Recipe: Frankfurter Platter Dinner

Here on the Farm we like to mix things up when we have the opportunity. Last evening was Fancy Night Dinner-- sautéed zucchini, Creative Cooking risotto, and Frano-Syrian chicken. For dinner this lovely evening we had something more... how shall I say?... countrified.

Yes. Those frankfurters are arranged on top of a wonderful pile of mashed potatoes and surrounded by cabbage. 

A meal fit for a Country Mouse! But please note well. This recipe is from Master Chef Louis P. De Gouy. Seems even the Master Chef appreciated country food.

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“As man went, so went the sausage. In some form or another the sausage probably has been one of man’s foods ever since primitive days. Scientists point out that when the caveman learned to cook his food he also learned immediately to preserve part of the meat he had killed for a future meal, cleaning it of bone and gristle and stuffing it in a piece of skin. Thus the first sausage was probably invented. It acquired more and more refinement down through the ages until today it is even possible to get a hot dog neatly packaged in a skin that has a “zipper.””—Master Chef Louis P. De Gouy, The Gold Cook Book (1947)

“Cooked hot sauerkraut may be substituted for the whipped potatoes, or unchopped spinach, buttered noodles, rice risotto, etc.”

FRANKFURTER PLATTER DINNER

3 Tbsp butter

¾ C onions, sliced thin

1 ½ C tart apples, peeled, cored, sliced thin

8 C cabbage (red or green, or equal parts of each), shredded fin

¼ C cider vinegar

¼ C dill pickle (preferably homemade—see recipes in Canning … section), chopped

Salt, pepper

12 frankfurters, pan-broiled in a greased saucepan over a low flame until browned lightly on all sides

Whipped potatoes

Melt butter in a large heavy saucepan, add onion slices and apple slices, cover pan, and cook 4 minutes. Add cabbage, mixing well from bottom of pan, and continue cooking 10 minutes, stirring frequently. Lift cover, add vinegar and dill pickles, season with salt and pepper to taste, replace cover, and cook very slowly for 15 to 20 minutes longer. To serve, pile whipped potatoes in center of a heated platter, arrange frankfurters at regular interval around potatoes, and border with hot cabbage mixture. Serve at once.