Tallahassee Democrat from Tallahassee, Florida • 37

Food News Thursday, September 28, 1978 Cook's specialties Southern delights r-V if f1 i iff 1 rtr it-- or mi 11 ii amMi iiiiiiiiuiiii i.i flhuat urTMtii 11111 nrirrm n. i i in i iinniiifilliMrliin.iiini 'I ir" Utim nil- Tirni Maureen Panus on a wagon outfitted for such occasions. Breakfasts mainly were served on trays taken up to the bedrooms at Horseshoe, Mrs. Hunter said, and she was on call the entire morning to prepare each tray with the requested foods. Dinner was a formal meal in the plantation dining room.

Hunter always wore a highly starched white shirt, blue pants and a black tie. There usually were about 10 people for dinner, Mrs. Hunter said, but the namecards changed frequently. "As fast as one (a northern visitor) left, another one came," Mrs. Hunter said.

She didn't meet all of them, but certain visitors stand out in her mind. The Duke and Duchess of Windsor were guests three or four times, Mrs. Hunter recalled. The Duchess once complained to Mrs. Hunter not about her cooking, but about the three pounds the Duchess had gained while staying at the plantation-Other guests included Lord Dudley and Lady Russell of Great Britain, Mr.

and Mrs. Harold Talbot (then secretary of the Air Force), and railroad magnate Robert R. Young. Bing Crosby visited Horseshoe after the Hunters had retired. The Hunters' workload was seasonal.

It was a hectic three winter months with Mrs. Hunter in the kitchen all day every day, and Hunter supervising an enlarged household staff. The rest of the year, the couple maintained the plantation house with Mrs. Hunter traveling there to clean about three times a week. "I set the house up," Mrs.

Hunter said. "Mrs. Baker didn't even know how I did it." Until last year, Mrs. Hunter's indoor plants still graced the interior of the plantation house. Now she has them at her home, and she wonders where she'll put them this winter.

Mrs. Hunter left her all-electric kitchen for 10 days last year when she returned to Horseshoe to cook for George Baker IV and his guests. His regular cook was sick, and he yearned for Mrs. Hunter's cooking anyway. Mrs.

Hunter said she was "really lost for awhile" in the plantation kitchen because the two wood-burning stoves she had used during her years there had been replaced by a gas oven. Mrs. Hunter said she always was comfortable using the old-fashioned stoves; she had an intuitive feeling for how hot the stoves were and how long to cook a dish. But when she wrote her cookbook, she managed to assign temperatures for each recipe. Here are some recipes typical of those Mrs.

Hunter prepared at Horseshoe Plantation. Horseshoe eggs 1 dozen eggs 6 Tbsp. mayonnaise 4 Tbsp. A-l Sauce 2'i Tbsp. prepared mustard 3 Tbsp.

Worcestershire sauce 1 Tbsp. butter A little cayenne, salt and pepper cup grated American cheese Cook eggs until well done, boiling 15-20 minutes. Mash peeled eggs through a ricer, saving several of the whites. Place enough quartered whites in a buttered baking dish to cover the bottom. (Please see COOK, page 2E) Old-time cooking By LORRIE GUTTMAN Democrat Food editor When Flora Mae Hunter retired in 1968 after 36 years as cook at Tallahassee's Horseshoe Plantation, she wanted to write a cookbook.

But before she could compile her recipes, Mrs. Hunter had to decide just what they were. She seldom had used a written recipe in those many years of serving Southern food to the wealthy and distinguished. Usually, Mrs. Hunter prepared dishes the way her mother had taught her.

Her mother also had been a plan- tation cook. And sometimes Mrs. Hunter made up recipes, such as "Horseshoe Eggs." That was the result of a request from her employer, Edith Baker, for deviled eggs, a dish Mrs. Hunter never had made. Mrs.

Hunter created the recipe with the eggs she had available, which wouldn't have made enough individual servings for all the guests. She prepared a spicy egg casserole dish topped with grated cheese. Mrs. Hunter said George Baker, owner of Horseshoe Plantation, gave her a recipe for rice cakes and asked her to serve them, one of the few times the cook followed a recipe. But she eventually added her own touches to the rice cakes, which can be served for breakfast or as a dessert.

