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Food: Recipes, cookbook reviews, food notes, and restaurant reviews. Unless otherwise noted, I have personally tried each recipe that gets its own page, but not necessarily recipes listed as part of a cookbook review.

Tempt Them with Tastier Foods: Second Printing

Jerry Stratton, July 10, 2024

Tempt Them with Tastier Foods front cover: Front cover to the Eddie Doucette recipe collection, Tempt Them with Tastier Foods.; Eddie Doucette

The second printing contains eighteen new recipes.

I’ve just made the second print of Tempt Them with Tastier Foods (PDF File, 13.7 MB) available. It includes eighteen more Eddie Doucette recipes I’ve discovered over the past year, including one extra matchbook recipe, German Potato Salad, My Way, which is well worth making—with or without Elvis singing in the background. And the 1966 Turkey ala King looks like a great way to get rid of leftover turkey from Thanksgiving.

If you already have the first printing, I’ve made a PDF of the new recipes (PDF File, 141.6 KB) that you can slip into your book. I’ve also made it available as a smaller pamphlet (PDF File, 203.7 KB). If you choose to use the pamphlet, you will need to print landscape, with short-edge binding, and then fold it over.

A few of these new recipes are from old newspapers that have recently come online. The three from the The Carlisle Mercury of Carlisle, Kentucky, in 1965 and 1966, were from the Nicholas County School web site.

The Scramble Burgers and Let’s examine the egg more closely come from a Mike Douglas Show appearance (PNG, 85.3 KB). I’ve forgotten where I ran across it, but it was probably on Etsy or eBay.

The Broiled Stuffed Tomato Salad is an IGA “Econo-Meal”. The phrase “econo-meal” started appearing in IGA ads on newspapers.com in September 1966 and continued through March 1970. There was one reference to IGA using the phrase back in 1950, in the September 21 Portageville Southeast Missourian, but the rest are all from the mid to late sixties, depending on how you count 1970.

Econo-Meal Recipe by IGA Chef Eddie Doucette: A wider Econo-Meal ad featured not just the logo but also Eddie Doucette and his signature.; Eddie Doucette; IGA Food Stores

At least one ad featured the Econo-Meal recipe along with Eddie Doucette’s face and a signature-style name.

That gave me the idea of doing a search just on IGA Econo-Meal. That brought up several new recipes under Eddie Doucette’s image but either without his name or with his name in handwritten form. Because OCR does poorly on handwriting and of course doesn’t match faces at all, these recipes had escaped my earlier searches.

IGA Econo-Meal Trio: Three economical IGA meals from February 1968, including one appropriate for Lent, less than a week away.; Eddie Doucette; IGA Food Stores

This trio of economical meals from February 22, 1968, features two apparently new recipes, and one recycled recipe. One of the recipes is also advertised as appropriate for Lent: the first Friday of Lent was a week away on March 1.

One of the recipes called for what looked like “Crescent MSC”, but it seemed likely to be a typo. I verified this by searching on “Crescent MSG”. Not only did this IGA brand show up, but five more recipes under Eddie Doucette’s face or name did as well. There are almost certainly many more, but I’ve no idea how to find them without literally going through hundreds of newspapers issue by issue.

Since these searches did not involve the name “Eddie Doucette” I also found some “IGA Food Magic” recipes that were not accompanied by either Eddie Doucette’s name or his face. I have not included these. While I suspect that some, if not all, were provided by him I can’t know that they were. While I wouldn’t be surprised if IGA licensed his name and/or image to sometimes appear over their own recipes, at least some of the recipes identified as his exhibit his unique style; none of the recipes without his name or face do.

I almost passed on the Broiled Tablerite Steak from the Montana Standard-Post. It begins the same as the Broiled Tablerite Steak already in the book—but it ends with a much different sauce.

