Welcome to another Mid-Century Menu!!! This week we are again cooking out of the Bisquick Cook Book, which you all remember is the origins of the amazingly delicious Hot Fudge Pudding Cake, which was made by me and by Sara with great results.
Today we are going back to the book to try our hand again at some recipes. This time a non-descript main dish called “Meat Sandwich” caught my eye. So simple. So scary. It doesn’t describe what meat or what kind of sandwich, so I was intrigued.
It turns out they claim it is a riff on the Italian “cavatzone”, which sounds a lot to me like a calzone. Calzones I have normally had all have a pizza crust outside and are served with marinara sauce, so I knew the biscuit outside would be a stretch. But it sounded interesting and scary, so that is what we chose. To go with it, we also picked a dessert called peach pinwheels, to use up some peach pie filling I had in the freezer.
Now, I didn’t notice this until doing this post that there is some sort of red sauce over this thing that is never mentioned in the recipe. Unless it is blood. In which case, I don’t want to know.
Fantastic. Here we go!
These are the ingredients for the Meat Sandwich only. Since I already had the peach filling made and the only other ingredients for the Peach Pinwheels were Bisquick (pictured), sugar, butter and cinnamon, I decided to skip adding them.
Okay, okay. Sigh. I am a terrible liar. I FORGOT to add them and I am an idiot. Oh well.
The pork and onions, frying away.
The cheeses, egg and hot sauce, all mixed.
Here is the makings of the crust and topping. Note the giant glob of mayo.
All mixed together.
The crusted, spread into the pan.
Here is the filling, all mixed up. At this point, Tom walked through the kitchen and remarked on how good it smelled. He was right, it did smell good. It was making me really hungry.
The meat pressed into the pan.
The finally plops of biscuit topping. I tried to spread it out, but it was just a massacre. Not sure how they got their top to look so even in the picture.
As I mentioned before, I had already made some pie filling and had it stashed in the freezer. So here it is, thawed and in the pan.
The shortcake dough.
After patting it into a square…
I spread on some butter and sprinkled it with cinnamon and sugar (we were out of nuts). I rolled up the dough and divided it into 13 rolls, jamming them into the pie filling. Here it is ready for the oven…
What the….that isn’t right! Hold on a second.
*Sounds of shuffling*
Okay, here they are, really….
The Pinwheels went into the oven just as the sandwich was coming out.
Mmmm….crusty. It smelled pretty good at this point, so I was excited.
And so was Tom. The first bite went in before it was even really cool.
“How is it?”
“Gah.”
“Wait, what does that mean?”
“It is really rich. It tastes like meat and onions.”
I took a bite. It was really rich, almost disgustingly so. And salty. But it was still good, so we kept eating. Towards the end, I was a little sick to my stomach. Eventually I just couldn’t choke down another bite of sandwich, even though I was kind of still hungry. What I had already eaten felt like a lump in my stomach. I turned to my veggies in defeat until Tom was finished eating.
By that time, the Pinwheels were ready. Here they are, fresh from the oven…
Dang it!
Wait…here they are, really….
Ahhh…peachy and yummy. I served up a piece to Tom and he took a big bite.
“Ack!”
“Ack!?!? What the heck is wrong with them?”
“Raw. These roll things are still raw.”
I went over to the peaches and started flipping over rolls. He was right. Even though they were almost burnt on the top, they were still very raw on the bottom. Crap.
The Verdict:
Meat Sandwich: Very rich, but tastes good. Needs a lot more seasoning to taste better and some tomato sauce of some kind. Even pepper would be an improvement. A very small slice would be good with a lot of different sides.
Peach Pinwheels: Good, but don’t make pinwheels too fat or they will be raw at the bottom. Cut them thin so they finish cooking by the time the tops are brown.
Hooray for Hot Fudge Pudding Cake!!! He he – kittys in the sink! They are so stinkin’ cute! Hmmmm, the Meat Sandwich sounds interesting. I am surprised it tasted so rich, the recipe does not look like it would. At least it was edible! 🙂
LOL, I love the kitten pic inserts!
I must admit, I am a bit surprised at the meat sandwich being edible!
For the pinwheels, if you want to make fatter ones, maybe turn down the heat a bit? I tend to do that when I make big cinnamon rolls.
Here’s my thoughts about the biscuit dough not turning out well.
The biscuit recipe on page 3, minus extraneous parts:
Add 2/3 cups milk to 2 cups Bisquick; stir with fork. Beat 15 strokes. It will be stiff, but sticky. Roll dough around on cloth-covered board lightly dusted with Bisquick. Knead gently 10 times to smooth up. Roll 1/2″ thick, biscuits double in baking. For richer biscuits, mix 1/4 cup soft butter or shortening, or 3 tbsp salad oil into Bisquick before mixing in milk.
The recipe for Baked Meat Sandwich asks for the richer biscuits with 1/4 mayo as the fat instead of butter, shortening or salad oil.
Yet the Bisquick product we have today is not the Bisquick available in 1965. The product has changed. So we should refer to the current instructions for biscuit dough to make the old recipe a success. Here is the current recipe for Bisquick biscuit dough:
Add 2/3 cups milk to 2 1/4 cups Bisquick. Stir ingredients until a soft dough forms. Turn onto surface dusted with Bisquick mix. Knead 10 times. Roll dough 1/2 inch thick.
Thus, the current Bisquick product requires an additional 1/4 cup of mix. You can still add the 1/4 cup fat, mayo in this case, to make the Baked Meat Sandwich.
In order to get the uniform thickness of the dough as in the picture, roll out the biscuit dough until double the size of the bottom of the pan. Press the pan bottom on the dough as a guide, and cut the dough into two squares, one for the bottom of the pan and one for the top.
To reduce the richness of the filling, remember that in 1965 pork had a lot more fat. Once it cooked and the juices and fat were poured off, the volume would have been reduced by about half. Pouring off juices and fat would have been taken for granted in 1965 and not worth mentioning as a step in the recipe. I would recommend starting with about 3/4 lb ground pork to approximate the 1965 recipe. Make sure to pour off pan juices and fat once the ground pork and onion have cooked. Last, try grated Swiss and Kraft grated parmesan, both of which were available in 1965. The Jarlsberg and pecorino-romano may have added to the richness.
Hope you try this one again.
Those darling babies in the sink!
I’m beginning to wonder if these recipes were meant for housewives that didn’t know how to cook, LOL! Or maybe for husbands that had no taste buds.
The Meat Sandwich might have been the original “Bisquick Impossible Whatever Pie”…..that recipe which makes its own crust? Hmmm…
OH, THOSE KITTENS!!!
My recipe says to bake peach pinwheels for 50 to 60 minutes.