97 Orchard: An Edible History of Five Immigrant Families in One New York Tenement (32 page)

If Americans were charmed by the Italians’ earthiness, an establishment like the Sicilian café was best experienced in the pages of magazines.

Once confined to the Five Points, New York’s most notorious slum, by 1910 Little Italy stretched north toward Houston Street and west toward Greenwich Village. As the colony expanded, its physical character also changed. In 1895, the tenements surrounding Mulberry Bend, the heart of the Five Points, were torn down to make way for Columbus Park, Little Italy’s new “town square.” Two blocks west of the Bend, more tenements were razed to widen Elm Street, creating a broad thoroughfare known today as Lafayette Street. Now open to light and air, Little Italy was no longer the “foul core of New York slums” that Jacob Riis described in the 1890s. What’s more, Little Italy was no longer the bachelor community it once had been. By 1900, Italian immigrants were largely men and women who came to the United States to start a family and lay down roots.

Chapter two of the American romance with Italian food began at the turn of the century, as native New Yorkers wandered into the now-expanded Italian colony. One stop on their itinerary was the Italian grocery, which exposed the visitor to enticements they had never known existed. The heart of their education, however, took place in the Italian restaurants that served as culinary classrooms. For Americans who believed that Italians subsisted on bread and macaroni, the edible delights available in the downtown restaurants came as a revelation. Published accounts of these gastronomic forays were quick to warn readers of certain possible pitfalls. To quote one newspaper reporter: “The Italian taste in cookery is not always such as pleases the native American palate.”
²⁵
Properly advised, however, American diners could find an array of delectable dishes: minestrone that was “thick and tasteful” kidneys, liver, and veal, prepared southern-style with peppers and onions; simmered
polpette
, or meatballs; fried calamari; and a host of tantalizing vegetable dishes based on eggplant, tomatoes, and peppers. But the dish that most enchanted American diners was spaghetti.

Discovered by an earlier generation of adventuresome eaters, in the early 1900s spaghetti reentered the American culinary consciousness and quickly moved from restaurant kitchens to the family dinner table. Recipes for spaghetti began to appear in American cookbooks, including
The Boston Cooking School Cook Book
by Fannie Farmer published in 1896. In her 1902 cookbook, Sarah Tyson Rorer, a leading voice of the domestic science movement, explains precisely how this still-novel food should be cooked:

Spaghetti is always served in the long form in which it is purchased. Grasp the given quantity in your hand; put the ends down into boiling water; as they soften, press gently until the whole length is in the water; boil rapidly for twenty minutes. Drain, and blanch in cold water.
²⁶

Around the same time, recipes for spaghetti began to appear on the women’s pages of American newspapers. Many sent in by readers, newspaper recipes leave a vivid record of the creative, often zany applications that American home cooks found for spaghetti. There was “Mexican Spaghetti” with tomatoes, paprika, peppers, and bacon served in a chafing dish; “Chicken and Spaghetti Croquettes” made with cooked spaghetti, finely chopped; and the popular “Tomatoes Stuffed with Spaghetti.” In 1908, the women’s page of the
Chicago Tribune
featured a reader’s recipe for “Spaghetti and Meat Balls,” one of the earliest references to this future staple of the Italian-American kitchen:

S
PAGHETTI AND
M
EAT
B
ALLS

Take one pound of round steak, run through meat grinder two or three times; one egg, three rolled crackers or grated stale bread, one small onion grated, four sprigs parsley chopped fine, and pepper and salt to suit taste. Mix and form into small balls, a teaspoonful and a half each.

Prepare sauce as follows: One can tomatoes, one green or red pepper, one onion, two bay leaves, and a quart water. Boil one hour, then strain through colander. Add small piece of butter, and pepper and salt to suit taste. Return to fire and place meatballs in it and boil slowly for forty minutes.