His late-decade One Pot Stew has an interesting direction: “Check seasoning for desired taste.” There is no seasoning called for, so of course that most likely means salt and pepper to taste. But on tasting it I thought it could use a touch of vinegar—possibly because I recently read Samin Nosrat’s Salt, Fat, Acid, Heat—and I had some jalapeño sauce in the fridge from a 1916 baking powder cookbook, Table and Kitchen. A few teaspoons of that made a big difference. Here’s my variation on Eddie Doucette’s One Pot Stew:

Eddie Doucette’s One Pot Stew

Spicy One Pot Stew

Servings: 6
Preparation Time: 30 minutes
Eddie Doucette
Tempt Them with Tastier Foods (PDF File, 13.7 MB)

Ingredients

  • 1 lb ground beef
  • ½ cup finely chopped onion
  • 2 tbsp drippings or lard
  • 1 can (10-½ oz) beef stock
  • 1 can (15-16 oz) sweet corn
  • 2 cups (8 oz) macaroni
  • 4 tsp jalapeño sauce
  • salt and pepper

Steps

  1. Cook the macaroni and set aside.
  2. Brown the beef and onions in the fat.
  3. Add the stock, corn, and pasta.
  4. Check the seasoning for taste, adding the jalapeño sauce, salt, and pepper as desired.
  5. Simmer over low heat until heated through and bubbly, about 15-20 minutes, stirring occasionally.

It’s definitely an econo-meal, and the kind of thing we had a lot of in the late seventies. It’s a great noodle dish.

I was also pleasantly surprised by his German potato salad. I was sure I wasn’t going to like it the moment I poured the vinegar in and got a whiff of vinegar. I don’t generally like foods that taste of vinegar. But as the flavors blended with the mixing of the ingredients it became a mere acidic taste kind of like vinegar potato chips. It’s meant to be eaten hot, but it was very good cold the next morning as well.

One of my favorite dishes last year was his Oktoberfest Sauerkraut which I enjoyed so much I highlighted it as my 2023 National Potato Day recipe.

I also finally got around to making the Valerie Ohanian version of Eddie’s Cape Cod Cranberry Bread that I featured in last year’s announcement. As part of making it, I discovered a typo in the original, which I’ve made a guess at fixing. The recipe calls for cinnamon but never says when to add the cinnamon, nor does it lump all of the dry ingredients together as many recipes do. But that’s the obvious place to add it.

This quickbread is definitely worth making if you enjoy cranberries and orange, whether you use Eddie Doucette’s version or Valerie Ohanian’s slightly altered version. It’s great with butter and on its own with coffee or milk.

But new recipes aren’t the only addition to the second printing. I talked to Eddie Doucette’s son in February, and now know a lot more about “the chef”. That interview forms the basis for a new chapter in the book, about Eddie Doucette’s upbringing, his training, and his philosophy.

So, whether you buy Tempt Them with Tastier Foods or download the free PDF (PDF File, 13.7 MB) or ePub (ePub ebook file, 9.7 MB), enjoy!

Eddie Doucette’s One Pot Stew: One Pot Stew, from Chicago chef Eddie Doucette, available in Tempt Them with Tastier Foods.; soups and stews; Eddie Doucette

Meant for endless and economical variation, this one-pot stew is very much a comfort food for me.

German Potato Salad, Eddie Doucette’s Way: German Potato Salad, My Way, from Chicago chef Eddie Doucette, available in Tempt Them with Tastier Foods.; German; Eddie Doucette; potato salad

German potato salad is the best potato salad.

Oktoberfest Sauerkraut: Eddie Doucette’s Oktoberfest Sauerkraut.; potatoes; sauerkraut; Eddie Doucette

Sauerkraut with a mashed potato topping is a very unique side dish, and a great taste too!

Cape Cod Cranberry Bread: Valerie Ohanian’s Cape Cod Cranberry Bread.; bread; cranberries; Eddie Doucette

This slightly spicy orange and cranberry bread is a great way to start the day.

In response to A home-cooking handful from Eddie Doucette: A glimpse at a long-lost 1954 Chicagoland television cooking show, including recipes. Some of them require creative interpretation.

  1. <- Potato Bread