We’ve unearthed an ancient recipe for Cucumber Sauce from the Past. The resulting cucumber sauce was delightful, and now has a story, and sometimes we are more interested in the story.
We do all sorts of cooking experiments at the Firefly, pretty bed and breakfast near Madison GA because it makes Bed and Breakfast Life a bit more interesting.
The Ancient Cook Book
This actually happened. We were digging around in an antique shop, and in one corner of it, we found a mysterious cook book. This rare find was a compilation of recipes from a lost civilization, namely Madison GA in the year 1989.
TV sitcoms and movie scenes have been written on much less of an idea.
The antique shop, by the way, was J&K in Rutledge, for what it is worth. We got it for the friendly price of $5 but we are sure in another 500 years, when the grid goes down and there is no internet, it’ll be priceless.
Madison Food Choices circa 1989
We sort of had to wonder about the food choices of Madison in the lost year of 1989. There were a couple of hundred recipes in this little book. Probably 75 percent of them were for dessert and/or pre-dessert drinks, mainly featuring bourbon.
There were very few for chicken, for whatever reason. More for various methods of barbecue.
The one we tried was for “poached salmon with cucumber sauce”. Evidently, salmon used to swim freely in the Oconee River before the lake was constructed.
Another thing we noticed was the dependence on canned goods. Example: “three cans of corn” that appeared in several of the recipes. We suppose that the world of 1989 had fewer fresh veggies than we have today. We talked about fresh veggies being a modern convenience, didn’t we?
Cucumber Sauce
Well, here it is. It takes a little shredded cucumber, which we had on hand, and the above collection of mayo, sour cream, and a variety of spices.
Starting with the shredded cucumber, easy to stir the cucumber, spices, and other ingredients together, except for the sour cream. We made the executive decision to use ricotta cheese instead, and it had a milder, friendlier flavor. We did shorten the supply chain a little by using a little local parsley from Elvis Parsley, who lives on the front porch.
Serving Suggestion
We didn’t have any salmon but it looked and tasted just as good on insta-pot chicken, we think. Maybe if we catch a fish at some point this spring we’ll try it again on that.
Forward Program: Ancient Recipes
With the exception of some of the cocktails, one of the things we learned on this is that the food choices in this place, 35 years ago, were relatively simple. They had no problem using canned goods, sugar, and “cooking oil” all of which, as we now know, are lethal.
I am sure they had their reasons, namely practicality.
We might try another one at some point. The movie plot is in here somewhere. We are open to suggestions as usual.
Links and References
https://www.facebook.com/people/JK-Fleas-AnTiques-of-Rutledge/100063591338123/
