A 1964 Thanksgiving Side: Saucy Vegetable Trio

When we moved into The Refuge, the house came with more than Joy. A small shelf of vintage cookbooks had been left behind, and one of them, The Complete Holiday Cookbook, from 1964, has become a favorite. It is organized as a series of holiday menus, each with its own chapter, and the Thanksgiving dinner reads like a time capsule of the mid-century American table.

This year I’m cooking from it. First up is the side dish on the platter in the front of the book’s photograph: the Saucy Vegetable Trio.

Photograph from a 1964 cookbook showing a roast turkey, a dish of cranberries, and a platter of peas, pearl onions, and mushrooms

The Thanksgiving dinner spread, as photographed in The Complete Holiday Cookbook (1964).

A very 1964 dish

Everything about this recipe places it in its decade. The peas and pearl onions come frozen in one package, the mushrooms come from a can, the butter can just as easily be margarine, and a spoonful of pimento adds the color. The sauce is a simple white sauce built on the mushroom broth, with a pinch of thyme to make it taste like the holidays.

Here it is as the book gives it, followed by a few notes from our kitchen.

Saucy Vegetable Trio

Serves: 6
Source: The Complete Holiday Cookbook (1964), Thanksgiving Dinner

Ingredients

  • 2 packages (10 oz each) frozen green peas and pearl onions
  • 2 tbsp butter (or margarine, in the spirit of 1964)
  • 2 tbsp flour
  • ½ tsp salt
  • Dash of pepper
  • ⅛ to ¼ tsp thyme
  • 1 can (6 oz) sliced broiled mushrooms
  • Milk, about ⅔ cup (see step 3)
  • 1 tbsp chopped pimento

Method

  1. Cook the vegetables. Cook the peas and onions as the package directs, then drain.
  2. Start the sauce. Melt the butter in a saucepan and stir in the flour, salt, pepper, and thyme.
  3. Make up the liquid. Drain the mushroom broth into a measuring cup and add enough milk to bring it to 1 cup.
  4. Thicken. Add the liquid to the butter and flour, and cook, stirring constantly, until the sauce thickens and comes to a boil.
  5. Finish. Add the drained peas and onions, the mushrooms, and the pimento. Heat through, stirring now and then.

The book’s variation: Use 1 package of frozen peas and 1 can of white onions, drained, added with the mushrooms.

Notes from The Refuge kitchen

  • Fresh mushrooms: Canned broiled mushrooms are hard to find now. Slice about 8 oz of fresh mushrooms and brown them in the butter before you add the flour. With no can broth to measure, use 1 cup of milk, or half milk and half chicken or vegetable stock.
  • Pimento: A jar of diced pimentos works, or use a little chopped roasted red pepper.
  • Thyme: If you have fresh thyme, a teaspoon of the leaves is a good swap for the dried.
  • Make ahead: The sauce can be made earlier in the day and gently reheated before you fold in the vegetables, which keeps the peas bright.
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