Beef Chunks in Burgundy (6) Meade Book 9/69

Tonight dutch oven and cast iron pan met their new friend- CORN POT! I am going to talk about the corn pot I was allowed to take from my Grandma’s house.  There’s early corn, the white sweet corn that Nona loved, ready now. So it was time to take the pot out for the first time (of hopefully many!) this summer. As far as I’ve surmised, this was the maiden voyage of corn pot away from Okauchee ever.

At least once every time I went to visit my grandparents, there would be a planned feast.  If there was enough advanced notice, a veal roast would be ordered. Mostly though, we would have a pork roast. Granddad would man the barbeque, slowly tending to the roast. He would always use an entire bottle of PBR to baste- for both pork or veal. Grandma would first manage the corn shucking volunteers down by the lake. By volunteers, I mean everyone under the age of 12. Included is a picture of my brother and I with Grandma and the corn pot.

Nona always chose her corn from the Ingersoll’s stand in the Lorleburg’s parking lot. Lorleburg’s is the local hardware store. We’d always buy it the same day it would be eaten. Grandma preferred the white corn or checkerboard corn and she always boiled the corn with sugar.  She would start the corn and always make the same macaroni and cheese.  The mac recipe was from a lady named Frieda Schultz and Grandma was good to remind everyone they were eating Frieda Schultz’s mac n cheese. 

The recipe tonight is a do over. To be honest, I made it last week. But I burned the shit out of it and I couldn’t get myself to write about it… But also, to be completely honest, I’m pretty sure the burnt issue was a result of a typo by- who else?- Grandma. It’s a steak based meal, and I should have guessed that after browning the meat there was no way that any beef would need to be cooked for two hours. I put the casserole in and checked it every 15 minutes. I thought it as done after 45 minutes, but maybe the onions would have had more of a chance to dissolve if given more of a chance. The only way to keep the meat tender as well as dissolve the onion would have been to keep the casserole covered- which I didn’t because I was checking on my last weeks mistake.

Mary Meade’s Country cookbook, from which this recipe came in September of 1969, was written by Ruth Ellen Church. I’ve mentioned her before as the woman who changed what food columns were for the women of America. She started the first test kitchen for the Chicago Tribune but she also wrote for the New York Times and other newspapers. Ms. Church created a social media through which women could share recipes.

Beef Chunks in Burgundy is an American way of saying “Beef Bourguignon”. So we are making egg noodles with it. Also we are baking broccoli with olive oil, salt, and pepper in a glass dish in the same oven.

Nona Mae Schubert - VG. “Delicious 6/70 Marvelous flavor. Meat got very soft.”

Beef Chunks in Burgundy (6)

1 ½ beef chunks or round cut in 1” cubes

2 tsp. salt

Ground ground pepper

2 tblsp fat for browning

1 cup chopped onion

1 cup sour cream

1 cup grated chedder cheese

½ cup burgundy or red wine

1 minced clove garlic

¼ tsp each thyme, marjoram, basil

1 can cream of mushroom soup

Brown beef with salt in fat. Add onions. Transfer to casserole dish and add remaining ingrediants. Cover and bake 325° for 2 hours (2 hours is absolutely wrong!!!!!!!!!).