TELL TALE EXTRA: SNAFU and UN-SNAFU!
NP Discontinues Sales of Holiday Fruit Cakes
A tradition dating back more than fifty years gives way to mass production
techniques with the Northern Pacific Railway Company's decision to discontinue
production of its famous fruit cakes for the 1967 Christmas holiday season.
''The cakes, which were baked in small quantities to insure the quality and
goodness o the original recipe formulated in 1873, cannot be mass produced at
competitive prices and we have decided to discontinue baking them,'' so says
the NP superintendent of the Dining Car Department, W.F. Paar.
''This yearly announcement is being made long in advance of the coming holiday
season,'' he continued, ''to inform the hundreds of people all over the country
who have been purchasing Northern Pacific fruit cakes that will no longer be
available.''
-The North Coaster, July-August, 1967, p. 2.
''Passengers could order whole fruit cakes, famous across the country, from the
dining car steward. In 1949 the NP sold 4,004 three-pound fruit cakes and 637
five-pound fruit cakes, for a total of more than seven-and-a-half tons.''
-The Tell Tale
* * * * *
NP Dark Fruit Cake
Ingredients:
Two pounds seedless raisins
Two pounds currants
One pound mixed glazed fruits, sliced
One pound glazed whole cherries
One pound candied pineapple, diced
Two and one-quarter cups granulated sugar
Two cups butter
One-half teaspoon salt
One teaspoon ground cinnamon
One teaspoon ground mace
One teaspoon ground nutmeg
One teaspoon ground cardamom
Twelve eggs
One tablespoon lemon extract
One tablespoon vanilla extract
One tablespoon sherry or port wine
Five cups all-purpose flour
One cup walnuts, halves or pieces
One cup pecan halves
One cup whole almonds, blanched
Directions:
Mix raisins, currants, mixed fruits, cherries and pineapple the day before
cooking and keep in a cool place to blend flavors.
Grease four nine-and-one-half by five-and-one-quarter-inch bread pans; line
bottoms and sides with strips of heavy brown paper, grease paper.
Lightly cream sugar, butter and salt.
Add spices.
Slowly stir in eggs gradually to blend; add extracts and wine.
Add flour, mixing lightly.
Add fruits and nuts; combine well.
Pour into prepared pans, filling them three-quarters full.
Bake at 300 degrees approximately one hour and forty-five minutes.
Cool thoroughly; remove from pans.
Makes about ten pounds.
Since oven temperatures vary, watch closely - - do not overbake.
>From William A. McKenzie's ''Dining Car Line to the Pacific,'' Saint Paul,
>Minnesota: Minnesota Historical Society Press, 1990 p. 148.
Happy Holidays to you and yours from the West End
Northern Pacific Railway
|| Route of the Great Big Baked Potato ||
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