Some Trivial Info

[Laurie Verge]

Those members of this forum who are also members of the Surratt Society will remember that the October newsletter had an article about the history of Willard's Hotel in Washington, D.C. As a result of that article, I opened mail yesterday and found that a Surratt member had sent the museum an original menu from the Willard for September 2, 1862. I thought I would quickly share with you their dinner offerings:

SOUP - Gumbo or Vermicelli
FISH - Baked Bluefish in Port Wine Sauce or Boiled Cod in Parsley Sauce
BOILED - Leg of Mutton in Caper Sauce, Roll of Beef with Onions, Beef Tongue, Ham, Chicken and Pork with Egg Sauce, and Corned Beef and Cabbage.
COLD DISHES - Roast Beef, Beef Tongue, Ham, Pressed Corn Beef, or Roast Mutton.
SIDE DISHES - Tenderloin of Beef in Madeira Sauce, Breaded Lamb Chops in Tomato Sauce, Stewed Chickens a la Marengo, Braised Calf's Head in Claret Sauce, Salmi of Duck, Stewed Mutton Country Style, Plain Broiled Pork Steak, or Macaroni with Cheese.
ROASTS - Stuffed Pig with Apple Sauce, Lamb with Mint Sauce, Beef, George Cassard's Ham in Champagne Sauce, Spring Chicken, Stuffed Leg of Veal.
VEGETABLES - Sweet Potatoes, Succatash, Stewed Tomatoes, Lima Beans, Green Corn, Fried Egg Plant, Spring Beets, Cabbage, Mashed Potatoes, Onions, Hominy, Boiled Potatoes, Rice, String Beans.
RELISHES - French Mustard, Worcestershire Sauce, Pickles, Olives .
PASTRY - Green Apple Pie, Cream Pies, Cabinet Pudding, Lady Cake, Damson Pie, Boston Cream Puffs.
DESSERT - Pine Apple Ice Cream, Apples, Walnuts, Peaches, Almonds, Pecan Nuts, Watermelon, Raisins, Filberts

The Wine List is very extensive, so I will just break them down into how many offerings under certain types: Madeira (6), Sherry (5), Burgundy (3), Hock (7), Claret (5), Champagne (5), Port (2), Brandy (7), White Wines (3), Moselle (2), Liqueurs (5), Porter and Ale (3) - Most range from $1 to $5 per bottle (with corkage fee of $1 per bottle), but there are one Madeira brand and one Hock brand listed for $10. Hibbert's London Brown Stout would cost a whopping 38 cents a glass!

I need to look up some of the cooking terms, but I did check out the Salmi of Duck - it's nothing but a fancy name for Duck Stew. Anyone know what Stewed Chicken a la Marengo is? What is Hock Wine? Cabinet Pudding? Lady Cake (I've heard of it, but not sure what it is)?

To be honest with you, reading most of this menu, I would be inclined to only drink and eat vegetables and dessert at Willard's that particular September day in 1862.

[Laurie Verge]

It's a Friday afternoon at Surratt House. I have finished my projects for the day; the visitors have left; the volunteers have left; and all is quiet on the Southern Front. Therefore, I decided to add more trivia to my trivial menu post and define the foods that I left above with question marks. Sorry, guys, but inquiring female minds want to know...

Stewed Chicken a la Marengo has a great history behind it! It was supposedly created in Italy after the Battle of Marengo on June 14, 1800. According to the legend, Napoleon refused to eat before fighting at Marengo and came off the battlefield with a ferocious hunger. Since he had his own chef accompanying him, he demanded food. The chef concocted this dish from whatever he could scrounge from the countryside -- chicken, bread, oil, garlic, tomatoes, eggs, and crayfish.

Napoleon gulped down his meal, returned to the field of battle and things turned in his favor, allowing his forces to be victorious over the Austrians and effectively drive them out of Italy. Supposedly, the superstitious General insisted on having the same dish prepared for him before each battle thereafter. Since he was well known for having bad digestion as well as inhaling his food, this dish must have soothed his problems in more ways than one.

Ingredients in the modern version: chicken, salt & pepper, flour, butter, olive oil. onion, garlic, dry white wine, diced tomatoes, bouillon cube, dried thyme, mushrooms, cognac, and fresh parsley or basil.

The next menu question is simple: What is Hock Wine? An old-time term for German wine.

