Airline chicken Bacon Beef Beef Stroganoff Beef Wellington Blood pudding (aka black pudding) Cajun fried turkey (aka deep-fried turkey) Carpetbag steak Chateaubriand Chicken Chicken a la King Chicken & waffles Chicken Cordon Bleu Chicken Francese Chicken fried steak Chicken Kiev Chicken Marengo Chicken Parm Chicken sandwich (fast food) Chicken Vesuvio Christmas goose

City Chicken Coq au vin Corn dogs & Pronto Pups Corned beef Country Captain chicken Croquettes Duck Duck a l'orange Foie gras Fried chicken Gravy Hot dogs & frankfurters Jerky Kebabs King Ranch chicken Kobe beef Lamb & mint sauce Meatloaf & meatballs Minced meats & hash Mincemeat pies

Mole poblano New England Boiled Dinner Peking duck Pigs in Blankets Porcupines Pork & applesauce Salisbury steak Sausages of Italy Sloppy joes Steak au Poivre Steak Diane Steak Tartare Swedish meatballs Sweetbreads Tempura Toad-in-the-hole Turkeys & dressing Wiener schnitzel Yankee pot roast

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About inflight catering.

About pork

Medieval Cattle Remains from a Scandinavian Settlement in Dublin

ABOUT CATTLE IN THE NEW WORLD
Cows were not indigenous to America. Dairy cows were introduced to by English settlers in the early 1700s. Meat cows were introduced by Spanish settlers.

"We have noted that for English yeomen of the seventeenth centiry, their own pigs were the principal source of the meat in their diet. Cattle were kept primarily for dairy production and were slaughtered and eaten only when they could no longer be maintained through the winter. This pattern was long established...As early as 1638 live cattle were driven to Boston, where they commanded high prices...By the nineteenth century, the United States was famous for meat-eating as England had already become by the seventeenth century..."
---America's Founding Food: The Story of New England Cooking, Keith Stavely & Kathleen Fitzgerald [University of North Carolina Press:Chapel Hill NC] 2004 (p. 178-180)

"Americans have been great meat eaters from the beginning of their history and still are...Americans have no doubt always preferred beef, but what they actually ate was necessarily that which was available, and for the first three centuries of white history in America, what was most readily available was pork. Nevertheless as early as 1854, Harper's Weekly reported that the commonest meal in America, from coast to coast, was steak; and at the beginning of the Civil War, Anthony Trollope...reported that Americans ate twice as much beef as Englishmen...At the beginning supplying this demand presented no problem, Each settlement was capable of raising for itself as much beef as it needed...But the population of the East Coast increased rapdily; its inhabitants discovered they were not quite as rich in space as they had thought; and much of the land could be better employed for other purposes than grazing. If Americans were to eat beef in the quantities to which they wanted to become accustomed, more spacious grazing lands had to be found. They were found, on a scale which once again seemed unlimited, in the Far West...There is a story which attributes the discovery that the West was ideal for cattle raising to the mishap of a heavily loaded governmental ox train which was blocked by blizzards in Wyoming toward the end of the Civil War. To save themselves, the drivers abandoned wagons and oxen. Returning in the spring to salvage anything that might be salvageable, they were amazed to find theri oxen not only still alive, but well fed and healthy...it wasn't to a question of climate, it was a question of grass...Texas not only had food for cattle, it had the cattle, waiting to be taken, whose ancestors had been imported by the Spaniards in the sixteenth century and abandoned in Texas, where they had drown wild and become "more dangerious to footmen than the fiercest buffalo."..The first Texas herds were thus composed of wild cattle, captured at considerable risk to life and limb, which in the next generation would become domesticated as the famous Texas Longhorns. They were very far from being the best beef critters in the world...The original Spanish stock had come from dry parched country and their descendants had retained, in another dry parched country, the ability to stand up to hot Texas summers and to make do with a minimum of water...Taken in hand by the Western cattlemen, the herds multiplied and prospered...The legendary epoch of the cattle trails, the routes over which herds of Longhorns were driven north to the markets, dates back to before the Civil War. These movements occurred on a prodigious scale, hardly comparable to the placid processions of fifty or a hundred head which had earlier moved north from Georgia or east from Ohio..."
---Eating in America: A History, Waverley Root & Richard de Rochemont [William Morrow:New York] 1976 (p. 192-195)

"The opening up of the American plains transformed cattle farming in the United States. Until the early 1870s Texas ranchers had held great cattle drives of hundreds of thousands of lanky longhorns, urging them along a 700-mile Chisolm Trail from San Antonio direct to the stockyards of Abilene, at a rate of about a dozen miles a day. From Abilene they were taken by rail to the new meat processing plants in Chicago and Kansas City. But when the Great Plains were cleared of bison and the Indians who had depended upon them, the new land was opened to range cattle. What happened then was that the land Texans sent their cattle to the plains on the hoof to rest and fatten up before the last, easy journey to the stockyards, while new ranchers went into business on a massive scale, financed by the capital poured into the industry by American and foreign investors. The profits were substantial...In 1880 Kansas had sixteen times as many cattle as twenty years earlier."
---Food in History, Reay Tannahill [Three Rivers Press:New York] 1988 (p. 316-7)

• History of cattle breeds, Oklahoma State University
• A brief historical overview of the US cattle industry.
• Steak houses, as we Americans know them today, originated in the USA. 19th century New York, to be specific.

"Despite such ethnic fervor, one of the most popular dishes of the day was the very classic, very British Beef Wellington a fillet of beef tenderloin coated with pate‚ de foie gras and a duxelles of mushrooms that are then all wrapped in a puff pastry crust. Some believe that Wellington's popularity had more to do with America's competitive spirit than with any deep passion for British cuisine. It began in the '60s when couples started dabbling in a bit of culinary one-upmanship. Dinner parties with friends became elaborate as complicated recipes appeared on tables with greater regularity. Beef Wellington was considered the height of difficulty and expense because of the preparation of the puff pastry and the price of the pate‚ de foie gras. Kudos and furtive jealous glances went to the cook who mastered such a bear of a recipe. Although Beef Wellington went the way of Beef Stroganoff and Boeuf Bourguignon, it did stage a comeback in magazines such as Gourmet in the '90s, when prepackaged puff pastry and domestic foie gras made it much easier and less expense to make."
--- Leites Culinaria, Dining Through the Decades: Food of the 1970s

The earliest recipe we find in our cookbooks titled "Beef Wellington" is in Craig Claiborne's The New York Times Cookbook, circa 1966:

Beef Wellington 4 t 6 servings

Pastry:
4 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup butter
1/2 cup shortening
1 egg, lightly beaten
1/2 cup ice water, approximately

Filling:
1 fillet of beef (2 1/2-3 pounds)
2 tablespoons cognac
Salt and freshly ground black pepper
6 slices of bacon
8 ounces pate de foie gras or Chicken Liver Pate
3 or 4 truffles
1 egg, lightly beaten

1. Place the flour, salt, butter and shortening in a bowl and blend with the tips of the fingers or with a pastry blender. Add the egg and enough ice water to make a dough. Wrap in wax paper and chill.
2. Preheat oven to hot (450 degrees F.).
3. Rub the fillet all over with the cognac and season with salt and pepper. Lay the bacon over the top, securing with string if necessary.
4. Place the meat on a rack in a roasting pan and roast for fifteen minutes for rare, for twenty to twenty-five minutes for medium. Remove from the oven; remove the bacon. Cool to room temperature before proceeding.
5. Spread the pate all over the top and sides of the beef. Cut the truffles into halves and sink the pieces in a line along the top.
6. Preheat the oven to hot (425 degrees F.).
7. Roll out the pastry into a rectangle (about 18 X 12 inches) one-quarter inch thick. Place the fillet, top down, in the middle. Draw the long sides up to overlap on the bottom of the fillet; brush with egg to seal.
8. Trim the ends of the pastry and make an envelope fold, brushing again with egg to seal the closure. Transfer the pastry-wrapped meat to a baking sheet, seam side down.
9. Brush all over with egg. Cut out decorative shapes from the pastry trimmings and arrange the pieces down the center of the pastry. Brush the shapes with remaining egg. Bake for about thirty minutes, or until the pastry is cooked. Serve the dish hot with Sauce Madere...or serve cold on a buffet table.
Note: Puff pastry may be used to wrap the beef, but care should be taken to roll it very thin. Brioche dough may also be used."
---The New York Times Menu Cookbook, Craig Claiborne [Harper & Row:New York] 1966 (p. 176-7)

Food historians generally agree that fried turkeys trace their roots to Bayou (Louisiana/Texas) creole cuisine. No exact year, restaurant, or person is connected to this particular food by primary documentation. There is no mention of fried turkey in La Cuisine Creole: A Collection of Culinary Recipes [New Orleans:1885] or The Picayune Creole Cook Book, 2nd edition [New Orleans:1901]. We DO find evidence that fried turkeys were cooked outdoors for large popular events (family reunions, charity dinners, church suppers, etc.) in the early years of the twentieth century. About ten years ago fried turkeys received national press and caught the attention of mainstream America. According to articles indexed in the LEXIS/NEXIS reQuester database, this recipe migrated from Louisiana/Texas to Missouri, Tennessee, Georgia (peanut oil), and Washington D.C. before it forked northward toward Seattle and Vancouver. Most articles written in the last couple of years simply reference fried turkey as a tasty alternative to traditional fall holiday meat.

"Frying whole turkeys is sort of the Southern version of making fondue. You have a lot of your friends over, you poke around in a pot of hot oil with some sticks, and then you pull out your dinner. Justin Wilson, he of Cajun fame, recalls first seeing a turkey fry in Louisiana in the 1930s."
---Something Different: Deep-Fried Turkey, Beverly Bundy, St. Louis Dispatch, November 24, 1997 (Food p. 4)

"Fried turkey has been all the rage at least for the last decade in New Orleans, and long before that it was a tradition in the bayou and throughout the South. Like many a vainglorious culinary mania before it, the national renown of fried turkeys can be traced directly to Martha Stewart, who plucked them from regional obscurity and put them in her magazine in 1996. "
---It's Treacherous, But Oh So Tasty; Fried-Turkey Fans Take the Risk, Annie Gowen, Washington Post, November 22, 2001 (p. B1)

"A longtime food favorite in the southern United States, the delicious deep-fried turkey has quickly grown in popularity thanks to celebrity chefs such as Martha Stewart and Emeril Lagasse. While some people rave about this tasty creation, Underwriters Laboratories Inc.'s (UL) safety experts are concerned that backyard chefs may be sacrificing safety for good taste. "We're worried by the increasing reports of fires related with turkey fryer use," says John Drengenberg, UL consumer affairs manager. "Based on our test findings, the fryers used to produce those great-tasting birds are not worth the risks. And, as a result of these tests, UL has decided not to certify any turkey fryers with our trusted UL Mark."
---Deep-Frying That Turkey Could Land You in Hot Water; UL Warns Against Turkey Fryer Use, PR Newswire, June 27, 2002

Authentic Cajun turkey recipes circa 1885
--- Hearn, Lafcadio. La Cuisine Creole, A Collection of Culinary Recipes from Leading Chefs and Noted Creole Housewives, Who Have Made New Orleans Famous for its Cuisine. New Orleans: F.F. Hansell & Bro., Ltd., c1885

About turkeys.

The history of carpetbag steak presents an complicated knot of food lore, culinary history and improbable summations. Food historians generally agree that this dish (thick steak stuffed with oysters) was probably invented in America by a popular chef/restaurant sometime in the first half of the twentieth century. Australians have adopted this recipe, though do not make claims for its invention.

Oyster houses and steak houses (separatetly, not together!) and were all the rage of the rich and wealthy at the turn of the last century. They sprung up everywhere rich diners liked to eat, often combining the restaurant's namesake with other popular foods of the day. It is possible Rector's Oyster House in Chicago and Delmonico's in New York served carpetbag steak, though we have no printed evidence [yet!] to support this theory.

"The oyster house had far outgrown its original simple design and function..."The real Oyster House is a specialized restaurant," explained the author of an 1897 souvenier booklet about Rector's Oyster House in Chicago, "the specialties of which are, in general, sea-food, game, salads, certain delicatessen, and the choicest wines, brandies and ales. In greater detail it is a place where, in their season, the finest and freshest oysters of a dozen varieties are to be found..."
---America Eats Out, John Mariani [William Morrow:New York] 1991 (p.55-6)

Culinary evidence confirms the American tradition of combining oysters and beef steak was practiced in the late 19th century. Oysters were considered a luxury item and were combined with many different foods. Early oyster and beef combinations in American cook books typically "smothered" thick steaks with oysters. There is no mention of a pocket or filling. Food historians generally attribute the first printed recipe for "Carpetbag steak" to Louis Diat, 1941.

This is what the food historians have to say on the subject:

"Carpetbag steak.
A grilled steak of beef into which is cut a pocket enclosing a stuffing of oysters. The name derives from the handbag for travelers that was popular from about 1840 to 1870. The dish resembles the sacklike bag with its top closure. There does not seem to be any specific association with an American slang term, "carpetbagger," for a hated post-Civil War opportunist who took advantage of both white and black southerners politically and economically. In fact, the carpet bag steak is much more popular in Australia and is only menioned for the first time in American print in 1941 in Louis Diat's Cooking a la Ritz. Although there is no proof the dish originated at Chasen's restaurant in Los Angeles, which opened in 1936, it did become one of the restaurant's signature dishes."
---Encyclopedia of American Food and Drink, John F. Mariani [Lebhar-Friedman:New York] 1999 (p. 59)

"Though popular in Australia, this unusual steak stuffed with oysters is apparently of American origin. It takes it name from the cloth satchel travelers used around the time of the Civil War. Just before the turn of the century, when broiled steaks were coming into vogue, a popular way to serve them was under a coverlet of oysters. This recipe simply takes that late-nineteenth-century recipe one step further. Who's responsible? Perhaps Chasen's restaurant, which opened in Hollywood in 1936 (and closed in 1995). Carpetbagger Steak, as Chasen's called it, was a house specialty. Or was Louis Diat, the creator? He includes this recipe for it in Cooking a la Ritz [1941]."
---American Century Cookbook: The Most Popular Recipes of the 20th Century, Jean Anderson [Clarkson Potter:New York] 1997 (p. 92)

"I have, over the years, received more requests for carpetbag steak than almost any other dish, and I suspect much of its appeal has to do with the name, which has a fascinating ring. I own few Australian cookbooks and cannot find the recipe in any of them. The most logical recipe I have ever found appeared thirty years ago in the late Helen Evan Brown's The West Coast Cook Book [1952]...An Australian who now lives in Manhattan...wrote, quoting a passage from The Captain Cook Book: Two Hundred Years of Australian Cooking, by Babette Hayes: "The carpetbag steak is now a truly Australian dish although it came to us from the U.S. of A. A thick chunk of tender sirloin, rump or fillet steak, which has a pocket cut in the middle, is stuffed with oysters and then fried to the required degree of doneness. That's the basic recipe. There are many variations: add chopped mushrooms, onions, herbs, or lemon juice." She says that the name probably derives from the term for a one-pound note in Australia, which is "carpet," and "bag" from the term "in the bag," meaning a winner."
---The New York Times Food Encyclopedia, Craig Claiborne [Times Books:New York] 1985 (p. 71)

CARPETBAG STEAK & AUSTRALIA

The part of this puzzle food historians are not able to solve is who first introduced the carpetbag steak to Australia and when. The Down Under Cookbook: An Authentic Guide to Australian Cooking and Eating Traditions, Graeme Newman [1987] does not include a recipe for carpet bag steak. It does include a recipe for "Pocket Steak Melbourne," which is the same idea but without the oysters. Michael Symons, Australian culinary history expert, believes the recipe can be traced in print to 1899:

"Jean Rutledge's highly successful Goulburn Cookery Book, first appearing in 1899, was designed to meet a "want, especially among the women in the bush, who have often to teach inexperienced maids, and would be glad of accurate recipes." Any dish, she said, much be "mixed with brains."...Out of approximately 1,000 recipes, local additions did not exceed a kangaroo recipe, a couple of new names for simple meat dishes, "Carpet Bag a la Colchester..."
----One Continious Picnic: A History of Eating in Australia, Michael Symons, [Penguin:Victoria] 1984 (p. 54)
[NOTE: Mr. Symons says this about the recipe's origin: "Carpetbag Steak, beef stuffed with oysters, a combination also occurring in the United States, although I have not confirmed where it originated." --(p. 137)]

If you need more information you might consider contacting The University of Adelaide, Cordon Bleu graduate program in gastronomy.

STEAK & OYSTER RECIPES

[1885]
"Beefsteak and Oyster Pie
Cut three pounds of lean beefsteak. Salt, pepper and fry quickly so as to brown without cooking through; then place in a deep dish. Get four dozen oysters, beard them, and lay them in the pan over the beef; season with salt and pepper. Take the gravy in which the steaks were fried, pour out some of the grease; dredge in a tablespoonful of flour, let it brown and add to it a pint of good beef broth, then put in a wine-glassful of mushroom catsup, some of Harvey's or Worcestershire sauce; heat it, and let it boil up a few times, then pour it over the oysters and steak. When the gravy has become cook. Cover the pie with a good puff-paste, and bake it for an hour and a half."
---La Cuisine Creole, Second Edition [F.F. Hansell & Bro.:New Orleans] 1885 (p. 30-1)
[NOTE: Creole cookbooks traditionally combine oysters with poultry, not beef.]

[1887]
"Stewed Steak with Oysters.
Two pounds of rump steak, one pint of oysters, one tablespoonful of lemon juice, three of butter, one of flour, salt, pepper, one cupful of water. Wash the oysters in the water, and drain into a stew-pan. Put this liquor on to heat. As soon as it comes to a boil, skim and set back. Put the butter in a frying-pan, and when hot, put in a steak. Cook ten minutes. Take up the steak, and stir the flour into the butter remaining in the pan. Stir until a dark brown. Add the steak, cover the pan, and simmer half an hour or until the steak seems tender, then add the oysters and lemon juice. Boil one minute. Serve on a hot dish with points of toast for a garnish." ---White House Cook Book: A Selection of Choice Recipes Original and Selected, During a Period of Forty Year's Practical Housekeeping, Mrs. F. L. Gillette [L.P. Miller & Co.:Chicago] 1887 (p. 100)

[1902]
"Steak with Oysters.
Select twenty-five oysters; drain, wash and drain again. Trim the steak, which should be about an inch and a half thickness. When the steak has broiled for five minutes, dust with salt and pepper, baste with butter, and cover it over with the oysters, and without delay run it into a very hot oven for ten minutes. Dish without removing the oysters, baste thoroughly with the juice that is in the bottom of the pan, and send at once to the table. The oysters should have the gills thoroughly curled and be slightly browned."
---Mrs. Rorer's New Cook Book, Sarah Tyson Rorer [Arnold and Company:Philadelphia] 1902 (p. 152)
[NOTE: the extra thick steak used here.]

[1905 or 1907]
"Carpet-Bag A La Colchester
Choose a good tender steak, and have it cut about 2 in. to split it through, and fill in between with raw oysters, lighly seasoned with cayenne and a few drops of lemon juice. Sew up the steak, and grill carefully for 20 minutes to 1/2 hour. Rub steak over with oiled butter or salad oil prevents the juice from escaping, and ensures it coming to table a rich brown outside and tender and juicy inside." ---The Goulburn Cookery Book,Mrs. Forster Rutledge, [The National Trust:Sydney, Australia], 40th edition, a facsimile edition taken from parts of the 2nd in 1905 and 5th in 1907 of the original. xviii + 199 + v 8vo, 1973 (p. 31)

NOTE: Except for the title, the following Australian dish is almost an exact duplication of the recipe above.

[1909]
"Steak and Oyster Filling
Choose a good tender steak, and have it cut about 2 inches thick. Split it through, and fill in between with raw oysters, lightly seasoned with cayenne and a few drops of lemon juice. Sew up the steak, and grill carefully for 20 minutes to 1/2 an hour. Rubbing the steak over with oiled butter or salad oil prevents the juice escaping, and ensures it coming to table a rich brown outside and tender and juicy inside."
---The Schauer Cookery Book, Misses A. and M. Schauer [Edwards, Dunlop & Co:Brisbane and Sydney Australia] 1909 (p. 164)

[1941]
"Carpet-Bag Steak.
Have the butcher cut steak from the sirloin 1 1/2 to 2 inches thick, and then cut through the center to make a pocket. Stuff this pocket with raw oysters, seasoned with salt an pepper. Then sew the edges of pocket together. Broil about fifteen minutes on each side. Serve with any desired potatoes."
---Cooking a la Ritz, Louis Diat, [J.B. Lippincott Company:New York] 1941 (p. 171)

Food historians generally agree on two points when it comes to the history of Chateaubriand: the recipe was named for the Vicomte de Chateaubriand and it first appeared in print during the mid-19th century. Primary evidence confirms the period. It also confirms several recipe variations. On the other hand? Most recipes are not inventions, but evolutions. Good cuts of beef served with maitre d'hotel butter were served in England before this particular recipe was featured in fancy French dinner menus. Thick steaks filled with oysters (aka Carpetbag steak) were also popular at that time. Notes here:

"Chateaubriand...This French version of English beef-steak was probably dedicated to the Vicomte de Chateaubriannd (1768-1848) by his chef, Montmireil: at that time, the steak was cut from the sirloin and served with a reduced sauce made from white wine and shallots moistened with demi-glace and mixed with butter, tarragon and lemon juice. An alternative spelling is chateaubriant and some maintain that the term refers to the quality of the cattle bred around the town of Chateaubriand in the Loire-Atlantique. Pellaprat, probably wrongly, specifies: The dish was created at the Champeax restaurant; it was shortly after publication of Chateaubriand's book L'Itineraire de Paris a Jerusalem (1811) that this grilled steak, comprising a thick slice from the heart of the beef filet, made its first appearance ; its cooking is a delicate process on account of the thickness, for if it is sealed too much, a hard shell is formed on either side and the centre remains uncooked; it must be cooked more slowly than a piece of ordinary thickness."
---Larousse Gastronomique, Completely revised and updated [Clarkson Potter:New York] 2001 (p. 255)

"A chateaubriand is a thick steak cut from a beef fillet. It was named after the French writer and statesman Francois Rene, Vicomte de Chateaubraind. The original application of the term appears to have been to a particular method of preparing steak-grilled and served with bearnaise sauce-which was invented by the chef Montmirail in 1822, when the Vicomte de Chateaubriand was French ambassador in London; but by the 1870s, when it was introduced into English, it had been transferred to the steak itself: The steak which had formerly been served...under the name filet de boeuf was now always announced as 'Chateaubrand,' E.S. Dallas, Kettner's Book of the Table (1877).
---An A-Z of Food & Drink, John Ayto [Oxford University Press:Oxford] 2002 (p. 66-7)

"Chateaubriand is the name given to a large piece of fillet steak, either much thicker that usual or big enough to serve at least two people, or both. There is some disagreement, e.g. between French and American butchers, over the exact size and nature of this cut. A tedious accretion of tales about the origin of the name was robustly hacked out of the way by Dallas (1877) in Kettner's Book of the Table, indeed, the author of this would have gone further and banished the term altogether, as had the members of a certain London club (so he tells us) when a fancy chef sought to install it on their menu.
---Oxford Companion to Food, Alan Davidson [Oxford University Press:Oxford] 1999 (p. 157)

Here is the original passage from Kettner's Book of the Table (1877), quoted in full:

"Take another example of mystification, and it must be added, of exceeding folly--to use no stronger epithet. It is connected with the illustrious name of Chateaubriand. One of the foremost clubs in London one day changed its cook; and its members were astonished to find that the steak which had formerly been served to them under the name filet de boeuf was now always announced as a Chateaubriand. The cook was called to account. What was the meaning of the new name? Why should plain Englishmen be puzzled with a new name--the slang of the kitchen? Why should they not, as of old, get the fillet were accustomed? The cook had really nothing to say. He could only tell that a Chateaubriand was the fashionable name in Paris for a steak cut from the ordinary fillet-steaks--nearly two inches. The members of the club were not satsified with this explanation; and to the great disgust of the chef, who felt the sublimity of the name of Chateaubriand, the order was given that henceforth a steak from the fillet should be announced as before on other bills under the time-honoured name of filet de boeuf.

