In his 1914 collection of recipes and culinary anecdotes, Bohemian San Francisco: Its Restaurants and Their Most Famous Recipes, Clarence Edgar Edwords defines bohemianism as the “naturalism of refined people.” He laments that this urbane sort of urban savagery has been made to serve as “the cloak of debauchery and the excuse for sex degradation,” and argues that bohemians’ “innate gentility” prevents “those things Society guards against.” So virtuous are the bohemians, in fact, that “men and women mingle in good fellowship and camaraderie without finding the sex question a necessary topic of conversation.” These noble, free souls “do not find it necessary to push exhilaration to intoxication; to increase their animation to boisterousness.”
Continue readingMonth: April 2011
Liederkranz á la Hoosier
In his “Introduction” to the 1922 volume of virile culinary delectables, The Stag Cook Book: Written for Men by Men, Robert H. Davis proclaims that cooking “is a gift, not an art” and that eating “is an art, not a gift.” The Stag Cook Book is a careful consideration of both activities, with recipes contributed by true gustatory veterans. Davis writes that the “immortals who have contributed recipes to this volume were born with a silver spoon not in their mouths, but in their hands.”
Among this manly compendium of mouthwatering delights is an unusually named dish, Liederkranz á la Hoosier. Liederkranz is the American version of the odoriferous German cheese, Limburger, while “Hoosier” is the official demonyn for a resident of Indiana. Together they make a pungent snack fit for the keenest of masculine appetites.
Liederkranz á la Hoosier
Run around and find a real nice Liederkranz cheese and treat it as follows to get a serving for four people:
Mix the cheese with about a quarter of a pound of butter and work into a fine paste, adding salt, pepper, French mustard, paprika and Worcestershire sauce as you go along. Just add them to taste.
When the paste is smooth put in one finely chopped small green pepper; one small onion, or chives.
Mix well!
And serve on rye bread—spread thick. To be thoroughly technical, I suppose I should have said: spread to taste!
Editor’s Note :—You can have a wonderful time and make quite a reputation for yourself by inventing cheese combinations. Ordinary cream cheese makes a splendid base for original mixtures. Try combinations of finely minced pimento, celery, olives, chives and peppers (green and red). And anything else that promises well.

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Student Fare
Today’s post appears at The New Inquiry. It concerns journalist A.J. Liebling’s days as a student in Paris and his passion for inexpensive vittles.



