Show me a recipe with a bit of small town snark buried inside of it from an 1894 church cookbook. Delightful.
AMBROSIA FOR ONE
Fill a saucer with fresh peaches, finely sliced, or strawberries, carefully picked and selected; over this, place a measure of ice-cream, vanilla flavor. Cover all with powdered sugar to the depth of one-fourth inch. Eat with spoon (if your income is over twenty thousand dollars, you can use a strawberry fork). [emphasis added] Serve with angels food, or almond macaroons.
~ ~ Recipes Tried and True by the Ladies’ Aid Society of the First Presbyterian Church of Marion, Ohio
THE SPECTACLED BEAN 
The actual recipe is about 3/4 way down the document and is attributed to George Van Fleet.
Curious as ever, I made a few discrete inquiries about Mr. Van Fleet. And I’m happy to report that I have it on good authority that George Van Fleet was Warren G. Harding’s managing editor at the local newspaper, The Marion Star.
As if this post couldn’t get any more exciting!! 😉
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That recipe sounds really good!! I want that strawberry fork. 🙂
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It’s all yours Margaret. You qualify with a salary over $20K.
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I want the strawberry fork too. But my awesome part-time job pays me a lot less than 20 grand. Sigh.
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You and me both, Alison. No strawberry forks for us.
Which really begs the question, what is a strawberry fork? Is it for real, or is it something Mr. Van Fleet, who was known to have a dry sense of humor, made up?
[… five minutes later…]
A fast bit of research and this is what I found: The Strawberry Fork Remembered. Which means that it was for real.
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I too was wondering what a strawberry fork was. And now I shall click on your link.
My salary doesn’t allow me the fork, but Jason’s does, and I think he’ll share. Hopefully.
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Stephanie, Jason seems like a good guy. I’m sure that he’ll share his strawberry fork with you– and the girls, too! In fact, I bet that he won’t even miss it at all, once you get hold of it.
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I was suspicious, because 20K was a LOT of money back then. I mean, really really a lot. But then your source being Harding’s sec means OK, maybe Harding made that much. 🙂 And probably even more.
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J, I wondered about the 20K amount too. It seemed so specific– and totally out of context within the recipe. It must of meant something to someone in that small town. We’ll probably never know who.
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I wonder if Mrs. W.E. Thomas and Mrs. G.H. Wright were in competition with each other to publish the most recipes!!! Did you see the one for Egg For An Invalid??? How about chicken salad for 200 – now that’s cookin!!! thanks for sharing – interesting terms and recipes!!
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lori, you got me laughing here. I’m sure there was some sort of competition amongst the ladies and gents of the First Presbyterian Church– how could there not be in a small town?!
I missed the Egg For An Invalid recipe, but found the For Six Hundred Pickles recipe. Different times, eh?
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