The were quite right; and even if the cook, better informed, had been able to give them the true history and meaning of a Chateaubriand, there can be little doubt that they would have still arrived at the same decision. He was correct in stating that a Chateaubriand is cut from the best part of the fillet, and is nearly twice the ordinary thickness of steak: but is this all? The thickness of the steak involves a peculiar method of cooking it. It is so thick that by the oridinary method it might be burnt on the surface when quite raw inside; and therefore--though the new method is neglected and is even forgotten very much--it was put upon the fire between two other slices of beef, which, if burnt upon the grill, could have been thrown away. It may still be asked, what has this to do with Chateaubriand, that his name should be attached to a steak so prepared? Here we come into a region of culpapble levity. Chateaubriand published his most famous work under the name of Le Genie du Christianisme. The profane wits of the kitchen thought that a good steak sent to the fire between two malefactor steaks was a fair parody of the Genie du Christianisme. If I remember rightly it was a Champeax' in the Place de la Bourse that this eccentric idea took form and burst upon Paris. As to the name, it is needless to day a word; as to the good sense of the mode of cooking the steak, judgement is pronounced in the fact that, though the Chateaubriand still remains as thick as ever, it is rare now to see it grilled between two other steaks--that being too extravagant. Indeed, in Gouffe's great work on cookery, which must always be mentioned with respect for the good sense and taste whcih pervade it, there is not a hint given that the Chateaubriand is to be cooked, or was ever cooked, between the two robber steaks. Most cookery books say not one word of the Chateaubriand, which ranks now as the prime steak of the French table, and which appears in Parisian dinner bills to bewilder the benighted Englishman with a magnificent but unintelligble name." (p. 6-7)

"Chateaubriand.--It is not necessary to add to the account of this given in the introduction, and I am not anxious to repeat the story. The peculiarity of the steak is in its thickness, and in the way fo broiling it; but sometimes also it is served with a peculiar sauce, namely, Spanish sauce diluted with white wine, then considerably reduced and at the moment of serving enriched with a pat of maitre d'hotel butter." (p. 114)
---Kettner's Book of the Table, E.S. Dallas, facsimile reprint 1877 edition [Centaur Press:London] 1968

CHATEAUBRIAND RECIPES THROUGH TIME

[1869]
"Fillet steaks a la Chateaubriand.
Cut a fillet of beef crosswise, in 1 3/4-inch steaks; trim them; sprinkle them with salt and pepper, and oil them slightly; broil the steaks over the fire, --six minutes each side; put them on a dish; and garnish with potatoes sautees, and cut to an olive shape; pour some Chateaubriand Sauce (vide page 279)--over the steaks only; and serve." (p. 337)

Thickened Maitre d'Hotel Sauce a la Chateaubriand.
Reduce 2 gills of French white wine, and 1 oz. of Meat Glaze; add 1 quart of Espagnole Sauce; continue reducing; then strain, through a tammy cloth, into a bain-marie pan; Before serving, boil up the sauce, and thicken it with 1/4 lb. Of Maitre d'Hotel Butter." (p. 279)
---The Royal Cookery Book, Jules Gouffe, translated by Alphonse Gouffe [Sampson Low, Sone and Marston:London] 1869

[1894]
"Chateaubriand Steak.
This is considered the acme of steaks. It should be cut from the fillet, quite two inches thick, and put into a marinade of the purest olive oil, with a little pepper, for a few hours. Some cooks add a few drops of French vinegar. The steak is best grilled; to ensure perfection, a double gridiron, well oiled, is recommended, and some authorities insist upon the envelopment of the steak in two thin slices of beef (any lean part; it can be put in the stock pot afterwards), to protect the exterior, as it should not be allowed to harden. Without this precaution, great care is needed to cook thoroughly, without hardening, owing to the thickness of the meat. After eighteen to twenty minutes' grilling, lay the meat before the fire on a hot dish, and finish off in either of the following ways: (1) Put a pat of maitre d'hotel butter under the steak, and a little gravy round; this can be made by mixing a grill of stock No. 16 with the same measure of brown sauce No. 2. (2) Put a pat of maitre d'hotel butter in a gill of brown sauce, first heated with a glass of white wine and a teaspoonful of lemon juice. (2) Mix chopped parsley and lemon juice, a teaspoonful of each, with a gill and a half of stock No. 16, thickened with a small quantitiy of roux and glaze, to the consistency of good cream. Serve fried potatoes, chips or ribbons with this steak. Cost, variable."
---Cassell's New Universal Cookery Book, Lizzie Heritage [Cassell and Company:London] 1894 (p. 243)

[1896]
"Chateaubriand of Beef.
Cut the desired number of thick slices from a tenderloin of beef, and slit each one nearly in halves; place a teaspoonful of beef marrow seasoned with salt and cayenne and a few strips of onion in this cavity, pressing the sides together, and brush over with warm butter or oil; place on a warm gridiron over a clear fire for ten minutes. Remove, dish and squeeze a litte lemon juice over them, serving as hot as possible. Care should be take to prevent the marrow from oozing out during the process of cooking."
---The Cookbook by "Oscar" of the Waldorf, Oscar Tschirky [Saafield Publishing:Chicago] 1896 (p. 143-4)

[1903]
"2294. Chateaubriand.
Chateaubriands are obtained from the centre of the trimmed fillet of beef, cut two or three times the thickness of an ordinary fillet of steak. However, when it is to be cooked by grilling the Chateaubriand should not be more than 500 g (1 lb 2 oz) in weight as, if larger than this, the outside tends to become too dry and hard before the inside is properly cooked. Many strange ideas have been put forward concerning the proper accompaniements for Chateaubriand; correctly speaking it should be Sauce Colbert or a similar sauce and small potatoes cooked in butter. In modern practice though, Chateaubriands are served with any of the sauces and garnishes suitable for Tournedos and fillet steaks."
---The Complete Guide to the Art of Modern Cookery, Escoffier [1903], first tranlsation in to English by H.L. Cracknell and R.J. Kaufmann [Wiley:new York] 1979 (p. 279)

[1935]
"Chateaubriand steak.
The Chateaubriand steak is an aristocrat, and is listed on most all a la carte bills. It is a double tenderloin served for two, three, or four. In price it ranges from $2.50 to $5.00, depending upon the size and garnish. Only one Chateaubriand is listed, as a rule, and is named after the house, as "Chateaubriand, Tip Top Inn," $3.50; "Chateaubriand, Blackstone," $4.00. The above quoted bills list but one Chateaubriand steak and the service is for four. The garnish varies with the different establishments, and generally consists of a rich sauce, fresh mushrooms, and fancy vegetables. Some places list two or three sizes with varying prices and garnishes, such as "Marchand du vin," "Bernaise," or "fresh mushrooms." In cutting the Chateaubriand for two it should be cut to weigh one and a half pounds; for three, two and a quarter pounds; for four, three pounds; and to be at its best is should be take from the "heart" or center of the tenderloin strip."
---The Hotel Butcher, Garde Manger and Carver, Frank Rivers [Hotel Monthly Press:Chicago] 1935 (p. 23)

Chicken

The history of chicken is long and complicated.

"The origins of the domestic fowl (Gallus domesticus, as the Romasn named it) go back tens of thousands of years. Charles Darwin, observing the Red Jungle Fowl of southeast Asia, identified it as the progenitor or the modern barnyard chicken. Some present-day archeologists assume the time of domestication to be in 3000B.C. and, following Darwin's lead, the place India, or the Indus valley. Others perfer Burma and others the Malay Peninsula. There is evidence that chickens were known in Sumer in the second millenium and the Sumero-Babylonian word for the cock was "the king bird."..In Egypt we find mention of chickens as early as the Second Dynasty...references in Greek writings of the fourth century B.C. to the fact that the Egyptians kept chickens and , moreover, that they were able to incubate large numbers of eggs...Indeed it was no accident that Egypt, like ancient China, was a mass society which mastered the technology of large-scale incubation. Some four thousand years ago the Egyptians invented incubators capable of hatching as many as ten thousand chicks at a time...From Greece, the chicken spread to Rome...When the Romans conquered Britain, they brought chickens with them...But they also found domestic fowl already there."
---The Chicken Book, Paige Smith and Charles Daniel [Univeristy of Georgia Press:Athens] 1975 (p. 10-16)
[NOTE: This book contains far more information than can be paraphrased here. Your librarian can help you obtain a copy.]

"Chicken. The Indian jungle fowl. Gallus gallus, is the acknowledge progenitor of domestic fowls the world over. It is native to a wide region all the way from Kashmir to Cambodia, with perhaps the centre of origin in the Malaysian land mass. The bird may have been domesticated not as a source of meat, but for purposes of divination...the fowl is a scavenger, and perhaps for this reason, the domestic fowl frequently finds a place in lists of foods prohibited for brahmans. For example, the Manusmriti includes in this category the domestic pig and the domestic fowl, and in AD 916 the visitor A-Masudi records prohibition agains 'cows, tame poultry, and all kinds of eggs among the people'...Other travellers however note the consumption of chicken as food. Chicken kabob, paloa with murgmasallam, and roasted fowl (dojaj) all figure in meals served at the Delhi Sultanate corut. In Vijayanagar, Domingo Pases remarks on 'poultry fowls, remarkably cheap', and in AD 1780 Mrs. Eliza Fay serves 'roast fowl' for lunch in Calcutta. Since good beef was scarce or unavailable, the domestic fowl was indeed the great colonial standby, whether at home or when travelling."
---A Historical Dictionary of Indian Food, K.T. Achaya [Oxford University Press:Delhi] 1998 (p. 41-2)

"Chicken, the domestic or barnyard fowl, native to India; source of meat and of eggs. The earliest sources for the presence of chickens in Euope are Laconian vases dated to the sixth century BC (the chickens identified by some in early Egyptian and Minoan wall paintings are in fact guinea fowl). Greek texts of the fifth century call chickens alektryones awakeners (a salient trait)...Several varieties of chicken are mentioned in ancient sources."
---Food in the Ancient World From A-Z, Andrew Dalby [Routledge:London] 2003 (p. 83-4)

"The chicken (Gallus gallus or Gallus domesticus) is generally considered to have evolved from the jungle fowl...which ranges throughout the area between eastern India and Java....Debates regarding the origin and spread of the domestic chicken focus both on its genetic basis and the "hearth area" of its inital domestication...archaeological evidence [shows] domestic chickens to be present at China's Yangshao on Peiligan Neolithic sites, which dated from circa 6000to 4000 B.C. As a consequence, because wild forms of Gallus are entirely absent in China, and as the climate would have been inimical to them in the early Holocene, it seems likely that chickens were domesticated elsewhere at an even earlier date. in the absence of evidence from India, Southeast Asia (i.e. Thailand) has been put forward as a likely hearth area...Although chickens are strongly associated with egg production in European and neo-European cultures, elsewhere they have very different associations..."
---Cambridge World History of Food, Kenneth F. Kiple and Kriemhild Conee Ornelas, Volume One [Cambridge University Press:Cambridge] 2000 (p. 496-499)
[NOTE: This book has much more information than can be paraphrased here. It also contains an extensive bibliography for further study and a separate chapter devoted to chicken eggs. If you are conducting an academic research project, ask your librarian to help you find a copy of this book.]

"Hen/chicken breeds: Domesticated versions of the species Gallus domesticus. Their wild ancestors are thought to be several species of jungle fowl, of the same genus, native to the Indian subcontinent and SE Asia. Remains from Chinese sites indicated that the birds could have been domesticated as early as the 2nd millennium BC. However, their diffusion westwards was a long process. They probably reached Britain, for example, with Celtic tribes during the 1st century BC. They had arrived in Greece, probably from Persia, about 500 years before that, and there are numerious references tin classical literature, for example to their being served as food at symposia. The Romas bread hens for their meat, selecting docile, heavy birds...An old English breed, the Dorking, also shares these characteristics, leading to speculation that ancestors of these birds flourished in Roman Britain...In 1815 Bonington Moubray was able to specify 12 hen breeds (in his Pracitcal Treatise on Breeding, Rearing and Fattening all Kinds of Domestic poultry, a book which formalized the husbandry of poultry in Britain."
---Oxford Companion to Food, Alan Davidson [Oxford University Press:Oxford] 1999 (p. 378)

U.S. chicken industry history/National Chicken Council & U.S. broiler industry history/ U.S. Dept. Agriculture

ABOUT CHICKEN DISHES
"Chicken dishes are possibly the most nearly ubiquitious menu item of a non-vegetarian kind. They may be taboo in certain circumstances in some cultures, but are generally available to all irrespective of religion and with fewer financial constraints than other flesh. The history of the species...has also been the subject of a...book by Page Smith and Charles Daniel [The Chicken Book, North Point Press:San Francisco 1982], which carries the story from antiquity through publication of the famous book on chickens by Aldrovandi (1600) up to the late 20th century and does not shrink from describing the horrors of some intensive rearing practices. It is these practices which have tended to turn chicken--once something of a luxury for most people--into an inexpensive meat, lacking flavour and provoking uneasy qualms of conscience...This consideration applies in many parts of the world...The lack of flavour has meat that chickens are particularly suited to dishes which involve distinct added flavours. Many ethnic cuisines are rich in such dishes, and many of them have become popular in the western world on tables where they would formerly have been seen as almost unimaginably exotic....Among well known or particularly interesting dishes are the following: Hindle wakes (medieval)...Coronation chicken (Queen Elizabeth II), Chicken a la Kiev (20th century Russia), Southern fried chicken (United States), and Tampumpie (Solomon Islands)."
---Oxford Companion to Food, Davidson (p. 166-7) [NOTE: This book has separate entries for a variety of chicken dishes]

Related foods: airline chicken, eggs, Cajun fried turkey (aka deep-fried turkey), chicken & waffles chicken fried steak, city Chicken, Coq au vin, fried chicken, & Peking duck

While creamy combinations of chicken and sauce have been made for hundreds of years, food historians generally place the *invention* of Chicken a la King in the late 19th/early 20th centuries. They offer several theories with regards to the origin and naming of this dish:

"Chicken a la king. A dish of chicken with a cream sauce garnished with pimientos. Several theories as to the dish's orgins date from the late nineteenth century. One credits New York's Brighton Beach Hotel, where chef George Greenwald supposedly made it for the proprietors, Mr. and Mrs. E. Clark King III. Chef Charles Ranhofer of Delmonico's Restaurant in New York City suggested that Foxhall P. Keene, son of Wall Street broker and sportsman James R. Keene, came up with the idea at Delmonico's in the 1880s. A third story credits James R. Keene himself as the namesake and the place and time of origin as Claridge's Restaurant in London after Keene's horse won the 1881 Grand Prix. However the dish got its name, first mentioned in print in 1912, it became a standard luncheon item in the decades that followed, often served from a chafing dish and with rice or on a pastry shell."
---Encyclopedia of American Food and Drink, John F. Mariani [Lebhar-Friedman:New York] 1999 (p. 71-2)

"Over the years I have speculated about the origin of the dish called chicken a la king. Curiosity about the source has to do with a possible sea change that may have occurred when the dish arrived here, as I supposed, from France. Numerous classic dishes in the French kitchen are listed on menus as a la reine or in the queen's style. Thus you find omelette a la reine, or an omelet filled with creamed chicken, potage a la reine, a cream of chicken soup, and so on. James N. Keen, a professional photographer on Louisville, Kentucky, has a brochure that purports to tell the genesis of the name chicken a la king. Mr. Keen states that a brochure was given to him forty years ago by one E. Clark King 3rd, whose father was a restauranteur. "It was in the early 1900s that chicken a la King was first served to the public," the brochure says. "My father was the proprieter of the Brighton Beach Hotel, a fashionable summer resort outside Manhattan. "One night his head chef, George Greenwald, sent word he had concocted a dish he would like to serve my parents. It was enjoyed immensely and they asked for seconds...The next morning, the chef asked permission to place it on the menu...The next day the bill of fare carried the following" Chicken a la King--$1.25 a portion." If that was the indeed the origin of the name, then here is the original recipe as detailed in the brochure."
---Craig Claiborne's The New York Times Food Encyclopedia, compiled by Joan Whitman [Times Books:New York] 1985 (p. 84-5)

"There's nothing royal about Chicken a la King, which is an entree of cubed cooked chicken breast in a cream sauce that is dotted with pimento and mushrooms and often flavored with Madeira or a similar wine. An early claim for its invention appeared in 1915 in the obituary of William King, who had worked as a cook at Philadelphia's fashionable Bellevue Hotel around 1895. King included truffles and red and green peppers in his recipe. Under the more pedestrian name "creamed chicken," similar recipes appeared in cookbooks beginning in the late nineteenth century. Peas are often added to the sauce in these recipes, and the sauced chicken is served over hot toast, biscuits, or waffles. The first located recipe titled "Chicken a la King" appeared in Paul Richard's The Lunch Room (1911). The name quickly became popular, and the dish became a standard menu item in all kinds of restaurants, upscale and down, especially tearooms that catered to women, since this dish could be eaten in a most ladylike way without picking up a knife."
---Oxford Encycopedia of Food and Drink in America, Andrew F. Smith editor [Oxford University Press:New York] 2004, Volume 1 (p. 227)
[NOTE: The source cited for this information is the New York Tribune, March 5, 1915 (p. 9)]

E. Clarke King III published his side of the story in Better Homes and Gardens, April 1937 (p. 86, 154):

"How Chicken a la King Originated
Of course, you've Chicken a la King at one time or another. Everybody has--and nearly everybody likes it. Perhaps at was in a swanky restaurant or a side-arm lunch. Or you may have made it yourself or turned it out of a can. But aside from a fleeting suspicion that it was likely named for some royal head of Europe, have you ever really wondered who thought it up and how, when, and why it got its name? The whole thing started soon after the turn of the century in the once famous Palm Room of the old Brighton Beach Hotel at Brighton Beach, just out of New York City. Everybody who was somebody knew the place...Head chef at this summer hotel was George Greenwald, who in the winter and spring ran a restaurant of his own in New York's Flatiron Building. One warm summer evening, casting about for a concoction to tempt the palate of the proprietor and his wife, Greenwald developed a new sort of chicken dish. He was a bit dubious about it, so made up only two servings and sent them in. There was a long period of silence. No word came from the diningroom of the success or failure of the invention. Finally a waiter was commissioned to find out how the dish had fared. The proprieter and his lady craved second servings--and there was no more! Gaily the chef returned to his kitchen. If critical E. Clark King had praised it, to what popular heights might his dish not rise if presented to the public? Next morning, in crackling white uniform and billowing cap, he approached his employer. "You enjoyed the chicken dish I prepared for you last night?" "Yes, indeed--and wished there had been more." "Do you have any objection to my placing it on the menu?" "None at all. But you'll have to ask a fairly high price with all those ingredients. I think it will sell, tho." That was all, and the hotel man little guessed the fame his name was to gain from that idly given permission. For the next day there appeared on the menu: Chicken a la King.....$1.25. But E. Charles King II, my father, was shy of personal publicity. The name was never copyrighted and very few of the millions who have since delighted in its piquant flavor ever suspected that is was born just outside the city of New York.

The Original Chicken a la King [A Taste-Test Kitchen Endorsed Recipe]

2 tablespoons butter
1/2 green pepper, shredded
1 cup mushrooms, sliced thin
2 tablspoons flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 cups cream
3 cups chicken, cut in pieces
1/2 cup butter, creamed
3 egg yolks
1 teaspoon onion juice
1 tablespoon lemon juice
1/2 teaspoon paprika
Cooking sherry
Shredded pimiento
Hot toast
Simmer butter, green pepper, and mushrooms 5 minutes. Add flour and salt, cooking gently until frothy. Mix in cream and stir until sauce thickens. Turn into double boiler, add chicken, and heat thoroghly. Beat the 1/4 cup soft butter into the egg yolks. Add onion juice, lemon juice, and paprika. Stir this slowly into hot chicken mixture, stirring until eggs thicken it. Add a little cooking sherry and pimiento. Serve at once on hot toast. Serves 8."

The oldest recipe we have for Chicken a la King was published in a San Francisco restaurant cookbook. This may confirm the immediate popularity of this dish in fine dining establishments. It certainly confirms variations on the original instructions.

[1919]
"Chicken a la King
Take the breast of a boiled chicken or hen (fowl), and cut in very thin diamond-shape pieces. Put in pan and add three-quarters of a pint of cream, salt and Cayenne pepper. Boil from three to five minutes. Add a glass of best sherry or Madeira wine. Boil for a minute and thicken with the yolks of two eggs, mixed with one-quarter pint of cream. Put some sliced truffles on top."
---The Hotel St. Francis Cook Book, Victor Hirtzler [Hotel Monthly Press:Chicago IL] 1919 (p. 337)

Additional notes/Barry Popik.

According to an article titled "Serving up chicken and waffles," Los Angeles Business Journal, September 22, 1997 (p.1):

"As unusual as it might seem, the marriage of chicken and waffles actually has deep roots. Thomas Jefferson brought a waffle iron back from France in the 1790s and the combination began appearing in cookbooks shortly thereafter. The pairing was enthusiastically embraced by African Americans in the South. For a people whose cuisine was based almost entirely on the scraps left behind by landowners and plantation families, poultry was a rare delicacy; in a flapjack culture, waffles were similarly exotic. As a result, chicken and waffles for decades has been a special-occasion meal in African American families, often supplying a hearty Sunday morning meal before a long day in church..."

It is interesting to note that this combination and/or recipe does not appear in What Mrs. Fisher Knows About Old Southern Cooking, Abby Fisher, 1881. Mrs. Fisher was a former slave and her book is generally considered the first cookbook written by an African-American. These foods appear (but not together) in Mrs. Porter's Southern Cookery Book, Mrs. Porter, 1871.

Wells Restaurant in Harlem, New York City is generally regarded as the home of chicken and waffles. This restaurant opened in 1938 and was a very popular during the Harlem Renaissance.

"No appetites are safe from the magnificent Southern Creole cuisine when visiting Wells restaurant, located uptown in the Big Apple. Famous for more than their chicken and waffles, Wells entertains customers with Caribbean flair and a frenzy of live music. Harlem hasn't been the same since Wells opened in May 1938. The owner, Elizabeth Wells, is determined to bring people a humble, homey atmosphere with exciting home-style cooking, but with a twist of island flavor and a lot of fun. Joseph T. Wells, the late husband of Wells, had a record of cooking techniques in the mix. Working as a waiter and manager of a restaurant in Florida, Joseph took his craft to New York during the late 1920s. It was inevitable for the young entrepreneur to start his business and, by the spring of 1938, the restaurant bearing his name opened its doors. Elizabeth Wells entered the picture later. They married in 1966, even though she had joined the establishment in 1963. The married couple produced a son named Tommy Wells. With an avalanche of victory for the restaurant, Wells bloomed as one of the greatest hot spots in Harlem, with a bevy of entertainers who dropped in...Wells has been spinning the wheels of the restaurant with tip-top soul food and no regrets...."
---"For 60 Years, Wells has Nourished the Harlem Community," New York Amsterdam News, April 8, 1999 (p.27)

The "Wells Home of Chicken and Waffles, Since 1938" logo used in the mid-eighties is available online from the US Patent & Trademark Office. Select trademarks, TESS search, registration #1431599.

Was Chicken & Waffles a popular combination before Wells? The following poem suggests so:

Chicken And Waffles

I do love the perfume of roses
As fair and graceful they grow;
I do love the odor of lillies
With petals as white as snow.

I love the smell of new mown hay,
Of violets that from grasses peep;
I love the smell of lillies gay
And artubus tendrills deep

But the smell that risise form down below--
The fragrance of chicken meat=
That starts up the saliva flow=
That smell is far more sweet.

I love to hear the robins sing
And list to thrushes trill.
Tis music when the woodlands ring
With songs from hill to hill.

But, oh, the song of the waffle iron--
The song so full of charm
That turns the golden waffles out.
So rich, so light, so warm.

Just let your waistband out a foot
Pile waffles on your plate;
Now pour the chicken gravy on
And laugh at any fate."
---"Poultry Notes," C.M. Barnitz, Riverside PA, Correspondence Solicited, Daily Record [Morris County, NJ newspaper], September 12, 1908 (p. 5)

The term "Cordon Bleu" (by itself) relates to a special order of French knights. Presumably, by association, cordon bleu as it relates to recipes (as in, chicken cordon bleu...boneless breast of chicken wrapped around cheese and thinly sliced ham) also originated in France as dishes of distinguished classes. Food historians tell us the notion is debatable.

On the other hand? Recipes are not invented. They evolve. Culinary evidence confirms roulades and bracioline composed of veal/chicken, ham and cheese were favored in centuries past by several cultures and cuisines. Most notably: Germany, Austria, Switzerland, France, and Italy. Recipes (and recipe names) varied according local tastes and language. Italian-inspired recipes generally feature prosciutto (ham) and Parmesan (cheese). "Cordon bleu," as we Americans know it today, first surfaced in the early 1960s. Our country's culinary interpretation parlayed prosciutto for thinly sliced deli ham and Parmesan for mozzerella, Gruyere, or Swiss cheese. Old World masterpiece going with the flow. The perfect American convergence. Of course? The timing was perfect.

