Bake our dreams come true
July 6, 2011 9:49 PM   Subscribe

Ever wanted to eat those nachos in the gas station but been too scared? This recipe for Filling Station Nachos will help you out. Thanks to the Milwaukee Public Library's Historic Recipe File you can make that dish, Three Hole Cake or a Milwaukee Man's Crepe. A "fascinating glimpse into the local and ethnic foods that were popular in Milwaukee from as long as 50 years ago." Making Taters Polish Pride or President Washington's Rice Waffles With Honey-Maple Syrup might take you a while. And while there are no bees in Bee Cake, the Barbecued Coon is a different story. [via]
posted by rakim (22 comments total) 24 users marked this as a favorite
 
You can't use real cheese if you want decent filling station nachos. Use "made with real cheese" waxy food product instead. This took me years to learn.
posted by queensissy at 9:55 PM on July 6, 2011 [1 favorite]


Beef à la mode
posted by zippy at 10:02 PM on July 6, 2011


Mercifully, the mode for beef is different from the mode for pie.
posted by asperity at 10:06 PM on July 6, 2011


Those nachos don't sound like filling station nachos at all. In fact they sound like "spend your savings on anything else today" nachos from school hot lunches. Blech!
posted by circular at 10:06 PM on July 6, 2011 [2 favorites]


On closer inspection, though, the Beef à la mode recipe does include ingredients I associate with ice cream. Like a cup of pistachios sprinkled over the top of the meat.
posted by asperity at 10:08 PM on July 6, 2011


Badger cake
posted by zippy at 10:17 PM on July 6, 2011


Fish Dip Party!
posted by substars at 10:22 PM on July 6, 2011 [1 favorite]


Ha, both badger cake and barbecued raccoon ring true: I remember looking through my grandma's recipes (she was also from Milwaukee) and finding opossum among the ingredients for one dish!
posted by Phatty Lumpkin at 10:25 PM on July 6, 2011 [1 favorite]


(Though I guess badger cake contains no actual badgers.)
posted by Phatty Lumpkin at 10:26 PM on July 6, 2011


Wow - I'm getting flashbacks.

I was born and raised in Milwaukee, my grandparents (whom I loved with) subscribed to the Milwaukee Journal, and I remember Grandma having recipes cut out of a newspaper. I can't remember any specific dishes she made, but I'm sure she gave some of these recipes a whirl. (I could totally see her attempting the Bee Cake.)
posted by spinifex23 at 10:27 PM on July 6, 2011 [1 favorite]


Also, having grown up in Milwaukee, it's hard to imagine people making Bulgogi there in 1977. Sweet.

(googling "bull gokey" makes me think this is maybe the only time it has ever been called that)
posted by substars at 10:36 PM on July 6, 2011


chicken Booyah!
posted by zippy at 10:47 PM on July 6, 2011 [1 favorite]


Also, Moose Stroganoff
posted by zippy at 10:59 PM on July 6, 2011


I am having a really hard time parsing "Milwaukee Man's Crepe." Is it a Milwaukee-style crepe for a man? A crepe for a man from Milwaukee? The recipe itself offers no hints. It has the hint of a ghastly euphemism, a quality it shares with many of the other titles.
posted by GenjiandProust at 2:55 AM on July 7, 2011 [1 favorite]


I think it's more likely that the nacho recipe is from a restaurant called "The Filling Station" rather than it being for gas station-like nachos.
posted by FreezBoy at 5:01 AM on July 7, 2011 [1 favorite]


Three hole cake is a fantastic recipe that anyone can make and not screw up. I am positive a version of it appeared in Peg Bracken's I Hate to Cook Book.
posted by wittgenstein at 5:14 AM on July 7, 2011


6 recipes from Karl Ratzsch's and 4 from Maders. Nice find.
posted by klarck at 6:08 AM on July 7, 2011 [1 favorite]


Okay, so for the 'Three Hole Cake', the three holes in reference are divots you make in the pile of the mixed dry ingredients. Then you put the wet ingredients into the divots (one ingredient per divot). Then you pour the water in and mix it all up, and just cook it like a normal cake. Is there some baking-secret reason for that method, or is it just some random shit they threw in so they wouldn't have to name the recipe 'Boring Regular Cake'? It seems like they could have replaced the 'make three divots' part with 'trace in the dry ingredients the Enochian script calling the name of Uriel' and then called it 'Angelfood Cake'.
posted by FatherDagon at 7:45 AM on July 7, 2011 [1 favorite]


It seems like they could have replaced the 'make three divots' part with 'trace in the dry ingredients the Enochian script calling the name of Uriel'

As a general rule, we don't summon anything in Milwaukee anymore. Not since the the dark times. Not since Sector 21.
posted by quin at 9:18 AM on July 7, 2011 [1 favorite]


When I've made 'Three Hole Cake' it has turned out different than 'Regular Cake' - it's a little moister and looser, less toothsome. It's yummy but tastes a little more 'store bought' than I like in my homemade cakes.

There is totally a reason that 'Regular Cakes' require you to do dry and wet ingredients separately and then mix them alternating with milk. I think the oil in the 'Three Hole Cake' would cut down on the dry ingredients clumping up, but at a cost of making it lighter. Anyway, I'm pretty sure that On Food and Cooking (aka the bible) explains why to alternate. Or maybe America's Test Kitchen.
posted by hydrobatidae at 9:40 AM on July 7, 2011


Three Hole Cake also happens to be popular among vegans and vegetarians. I make it with King Arthur white whole wheat flour, slather it with a ganache made with Silk creamer and Scharffen Berger chocolate, and nobody is any the wiser. Also, it tastes better if allowed to sit covered overnight. The cake seems moister and tastes less of flour and leavening that way.
posted by jocelmeow at 9:56 AM on July 7, 2011


Actual gas station nachos are a delight, and aren't anything like that Filling Station Nachos recipe, I'm sad to say. There's no meat on gas station nachos, for one thing. They aren't made with real cheddar cheese, for another.

Velveeta would probably be your best bet. Or that nacho cheese sauce that comes in a jar. You also need to find tortilla chips which are (mysteriously; unaccountably) round.

For real veracity, figure out a way to dispense it from a pump mechanism.

Finally: add a sprinkle of canned jalapeno slices. Serve with many napkins, all of which are nearly transparent and entirely too small.
posted by ErikaB at 6:42 PM on July 7, 2011


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