Weird Eats

Make a Chicken Out of Peanuts

Most of us have probably heard of peanut guy, George Washington Carver. In 1925, he published a booklet called How to Grow the Peanut and 105 Ways of Preparing it for Human Consumption. Recipe #38 from this collection was for a peanut-based delight called Mock Chicken.

If you're a mock vegetarian and you're not sure how to proceed - I'm afraid I don't know what to tell you. Use your best judgment.

Here's the recipe, as it appeared in the booklet's seventh edition, dated January 1940.

NO. 38, MOCK CHICKEN
Blanch and grind a sufficient number of peanuts until they are quite oily;
stir in one well-beaten egg; if too thin, thicken with rolled bread crumbs
or cracker dust; stir in a little salt. Boil some sweet potatoes until done;
peel and cut in thin slices; spread generously with the peanut mixture; dip
in white of egg; fry to a chicken brown; serve hot.

Image: National Agricultural Library

Serving Time - Prison Cookbook

To call Serving Time a prison cookbook might be a little misleading, as it suggests that perhaps prisoners were involved in the making of the cookbook. In fact, the volume of more than 500 recipes is the work of staff members at Wisconsin's Racine Correctional Institution and Sturtevant Transitional Facility.

For more information on the cookbook, check out this article from the Racine Journal Times. If you're looking to actually buy the book, that might be a little trickier. It doesn't appear to be listed at the major online booksellers.

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Mr. Porky & Miss Piggy

If pork rinds and the like are your kind of thing, Cooking with Mr. Porky should have you squealing with delight. According to a press release, the cookbook "includes 50 tempting recipes to try at home where the main ingredient is the beer swillers’ favourite, pork scratchings."