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Author Topic: Code language in Blue Ribbon Malt Extract recipe booklet  (Read 6704 times)

Offline kgs

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Code language in Blue Ribbon Malt Extract recipe booklet
« on: May 09, 2010, 10:01:57 am »
Found "Tested Recipes with Blue Ribbon Malt Extract" (1951) in my cookbook pamphlet collection this morning while looking for a cake recipe. (I think I picked it up at a garage sale years back, pre-homebrew.)

"Malt extract has long held an important place in the industrial preparation of food. Bakers and confectioners use it widely. ... [etc.] For some food uses plain malt extract imparts the desired taste, for others the addition of the tang derived from fragrant hops is an advantage. Old time bakers and chefs knew the advantage of using malt and hops, but their methods entailed considerable work. ..."

No mention of beer. Some of the recipes, such as the breads, suggest hopped extract as an alternative.
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Offline rabid_dingo

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Re: Code language in Blue Ribbon Malt Extract recipe booklet
« Reply #1 on: May 09, 2010, 03:09:43 pm »
Didn't some of that come from prohibition. They would continue to mash and produce malt products that have roots in beer but would not ferment to avoid breaking the law. The birth of malt extracts for food was born, no?
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Offline kgs

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Re: Code language in Blue Ribbon Malt Extract recipe booklet
« Reply #2 on: May 09, 2010, 03:56:18 pm »
Didn't some of that come from prohibition. They would continue to mash and produce malt products that have roots in beer but would not ferment to avoid breaking the law. The birth of malt extracts for food was born, no?

Yes, though I am guessing the only intended use for hopped extract was beer... kind of a "wink wink nudge nudge."

I checked the back of the pamphlet and there is a recipe for "Home Made Vinegar" that if you leave out the vinegar sounds suspiciously like beer! 3 lbs malt extract ("plain or hop flavored"), 2 1/2 lbs sugar, dissolved in 3 qts hot water, pour over a yeast cake, ferment between 70 and 75 degrees... later on you add vinegar. I wonder if that was intended as a recipe for beer (just leave out the vinegar).
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Offline tubercle

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Re: Code language in Blue Ribbon Malt Extract recipe booklet
« Reply #3 on: May 09, 2010, 04:19:48 pm »
During the prohibition era, AKA the failed experiment, cans of malt and bricks of dried grapes came with a packet of yeast taped to them and a label: (and I paraphrase) Warning! Do not mix the contents of this can with 5 gallons of water and a pound of sugar and stir, add the yeast and allow to ferment under an airlock for a week to create an alcoholic beverage or you will be in violation of federal law.

Yea, right.
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Offline dbeechum

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Re: Code language in Blue Ribbon Malt Extract recipe booklet
« Reply #4 on: May 09, 2010, 04:33:42 pm »
A while back I collected a bunch of breweriana off ebay and came across a prohibition transitory period set of instructions from a can of blue ribbon extract. I transcribed the sheet on my site

http://stoutguy.com/beer/blueribbon.php

On the topic of baking, malt extract has a long history of use in baked goodsq, predating prohibition. Look at the baked goods in the grocery store and I guarantee you'll be surprised at the number of goods (particularly anything intended to be 'soft & chewy' that contain extract. If you troll the web for extract information it becomes apparent that the vast majority of the world's extract production is for the baking industry.
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Offline kgs

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Re: Code language in Blue Ribbon Malt Extract recipe booklet
« Reply #5 on: May 09, 2010, 05:27:27 pm »

On the topic of baking, malt extract has a long history of use in baked goodsq, predating prohibition. Look at the baked goods in the grocery store and I guarantee you'll be surprised at the number of goods (particularly anything intended to be 'soft & chewy' that contain extract. If you troll the web for extract information it becomes apparent that the vast majority of the world's extract production is for the baking industry.

Oh, absolutely. In fact some of the recipes made my mouth water... I bet the malted pecan pie and the gingerbread are pretty good. Meatloaf with hopped malt malt extract, not so much.
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Offline abraxas

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Re: Code language in Blue Ribbon Malt Extract recipe booklet
« Reply #6 on: May 09, 2010, 09:49:41 pm »
During the prohibition era, AKA the failed experiment, cans of malt and bricks of dried grapes came with a packet of yeast taped to them and a label: (and I paraphrase) Warning! Do not mix the contents of this can with 5 gallons of water and a pound of sugar and stir, add the yeast and allow to ferment under an airlock for a week to create an alcoholic beverage or you will be in violation of federal law.

Yea, right.

This sounds like the old version of the modern days prohibition's "For tobacco use only" or "hydroponic tomato garden".