What is the "Cordon Bleu?"

"Cordon Bleu. This was originally a wide blue ribbon worn by members of the highest order of knighthood, L'Ordre des Chevaliers du Satin-Espirit, instituted by Henri III of France in 1578. By extension, the term has since been applied to food prepared to a very high standard and to outstanding cooks. The analogy no doubt arose from the similarity between the sash worn by the knights and the ribbons (generally blue) of a cook's apron."
---Larousse Gastronomique, completey updated and revised [Clarkson Potter:New York] 2001 (p. 340)

"Chicken Cordon Bleu appears to have no connection whatsoever with the great cooking schools of Paris or London. Instead it is an American innovation of quite recent origin, but one that draws from two distinctly European traditions. The story begins with Chicken Kiev, and authentic Ukranian dish...Made of flattened chicken breasts wrapped securely around seasoned butter, breaded, and then fried, Chicken Kiev became popular in the United States in the 1960s, first as a specialty of fine restaurants...Variations inevitably proliferated. Someone...thought of the Veal Cordon Bleu or Switzerland and the almost identical Schnitzel Cordon Bleu of Austria. Both consist of flattened pieces of veal folded around thin slices of ham and Emmentaler or Gruyere cheese (both products of Switzerland), then breaded and fried. A combination of the concepts for Chicken Kiev and Veal Cordon Bleu resulted in Chicken Cordon Bleu."
---Rare Bits: Unusual of Popular Recipes, Patricia Bunning Stevens [Ohio University Press: Athens 1998 (p. 120)

"...poulet Alsace is chicken breast enveloping a savory stuffing of mushrooms, cheese and smoky pancetta, a close kin to chicken Cordon Bleu."
---"Peasant serves well in its 'people place'," Celeste McCall, The Washington Times, December 26, 1991, Part M; WASHINGTON WEEKEND; DINING OUT; Pg. M7

Dating the modern American cordon bleu
The earliest reference to veal cordon bleu in The Los Angeles Times was published in 1958. It is listed among the trendy dishes served at a swank affair: "Veal cordon bleu will be the piece de resistance on the menu." (P. SG A9). The earliest reference in the New York Times is an advertisement for United Airlines: "Your Entree. It might be a tender filet mignon, stuffed breast of chicken or veal Cordon Bleu. Served with it, a vegetable and potatoes in one of a dozen tempting styles." (February 21, 1962 p. 39). The oldest reference in the NYT for chicken cordon bleu is also an United Airlines, circa 1967: "Top Sirloin. Fine Wine. Color Movies. This is Coach? United's Blue Carpet to California. Blue Carpet is the best reason for flying Coach on your vacation to Los Angeles or San Francisco. What's in it for you? Top Sirloin Steak-or Chicken Cordon Bleu, if you wish-prepared by our own European-trained chefs. Champagne or fine red wine (at nominal cost)...Even a special children's menu." (June 5, 1967, p. 27).

Compare these recipes:

[1955]
"Stuffed Pillows
12 small slices veal cutlet, cut very thin
12 small slices prosciutto or ham, thinly sliced
3/4 pound mozzarella cheese, thinly sliced
1/2 cup butter
1/2 cup Marsala or sherry wine
1 teaspoon butter
1/8 teaspoon salt
1/8 teaspoon pepper
Flatten out veal cutlets with a mallet or ask butcher to do it. Place on slice or rpscriutto or ham and a thin layer of mozzarella cheese on each cutlet, and fold together like an envelope, using toothpicks to hold together. Melt butter in frying pan. Brown pillows well on one side, then turn gently, and brown on the other side. They should be cooked in a short time. Remove meat from the pan, pour the Marsala or sherry into it, scraping bottom and sides of pan well. Add 1 teaspoon butter, salt, and pepper and pour sauce over pillows on serving dish. Serves 2."
---The Talisman Italian Cook Book, Ada Boni [Crown:New York] 1955 (p. 103)

[1961]
"Italian Stuffed Veal Cutlet
3 to 4 servings
1 pound veal cutlet, cut in serving pieces about 1/2 inch thikc
1/4 pound Swiss cheese, sliced very thin
1/4 pound prosciutto, sliced very thin
2/3 cup fine, fresh bread crumbs
1/2 cup grated Parmesan cheese
1 tablespoon finely chopped parsley
2 teaspoons finely choppped celery leaves
1 clove garlic, inced
Pinch each of oregano, basil and rosemary
Sat and freshly ground black pepper
flour
1 egg
3 tablespoons milk
1/4 cup butter
1. With a short, sharp-bladed knife, cut a deep pocket in each piece of veal. (Insert the knife in the longest side and cut through almost the entire area of the meat.)
2. Wrap a slice of Swiss cheese around a slice of prosciutto for each piece of veal. Fit into the veal pocket and press tightly closed.
3. Mix the bread crumbs with the Parmesan cheese, parsely, celery, garlic and herbs to make breading mixture.,br. 4. Season the meat on both sides with salt and pepper and dredge with flour. Beat the egg well with the milk and dip the cutlets into the mixture, then roll in the seasoned crumbs.
5. Melt the butter in a heavy skillet, add the cutlets and cook uncovered over moderate heat twenty minutes, turning to brown evenly."
---New York Times Cook Book, Craig Claiborne [Harper & Row:New York] 1961(p. 160-161)

[1964]
"Veal cutlets romnichel
For four people
4 French-cut veal cutlets
4 slices ham
4 slices Gruyere cheese
flour
1 egg, slightly beaten
1/2 cup soft breadcrumbs
5 tablespoons butter
salt and pepper ---La Cuisine de France, Mapie, the Countess de Toulouse-Lautrec, edited and translated by Charlotte Turgeon [Orion Press:New York] 1964 (p. 346)

[1964]
"Veal Cutlet Cordon Bleu
The French and Italians do marvelous tings with many veal cutlets or steaks, many dishes with special appeal to American tastes. Veal Cordon Bleu, thin cutlets sandwiched with Swiss cheese and ham, is a classic French dish. This version can be managed easily for a company dinner...
4 cups corn flakes or 1 cup packaged corn flake crumbs
1 egg
2 tablespoons milk or water
1 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon pepper
12 thin veal cutlets
6 slices Swiss cheese
6 thin slices cooked ham
1 cup flour
Shortening
If using corn flakes, crush into crmbs. Beat egg and milk together. Stir in salt an eppper. Pound cutlets with meat mallet to flatten. Place a slice of cheese and ham on half the cutlets. Top with remaining cutlets. Press edges together to seal. Roll in flour, dip in egg mixture, then roll in crumbs, coating all sides. Fry in hot shortening until golden brown on both sides, about 6 min. on each side. Add more shortening as necessary. Garnish with lemon slices., if wished. Makes 6 servings."
---"Variations with Veal," Los Angeles Times, March 5, 1964 (p. D8)

[1968]
"Chicken Breasts Cordon Bleu
3 whole chicken breasts
6 thin slices ham or prosciutto
6 slices Swiss cheese
3 eggs
Salt, pepper
Flour fat for deep frying
Have chicken breasts skinned, boned and split in halves. Place each hlaf, boned side up, between pieces of waxed paper. Pound with wood mallet or flat side of knife blade to flatten, being careful hot to puncture meat. As chicken flattens a rolling pin may be used to make it thinner. Cut each ham and cheese slice into halves. Place a piece of ham on each breast half, then top with cheese. Roll up, jellyroll fashion, tucking in ends. Fasten with wood picks. Beat eggs with salt and papper to taste. Dip rolled chicken in flour, then egg mixture, then bread crumbs. Fry chicken in deep fat heated to 360 deg. until golden brown on all sides. Drain on absorbent paper. Makes 6 servings. Note: To prepare ahead, stuff, roll and bread the rolls. Arrange rolls in a single layer on a tray or large flat platter. Cover with wax paper or transparent wrap and refrigerate until ready to fry. Or fry then refrigerate rolls. To reheat cooked chicken breasts, place in a shallow pan and bake at 350 deg. 15 to 20 mon. or until heated through, being careful rolls do not overbrown. Do not cover rolls or they will become soggy."
---"Time and Care Go Into Chicken Cordon Bleu," Los Angeles Times, July 11, 1968 (p. H10)

References to "Cordon Bleu"-type recipes can be found in 19th/20th century American/British cookbooks. It takes a little work because they are listed by different names. The Doubleday Cookbook/Jean Anderson & Elaine Hanna [1975] offers a recipe for "Ham and Cheese Stuffed Chicken Breasts (p. 504).

According to the food specialists, Chicken Francese is an Italian-American dish introduced in the New York City area sometime after World War II. This was a popular trend at that time. The earliest mention we find in the New York Times for this dish is this restaurant review published January 2, 1970 (p. 25): "There was also a dish called chicken francese or chicken French-style with lemon, and it would have been good except it was overly salted."

Of course few recipes are "invented." They evolve. Breaded and fried chicken/veal recipes were known to ancient Roman cooks. This recipe diffused as the Roman Empire marched through Europe. It evolved according to local taste, ingredients, and cuisine. You know? In some respects, chicken francese is not so very different from German schnitzel, or Italian Scallopinne, lightly breaded cutlets fried and seasoned with lemon.

"Chicken francese. An Italian-American dish of sauteed chicken cutlets with a lemon-butter sauce. The word francese is Italian for "French style," although there is no specific dish by this name in either Italian or French cookery."
---Encyclopedia of American Food and Drink, John F. Mariani [Lebhar-Friedman:New York] 1999 (p. 72)

"Some of the most interesting dishes on the menus of Italian restaurants in America are of uncertain or dubious origin. They bear Italian names, but are commonly supposed to have been created in this country. Three of these dishes are clams Posillippo, chicken scarpariello, and veal Francese. One will rarely, if ever, find recipes for these dishes in standard or tradtional Italian cookbooks, either regional or classic...Frances means French-style, and, in most Italian-American restaurants, veal Francese is batter-fried."
---"Three Rarely Found Recipes for Interesting Italian Dishes," Craig Claiborne & Pierre Franey, New York Times, June 4, 1981 (p. W_A18D)

"Now for a bit of background: Having enjoyed Chicken and/or Veal Francese (or Francaise) many times, I knew the sauce consisted of lemon juice, sometimes white wine, chicken broth and unsalted butter. However, it's not a classical sauce. I did find one written recipe for a Sauce Francaise made with fish stock, garlic and mashed anchovies in a bechamel (white) sauce, in Henri-Paul Pellaprat's Modern French Culinary Art (World Publishing Co., 1996). But I could not find any written recipe for the lemony sauce we are familiar with. Even August Escoffier, who died in 1935 and was regarded as the Emperor of Cooks, never mentioned a Sauce Francaise (or Francese) in his Le Guide Culinaire (published in English by Crown Publishers, 1941). I spoke with Jean Bert, chef/owner of La Coquille in Fort Lauderdale. After research in his classical cookbooks, he came to the same conclusion. Whatever the origin of this light, lemony sauce, it is the perfect foil for the delicate flavors of chicken, veal or fish, and Il Bacio's is one you will want to make often."
---"FINDING FRANCESE; THE ORIGIN OF THIS WELL-KNOWN LEMONY SAUCE IS UNCLEAR," Sun-Sentinel (Fort Lauderdale, FL), March 20, 1997 (Food p. 3)

"This is a delicious and easy recipe that's very hard to find because people look in Italian cookbooks for it. It isn't entirely Italian, so they search in vain. Indeed, it is hardly even known outside the New York metro area, which leads me to believe that it is a strictly local dish. In fact, the only English language cookbook in which I have EVER seen the recipe is in one of my own, Cooking In A Small Kitchen, published by Little Brown in 1978 and now out of print, and The Brooklyn Cookbook by Lyn Stallworth and Rod Kennedy, Jr., published by Knopf in 1991 and still widely available. The recipe does, however, have antecedents in recipes that I have found in Italian language Neapolitan cookbooks, but its final refinement must have been in New York. When I was growing up in Brooklyn in the 1950s, it was just beginning to gain in popularity over veal and chicken parmigiana. You can also have veal francese, shrimp francese, and fish (usually sole or flounder fillets) francese. Francese of course means "in the French manner," but it refers to a food that is dipped in flour and egg, then fried, then dressed with lemon juice or lemon sauce. In Neapolitan cookbooks, there's mozzarella or provola (aged mozzarella) treated this way, and chicken thighs on the bone treated this way. But a thin slice of veal or chicken? No. And these days, such a dish would not be called francese in Naples anyway. It would most likely be called indorati e fritti -- gilded and fried. Entirely an Italian dish." ---Authur Schwartz, The Food Maven

Possible precursors?

[15th century]
"56. Lemon Sauce for Chickens or Capons
Get one or more chickens, capons or cockerels than have been cooked a little in water; take them out of the water and mount them on a spit; then get peeled, well ground almonds and temper them with the bouillon of the chickens; then get lemon juice and mix it all together with good spices; and put it into a saucepan to cook a little; then pour it over the roast with a little fat; serve it very hot."
---The Neapolitan Recipes Collection: Cuoco Napoletano, 15th century cooking text, critical edition and English translation by Terence Scully [Universtiy of Michigan Press:Ann Arbor] 2000 (p. 184)

[1945]
"167. Chicken Breasts a la Saute
This is a palatable dish as well as an economic one. If cooked as decribed, a single breast of capon is sufficient for four portions. Cut the breasts into thin slices, almost as thin as paper. Trim these pieces as nicely as possible. Add a pinch of salt and pepper and place them in a beaten egg. Let them remain in the egg for one hour. Remove and cover the slices of breasts with cracker dust. If the meat is preferred plain, just fry the slices and serve with lemon. Otherwise, prepare a sauce in the following manner: Take a small pan and barely cover the bottom with oil. Put in some sliced mushrooms, spread a pinch of cracker dust or grated stale bread on them. Repeat the operation three or four times. Add some oil, salt and pepper, some butter, all in small quantities, so as not to give the food a fatty taste. Now place this small pot on the fire, and as it comes to a boiling point, add a small ladleful of meat soup and a few drops of lemon. Remove from fire quickly, add it to the breasts already cooked, and serve."
---Italian Cook Book, Pellegrino Artusi [S.F. Vanni:New York] 1945 (p. 110-1)

[1952]
"Veal Scallopine alla Francese
(Tastes as good as it sounds!)...We dip the veal scallopine in egg yoke, saute it in butter and lemon juice, and leave the adjectives to you."
---advertisement for restaurant Villa Camillo (New York City), New York Times, July 17, 1952 (p. 2)

[1967]
"Scalloppine Alla Francese...Very, very thin preaded veal cutlets, cut into 2-inch squares. Serve with lemon wedges."
---"The Fast Gourmet," Poppy Cannon, Chicago Daily Defender, January 5, 1967 (p. 20)

[1977]
"Morton Kaplan's Veal Francese
Pursuant to an inquiry from a reader for a recipe for veal francses we printed a formula for what we presumed to be a basic version of the dish. Dr. Morton Kaplan of Queens writes to state what we printed was a recipe for veal piccata, not francese. 'I've discussed this dish with many of the chefs of New York's Italian restaurants and here is my version,' he said. 'I will challenge anyone to a veal francese cookoff.'...
1/2 pound veal, preferably taken from the leg and cut into four thin slices as for scaloppine
Salt and freshly ground pepper to taste
Flour for dredging
Peanut, corn or vegetable oil
2 eggs, beaten
1/2 cup chicken broth
2 tablespoons butter
2 lemon wedges
4 thin slices lemon
1 tablespoon finely chopped parsley
1 teaspoon paprika
1. Place the slices of veal between two sheets of wax paper and pound to about one-eigth of an inch thickness. Sprinle meat with salt and pepper to taste. Dredge the scaloppine in egg to coat well on both sides in flour.
2. Add oil to a depth of about one-eighth of an inch in a large heavy skillet. Dredge the scaloppine in egg to coat well on both sides. Cook quickly in the hot oil until golden brown on both sides. Cook about one minute or less on the first side, turn and cook about two minutes on the other.
3. Quickly but carefully pour off the fat from the skillet, holding th meat back with a fork.
4. Return the skillet to the heat and add the chicken broth and butter, cooking over high heat to reduce quickly. Squeeze the lemon wedges into the sauce, then add the wedges. Turn the pieces of meat once in the sauce and transfer to a hot platter. Discard the lemon pieces and our the sauce over the meat.
5. Sprinkle half of each lemon slice with parsley and dust the other half with paprika. Use as a garnish for the meat. Yield: 4 servings."
---"De Gustibus," Craig Claiborne, New York Times, March 14, 1977 (p. 34)

The history of chicken fried steak (aka country fried steak) is a fabulous example of cultural diversity, regional pride and just plain confusion. Why? Because there are as many names/recipes for this dish as people who claim they know how it started. That's part of what makes the study of food history so interesting.

As is true with many popular foods we know today, the recipe preceded the name.

Food historians generally agree the practice of dredging meat (all kinds) in flour/spices, frying/baking it up and serving it with a sauce/gravy dates back to ancient times. This cooking method tenderizes the meat and enhances its flavor. Think Wiener schnitzel. Europeans who settled in America knew all about making tough cuts of meat palatable. Many historic American cookbooks contain "chicken-fried" type recipes for beef, veal, chicken & lamb, though they go by different names. Veal is traditionally considered to be a tough cut of meat and was often cooked in such a way as to make it more tender, as in weiner schnitzel. Sensible American cooks would have treated tough cuts of beef in a similar fashion. The chicken connection? Some food historians suggest the coating and pan-fried cooking technique commonly used on fried chicken was easily adapted to tenderize steak.

In America, country fried steak is generally considered to be a regional dish. It is commonly found in the southern and central western states. The meat used for this American dish is always beef, the cuts vary. The "chicken-fried" moniker seems to be a mid-20th century invention. The earliest print reference we find mentioning Chicken Fried Steak is a restaurant ad published in the Colorado Springs Gazette, June 19, 1914 (p. 6): "A Summer Dainty. Chicken Fried Steak served at Phelps, 111 E. Bijou." The earliest printed recipe we have for in chicken-fried steak was published in 1924.

What the food historians say:

"Chicken-fried steak...A beefsteak that has been tenderized by pounding, coated with flour or batter, and fried crisp. The name refers to the style of cooking, which is much the same as for southern fried chicken. Chicken-fried steak has been a staple dish of the South, Southwest, and Midwest for decades..."
---Encyclopedia of American Food and Drink, John F. Mariani [Lebhar-Friedman:New York] 1999 (p. 72)

"Chicken-fried steak...dating back to the times when beef was not nurtured with tender, loving care, steak identified as chicken-fried or country-fried, or sometimes smothered, can be prepared with any cut of beef but is obviously no better than the quality of the piece chosen. It is still popular in the South and West, especially at roadside eating places."
---American Food: The Gastronomic Story, Evan Jones, 2nd edition [Vintage Books:New York] 1981(p. 275) [includes recipe]

"Chicken-fried steak...Particularly popular in the South and Midwest, this dish is said to have been created to use inexpensive beef."
---Food Lover's Companion, Sharon Tyler Herbst, 3rd edition [Barrons:New York] 2001 (p. 126)

"Chicken-fried steaks...I have never seen a recipe for chicken-fried steaks. It is my conjecture that the name came about years ago when it was impossible to get beefsteaks of good quality in the rural South...I believe Swiss steaks had more or less the same origin. After the steaks were fried they were covered with a sauce of tomatoes, carrots, celery, and peas and baked until fork-tender."
---Craig Claiborne's The New York Times Food Encyclopedia, compiled by Joan Whitman [Times Books:New York] 1985 (p. 86)

What the regional people say:

"The basic recipe for country-fried steak, for example, includes lightly floured steak sauteed and then baked in the oven. It's smothered with brown gravy and onions. Chicken-fried steak, on the other hand, uses breading similar to that for chicken before it's fried in a skillet. It's topped off with a cream gravy."
---"Folks from 'round here know down-home cooking," The Augusta (Ga.) Chronicle, April 7, 2000, Pg. O2

"Of course, there's chicken fried steak, another Texas curiosity. Not the dish, but the name. But battered and pan-fried beef steak is a home-cooking tradition in many regions. It goes by different names - country-fried steak, for example - in different parts of the country."
---"Dallas' signature foods: not what you'd expect," The Dallas Morning News, September 29, 1993, Pg. 2F

"For the sake of argument, let's say a chicken-fried steak is a piece of beef, dipped in a mixture of egg and milk, dredged in seasoned flour and either pan-fried or deep-fried in hot oil, shortening or drippings. Let's also assume the great majority of chicken-fried steaks are served on top of or underneath a ladle of cream gravy, and usually sits next to a big helping of mashed potatoes. Although chicken-fried steak is considered a Southern staple, and most assuredly holds elite status in nearly any Oklahoma diner, its written history surprisingly dates to only about 1950."
---"Batter up Texas has the longhorn. Kansas City the strip. But we've got chicken fry." Tulsa World, December 22, 2000

"Matt's El Rancho [restaurant] opened in 1952 at 302 E. 1st. [Austin, TX]. The original menu consisted of only blue plate specials such as chicken fried steak."
Matt's El Rancho

"The German-Austrian dish is an illustrious forebear to our chicken-fried steak. German immigrants brought the breaded and fried cutlet to the Texas frontier, where it was quickly copied -with less finesse-by chuck-wagon cooks and farm wives trying to make a tough cut of beef more palatable. Even the gravy ladled on top has Teutonic roots: Rahmschnitzel is garnished with cream sauce. Schnitzel is German for cutlet. It is most often made from veal, but pork and, less frequently, beef also are used. Though there are many variations, the most popular is probably Wiener schnitzel, a crisply coated cutlet served plain except for a squeeze of lemon."
---"Plate Teutonics; Hofstetter's Wiener schnitzel is a cut from history," The Dallas Morning News, January 23, 1994, Pg. 21

"According to the Lone Star Book of Records, the CFS was invented in 1911 by Jimmy Don Perkins, a cook in a small cafe in Lamesa, Texas, who misunderstood a customer's order and battered a thin steak and deep-fried it in hot oil. Unfortunately this oft-reported food fact is a complete fable. Nobody is really sure when the CFS was invented, but it was long before 1952. In the Best Read Guide to San Antonio, Carol B. Sowa reports that the Pig Stand Drive-in locations in San Antonio started serving chicken-fried steak sandwiches when they opened in the 1940s. Gourmet columnists Jane and Michael Stern speculate in Eat Your Way Across the U.S.A. that the chicken-fried steak was a Depression-era invention of Hill Country German-Texans. My own guess is that the dish existed as beefsteak Wiener schnitzel long before the catchy Southern name was coined."
---Houston Press, January 11, 2001

"It was in this restaurant where the famous Fred Hill Steak was invented by Fred Hill. This steak is a round steak dipped in batter and flour and other secret ingredients, then fried in a skillet on the stove. This may sound like a Chicken Fried Steak, however, there is no comparison with the original Fred Hill Steak and a chicken fried steak. This secret recipe was handed down to Fred's daughter-in-law, Esther V. Hill of Portal, North Dakota and lately passed on to Fred's grandson Robert Hill. For may years the son's of Kenneth Hill would make the long journey to Portal to take in the famous steak invented by their grandfather, kept alive by their father Kenneth Hill, cooked by their mother Esther Hill and enjoyed by all."
---Frederick Hill Family

About Germans in Texas

We checked several historic [American] Southern cookbooks for chicken-fried and/or country-fried steak and found many recipes that would approximate the recipe in question, all under different names:

1824--The Virginia Houswife, Mary Randolph

---A Fricando of Beef (p. 41); Beef steaks (p. 44)

1871--Mrs. Porter's New Southern Cookery Book, Mrs. M. E. Porter

---Beefsteak with onions (p. 76-77); Beef cakes (p. 79)

1877--Buckeye Cookery and Practical Housekeeping, Estelle Woods Wilcox

Fried beefsteak and Fried veal cutlets

1879--Housekeeping in Old Virginia, Marion Cabell Tyree

---Beefsteak fried with onions (p. 143); Fried steak (p. 144)

Mrs. Beeton's [1861] recipe (#949)

The history of City chicken (aka mock chicken) is relatively easy to trace. The definative origin of the name continues to elude food historians. What we do know? This recipe calls western Pennsylvania "home."