Spaghetti: take one pound of spaghetti, boil it in two quarts of saltwater for twenty minutes, drain, pour over sauce and all, and serve hot.
²⁷

The Baldizzis’ financial prospects improved considerably when America entered the war in 1941. By this time, the family was living in Brooklyn. Adolfo found work in the wartime naval yards, while Rosaria returned to her job in the garment district. With both parents employed full-time, the pall cast over the Baldizzi household began to lift. On Orchard Street, the family had owned a radio, which Rosaria kept tuned to the opera stations. In Brooklyn, she bought a record player and kept it running whenever she was home, filling the house with music. On holidays, the Baldizzis hosted family parties complete with music and dancing. The new prosperity brought very welcome changes to the family dinner table. At last, Rosaria could afford to buy the meat that was so conspicuously absent from the Orchard Street kitchen. The most festive meal of the year, however, was entirely meatless. Christmas dinner traditionally began at ten o’clock, to coordinate with the midnight mass. The first course was octopus salad, followed by a pan of lasagna, rich with ricotta, eggs, and mozzarella, but the climax of the meal was a stew made with
baccala
—salt cod. Here is the Baldizzi family recipe for the holiday staple:

Josephine and John Baldizzi on the roof of 97 Orchard Street, 1935.
Courtesy of the Tenement Museum

C
HRISTMAS
B
ACCALA

1 stalk celery, diced

½ cup chopped onion

2 cloves garlic, chopped

1 tablespoon salted capers (or more to taste)

2 small cans tomato sauce

2 ½ to 3 pounds baccala

Two days before Christmas, soak the
baccala
in cold water, changing the water at least two times a day. Cut
baccala
into pieces.

Sauté celery for five minutes. Add onion, garlic, and capers and cook a few minutes, until soft. Add tomato sauce. Cook over a low flame fifteen minutes. Add
baccala
and cook until fish comes apart with a fork.
²⁸

On New Year’s Eve, the Baldizzis celebrated with
sfinge
, a kind of hole-less doughnut. Rosaria started the batter in the afternoon, mixing the flour, yeast, and water in a large pot, then covering it with a blanket and leaving it to rise. Just before midnight, she put a pot of oil on the stove, testing the temperature with a drop of water. When it splattered, the oil was sufficiently hot. The second the clock struck twelve, she dropped the first spoonful of batter, which caused the oil to bubble wildly, producing a loud
zhoosh
-ing sound. It took roughly a minute for the
sfinge
to cook up, puffy and golden. After scooping them from the pot, she dipped them in sugar. Then she fed them to the kids, still hot, so their first taste of the New Year would be sweet.

Notes

C
HAPTER ONE
: T
HE
G
LOCKNER
F
AMILY

1. Henriette Davidis,
Practical Cook Book
:
German National Cookery for American Kitchens
(Milwaukee, 1904), 131.

2. Davidis,
Practical
, 11.

3. Gesine Lemcke, “Cooking Correspondence,”
Brooklyn Eagle
, January 1, 1899, 23.

4. Author’s recipe, adapted from Davidis.

5. Davidis,
Practical
, 318.

6. Gesine Lemcke, “Cooking Correspondence,”
Brooklyn Eagle
, March 26, 1899, 20.

7. “Uncleanly Markets,”
New York Times
, May 22, 1854, 4.

8. “Market Reform,”
New York Times
, March 29, 1872, 4.

9. “Local Intelligence,”
New York Times
, December 19, 1865, 2.

10. Junius Henri Browne,
The Great Metropolis
(Hartford, 1869), 408.

11. Thomas F. De Voe,
The Market Assistant
(New York, 1862), title page.

12. “How New York Is Fed,”
Scribner’s Monthly
, October 1877, 730.

13. Mrs. Emma Ewing,
Salad and Salad Making
(Chicago, 1883), 37.

14. “Our City’s Condition,”
New York Times
, June 12, 1865, 1.

15. “Sauerkraut Statistics,”
Chicago Tribune
(reprinted from the
Philadelphia News
), December 29, 1885, 5.

