#old brooklyn

[newyorkthegoldenage]

There's no crowd up there. Steeplechase Park, Coney Island, 1940s.

Photo: Brooklyn Daily Eagle/Urban Archive Instagram

[smlmsworld]

The hucksters, housewives, and pageant of humanity once on display at Paddy’s Market in Hell’s Kitchen

It began in the 1870s. On Saturday afternoons, wagons loaded with produce, meat, poultry, bread, and seafood would arrive at the center of a

I can imagine a similar scene in old Brooklyn. Hucksters were everywhere people lived.

Look at those two boys facing the camera! I see Bucky and Steve, tasked by Sarah to buy something for supper. Steve wasn't allowed to use the stove or knives, but he could shuck sweet corn, wash vegetables, and pop a piece of mutton neck in the ice box.

Kids were given freer access to the neighborhoods, discovering nationalities and ethnic groups that claimed entire blocks for such groups as Jews, Italians, Greeks, Blacks, Chinese, Irish, and more.

Such groups became rather territorial, and none were as territorial as kids. Steve got into many a scrap with local boys, which Bucky always bailed him out, but not before picking up his own share of cuts and bruises from broomsticks that also served as stickball bats.

Sadly, these enclaves are fast disappearing, along with the foods and customs that made them unique.

Make up your own Stucky story from this article's images!

♥♥♥

[ilovenycee]

[sagent-of-chaos]

B-

[thecoparoom]

Opening of Flaming Star (that theater looked amazing btw)

Village Voice, Jan 5, 1961

[gravesendstories]

Brooklyn Stories: Sfogliatelle and Old Men

I often see these middle aged (and older) Italian men hanging out at one of the last “real” Italian Bakery/Cafes in Brooklyn where I sometimes go to get my fix of old school Sfogliatelle. They are mostly retired, and have lived in Brooklyn for a long time, if not most of their lives; a part of their cultural makeup, a part of what still goes on in some small towns in Italy hangs on inside them, it’s a specifically male space — head space if you will. It’s maybe not so different from Moroccan men in their cafes, or Spanish men in the bar, or Irishmen hanging out in the local pub, etc. It’s almost like salmon going home to spawn — only there isn’t going to be a spawn, just a need to connect to an almost primordial social structure: To be with these like minded characters that hold on to a past and a sort of ancient rite of male bonding which has no other value but to know they are not alone and are cut from the same cloth. They are an odd bunch, really a dying breed. Nothing much goes on with these guys: they talk about their families, they bemoan some friend who is ill, or worse, they have committed some perceived offense toward them and have now shut them out. They talk soccer, politics (mostly of the conservative variety), the guy down the street who "had the balls" to sell his house to the Chinese, the sad decline of their once homogenous neighborhood — now dominated by Asians and Russians. If you walk within 6 feet of these guys you might get the scent of cologne — usually an odd, old-school Italian brand from their heyday like Pino Silvestre, but as you pass it might be augmented by the stale scent of tobacco breath and body odor. Some have taken to dying their hair because their once handsome, soccer field worthy looks have not held up with age — too many Marlboros and Cannolis I suppose. They stand around and look somewhat uncomfortable, while nursing their espressos with a dab of Sambuca, their fingers stained from years of smoking cigarettes down to the filter. All this posing will seem very peculiar to an outsider. But in the end, it’s all they’ve got left of their world — a world which they left long ago.

[bambuita]

Old bricks from a 1917 house heading to be the path of my garden! 6/13/17

[steve-rogers-new-york]

Recipe Wednesday #20

Happy Recipe Wednesday! These are real period recipes, taken from the Brooklyn Daily Eagle, a local newspaper that would have been accessible to Steve, his mother, and Bucky during their time in Brooklyn.

This week’s recipes come from the Monday 24, Tuesday 25, Wednesday 26, Thursday 27 and Friday 28 May, 1943 edition of the Brooklyn Daily Eagle. For context, Steve would have been 22 (comics) / 24 (MCU).

Fried Liver Sausages with Creole Sauce Serves 4. Cut 3/4 pound of smoked liver sausage in 8 1/4 inch slices. Cut each slice in half and dip first in milk, then in cornmeal. Fry quickly until delicately browned in hot fat. Drain and serve with the following sauce: Creole Sauce 1 tablespoon fat 1 large onion sliced 1/2 green pepper, chopped 1/2 teaspoon salt 1/4 teaspoon pepper 4 ripe tomatoes, chopped. Melt fat; add onion and cook 2 minutes over low heat. Add remaining ingredients and simmer 20 minutes.

Meat and Cheese Loaf 1 pound ground beef 3/4 cup diced cheese 1 egg, beaten 1 small onion, chopped 1 small green pepper, chopped 1 teaspoon salt 1/2 teaspoon pepper 1/2 teaspoon celery salt* 1/4 teaspoon paprika 1 1/2 cups milk 1/2 cup dry bread crumbs Combine ingredients in order given; mix well. Press into a greased loaf pan and bake at 350 for about one hour. Serves five.