The culinary evolution of City chicken:

"Mock" foods (foods that are named for an ingredient that isn't in the recipe) have a long an venerable history. Medieval cooks employed by wealthy families were fascinated with illusion food. The practice of calling one food by another name (mock sturgeon was composed of veal) or making one meat resemble another was quite an art and highly respected. Victorian-era cooks were also intrigued by mock foods. They enjoyed mock turtle soup (calve's head...remember this character in Lewis Carroll's Alice in Wonderland?), mock goose (leg of pork) and mock apple pie (soda crackers). Depression and World War II-era cooks created mock foods to stretch the budget and satisfy family tastes. The 1931 edition of Irma Rombauer's The Joy of Cooking has recipes for mock chicken sandwiches (tuna), mock pistachio ice cream (vanilla with almond extract and green food coloring) and mock venison (lamb).

The Oxford English Dictionary does not have an entry for city chicken or mock chicken, but it does have an entry for "mock duck and mock goose." These are defined as "a piece of pork from which the 'crackling' [skin] has been removed, baked with a stuffing of sage and onions." The OED traces this usage in print to 1877. Here is the referenced recipe:

"Goose, Mock. Mock goose is a name given in some parts to a leg of pork roasted without the skin, and stuffed just under the knuckle with sage-and-onion stuffing. It is a good plan to boil it partially before skinning and putting it down to roast. When it is almost done enough, sprinkle over it a powder made my mixing together a table-spoonful of finely-grated bread-crumbs, with a tea-spoonful of powdered sage, half a salt-spoonful of salt, and the same of pepper. Send some good gravy to the table in a tureen with it. Time, allow fully twenty minutes to the pound. Probable cost, 11d. Per pound."
---Cassell's Dictionary of Cookery [Cassell, Peter, Galpin & Co.:London] 1877 (p. 262)

Late 19th and early 20th century American and English cookbooks contain many veal recipes. Veal loaves (meatloaf!), veal cutlets, and roasts were popular. We find recipes for "veal birds" in depression-era cookbooks. Veal birds are composed of flattened veal stuffed with pork meat balls. The are held in place with toothpicks and served with cream gravy. Guessing from the pictures, the finished product is supposed to look like little birds. Hence, the name.

"Veal had never been an American meat staple...And though the amount of veal we did eat fell off after the war [WWII], it was used occasionally (except by immigrants who liked it) as an inexpensive substitute for the desirable high-priced chicken or turkey, which where not yet being raised in huge numbers by poultry factories."
---Fashionable Food: Seven Decades of Food Fads, Sylvia Lovegren [MacMillan:New York] 1995 (p. 142-3)

Curiously enough? German weiner schnitzel [breaded veal cutlets] morphed in the 1940s in many southern states into "chicken-fried steak." The recipe for "city chicken/mock chicken" is almost identical. The difference is that city chicken is made with pork and veal cubes (as opposed to a single type of meat) and shaped on a skewer. Our notes on chicken fried steak.

The earliest recipe we find for Mock Chicken legs [pork & veal cubes on a skewer, dipped in egg, rolled in breadcrumbs and sauteed) is dated 1936. The earliest recipe we find for City Chicken [virtually identical recipe as mock chicken] is also from 1936. Both books were published in the midwest. Compare:

"Mock Chicken Legs
1 lb beef steak
1 lb veal or pork
2 tesapoons salt
1/2 teaspoon white pepper
1/4 cup fat, melted
1/4 cup flour or 3.4 cup cracker crumbs
6-8 wooden skewers
Have steaks cut about 3/8 inches thick. Pound well and cut in 1 or 1 1/2 inch squares. Arrange 6 pieces alternately through one corner on each skewer, having top and bottom pieces somewhat smaller to represent drumsticks. Brush over or roll in fat, then in flour or crumbs, season with salt and pepper. Fry in fat left over and brown on all sides. Cover pan closely, cook slowly about 1 1/2 hours, or until tender, adding water if necessary."
---The Settlement Cook Book, Mrs. Simon Kander [Settlement Cook Book Co.:Milwaukee WI] 21st edition enlarged and revised 1936 (p. 161)

"Mock Chicken Drumsticks (City Chicken)
6 servings
Cut into 1X 11/2 inch pieces:
1 pound veal steak
1 pound pork steak
Sprinkle them with salt, pepper
Arrange the veal and pork cubes alternately on 6 skewers. Press the pieces close together into the shape of a drumstick. Roll the meat in flour.
Beat 1 egg, 2 tablespoons water
Dip the sticks into the diluted egg then roll them in breadcrumbs.
Melt in a skillet 1/4 cup shortening
Add 1 tablespoon minced onion (optional)
Brown meat well. Cover the bottom of the skillet with boiling stock or stock substitute or water. Put a lid on the skillet and cook the meat over very hot heat until it is tender. Thicken the gravy with flour (2 tablespoons four to 1 cup of liquid). If preferred, the skillet may be covered and placed in a slow oven 325 degrees F. Until the meat is tender."
---The Joy of Cooking, Irma S. Rombauer [Bobbs Merill:Indianapolis] 1936 (p. 95)
[NOTE: Mrs. Rombauer does not offer an explanation regarding the origin of the term "city chicken".]

The western Pennsylvania connection
We don't claim Chicken Chicken originated in Western Pennsylvania. Just that the overhwelming majority of people who have heard of this dish live in/have connections to that region. Notes here:

• "Want to avoid confusion? Practice Pittsburghese before your visit. For example, city chicken is not poultry but breaded pork and veal skewered and grilled."--- Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh
• "Today's recipe satisfies our occasional yearning for a hearty, homemade meal and has been an oldie but goodie for decades. It's the kind of dish you'd expect Aunt Bee from Mayberry to serve Andy and Opie. City Chicken is a basic dish made with cubed pork, veal or beef. The cubed meat is placed on skewers, breaded, then fried in oil or butter. We found meat labeled city chicken at Giant Eagle. It was a combination of veal and pork (this seems to be the most popular). The package also contained the skewers. You can, if you desire, cube you own meat. Try City Chicken with buttery mashed potatoes and a vegetable and maybe a salad on the side and you have delicious meal. Why is it called City Chicken? Sandra Smerilli of Monessen tells us "It is called City Chicken because it resembles a chicken leg." Sounds right to us."
  ---Pittsburgh Post-Gazette.
• "Even though we left Pittsburgh almost 19 years ago, we still read the Post-Gazette, either in print or online, every day. I enjoy Martinson's comments on wedding cookies, Christmas cookies, pierogi sales and other local traditions. We miss New Year's Eve pastry pretzels, city chicken, good chipped ham, Irish potato candy and ladylocks."
• "I'm throwing my two cents in here kind of late but in western PA my Mom made "City Chicken". It was CUBES of pork and veal, floured, browned in the pan, then braised in the oven with chicken stock and mushrooms. (Maybe she threw in a little chopped onion) The meat was definately cubed and not ground."
• "Food from the Coal Region is something missed the most by ex-Coal Crackers. The multi-ethnic heritage of the region makes it home to wonderful recipes from all over the world. From boilo to halupkies, city chicken to mozhee, many a Coal Cracker's mouth waters at the mere mention of these culinary delights."
• "CITY CHICKEN Bedford Gazette Friday, March 14, 1930 Bedford, Pennsylvania ...different for the Sunday dinner CITY CHICKEN A tasty supper for Sunday.. Pg. 10, col. 2: Something different for the Sunday dinner" ---"a href="http://listserv.linguistlist.org/cgi-bin/wa?A2=ind0410d&L=ads-l&P=8380">Bedford Gazette.

Other cities with early mock/city chicken citings include Milwaukee, Sheboygan, & Detroit:

• "CITY CHICKEN (Caldwell's Market--ed.) Sheboygan Press Thursday, May 08, 1930 Sheboygan, Wisconsin ...May luncheon: Fruit Cocktail Pretzels CITY CHICKEN Chopped Potatoes Enzo-Jel....."
• The Settlement Cook Book, Mrs. Simon Kander (Milwaukee, 21st edition, enlarged and revised c. 1936) offers a reicpe for "Mock Chicken Legs" which is strikingly similar to Irma Rombauer's City Chicken (c. 1936).
• The debate rages on.

Then, there's also Chicago Chicken (defined by the Random House Historical Dictionary of American Slang, J.E. Lighter [Random House:New York] 1994, Volume 1 as "bacon or sausage." (p. 395)

Related foods? Fried chicken, chicken fried steak, & corndogs.

Coq au vin is a contemporary twist on an old culinary theme. The practice of tenderizing tough meat by simmering it slowly en casserole with wine or broth was practiced by Ancient cooks. This technique was generally regarded as provinical/peasant fare because wealthy diners could afford more tender cuts of meat. Today, Coq au vin is made with tender chicken instead of the traditional tough old coq (cock), thus obscuring the true origin of this dish. Culinary evidence confirms Coq au vin was extremely popular in America during the 1960s, as were all things French.

"Coq.
The French word for cock, and now used as a synonym for chicken in certain dishes. In traditonal stock farming, cocks which were good breeders were kept as long as they could fulfil their function. They would be several years old before they were killed and therefore needed long and slow braising in a casserole (coq au vin). Nowadays, coq au vin is usually made with a chicken or hen. The combs and the kidneys of the cock serve as a garnish or decoration, rare now but frequently used in the elaborate cuisine of former days."
---Larousse Gastronomique, Jenifer Harvey Lang [Crown:New York] 1988 (p. 304)

"Although Coq au vin is well known and was featured in numerous menus in the third quarter of the 20th century, it does not have a long history. The flesh of a cock has always been regarded as somewhat tough and indigestible, and with few exceptions cooks of earlier centuries saw no merit in cocks except as a source of cockscombs (much in demand for garnish) and sometimes for making a bouillon. One of the very first recipes for Coq au vin, that of Brisson published in Richardin's L'Art du bien manger (1913), was presented as a real discovery', the author having been surprised to find the dish in Puy-de-Dome, and surprised by how good it was. The ingredients in this case were the cock, good wine of Avergne, bacon, onion, garlic, and mushrooms. Wine from Burgundy has since become the one commonly used, and indeed many recipes just say red wine'. The upsurge of interest in regional cuisines has recently brought to light other similar traditions for preparing Coc au vin. In Franche-Comte the bird is simmered in vin jaune; and in Alsace in Riesling. In both these regions morels and cream are gladly added if available. Indeed, knowledgeable food experts no longer speak of Coq au vin in the singular but of coqs au vin in the plural, while acknowledging that these dishes were doubtless simmering way for long years before the first recipes were published and before the gastromonomes discovered' the virtues of simple country fare."
---Oxford Companion to Food, Alan Davidson [Oxford University Press:Oxford] 1999 (p. 196)

Recipes through time

[1913]
"Le coq au vin
Il n'est pas de plaisir plus delicieux qu de vagabonder a travers les petites villes et les gros bourgs de nos provinces du centre et du sud-ouest. Dans ces coins, un peu perdus, de la vieille rance, on est mal loge. Je conviens que, generalement, on y est bien nourri. C'est une compensation. La cuisine fut, de tous temps, une des prinicpales coquetteries des menageres gauloises; chez nous, la tradition des plats succulents se transmet de mere a fille. Voici une recetter que j'ai cueillie sur le sommet dy Puy-de-Dome. Le restaurateur de l'auberge du temple de Mercure m'a fait manger un "coq au vin." Je m'en suis regale. J'ai mande l" "operateur" et l'ai prie de me livrer son secret; il est alle querir un cahier datant du XVIe siecle, et j'y ai copie les lignes suivantes:

"La veridique et mervielleuse recepte du "coq au vin", telle qu'elle fut imaginee et mise au point par feu maistre Bertrand, lequel tenait hostellerie a l'ensigne du "Mercure Gallois", au temps du bon roy Henry, qui voulut fair ordonance a ses subjets de mettre la poule au pot dimanches et festes. Adonc, quand voudres cuire le "coq au vin", il fault prendre un poulet jenet de Limagne, et, l'ayant prestement occis, le depecer en six quartiers; puis, en une coquemare ou pot de terre, fair revenir au feu a demi, ensemble trois onces de lard de porc maigre et ferme, tailles en forme de des a jouer, une once et demie de beurre frais, plus encore des petits oignons. Sur le moment que seront revenus les ingredients, jetes en votre coquemare ledit poulet depece et farci d'une gousse d'ail hachee menu, adjoutes un bouquet de persil et aultres plantes bien odorantes comme thym et laurier, sans oublier morilles ou champignons; tenes couvert sur le feu vif, tant st si bien que le tout soit a belle couleur de rot, partout semblable, puis otes le couvert et enleves doucement la graisse surabondante. Que si, ensuite, vous avez un doigt de vieille eau-de-vie, voire Armagnac, arroses d'ycelle le poulet, puis flambes. Et sur le tout ensemble repandes vivement chopine de bon vin vieux, du pays de Chanturgue preferablement, et quand ensuite seront bien cuits a poinct, poulet, epices, saulce au vin sur feu vif, servez chauld, enduicts de beurre fondu marie de fine fleur de froment blanc.

"Suivez a le letter ces prescriptions. Vous m'en direz des nouvelles. J'en ai moi-meme essaye (car je me pique d'etre, a mes heures, un assez bon maitre-queux. Je declare, sans fausse modestie, que mon "coq au vin" a obtenu plein succes. Inutile d'ajouter que le poulet ou la poularde se peuvent substituter au coq...Mais le coq, sur la carte, a plus d'allure. En mangeant le "coq au vin" on pense a Chantecler! Adolphe Brisson."
---L'Art de Bien Manger, Edmond Richardin [Editions D'Art et de Litterature:Paris] 1913 (p. 34-5)

[1938]
"Coq au vin (d'apres une recette ancienne).--Depecez en six quartiers un jeune poulet de Limagne. En un pot de terre, faits revenir dans 45 g de beurre, 90 g lde larde maigre, taille en des et petits oignons. Lorsqu'ils sont revenus, jetez en votre pot lest quartiers de poulet, une gousse d'ail hachee menue, un bouquet garni, morilles ou champignons. Faites dorer a couvert sur feu vif, decouvrez, degraissez. Arrosez d'un doigt de bonne eau-de-vie, flambez et repandez sur le tout un demi-litre de vin viex d'Auvergne. Apres cuisson sur feu vif, sortez le poulet, arrosez-le de sa sauce liee au beurre manie."
---Larousse Gastronomique, Prosper Montagne [Librarie Larousse:Paris] 1938 (p. 354)

[1946]
"Chicken with red wine sauce (Coq au vin)
3-3 1/2 lb chicken or 2 spring chickens (2-21/2 lb broilers)
1/2 cup diced fat salt pork or bacon
2 tablespoons butter
1 teaspoon butter
1 teaspoon salt
a little pepper
12 small onions
12 small mushrooms
2-3 shallots, minced
1 clove garlic, crushed
2 tablespoons flour
1 pint red wine
1 faggot (p. 294)
chopped parsley.

Clean and singe chicken. If one large chicken is used cut in 8 pieces, but if two small ones, cut each in 4 pieces. Parboil pork (or bacon) dice about 5 minutes and drain them. Put butter in saucepan, add pork dice and cook until they are golden brown. Remove dice and reserve. Season pieces of chicken with salt and pepper, put in hot fat and cook until golden brown on all sides. Add onions and mushrooms, cover pan and continue cooking voer a slow fire until onions are a little soft and are starting to brown. Pour off half the fat. Add shallots and garlic to fat remaining in pan and sprinkle the flour over. If oven is hot put the pan in it and leave a few minutes to brown flour. Otherwise, cook a few minutes over low heat on top of stove stirring to prevent scorching. Add wine and if it does not cover chicken add a little water; there should be just enough liquid to cover chicken. Add faggot, bring to a boil, add pork dice, cover pan, and cook in a moderately hot oven of 400 degrees or simmer on top of stove about 35 to 45 minutes or until chicken is tender. If sauce needs it, skim fat from surface. Remove faggot and correct seasoning. Arrange chicken, mushrooms, onions and pork dice in serving dish and pour the sauce over. Sprinkle with chopped parsley. Serves 3 to 4."
---Louis Diat's Home Cookbook: French Cooking for Americans, Louis Diat [Lippincott:New York] 1946 (p. 124-5)
[NOTE: "Faggot. 3 to 4 springs parsley, 1 to 2 stalks celery (sometimes 1 leek), 1/2 a bay leaf, and a pinch of dry (or 1 to 2 sprigs fresh) thyme tied together in a small bundle and cooked in a stew or sauce or with other foods to give it flavor." (p. 294)]

This same story is recounted in several popular food history books, including the official The Great State Fair of Texas Nancy N. Wiley, Taylor Publishing Co., 1995 as the source of its information. Your librarian can help you find a copy of this book.

Is this the end of the story? No. It's probably just the beginning. Most foods are not invented. They evolve as a result of culinary heritage and practical adaptations enabled by readily available ingredients /technology. Sausages (ancient forcemeats & minces) fried in egg or bread-type coatings were popular old world recipes. Presumably, some of these were introduced to America by German immigrants. Cornmeal? A "New World" necessitation. Consider this recipe:

"Fried sausages
Quantity for 6 people
1 lb sausage
2 whites of eggs
1/2 cup of flour
1 cup grated rolls
Salt, drippings or butter

Preparation:
The sausages are salted, dipped into white of egg, flour and bread crumbs and fried in hot drippings or butter to a nice brown color. They are nice with vegetables.
---The Art of German Cooking and Baking, Mrs. Lina Meier, [Milwaukee WI:1909] (recipe 28, p. 99)

Related food? Tempura

What about corned beef hash?
According to The Encyclopedia of North American Eating and Drinking Traditions..., Kathlyn Gay [ABC-CLIO:Santa Barbara] 1996 (p. 70) "The word 'hash' (fried odds-and-ends dish) came into English in the mid-17th century from the old French word 'hacher', meaning to chop. Corned beef hash...probably has its origins in being a palatable combination of leftovers. In the 19th century, restaurants serving inexpensive meals--precursors to today's diners--became known as "hash houses." By the early 1900s, corned beef hash was a common menu item in these places."

Mrs. Lincoln's 1884 hash recipe used either corned meat or roast beef.

Corned beef in tins:
The history of canning is generally traced to Nicolas Appert in 1795, who rose to Napoleon's challenge to invent a method to preserve food for military distribution. Donkin & Hall (UK) is credited with manufacturing the first tinned meats (& soups, vegetables) distributed to the British Navy in 1813.

"Retorting of tins was known in Britain in the 1830s...Tins were produced in a variety of sizes, ranging from the smallest (two pound) to enourmous ones weighing nearly seventeen pounds...Opening these tins presented quite a challenge. Most early tins were sold as military supplies, and until the 1840s the instructions on tins called form the use of a hammer and chisel. The earliest domestic openers were made in the 1860s and were called Bull's Head tin openers, as they had a cast-iron handle shaped into a bull's head and tails and were sold with tins of bully beef...In 1866 a special can with its own key opener was introduced."
---Pickled, Potted and Canned: How the Art and Science of Food Preserving Changed the World, Sue Shepard [Simon & Schuster:New York] 2001 (p. 245-6)

"British soldiers fighting in the Boer War had been issued with the first composite emergency ration packs containing two tins to be used only in extremity. One had held four ounces of beef concentrate and the other five ounces of cocoa paste. The great mainstay of the British army in both world wars was, however, corned beef, which was found to be ideal for soldiers on the move, who could eat it cold straight from the can. The Tommies called it "bully beef" a name derived from the French bouilli (boiled) beef, which had been fed to the French army in the Franco-Prussian War of 1870."
---Pickled, Potted and Canned, (p. 254)
NOTE: This book contains an excellent chapter devoted to the history of canning (p. 226-255). Your librarian can help you find a copy.

According to our food history sources (most of these are published in the U.S.), the tapered trapezoidal corned beef can we purchase today is attributed to Arthur A. Libby, who acquired a U.S. patent for this item in 1875. "1875 Arthur A. Libby and William J. Wilson developed the tapered can for corned beef in Chicago."
--- Can Central History Timeline

Why the unique design of the corned beef can? There are several theories. Most of them support the theory of convenience."Why are corned beef tins such peculiar shapes? THEY CONTINUE to be made in their traditional tapered rectangular shape because it is easier to extract the contents in one piece, thus allowing the block of corned beef to be sliced. That's also why the cans also employ a key that enables the user separate one end of the body of the can: there's no seam to prevent the contents slipping out."
--- The Guardian.

Corned beef--Jewish or Irish cuisine?

Some people wonder about the shared culinary/cultural heritage of the Irish and Jewish peoples when it comes to corned beef. The practice of curing meat for preservation purposes certainly dates back to ancient times. The use of salt was adopted/adapted by many peoples and cultures, and was widely used during the Middle Ages. Evidence suggests that both Irish and Jewish cooks were making corned (salt) beef independently, long before they met in New York.

"Corned beef comes in two versions: The Jewish special on rye, or the traditional Irish boiled dinner, aka New England boiled dinner. Tonight should be the big night for the Irish version."
---Boiled dinner, The Boston Globe, March 15, 1990 (p.3)

"But why corned beef? Was St. Patrick, the 5th-century apostle credited with converting the Irish to Christianity, a corned-beef- and-cabbage kind of guy? Did the Irish embrace him and his culinary repertoire and ultimately take the whole meal to America? And how can corned beef be so Irish if it's on the sandwich menu of every self-respecting Jewish deli in America? And, while we're at it, how is beef "corned" anyway? It's about time to set the corned-beef record straight. For starters, eating corned beef on St. Patrick's Day is purely American, which makes sense since celebrating St. Patrick's Day is more American than Irish. In fact, corned beef has always been associated with Cork City. According to Darina Allen, between the late 1680s and 1825, beef-corning was the city's most important industry. In that period, corned beef from Cork wound up in England and Continental Europe and as far away as Newfoundland and the West Indies. ...Myrtle Allen, author of "Myrtle Allen's Cooking at Ballmaloe House" (Stewart, Tabori & Chang, 1990), further contends that corned beef is "no more Irish than roast chicken." And that's true enough: For millennia, in order to keep food through the winters, people all around the globe have preserved meat in brine or dry salt rubs. We see the technique in everything from beef jerky and Smithfield hams to preserved Tunisian lamb to various Chinese exotica. The Jewish deli sandwich is just one more exponent of this tradition, in its Eastern European form."
---How Irish Is Corned Beef? Very -- and Very American Too, Carole Sugarman, The Washington Post, February 28, 1996 (p. E01)

"The Jewish deli started when lone male immigrants were forced to buy kosher meals from Jewish neighbors...A deli could be a store that sold cooked foods or a restaurant. It specialized either in meats or in chesse and fish, never both. It served corned beef (which the British call salt beef), tongue, and pastrami..."
---The Book of Jewish Food: An Odyssey From Samarkand to New York, Claudia Roden [Knopf:New York] 1996 (p. 80)
NOTE: This book has a wealth of information on the topic of Jewish food in America.

If you want to read more on the history of salting ask your librarian to help you find this book: Pickled, Potted and Canned, Sue Shepard

The Salt Archive--fabulous source for salt history in all disciplines

Corned beef & cabbage on St. Patrick's Day:
There is some controversy about whether "Corned Beef & Cabbage, " often eaten in America on St. Patrick's Day is a traditional Irish meal. According to Malachi McCormick's Irish County Cooking and "The Troubles That Irish Food Has Seen," New York Times, March 14, 1990 (page C8) corned beef & cabbage is a purely American tradition. Colcannon (boiled new potatoes mixed with boiled white cabbage, boiled leeks or boiled onions to which is added butter, milk and wild garlic) is more likely to be considered Ireland's national dish.

Brid Mahon's Land of Milk and Honey: The Story of Traditional Irish Food and Drink contains these notes about corned beef: "[in the 19th century] Corned beef was a festive dish." (p. 8)

"While Irish beef has always been noted for its flavor, corned beef was equally relished. Boiled and served with green cabbage and floury potatoes, it was considered an epicurean dish, to be eaten at Hallowe'en, at Christmas, on St. Patrick's Day, at weddings and at wakes, a traidtion that was carried to the New World by the emigrants of the 18th and 19th centuries. To this day, corned beef and cabbage are served on St. Patrick's Day and at Thanksgiving in parts of North America. Bacon, corned beef, sausages and pudding are all mentioned in The Vision of Mac Conlinne, the 12th-century tale that also describes the condiments served with meats." (p. 57)

"Easter Sunday...the most important festival of the Christian year...Spring lamb, veal and chicken were part of the festive fare but the meal most enjoyed consisted of corned beef, cabbage and floury potatoes. When millions fled the country during and after the catastrophric years of the Great Famine they carried with the memory of this festive dish, a tradition that survives in America to this day, though the meal is more often than not served on St. Patrick's Day. (p. 157)

A SURVEY OF CHICKEN CROQUETTE RECIPES THROUGH TIME
Early instructions suggest this "made dish" was a venerable culinary feat, not to be attempted by inexperienced cooks. Modern frozen products must be a far cry from the original offering. Careful notes on shape and presentation confirm croquettes were originally intended for elegant dinners. Contemporary adaptations are served in diners, family restaurants, and frozen food aisles of local supermarkets.

