Two cups of boiled rice, 2 well-beaten eggs, 2 cups of milk, 1/2 teaspoon salt, 1 1/2 teaspoon mustard, 1 snappy cheese cut into small peices. Stir all together. One tablespoon butter in your baking dish, liberally spread over sides and bottom; now pour in the mixture and bake slowly one hour. Serve very hot on hot plates – Mrs. C. B. Barnes, 47 Brevoort pl. Brooklyn.
The Eagle Cook Book and Household Manual, 1926
So, what on earth is snappy cheese?
This took entirely too much effort to look up. According to “Sheffords Cheese Recipes” (1934) Snappy Cheese is a 3oz. tube of “purest cheddar cheese in its finest form, prepared for convenient used by the housewife and cook”. It says it’s “not cooked or processed in packaging“, but also that you can “spread it for sandwiches”. I’m unclear if it’s cheese texture or Velveeta/American “cheese” texture. According to “Kraft Foods Co. v. Commissioner of Internal Revenue“, snappy cheese originally “was nothing more than ground-up cheddar cheese, formed into a roll”.
I just used Tillamook medium cheddar.
The Shefford cookbook said to put it through a ricer for recipes (which I do not have), so I chopped it and weighed out 3oz. I baked it at 300 (a slow oven), for one hour
Cheese Fairy is surprisingly delicious. It’s like a silky quiche filling, full of rice and gooey cheese. This would be amazing as a comfy food on a chilly day. Somehow the cheese flavor seems to permeate throughout the egg (I suspect witchcraft …or possibly the mustard). My partner tried a bite, then came up to the kitchen holding out his plate in both hands, doing his best “Please, sir, can I have some more” face.
A+ use of leftover rice.
