Yinzer Yums of Yesteryear: Bessie Gant's shrimp in bread cups

I may have an obsession with the late great Bessie Gant. I’ve always loved celebrity chefs, but with Bessie’s Pittsburgh ties, along with her ultra-rare cookbooks and the fact that she was a notable “celebrity” chef before James Beard’s time, I love her all the more.

Bessie’s recipes, though they hail from the late 1920s through the ’50s, still appeal to a modern palate. Bessie cooked for — and hung out with — the elite celebrities of her day including Marlon Brando, Josephine Baker, and Katherine Hepburn. And, based on her dress her demeanor, her drive to sell her cookbooks, and her success as a chef and a writer in a time that wasn’t kind to women — especially Black women — Bessie was a total boss.

This week, I was originally going to cook a tuna jello mayo concoction that I found in a local 1970s cookbook. But since I was fresh out of canned cranberry sauce, I decided to save that culinary adventure for next week…

Instead, I chose to attempt Bessie’s Shrimp in Bread Cups recipe from the Mar. 23, 1940 edition of The Pittsburgh Courier, from her column “Bess’ Secrets ’Bout Good Things to Eat,” which was featured in the Women’s Activities section next to beauty cream ads, hair dye coupons, and the like.

The recipe calls for the following:

• 3 five-ounce cans of shrimp
• 5 tablespoons butter
• 5 tablespoons flour
• 1 ⅓ cups milk
• 1 teaspoon salt
• ½ teaspoon pepper
• 2 tablespoons tomato catsup
• 1 teaspoon onion juice
• 1 teaspoon prepared mustard
• 2 teaspoons Worcestershire sauce
• ½ teaspoon celery salt
• 1 tablespoon lemon juice
• Dash of paprika
• 6 slices bread

For this recipe, I used thawed frozen shrimp instead of canned since I was unable to find canned shrimp. Also, I used Dijon mustard in place of prepared mustard, and I opted for artisan bread. And, like some of you, I asked, “What the heck is onion juice?” We’ll get to that…

First, I thawed 15 oz. of shrimp in a colander. Then, I deveined them, pinched the tails carefully to remove them, and patted them dry with a paper towel. After preparing my shrimp, I set up my double boiler with a medium-sized pot and a medium-sized glass bowl. I turned the heat on high. Then, I gathered the rest of my ingredients and decided to attempt to juice an onion.

If you’ve never juiced an onion before, allow me to prepare you: it’s not fun. I used a citrus juicer because, of course, I gave away my Jack LaLanne power juicer last year in a spring cleaning purge. It took some serious muscle to get just a teaspoon of onion juice out of an entire Vidalia onion. Don't even get me started on getting onion juice in your eye. If prepared onion juice is sold somewhere, and I just don’t know about it, please let me know. I would love to make these shrimp cups again.

After making a mess in my sink with an onion, I cut 5 Tbsp. of butter, placed it in my heated double boiler, and set the rest aside for the bread cups. Then, I pulled out my artisanal bread and cut off the crusts. Once my butter melted, I whisked in 5 Tbsp. flour.

I let the roux brown for about a minute before adding milk. It took about eight minutes for the milk and roux mixture to thicken to medium thickness (as Bessie calls for in the recipe). Meanwhile, I spread melted butter on my bread slices and placed them in my muffin tin to broil.

Once the mixture achieved the right thickness, I added the rest of the ingredients one by one, with the shrimp last. I removed my toasted bread cups from the broiler and spooned in the shrimp mixture, then topped it with fresh parsley.

The moment of truth …
This is my favorite Yinzer Yum of Yesteryear so far. I didn’t try one bread cup; I ate three. I had no idea I would like this so much.

In her column along with this recipe, Bessie wrote, “Several of the largest schools in the country are using my recipes in their domestic science courses. They praise them for their “differentness,” and I certainly appreciate the fact that my efforts to create good things to eat have not been in vain.” Bessie Gant was an innovator way ahead of her time.