Sue's Diner: Bohemian Biscuits with Jam

Today's recipe is most likely older than both of our ages together (mine and whoever is reading this - and if you're young enough, triple that!).

It's adapted from the Bohemian-American Cookbook by Marie Rosicky, published by the Automatic Printing Company.

Side note: My mother owns a much older version of the current cookbook. It's still in print and the company gave me permission to modify some of the recipes and republish them as long as it approved the modifications.

Here is the back story of this really fun cookbook (along with you you can get your own copy).

The recipe is referenced in chapter 27 of Bryony. In that chapter, (spoilers), Melissa develops a crush on Henry and boldly approaches him for a date. So Henry seizes his chance to enlarge Melissa’s world and gives her a kaleidoscope evening of theater, historical landmarks, and peasant food.

Because Timothy is working on the website this week, I'm sharing the recipe directly in the blog today. 

If you have any troubleshooting questions or comments, email us at bryonyseries@gmail.com. 

Like many recipes from this time period, the amount of ingredients is vague. So the yield will vary, too.

Enjoy the adventure - and tasking a bit of history, too. 

Bohemian Biscuits with Jam

A piece of butter

2 cups tepid milk

2 eggs

A pinch of mace

Salt

Compressed or dry yeast dissolved in tepid water

Flour

Lard (optional)

Prune jam

Cottage cheese or grated marzipan

Melted butter or thick sweet cream

Melt butter in milk, add eggs, mace, salt, yeast and enough white flour to make dough softer than for dumplings. Beat until smooth, let it rise, turn out on a floured board, roll and cut into rather large biscuits. Let them rise, then bake on both sides or fry in lard. Spread with prune jam, sprinkle with cottage cheese or grated marzipan and melted butter or thick, sweet cream.

By the way, Sue's Diner is only real in the BryonySeries world. But didn't Timothy do a great job making the page look like a real menu at a vintage diner?

From "Memories in the Kitchen: Bites and Nibbles From 'Bryony'"

All proceeds benefit Big Brothers Big Sisters of Will and Grundy Counties at bbbswillgrundy.org.

Order the cookbook at www.bryonyseries.com.