The 66-year-old retired cook hopes to find a publisher for "Flora Mae's Plain and Fancy Plantation Cooking" but has had no luck so far. She said she didn't have the money to pay for the printing herself. She and her husband, Peter, live in a neatly cluttered brick home on Thomasville Road on four acres of land next to Horseshoe Plantation, 13 miles north of Tallahassee. There Mrs. Hunter is happy just cooking meals for two and preserving all sorts of fruits and vegetables.

Hunter, 77, was the plantation's butler for 56 years. In that job, he was his wife's immediate supervisor with the responsibility of running the household and choosing menus. Mrs. Hunter said she was glad to have a boss she knew so well. Baker, millionaire president of the City Bank of New York, hired Mrs.

Hunter in 1933 after he sampled her cooking while she was helping in the plantation kitchen. He declared it to be the best he'd ever eaten in the South and said he wouldn't have to bring a cook along with him the following year when he arrived on his private railroad car. Baker, who died in 1937, kept the plantation as a winter retreat, spending only three months a year here. The Bakers and their many guests would begin arriving about Dec. 5, Mrs.

Hunter recalled, and they generally would stay until early March. Those dates coincided with the quail season. Quail hunting was a daily sport for the Bakers and their company. They would spend the day in the field, having lunch at a prearranged spot. But it wasn't what one could call a typical picnic.

It was a meal served at a linen-covered table set with china, silver and crystal. Wine was a standard part of field lunches. Hunter, not his wife, was the cook in the field, where he often pan-roasted quail that had been dressed a few days earlier by his wife. She would prepare the rest of the meal and send it along Flora Mae Hunter and her husband, Peter, relax at their Thomasville Road home, top. She was the cook and he was a butler at Tallahassee's Horseshoe Plantation for years.

Mrs. Hunter first had to write down recipes she used at the plantation after she retired because she never used written recipes in her cooking. She's trying to publish a cookbook. Mrs. Hunter and Rosa Lee Grimes shown in plantation kitchen about 20 years ago, bottom.

'I flj 1. 'ti'KItf it 1 r--V'- 1 'j 1 (Mi I v-. 1 i 'AM fr Dieting can make people lose sanity, not weight Clieraskin's food-mood theory of "psychodietetics" maintains that food is the key to emotional health what one eats affects mental illness, emotional stability, marital happiness and professional success. The theory holds frightening consequences, the physician said. "Your knife and fork can be your best defense weapon against illness, whether emotional or physical," Cheraskin said.

"The American diet leaves much to be desired. It definitely influences our mood and behavior." Sugar and salt, the physician said, are two of the greatest offenders in the American diet. Almost everyone eats too much of both. "the average American is getting about a teaspoon of sugar every 30 to 40 minutes around the clock," he said. In addition, studies by the U.S.

Department of Agriculture indicate that most people are getting too little vitamin vitamin A and calcium, he said. When the inadequacies of the "normal" American diet are compounded by skipped meals or the restrictions of weight-loss diet plans, mood and behavior show the impact even more, he said. By CAROLYN KORTGE Knioht-Ridder win If you pine for a figure that's lithe and thin, and starve through diet after diet to find it, you may end up as mad as a hatter long before you get thin as a rail. According to nutrition researcher Dr. Emanual Cher-askin, dieting not only drives people crazy, it ruins marriages, careers and social lives.

"Even simple diets for weight reduction can change behavior," Cheraskin said. "One of the first things that happens when one goes on these diets is that one doesn't lose weight, one loses his marbles." Chairman of the Department of Oral Medicine at the University of Alabama Medical Center and co-author of the book, "Psychodietetics," Cheraskin is a medical doctor who takes the concept of "you are what you eat" a step or two further than most. "Traditionally, it has been assumed that we are what we eat physically," he said. "Common sense alone should dictate that we are what we eat emotionally and mentally, too, since the same blood runs through the brain as runs through the body." "When you miss a meal and your blood sugar drops, you are a different person. You are sharper tongued and more irritable.

