Home Cook Recreates A Vincent Price Recipe From 1969, Shrinks A Chocolate Mousse Down To One Egg, Then Realizes The Camera Missed The Mousse Steps

A home cook set out to recreate a full three-course dinner from a 1969 Vincent Price cookbook. She shrank the chocolate mousse down to a single egg, and then came the groan. The camera missed the mousse steps, because she forgot to hit record after she started melting the chocolate.

The cook behind @cooking_the_books is working from Come to the Kitchen, a cookbook by Mary and Vincent Price. Most people know Vincent Price from his film and voiceover work, she says, including more than 100 films and a famously spooky voice, but he had a multifaceted life.

The Menu: Green Goddess Salad, Chili Pie And A Mousse For One

Mary and Vincent were both big art collectors, and they loved to cook so much that they wrote several cookbooks. This one was published in 1969.

Her plan was a green goddess salad, a chili pie and chocolate mousse. She started with the dressing so it would get some fridge time.

She cut the recipe in half and blended it in a small food processor with a quarter cup of mayonnaise, two tablespoons of sour cream, lemon juice, garlic, a quarter cup of fresh parsley and a half tablespoon of anchovy paste.

Tarragon Vinegar Was Nowhere To Be Found, So She Made Her Own

The recipe called for tarragon vinegar, and she could not find it anywhere. So she soaked dry tarragon in white wine vinegar overnight and strained it.

The anchovy paste was a hunt too. Her usual store did not carry it, so she went to a higher-end local grocery. Anchovies, she points out, are in a lot of Caesar dressings.

“Why Can’t I Do That?” She Cut The Mousse Down To One Egg

The full mousse recipe makes four servings and uses three ounces of chocolate, three eggs and a teaspoon of vanilla extract. She asked herself why she could not use one ounce of chocolate, one egg and a drop of vanilla instead.

“This is going to be an experiment,” she says. She wanted a smaller mousse and was not sure it would work.

She planned to melt the chocolate in the microwave instead of over a double boiler. And that is where the trouble started.

“I Have Some Bad News,” She Forgot To Hit Record On The Mousse

“I have some bad news. I forgot to hit record after I started melting the chocolate.” She says she did not have it in her to make the whole process over again.

So the mousse steps never made it onto the video. Everything else in the dinner did. What the camera did catch was the finished product, which filled one little custard cup. “I’m so sorry that I don’t have the whole process to show you.”

The Chili Pie Called For Just Half A Teaspoon Of Chili Powder

For the main dish she chose a chili pie, which sounded hearty and fall-leaning to her. It calls for a nine-inch pie plate, but she used a deeper eight-inch casserole because she liked it.

She preheated the oven to 450 degrees and browned a pound of 80/20 ground beef with a chopped onion. She added a cup of rinsed canned red beans, half a teaspoon of chili powder, half a teaspoon of salt, a dash of Crystal hot sauce in place of Tabasco, and an eight-ounce can of tomato sauce. It simmered for 15 minutes.

The topping is cornbread. The recipe asks for an eight- to ten-ounce package of cornbread mix, and she used Jiffy with one egg and a third of a cup of milk. For maximum crown, the recipe says to let the batter rest three to four minutes.

Her Cornbread Finished In 15 Minutes, Not 20

She dropped small dollops of batter on top so she would not pull up any chili. The recipe says to bake at 450 degrees for 20 minutes, but she baked it for 15 and says the cornbread was done. Longer, she says, would have made it browner than she wanted.

The book says to invert the pie onto a platter. She declined. “The chili is just going to go everywhere,” she says, adding with a laugh, “We disagree, Vincent.”

The Verdict: A Zesty Dressing, A Mild Chili And A Fussy Mousse

The dressing thickened slightly after about two and a half hours in the fridge. She says the lemon came through, with a savory undertone from the anchovy paste. If it tastes too strong, she suggests backing off the amount but keeping some in. It mellowed even more by the next day.

The chili pie was very good together, she says, and came out super warm and comforting. Her one complaint was that the mixture needed more chili powder. She suggests seasoning it up or using your favorite chili with no beans, topped with Jiffy batter. She liked the small red beans and would use them again.

Then came the mousse she never filmed. It was not as fluffy as she expected and reminded her of a French silk pie. It tasted quite good, she says, but it is fussy for one person because you have to whip the egg whites separately and use several bowls.

When she compared it with other mousse recipes, she noticed many of them include cream and this one did not. It was just chocolate, egg and vanilla. Next time, she says, she would make the full recipe. She compares the texture to chocolate mousse cups from Costco.

The Plate Coincidence That Made Her Laugh

While going through her cooking footage, she noticed something funny. She had plated the chili pie on a Price’s Steakhouse plate that she bought in high school at a second-hand shop for five or ten cents.

She did not do it on purpose. “The power of Vincent Price compels me,” she jokes.

A Signed 1969 Cookbook With Jigsaw Puzzle Style Art

She got her copy at a library sale a few years ago, and it is signed by Mary Price. The illustrations are by Charles Wysocki, an artist whose work her mother loved on jigsaw puzzles.

The recipes cover American dishes across four centuries, and the influences of indigenous people and immigrants who settled the country. There is also a section on wine, covering pairings and making it, and photographs of famous kitchens in museums and historic homes, including a Kansas farmhouse in Topeka.

She worried the recipes would be fancy because Price wore an ascot, but says quite a few were down to earth with easy ingredients. She notes that Vincent Price also had a cooking show of his own.

Tips For Cooking From A Vintage Cookbook

Scale down carefully. A shrunken mousse worked, but it was still fussy and, she says, she would make the full recipe next time.
Season to taste. Older recipes, she says, often go light on chili powder, so adjust.
Follow your mix’s directions. Her cornbread was done in 15 minutes at 450 degrees, not 20.
Make dressing ahead. The green goddess improved as it sat.
Press record first. A cooking video needs the camera running before the chocolate melts.

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