When I walked into the estate sale, I saw the cookbooks–well-worn, penciled notes in margins, mostly French…and tucked in between them, a tiny spine “Escoffier’s Basic Elements of Fine Cookery” circa 1941. What a cook I had found! I imagined her maneuvering in this tiny kitchen, a GirlCook doesn’t need much space to make magic. The kitchen was barren, but the basement held the treasure trove of her world.

Cordoned off in the basement was an area that held at least a hundred wine bottles, some of them carefully wrapped in brittle white tissue paper. And then the cookware: copper skillets, enamel pans, souffle dishes of every size, whisks…everything a cook could imagine. But the best was nestled away, covered with telltale baked-on butter–a 5-pound hunk of metal shaped into 18 thick, deep muffin cups, an old popover tray.

I took it home, soaked it and sat to look at the cookbooks the way I always do, page-by-page, looking for clues to the cooks whose well-worn treasures I now care for. These cookbooks surely inspired many a feast. A yellowed newspaper clipping told the tale, this wasn’t a GirlCook at all; he was a doctor and amateur chef, a member of the Buffalo Food and Wine Society.

This ManCook, no doubt, wowed many using this popover pan and with a silent thank you to this cook I had never known, I made Edna Lewis’ popovers on New Year’s Eve this year. Escoffier didn’t write about popovers, but he’d have loved Edna’s, all buttery–spongy and crispy all at once and served hot from the oven with Bobby’s famous standing rib roast. Edna’s recipes are filled with anecdotes, tips and the ease of a GirlCook whose skill in the kitchen is part gift, part practice and very much the result of generations of gifted cooks living in small towns where women collectives improved everyone’s game. A ManCook and a Southern Girl pass along the love…

From Edna Lewis, one of my very favorite GirlCooks
“In Pursuit of Flavor”

Edna writes:

“Popovers are easy to make and I find that when I put them in a basket with other muffins and breads, they are the first to go. You may mix the batter the night before but if you do not, let it rest for at least an hour before baking or the popoves will not puff up. It is also important to serve them right away while they are piping hot. The only trick to baking them is not to open the oven door for 20 minutes–they need the time to expand until there is nothing left inside. When done, they look like big mushrooms.”

12 popovers

2 cups sifted unbleached all-purpose flour
(measured after sifting)
1/2 tsp. salt
3 eggs
2 cups milk (I know 2%, 1% are all popular, but I used good old fashioned whole milk here, note from GirlCook, not Edna, although she’d likely have said the same!)
Unsalted butter

Two 6-cup muffin tins or twelve 4-ounce Pyrex cups (or a great big popover pan in you’re lucky enough to have one)

Preheat oven to 375 degrees

Put the flour and salt in a mixing bowl and mix well. Beat the eggs lightly with a fork. Pour the milk into the eggs and mix well. Now pour the milk mixture slowly into the flour, stirring constantly. Cover lightly with a cloth and let rest for an hour or more before baking. Lighly grease 12 muffin tins or Pyrex cups with unsalted butter. Heat the pans or cups without burning the butter, and then pour in 1/3 cup of batter. Set the filled pans in preheated oven for 25 minutes. Do not open the over for 20 minutes. Otherwise, the popovers will collapse and be ruined. To obtain hollow, dry popovers, this rule has to be observed. They should be perfectly baked in 25 minutes. Serve hot from the oven.

Note: 1/2 cut of whole wheat flour can be substituted for the same amount of white flour.

GirlCook note: my popovers took a good 10 minutes longer because I was at another kitchen that did not have an oven thermometer and the temp was off. An oven thermometer: a GirlCook’s best friend!

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