"Some people walk around like that all the time. It's not because they were toilet trained badly as a child; it's because of a chemical imbalance." Because married couples often tend to have similar diets, both may develop chemical imbalances that affect marriage relationships, he said. "The American Institute for Family Relationships recognizes the bio-chemistry of interpersonal relationships to many married couples who are having difficulties (and recommends) that they have tests of blood sugar," he SHld Many couples who are at each other's throats frequently, he said, are walking around with low blood sugar. Ideally, Cheraskin would like to see massive changes in the way American food is grown, marketed and prepared. He urges people to eat more raw or little-cooked foods and to "throw out anything that comes in a package." Taking vitamins and minerals as a supplement is not a solution, he said, but it is a compromise that can help "vaccinate" the body against the effects of a nutrient-stripped diet and a hazardous environment.

"Vitamins and minerals are not an excuse to eat badly, but they are a partial solution to the problem," he said. Cheraskin's research has emphasized the significance of vitamin to human functioning. Among its many biophysical benefits, he said, is that it attracts lead, helping eliminate from the body the excessive quantities of lead Americans inhale daily on freeways and city streets. Cheraskin also urges a practical approach to weight control. Any diet that restricts intake to fewer than about 2,000 calories a day, he said, invites mental illness and emotional problems by depriving the body of vitamins and minerals that are absolutely vital to good mental health.

"There are sensible ways of losing weight," he said. "A lot of it has to do with physical activity. "Crash diets usually do.n't work because people become so obnoxious they're almost thrown out of the house before they can lose any weight." Test your eating habits for proper diet Inside: A new feature starts today. To find out this week's best buys, please see page 2E. Several recipes that will help cooks have a good eye for potato recipes can be found on page3E.

October's public school lunch and breakfast menus are listed on page 6E. (lettuce, tomatoes, carrots, Yes No 22. Do you eat green or yellow vegetables less than twice a day? Yes No 23. Do you usually avoid citrus fruits or juices? Yes No 24. Do you usually avoid other types of fresh raw fruits or juices? Yes No 25.

Do you usually omit vitamin or mineral supplements daily? Yes No Add up the yes answers and multiply by four. Your score will be somewhere between 0 and 100. The closer to 1 you score, the better the diet. On the other hand, as your score climbs, your proneness to mental illness Yes No 2. Is your appetite frequently poor? Yes No 3.

Do you usually skip one or more meals a day? Yes No 4. Do you frequently consume sweet foods or drink between meals? Yes No 5. Do you often feel shaky or weak if you do not eat' on time? Yes No 6. Do you usually drink some form of alcoholic beverage (whiskey, beer, wine) daily? Yes No 7. Do you usually drink coffee or tea more than three times a day? Yes No 8.

Do you usually eat one or more Knight-Ridder wire How do most Americans eat? By all reports, badly and inconsistently. Meal skipping is on the rise with 8 to 15 percent of most age groups not eating lunch (in the late teens and early 20s, 20 percent). Every fourth person skips breakfast, the most important meal of the day. The coffee-and-a-doughnut replacement is on the rise for all ages, at all income levels. Are you getting the 50 or more essential nutrients required for emotional health? Are your eating habits promoting mental stability by increasing your body's resistance to stress? To find out, answer yes or no to the following questions: 1.

Are you on a special diet (to lose weight, low salt, diabetic, low cholesterol, or because of food allergy? nuts, pancakes)? Yes No 15. Do you frequently eat ice cream, ice milk or canned or frozen fruits? Yes No 16. Do you usually add salt to your foods at the table? Yes No 17. Do you usually eat meat (such as beef, chicken, pork) less than twice a day? Yes No 18. Do you often omit eggs? Yes No 19.

Do you omit seafoods from your diet? Yes No 20. Do you usually avoid milk, cheese, butter? Yes No 21. Do you avoid raw vegetables desserts each day? Yes No 9. Do you usually use sugar in your coffee or tea? Yes No 10. Do you frequently use low calorie (dietetic, artificial sweetened) foods and drink or artificial sweeteners (like saccharin)? Yes No 11.

Do you consume regular soft drinks almost daily? Yes No 12. Do you eat starch foods frequently (macroni, bread, biscuits, breakfast cereals, cornbread)? Yes No 13. Do you frequently eat sweets (sugar, syrup, jams, jellies, candy)? Yes No 14. Do you frequently eat bakery products (cakes, pies, cookies, dough.