THE COOKBOOK TEST #0034: THE SNOWY CABIN COOKBOOK

INSTALLMENT #0034 (FREE) HYGGE’S REVENGE / CABIN FEVER / A NICE JUICY SASSAGE / TURNS OUT I REALLY CAN’T BRAID PRETZELS

Dear Readers,

A tip from a regular reader of this newsletter sent me to the nearby town of Anoka to visit a bookstore I’ve never tried before: Avant Garden, which turned out to be a charming little shop (staffed in part by a charming bookstore dog, Sparkles), perched above a straight-outta-the-’90s cluttered-but-lovable charming coffee shop.

The whole experience was like stepping back to my college years: everything felt warm and personal and friendly and a little rough around the edges. There was a whole Barnes and Noble / Amazon / Starbucks revolution that changed the face of books and coffee, and this little part of Main Street in Anoka wasn’t having it. And thank goodness for that - we’re drowning in artificial voices and sterile, soulless places, and every bit of human-inhabited turf is a victory these days.

At any rate: the cookbook that leapt off the shelf for me was THE SNOWY CABIN COOKBOOK, an adorable looking ode to culinary cabin comfort. It turns out the cutesy little cover conceals a syrupy sweet, honestly rather vomit-inducing tidal wave of cute stuff inside the book itself: it includes page after pointless page of creative activities (A “winter scavenger hunt”! A two-page spread of a board game based on, but even less interesting than Candyland! A freakin’ cabin-themed Mad Lib!) that are far, far too basic for any self-respecting adult to interact with, and far, far, too neutered and timid to catch the idea of any self-respecting kid.

But if you can choke down the bile and engage with the actual substance of the book, it’s a pretty engaging collection of rustic / comforting / mostly scaleable recipes that would absolutely work in a cold-weather setting. (Whether they’d be executable at your cabin depends on the cabin and the recipe - some of these require a fair bit of specialized equipment and are quite demanding of ingredients and/or time.)

So with that, let’s skip past the extremely numerous bits of filler and try out a handful of recipes from The Snowy Cabin Cookbook, while the last little shreds of cool weather hang on by their fingernails.

At your service,

James

THE SNOWY CABIN COOKBOOK: MEALS AND DRINKS FOR ADVENTUROUS DAYS AND COZY NIGHTS
BY MARNIE HANEL AND JEN STEVENSON
ARTISAN | 2021 | $20

I’m not convinced the authors of The Snowy Cabin Cookbook have ever been to an actual working cabin; I’m not convinced that they haven’t been, either. Some of the book’s recipes are a great fit for the environment. Others are baroque and complex and out of keeping with the setting (a recipe that calls for sourcing “2 Moulard duck legs” and duck fat, for example) and some are basic to the point of pointlessness - a whole point on how to serve kielbasa with mustard, for example, or a recipe for roasted chestnuts, one of the world’s “great idea in theory, pretty much worthless in practice” recipes that always sounds better on paper than it tastes in real life. (Yes, I’ve sourced and roasted chestnuts, and no, I don’t particularly recommend it.)

Is it possible I have a crusty attitude toward cabins because the one I went to as a kid barely had heating and we ate a Swanson’s chicken pot pie every evening for dinner? It’s possible. Still, I think there’s a certain thriftiness that goes into a legit cabin recipe, and that spirit isn’t an animating force for The Snowy Cabin Cookbook - rather, it’s unapologetically a celebration of cabin chic.

Griping aside, there are a number of intriguing recipes in the book, and I decided to execute four of them: a scratch pretzel recipe with an accompanying cheese dip, and a sausage roll recipe with an accompanying pear chutney. They both looked like really sustaining comfort grub with enough class to impress a cabin-bound audience.

A NICE JUICY SASSAGE

Once upon a time - a good 15-16 years ago - an Australian acquaintance of mine turned up late (very late) to a party at my house bearing an entire sheet pan of sausage rolls. As most of the guests were several sheets to the wind, the appearance of a hot, greasy, incredibly savory appetizer was incredibly welcome, and I remember those sausage rolls quite fondly to this day.

