The National Infantry Museum cookbook, “Culinary Treasures for the Queen of Battle,” features 780 recipes from 276 contributors, mostly retired and active soldiers’ families.
Eva Chappelle was the chair of the cookbook committee, with her mother, Eva Ulrich as the honorary chair.
Chappelle said as committee chair she complied all of the recipes, wrote the introductions for many of them and contributed many of the photographs. The editing of the cookbook was done by Wendy Wecht Harding.
“The recipes came from soldiers, both active and retired, spouses and community people from Georgia, Texas, New York, Florida, Michigan, Virginia, South Carolina, North Carolina and Tennessee,” she said.
Some recipes were submitted from soldiers and their families stationed overseas.
Chappelle received more than 1,000 email submissions.
She didn’t test all of the recipes included in the book but she’s confident that they have been tested many times by the families who submitted them.
“Since these are family recipes, they are tried and true,” Chappelle siad. “I know they are good.”
Lora Davis Warren, the museum’s director of volunteer services, is proud of how quickly the cookbook was completed.
“A cookbook usually takes two years to do,” she said. “It took four 1/2 months.”
Carolyn Kirk and her husband, Lt. Col. Daniel Kirk, contributed recipes for the book including her husband’s grandmother’s banana pudding recipe.
Beverly Hendricks, who lives in Manchester, contributed recipes for German bread dumpling, macaroni salad and her mother’s lemon pie.
Daughters of the U.S. Army members, who are daughters of officers, were heavily involved in the cookbook’s creation. Hendricks’ father, O.O. McDaniels, was once the Inspector General of Fort Benning.
“The cookbook is dedicated for friends and family, and it’s a worthy project,” Hendricks said.
The cookbook costs $30 and is sold at the National Infantry Museum’s gift shop. Proceeds will be used to support National Infantry Museum operations.
The cookbook is broken into chapters for appetizers and beverages; breads and rolls; soups, salads and sauces; vegetables and side dishes; main dishes; desserts; sweets and treats; traditions and “The Mess Kit” and local restaurant and merchant recipes.
Chappelle said she had the most fun with the traditions and the mess kit recipes.
“My favorite was the S.O.S. recipe,” she said. “That’s one of my favorite foods. It’s really chipped creamed beef over toast.”
Every service branch had its own version of S.O.S. (the true name of the dish cannot be used in polite company, she said).
S.O.S.
1½ pound ground beef
1 medium onion, finely chopped
cooking oil
½ cup flour
¼ teaspoon pepper
½ teaspoon salt
2 tablespoons or 2 cubes beef-flavored instant bouillon
3½ cups milk
1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce (optional)
Heat a skillet with a bit of cooking oil. Sauté the onion and then add the beef. Brown the beef, then drain excess fat. Add flour, salt, pepper and bouillon. Mix thoroughly, continually stirring about five minutes until the flour is absorbed. Add milk to the beef mixture. Heat to a simmer and stir until thickened. You may add the Worcestershire sauce with the milk if you desire.
Serve over toast or biscuits.
-- Eva Chappelle, cookbook chair
CHEESE PUFFS
½ cup butter
¼ pound shredded cheese
1 three-ounce package cream cheese
1 loaf unsliced bread
2 egg whites, beaten
Melt butter and cheeses over hot water. Cut bread into 1-inch square cubes. When the cheese is melted, stir to combine and fold in egg whites. Dip bread cubes into the cheese mixture. Place on a tray; covered with wax paper. Put in the freezer.
When frozen, remove and put in a plastic bag and store in the freezer.
To serve, place on a baking sheet and bake at 400 degrees for 8-10 minutes or until puffs begin to brown.
-- Coy Threlfall Clasen, Army dietician in the 1940s
EMMETT’S FESTIVE ARMY PUNCH
½ gallon bourbon
8 cups cranberry cocktail
3 cups lemon juice (fresh-squeezed or frozen is best)
8 24-ounce bottles of regular Sprite (not diet)
Ice ring
Place the ice ring in the punch bowl. Add the other ingredients in order. Garnish with fruit.
-- Emmett Reynolds
