Table Manners
Courtesy of the Library of Congress
We continue today with our series eating while poor which comes to us from archives of WPA writers and the America Eats Project from the Great Depression era. In New York’s Bowery restaurants customers often sounded like an orchestra with the clinking of forks, knives, and spoons, loud smacking and chewing, and the slurping of soup, coffee, and tea. Yet no one complains, each devouring his food to his own beat. It’s interesting how class and culture determines table manners. I have had to be intentional about improving my table manners after many years eating with teammates and then a lone while in graduate school. My poor wife has endured some embarrassing table moments with me at dinner parties and food related work events. What’s been your most difficult eating habit at the table to break?
Empire State Pandowdy Recipe
Pare and core enough sour apples to fill a deep baking dish. Cover with a crust of bread dough, raised with yeast. Bake in a moderate oven (350 F.) until apples are soft and crust is brown, then remove crust and sweeten the apples with brown sugar and season with one tablespoon each of ground cinnamon and nutmeg. Break the crust in small pieces and stir into the apples and add bits of butter. Return to a slow oven (250 F.) and bake slowly for another two hours or until the pandowdy is a dark rich brown. Serve hot or cold with hard sauce or with cream.
Crosby Gaige, New York World’s Fair Cook Book (New York: Double Day, Doran and Company, 1939)