Cabinet Pudding is a British dessert composed of sponge cake or lady fingers, sugar, Sultanas (raisins), glazed cherries (both soaked in rum or Madeira wine), unsalted butter, and a standard pudding made with milk and eggs.

Finally, Lady Cake seems to be a version of Lady Baltimore Cake -- except that the history of Lady Baltimore Cake only goes back to the early 1900s, and has nothing to do with Baltimore. It is basically a white cake topped with a boiled or "seven minute frosting." What makes it distinctive is the combination of chopped nuts and dried or candied fruits in its frosting.

It was first mentioned in a Southern novel by Owen Wister. Set in Charleston, SC, the novel's main character, Lady Baltimore, is fashioned after one of the city's former belles, Alicia Rhett Mayberry. Lady Baltimore creates this cake in the novel. However, the British had a Queen Cake at least fifty years before that is very similar, so maybe Willard's copied the Queen Cake and called it a Lady Cake??

And that is the sum total of my historic cooking research for the day. I want my own space for totally obscure, trivial trivia, often non-Lincoln related!

[Linda Anderson]

I was curious about the braised calf's head in claret. Here is a recipe I found on Archives.org from The St. James Cookery Book for Braised Calf's Head.

"First remove the veins, clean thoroughly, and cook for five minutes. Again wash the head and put it into a saucepan well covered with water, and boil it until you can remove the flesh from the bone. Then remove all the bone, roll the tongue inside, leave the ears outside, place it in the saucepan in the liquor in which it has been boiled and allow it to simmer in the oven for two hours. Do not put the lid on the saucepan. Thicken the gravy, which has now become a rich brown. Make some cakes of the brains with a little chopped parsley, breadcrumbs, yolk of an egg, and a little cream. Fry them and garnish the dish with them, also some button mushrooms cooked apart; add lemon in slices."

Just add some claret sauce for the finishing touch.

[Laurie Verge]

Excuse me while I throw up! That's almost as bad as a recipe for turtle soup that the Surratt Society ladies included in their first cookbook back in the 1980s.

As a child, I remember my father reminiscing about Sunday morning breakfasts of brains and eggs - and my mother replying, "Not in my house!" However, she would then reminisce about tongue sandwiches. I'm sorry, but just give me Egg McMuffins. I already have one tongue in my mouth (and I know how to use it!).

[Joe Di Cola]

I occasionally make Poulet Marengo for guests and they love it.
Hock is (actually was) the British term for German wine, especially that from the Rhine region.

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(10-19-2012 02:47 PM)Laurie Verge Wrote:  It's a Friday afternoon at Surratt House. I have finished my projects for the day; the visitors have left; the volunteers have left; and all is quiet on the Southern Front. Therefore, I decided to add more trivia to my trivial menu post and define the foods that I left above with question marks. Sorry, guys, but inquiring female minds want to know...

Stewed Chicken a la Marengo has a great history behind it! It was supposedly created in Italy after the Battle of Marengo on June 14, 1800. According to the legend, Napoleon refused to eat before fighting at Marengo and came off the battlefield with a ferocious hunger. Since he had his own chef accompanying him, he demanded food. The chef concocted this dish from whatever he could scrounge from the countryside -- chicken, bread, oil, garlic, tomatoes, eggs, and crayfish.

Napoleon gulped down his meal, returned to the field of battle and things turned in his favor, allowing his forces to be victorious over the Austrians and effectively drive them out of Italy. Supposedly, the superstitious General insisted on having the same dish prepared for him before each battle thereafter. Since he was well known for having bad digestion as well as inhaling his food, this dish must have soothed his problems in more ways than one.

Ingredients in the modern version: chicken, salt & pepper, flour, butter, olive oil. onion, garlic, dry white wine, diced tomatoes, bouillon cube, dried thyme, mushrooms, cognac, and fresh parsley or basil.

The next menu question is simple: What is Hock Wine? An old-time term for German wine.

Cabinet Pudding is a British dessert composed of sponge cake or lady fingers, sugar, Sultanas (raisins), glazed cherries (both soaked in rum or Madeira wine), unsalted butter, and a standard pudding made with milk and eggs.

Finally, Lady Cake seems to be a version of Lady Baltimore Cake -- except that the history of Lady Baltimore Cake only goes back to the early 1900s, and has nothing to do with Baltimore. It is basically a white cake topped with a boiled or "seven minute frosting." What makes it distinctive is the combination of chopped nuts and dried or candied fruits in its frosting.