[1824]
"To Make Croquets.
Take cold fowl or fesh meat of any kind, with slices of ham, fat and lean, chop them together very fine, add half as much stale bread grated, salt, pepper, grated nutmeg, a teaspoonful of made mustard, a tabel spoonful of catsup, and a lump of butter; knead all well together till it resembles sausage meat, make them in cakes, dip them in the yelk of an egg beaten, cover them thickly with grated bread, and fry them a light brown."
--The Virginia Housewife, Mary Randolph, facsimile 1824 edition wtih Historical Notes and Commentaries by Karen Hess [University of South Carolina Press:Columbia SC] 1984 (p. 106)

[1828]
"NO. 32.--Croquettes of Fowl au Veloute.
These are prepared in the same manner as the Boudins a la Reine, but you must keep them rather thick, to prevent their shrinking while frying. A little fried parsley is to be put into the middle of the dish, and you erect the croquettes round it. There are several manners of rolling them, as in the shape of a cork, a ball, a pear; the tail of which is made out of a carrot, or some other substance, which the author does not approve of; those which are the best, are the shape of a cork. You msut press pretty hard on the extremities, that they may stand erect on the dish. To place them in a circular form, with fried parsley in the centre, has a pretty effect, though it is very plain. Those that are the shape of a pear, are called a la Dubaril. There are also croquetts of sweetbreads, of palates of beef, of cocks'-combs: but they are all much alike, as will be shown hereafter. Croquettes of any kind ought to be made only with remnants of fowl or game, as they require a great quantity of flesh, but they may be made with what is left from the preceding day."
---The French Cook, Louis Eustache Ude, facsimile English translation c. 1828 [Arco Publishing:New York] 1978 (p. 173)

[1849]
"Chicken Croquets and Rissoles.
Take some cold chicken, and having cut the flesh from the bones, mince it small with a little suet and parsley; adding sweet marjoram and grated lemon-peel. Season it with pepper, salt and nutmeg, and having mixed the whole very well, pound it to a paste in a marble mortar, putting in a litle at a time, and moistening it frequently with yolk of egg that has been previously beaten. Then divid it into equal portions, and having floured your hands, make it up in the shape of pears, sticfking the head of a clove into the bottom of each to represent the blossom end, and the stalk of a clove into the top to look like the stem. Dip them into beaten yolk of egg, and then into bread-crumbs grated finely and sifted. Fry them in butter, and when you take them out of the pan, fry some parsley in it. Having drained the parsley, cover the bottom of a dish with it, and lay the croquets upon it. Send it to table as a side dish. Croquets may be made of cold sweet-breads, or of cold veal mixed with ham or tongue. Rissoles are made of the same ingredients, well mixed, and beaten smooth in a mortar. Make a fine paste, roll it out, and cut it into round cakes. Then lay some of the mixture on one half of the cake, and fold over the other upon it, in the shape of a half-moon. Close and crimp the edges nicely, and fry the rissoles in butter. They should be of a light brown on both sides. Drain them and send them to table dry."
---Directions for Cookery in its Various Branches, Miss [Eliza] Leslie [Carey & Hart:Philadelphia] 1849 (p. 143-4)

[1865]
"Croquettes of Fowl.
Take what meat may be left on a cold fowl, and mince it very fine; put it in a stewpan with a little stock, a aeble-spoonful of cream, a little salt and nutmeg, and thicken sufficiently with flour; let it boil well, then pour it out on a deep dish, and set it aside to get quite cold and set. Then divide it into small portions, form them into small balls or sausage shapes, roll each in fine bread crumbs, then egg over with beaten yolk of egg, roll again in bread crumbs, and fry a light color. Dish on a napkin with some fried parsley in the centre of the pile of croquettes."
---What to Do With The Cold Mutton: A Book of Rechauffes [Bunce and Huntington:New York] 1865 (p. 50)

[1877]
"Chicken Croquettes.
Boil two fowls weighing ten pounds till very tender, mince fine, add one pint cream, half pound butter, salt and pepper to taste; shape oval in a jelly glass or mold. Fry in lard like doughnuts until brown."
---Buckeye Cookery and Practical Housekeeping, facsimile reprint of original 1877 edition published in Minneapolis [Applewood Books:Bedford MA] 2000 (p. 241)

[1877]
Croquettes are made of chicken, game, sweetbreads, fat livers, oysters, shrimps--and generally the lighter kinds of meat. The meat (most commonly chicken) is finely minced; it is mixed with a seasoning of minced truffles, mushrooms, shallots or chives, as also of nutmeg, pepper and salt; it is bound together with a stiff Allemande sauce; it is turned into shapes of cork or ball; it is dipped into egg and rolled in breadcrumbs; it is fried crisp of a golden hue; it is sprinkled with salt, and served on a napkin with a garnish of fried parsley. It is also served in a dish with a surrounding of tomato sauce. When the croquette if finished differently--that is, when, instead of being dipped in egg and rolled in breadcrumb, it is wrapped in a thin puff paste,-it is called a Rissole; and when it is wrapped in a thin sheet of veal udder or of bacon fat, it is called a Kromeski."
---Kettner's Book of the Table, E.S. Dallas, facsimile 1877 London edition [Centaur Press:London] 1968 (p. 144)
[NOTE: This book also describes a Milanese Croquettes: "A mince of chicken, tongue, truffles, and macaroni, with a seasoning of grated Parmesan. (P. 144).]

[1881]
"29. Chicken Croquettes.
Boil chicken very tender, pick to pieces, take all gristle out, then chop fine. Beat two eggs for one chicken and mix into meat; season with pepper and salt; make into cakes oblong shaped; powder crackers and roll them into the powder, after dipping them into two eggs beaten moderately well. Then have your lard very hot, and fry just before sending them to the table."
---What Mrs. Fisher Knows About Old Southern Cooking, Abby Fisher, facsimile 1881 edtion with Historical Notes by Karen Hess [Applewood Books:Bedford MA] 1995 (p. 17)
[NOTE: Mrs. Fisher also offers recipes for lamb, crab, meat, liver, oyster, and fish croquettes.]

[1884]
"Croquettes
These may be made of any kind of cooked meat, fish, oysters, rice, hominy, and many kinds of vegetables, or from a mixture of several ingredients. Whe mixed with a thick white sauce...which adds very much to the delicacy of meat or fish croquettes, less meat is required. The cause is a stiff paste when cold, and being mixed with the meat or fish the croquettes may be handled and shaped perfectly, and when cooked will be soft and creamy inside. To Shape a Croquette.--Croquettes may be shaped into rolls, or ovals, or like pears, with a bit of parsley or a clove in the end to represent the stem. Take a tablespoonful of the cold mixture, and shape into a smooth ball. If the mixture stick, wet the palms of the hands slightly. Give the ball a gentle, rolling pressure between the palms till slightly cylindrical; then roll it lightly in the crumbs, clasp it gently in the hand, and flatten one end on the board. Turn the hand over, and flatten the opposite end. Place the croquette on a broad knife, and roll it in beaten egg. With a spoon dip the egg over the croquetted, drain on the knife, and roll again in the crumbs. Fry in deep hot fat...Drain on paper. In rollling any kind of croquettes, if the mixture be too soft to be handled easily, stir in enough fine cracker dust to stiffen it, but never add any uncooked material like flour, nor the dried bread crumbs used in rolling, as those will made the croquettes too stiff.

"Thick Cream Sauce (for Croquettes and Patties).
1 pint hot cream.
2 even tablespoonfuls butter.
4 heaping tablespoonfuls flour, or 2 heaping tablesp. Cornstarch. 1/2 teaspoonful salt
1/2 saltspoonful white pepper.
1/2 teaspoonful celery salt.
A few grains of cayenne.
Scald the cream. Melt the butter in a granite saucepan. Wehn bubbling, add the dry cornstarch. Stir till well mixed. Add one third of the cream, and stir as it boils and thickens. Add more cream, and boil again. When perfectly smooth, add the remainder of the cream. The sauce should be very thick, almost like a drop batter. Add the seasoning, and mix it while hot with the meat or fish. For croquettes, one beaten egg may be added just as the sauce is taken from the fire; but the croquettes are whiter and more creamy without the egg. For patties, warm the meat or fish in the sauce, and use the egg of not as you please.

"Chicken Croquettes.--Half a pound of chicken chopped very fine, and seasoned with half a teasploonful of salt, half a teaspoonful of celery salt, a quarter of a saltspoonful of cayenne pepper, one saltsponful of white pepper, a few drops of onion juice, one teaspoonful of chopped parsley, and one teaspoonful of lemon juice. Make one pint of very thick cream sauce. When thick add one beaten egg, and mix the sauce with the the chicken, usually only enough to make it as soft as can be handled. Spread on a shallow plate to cool. Shape into rolls. Roll in fine bread crumbs, then dip in beaten egg, then in crumbs again, and fry one minute in smoking hot fat. Drain, and serve with a thin cream sauce. Many prefer to cut the chicken in to small dice. If this be done, use less of the sauce, or the croquettes will be difficult to shape. The white meat of chicken will absorb more sauce than the dark. Mushrooms, boiled rice, sweetbreads, calf's brains, or veal may be mixed with chicken. Cold roast chicken, chopped fine, may be mixed with the stuffing, moistened with the gravy, and shaped into croquettes."
---Boston Cooking School Cook Book, Mrs. D.A. Lincoln, facsimile 1884 reprint [Dover Publications:Mineola NY] 1996 (p. 277-282)
[NOTE: This book also contains recipes for croquettes made with veal, oysters, sweetbreads, lobsters, clams, salmon, potato, rice, macaroni, and hominy. Turkish croquettes contain tomatoes. All recipes, in original form here.]

[1896]
"Chicken Croquettes I
1 3/4 cups chopped cold cooked fowl
1/2 teaspoon salt.
1/4 teaspoon celery salt.
Few grains cayenne.
1 teaspoon lemon juice.
Few drops onion juice.
1 teaspoon finely chopped parsley.
1 cup Thick White Sauce.
Mix ingredients in order given. Cool, shape, crumb, and fry as other croquettes. White meat of fowl absorbs more sauce than dark meat. This must be remembered if dark meat alone is used. Croquette mixtures should always be as soft as can be conveniently handled, when croquettes will be soft and creamy inside.

"Chicken Croquettes II
Clean and dress a four-pound fowl. Put into a kettle with six cups boiling water, seven slices carrot, two slices turnip, one small onion, one stalk celery, one bay leaf, and three sprigs thyme. Cook slowly until fowl is tender. Remove fowl; strain liquor, cool, and skim off fat. Make a thick sauce, using one-fourth cup butter, one-half cup flour, one and one-third cups chicken stock, and one-half cup cream. Remove meat from chicken, chop, and moisten with sauce. Season with salt, cayenne, and slight grating of nutmeg; then add one beaten egg, cool, shape, crumb, and fry same as other croquettes. Arrange around a mound of green peas, and serve with Cream Sauce or Wine Jelly."
---Boston Cooking School Cook Book, Fannie Merritt Farmer, facsimile 1896 reprint [Weathervane Books:New York] 1973 (p. 312)
[NOTE: This source also offers croquette recipes using cheese, chestnuts, rice & jelly, sweet rice, rice & tomato, oyster & macaroni, slamon, lobster, lamb, veal, chicken & mushroom, and sweetbreads. All recipes here.]

[1902]
"Chicken Croquettes
All meat croquettes are made precisley the same, with the seaonings changed to suit the meat. To boil the chicken, cover it with boiling water, boil rapidly for five minutes, then push it back where it will simmer until tender, one and a half or two hours. At the end of the first hour add one onion, stuck with twelve cloves, two bay leaves, some finely chopped celery or celery seed. The croquettes will be better if the chicken is allowed to cool before chopping. To each three and a half pound chicken use a pair of sweetbreads. Wash the sweetbreads and boil slowly for three-quarters of an hour; pick them apart, rejecting the membrane; chop them quickly with a silver knife and put them aside while you chop the chicken; this is best done in a wooden bowl. Ground meat makes a pasty croquette. To be perfect they must be creamy, not pasty. Mix the sweetbreads and the chopped chicken and measure; to each pint of this allow:
1/2 pint mik
1 rounding tablespoonful of butter
2 rounding tablespoonfuls of flour
1 tablespoonful of parsley
1 teaspoonful of onion juice
1 saltspoonful of pepper
A dash of cayenne
1 saltspoonful of nutmeg.
Put the milk over the fire, rub together the butter and flour, add the milk and cook until smooth and thick; add all the seasoning to the meat, mix it with the sauce and turn out to cool. When cold, make into pyramid-shaped croquettes, dip in beaten egg, to which you have added a tablespoonful of warm water; roll in bread crumbs and fry in smoking hot vat (360 degrees Fahr.) Until a golden brown. Dish on brown paper for a few moments, then on a heated platter; stick a tiny piece of parsley in the top of each; fill the dish with nicely seasoned, cooked peas and send at once to the table. Pass with these, mayonnaise of celery. If served as an entree at dinner, simply pass peas and mushrooms. To rewarm chicken croquettes stand them on a piece of soft brown paper in the bottom of a baking pan; place in a quick oven for not more than eight minutes, better five. If over-heated they will crack and lose their shape. If sweetbreads are not at hand, simply measure the chicken and follow the recipe. Where large quantities of chicken croquettes are to be made, the , the operation will be more easily and quickly done if one quart at a time is made and put aside; one cannot season large quantities and have them as palatable as the smaller ones. For a large entertainment where salad and croquettes are both to be served, use the white meat for salad and the dark meat for croquettes. For church suppers where money must be made at the same time a dainty supper served, boil a large piece of veal with the chickens; chop and use the same as chicken meat. Being cooked wtih the chickens it tastes the same. Ten pounds of veal from the leg and two chickens will make one hundred and fifty croquettes, at an average cost of four cents each."
---Mrs. Rorer's New Cookery Book, Sarah Tyson Rorer [Arnold and Company:Philadelphia] 1902 (p. 197-8)

[1908]
"Chicken Croquettes.
Take two chickens weighing about three pounds each, put them into a saucepan with water to cover, add two onions and carrots, a small bunch or parsley and thyme, a few cloves and half a grated nutmeg, and boil until the birds are tender; then remove the skin, gristle and sinews and chop the meat as fine as possible. Put into a saucepan one pound of butter and two tablespoonfuls of flour, stir over the fire for a few minutes and add half a pint of the liquor the chickens were cooked in an one pint of rich cream, and boil for eight or ten minutes, stirring continually. Remove the pan from the fire, season with salt, pepper, grated nutmeg and a little powdered sweet marjoram, add the chopped meat and stir well. Then stir in rapidly the yolks of four eggs, place the saucepan on the fire for a minute, stirring well, turn the mass onto a dish, spread it out and let it get cold. Cover the hands with flour and form the preparation into shapes, dip them into egg beaten with cream then in sifted breadcrumbs and let them stand for half an hour or so to dry; then fry them a delicate color after plunging into boiling lard. Take them out, drain, place on a napkin on a dish and serve. The remainder of the chicken stock may be used for making consomme or soup."
---The Cook Book by "Oscar" of the Waldorf, Oscar Tschirky [Saafield Publishing:Chicago] 1908 (p. 286)
[NOTE: recipes for Chicken Croquettes Perigourdin (with mushrooms, truffles & cooked smoked tongue) and Queen Style (with mushrooms and Queen sauce) are provided.]

[1913]
"Chicken Croquettes
1 chicken.
1 tablespoon butter.
2 tablespoons flour.
1/2 pt. milk
1 tablespoonful of chopped parsley
Pepper, salt and a dash of cayenne
A little grated nutmeg
Boil chicken, remove skin and chop fine. When the sauce is cooked add the chopped chicken. Mix well, then set aside to cool. Whe cool mould into shape; dip in egg and breadcrumbs and boil in hot fat. This quantity will make thirteen croquettes."
---The American Home Cook Book, Grace E. Denison [Barse & Hopkins:New York] 1913 (p. 124-5)
[NOTE: This book contans two additional chicken croquette recipes; both containing cream or chicken stock and additional spices.]

[1920]
"Croquettes.
Do not attempt croquettes until hou have thoroughly studied Chapter 1. To egg and crumb these, to fry them properly, to be able to serve them hot and free from grease, will be impossible to the inexperienced cook, unless she will carefully read, and adhere to directions given therin. After she has mastered the art of frying properly, she need not fear to attempt them. Keep mixutre as soft as possible, a solid mass is not a good croquette. A mould is necessary if you wish the correct shape, but croquettes taste just as good made in cylindrical sahpes and look as well too. Use a broad knife to shape them, and to egg and crumb them, thus you ensure a smooth surface.

Chicken Croquettes, I
1 1/2 cups minced chicken
1 cup White Sauce
1 dash nutmeg
Salt and pepper
Yolks 2 eggs
For making the white sauce, use cream if you have it, if not, rich milk. Add chicken, which should be minced very fine, to hot sauce, and season well. Add the egg yolks and cook 2 minutes. Remove from the fire and cool. When stiff roll into croquettes, egg and crumb, and set in a cold place for 2 hours. The fry and drain."
---What and How: A Practical Cook Book for Every Day Living, Mrs. Walter D. Bush [Mercantile Printinc Company:Wilmington DE] 1920 (p. 199-200)
[NOTE: This book contains recipes for meat, veal, lamb, potato, bean, cheese, apple sauce, oyster, hominy, and rice croquettes.]

[1934]
"Chicken, Fish, or Meat Croquettes
2 cups chicken, fish or meat
1 cup croquette sauce
1 egg
3/4 cup breadcrumbs
salt and pepper to taste
Cut meat (or fish) in small pieces, add seasoning desired and croquette sauce...Mix together and shape. If mixture is not stiff enough to shape, chill in refrigerator 1/2 hour. When shaped, dip in breadcrumbs, then in the slighly beaten egg, and then in breacrumbs again. Fry in hot deep fat. You can vary the croquettes by adding chopped mushrooms, pimientos, ham, green peppers, etc.

Croquette sauce
For all croquettes
3 tablespoons butter
5 tablespoons sifted flour
1 cup milk or white soup stock
1/4 teaspoon onion juice
1/4 teaspoon celery salt
14 teaspoon salt
1/8 teaspoon pepper
1/4 teaspoon lemon juice
1/2 teaspoon A1 or Worcestershire sauce
Melt butter; add flour and thoroughly in; add all other ingredients and cook until very thick, stirring slowly while cooking. This makes sufficient sauce to thicken 2 1/2 cups of any meat or fish, for all croquettes."
---The Mystery Chef's Own Cook Book, John MacPherson [Blakiston:Philadelphia] 1934(p. 69-70)

[1935]
"Croquettes.
Croquettes really come under the head of frying and are roughly divided into two classes--sweet and savoury--the savoury generally having for their base a thick white sauce to which meat, fish, vegetables, or fruits are added to make up th croquette. Occasionally savoury croquettes may have a base of rice, macaroni, or potato, to which fish or meat is added in smaller proportions than would be the case with a white sauce base. They are used, perhaps, partly as a matter or economy, the less costly vegetable or cereal extending the more expensive the meat. Sweet croquettes are also sometimes made with a foundation of rice, and indeed the rice without any meat of fruit makes a good croquette, flavour being added by the sweet sauce or ruit compote served with it. When white sauce is not used, a binder in the form of white of egg or whole egg must take its place. The general proportions of meat of fish are one and one half to two cupfuls to each cupful of thick white sauce, but these proportions can be varied according to the amount of meat or fish available, except that when the supply of the main ingredient is scant, its bult should be made up by the addition of bread crumbs, cracker crumbs, or perhaps some left-over vegetable, otherwise the finished croquettes are apt to be too moist; for instance, to a cupful of white sauce, when only two-thirds cupful of meat or fish is available yet a certain quantity of bulk must be provided, add diced cooked carrot, turnip, peas, or celery, or even crumbled bread, but where the dry ingredient is bland or negative in flavour something savoury, such as the little poultry dressing, a few drops of onion juice, Worcestershire sauce, or minced herbs must also be added to give snap and flavour. Croquettes, whether sweet or savour, are almost without exception coated with egg and bread crumbs as described in the process of frying. Various croquettes will be found under their proper headings."
---Ida Bailey Allen's Modern Cook Book [Garden City Publishing:Garden City NY] 1935 (p. 436-7)

[1944]
"Chicken Croquettes
100 portions; 2 croquettes per portion
4 gallons chicken, cooked, finely chopped
1/4 cup salt
1 3/4 tablespoons pepper
3/4 gallon onions, finely chopped
1 quart butter or other fat
1 1/2 quarts flour (for dredging)
1/2 gallon chicken stock
25 eggs, whole
3 3/4 quarts bread crumbs, dry
Flour
10 (1 pint) eggs, beaten
1 quart mik, liquid
Bread crumbs
Sprinkle chicken with salt pepper. Fry onions in fat until clear. Add flour and blend to a smooth paste. Stir in stock. Cook until thickened, stirring constantly. Remove from heat. Cool slightly. Stir in eggs and bread crumbs. Mix thoroughly. Place in refrigerator until chilled. Shape cold mixture into 3 1/2 to 4-ounce croquettes. Stir eggs into milk. Mix well. Roll croquettes in flour. Dip in milk mixture. Roll in bread crumbs. Fry in hot deep fat at 375 degrees F. 3 to 4 minutes or until browned."
---The Cook Book of the United States Navy, Bureau of Supplies and Accounts, NAVSANDA Publication NO. 7 [U.S. Government Printing Office:Washington] revised 1944 (p.171)
[NOTE: instructions for Baked Chicken or Turkey Croquette Loaf provided.]

[1946]
"Chicken Croquettes
2 tablespoons butter
3 tablespoons flour
1 cup hot milk
1/2 teaspoon salt
a little pepper
2 eggs, slightly beaten
2 cups cooked chicken, diced
6 mushrooms, cooked, drained and finely diced (optional)
2 tablespoons chopped, cooked ham (if available)
Melt butter, add flour, mix well and cook until it starts to turn golden. Add milk and cook 15 minutes stirring occasionally with a whip to have a very thick, smooth sauce. Add salt and pepper and combine with eggs. Add chickens, ham and mushrooms, mix all together and bring to a boil, stirring constantly until mixture doesn't stick to sides of pan. Correct the seasoning, spread on a flat buttered dish and let cool. When cold, shape the croquettes as desired in cylindars, cones or balls. Coat a l'Anglaise...and dry in deep hot fat or saute in butter. Serve with Cream Sauce...or Tomato Sauce. Serves 4 to 6."
---Louis Diat's Home Cookbook: French Cooking for Americans [J.B. Lippincott:Philadelphia] 1946 (p. 130)

[1953]
"Meat, Poultry or Fish Croquettes
3 tablespoons butter
1/4 cup flour
1 cup milk or 1/2 cup evaporated milk and 1/2 cup water
2 cups diced or ground cooked meat (any meat, poultry or flaked cooked fish)
3/4 teapsoon salt
1/4 teaspoon celery salt
1/2 teaspoon grated onion
Sifted dry bread crumbs
1 egg, well beaten
2 tablespoons milk
Melt butter, blend in four, add 1 cup milk and stir constantly over moderate heat until sauce boils and thickens. Add meat, seasonings and onion and mix well. Chill, then shape into croquettes. Now roll in crumbs, then in beaten egg to which 2 tablespoons milk have been added, and again in crumbs. If convenient, chill at least an hour in refrigerator before frying, as crumbs adhere better. Place in wire basket and fry in deep fat (360 degrees F.). About 10 croquettes.
---The Modern Family Cook Book, Meta Given [J.G. Ferguson:Chicago IL] 1953 (p. 328)

[1975]
"Chicken or Turkey Croquettes
Makes 4 servings
1/4 cup butter or margarine
1/4 cup sifted flour
1 cup milk
1 chicken bouillon cube
1 tablespoon minced parsley
1/4 teaspoon poultry seaoning
1 teaspoon finely grated lemon rind (optional)
2 tablespoons dry sherry (optional)
1/2 teaspoon salt (about)
1/8 teaspoon pepper
1 egg, lightly beaten
1 1/2 cups coarsely ground cooked chicken or turkey meat
1/2 cup soft white bread crumbs
Shortening or cooking oil for deep fat frying
Coating:
1 egg, lightly beaten with 1 tablespoon cold water
1/4 cup cracker crumbs mixed with 1/4 cup minced blanched almonds
Melt butter in a large suacepan over moderate heat and blend in flour; slowly stir in milk, add bouillon cube, parsley, and all seasonings, and heat, stirring, until mixture thickens. Blend a little hot sauce into egg, return to pan, set over lowest heat, and heat, stirring, 1 minute; do not boil. Off heat, mix in chicken and bread crumbs; taste for salt and adjust. Cool, then chill until easy to shape. Shape into 8 patties or sausage-shaped rolls, dip in egg mixture, then roll in crumbs to coat. Let dry in a rack at room temperature while heating fat. Place shortening in a deep fat fryer and heat to 375 degrees F. Fry the croquettes, 1/2 at a time, 2-3 minutes until golden brown and crisp; drain on paper toweling, then keep warm by setting, uncovered, in oven turned to lowest heat while you fry the rest. Good with Tomato or Parsley Sauce. About 435 calories per serving if made with chicken, about 455 calories per serving if made with turkey. "
---Doubleday Cookbook: Complete Contemporary Cooking, Jean Anderson and Elaine Hanna [Doubleday:Garden City NY] 1975 (p. 510)
[NOTE: This book offers recipes for curried chicken, chicken & shellfish, and chicken & ham croquettes.]

