Open the box and discover treasure: A year's worth of Taste, from 1971. Yes, the headline on the copy that's second from the right really reads, "man-pleasing soup."

By Rick Nelson

Taste was into its second full year in 1971, and in many ways the section was really hitting its stride.

My family was a Minneapolis Star household, and while I have very fond memories of running for the front door the moment I heard the paper land with a thud on our doorstep, I don't recall being a Taste reader. Not that I was one of the section's target readers. It's highly unlikely that the subject of Julia Child's famous boeuf Bourguignon recipe -- which, by the way, took up roughly a half-page when it ran on Feb. 10, 1971, as a part of "Voila!," Child's syndicated column  -- was a topic of conversation when I was a Brooklyn Center kid in Miss Ragborg's fifth-grade class at Palmer Lake Elementary School.

Today, I find those early Taste issues fascinating. Last week I spent an afternoon parked inside a windowless conference room, gingerly retrieving one yellowed, fragile and dusty issue after another out of a cardboard box marked "1971" in big red letters, carefully unfolding them to their extra-wide width and then pouring over every page. 

Sure, it’s easy to have a chuckle over the dated photography and the casual sexism (“One of the people responsible for the food served at Lafayette Country Club, Minnetonka, is Kathryn Stewart, the chef. That’s right, fellows. The chef is a woman at one of the best eating country clubs in town.”). But the section was both ahead of its time and competely of its time, and of this place. That's not easy to do.

For example, I loved how when celebrities blew through town -- actor Victor Jory, figure skater Peggy Fleming and Blinko, a clown with the Shrine Circus -- or when she encountered a fascinating local luminary -- beauty magnate Horst Rechelbacher, radio personality Steve Cannon -- staffer Judith Bell offered up an entertaining profile and coaxed her subjects into sharing a recipe. Each one is a fabulous read.

“Cooking . . . it’s groovy,” is what Horst Rechelbacher said in a 1971 Taste profile. Staff writer Judith Bell added, "A timid cook, he isn’t! His lack of inhibitions in his profession, dress and life style carry forth in cooking, which he calls a hobby and a source of relaxation."

Assessing the 22-year-old Fleming, Bell wrote, “Although skating star Peggy Fleming is on tour 25 weeks a year, she is somewhat comforted to know her medical school husband isn’t starving to death. Other medical school wives at the U of T in Dallas feel sorry for Greg Jenkins and invite him for dinner, she said in a telephone interview. The rest of the time, Peggy Fleming Jenkins does the cooking - and the dishes. She admits eating on tour “is kind of spoiling me. I just put the tray outside the hotel room door. I don’t have to do the dishes. When I go home, I can’t get in the mood.”

The headline read, "Peggy Fleming cuts a neat figure 'ate'," and Fleming shared her mother's recipe for banana bread. I tried it last night. It's delicious.

Another favorite: Blinko the clown. The profile, while short and sweet, isn't what grabbed my attention. It's the recipe, and the accompanying photograph. The former is so unexpected: Oxtails, braised in red wine. From a clown? It also uses a kitchen tool that feels straight out of the Stone Age, the pressure cooker (it's not just me, either; I asked Taste editor Lee Svitak Dean if she could recall the last time she dropped a pressure cooker recipe into the newspaper, and, after considering it for a moment, thought that it was around the time her son was born, which would be the mid-1980s). Here's what Bell wrote:

"Blinko travels with a pressure cooker packed full of poppy seeds and spices. Once he and his circus performing wife, Maran, are settled into an apartment with kitchenette, out comes the pressure cooker and off to the store goes Blinko [Bell doesn't say whether he hits the Piggly Wiggly in his work uniform, or shops as plain-old Ernie Burch]. The clowning cook said, in all seriousness, that his wife who is of Hungarian descent taught him how to cook and now that he does it well, she lets him be the chief cook and clown."  

The photo is priceless. Despite a rather protracted search, I was unable to find the original in the Strib's endless archives, so I grabbed my point-and-shoot and crossed my fingers. The quality isn't great, but you get the picture, right?

Blinko, his wife Maran, and their much-used pressure cooker. Photo by Minneapolis Star photographer Charles Bjorgen.

Finally, I was captivated by Bell's profile of Mrs. Walter Hauser, wife of the local German consul (unlike many stories of the day, Mrs. Hauser's first name, Irene, is revealed in the story's last sentence; most married women's first names were not published). Bell does a lovely job of capturing Mrs. Hauser's enthusiasm for cooking and entertaining, but what really grabbed me was the recipe: A molded tuna salad, heavy on the gelatin. She called it, "Mrs. Gale's Tuna Salad."

Bell writes: "Mrs. Robert Gale is credited with the following tuna salad, about which Mrs. Hauser said, 'We used to visit them and have this down on the beach on the French River near where it flows into Lake Superior. It's wonderful for a picnic.'"

