Valentine’s Day Recipes

The Valentine Recipes in this post are for a romantic dinner party from a 1922 entertaining magazine.  The recipes are great.  Each has a heart theme and just sound perfect for a candlelit Valentine dinner or a heart themed party with friends.  Some of these recipes could even be used for a Bridal Shower.

The beginning of the article states,

“ST. VALENTINES DAY is always a welcome day for the hostess. There are so many simple and effective table decorations that she can make, and so many unusual yet economical dishes that she can serve, she does not have to put an endless amount of thought in what she should have for her table. Perhaps the following table decorations and suggestions for a menu may give you some new ideas if you are planning to entertain on St. Valentine’s Day.”

How appropriate for today as well.  Economical dishes and ideas for quick and easy decorating.  They outline how to make the table decoration shown on the table.

TABLE DECORATION CENTERPIECE

“The centerpiece is made by cutting a circle of white cardboard, nine inches in diameter. To the edge of this circle is pasted a strip of matstock (cardstock) four inches wide and long enough to go around the circle. Cut a long piece of red crepe paper, eight inches wide, and one of white crepe paper six inches wide.

Gather the strips of paper together near the bottom and again three inches above. Paste this around the outside of the cardboard form, letting the ruffles stand out straight. Cover two wires with crepe paper, and twist them into heart shapes.

Paste these on to the box with gummed cloth tape. Cover the top and the sides of the round box with twisted crepe paper. To make these twisted strips cut a package of crepe paper into four strips; refold crepe, and every inch along one edge cut two inches deep. Round off the corners.

Hold each petal with thumb and forefinger and twist. Paste these twisted strips in rows on the box, close together. Cut figures from decorated crepe paper, paste them on cardboard, fasten a wire in the back of the figures, run it through the box and fasten it underneath. Tie a large bow of malines (thin, stiff net material) to top of wire heart. Fasten small hearts to ribbons and then paste them on either side of the bow.”

HOW TO MAKE NUT CUPS

“To make the nut cup, take a light weight wire, twelve inches long, cover with red crepe paper, and twist into a heart-shape. Fasten the ends of the wire to a plain white nut cup with gummed tape. Paste to the sides of the cup twisted petals of crepe paper made in the same way as those which cover the centerpiece. Tiny hearts are pasted to narrow ribbons and then the ribbons are fastened to the handle.”

This menu and the recipes that follow will take you back to the early 1920s.  Lots of butter in these recipes, so if you’re on a diet, you may have to do some exchanges on the ingredients, but it’s only one day so may be just a small portion of each.

VALENTINE’S DAY PARTY MENU

Cupid Canapes        Cream of Celery Soup          Heart Beet Pickle

Palmettes of Halibut              Hollandaise Sauce

Potato Timbales         Marshmallow Fruit Salad with Heart Sandwiches

Strawberry Ice Cream          Valentines Cakes

                                 Mint Hearts    Coffee

Cut the bread into one-fourth
inch slices. Stamp them with a
cutter into heart shapes. Cream the
butter, and add the grated cheese.
Work the cheese and butter together
until smooth, and season with salt.
Spread on the bread and garnish with a narrow border of finely chopped parsley and a piece of red pepper cut in heart shape, in the center of each. Serve on a small individual plate, covered with a lace paper doily.

Next Some Soup

Wash and scrape the celery and cut into small pieces, cook in the boiling water until soft and tender, and press through a sieve. Scald the milk with the onion, remove the onion and add the milk to the celery. Melt the butter and add the flour, and to this add the milk and celery. Cook until thickened and season to taste. Serve with heart beet pickles.

Beet Pickles

Wash the beets, and cook them whole in boiling water until soft. Drain them and put them in cold water and remove the skins. Let stand until cool. Slice the beets and cover with vinegar. With a small heart cutter shape the slices of pickled beets, and return to the vinegar until time to serve.

The Main Course ~ Halibut

2 ½ pounds halibut
3 tablespoons butter
½ lemon
Salt and pepper

Cut out heart-shaped fillets from halibut. Season with salt and pepper, and the juice of half a lemon. Put under a press for half an hour. Cook in butter for about ten minutes until a delicate brown. Take a third of a pound of raw fish, mash it well, and put it through a purée sieve. To half a cup of fish pulp add a thickening made as follows:

½ tablespoon butter
3 tablespoons milk or cream
½ tablespoon flour
1 egg
½ teaspoon salt
Speck of pepper

Melt the butter, add the flour, and cook, for about a minute. Add the milk or cream, salt and pepper, and cook until thick. Remove from the fire, stir in the half cup of fish pulp and one beaten egg. Beat the whole mixture until light, and spread the palmettes of fish with this mixture one-fourth of an inch thick; smooth it carefully on the top and sides with a wet knife. Place the palmettes of fish in a pan, cover, set into another pan containing hot water, and let steam in the oven for fifteen minutes. Arrange the palmettes around a scole of spinach. Serve with Hollandaise sauce and garnish with a few celery leaves.