Howard Johnson's croquettes
According to the records of the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office (http://www.uspto.gov), Howard Johnson brand foods were introduced to the American public February 1, 1925.

Word Mark HOWARD JOHNSON'S Goods and Services IC 029 030. US 046. G & S: ICE CREAM; SHERBET; FROZEN PREPARED FOODS-NAMELY, MACARONI AND CHEESE, CHICKEN CROQUETTES, SHRIMP CROQUETTES, LOBSTER NEWBURG, HALIBUT AU GRATIN, CHICKEN A LA KING, POTTED BEEF AND VEGETABLES, FRIED CLAMS, COCONUT CAKE, FUDGE CAKE, DATE AND NUT BREAD, SOUPS AND CHOWDERS; CANNED PREPARED FOODS-NAMELY, INDIAN PUDDING, GRAVIES (BOTH MEATLESS AND CONTAINING MEAT), [ SOUPS AND CHOWDERS, COLE SLAW DRESSING, COCKTAIL SAUCE, BARBECUE SAUCE SPAGHETTI SAUCES (BOTH MEATLESS AND CONTAINING MEAT), ] MARINARA SAUCE, CREAMED CLAM SAUCE, NEWBURG SAUCE, CREAM SAUCE, CREOLE SAUCE, FRICASSEE SAUCE (CONTAINING MEAT), FUDGE SAUCE, BLUEBERRY TOPPING, BUTTERSCOTCH SAUCE, CHOCOLATE FLAVORED SYRUP FOR FOOD PURPOSES; CHOCOLATE CHIP COOKIES; AND GRIDDLE CAKE MIX. FIRST USE: 19250201. FIRST USE IN COMMERCE: 19250201

Of course, not every item listed above was introduced at the same time. And? Howard Johnson's chicken croquettes were probably served at the restaurant long before the frozen version hit the grocer's freezer aisle.

This passage indicates Howard Johnson's frozen chicken croquettes were introduced to the American public in July 1938:

"Saul Beck purchased Quick Frozen Foods from Harcourt Brace Jovanovich in 1985. The magazine name was changed to Frozen Food Digest (including Quick Frozen Foods). The following pages contain events and news that were compiled beginning in 1938. Saul Beck Publications also publishes Quick Frozen Frozen Foods Annual Processors Directory & Buyers' Guide...July...First of several precooked dishes introduced by Howard Johnson's restaurant chain is a 16-ounce pack of chicken croquettes; distribution is throughout New York and New England."
---"Long ago and far away...; events and news published in the Frozen Foods Digest since 1938," Frozen Food Digest, February 12, 1998, No. 3, Vol. 13; Pg. 80

The earliest reference to the frozen product in the New York Times is from 1964:
"When Mr. [Pierre] Franey joined the company, Howard Johnson's line of frozen foods consisted of such items as fried clams, chicken croquettes, macaroni and cheese and lobster Newburg."
---Restaurant Chains Face Quality-Control Problem," George Rood, New York Times, December 24, 1967 (p. 91)
[NOTE: this article mentions Mr. Franey joined the Howard Johnson company in 1960. This confirms your croquettes were sold before this date.]

RELATED FOODS? Crab cakes, fish balls, fritters & hushpuppies.

About Beijing Duck & Peking Duck

Recommended reading: Food in China/Frederick J. Simoons

ABOUT DUCK IN ASIAN COUNTRIES (except China)

Thailand
"Duck is widely used in Thailand, primarily for special occasions. The indigenous birds are smaller and skinnier than ours; also considerably cheaper. In the predominantly Chinese sections of Bankok, rows upon rows of duck hang in the markets, clean plucked but with heads and feet. The Chinese-Thai feature a form of roasted duck with spice sauce (barbecued Pei Par Ngap) but this Gaeng Keo Wan Pet is originally and authentically Thai."
---The Original Thai Cookbook, Jennifer Brennan [Richard Marek:New York] 1981 (p. 140)
[Note: this book contains a recipe for Gaeng Keo Wan Pet (Green Curry of Duck)]

Vietnam
"In Vietnam chickens, as well as other fowl, are produced in barnyards where they grow up fat, happy and tasty. As do ducks. We find them a Vietnamese culinary constant."
---World Food: Vietnam, Richard Sterling [Lonely Planet:Victoria Australia] 2000 (p. 58)

Malaysia & Singapore
"Duck...is less frequently consumed. Classic dishes, though, are itek sio (stewed duck in coriander), itek tim (duck and salted vegetable soup) and lou ark (Teochew braised duck; served with a piquant cvhilli, Chinese leek and white vinegar dip.)"
---World Food: Malaysia and Singapore, Su-Lyn Tan & Mark Tay [Lonely Planet:Victoria Australia] 2002 (p. 58)

Indonesia
Indonesian Cookery, Lie Sek-Hiang [Bonanza Books:New York] 1963 contains the following duck recipes: Bebek Masak Lada Muda (Braised Duck with Green Peppers) and Bebek Tjuka Goreng (Fried Marinated Duck).

DUCK IN EUROPE

"Aristotle discussed only chickens and geese in his Natural History, and although Theophastus mentioned tame ducks, he failed to indicate whether they were bred in captivity...the keeping of domestic ducks in Greek and Roman times was unusual, though not unknown...Several species were kept in captivity by the Romans, who maintained aviaries...of wild ducks, probably to fatten them up for the table...Varro, writing in 37 B.C. was the first to mention duck raising by the Romans...In the first century A.D. Lucious Junius Moderatus Columella provided advice on keeping ducks...which was considered much more difficult than caring for more traditional fowl...The Saxons may have had domestic Ducks, but as yet the evidence remains unclear...A bit later, in Carolingian France (the eighth to the tenth centuries A.D.), estate survey listing payments due feudal lords indicate that chickens and geese served as tender far more frequently than ducks...The scarcity of wildfowl was most likely significant in hastening domestication...Dean Delacour...has suggested that the mallard may have become truly domesticated in Eruope, only in the medieval period...Although domestic ducks are often identified in archaeological deposits from the sixteenth cnetury onward, they did not increase dramatically in size until the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, when distinct varieties were recorded."
---Cambridge World History of Food, Volume 1 (p. 519-520)

"In England the most familiar and excellent combination is roast duckling with apple sauce and peas, a dish of the late spring. In France....there is the well known Canard a l'orange); and a good dish of duck and turnip. In other countries there are combinations which reflect the characteristics of their cusines, for example duck and red cabbage in Poland; the use of sour cream, apple, etc. in E. Europe; the Iranian braised duck with walnut and pomeegranate sauce."
---Oxford Companion to Food (p. 258)

"In medieval and Renaissance Europe, though duck was popular, it seems to have been wild duck; if Europeans had domesticated them they could hardly have continued to believe...that ducks were born from the decomposition of leaves. Had ducks been domesticated in England by Elizabethan times? They were cheap enought to make that seem likely--six pence for a large bird."
---Food, Waverly Root [Smithmark:New York] 1980 (p. 111)

DUCK IN AMERICA
Certain duck species, the food historians tell us, were indigenous to America. Others were introduced by explorers and enterprising businessmen.

"Ducks have been esteemed for their culinary value by most cultures of the world, and it is possible the Indians of Central America domesticated the bird even before the Chinese did. The first European explorers were amazed at the numbers of ducks in American skies and soon commented on the delicious and distinctive flavor of the native Canvasback, whose name figures in every cookbook of the nineteenth century to the extent that no banquet would be considered successful without serving the fowl. On March 13, 1873...the arrival in New York of a Yankee clipper ship with a tiny flock of white Peking ducks--one drake and three females--signaled the beginning of a domestic industry of immense proportions. The birds were introduced to Connecticut and then to eastern Long Island, where they propagated at an encouraging rate. Domestic ducks were bought mostly by newly arrived immigrants...Only in this century did the fowl, by now called "Long Island duckling," attain gastronomic respect...In the nineteenth century wild ducks were usually eaten rare, but today domestic ducks are generally preferred cooked with a very crisp skin and served wither roasted with applesauce or in the classic French manner, with orange sauce...The wild ducks of culinary importance to Americans include the canvasback...the "mallard,"...the "black duck"...the "ring-necked duck"...and the "scooters"...also called "coots.""
---Encyclopedia of American Food and Drink, John Mariani [Lebhar-Friedman:New York] 1999 (p. 116-7)

"The New World also had many species of wild ducks, but only the Muscovy (cairina moschata) was domesticated. By the time the Europeans arrived, the Moscovy duck was widely distributed throughout the tropical regions of Central and South America. The Spanish probably introduced it into the Caribbean, and the Portuguese introduced it to West Africa, where it thrived. The slave trade introduced the Muscovy duck into British North America. Archaeological evidence has surfaced demonstrating that slaves raised and consumed these fowl and later introduced them to the rest of America. By the 1840s the Muscovy duck was widely distributed throughout America. It survived as a commercial poulty item in the United States until the late nineteenth century but then largely disappeared as chicken and turkey began to dominate the poultry market. Domesticated ducks were raised on a small scale on farms and were herded to market...An advantage of raising ducks was that these birds foraged and consumed food not eaten by other poultry. In addition, duck feathers were used for clothing and bedding. Canvasback ducks were raised on the Potomac and Susquehanna Rivers in the early nineteenth century and later were shipped to all major East Coast cities and to Europe."
---Oxford Encyclopedia of Food and Drink in America, Andrew F. Smith [Oxford University Press:New York] 2004, Volume 1 (p. 413)

"When the Europeans reached America, they found great numbers of wild ducks there; Captain John Smith reported on their abundance in Vriginia in 1608. Ducks were still so plentiful in the first half of the nineteenth century that Charles Dickens told of crossing two wide streams on his way from Philadelphia to Washington: "The water in both was blackend with flights of canvas-backed ducks...""
---Food, Waverly Root [Smithmark:New York] 1980 (p. 111-2)

About Long Island Duck [1873]

EARLY AMERICAN DUCK RECIPES
European cookbooks contained recipes for duck (often cooked in similar fashion as goose). To wit? Colonists enjoying the domestic American duck supply likely cooked the bird the same way they learned at home. Hannah Glasse's Art of Cookery, Made Plain and Easy [London:1747] contains recipes for Duck in the following modes: a la braise, a la mode, boiled the French way, pie, with cucumbers, with onions and with peas. Elizabeth Raffald's Experienced English Housewife [London:1769] offers similar recipes, adding wild duck hash and notes on the differences between roasting tame and wild ducks.

The earliest recipe we have for duck in an American cookbook is this:

[1770]
"Stew'd Ducks
Take a Duck (either wild or tame) split it down the back, make some Stuffing with Stale bread, the Liver of the duck, Spice, Parsley, Marjoram, Onion, Butter, Pepper and Salt, all chop'd up together, fill the duck with it and sew it up the back, and put it into a Pott with Water enough to cover it let it stew till the Water is almost stew'd away then add a little Wine and a lump of Butter to the little that remains which makes the gravy and browns the Duck."
---A Colonial Plantation Cookbook: The Receipt Book of Harriott Pinckney Horry, 1770, edited with an introduction by Richard J. Hooker [University of South Carolina Press:Columbia] 1984 (p. 59)
[NOTE: introduction of this book observes "...many of Harriott's recipes were wholly or largely of American origin. The various recipes for curing bacon (hams) would fall in this category, as would probably those for stewing crabs, stewing ducks, sausage, pickled shrimps, journey cake, biscuits...It has often been said theat there are no new recipes. While this is an exaggeration, it is true that at any given time the vast majority of recipes come from preceding generations and will, with the sources rarely acknowledged, be take over by succeeding ones." (P. 22-3).]

You can examine original 19th/early 20th century duck recipes published in American cookbooks courtesy of Michigan State University's digital cookbook project. Search duck as recipe name and ingredient yields different results.

Food historians tell us the practice of pairing of citrus fruits with fatty meat is thousands of years old, likely originating in the Middle East. Examples are found in many cultures and cuisines. The acid in the fruit countacts the fat in the meat, making the dish more enjoyable and digestible. Think: pork & applesauce; goose & cherry sauce, fish & lemon, and duck a l'orange. About oranges.

Ducks have been consumed by humans from prehistoric times forward. They are native to most continents. Recipes evolved according to local taste. Historic notes on European duck cookery are appended to the end of this article. Bitter oranges were introduced, via Spain, in the early middle ages.

As the name suggests, Duck a l'Orange, likely originated in France. Our sources do not specific a particular region/city claiming to be the locus of origin. The Rouen, the center of French duck domestication, is a possibility. On the other hand? 19th century French recipes sometimes specify wild, not domestic, birds. Grand masters of classic French cuisine roasted ducks, noting the practice was revived from earlier times. La Varenne [1651] does not offer a recipe for Duck a l'Orange in his Cuisiner Francois. His duck is graced with a spicy pepper sauce. The earliest French recipes we find conbining ducks and oranges were published in the 19th century.

"From antiquity to our own day, in Europe and elsewhere...a number of such erudite gastronomic revolutions have taken place, the two most important of which, at least insofar as European cuisine is concerned, occurred at the beginning of the eighteenth century and at the beginning of the nineteenth. As we shall see, certain of these revolutions even represented an unwitting step backward: thus the alliance of sweet and salt, of meat and fruit (duck with peaches for instance), which today is regarded as an eccentric specialty of certain restaurants, was the rule in the Middle Ages and held sway down to the end of the seventeenth century: almost all recipes for meat up to that time contain sugar."
---Culture and Cuisine: A Journey Through the History of Food, Jean-Francois Revel, translated by Helen R. Lane [Doubleday:Garden City NY] 1982 (p. 19-20)

A selection of French recipes through time

[1828]
"Ducklings a la Bigarade.
This entree requires plump fleshy ducks: pick empty, and truss them well, with the legs stuck upwards. First roast them under-done, and make incisions in the breast, what the French call aiguillettes; pour the gravy that issues from the duck into the sause, which must be ready made, in order that you may send up quickly; a thing to be particularly attended to. With respect to the appropriate sauce, see sauces. If you are allowed to serve up fillets only, then you much have three ducklings at least. Roast them under-done; when properly done cut them into aiguillettes, that is, four out of each duck; put then into the sauce with the gravy that runs from them, and send up without loss of time, and quite hot. As soon as you have put the aguillettes into the sauce, squeeze a little juice of bigarade (bitter orange) over the whole; keep stirring well, and serve up the fillets in the sauce. This is a dish for an epicure of the dantiest palate. Do not think of dishing en couronne, to give it a better appearance, but send it up in the suce, and they who eat it will fare the better. Mignonette, or coarse pepper, is required in this sauce, and the entree altogether must be highly seasoned. Before roasting the duck, blanche a handful of sage with a couple of onions cut into quarters; chop them; season them with a little salt and pepper, and sutff the duck; by so doing, it will acquire additoinal savour."
---The French Cook, Louis Eustach Ude, photoreprint of English edition published in 1828 by Larey, Lea and Carey:Philadelphia [Arco Publishing:New York] 1978 (p. 248-9)
[NOTE: Ude's recipe employs pepper, similar to La Varenne's.]

[1855]
The Encyclopedia of Practical Gastronomy/Ali-Bab contains a recipe for Caneton Roti, Sauce a L'Orange. We only have a translated copy [Elizabeth Benson:1974, p. 296]. There are no historic notes or recommendations for type of duck (duckling) to be used.

[1873]
Duck
"There are forty-two varieties of duck. One of the best is the musk duck, whose flesh is very delicate...Barbary ducks are the biggest...Rouen ducklings, highly esteemed for their size and other qualities, are produced in this manner. The wild duck is nearly always grilled on a spit. The young wild duck shot at the end of August is called an albran. In September he becomes a duckling and is definately a duck in October. Albrans, which are to an ordinary duck as a partridge to a hen, are broiled on a spit and served on toast soaked in their own juices, to which are added the juice of bitter oranges, a little soy sauce, and some grains of fine pepper. This is a delicate, distinguished dish....

"Wild Duck with Orange Sauce.
Clean and truss 4 wild ducks. Skewer and roast over a lively fire 12 to 14 minutes, brushing them with oil in the process. Salt, slice off the breasts, and lay them in a flat pan with a little glaze on the bottom. Heat for 1 minute to dry the moisture from the breasts. Arrange on a platter and pour over them the following sauce: Orange sauce. Take the zest of an unripe orange. Cut it into julienne strips, cook in water, and drain in a sieve. Then put them into a little pot and out over them 1 glass of clear, reduced aspic. Heat. Just before serving, thin the sauce with the juices of 1 lemon and 1 orange."
---Dictionary of Cuisine, Alexander Dumas, edited, abridged and translated by Louis Colman [Simon & Schuster:New York] 1958 (p. 105-6)

[1903]
"Caneton braise a l'Orange--Braised Duckling with Orange
This recipe should not be mistaken for the one for roast duckling served with orange, as the two are totally different. Instead of ordinary oranges, Bigarade or bitter oranges may be used but in this case the segments should not be used as a garnish because of their bitterness; only their juice should be used for the sauce. Brown the duckling in butter and braise it slowly in 4 dl (14 lf oz or 1 3/4 U.S. cups) Sauce Espagnole and 2 dl (7 lb oz or 7/8 U.S. cup) brown stock until it is tender enough to cut with a spoon. Remove the duckling from the cooking liquid when ready; remove all fat and reduce until very thick. Pass through a fine strainer and add the juice of 2 oranges and half a lemon then bring the sauce back to its original consistencey. Complete this sauce with the zest of half an orange and half a lemon, both cut in fine Julienne and well blanched and drained. Take care not to boil the sauce after adding the juice and the Julienne of zest. Glaze the duckling at the last moment, place it on a dish, surround with a little of the sauce and border with segments of orange completely free of skin and pith. Serve the rest of the sauce separately."
---Complete Guide to the Art of Modern Cookery, Escoffier, first translation into Englsih by H.L. Cracknell and R.J. Kaufmann of Le Guide Culinaire in it entirety [Wiley:New York] 1979 (p. 415)
[NOTE: Escoffer also combines duck with cherries and other fruits.]

[1927]
"Duck a la Orange (Canard a l'Orange)
According to different epochs and authors, there are several dishes that deserve this title. Some say that the duck is roasted and accompanied by a bigarade ("bitter orange") sauce: this sauce is a very reduced brown sauce to which orange juice is added, to return it to its original consistency, and then orange peel, cut in julienne, is added. Or, more simply, the juices from roasting the duck are thoroughly degreased and then diluted with ordinary juice; starch is added to make a liaison, then added. As for every roast duck, this method and only be used on a young and tender duck. Other authors suggest braising, which does not require a beast that is quite to tender. The procedure of braising can vary according to your means. When you have brown sauce, add this to the duck, which has first been colored in butter; later, the sauce is reduced, when finished with orange juice and the julienne of orange peel. If you do not have this brown sauce ready in advance, proceed as described further down. But one way or the other, note that the duck must be cooked long enough so that it reaches the point where it could be, as the French say, "carved with a spoon": that is the characteristic of duck that has been braised a l'orange. You should also observe that, for juice or sauce, you must not let it boil after adding the orange juice and the zest; and roasted or braised, the duck should be surrounded by orange quarters, which are trimmed of all their membranes."La Bonne Cuisine, Madame E. Saint-Ange, translated and with an introduction by Paul Aratow [Ten Speed Press:Berkeley CA] 2005 (p. 380-1)
[NOTE: This book contains Saint-Ange's recipe. Your librarian will be hapy to help you obtain a copy. If you prefer the original 1927 French edition let us know. Happy to mail/fax.]

"Although fancy big-city restaurants were serving this French classic before the turn of the century, it did not become the province of the home cook until well after World War II."
---The American Century Cookbook: The Most Popular Recipes of the 20th Century, Jean Anderson [Clarkson Potter:New York] 1997 (p. 136)

Food historians generally attribute the genesis of fattening animals to enhance the taste of their livers to Ancient Mediterranean cooks. Literature connects this practice specifically to Ancient Roman cookery. Foie gras was also known and appreciated in Greece, evidenced by the fact that Homer references this delicacy in his Odyssey. The practice of fattening animals was introduced to Europe by Roman conquerors. France, in particular, embraced this delicacy. About pate de foie gras.

