Call Box: Choco Mint Freeze, Oliver Hardy and Leb's
Dear Call Box: I’m trying to find a recipe for choco mint freeze that appeared in the Journal Cooking Contest decades ago. I made it for special occasions but lost the recipe. Can you help?
A.M., Jacksonville
Dear A.M.: Ivy Ogg’s Choco Mint Freeze won first place in the pie and pastry dessert category of the Journal Cooking Contest in 1975. Here is Ogg’s recipe:
CHOCO MINT FREEZE
1½ cups finely crushed vanilla wafers
¾ cup butter
1 quart softened peppermint stick ice cream
2 squares unsweetened chocolate
3 well-beaten egg yolks
1½ cups sifted confectioners sugar
1 cup chopped pecans or walnuts
1 teaspoon vanilla
3 well-beaten egg whites
Toss together crumbs and ¼ cup butter, melted. Press into bottom of greased 9- or 10-inch springform pan. Spread with ice cream and freeze. Note: Use any flavor ice cream you prefer.
Melt remaining ½ cup butter and chocolate together. Gradually stir into egg yolks. Add sugar, nuts and vanilla. Cool thoroughly. Beat egg whites until stiff. Beat cooled chocolate mixture until smooth and fold in egg whites. Spread chocolate mixture over ice cream and freeze. Top with whipped cream, chopped nuts and cherries. Serves 10 to 12.
Update: A reader called to say that comedian Oliver Hardy once headlined at the old Burbridge Hotel, the subject of a recent Call Box column. The hotel, which was renamed the Floridan during World War II, was at West Forsyth and Clay streets before it was demolished in 1981.
Before he met Stan Laurel and became half of one of the most famed comedy duos, Hardy was a singer at the Burbridge’s cabaret in 1916, according to his biographers. One account said he performed at Jacksonville’s “posh Burbridge Hotel where Babe (his nickname) earned a reputation as the city’s most popular entertainer.”
He made himself the butt of comedy by billing himself as “The Ton of Jollity.” His then wife, Madelyn Saloshin, a pianist, was director of the ragtime orchestra that played at the Burbridge. During the day, Hardy did some short pictures for Vim Comedy Company in Jacksonville before he discovered that its founders were stealing from the payroll, and the company folded in 1917.
Update: Leb’s, featured in another Call Box column, sparked Mimi Grenville’s memory. The Adams Street restaurant was housed in the Mitchell Building. From 1953 to 1955, Prudential Insurance Co.’s machine accounting division occupied the two floors above Leb’s, she said. The third floor was the machine room, staffed by about 95 percent male employees. Key punch machines, operated entirely by women, were on the second floor.
Prudential’s other employees were in any available space, including the Roberts and Lynch buildings, Grenville said.
“We graduated from high school into Prudential,” she said. “This predated computers, so it required a lot of different machines.”
Prudential employees got free lunches, Grenville said.
“During that period, Leb’s was our lunchroom,” she said. “We didn’t appreciate our good fortune but would gobble our food so we could shop. I do remember the kosher pickles and sauerkraut that were present on every table.”
She also recalls the hefty sandwiches and “fantastic” ice cream desserts, including sodas, sundaes and all kinds of concoctions.
Other than Leb’s, the most notable thing about the Mitchell Building was the elevator, which used water pressure to turn the wheels to raise and lower it, Grenville said. The Flatiron Building in Manhattan, N.Y., was one of the last to have elevators operated by water hydraulics, she said. They were converted to a computerized system in 1999.
In June 1955, the 22-story Prudential Building on the Southside was finished, and employees were consolidated into their new quarters, Grenville said. When it opened, it was the tallest office building in Florida.
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