Food for thought: The Pomona College Cookbook

The Pomona College Cookbook includes recipes from Frary Dining Hall, where this Orozco mural of Prometheus stealing fire helped whet our appetites.

The alumni association of my college recently shared a pdf of the Pomona College Cookbook, prepared in commemoration of the school’s 100th anniversary in 1987. According to the introduction, “all recipes submitted were used, and each recipe was printed as submitted. The committee did not test the recipes, because we had such faith in the ‘good taste’ of Pomona’s cooks.”

The late lamented Ridiculous Food Society blog used to publish recipes gleaned from fundraising cookbooks prepared by women’s auxiliaries and similar groups, and we at Burnt My Fingers have a particular appreciation for the recipes in our tattered Phi Beta Phi cookbook. It’s like a treasure hunt exploring recipes that combine ingredients in unexpected ways, and we immediately recognized the Pomona College Cookbook as a gold mine. It includes recipes improvised in dorm rooms, copycats of dining hall favorites and not a few wise guy submissions such as the recommendation from my classmate Ed Krupp to sprinkle semisweet chocolate chips on anything to make it taste better.

Many of the submitters were recent alumni or parents of students at the time of publication, but others go back several generations. Here is a promising recipe from one of the older alums, class of 1914:

Baked Filet of Sole

2 lbs. sole
2 tsp. grated onion
½ tsp. salt
½ cup mayonnaise
3 Tbls. lemon juice
½ tsp. basil or herb seasoning
½ cup crushed cornflakes
2 tsp. chopped parsley
3 thin slices lemon
Paprika

Place sole in pyrex baking dish. Mix mayonnaise, onion, lemon juice, salt, and basil. Spread over fish. Sprinkle cornflakes and parsley on topping. If desired, lay lemon slices on top and dust each with paprika. Bake 40 minutes at 350 degrees.

Serves 4.

The sophisticated cook may serve this at an elegant dinner; a bachelor or house-husband may prepare it in ten minutes, knowing it will never fail.

Margaret Painter
Class of ‘14

We are eager to try this, along with the “Supper Nachos” (page 186) which reportedly were a dining hall favorite in the 1980s. Download the complete cookbook here.