"Fattening, farming practices aimed a producing bigger animals, with better-tasting or more tender meat, than would be the case without intervention. Details depend upon the species...Fattening was a familiar business in Mediterranean farming of the first millenum BC...The Greek verb siteuomai, 'feed', applies to geese and to smaller birds. With these...fattening was carried out largely by intensive feeding, and eventually force feeding, with selected foods...In the Odyssey Penelope, with the suitors on her mind, dreams of twenty geese fattening in her farmyard...Late Greek and late Latin terms for 'liver', sykoton, ficatum, have the literal meaning 'stuffed with figs', because, as Pliny, Galen and Pollux explain, pigs were fed with dried figs to produce large and fine-flavoured liver. Pliny attributes the invention of the method to Apicius."
---Food in the Ancient World From A to Z, Andrew Dalby [Routledge:London] 2003 (p. 141-2)

"Goose, group of large birds domesticated in prehistoric times in the Near East and southern Europe. The goose was a domsticated animal by the time of the earliest Greek literature. The goose was surely the commonest farmyard bird in early Greece until the spread of chicken, from India and Iran, around 600 BC. The relative ubiquity of chickens explains why geese are less frequently mentioned in Greek and Latin literature. They continued to be kept, however, both for their meat and for their eggs...fattening of geese is mentioned in the Odyssey...The liver of force fed geese, known as foie gras, is nowadays an expensive delicacy. The first reference to this gourmet product may possibly be in a fragment by Eubilus, writing in the mid fourth century BC: the point is discussed by Plutarch in Anthanaeus's dialogue. However, goose livers are good to eat whether or not the goose is especially fattened, so a reference to goose liver does not prove that foie gras is intended. Pliny is certain that the idea of foie gras was Roman, and names two possible inventors in the first century BC, one of whom is Metelus Scipio, governor of Syria in 49-48. Foie gras is certainly mentioned by Horace and Marital. The Greek phrase trypheron sykoton, literally equivalent to foie gras, occurs first in the late second century AD in a text by Pollux."
---Food in the Ancient World From A to Z, Andrew Dalby [Routledge:London] 2003 (p. 161-2)

"Foie gras. Goose or duck liver which is grossy enlarged by methodically fattening the bird'...The enlarged liver has been counted a delicacy since classical times, when the force-feeding of the birds was practised in classical Rome. It is commonly said that the practice dates back even further, to ancient Egypt, and that knowledge of it was possibly acquired by the Jews during their 'period of bondage' there and transmitted by them to the classical civilizations. However, Serventi...casts doubt on this legend, while agreeing that Jews played an important role in diffusing throughout Europe knowledge of the techniques for successfuly 'cramming' the birds and processing the livers. In modern times the foie gras of the south-west of France and that of Strasbourg have been the most renown, although much of what is now consumed in France has its origin in eastern Europe or Israel.."
---Oxford Companion to Food, Alan Davidson [Oxford Universtiy Press:Oxford] 1999 (p. 311-2)

"If caviar is in the nature of a gastronomic dream, the thought of foie gras could be said to induce a kind of voluptiously mingled sense of greed and bliss. Indeed, foie gras exemplifies greed twice over, being the result of fatty enlargement of the liver of geese and ducks induced by cramming, i.e.., the over-feeding to which the chose fowls are subjected. The goose itself invented cramming. The ancient Egyptians were the first ot notice the phenomenon: at the season when wild geese are about to migrate, and must travel thousands of kilometres without any chance of feeding, they eat such large quantities of food that reserves of energy are stored in their livers as fat. Geese trapped by the Egyptians just before the great migration provided a real feast. Someone had the idea of cramming the domestic ducks and geese which, as we have seen, were descended from captured wild species...Several...depictions of this subject, and representations of baskets full of fat geese, all dating from the Fifth Dynasty, show that the cramming of geese was a usual practice from the third millennium BC onwards...But we do not know exactly how the Egyptians cooked and ate the foie gras of their geese and ducks...The Greeks...according to Athenaeus, were expert at fattening geese with wheat pounded with water'. The practice became common among the Romans, who were anxious to serve anything magnificent, enormous, of generous size, unique or monstrous at their tables...Pliny gives no details about the cramming of geese, but he agrees that the Romans liked their tender liver, foie gras, the liver of the Gaulish geese...How did the Romans eat the foie gras of their geese? If Juvenal is to be believed, it was served hot...Henri IV of France...liked fat salt geese...but few texts from his him mention foie gras...Valmont de Bomare's Dictionnaire d'histoire naturelle explains in the article on goose' that the liver of that fowl was considered an exquisite delicacy by the Romans'. Are we to infer that people no longer thought it so exquisite in 1768...The pate of Perigeux mentioned in the Dictionnaire portatif de cuisine of 1767 is a recipe which sounds quite modern although very lavish, calling for 12 foies gras, two pounds of truffles, mushrooms and chives. This is highly suggestive of the modern tendency to confuse extreme richness with gastronomy...Perigord had long been noted for the excellence of its truffles pates...A lot of nonsense has been talked about the sacred alliance of truffles and 'foie gras', and there is a fanciful legend to the effect that the pates of Nerac which Henry IV liked consisted of foie gras and truffles. This is an invention of food writers."
---History of Food, Maguelonne Toussaint-Samat, translatd by Anthea Bell [Barnes & Noble Books:New York] 1992 (p. 424-434)

"Whether from the goose or the duck, foie gras has always been considered a rare delicacy, but the way in which it is served has changed according to culinary fashion. At one time it was served at the end of the meal. The traditional truffle and aspic accompaniments are now thought to be superflous by some, who prefer to serve it with lightly toasted farmhouse bread (leavened and slightly acid), rather than with plain slices of toast. Nouvelle cuisine set as much store by foie gras as classic cuisine, and sometimes gave it novel accompaniments, such as green leeks, pumpkin or even scallops. However, the classic recipes, both hot and cold, still retain their prestige. Most dishes described as a la perigourdine or Rossini are prepared with foie gras."
---Larousse Gastronomique, Completely revised and updated [Clarkson Potter:New York] 2000 (p. 502) [NOTE: this book contains classic recipes]

"The Renaissance love of foie gras was also linked to the ancents' texts. Porta and Nonnius alluded to passages on fattened liver in Horace, Pliny, Martial, Juvenal, Galen, and Palladius. Observing that fattened pig livers were elegant fare for the Greeks and the Romans, Bruyerin noted that Pliny thought the cramming of sows and geese with figs to enlarge their livers was an invention of Marcus Apicius. Pliny had also explained, continued Bruyerin, that once the liver had been removed from the animal, it was soaked in milk and honey to increase its size still further, a procedure said to have been invented by Scipio, Metellus, or Marcus Seius. Porta offered detailed instructions from Palladius on how to enlarge goose livers, and Frances Bacon, quoting Porta's work, reminds his readers that artificially fattened goose liver was a Roman delicacy. In France, Bruyerin claimed, the fatted cock's or hen's liver was more highly though of than the liver of a crammed goose, though fifty years later the Tresor de sante called goose liver "a royal dish, of which the Romans also made much, as reported by Pollux and Athenaeus." In 1570 Bartolomeo Scappi credited the Jews with creating a business out of the interest in foie gras. Some of the livers they sold, he reported, weighted as much as three pounds. In the late eighteenth century Pierre Le Grand d'Aussy wrote that "the Jews of Metz and of Strasbourg possess the same secret [as did the ancients], though their precise methods we do not know. And the secret is one of the branches of commerce that made them rich. As is well know, Strasbourg makes these livers into pates whose reputation is renowned."
---Acquired Taste: The French Origins of Modern Cooking, T. Sarah Peterson [Cornell University Press:Ithaca NY] 1994 (p. 94-5)

"Among organs foie gras had become perhaps the most celebrated. Any attempt to discuss this delicacy in the Italian cookbooks involves a semantic problem. Latin has basically two ways of denoting liver, jecur and ficatum, the latter derived from the custom of feeding pigs and geese figs (fici) to fatten their livers. Apicius generally uses jecur for animal livers but twice employs ficatum, presumably to indicate a crammed liver. The Italian fegato comes from the Latin factum and so implied a fattened liver. Yet fegato has come to mean simply liver, and there is no reason to suspect that it did not have this meaning in the fourteenth century. The French and English cookbooks of that time do not pose a language obstacle: the only words that appear are "foie" in the French and "liver" in the English, with no adjective attached to indicate a fattened liver. Again we see Platina start the discussion, but a commitment to fattened livers is not apparent in the sixteenth-century Italian cookbooks. Foie gras enters the French cookery works with La Varenne, and although the English books occasionally refer to it, the crammed goose liver becomes a motif from antiquity almost totally identified with France, as is the case with meat pates (meats wrapped in pastry), spurred by a passage in Apicius. By the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries the whole gamut of prestigious meat concoctions and body parts had entered the composed dishes first of France, then of England."
---Acquired Tastes...(p. 105-7)
[NOTE: This book contains a brief survey of foie gras recipes from La Varenne (1651) to Glasse (1748).]

Dan Barber [Stone Barns] on Foie Gras.

[1911]
Fois Gras, The Grocer's Encyclopedia, Artemis Ward: 253

PATE DE FOIE GRAS
The word pate derives from paste, as in pastry. Pate de foie gras is fatted goose liver encased in pastry. The concept is ancient, the elevation of this dish to culinary art is attributed to the French. The Strousbourg region in particular.

"Pate...This word is used in three ways in French: pate, pate en terrine, and pate en croute. In France the word pate on its own should, strictly speaking, only be applied to a dish consisting of pastry case (shell) filled with meat, fish, vegetables, or fruit, which is baked in the oven and served hot or cold. The best English translation of this word is pie, although many of these dishes are much richer and more elaborate than the sort of pie usually eaten in England and America...'Pate en terrine' is a meat, game, or fish preparation put into a dish (terrine) lined with bacon, cooked in the oven, and always served cold. The correct French abbreviation of this is terrine but in common usage the French also call it pate....Pate was known to the Romans, who used to make it chiefly with pork but also used all types of marinated spiced ingredients...In the Middle Ages, there were numerous recipes for patisseries (meats cooked in pastry) made with pork, poultry, eel....Most pates sold in delicatessens are actually terrines, based on pork meat or offal (in pieces or minced) bound with eggs, milk, jelly, etc."
---Larousse Gastronomique, Completely revised and updated [Clarkson Potter:New York] 2001 (p. 853-4)

"Pate, a French term whose meaning and use have both enlarged since early medieval times. The original meaning is best conveyed in English by the word pie' (or perhaps pastry' where the connection is more obvious). What was meant was a pastry case filled with any of various mixtures (meat, fish, vegetables), baked in the oven and served either hot or cold...By natural extension, the term came to mean not only the whole pie but also what was in the pie, especially if it was something which could be served cold, in slices. At this point the meaning became much the same as that of terrine. Once pate had evolved in this direction, so that it was not thought of as being in a pastry case, there was a problem over what to call it when it was in a pastry case. The phrase "pate in croute" fills this gap."
---Oxford Companion to Food, Alan Davidson [Oxford University Press:Oxford] 1999 (p. 584)

"Pate...Almost any expert and discerning cook can vouch for the fact that a pate is nothing more than a well-made meat loaf. It is simply a bit more rarified--using, perhaps, truffles and Cognac and other out-of-the-oridinary, often expensive, seasonings. The French, too, have quite basic terms for their not-too-fancy-pates. They refer to them as gateau de viande (meat cake) or a pain de viande (meat bread). One of the accomplishments of the nouvelle cuisine has been to broaden the use and variety of pates. Less than a generation ago, most pates were based largely on meat --pork or veal--and goose or duck livers. Today, however, one encounters fish pates, vegetable pates, pates made with almost anything that can be cooked in a loaf pan. Incidentally, there is no difference between a pate and a terrine. Originally, a terrine was a ground meat mixture baked in an earthenware utensil. The name derives from the world terra, meaning earth. Baked meat creations cooked in such molds are often referred to as terrines. The word pate stems from "paste" and is related to such words as pastry and pasta. It is an educated guess that meat creations baked in pastry were dubbed pate as a result. Today, pates are often cooked in and served from terrines or eathenware molds. And terrines are often covered with pastry before they are baked."
---Craig Claiborne's The New York Times Food Encyclopedia, compiled by Joan Whitman [Times Books:New York] 1985 (p. 326)

[1875] British notes on pate de foies gras:

These pasties, so highly esteemed by epicures, are made at Strasburg, and thence exported to various parts. They are prepared from the livers of geeese, which have been tied down for three or four weeks to prevent them from moving, and forcibly compelled to swallow, at intervals, a certain amount of fattening food. When they have become so fat that they would die in a short time, they are killed, and their livers, which have become very rich, fat, and pale during the process, are used for the above purpose. These pates are very expensive. A good imitation of them may be made without subjecting the unfortunatle geese to the cruelties described by following the direction here hive:--Take the livers form three fine fat geese, and in drawing the birds be careful not to bread the gall-bag, as the contents would impart a bitter taste to the livers. Carefully remove any yellow spots there may be upon them, and lay the livers in milk for six or eight hours to whiten; cut them in halves, and put three halves aside for forecemeat. Soak, wash, and scrub, and peel three-quarters of a pound of truffles, carefully preserving the cuttings. Slice a thrid of them into narrow strips, like lardoons, and tick theminto the remainder of the livers three-quarters of an inch apart, sprinkle over them a little pepper, salt, and spice, and put them in a cool place until the forcemeat is amde. Mince finely, first separately and afterwards together, a pound of fresh bacon, a thrid of the truffles, the halves of the livers that were put away for the purpose, two shallots, and eight or ten button mushrooms; season the mixutre with plenty of pepper and salt, two or three grates of nutmed, and half a salt-spoonful of powedered marjoram, and keep chopping until it is quite smooth. Make the paste according to the directions given in Paste for Raised Pies...Cover the bottom of the pie with thin rashers of ham, fat and lean together; spread evenly on these one-half of the forcemeat, then put in the three livers, with the slices of truffle stuck in them, and afterwards the remainder of the forcemeat. Intersperse amongst the contents of the pie the remaining quarter of a pound of truffles, anc cover the whole with two or three mroeslices of ham or bacon. Put the cover on the pie, ornament as fancy dictates, brush it over with beaten egg, make a hole in the centre for the steam to escape, and bake in a moderate overn. Time to bake, two hours or more...Sufficient for a dozen persons."
---Cassell's Dictionary of Cookery with Numerous Illustrations [Cassell, Petter, Galpin:London] 1875 (p. 517-8)

People have been frying all sorts of foods (meat, bread, vegetables) since ancient times. This fuel-efficient cooking method had several advantages, one of which was portability. Dredging meat with flour and spices before cooking tenderized the item and enhanced its flavor. Medieval European cooks built on this concept, creating fricassee. Fricassee is not fried, but simmered in butter and served with creamy sauce. In the United States, fried chicken is traditionally considered a Southern dish. Maryland-style fried chicken is traditionally served with gravy, reminiscent of fricassee. Batter-fried chicken appears to be a gift from northern European cuisine. Chicken is a global food; recipes vary according to time, culture and cuisine.

What's the difference between fried and deep fried?
The trouble with researching the history of deep fried food (items cooked by total immersion in fat) is the term. Webster's New Unabridged Dictionary traces the term "deep fry" in print only to the 1930s. Prior to that, evidence regarding deep frying must be culled from a careful examination of instructions provided in cooking texts. References to boiling lard and notes on draining sometimes indicate the item was to be deep fried.

Food historians tell us one of the first foods known to be deep fried are fritters. Apicius provides recipes for sweet and savory fritters in his ancient Roman cooking text. Unfortunately, he does not describe in detail the method used for cooking them. This is not uncommon in early texts; it was assumed the cook already possessed this knowledge. Medieval texts contain a wide selection of fritter recipes. The Dutch were are said to have perfected this recipe, expanding it to crullers and doughnuts. Culinary evidence confirms these items were "deep fried."

Mrs. D. A. Lincoln in her Boston Cooking School Cook Book [1884] provides detailed instructions for deep frying, although she does not use that term. Her notes on frying.

Karen Hess' definative historic notes on fricassee and fried chicken can be found in her transcription of Martha Washington's Booke of Cookery, [Columbia University Press:New York] 1981 (p. 40-44).

ABOUT SOUTHERN FRIED CHICKEN

"Southern fried chicken
Chicken parts that are floured or battered and then fried in hot fat. The term southern fried' first appeared in print in 1925...Southerners were not the first people in the world to fry chickens, of course. Almost every country has its own version, from Vietnam's Ga Xao to Italy's pollo fritto and Austria's Weiner Backhendl, and numerous fricassees fill the cookbooks of Europe. And fried chicken did not become particularly popular in the northern United States until well into the nineteenth century...The Scottish, who enjoyed frying their chickens rather than boiling or baking them as the English did, may have brought the method with them when they settled the South. The efficient and simple cooking process was very well adapted to the plantation life of the southern African-American slaves, who were often allowed to raise their own chickens. The idea of making a sauce to go with fried chicken must have occurred early on, at least in Maryland, where such a match came to be known as "Maryland fried chicken." By 1878 a dish by this name was listed on the menu of the Grand Union hotel in Saratoga, New York..."
---The Encyclopedia of American Food and Drink, John F. Mariani [Lebhar-Friedman:New York] 1999 (p. 305-6)
[NOTE: this book has much more information than can be paraphrased here. Ask your librarian to help you find a copy]

"Seventeenth- and eighteenth-century descriptions of colonial foodways ignored the chicken for the most part. In the earliest manuscripts to enter America there are, of course, chicken recipes for roasts, stews, and pies, and none other than Governor William Byrd II was dining on the iconic southern dish of fried chicken at his Virginia plantation by 1709..." ---Oxford Encyclopedia of Food and Drink in America, Andrew F. Smith editor [Oxford University Press:Oxford] 2004, Volume 1 (p. 226)

Recipes through time

Ancient Rome
PULLUM FRONTONIANUM (Chicken a la Fronto)
(Apicius. 6, 9, 13)
Ingredients:

1 fresh chicken (approx. 1-1.5kg)
100ml oil
200ml Liquamen, or 200ml wine + 2 tsp salt
1 branch of leek
fresh dill, Saturei, coriander, pepper to taste
a little bit of Defritum

Instructions:
Start to fry chicken and season with a mixture of Liquamen and oil, together with bunches of dill, leek, Saturei and fresh coriander. Then cook approximately 1 hour with 220 deg C in the oven. When the chicken is done, moisten a plate with Defritum, put chicken on it, sprinkle pepper on it, and serve.

[1596]
"To Fry Chicken
Take your chickens and let them boil in very good sweet broth a pretty while. Take the chickens out and quarter them out in pieces. Then put them into a frying pan with sweet butter, and let them stew in the pan. But you must not let them be brown with frying. They put out the butter out of the pan, and then take a little sweet broth, and as much verjuice, and the yolks of two eggs and beat them together. Put in a little nutmeg, cinnamon, ginger, and pepper into the sauce. Then put them all into the pan to the chickens, and stir them together in the pan. Put them into a dish and serve them up."
---The Good Housewife's Jewel, Thomas Dawson, 1596, with an introduction by Maggie Black [Southover Press:East Sussex] 1996 (p. 41)

[1651]
"Pullets fried
After they are dressed, cut into peeces and well washed, boile them in good broth, and when they are almost sodden drain them, and fry them. After five or six turns, season them with salt and good herbs, as parsely, chibols, &c. Allay some yolks of eggs for to thicken the sauce, and serve."
---The French Cook, Francoise Pierre, La Varenne, Englished by I.D.G. 1653, Introduced by Philip and Mary Hyman [Southover Press:East Sussex] 2001 (p. 52)

[1824]
"Fricassee of Small Chickens
Take off the legs and wings of four chickens, separate the breasts from the backs, cut off the necks and divide the backs across, clean the gizzards nicely, put them with the livers and other parts of the chicken, after being washed clean, into a sauce pan, add pepper, salt, and a little mace, cover them with water, and stew them till tender, then take them out, thicken half a pint of the water with two table spoonsful of flour rubbed into four ounces of butter, add half a pint of new milk, boil all together a few minutes, then add a gill of white wine, stirruing it in carefully that it may not curdle, put the chickens in and continue to shake the pan until they are sufficiently hot, and serve them up.

Fried Chickens
Cut them up as for the fricassee, dredge them well with flour, sprinkle them with salt, put them into a good quantity of boiling lard, and fry them a light brown, fry them a light brown, fry small pieces of mush and a quantity of parsley nicely picked to be served in the dish with the chickens, take half a pint of rich milk, add to it a small bit of butter with pepper, salt, and chopped parsley, stew it a little, and pour it over the chickens, and then garnish with the fried parsley."
---The Virginia House-Wife, Mary Randolph, Facsimile 1824 edition with historical notes and commentaries by Karen Hess [University of South Carolina:Columbia] 1984 (p. 252-3)

[1881]
"Fried Chicken
Cut the chicken up, separating every joint, and wash clean. Salt and pepper it, and roll into flour well. Have your fat very hot, and drop the pieces into it, and let them cook brown. The chicken is done when the fork passes easily into it. After the chicken is all cooked, leave a little of the hot fat in the skillet; then take a tablespoonful of dry flour and brown it in the fat, stirring it around, then pour water in and stir till the gravy is as thin as soup."
---What Mrs. Fisher Knows About Old Southern Cooking, Abby Fisher, In Facsimile (1881) with historical notes by Karen Hess [Applewood Books:Bedford MA] 1995 (p. 20)
[NOTE: This book is considered to be the first published cook book written by an African American.]

[1904]
"Fried Chicken
Prepare young chicken and sprinkle with salt and lay on ice 12 hours before cooking. Cut the chicken in pieces and dredge with flour and drop in hot boiling lard and butter--equal parts--salt and pepper, and cover tightly and cook rather slowly--if it cooks too quickly it will burn. Cook both sides to a rich brown. Remove chicken and make a gravy by adding milk, flour, butter, salt, and pepper. Cook till thick, and serve in separate bowl."
---The Blude Grass Cook Book, compiled by Minnie C. Fox, facsimile reprint 1904 edition [University Of Kentucky Press:Lexington KY] 2005 (p. 88)

[1932]
Old Fashioned Fried Chicken-Maryland Style
Put an ounce of butter in a frying pan, and add four slices of lean salt pork dipped in flour; when turned to a golden color take off the salt pork, add two and a half pounds of chicken disjointed, also dipped in milk and flour. Fry until cooked. Take off chicken, drain fat from frying pan, pour in a cup of light cream and milk, reduce to half and add one cup of light cream sauce, boil a few minutes, strain over chicken sprinkled with chopped chives and parsley, garnish with two corn fritters, two sweet potato croquettes, two slices fried tomato and the four pieces of crisp salt pork.--A.J. Fink, Managing Director, Southern Hotel, Baltimore"
---Eat, Drink and be Merry in Maryland, Frederick Philip Steiff [G.P. Putnam's Sons:New York] 1932 (p. 86)

[1839]
"Fried Chickens. Chickens are nicesest for frying when they are about half grown. Cut off the wings and legs, separate the back from the breast, cut it across, and split each piece, divide the breast, clean the giblets, and rinse them all in cold water; season them with salt and pepper, dip them in batter, and fry them a yellowish brown in lard, which should be boiling when the chicken is put in. Thicken the gravy with brown flour, chopped parsley, pepper and cream; serve up the chicken, and our the gravy round."
---Kentucky Housewife, Lettice Bryan, facsimile 1839 edition [Image Graphics:Paducah KY] (p. 119)

[1847]
"Battered Chicken. Make a light batter with three eggs, a small tablespoonful of butter, a little wheat flour, and salt into the taste. Joint your chickens, and put them into the batter. Grease your frying-pan, throw the mixture of chicken and batter into it, and fry a good brown.--This quantity of batter will suffice for one pair of chickens."
---The Carolina Housewife, Sarah Rutledge, facsimle 1847 edition [University of South Carolina Press:Columbia SC] 1979 (p. 82)

[1869]
"Chickens Fried in Batter," Elizabeth Lea, Domestic Cookery

Later recipes add the batter after the chicken is (mostly) cooked

[1930]
"Batter Fried Chicken. Prepare young chickens for cooking and cut at joints into pieces. Make a batter of two cups flour, one tablespoonful baking powder, three-fourths teaspoonful salt, one-half teaspoonful black pepper, two eggs, one-half cup milk or more. Have a skillet of deep fat and put the chicken in, no piece within an inch of touching another. When the pieces are brown on the underside, turn them over and put a large kitchen spooonful of the batter on each piece. The fat must be deep enough to brown the batter without turning it over, and the batter must not be soft enought to spread out too much."
---Old Southern Receipts, Mary D. Pretlow [Robert M. McBride:New York] 1930 (p. 53-54)

[1934]
"Batter for Chickens. This recipe, contributed by Mary Leize Simons for the old notebook of Miss Elizabeth Harleston, proved to be most delicious, though at first glance it was not very enlightening. It reads: 'One pint of milk one pint of flour, two eggs, a little salt; beat up very light--Yeast Poweder.' After experimenting with this batter for deep-fat frying we found that the following amounts owuld make enough batter to coer a medium-sized chicken.
1 1/2 cups flour
1 tablespoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 egg, well beaten
1/2 cup milk
Mix and sift the dry ingredients. Mix the egg and milk together and combine with the first mixture. Dip each piece of chicken in the batter and fry in deep fat until brown. The chicken must, of course, be cooked until tender before dipping in th batter since the short time of frying would not cook the chicken."---Mary Leize Simons." ---200 Years of Charleston Cooking, recipes gathered by Blanche S. Rhett [Random House:New York] revised edition, 1934 (p. 77-78)

[1953]
"Fried Chicken--(deep fat). Chicken for frying in deep fat is generally cutinto quarters and dipped in thin batter (1 egg, 3/4 cup milk, 1 cup sifted flour, 1/2 teasppon salt.). Or, if preferred, use and egg-and-crumb coating."
---The South Carolina Cook Book, Collected and edited by the South Carolina Extension Homemakers Council [University of South Carolina Press: Columbia SC] revised edition., 1953 (p. 166)

Related foods? fritters, Cajun fried turkey, chicken-fried steak, city chicken, corn dogs & tempura.

According to the Oxford English Dictionary, the English word "gravy" is obscure in origin. It is most likely derived from the Old French word "grane." The earliest printed evidence of this word in our language from the Forme of Curry, an English cookbook circa 1390.

"Gravy. In the British Isles and areas culturally influenced by them, is...well, gravy, a term fully comprehensible to those who use it, but something of a mystery in the rest of the world. Ideally, gravy as made in the British kitchen is composed of residues left in the tin after roasting meat, declazed with good stock, and seasoned carefully. (Many cooks incorporate a spoonful of flour before adding the liquid but this practice is frowned on by purists.) Gravy varies in colour from pale gold-brown to burnt umber, and in thickness from something with little more body than water to a substantial sauce of coating consistency. In French meat cookery, jus is roughly equivalent to honestly made thin gravy in the British tradition...Kitchen tricks involving burnt onions, caramelized sugar, gravy browning', and stock cubes are modern descendants of this practice. Indeed, numerous gravy mixes' or granules' (dehydraged compounds of colourings, flavourings, and thickeners) are to be had, for use with the meat residue, or in its stead. Yet in many homes in Britain a true gravy is still made; and this remains the most delicious accompaniement fo rthe meat form which it comes and an essential feature of the meat dish."
---Oxford Companion to Food, Alan Davidson [Oxford University Press:Oxford] 1999 (p. 351)

"The gravy that was eaten in the fourteenth century bears little resemblance to the sludgy brown liquid, as likely as not made from stock cubes or freeze-dried gravy granules, usually served up in Britain at the beginning of the twenty-first century. It was a sort of sauce or dressing for white meat or fish, and was made from their broth with some sort of thickening agent, typically ground almonds, and spices (the name itself appears to be of Old French origin, coming either from graine, meat', or from grane, an adjective derived from grain in the sense of grain of spice', with in either case a misreading of n for u or v in early manuscripts; the former etymology would relate it to greande or grenadine, now obsolete terms for small stuffed fillets of veal or poultry). The Forme of Cury, a late fourteenth-century cookery book, gives a recipe for oysters in gravy: Shell the blanched oysters, and cooke them in wine and in their own broth; strain the broth through a cloth. Take blanched almonds; grind them and mix them up with the same broth, and mix it with rice flour and put the oysters in. Put in powdered ginger, sugar, mace, and salt.' A more elaborate version of the sauce, known as gravy enforced, was enriched with boiled egg yolks and cheese, while the inferior gravy bastard seems to have been made with breadcrumbs rather than ground almonds. The common denominator between this and what we now call 'gravy' is the juice given off by meat in cooking; and the critical change between obtaining this in the form of broth, from boiling the meat, and in the form of juices produced by roasting, seems to have taken place in the sixteenth century."
---An A-Z of Food and Drink, John Ayto [Oxford Univeristy Press:Oxford] 2002 (p. 148-9)

"Gravy. A sauce, usually flour-based, served with meat, poultry, and other foods...In America "gravy" is a more common term than "sauce" or "sop" (which may indicate a basting sauce) and has been in print since the middle of the nineteeth century. By 1900 the word had metaphoric connotations of money obtained with little or no effort, so that to be on the "gravy train" was to acquire money gratuitiously, often through political graft."
---Encyclopedia of American Food and Drink, John F. Mariani [Lebhar-Friedman] 1999 (p. 144)

About biscuits & gravy.