16. “The Sauerkraut Peddler,”
Washington Post
(reprinted from the
New York Evening Post
), August 24, 1902, 10.

17. Charles Dawson Shanley, “Signs and Show-Cases of New York,”
Atlantic Monthly
, May 1870, 528.

18. “Vienna Bread,”
New York Times
, January 28, 1877, 6. (“Mackerelville” is a nineteenth-century term for the neighborhood that became the East Village.)

19. “The Household,”
New York Times
, January 30, 1876, 9.

20. “Toothsome German Dishes,”
New York Times
, July 11, 1897, 10.

21. “The Million’s Beverage,”
New York Times
, May 20, 1877, 10.

22. Browne,
Great Metropolis
, 161.

23. “History of Beer,”
United States Magazine
, August 15, 1854, 180.

24. Jacob A. Riis,
How the Other Half Lives
(New York, 1890), 215.

25. “German Restaurants,”
New York Times
, January 19, 1873, 5.

26. “Where Men May Dine Well,”
New York Sun
, April 5, 1891, 23.

27. Emory Holloway, ed.,
The Uncollected Poetry and Prose of Walt Whitman
, 2 vols. (Garden City, New York, 1921), II: 92.

28. Gesine Lemcke,
European and American Cuisine
(New York, 1933), 543.

29. “Luchow’s,” Benjamin DeCasseres,
American Mercury
, December 1931, 447.

30. “Germany in New York,”
Atlantic Monthly
, May 1867, 557.

31. “The Yearly Turn-Fest,”
New York Times
, August 26, 1862, 8.

32. “Jovial Souls,”
Brooklyn Eagle
, July 14, 1891, 2.

33. “Sixth Plattdeustche Festival,”
New York Times
, September 7, 1880, 8.

34. “New-York City. Germans in America,”
New York Times
, June 27, 1855, 1.

C
HAPTER TWO
: T
HE
M
OORE
F
AMILY

1. Andrew Carpenter, ed.,
Verse from Eighteenth-Century Ireland
(Cork, Ireland, 1998), 248.

2. Nancy F. Cott,
Root of Bitterness
:
Documents of the Social History of American Women
(Lebanon, New Hampshire, 1996), 154.

3. Letter from P. Burdan, 1894. Personal Collection of Kirby Miller.

4. Letter from Cathy Greene, 1884. Personal Collection of Kirby Miller.

5. “Those Servant Girls,”
Brooklyn Daily Eagle
, March 12, 1897, 3.

6. Johann Georg Kohl,
Ireland
(New York, 1844), 13.

7. Kohl,
Ireland
, 45.

8. Charles Loring Brace,
The Dangerous Classes of New York
(New York, 1872), 168.

9. Seamus MacManus,
Yourself and the Neighbours
(New York, 1914), 70.

10. Letter from Alice McDonald, 1868. Personal Collection of Kirby Miller.

11. Charles Fanning,
The Irish Voice in America
(Lexington, 2000), 127.

12. Louise Bolard More,
Wage-Earners’ Budgets
(New York, 1907), 173.

13. “Cheap Pudding,”
Irish Times
, February 1, 1879.

14. “A Day in Castle Garden,”
Harper’s New Monthly Magazine
, March 1871, 554.

15. John F. Maguire,
The Irish in America
(London, 1868), 190.

16. Jeremiah O’Donovan,
A Brief Account of the Author’s Interview with His Countrymen
(Pittsburgh, 1864), 367.

17. “Saturday Night at Washington Market,”
New York Times
, March 17, 1872, 5.

18. Maria Parloa,
First Principles of Household Management and Cookery
(Boston, 1879), 87.

19. “Restaurant Calls,”
Brooklyn Daily Eagle
, July 3, 1887, 13.

