Call out for test cooks! Absolutely everyone welcome, whatever your cooking prowess – there is even a GREEN SALAD recipe up for grabs folks! Choose a recipe and spread the word….
I’m excited to announce that I am working with Jenny Hammerton of Silver Screen Suppers on a new book featuring 100 movie star recipes. I will be writing about 50 of Vincent’s films and co stars and Jenny has chosen two dishes to accompany each movie. There will be a Vincent Price recipe for each, with a Co*Star accompaniment.
We are allocating one test cook per recipe for the book, but if you’d like to try more than one, Jenny will be happy to send them out to you.
We totally understand that during the Covid-19 epidemic certain ingredients might be difficult to obtain but we can discuss suitable substitutions. Take the plunge and pick something, it will be fun, we guarantee it!
All test cooks will be thanked in our acknowledgements, and we may use some of your feedback about the recipe to add some FLAVOUR to the book!
You are cordially invited to join Vincent Price’s daughter, Victoria, and Vincent Price Legacy UK curator, Peter Fuller, for two exclusive Movie Night Q&A’s taking place on Saturday 18 and 25 April, in which we discuss two of Vinnie’s all-time classic chillers – House on Haunted Hill and The Abominable Dr. Phibes.
Each Q&A costs US$5 (that’s around UK£4) and you can sign up here for either or both: VINCENT PRICE.
WATCH the film(s) at home BEFORE our session and sign up for our online Q&s. You can then send in one question for Peter and/or Victoria when you register (sorry but only questions sent in with registration will be answered).
JOIN our virtual Q&A to learn some fascinating facts about the films and hear wonderful stories about Vincent first-hand from Victoria.
We have limited places available, so sign up now!
If you already own the films, please re-watch them before our Q&A, and if you want to stream them, you can find them on YouTube. Here are some links that may work for you.
As we are all in lockdown mode at the moment, I’ve been trying to avoid heading out to the shops as much as possible and so am relying on what’s in my kitchen cupboards to rustle up some tasty dishes with the minimum amount of ingredients and fuss.
Well, I found some leftover cornmeal (AKA polenta) that I had bought to make a lemon drizzle cake ages ago and decided that would be my key ingredient. OK, the expiry date was 2014!!!!, but I was not going to throw it out. Now what to make?
My go-to…. Mary and Vincent Price’s A Treasury of Great Recipes
My go-to book is Mary and Vincent Price’s A Treasury of Great Recipes which was first published in 1965, and got a 50th anniversary reprint in 2015. I have tried quite a few now (check them out in the Cooking with Vincent and his Co*Stars section of this website), and I found one that seemed not to elaborate and required just some basic ingredients: Pasticcio Di Polenta – or Cornmeal with Mushrooms.
INGREDIENTS Yellow cornmeal Salt Butter (I used unsalted) Bread crumbs (I used panko) Mushrooms (I used chestnut) Cream, (I used double) Parmesan cheese, grated
POLENTA Vincent and Mary’s method of making polenta required a double boiler, which I do not have. So I used two saucepans. Also there was no amount given as to how much cornmeal to add to the quart of water, so I just made a guess (it worked I think).
Firstly, I brought the water (3 UK cups) to the boil, added salt, then gradually mixed in the polenta (I used 2 cups as I wanted to use up what I had left in the packet), and stir quickly.
Once it had thickened (which was very quick), I placed the saucepan on top of another one half filled with boiling water, covered it, and left it to simmer for 2 hours.
Then I poured it into a casserole dish (there was too much mixture for a loaf shape dish, which is in the original recipe) and chilled it overnight.
PASTICCIO 1. Preheat oven to moderate (350/4). 2. Turn out chilled polenta and slice it into 3 horizontal layers. 3. Butter the baking dish and sprinkle with 2 tablespoons of bread crumbs. 4. Place a sliced layer of polenta on bottom of dish. Dot with 1 tablespoon butter. Cover with: 1/2 cup sliced mushroom caps and 3 tablespoons cream. Sprinkle with: 1 tablespoon grated parmesan. 5. Do the same with the second slice. 6. Put last slice on top. Dot with 1 tablespoon butter and sprinkle with 1 tablespoons grated parmesan. Cover and bake 1 1/2hours in a moderate oven.
Not the most even of horizontal slices are they?I used two mushroom caps for each layer. Top tip: there’s no need to waste those leftover mushroom stalks, keep them for use in a stir fry or soupYum! Was it rich? Yes siree!
MY VERDICT Delicious with a capital D and It didn’t matter that the cornmeal was four years past its expiry date. Although in retrospect I think a loaf tin would have given me extra thickness so as to cut the three slices more evenly.
Now what also attracted me to making polenta, was that it is very versatile. I’ve already made chips (which went very well with the homemade strawberry and chilli jam that I had made a few days ago with some strawberries that were just about to go off), and I shall next try Vincent’s suggesting of frying some slices, then wrapping them in bacon and baking them until golden brown and crisp. I’ve also found another packet of cornmeal, so I think I’m going to whip up some muffins next.
These polenta crisps were light and crispy. Here’s the actual recipe (with my notes) from A Treasury of Great Recipes
This classic culinary tome got a 50th Anniversary reprint in 2015
Produced on the back of the expected success of 1953’s House of Wax, The Mad Magician returned Vincent Price to the world of three-dimensional horror for a third time (Dangerous Mission was released in March 1954, with The Mad Magician following in May).
Here he plays Don Gallico, a creator of illusions for stage magicians, including the Great Rinaldi (John Emery). But his opening night is thwarted by his boss, Ormond (Donald Randolph), who has already stolen Gallico’s wife (Eva Gabor) and now wants his latest invention – the buzz saw. In a moment of madness, Gallico decapitates his employer.
To cover up the crime and the ones that follow, Gallico dons a series of elaborate disguises, but he hasn’t counted on his assistant Karen (Mary Murphy), her detective boyfriend Alan (Patrick O’Neal) and mystery writer Alice (Lenita Lane) from getting in his way…
Originally released on Blu-ray in the US by Twilight, The Mad Magician gets its UK premiere Blu-ray from Indicator with a Limited Edition (3,000) release featuring the following special features…
• 2K restoration • 3D and 2D presentations • Original mono audio • New audio commentary with film historians Jonathan Rigby and Kevin Lyons • Three-Dimensional Magic (2020): and appreciation of The Mad Magician and the 3D filmmaking boom of the 1950s by cinematographer Frank Passingham and archivist Tom Vincent, presented in 3D and 2D • Super 8 version: cut-down home cinema presentation in anaglyphic 3D • Pardon My Backfire (1953), Three Stooges short presented in 3D and 2D • Spooks! (1953), Three Stooges short presented in 3D and 2D • Image gallery • Original theatrical trailer • New and improved English subtitles • Limited edition exclusive booklet with a new essay by Kat Ellinger on Merv Taylor, a look at the career of producer Bryan Foy, an archival interview with director John Brahm by David Del Valle, the promotional campaign of The Mad Magician, contemporary critical responses, Jeff Billington on the Three Stooges’ 3D shorts, and film credits
As we are all now at home in lockdown, if you have an Amazon Prime subscription, then why not check out what’s screaming now – Vincent Price-wise here in the UK!
And decorate your at-home workspace with these wicked limited edition posters from Mad Duck Posters : https://bit.ly/39Bpv2h