The sausage rolls of The Snowy Cabin Cookbook live up to that legacy - the toasted and then ground up fennel seed gives them a lot of depth and character, and the accompanying pear chutney adds a ton of texture and interest. While these might be more work than I’d typically want to do in a cabin setting, I can see them serving as an inspired appetizer or late-night snack for friends. They look casual, but they’re a textural and layered flavor treat. 

Both of these recipes call for sultanas… the coop was out of them… I used raisins instead. Still delicious! Use whatever you can lay your hands upon.

The sausage roll recipe also called for toasting and grinding fennel seeds but never re-introduced said fennel to the recipe; I added that step. A minor oversight, but, then again, that’s what proofreaders are for.

SAUSAGE ROLLS

1 ½ tsp fennel seeds
1 Tbsp olive oil
1 small onion, finely chopped
1 garlic clove, minced
12 oz. ground pork sausage
2 Tbsp raisins or sultanas, chopped
1 Tbsp minced fresh sage
¾ tsp kosher salt
½ tsp black pepper
Pinch of freshly grated nutmeg
1 sheet frozen puff pastry, thawed as per package directions
1 egg beaten with 1 Tbsp milk for egg wash
Sesame seeds for sprinkling
Pear-Sultana Chutney (recipe follows) for serving

Preheat oven to 350 F and line a sheet pan with parchment paper.

Saute fennel seeds in a dry skillet over medium heat until fragrant, about 3-4 minutes. Crush with a mortar and pestle or spice grinder. Warm olive oil in skillet, add onion and cook, stirring often, until tender - about 5 minutes. Add garlic until fragrant, about 30 seconds. Remove from heat and let cool.

In a large bowl, add sausage, sultanas or raisins, sage, salt, pepper, nutmeg, ground fennel seeds, and cooled onion mixture. Use your (clean) hands to mix ingredients together thoroughly and wash hands.

On lightly floured surface, roll out the puff pastry sheet to about 9x24” and cut it in half into two long (24”) sheets. Compress the sausage filling into the center of each sheet, brush the edges of the pastry with egg wash, and firmly fold one side over the other, to make a sausage-filled tube. Flip over so the seam is down, and slice into 1-inch wide segments, and place these on the sheet pan.

Brush each roll with egg wash, sprinkle with sesame seeds, and cook until puffed and golden and bottom is dark and getting crispy, about 30-35 minutes. Serve warm with the chutney.

PEAR-SULTANA CHUTNEY

¼ cup apple cider vinegar
¼ cup packed brown sugar
3 large pears, peeled, cored, and cut into ½” dice
4 Medjool dates, pitted and chopped
¼ cup finely chopped sweet onion
¼ cup sultanas or raisins, chopped
1 cinnamon stick
1 bay leaf
1 star anise pod
1 (1-inch) piece fresh ginger, peeled and sliced lengthwise
½ tsp kosher salt

Combine ¾ cup water, vinegar, brown sugar, pears, dates, onion, sultanas or raisins, cinnamon stick, bay leaf, star anise, ginger, and salt in a medium saucepan. Bring to a boil; reduce to a simmer and simmer partially covered for 35-40 minutes, until chutney is thick and glossy. Remove and discard whole spices and ginger. Transfer to a bowl and store in the refrigerator for up to 1 month. Extra chutney can serve as a sandwich or salad topping.

TURNS OUT I REALLY CAN’T BRAID PRETZELS

Some production notes on The Snowy Cabin Cookbook: 

They really didn’t turn out very dark. I was hoping for a classic mahogany thing, and did not receive it.

I was out of baking soda, so I used pickling lime instead, at a ratio of 3:4 (pickling lime:baking soda). The result was outstanding - a really nice chewy exterior on these things.

I didn’t have pretzel salt, so I used kosher salt. Result: evenly salted, extremely tasty pretzels.

The original recipe called for a two hour rise or “until doubled.” I got really bored after 40 minutes or so, decided the dough was doubled, and went ahead with things. Turned out great!