It was first mentioned in a Southern novel by Owen Wister. Set in Charleston, SC, the novel's main character, Lady Baltimore, is fashioned after one of the city's former belles, Alicia Rhett Mayberry. Lady Baltimore creates this cake in the novel. However, the British had a Queen Cake at least fifty years before that is very similar, so maybe Willard's copied the Queen Cake and called it a Lady Cake??

Cabinet pudding sounds a bit like Trifle.

And that is the sum total of my historic cooking research for the day. I want my own space for totally obscure, trivial trivia, often non-Lincoln related!

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(10-19-2012 03:28 PM)Laurie Verge Wrote:  Excuse me while I throw up! That's almost as bad as a recipe for turtle soup that the Surratt Society ladies included in their first cookbook back in the 1980s.

As a child, I remember my father reminiscing about Sunday morning breakfasts of brains and eggs - and my mother replying, "Not in my house!" However, she would then reminisce about tongue sandwiches. I'm sorry, but just give me Egg McMuffins. I already have one tongue in my mouth (and I know how to use it!).

Laurie,

I suppose I had better not mention "sweetbreads"--the thymus gland from a calf--labor-intensive in preparation--then sauteed with chopped bacon and flambeed with a little cognac--YUM!

[Laurie Verge]

I have read about sweetbreads, and that too shall never enter my mouth.

[L Verge]

I remember seeing rolls of head cheese sold in country stores when I was a child. Do you suppose that Abraham Lincoln ever ate any of these concoctions? Donna, this is probably your territory.

[Joe Di Cola]

(10-19-2012 06:02 PM)L Verge Wrote:  I remember seeing rolls of head cheese sold in country stores when I was a child. Do you suppose that Abraham Lincoln ever ate any of these concoctions? Donna, this is probably your territory.

Springfield had a fairly diverse population, but I am unclear to what extent it had a large German population. I suppose Grant might have eaten head cheese since there was a large contingent of Germans in St. Louis and Cincinnati (Julia's parents were from the St. Louis area and Grant's parents were Ohioans and lived for a time in Covington across the Ohio River from Cincinnati (which had a sizeable German population).
Head cheese is not a comestble I am drawn to--although I have tried the foods I do not like. THat was the rule at the table when I had my formative years. Dad: "Try it; if you don't like it you never have to have it again." What I really wish the North had, were some opportunities to have Southern cuisine--a uniquely American cuisine which, although there are influences from Africa and Europe, is markedly different from what we usually see as immigrant-influenced (aka European) cuisine. Grits, greens (collards, mustard, turnip, etc.), bisquits-to-die-for, gumbo, jambalaya, pulled pork and other forms of barbecue, catfish, crayfish, anything etouffe, fried chicken, remoulade sauce, raw oysters, oysters baked in a variety of ways, saefood dishes that transport one into another realm...WOW!

[Dawn E Foster]

(10-19-2012 09:54 AM)Laurie Verge Wrote:  To be honest with you, reading most of this menu, I would be inclined to only drink and eat vegetables and dessert at Willard's that particular September day in 1862.

I was thinking the exact same thing! Maybe the "or Macaroni with Cheese."

[JMadonna]

I was curious about "Pine apple ice cream". Pineapples are native to islands in the Pacific ocean. With no Panama Canal they had to be extraordinarily hard to get unless they're describing something else.

[Gene C]

(10-20-2012 07:33 AM)JMadonna Wrote:  I was curious about "Pine apple ice cream". Pineapples are native to islands in the Pacific ocean. With no Panama Canal they had to be extraordinarily hard to get unless they're describing something else.

I think it's apple with some type of pine flavoring or scent

[Joe Di Cola]

The pineapple is indigenous to South America and was introduced into the Pacific Islands. So, the ice cream could very well have been made with the pineapple (so called by the Europeans who first encountered it in the "new world" because of the fruit's resemblance to a pine cone aka pine apple).

[L Verge]

Joe, I ate most of your Southern cuisine as a child, except for jambalaya and crayfish. The latter were critters that slithered out from under our propane tanks every now and then. No matter how many people tell me that they taste like shrimp, I ain't gonna try 'em!

[J. Beckert]

Crawfish etouffe, jambalaya and chicken and sausage gumbo I could eat everyday for the rest of my life.

[L Verge]

Do I detect a Creole background there, Joe?