Buttermilk Cornsticks (Part of a Sheffield Farm Buttermilk advertisement) 2 caps corn-meal 1 teaspoons soda 1 teaspoon salt 2 cups buttermilk 1 egg 4 tablespoons fat or oil Mix the corn-meal, soda and salt and combine with the buttermilk and well beaten egg. Grease each section of a very hot cornstick pan (preferably heavy cast iron or cast aluminum) with about 1 teaspoon of the fat or oil. Fill the sections with the batter. Bake for 15 to 20 minutes in a hot oven (425°F). makes 12 to 15 sticks.

Golden Corn Bread 1 cup yellow (or white) corn meal 1 tablespoon melted shortening 1 cup flour 1/4 cup sugar 1/2 teaspoon salt 1 beaten egg 1 cup milk 3 teaspoons double-action or 4 teaspoons single-action baking powder Sift together twice, corn meal, flour, sugar, baking powder, salt. Stir in milk and melted shortening, until smooth. Add beaten egg, bake in medium hot oven (400°F.) for 20 minutes. Cut while warm. Serve with butter, syrup, or covered with creamed chicken, dish or meat. (Makes 16 squares)

Vegetable Barley Chowder 1/4 cup pearled barley 2 cups boiling water 1/2 cup bacon drippings, or other fat 1 chopped onion 1 diced turnip 3 diced carrots 1/2 cup minced parsley 1 diced green pepper 2 cups milk 2 tablespoons salt 1/2 teaspoon pepper 3 diced potatoes 1/2 cup peas (optional) 2 tablespoons butter or margarine. Stir barley into boiling water. Cook on hour. Heat fat, add chopped onions, and cook five minutes. Add diced turnips, carrots, peppers, parsley and seasonings, and fry a few minutes. Add potatoes and peas, cover, and simmer on hour. Add milk, butter, barley and water to vegetables. heat and serve. (Serves six.)

Baked Sausage Patties 1 pound of sausage 1 spice bread, cubed 1 teaspoon salt 1 egg 1/2 cup grated apple Combine sausage meat and bread. Add remaining ingredients. Make into six patties about three-quarters inch thick. Bake at 350 degrees one hour.

Curried Eggs and Peas in Rice Border 1/4 cup minced onion 4 tablespoons fat 4 tablespoons flour 2 tablespoons curry powder 1 1/2 cups milk 1 cup bouillon 1/2 teaspoon lemon juice 1/2 teaspoon sugar 3/4 teaspoon salt 2 cups cooked peas 6 hard-cooked eggs, slices 3 cups boiled white rice Cook onions in fat in the top of a double boiler over direct heat, until tender. Add flour and curry powder and blend. Add milk, bouillon, lemon juice, sugar and salt; cook over boiling water until smooth and thickened, stirring constantly. Add peas and eggs; heat. Serve on a hot platter in a ring of rice. Serves 6.

Rhubarb Medley 3 cups rhubarb 1 cup honey Cinnamon candies 2 cookies 1 envelope of plain gelatine Was rhubarb and cut into 1-inch pieces. Place in a saucepan. Add 1 cup honey and just enough water to prevent scorching. Cover and cook slowly until tender. Toward the end of the cooking add enough cinnamon candy to give a nice pink color. Add a little of the hot mixture to 2 beaten egg yolks. Return mixture to saucepan. Cook gently for about 2 minutes. Meanwhile soften the gelatine in 2 tablespoons cold water. Gradually add hot mixture to this. Chill. Just as mixture begins to thicken, fold in 2 stiffly beaten egg whites. pour into molds and chill.

Lemon Pie, Tokay 3 eggs, separated 1 cup sugar 1/4 cup lemon juice 2 teaspoons grated lemon rind 1 tablespoon and 1 teaspoon unflavoured gelatin 3 tablespoons cold water 1/4 cup California Tokay, Angelica or any dessert wine 1 cup strawberries, sliced. Place egg yolks, one-half cup sugar, lemon juice and rind in the top of a double boiler. Cook over hot water, beating with a rotary beater all the while. Cook until fluffy and slightly thickened (about 10 minutes). Soak gelatin in cold water. Dissolve in hot water for about one minute. Cool and add the wine. Beat the egg whites util stiff and fold remaining one-half cup sugar into egg whites. Fold beaten egg whites into yolk mixture. Add one-half cup of the sliced strawberries and pour mixture into baked pie shell. Chill until mixture begins** to congeal. Arrange remaining strawberries on top of pie. Chill until firm.

*Celery salt is a mixed seasoning. It can be replaced with ground celery seed and salt or a few other substitutes. ** Corrected spelling error.

I’d love to hear if you try out any of these recipes! Take photos and I might post them on the blog.

Visit the Recipe Wednesday Masterpost for the all the Recipe Wednesday posts, and the Indexed Recipe Wednesday Masterpost for all the recipes broken down individually!