20. J. C. Croly,
Jennie June’s American Cookery Book
(New York, 1870), 76.

21. George Foster,
New York in Slices
(New York, 1850), 70.

22. William Ellis,
The Country Housewife’s Family Companion
(Totnes, Devon, 2000), 97.

23. Kathleen Mathew, “New York Newsboys,”
Frank Leslie’s Popular Monthly
, April 1895, 458.

24. “Tempting Hotel Menus,”
New York Times
, December 26, 1890, 8.

C
HAPTER THREE
: T
HE
G
UMPERTZ
F
AMILY

1. “Hester Street Market,”
New York Times
, July 27, 1895, 12.

2. Ladies of Congregation Emanuel,
The Fair Cook Book
(Denver, 1888), 7. (Reproduced courtesy of the Beck Archives, Penrose Library, Special Collections, University of Denver.)

3. Leah W. Leonard,
Jewish Cookery
,
in Accordance with Jewish Dietary Laws
(New York, 1949), 166.

4. John Cooper,
Eat and Be Satisfied
:
a Social History of Jewish Food
(Northvale, New Jersey, 1993), 80.

5. Marx Rumpolt,
Ein new Kochbuch
(Frankfurt am Main, 1581), 120. Translated by the author.

6. Florence K. Greenbaum,
International Jewish Cookbook
(New York, 1919), 84.

7. “Where Strict Jews Eat,”
Current Literature
, March 1881, 408.

8. Bertha Kramer,
“Aunt Babette’s” Cook Book
(New York, 1914), 513.

9. Matthew Hale Smith,
Sunshine and Shadow in New York
(Hartford, 1869), 456.

10. National Council of Jewish Women,
Council Cook Book
(San Francisco, 1909), 48.

11. Fannie Hurst,
The Vertical City
(New York, 1922), 262.

12. Albert Waldinger, ed.,
Shining and Shadow: An Anthology of Early Yiddish Stories from the Lower East Side
(Cranbury, New Jersey, 2006), 142.

13. Michael Ginor et al.,
Foie Gras
,
a Passion
(New York: 1999), 41.

14. Albert H. Buck, ed.,
A Treatise of Hygiene and Health
(New York, 1977), 400.

15. During the early decades of the twentieth century, ethnically based food rackets were common in New York City. Taking advantage of their fellow immigrants’ fear and insularity, Jewish gangsters at various times took control of the kosher poultry industry, soda-fountain syrup manufacturing, and wholesale bakeries. Italian racketeers controlled artichokes, grapes, and pasta manufacture. All these rackets raised food prices mostly for that part of the population that could least afford it. Most food rackets were eliminated during the late 1930s, thanks to a concerted effort by the La Guardia administration.

16. “Some Queer East Side Vocations,”
Current Opinion
(reprinted from the
New York Post
), August 1903, 202.

17. Greenbaum,
International Jewish Cookbook
, 12.

18. Author’s family recipe.

19. Anya Yezierska,
Hungry Hearts
(New York, 1997), 116.

20. Henry Harlan,
The Yoke of the Thorah
(New York, 1896), 205.

21. Kramer,
“Aunt Babette’s,”
24.

22. Kela Nussbaum family recipe, contributed by Betsy Chanales.

C
HAPTER FOUR
: T
HE
R
OGARSHEVSKY
F
AMILY

1. “Humanity and Efficiency,”
The Outlook
, March 28, 1908, 627.

2. Menu, Ellis Island archive.

3. “Their First Thanksgiving,”
The Sun (New York)
, December 1, 1905, 2.

4. Frederick A. Wallis, “Treating Incoming Aliens as Human Beings,”
Current History
, April–September 1921, 443.

5. “Feast of the Passover Celebrated,”
New York Times
, March 26, 1899. 6.

