I love this Betty Crocker cookbook, above all for the photographs of many glorious Dansk baking dishes, including the lovely yellow one on the cover (that contains some bizarre sausage concoction.) Originally from 1965, this edition is from 1974, but I believe many of the images are the same ones from the original printing, and certainly most of the recipes seem to be as well.
Hailing from a time when casseroles were made from endless combinations of pantry staples, combined with a meat and a frozen vegetable, this book features one of THE most classic dishes, called “Classic Beef Stroganoff”. But as with so many older recipes, this one called for ingredients I either don’t approve of, or could not find, such as a can of bouillon. So I used tiny little scoops of “Better than Bouillon” which I think is super yummy WITHOUT the msg! Yes, I did go ahead with the catsup, especially since I was making this for my 5 year old, who adores the stuff. Sadly, the end result was that she refused to eat the sauce and I had to rinse the meat off and serve it to her NEXT to plain noodles!
At any rate, this is quick and easy, though I think that modern diners are so used to really fresh, made-from-scratch foods that the sauce just ended up tasting a bit “canned”. Some of the more bizarre concoctions in the book might not be super tasty either, but the photographs are so BRIGHT and GLORIOUS that I am sure I will be trying many more. Just for the love of it!
Classic Beef Stroganoff
1 lb beef tenderloin or boneless sirloin steak
½ lb fresh mushrooms, sliced
½ cup minced onion
2 Tbsp butter or margarine
1 can (10 ½ oz) beef bouillon
2 Tbsp catsup
1 small clove garlic, minced
1 tsp salt
3 Tbsp flour
1 cup dairy sour cream
3 to 4 cups hot cooked noodles or rice
Cut meat diagonally into very thin slices. Cook and stir mushrooms and onion in butter until onion is tender; remove from skillet. In same skillet, brown meat lightly on both sides. Set aside 1/3 cup bouillon; stir remaining bouillon, the catsup, garlic, and salt into skillet. Cover and simmer 15 min. Blend reserved 1/3 cup bouillon and flour; stir into skillet. Add mushrooms and onion. Heat to boiling, stirring constantly. Boil 1 min. Stir in sour cream; heat through. Serve over hot noodles or rice. 4 servings.
