Herself's Recipes

When the hurricanes roll into New England, tales are always told of the poor Irish running down to the beach after a storm to fetch the beached lobsters. It’s been a long time since lobsters were a poor mans food.

Indians first put lobster to use as a fertilizer in New England. Later, the colonists arrived, and they would gather the lobsters from the tidal pools. The lobsters were then made into dinner for the household children, servants and the prisoners of the local jails.

Lobsters were gathered by hand along the shorelines on New England until around 1850. Demand for lobsters began to increase and small boats known as ‘smacks’ would go out and trap the lobster. The lobsters were then brought back to the canneries along the Maine coastline. Much like tuna is today, lobster in 1936 was a cheap, canned, high protein food for the masses. Canneries wouldn’t even buy lobsters weighing less than five pounds.

In the later 1800s over fishing began to affect the canneries. Large lobsters were no longer coming in off the boats and the limit was lowered to two pounds. But in the early 1900s bringing lobster sandwiches to school was still the norm for the poor children.

Rumor has it that in 1910 John D Rockefeller Sr brought lobsters to gourmet status. The story is that a bowl of lobster stew meant for the servants table was sent to Rockefeller’s table by mistake. It was rapturously received and added to the daily menu for the family. In New York society in the early 1900s, ‘If its good enough for Rockefellar, it’s good enough for me’ was the motto.

During WWII lobsters were considered a delicacy and therefore not rationed. That’s quite a climb in social status for the critters. After WWII the boys came home from the war and America enjoyed spending its new found wealth on many things including lobster.

Since mid 1900s lobster consumption has gone from half a pound per person to one pound per person. The price has rapidly increased and fishermen have trouble bringing home lobsters over the one pound limit. Soon lobster will join much rarer dishes as trapping limits become tighter and the scarcity of lobster further increases the price.

Simple Cheesecake with white chocolate and raspberries

I’m still searching for the ‘perfect’ cheesecake recipe. This is the closest I’ve found so far. There are records of cheesecake being made 2,000 years ago, but it is believed to have been made as long as 6,000 to 8,000 years ago. It was served to Olympic athletes in Greece in 776bce. Today cheese cakes are usually made with cream cheese which was invented in 1872. Later in 1912, Kraft learned how to pasteurize cheese making cheese cake available to the masses.

Cheese filling

2 -8 oz packages cream cheese
1/2 cup sugar
2 eggs
1/2 cup sour cream
1/4 cup whipping cream
1 Tablespoon vanilla

Mix well

One chocolate, vanilla if you prefer, graham cracker crust
pour cheese mixture into crust

Fruit filling

1/4 cup raspberries
1/4 cup raspberry jam
1/2 cup white chocolate, melted (optional)

Mix well and then gently spoon onto cheese mixture and fold in gently with a spoon

Bake one and a half hours at 325′ until set in the middle

Tips:

Take the ingredients out of the refrigerator and sit them on the counter for a half hour so they warm up to room temperature.

Do not over mix the cheese mixture. Beat just until mixed.

Cool the cake slowly on the counter, not in the refrigerator or it will get cracks.