Popcorn time, and the newest packaged corn goes to market tasting of smoke. “Smokorn” is packed in half-gallon tins for party occasions, selling for 45 cents at B. Altman's. No better than plain buttered popcorn, but it does create interest and lively comments.
For you who have eaten spaghetti sauce, tomato-thick, oily-rich, herb-scented, garlic-tinctured as it's made in north Italy, here's a treat waiting. Helen Morgan of Babylon, Long Island, is making just such a sauce to sell in the shops. One taste and you are in the Italy you loved, of the olive-clad slopes, of the smiling valleys. You are eating spaghetti in a friendly wayside trattoria.
One difference between Mrs. Morgan's sauce and that of north Italy is that she uses the dried imported mushrooms instead of ground meat. For seventeen years Helen Morgan has made the sauce to dress the spaghetti served at the little dinners given at her studio in the Golden Gardens of Nere. As the wife of a United Press foreign correspondent, she entertained a never-ending procession of her husband's friends. Among the well-known Americans who have enjoyed the hospitality of her table are Sinclair Lewis, Paul Gallico, Mischa Elman, Maurice Sterne, George Biddle, William Allen White.
When the Morgans returned to this country before the war, they continued eating Italian. Mrs. Morgan's young sons continued to like the food of Italy better than that of America. Here, as abroad, friends were enthusiastic about her spaghetti with its rich spicy dressing. Deploring the thin, watery concoctions one so often buys here in lieu of the real thing, Mrs. Morgan decided it might be fun to put an authentic sauce on the market.
Son Thomas, just out of the army, urged Mother to try her luck, offering to give her a year of assistance before starting his own career in the diplomatic service. Thomas does the selling; Mother does the making.
Mrs. Morgan claims patience is the foundation of the recipe, next most important ingredient is the pure Italian olive oil. In this she cooks celery, carrots, and onions for over an hour, then tomato paste is added, and the dried imported mushrooms, the mixed herbs, and the garlic, and the cooking continued another four hours. The sauce requires almost constant stirring to keep it from sticking. Ten pots are kept going at one time in order to turn out 100 nine-ounce jars in a day.
The product is selling at Charles and Company, 340 Madison Avenue, Vendome Table Delicacies, 415 Madison Avenue, Farm and Garden, 30 Rocke-feller Plaza, Kubie's Health Shop, 136 East 57th Street, and B. Altman and Company, Fifth Avenue at 34th, price 75 cents for the nine-ounce jar, enough to serve two. So thick and rich this sauce that many prefer it thinned slightly with hot tomato juice. Examine the jar and you can see the oil floating on the surface. If you can't see that on a sauce, Helen Morgan says, it's not rich enough to bother with.
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