Cooking for a Crowd

[Ambergris]

Stuff On a Shingle

 

Friend of mine finally took enough notes on her great SOS dish to let me put it in recipe form. Try this:

 

Get a pot that will hold two and a half gallons comfortably

 

1.25 to 1.5 lbs lentils

7-8 lbs ground meat, at least half of it red meat

3-6 onions, however many you have the patience to chop pretty fine

Salt, however much you like, with whatever hamburger seasoning you use

3 cups of flour, more or less, or however much 3/4 pound grinds to

1 gallon hot water

unsliced light bread

 

Cook the lentils in water (two parts of water to one part of lentils) for half an hour. Drain and set aside.

Fry down the meat and onions, salting them as you stir. If you don't have a fishcooker or a really big frying pan, this takes a while. Either cook the meat in batches or cook the lentils a day ahead and cook the meat in your big pot.

Drain the lentils but leave the grease in the meat.

If you're cooking ahead, this is the time to refrigerate everything.

Take meat off the fire (or bring it gently up to heat if you cooked it yesterday) and stir in flour. Bring a gallon of water to a simmer in your big pot. Put lentils and meat mix in the water, and cut the heat until it barely keeps the flies off. Stir occasionally.

 

Get enough light bread or French bread to feed everybody. Cut it lengthwise, then again crosswise to establish portions. Butter and toast it until quite crunchy. By the time you're done, the meat mix should be nice and thick and that raw-flour taste should be gone. Ladle meat over the bread and serve. Serving the bread hot is nice but not essential.

 

This will serve sixty at a fire or a hundred at a reunion.