A holiday feast for Taste readers

Last update: November 11, 2009 - 5:53 PM

The Taste staff went into overdrive in mid-November 1972, producing a 40-page extravaganza they dubbed "Homemade Holidays." The two-section behemoth gave readers a single source for cooking, entertaining and gift-making ideas that more than covered the Thanksgiving-to-New Year's bases.

Nearly 100 recipes were featured, including four cheese spreads, five marmalades, three pumpkin pies, seven punches, four flavored coffees, two gravies, four stuffings, five fruit cakes and step-by-step guides to baking stollen, julekage, a Ukrainian braided bread and kransekkar, the towering Norwegian almond wreath cake. Tips for roasting duck, turkey and goose were also outlined, and recipes for five festive candies and a handful of cookies also made the cut.

There were instructions on making wreaths (using marzipan or dried pasta) and Christmas tree-shaped table centerpieces (utilizing dried beans), plus a primer on shipping perishables to overseas military personnel.

Hamburger Helper (it had debuted, big time, the previous year) was clearly on the minds of the Taste team, which devised do-it-yourself versions of the supermarket sensation (find the recipes at startribune.com/tabletalk) that could also do double duty as gifts. Another idea: whipping up an entire dinner party -- chipped beef spread, seafood Newburg, rice pilaf and chocolate cream pie -- and then freezing it (no suggestions on how to wrap it, however).

But because the holidays seem to connote a certain sense of abundance, the standout story put the spotlight on the joys of chicken liver pâté. 'Tis the season, right?

"Liver pâté is seen at all the best parties, dahling," wrote Taste editor Beverly Kees. "What makes it special is not that great culinary skill is needed but that few people bother to make it. It's a particularly elegant gift when offered in an oval terrine."

Don't forget the ribbon.

RICK NELSON