You’re supposed to braid these things, ala challah, but I found the dough too elastic and short to really bread very effectively, so my pretzels looked like weird bread baked by not-very-intelligent leprechauns. I should reemphasize - they were delicious, in terms of texture and flavor.

The accompanying cheese sauce is quite nice - really smooth and creamy, very agreeable with some depth of flavor and bite. I would make this cheese sauce any time a mellow cheesy dipping sauce was called for in life. The dipping sauce would probably suffice for 24+ pretzels and the recipe makes 8, so if you scale up the pretzels, don’t worry about the sauce.

SOFT PRETZEL BRAIDS WITH GOOEY GOUDA

1 cup warm water
1 Tbsp brown sugar
1 package active dry yeast (about 2 1/4 tsp)
3 cups bread flour, plus more for dusting
2 Tbsp butter, melted and cooled
2 tsp kosher salt
Neutral oil for greasing
6 Tbsp pickling lime or 1/2 cup baking soda
1 large egg yolk, beaten with 1 Tbsp water, for egg wash
Coarse salt for sprinkling
Gooey Gouda (recipe follows)

Combine warm water and brown sugar in bowl of a stand mixer, and then sprinkle the year on top. Let sit for 8 minutes, until foamy, then add flour, melted butter, and salt. Using dough hook attachment, stir until combined and then increase speed to medium low and knead for five minutes, until dough is smooth and pulls away from side of bowl.

Grease a large bowl with oil and transfer over the dough - cover with a kitchen towel, place in a warm spot, and let rise for up to 2 hours (until it has doubled in size.) 

Line two sheet pans with parchment paper. Turn the dough onto a floured counter. Cut into 8 pieces. One at a time, roll with your hands each piece of dough into a 2-foot-long rope. Cut rope into thirds, arrange pieces side by side, and braid the strands. Place the braid on a sheet pan and repeat with remaining braids; let braids rise for 30 minutes.

Preheat oven to 450 F.

Bring 8 cups of water to a boil in a large pot, then stir in pickling lime or baking soda. Using a skimmer or spatula introduce four pretzels to the water, and boil for a minute, flipping them over halfway through. Remove to a sheet pan, letting excess water drip back into the pot. Repeat with remaining four pretzels.

Brush each pretzel with egg wash, then sprinkle with salt. Bake until deeply browned, 10-15 minutes, rotating pans halfway through. Serve with Gooey Gouda.

GOOEY GOUDA 

1 cup lager-style beer
¾ cup heavy cream
¾ cup whole milk
1 small white onion, coarsely chopped
2 tsp cornstarch
6 oz. young Gouda cheese, wax removed, grated
4 oz. American cheese, cut into small pieces
½ tsp kosher salt
⅛ tsp ground white pepper
Freshly grated nutmeg

Combine beer, cream, milk, and onion in large saucepan; bring to boil then reduce heat to maintain a simmer for 10 minutes. Strain through a fine mesh and discard solids.

Return all but ¼ cup of hot cream mixture to the saucepan. To the reserved cream add the cornstarch and stir with a fork into a slurry. Pour the slurry into the saucepan, bring to a boil over medium-high heat, and reduce the heat to low to simmer for 3 minutes to thicken.

Stir in Gouda and American cheeses in batches, letting each addition melt before adding more. Stir in salt and white pepper. Transfer to a bowl and grate nutmeg on top to serve. Sauce can be stored in refrigerator for up to 3 days, and rewarmed in the microwave or on the stove top.

THE VERDICT ON THE SNOWY CABIN COOKBOOK
(BUY IT / ***BORROW IT*** / SKIP IT / SCRAP IT)

If The Snowy Cabin Cookbook were larded with legitimately useful interstitial features instead of a page about “Ski Slang,” I might say this would be a must-get for anyone with both a cabin and culinary inclinations. As it is, it’s a mixed collection of well-written, competently edited recipes that produce some hearty and delicious food - well worth a good luck and some experimentation, and possibly an inspired gift for anyone who likes to get away from it all someplace a little more rustic (but still outfitted with a functional kitchen.)