Rebekahs have proud cookbook heritage

The Welsh Rabbit recipe you saw here a few weeks ago brought me the nicest visit with a couple of honest-to-goodness Rebekahs, Connie Clements and Helen Witham, since, you may recall, I used a recipe from an old Rebekah Cookbook I have.

Connie, a Rebekah for 47 years, is a past president of the Rebekah Assembly of Maine, and Helen is presently the vice president of the assembly. Connie works for the University of Maine and at the Monroe dairy farm where she and her husband live. Helen is supposedly retired but travels the state visiting all the Rebekah lodges. We had a great time talking about food and thumbing through the old Rebekah cookbooks I have.

The Rebekahs, a service and fraternal organization affiliated with the Odd Fellows, still have lodges around the state of Maine as well as across the country. There are fewer and fewer younger members joining, and gradually the number of Maine lodges is decreasing. Still the group is busy raising money for all their projects which include a residential and nursing care facility in Auburn, Camp NEOFA (Northeast Odd Fellows Association) in Appleton, scholarships for nurses, Arthritis Foundation support, and national projects, too.

I am willing to bet that a fair number of you have old torn, tattered and spattered copies of the blue-covered Rebekah cookbooks like the ones I have: one each from 1939 and 1953. By the time Connie and Helen were done with me, I was the proud owner of two more: the 1981 third edition, and the newest, a year 2000 edition! And the good news is, yet another is in the works. When it is available, I will tell you about it here.

Cookbooks like this, known as community cookbooks because a community assembles them, are a good way to find out what is cooking locally. I like them because I feel like I am getting ideas and advice from neighbors and friends. Here is a recipe I picked out of “The 21st Century Maine Rebekah Cookbook,” (from page 52, donated by Ruth Malcom, Colfax Lodge 27), after examining my winter-stored apple supply. Several apples in one basket were teetering on the edge of becoming sauce without any help from me, and since I am lazy about making pie, I thought a chance to use five cups of cut up apples was too good an opportunity to pass up.

This recipe makes one huge old cake and generously thick. You could easily halve it and bake it in a pie plate cut in wedges and dressed up with vanilla ice cream. Or halved it would fill an 8-by-8-inch or 9-by- 9-inch pan pretty well.

Whether you peel the apples or not is up to you. I interpreted “cubed” as divided into quarters and cut off in chunks. I reduced the sugar by a half cup to 11/2 cups because I can’t leave anything alone, and I used a half cup dried cranberries and a half cup of raisins in place of all raisins. I used pecans. When it is all mixed up, it is alarmingly stiff, but just push it into the pan. You can’t possibly hurt it.

If you would like to acquire a copy of the 1981 or 2000 Rebekah cookbooks, here is how. Send a check payable to the Rebekah Assembly of Maine to Helen Witham, 66 High St., Oakland 04963. For the 1981, send a check for $7.50 ($6 for the book, plus shipping and handling, add 75 cents for each additional book), and for the 2000 one, send $12 ($10 for the book, plus $2 for shipping and handling, add 75 cents for each additional book).

Apple Cake

5 cups of apples cubed

2 cups of sugar

2 teaspoons baking soda

3 cups of flour

1 teaspoon cinnamon

1 teaspoon nutmeg

1 teaspoon allspice

2 eggs

1 cup melted butter or margarine

1 cup of raisins

1 cup of nuts (optional)

Cut the apples into your largest bowl. Cover with the sugar. Sift together all the dry ingredients and set aside. In a separate bowl, beat the eggs and beat the melted butter into the eggs. Pour that over the apples and stir until the apples are coated. Then add the dry ingredients and mix until the flour is all absorbed. Then add the raisins and nuts. Press into a greased pan, and bake at 350 F .for 50 minutes, until it is puffed and golden, and a tester inserted comes out clean.

Looking for…

Now here is an intriguing question. Judy Hakola in Orono wrote saying, “I enjoy your neighbors-sharing-with-neighbors approach. And that’s the purpose of my message. I have come across a number of good yeast bread recipes in my cooking magazines lately, most of which are for use in bread machines. I don’t have a bread machine, nor do I want one. I prefer kneading dough on my Finnish mother-in-law’s home-made breadboard, which I brought from Montana after her death in 1969.

“Do you have or know of any guidelines for converting bread machine recipes to ‘regular’ (aka old fashioned) versions? I know I could just experiment, but the thrifty New Englander in me resists the possible waste of ingredients – and time – while I figure out the hard way what alterations in amounts and procedures are necessary for a successful conversion. I’m hoping you or your readers might have some suggestions that would increase the likelihood of getting a good result the first or second time.”

Judy wondered further: “If the instructions that come with bread machines include tips for altering the purchaser’s regular recipes for use in a bread machine, wouldn’t it be possible to reverse the guidelines?”

Has anyone out there fiddled around with converting recipes one way or the other, and would you be willing to share your experience?

Send queries or answers to Sandy Oliver, 1061 Main Road, Islesboro 04848. E-mail: tastebuds@prexar.com. For recipes, tell us where they came from. List ingredients, specify number of servings and do not abbreviate measurements. Include name, address and daytime phone number.