Tuna Patties with Lemon Sauce - 1949

The rather unappealing looking blob in the photo above is my latest attempt, and subsequent failure, in re-creating a vintage recipe from my magazines. This one came from an article in the October 1949 issue of Woman's Day magazine. (By the way, according to a very interesting book I'm reading titled Women's Periodicals in the United States, Woman's Day magazine was sold in A&P markets only, until 1958. If you can get your hands on a used copy of the book, which is what I did, I highly recommend it!)

Anyway, I must get back to the topic, as reluctant as I am to discuss this disappointing dish. It came from an article titled "Prize-Winning Canned Fish Recipes." You may wonder what about that title made me think there was even a possibility the recipe would turn out to be something delicious and exciting, but I was actually going more for thrifty and "already-have-all-the-ingredients-so-no-big-deal-if-it-doesn't-turn-out." And turn out it most certainly did not.

For starters, the recipe said it feeds four, but the portions were very small and not very filling. Next, the patties pretty much fell apart no matter what I tried to do to salvage them. I ended up with the one patty you see and about 10 smaller blobs to go with it. And finally, and this is my fault entirely, but I have never mastered anything even resembling a roux. So for the lemon sauce, no matter how much I stirred, I was never able to get rid of the tiny bits of flour floating through it. (In fact, you can even see them in my photo!) The patties looked so terrible that even my husband, who graciously sampled each of my previous attempts at vintage recipes, did not even touch these and in fact pretended he didn't even know they were there. Not a word was said about them even though I pushed them right to the front of the refrigerator where he would be forced to see them.

So in conclusion, I would not recommend anyone try these. However, as always, I'm glad I did! And this won't discourage me from trying an old recipe again; in fact, I think it's kind of fun. Just in case you're still curious, I have scanned the recipe in below, so just click for a better view. You'll also be treated to the recipe (with accompanying photo) for Mrs. J.M. Severin's Tuna Salad Pie, worth the click in itself!