lbs (about 12) small white onions
Cook in boiling salted water until tender, about 15 minutes. Drain and save liquid from both cake and onions.
Combine vegetables.
Make a sauce of
¼ c. shortening
3 tbsp flour
1 ½ c. milk (or use vegetable liquid)
Salt and pepper
Pour over kale and onions.
Serves 6.”

Recipe from “Kitchen Kapers,” Bethel 31 Of The International Order Of Jobs Daughters” Westminster, MD