Spinach Side Dish

Spinach Scole
1 peck spinach
1/3 cup butter
Salt and pepper

Wash the spinach thoroughly, and cook in a covered pan with as little salted water as possible to prevent it from scorching. Let cook slowly for about twenty minutes or until soft, drain and chop. Season with salt, pepper and butter. Pack firmly into a mould, and serve with the palmettes of halibat.

2 egg yolks
1 tablespoon vinegar
½ cup butter
¼ teaspoon salt

Put two tablespoons of butter in the top part of the double boiler and add the other ingredients. Place over hot water and stir constantly while the butter is melting. Add two tablespoons more of butter, and as it thickens, add the remaining butter. Stir the mixture all of the time, and as soon as it thickens, remove from the fire and add the salt and pepper. Do not permit the sauce to stand in the hot water after it has thickened or it will separate.

Don’t Forget the Potatoes

3 cups mashed potatoes
3 tablespoons cream
1/4 teaspoon grated onion
3 eggs
¼ teaspoon salt
1/8 teaspoon nutmeg
Speck of pepper

Mix together the mashed potato, cream, and the egg yolks well beaten. Add the seasoning, and fold in the stiffly beaten whites of eggs. Fill buttered timbale moulds with the potato mixture, and bake standing in a pan of hot water until firm.

Fruit Salad

¾ cup pineapple
¾ cup marshmallows
½ cup banana
½ cup orange pulp
½ cup pecans
Pimento

Drain canned pineapple and cut it in small cubes, and add to them the bananas cut into small cubes, the sections of orange, the marshmallows cut in thin strips, and the nuts cut into pieces. Mix together well, arrange on lettuce leaves, and cover the top with cream salad dressing. Garnish the top of the salad with thin strips of pimento arranged in heart shape.

Heart Sandwiches
Cut thin slices of white bread with heart-shaped cutter, spread one piece with butter and another with salad dressing and put the two together as a sandwich. Serve one on each salad plate. Chopped nuts in the salad dressing will add to the attractiveness of these sandwiches.

Salad Dressing

Cream Salad Dressing
4 tablespoons butter
½ teaspoon mustard
1 tablespoon flour
¼ cup vinegar
½ cup scalded milk
½ teaspoon salt
2 eggs
¼ cup sugar

Melt the butter in a saucepan, add the flour and pour on gradually the scalded milk, cook thoroughly, stirring constantly. Beat the yolks in the top part of a double boiler, add the mustard dissolved in one tablespoon of the vinegar, the salt, and the remaining vinegar. Pour the white sauce mixture gradually on the egg mixture, stirring constantly, and cook over hot water until it thickens like soft custard. Remove from the fire, add the sugar and fold in the stiffly beaten whites of eggs. Pour into glass jar, cool, cover, and let stand on ice until time to serve.

End with Strawberry Ice Cream and Cake

Sirup from canned strawberries (About 1/3 cup)
3 cups thin cream
1 cup sugar
Few grains of salt
Pink coloring

To the cream add the sirup drained from the canned strawberries, sugar and salt. A little more sugar may be added if the sirup of the strawberries does not make the mixture sufficiently sweet. Color the mixture a delicate pink, and freeze, using three parts of finely crushed ice to one part of rock salt. Fill heart-shaped individual moulds with the strawberry ice cream, cover with buttered paper, adjust the covers of the moulds, pack in salt and ice, and let stand for three hours before serving.

¼ cup butter
2 ½ teaspoons baking powder
1 cup sugar
½ cup milk
2 egg whites
1 2/3 cup flour
½ teaspoon vanilla

Cream the butter and add the sugar gradually, and continue beating, add the milk and the dry ingredients sifted together alternately. Beat the mixture well and fold in the stiffly beaten whites of eggs. Add the vanilla, and pour the  mixture into a deep, narrow pan that has been well greased. Bake forty-five minutes in a moderate oven. When done, remove the cake from the pan, allow it to cool, and cut it into small squares. Cover with frosting, and decorate with tiny red candy hearts. There are many varieties of frosting which can be used, depending upon individual taste though the white is perhaps best.

A set of the recipes to print out can be found here:  Valentines Day Dinner Recipes.

Enjoy!

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