Lillian Gish: Bread And Relish

Lillian Gish in Durango, Mexico, filming John Huston's The Unforgiven, 1959. Photo © Inge Morath Foundation.

Lillian Gish epitomized feminine charm and grace. Her Sutton Place apartment was elegant and calm, and Gish welcomed me as if we were old friends, primarily because it was Tennessee Williams who bonded us.

I took Lillian Gish a dish that many had told me was wonderful, and it helped, as always, to incite deep conversation. Although Gish did not cook for me, she made the effort to send me two recipes she thought I would like, because one, she stressed, was terribly healthy and would make and keep me strong, and the other was a tasty accompaniment that would make so many things better, "as our conversations so often do," she added.

Lillian Gish was very concerned with her health--mental and physical--and she talked about her exercises and her diet. The Graham Bread recipe was found by her mother, and it dated, she told me, from  around 1919. It was one of her favorites.

May both of these recipes bring you health and flavor.

GRAHAM BREAD

Ingredients:

2 tablespoons fat

1/4 cupful of brown sugar

2 teaspoons salt

1 cake compressed yeast

2 cupfuls lukewarm water

2 cupfuls white flour

3 cupfuls graham flour

1 cupful white flour for kneading

Instructions:

Put the fat, the sugar, and the salt in a mixing bowl, and to them add the yeast that has been dissolved in a little bit of the lukewarm water. Pour over these  ingredients the remainder of the water and stir in the white flour. When the mixture is stiff, add the graham flour, then knead the dough, let it rise, knead again, then place in greased loaf pans, let rise, then bake until knife inserted comes out clean. Use a moderate oven (350 degrees). From Miss Gish: "I don't time it. The bread is ready when it wants to be."

CORN RELISH

Ingredients:

9 ears corn

1 quart vinegar

1 cup sugar

1 teaspoon salt

1 1/2 tablespoons dry mustard

1 teaspoon turmeric

1 medium head of cabbage, chopped

2 medium onions, chopped

3 red peppers, chopped

2 green peppers, chopped

Instructions:

Cook corn in boiling water for about two minutes. Dip in cold water and cut grains from the cobs. Chop the cabbage, onion, and peppers into small pieces and add to corn. Mix vinegar, sugar, salt, and spices and heat to boiling. Add the corn and vegetables and boil until tender, about 20 to 30 minutes, stirring frequently. Pour into sterile jars and seal. This makes about 8 pints.