It's the kind of recipe that I imagine my grandmother Gay (or, in the language of the day, Mrs. Arthur Olsen), like so many thousands of other Taste readers, clipping out and trying, perhaps for guests gathered at my grandparents' cabin on Sugar Lake in Maple Lake, Minn. Who knows? I might not have read about it, but I just might have tasted it. 

BANANA BREAD

Makes 1 8-inch loaf.

Note: From Ice Follies star Peggy Fleming, from the March 10, 1971 edition of Taste.

2 c. flour

½ tsp. baking powder

½ tsp. baking soda

¼ c. (1/2 stick) butter, at room temperature, plus extra for pan

1 c. sugar

1 egg, beaten

2 large, ripe bananas, mashed

3 tbsp. sour cream

1 c. chopped walnuts or pecans, optional

Directions

Preheat oven to 350 degrees and butter bottom and sides of an 8-inch loaf pan. In a large bowl, whisk together flour, baking powder and baking soda and reserve. In a large bowl of an electric mixer on medium-high speed, beat butter and gradually add sugar until creamy, about 2 minutes. Egg egg and bananas and mix until thoroughly combined. Reduce speed to low and add flour mixture in 2 parts, alternating with sour cream. Stir in nuts. Pour batter into prepared pan and bake about 50 to 60 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into center of loaf comes out clean. Remove from oven to a wire rack and cool about 20 minutes. Invert pan to remove loaf from pan and cool on a wire rack. Serve spread with butter or iced with a buttercream icing along with chilled mixed fresh fruit.

HUNGARIAN OXTAIL RAGOUT

Serves 4 to 6.

Note: This recipe must be prepared in advance. From Ernie Burch (aka the Shrine Circus’ Blinko the Clown), from the Feb. 24, 1971 edition of Taste.

2 ½ to 3 lbs. disjointed oxtails

1 c. red wine

1 c. water

1 onion, chopped

7 carrots, chopped, divided

2 tsp. salt

½ tsp. freshly ground black pepper

¼ tsp. poultry seasoning 1 tbsp. paprika

4 celery stalks, chopped

¾ c. flour

2 tbsp. shortening 1

package wide noodles

1 tbsp. butter

1 tsp. poppy seeds

Directions

In a pan, combine wine, water, onion, 1 chopped carrot, salt, pepper, poultry seasoning, paprika and celery. Arrange oxtails in marinade, cover, refrigerate and marinate at least 12 hours, occasionally turning oxtails. When ready to prepare, remove oxtails from marinade, reserving marinade. Pat dry with a paper towel and roll them in flour. In a pressure cooker over medium heat, melt shortening. Working in batches, brown oxtails on all sides. Return all browned oxtails to pressure cooker. Pour marinade over meat, close pressure cooker and return to stove over high heat. When air escapes from air vent, place weight on air vent. Cook and steam at cook position for 45 minutes. Remove lid and add 6 remaining chopped carrots. Return lid, tighten and cook carrots under pressure, with oxtails, for 4 to 5 minutes. Remove pressure cooker from stove and cool by running under cold water. Remove lid. Let oxtails cool until fat rises to top; skim off fat. Return cooker, uncovered, to stove over medium heat and reheat raguout. Stir in a small amount of flour, if desired. Cook wide noodles according to package instructions. Drain, return to pot and stir in butter and poppy seeds. Transfer noodles to a large platter. Place ragout on top of noodles and serve with sweet-sour red cabbage, hot rolls and lime gelatin or sherbet for dessert.

MRS. GALE’S TUNA SALAD

Serves 8.

Note: This molded salad must be prepared in advance. “This dish, accompanied by potato chips, hot rolls and a light dessert, makes a satisfying supper,” writes Taste staffer Judith Bell. From the July 21, 1971 edition of Taste.

3 tbsp. unflavored gelatin

½ c. cold water

3 c. boiling water

5 chicken bouillon cubes

1 lb. canned tuna

Juice of 1/8 lemon

1 c. chopped celery

½ tsp. grated onion

¼ c. chopped green pepper

1 ½ c. cooked rice

Directions

In a medium heatproof bowl, combine gelatin and cold water and let stand 5 minutes. Add boiling water and bouillon cubes, stir to dissolve cubes and reserve. Drain tuna and flake it into a large bowl. Squeeze lemon juice over tuna. Add celery, onion, green pepper and rice and gently toss to combine. When bouillon mixture begins to thicken, add to tuna mixture, stir to combine and transfer mixture to a mold (or molds). Cover and refrigerate for at least 3 hours. When ready to serve, turn salad mold (or molds) onto a platter (or plates) garnished with lettuce. Sprinkle 1 tablespoon French dressing over salad. Surround with deviled eggs and tomato slices and serve with mayonnaise.