Plugrá is a brand name of butter. Butter made in North America has to have a minimum 80% butterfat, and almost all have just that, the minimum amount required by law. Plugrá Butter has 82% butterfat, and has 10% less water in it than regular butter. It is available in salted and unsalted versions. You…
American Food
Plymouth Rock Chickens
Plymouth Rock Chickens are docile chickens that in general are good egg producers and a good source of meat. There were, and still are, several varieties such as Barred, Blue, Buff, Columbian, Partridge, Silver Pencilled, and White. Some varieties are better at producing eggs, some are better for eating. The birds lay brown eggs and…
Popcorn
Popcorn is made from corn that has been bred to have more starch than sugar in it. When popcorn kernels reach about 66 C (151 F), the starch inside them begins to cook. As the temperature increases towards the boiling point (100 C / 212 F), the moisture inside the kernel begins rapidly to turn…
Pork Brawn
Pork Brawn (aka Head Cheese) is a meat jelly made from pork. The jelly has small pieces of meat in it. You can think of it as sausage, a jellied meat, a potted meat, or as a cold meat loaf with a lot of wobble to it. (Granted, some people don’t like to think of…
Posole Corn
Posole is very dried, large kernels of corn. It is made by soaking harder varieties of corn kernels (usually flint corn) in lime water until swollen, and then allowing them to dry out for storage. Posole corn can come in every colour that corn does: yellow, white, red and even blue and purple. Usually, though,…
Postum
Postum is a powdered beverage mixture. You mix it up with hot water, just as you would instant coffee. You can also use hot milk. It is made from wheat, bran and molasses. History Notes Postum was developed by Charles William Post in 1894 (born 1854 in Illinois – 1914.) He made it as a…
Pot Likker
Pot likker is the broth or liquid left over after boiling or braising cooking “greens” (leafy green vegetables.) Though many other cultures discard this, it is used and even prized by many in the American South. Usually it is poured over cornbread or cornbread is dunked in it to sop it up. Some people even…
Potato Chips
Potato chips are very thin slices of potato that are fried until crispy, then seasoned. In England, they are called ‘crisps’. Potatoes are actually specially grown to produce the most desirable chips and scientists have studied the most desirable crunch sound to be had when people eat them.
Potluck Suppers
Potluck Meal. Texas. 1920s © Courtesy of Special Collections, University of Houston Libraries. UH Digital Library A Potluck Supper is when everyone invited to the meal brings some food, generally already prepared and ready to eat, unless some of it is a food to go on a grill. They are often held at workplaces, churches….
Poutine (Maine)
Poutine as made by Acadians in the Upper Saint John Valley in Maine, USA, are dumplings made from flour. There is no potato in them, as is common further north in New Brunswick, despite Maine being a potato capital of the world. The dumplings are rolled out into balls by hand and simmered in soups…
Pullman Bread
Pullman Bread is a soft, white bread of the English / North American variety (white flour, yeast raised.) It is baked in special “pullman pans” which are longish, rectangular-shaped loaf pans that have lids on them. This makes all loaves uniform in appearance, and when sliced, produces uniform, perfectly square slices that make for picture-perfect…
Pullman Loaf Pans
Pullman loaf pans (aka Pullman bread pans) make a perfectly rectangular loaf of bread that is consistent in width and height for its entire length, so that when sliced it yields consistently-sized, perfectly square slices of bread for sandwiches. It does this thanks to a cover that slides onto the bread pan, helping to mould…
Pumpkin Pie
Pumpkin Pie is an open-faced custard-based pie with just a bottom shortcrust crust, and no top crust. The custard is orangish-brown, and can be lighter or darker, depending on whether you use dark or light brown sugar.
Quahog Clams
These are hard shell clams found on the eastern coast of America. They are round, and anywhere from 1 ½ inches to 6 inches wide (4 to 15 cm), depending on how old they are when harvested. Moon Snails often eat them, drilling small holes in the clams’ shells to get at them inside. Three…
Rag Baloney
Rag Baloney is a long roll of baloney traditionally sold wrapped in a fine mesh cloth or cheesecloth (thus the reference to “rag”), though plastic is now more common. It is an already cooked “luncheon meat” that can be eaten sliced as is, or fried for “baloney on a bun” sandwiches. Compared to “regular” Baloney,…
Rag Sausage
Rag sausage is a sausage made of pork and oatmeal, wrapped in a fine mesh cloth, then cured. This must be treated as raw, and cooked. Made in the Southern US. Cooking Tips To cook, slice and pan-fry.
Rainier Cherries
Rainier cherries are firm, large sweet cherries with pale creamy-yellow flesh with pinkish tones, and yellow skin that has a pink flush to it.They are about ⅓ sweeter than many other red cherries, and ready to pick in June and July. Owing to their thin skin, Rainier cherries bruise easily, and the yellow skin makes…
Ramps
Ramps are related to wild onions and wild garlic. They look like green (spring) onions at their base, but instead of the rounded green stalks have flat, broad leaves shaped like Lily of the Valley leaves. (It is easy to distinguish them from Lily of the Valleys, however, by their strong garlicky scent.) The leafs…
Red Bartlett Pears
Red Bartlett Pears © Denzil Green Red Bartlett Pears have a traditional pear shape and reddish (sometimes pinkish) skin with yellow speckles. As they ripen, their colour changes from a dark red to a lighter, brighter red. The taste and texture are virtually the same as for Yellow Bartlett Pears, with the only real difference…
Red Delicious Apples
Red Delicious Apples © Denzil Green Red Delicious Apples have a red, tough skin and a coarse texture. Inside, they are juicy and sweet. A Red Delicious is one of the cheapest apples around to buy, owing to the quantity produced. Almost half the apples grown in America are Red Delicious. Apple lovers have a…
Red Globe Grapes
Red Globe Grapes are very large table grapes with seeds. The grapes are about 2 inches wide (5 cm) with dark red skin. They are very popular in Asia, though their appeal in North America is diminishing as the North American preference changes to seedless grapes. Consequently, most Red Globes grown in North America are…
Red Warty Thing Squash
Red Warty Thing squash has thick, hard, vibrant reddish-orange, warted rind, and finely-textured, sweet-tasting flesh inside.
Relish
Relish © Denzil Green A Relish generally used to be a pungent, tangy, chunky pickled condiment served in small dishes, of which you placed a bit at the side of your plate to add zip to a meal, especially anything your mother had cooked. It is both spoonable and spreadable, finely or coarsely chopped, with…
Relish Trays
Relish Trays are tempting platters of small savoury things placed on the table with dinner — pickles, cheeses, raw vegetables. They require so little work to delight the eyes. They occupy guests while you sort out a last minute crisis in the kitchen, and allow you to linger over dinner afterwards. In the 1960s and…