Corn Bread Pie is one of the best-known B&O recipes, but it was only on one menu! However it was not only published in What’s Cooking on the B&O and in B&O Magazine, but also in a little card offered to dining car guests.
Here is this recipe and a few others that were published on the B&O Yahoo Group
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CORN BREAD PIE From B&O Magazine, May, 1961
Makes 6 servings
1 lb Ground beef
1 lg Onion; chopped
1 cn Tomato soup; condensed
2 c Water
1 ts Salt
3/4 ts Pepper
1 tb Chili powder
1/2 c Green pepper; diced
1 c Whole kernel corn; (fresh frozen, or canned), drained
TOPPING
3/4 c Corn meal
1 tb Sugar
1 tb Flour
1/2 ts Salt
1 1/2 ts Baking powder
1 Egg; beaten
1/2 c Milk
1 tb Fat; melted Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Combine beef and onion in a large pot or skillet and brown over medium heat.
Add the remaining “filling” ingredients and simmer for 15 minutes.
Meanwhile, sift the dry “topping” ingredients together and add the milk and egg.
Stir this lightly; then fold in the melted fat.
Grease a casserole and pour the “filling” ingredients in first.
Pour the “topping” over the filling and bake for 18-20 minutes.
Chef’s Notes:
A number of people who have cooked this dish advise using 1 teaspoon of chili powder instead of the 1 tablespoon shown. It’s a matter of your taste - and whether or not the roof of your mouth is lined with firebrick like a locomotive boiler!
This recipe as shown in What’s Cooking on the B&O? called for 2 cups of water, which would make your filling a bit more “soupy”.
To substitute canned tomato sauce for the soup shown, use an 8-oz can and season to taste with seasoned salt, a dash of sugar and black pepper.
The “fat” in the topping could be bacon grease, butter or anything else that will melt to a liquid state. If you’re of a more healthful bent, you can substitute ground turkey for the ground beef.
BRAISED SHORT RIBS OF BEEF
From Old B&O Standard Recipes. Makes 3-4 servings
Beef Ribs 3 lbs
Carrots, ½” dice 3
Celery, ½” dice 3 stalks
Onions, ½” dice 1
Black Peppercorns 6
Parsley Stems 6
Bay Leaf 1
Thyme ¼ tsp
Cloves or Garlic ¼ tsp
Salt & Pepper To Taste
Flour As needed to thicken gravy
“Use about 4 inches of water” in a large pot or saucepan, and place all ingredients in the water.
Cover the pot and simmer until the ribs are tender (1½-2 hours). Preheat oven to 450 degrees. “When tender, remove the short ribs, dust with flour and place in the oven to brown, strain the liquor remaining in the saucepan, brown and thicken for gravy served with beef.” **Chef’s Notes:**When you do the “dust with flour” step, go very lightly on the flour, so that it will brown properly.
To make the gravy, strain the “liquor” into a saucepan and heat. Add flour gradually, one tablespoon at a time, stirring constantly, until you get a texture to your liking. Then bring to a boil, reduce to a simmer and cook for 10 minutes or so to remove the flour taste. If your gravy is too thick, simply stir in hot water.
Check the gravy for flavor and season with salt & pepper to taste.
CAPITOL LIMITED BARBECUE SAUCE****A B&O Chef’s recipe, circa 1958
Makes 2 cups of sauce
Butter 3 TBSP
Onion, minced 1/3 cup
Mustard, Grey Poupon 1 cup
Brown Sugar 2 TBSP
Salt 1/8 tsp
Vinegar, white 1/3 cup
Water ½ cup
Worcestershire Sauce 2 TBSP
“Sauté the onions in butter in a saucepan until they are tender but not brown.
“Add all other ingredients, cover with saucepan lid, and let simmer for about 10 minutes.
Chef’s Notes:Robert W. (“Bob”) Gray lived in Willard, Ohio and worked in train service for the B&O at between 1940 and 1970, running west to Garrett, Chicago and Toledo**.** His son Tom Gray remembers that “Dad loved The Capitol Limited, and it was the only regular job he would bid on, but not because it was easy; you had to be on your toes on that run. But because it paid 73 bucks a round trip, and the service staff on there were such good people; he knew them all.” In 1958, while working as Head Brakeman on Nos. 5 and 6, the chef on The Capitol Limited gave Bob Gray this tangy variation on the B&O’s famous “Gourmet Sauce”. For lack of another title, I’ve taken the liberty of naming this recipe after the train on which it was served.
BAKED LENTILS & SAUSAGE
From Old Standard B&O Recipes. Makes 8 servings
1 lb. Link Sausage
¼ Onion, minced fine
3 TBSP Butter or Cooking Oil
1 lb. Lentils
3½ cups Chicken or Beef Stock
¼ tsp Dry Mustard
1/8 tsp Baking Powder
Cut the sausages lengthwise in two slices. Heat oil in a 4-quart pot, and sauté the sausage and onions until the sausage is well browned.
Add the remaining ingredients to the pot and mix thoroughly.
Cover and simmer for 10 minutes. Bake at 450 degrees until browned (approx. 20 minutes). Chef’s Notes:
This one of a number of recipes for which the notes in Old Standard B&O Recipes were rather vague. This dish was to be “prepared the same as you would bake beans, except that no tomatoes or tomato sauce” was to be added. There was no word as to what liquid was supposed to replace those items, so I borrowed advice from some other cookbooks with regard to the use of stock.
APPLE PANCAKES
From Old Standard B&O Recipes
Makes 2 servings
Flour ½ cup
Cream ½ cup
Eggs 2
Butter, melted 1 TBSP
Sugar To Taste
Salt Dash
Apple, sliced fine ½ per recipe
Place a large skillet in the oven and preheat to 450 degrees. “1/2 cup flour, ½ cup cream, mix well and add two whole eggs, 1 Tablespoon melted butter, seasoned with a little sugar and a pinch of salt,
“Have pan hot with a little butter in it, pour in dough to cover pan, and bake in a hot oven” for 10 – 13 minutes.
“Mix the same as shown above, after pouring dough into pan, placed finely sliced apples to cover pan, and bake in hot oven.”
While the pancake is baking, warm your choice of syrup. **Chef’s Notes:**Notice that this recipe is the same as that for German Pancakes, with the addition of the sliced apples.
Give these a try, you won’t be dissapointed.