6. Kosher menu, Ellis Island archive.

7. Frieda Schwartz family recipe, contributed by her daughter Francine E. Herbitter.

8. Regina Frishwasser,
Jewish American Cook Book
(New York, 1946), 47.

9. Bertha M. Wood,
Foods of the Foreign-Born in Relation to Health
(Boston, 1922), 90.

10. Jennie Grossinger,
The Art of Jewish Cooking
(New York, 1960), 147.

11. Elsa Herzfeld,
Family Monographs
(New York, 1905), 33.

12. Fannie Cohen family recipe, contributed by her granddaughter, Francine E. Herbitter.

13. Hinde Amchanitzki,
Text Book for Cooking and Baking
(New York, 1901), 30.

14. “East Siders Don’t Approve Cookbook,”
Hartford Courant
, January 17, 1916, 3.

15. John C. Gebhart, “Malnutrition and School Feeding,”
Bulletin
,
United States Bureau of Education
, 1922, 14.

16. Emma Smedley,
The School Lunch
(Media, Pennsylvania, 1920), 147.

17. “Poor Meals Break Homes,”
New York Times
, September 16, 1920, 8.

18. “Queer Dishes in Shops,”
New York Tribune
, December 12, 1897, 40.

19. Alfred Kazin,
A Walker in the City
(New York, 1951), 34.

20. “Along Second Avenue,”
New York Tribune
, August 31, 1919, F12.

21. Rian James,
Dining in New York
(New York, 1930), 32.

22. William Reiner,
Bohemia
,
the East Side Cafes of New York
(New York, 1903), 20.

23. Sholem Aleichem,
Wandering Star
(New York, 1952), 233.

24. “Along Second Avenue,”
New York Tribune
, August 31, 1919, 68.

25. Family recipe of Lillian Chanales.

C
HAPTER FIVE
: T
HE
B
ALDIZZI
F
AMILY

1. “Unskilled Laborer,”
Washington Herald
, February 2, 1908, 12.

2. “New Recipe for Soup,”
New York Times
, August 19, 1900, 15.

3. “Undesirable Immigrants,”
New York Times
, December 18, 1880, 4.

4. “Phases of City Life,”
New York Times
, November 4, 1871, 2.

5. “Italy’s Invading Army,”
New York Sun
, June 28, 1891, 23.

6. “Found in Garbage Boxes,”
New York Times
, July 15, 1883, 10.

7. “Things Little Italy Eats,”
The Sun (New York)
, August 23, 1903, 5.

8. Jerre Mangione,
Mount Allegro
(New York, 1981), 131.

9. See Hasia Diner’s
Hungering for America
.

10. “Table Tidbits Prepared Under Revolting Conditions,”
New York Tribune
, May 11, 1913, D4.

11. “Quaint Italian Customs of Summer Festal Days,”
New York Times
, July 12, 1903, 30.

12. Maria Gentile,
The Italian Cook Book
(New York, 1919), 133.

13. Mangione,
Mount Allegro
, 131.

14. Richard Gambino,
Blood of My Blood
:
the Dilemma of the Italian American
(Toronto, 1996), 92.

15. Author’s recipe.

16. Concetta Rizzolo’s family recipe, contributed by her grandson Stephen Treffinger.

17. Jeannette Young Norton, “Going Marketing in ‘Little Italy,’”
New York Tribune
, July 23, 1916, C5.

18. “Italian Housewives’ Dishes,”
New York Times
, June 7, 1903, 28.

19. “Do Fiery Foods Cause Fiery Natures?”
New York Tribune Illustrated Supplement
, December 6, 1903, 5.

20. Gentile,
The Italian Cook Book
, 76.

21. “A Bit of Bohemia,”
The Vassar Miscellany
, February 1889, 154.

22. “March of the Italian Chef,”
The Sun (New York)
, December 20, 1908, 8.

23. “Our Italians,”
New York Times
, November 12, 1875, 4.

24. “A Sicilian Café in New York,”
Harper’s Weekly
, November 2, 1889, 875.

25. “The Italian Cook’s Best,”
The Sun (New York)
, June 20, 1909, 2.

26. Sarah Tyson Rorer,
Mrs. Rorer’s New Cook Book
(Philadelphia, 1902), 301.

27. “Spaghetti with Meat Balls,”
Chicago Tribune
, February 21, 1908, 9.