"Sausage is one of the oldest forms of processed food, having been mentioned in Homer's Odyssey as far back as the 9th Century B.C. Frankfurt-am-Main, Germany, is traditionally credited with originating the frankfurter. However, this claim is disputed by those who assert that the popular sausage - known as a "dachshund" or "little-dog" sausage - was created in the late 1600's by Johann Georghehner, a butcher, living in Coburg, Germany. According to this report, Georghehner later traveled to Frankfurt to promote his new product. In 1987, the city of Frankfurt celebrated the 500th birthday of the hot dog in that city. It's said that the frankfurter was developed there in 1487, five years before Christopher Columbus set sail for the new world. The people of Vienna (Wien), Austria, point to the term "wiener" to prove their claim as the birthplace of the hot dog. As it turns out, it is likely that the North American hot dog comes from a widespread common European sausage brought here by butchers of several nationalities. Also in doubt is who first served the dachshund sausage with a roll. One report says a German immigrant sold them, along with milk rolls and sauerkraut, from a push cart in New York City's Bowery during the 1860's. In 1871, Charles Feltman, a German butcher opened up the first Coney Island hot dog stand selling 3,684 dachshund sausages in a milk roll during his first year in business. The year, 1893, was an important date in hot dog history. In Chicago that year, the Columbian Exposition brought hordes of visitors who consumed large quantities of sausages sold by vendors. People liked this food that was easy to eat, convenient and inexpensive. Hot dog historian Bruce Kraig, Ph.D., retired professor emeritus at Roosevelt University, says the Germans always ate the dachshund sausages with bread. Since the sausage culture is German, it is likely that Germans introduced the practice of eating the dachshund sausages, which we today know as the hot dog, nestled in a bun. Also in 1893, sausages became the standard fare at baseball parks. This tradition is believed to have been started by a St. Louis bar owner, Chris Von de Ahe, a German immigrant who also owned the St. Louis Browns major league baseball team. Many hot dog historians chafe at the suggestion that today's hot dog on a bun was introduced during the St. Louis "Louisiana Purchase Exposition" in 1904 by Bavarian concessionaire, Anton Feuchtwanger. As the story goes, he loaned white gloves to his patrons to hold his piping hot sausages and as most of the gloves were not returned, the supply began running low. He reportedly asked his brother-in-law, a baker, for help. The baker improvised long soft rolls that fit the meat - thus inventing the hot dog bun. Kraig says everyone wants to claim the hot dog bun as their own invention, but the most likely scenario is the practice was handed down by German immigrants and gradually became widespread in American culture. Another story that riles serious hot dog historians is how term "hot dog" came about. Some say the word was coined in 1901 at the New York Polo Grounds on a cold April day. Vendors were hawking hot dogs from portable hot water tanks shouting "They're red hot! Get your dachshund sausages while they're red hot!" A New York Journal sports cartoonist, Tad Dorgan, observed the scene and hastily drew a cartoon of barking dachshund sausages nestled warmly in rolls. Not sure how to spell "dachshund" he simply wrote "hot dog!" The cartoon is said to have been a sensation, thus coining the term "hot dog." However, historians have been unable to find this cartoon, despite Dorgan's enormous body of work and his popularity. Kraig, and other culinary historians, point to college magazines where the word "hot dog" began appearing in the 1890s. The term was current at Yale in the fall of 1894,when "dog wagons" sold hot dogs at the dorms. The name was a sarcastic comment on the provenance of the meat. References to dachshund sausages and ultimately hot dogs can be traced to German immigrants in the 1800s. These immigrants brought not only sausages to America, but dachshund dogs. The name most likely began as a joke about the Germans' small, long, thin dogs. In fact, even Germans called the frankfurter a "little-dog" or "dachshund" sausage, thus linking the word "dog" to their popular concoction."
SOURCE: National Hot Dog and Sausage Council

"The term 'hot dog' is singularly American...The earliest use of the term 'hot dog' yet discovered is in the 28 September 1893 edition of the Knoxville Journal: 'Even the weinerwurst men began preparing to get the "hot dogs" ready for sale Saturday night.' Several 'official' stories of how the hot dog got its name have been widely circulated since the 1920s."
---Hot Dog: A Global History, Bruce Kraig [Reaktion Books:London] 2009 (p. 23)
[NOTE: If you need more details about the hot dog's place in American history we highly recommend this book!]

Who is credited for serving the first hot dogs at a New York baseball game?
Harry M. Stevens. The year is unclear, but the story is great!

"Consider the plight of the hot dog. Here is an American institution that has quietly and modestly served the nation for more than half a century with far too little recognition. Why has this gross injustice been perpetrated in a country so proud of its record for fairness and equailtiy? Because the hot dog has no known birthday...no one can point a finger to any specific day and say "This was the start of the hot dog and shall be celebrated ever forevermore." Historians admit that the hot dog was born on a cold day in the Eighteen Nineties, but even the exact year remains obscure. The scene of the momentious event was the [New York] Polo Grounds. Cold winds whilled in off Coogan's Bluff and the baseball fans shivered in the stands. A young Englsih-born concessionaire named Harry M. Stevens was purveying his peanuts and scorecards, but the weather spurred him to history-making action. He recalled that a near-by butcher shop had an assortment of sausages hanging in the window, and he sent a boy to buy ten dozens of them. Mr. Stevens dispatched another lad to purchase rolls from a bakery. He tossed the wieners into a huge pot half-filled with water and boiled them on the clubhouse stove. He sliced the rolls and inserted the hot wieners in them, then told his venders: "Those people are frozen. Go out there and yell, 'red hots, red hots.' The people will buy these red hots if you yell loud enough. Within ten minutes, the red hots were sold, and Mr. Stevens, who went on to become a famous caterer, had a new item for his concession. But the saga of the hot dog was not without its moments of tribulation. T.A. (Tad) Dorgan, the cartoonist, began to characterize the "red hot" in his sketches as a dachshund between an elongated bun, and he called it the "hot dog." This quite naturally started some person wondering what went into the manufacture of the tasty product, and the hot dog business suffered a severe recession about 1910. The hot dog had an indomitable spirit, though, and fought its way back to popularity."
---"Topics of the Times: An American Institution," New York Times, August 20, 1953 (p. 26)

What about Frank Twitchell?
"What happened was that Chicago was a city of parks and, although I didn't know it then, Chicago's 5,000 acres of parks were to play a major role in my life. In those days, before World War I, the city's park commissioners weren't politicians but prominent and usually civic-minded businessmen...The used to go to the Heidelberg to eat, before or after their meetings, and they got to know and like my father. They'd even ask his opinion; after all, he was running one of the best restaurants in town. And so, one thing led to another, and the commissioners wound up asking my father if he would take over the parks concessions...The commissioners apparently were out to hustle better food and service in the South Park system, and Frank Twitchell more or less fell into place...The first thing he did was to arrange to buy hot dogs made to his specifications from Oscar Mayer, the meat packer. How's that for class: hot dogs made to his specifications. My father built a better hot dog and people started beating a path to the parks, where his hot dog stands began to sprout in strategic places along the South Park Lake Front."
---My Luke and I, Eleanor Gerhig and Joseph Durso [Thomas Y. Crowell:New York] 1976 (p. 56-6)

About hot dogs/National Hot Dog and Sausage Council
Hot Dogs as America/American Museum of Natural History

Recommended reading:

• "Hot dogs," Oxford Encyclopedia of Food and Drink in America/Andrew F. Smith editor [Oxford University Press:New York] 2004, Volume 1 (p. 687-689)
• Hot Dog: A Global History, Bruce Kraig
• The Great American Hot Dog Book, Becky Mercuri (state-by-state recipes & variations)

Related foods: Gyros & doner kebab

"King Ranch chicken. Also, "King Ranch casserole." A layered casserole dish made with cut-up poached chicken, cream of mushroom soup, chilies, chicken soup, grated cheese, corn tortillas, and tomatoes (most often Ro-Tel brand). The dish is very commonly served at Texas clubwomen's buffets. For unknown reason, the name, which dates in cookbooks at least to the 1950s, refers to the King Ranch in Kingsville, Texas, but there is no evidence that the dish was created there."
---Encyclopedia of American Food and Drink, John F. Mariani [Lebhar-Friedman:New York] 1999 (p. 176)

"King Ranch chicken. Karen Haram, food editor of the San Antonio Express-News, tells me that though Texans claim this recipe, no one knows where it originated. Or how it came to be named for the King Ranch, whose claims to fame are its immense acerage, its oil, and its Santa Gertrudis cattle, a breed developed there to replace the sinewy Texas longhorns. Certainly the King Ranch was never known for chicken. "Maybe," Haram speculates, "It's because the recipe is so rich."
---The American Century Cookbook: The Most Popular Recipes of the 20th Century, Jean Anderson [Clarkson Potter:New York] 1997 (p. 110)
[NOTE: this book contains a recipe for the dish.]

"As far as anyone can tell, King Ranch chicken-or as it is sometimes known-King Ranch casserole, doesn't have one single thing to do with the King Ranch...No one seems to know exactly where it started, but it has clearly taken on a life of its own..."I've lived here 31 years--and you know how women like to always collect recipes wherever they go?" asked Kathy Henry of the King Ranch visitor's center in Kingsville. "Well, when I moved to Kingsville, the first one I got was for King Ranch chicken. So I know it has been here for at least 31 years." But in all her time working for the sprawling King Ranch, Henry has never found a link between the popular casserole and the ranch. "We think it was developed in the 1950s"..."The word is, a lady in Robstown may have entered it in a national cooking contest like the Pillsbury or Campbell Soup contests. She didn't win a big prize but maybe a second or third. She just named it King Ranch chicken because Robstown is in this area and she though it would be a catchy name." it was. Henry said she has never been able to research the story, but whatever the case, she's certain the dish was developed between 1945 and 1965. "That's the best I can came up with," she said."
---"King Ranch chicken rules the roost," Art Chapman, Fort Worth Star-Telegram, June 2, 1999 (Food p. 1)
[NOTE: Mrs. A. E. Sommer's Chicken Tortilla Casserole claimed 3rd prize in the 12th annual Press-Telegram Cook Book Contest [Long Beach, California], published September 4, 1966 (p. 19)]

"King Ranch casserole is not a pretty dish. A steaming mass of melted mush, the classic ingredients -- boiled chicken, grated cheese, tortilla chips, and one can each cream of mushroom and cream of chicken soup -- make it a study in beige and yellow. Nor is it at all exciting: Even with the requisite Ro-Tel tomatoes and green chiles, the flavor is resolutely bland, a quality Texans claim to abhor in their cooking. The dish is, in fact, the subject of some scorn: "Never, never, never," says caterer Tilford Collins, who serves some of South Texas' oldest families. Texas food historian Mary Faulk Koock is only slightly more charitable. "I imagine it could be made palatable," is about all she has to say on the subject. Still, King Ranch casserole -- or King Ranch chicken, as it is often called -- has endured. It is the clubwoman's contribution to Texas cuisine, a staple of society ladies' cookbooks form Fort Worth to McAllen, where the Junior League's La Pi¤ata touts a variation as a "great way to enjoy that leftover Christmas or Thanksgiving turkey." The casserole's fame has spread to cookbooks in Louisiana, Mississippi, and Kansas, and the dish can be purchased frozen from Randall's supermarkets in Houston and from H.E.B. in Alamo Heights. Forget the spare sophistication of nouvelle cuisine, the assertiveness of true Mexican cooking. The secret of King Ranch casserole is that it's boring. In today's complex culinary lexicon, the dish resides snugly in the category of comfort food. No one seems to know who invented it. The casserole may have come from the King Ranch, but the descendants of Captain Richard King prefer to tout their beef and game dishes. "Kind of strange, a King Ranch casserole made with chicken," notes Mart¡n Clement, the head of public relations for the ranch. Mary Lewis Kleberg, the widow of Dick Kleberg, admits that her heart sinks every time a well-meaning hostess prepares it in her honor. Most likely the dish got its name from an enterprising South Texas hostess or a King Ranch cook whose preference for poultry doomed him to obscurity. Yet King Ranch casserole's general origins are easy to discern. Certainly it owes a deep debt to chilaquiles, which also contain chicken, cheese, tomatoes, tortilla chips, and chiles -- the staples that campesinos often combined to stretch one meal into two while retaining a semblance of nutrition. But the dish owes as much to post-World War II cooking, when casseroles made with canned soups were the height of space-age cuisine. Because they could be made quickly and frozen for later use, casseroles liberated the lady of the house. "The perfect entree for a minimum amount of time in the kitchen for the hostess," the McAllen Junior League cookbook notes. If the women of the fifties loved the recipe because it freed them from the family kitchen, their children love it because it takes them back there. They have adapted it to their taste, of course: Trendy cooks now substitute flour tortillas for corn, while the truly convenience-crazed use Doritos. Purists doctor the recipe with sour cream -- a move back toward Mexican authenticity. Even with modernization, the dish still tastes pretty much like it used to -- slightly salty, slightly chewy, slightly spicy, slightly greasy. Yes, it lacks the challenge of a T-bone or a spicy bowl of red -- King Ranch casserole calms, it does not wish to offend. Yes, it's bland -- but it's always there when you need it."
SOURCE: Texas Monthly

About King Ranch, Kingsville TX

Early recipes

[1966]
"King Ranch Chicken is Mrs. William L. Gill's favorite casserole for luncheon or buffet. It was served at her Christmas party for the Holly Garden Club of which she has been a member for many years. She finds the casserole a hit with men as well as with women guests. The ingredients for King Ranch Chicken are as follows: Three or four pounds chicken breasts, boiled until tender, and diced (reserve stock): 1 dozen fresh tortillas, 1 can cream of mushroom soup, 1 can cream of chicken soup, 1 cup chopped green pepper, 1 cup chopped onion, 1 tablespoon chili powder, 3/4 pound grated cheddar cheese. Line the bottom and sides of a greased 3-quart casserole with a layer of tortillas. Sprinkle with 2 tablespoons chicken stock. The make a layer with 1 can undiluted cream of mushroom soup, 1/2 of the diced chicken, and half of the other ingredients, in order. Cover with tortillas, sprinkle with 2 tablespoons chicken stock, and make a second layer with 1 can undiluted chicken soup and the remaining ingredients. Top the last layer with a mixture of 1/2 small can tomatoes (10 oz size) and 1/2 small can of tomatoes with chilies. The casserole may be prepared in advance and refrigerated. When ready to serve, bake at 350 degrees F. for about 1 hour. Serve with a tossed green salad and hot French bread."
---"What's Cookin'," San Antonio Light [TX], January 23, 1966 (p.9-G)

[1969]
"The recipe that's been making the rounds in Baytown's kitchens will be featured at the annual Tasting Bee sponsored by the Baytown school Food Service next Friday. Mrs. Ruth Slagle, who originated the idea and has shared it with untold hundreds, created the tasty dish herself. It was first served at a state-wide workshop here and received enthusiastically last fall...

"King Ranch Chicken
2 pkgs. tortillas
2 fryers or 1 hen: boiled and cut into bite-sized pieces
1 large onion, chopped
1 large bell pepper, chopped [optional]
1/2 tsp. chili powder (sprinkle over cheese)
garlic salt to taste
salt and pepper
1 can cream of mushroom soup
1 can cream of chicken soup
1 can chili Rotel tomatoes
Dip tortillas in boiling hot chicken stock to wilt. (Do not leave too long or they will come to pieces). Layer 13 by 9 inch pan with wilted tortillas and add ingredients in order listed. Bake 30 minutes at 325 degrees. Serves 10."
---"King Ranch Chicken is Featured Dish," Baytown Sun [TX] April 3, 1969 (p. 15)

Compare with:

[1973]
Chicken Tortilla Casserole
1 can condensed cream of mushroom soup
1 can condensed cream of chicken soup
1 soup can milk
1 small onion, chopped
1 4-ounce can green chilies, chopped
2 5-ounce cans boned chicken
10 corn tortillas, broken in pieces
12 ounces Cheddar cheese, grated
Mix together and heat the soups, milk, chilies, onion, and chicken. In a 3-quart buttered casserole, place a layer of tortillas, a layer of soup mixture, and a layer of grated cheese; repeat. Bake 30 minutes at 350 degrees. Serves 6."
---Fiesta: favorite Recipes of South Texas, Junior League of Corpus Christie:Corpus Christie TX] 1973 (p. 23)
[NOTE: we found this book in the Houston Public Library. There is a handwritten annotation indicating this is King Ranch Casserole. Sorry, we cannot confirm who wrote the note or when.]

"In those parts of the world where for various reasons there is no strong tradition of eating beef, there may be a slight tendency towards increased consumption caused by the general 'internationalization' of foods or, as in Japan, but the development of a new connoisseurship. In the area around Kobe, Japanese...(marbled beef) is raised on a diet including rice, rice bran, beans, beer, enhanced by regular massage."
---Oxford Companion to Food, Alan Davidson [Oxford University Press:Oxford] 2nd edition, 2006 (p. 71)

"It seems that if you look for "quality" in almost anything, one of the places you look is Japan. If you want a fine quality automobile, you look to Japan. If you are looking for "quality" audio and video equipment, you look to Japan. In the years to come, the same may be true for beef; if you want quality beef, look to Japan. We have all heard of "Kobe beef." Even those of us who never have traveled to Japan have heard of the wonderfully tender, juicy, highly marbled and extremely expensive beef so highly prized by the Japanese. We have heard tales of how Japanese men and women feed beer to their cattle and spend hours massaging their animals to distribute the marbling evenly, occasionally taking a swig of beer and blowing it over the back of the beef and rubbing it in to soften the skin. It is true that the Japanese produce the world's most highly marbled beef, but it seems that we in America have some misconceptions about how they do it. Research scientists from both Texas A&M and Washington State University are doing extensive work with Wagyu cattle, the breed the Japanese use to produce Kobe beef. Both schools have herds of Wagyu cattle, and are working to come up with a cross that will produce the same style of beef. There are two basic reasons for such research: (1) Japan is expected to become one of the major markets for American beef in the not too distant future, and the Japanese want quality. And, (2) now that beef is okay again in this country, there is a growing demand in America, particularly in fine restaurants, for top-quality, well-marbled beef. A lot of folks would like to be able to find a really great steak from time to time; those are very rare these days in America. Perhaps the Japanese Wagyu will help. According to Dr. Don Nelson, extension meat specialist at Washington State University, the Wagyu originally was a draft animal and not very functionally efficient as a beef producer. They're not very good mothers but they marble well, so with some careful cross-breeding we hope to take advantage of their genetics to improve the grading ability of some of our cattle. When Wagyu beef is available in this country (it's going to take a year or two), don't expect it to be hand rubbed and beer fed like Kobe beef. But don't worry, the quality will be just as good. According to David Lunt, one of the researchers working with Wagyu beef at Texas A&M, much of what we have heard about Kobe beef is myth. Historically, the name refers to the Kobe area near Osaka where the most desirable beef was grown. Today, however, Wagyu are raised in several different areas of Japan. A better term for what Americans call Kobe beef, according to Mr. Lunt, is shimofuri, which means simply "highly marbled beef." "It is true," Lunt says, "that cattle are occasionally fed beer in Japan. Cattle in Japan are fed a finishing diet for at least 14 months and heifers may be fed for as many as 30 months prior to slaughter. Because they are fed so long, and particularly in summer months when the interaction of fat cover and the ambient temperature depresses feed intake, some cattle go off feed. When this happens, beer is fed to the cattle to stimulate appetite. Japanese cattle feeders do not ascribe any magical powers to feeding beer, nor do they associate the practice with an increase in carcass quality. They merely try feeding beer as part of an overall management program designed to keep the cattle on feed. True, cattle sometimes are massaged in Japan. But once again, this practice does not affect the deposition or marbling. It is a common sense practice required occasionally for cattle that are tied in one place for months and have no opportunity to exercise. The massaging is done to make the animal more comfortable and relieve stress due to stiffness that can result from inactivity. As I said, there is little likelihood that you're going to get any all-American cowboys to stand around all day massaging steers, and if there is any beer to be drunk, it ain't likely that any cow's going to get to drink it, but thanks to the Japanese and their Wagyu, we may be seeing some higher-quality beef in this country in the not too distant future."
---"U.S. Studies Adopting Japan's Kobe beef" Merle Ellis, Chicago Tribune, May 10, 1990 (pg. 8)

About Kobe beef in the USA
About Wagyu

Beef consumption in Japan

"Meat was not widely eaten until the Meiji period (1868-1912), but meat eating was not unknown among the Japanese of earlier times... Those engaged in the manufacture of leather goods, as well as the hunters and stock breeders who furnished hides, ate the flesh of four-legged animals as a matter of course, but these groups were considered social outcasts...Eathing the flesh of mammals for medicinal purposes was permissable...The usual 'medicine eating' fare was deer or wild boar...The meat of choice in the latter part of the nineteenth century was beef. Beef pickled in miso appears on a menu written at the beginning of the eighteenth century, and it was an open secret that a daimyo of Hikone...made gifts of that dish, which called 'healthful meat'...But people in general had a strong psychological resistance to killing and eating cattle, which were important animals on the farms...The Japanese-style beef stew which originated around that time (gyunabe, the forerunner of sukiyaki) was made by boiling beef and welsh onion with miso or soy sauce...During the 1860s the colonies of Westerners living in the treaty ports often attempted to purchase cattle from local farmers, who usually refused if they knew the animal would be used for food. Among the peasantry of the time a cow was regarded almost as a member of the family...The Westerners resorted to purchasing cattle from China, Korea, or America which were butchered aboard ships and sold in the foreign settlements. But the shipments could not satisfy the demand as the foreign population multiplied. Finally, members of the Yokohama breeders in the hills of the Kansi district, where most Japanese cattle ranches were located. Thirty to forty head of cattle at a time were shipped live from the port of Kobe to Yokohama, where a slaughterhouse was set up. Beef shipped from Kobe gained a reputation for being very tasty, and the regional product remains famous today as 'Kobe beef'...During the Boshin Civil War of 1868-9,...many wounded soldiers were sent to hospitals in Tokyo. There they received Western-style treatment and were fed beef to restore their strength. Most refused it at first, but as the doctors advised them to eat beef if they wanted to survive, they complied. Many of them grew to like it so much that after their release they spread the word in their various home regions that beef was delicious and healthful. The imperial navy served beef to improve the nutrition of sailors' meals starting in 1869...Later the army began serving meat as well. Military rations during the Sino- Japanese and Russo-Japanese Wars included tins of beef-flavoured with soy sauce and ginger, called yamatoni...The soldiers who ate it later helped spread the custom of meat eating through the country, and tinned yamatoni remained popular until about 1950. While soldiers grew to like the taste of meat because they were forced to eat it, the general population became familiar with it through city restaurants. During the early Meiji period meat was served in Western-style hotels and restaurants, and in restaurants that specialzed in beef stew. The Western-style establishments had first appeared in the foreigners' districts of the treaty ports, and they spread to Tokyo and Osaka after restrictions on foreigners' activities wer eased by the new Meiji government. The foreigners dining in those establishments were joined by high government officials, traders, intellectuals, and other who came out of curiousity to try eating Western food and using a knife and fork. The prices were so high that the common people could not often afford them. Hyunabeya, or beef stew restaurants, were more accessible to the public because they were cheaper and also because the beef they served was seasoned with the familiar flavors of soy sauce and miso and eaten with chopsticks. The first stew restaurant opened in Edo in 1865. At first the customers were mainly disagreeable ruffians of the type who liked to brag that they had eaten meat, and most people held their noses and walked quickly when they passed the shop. With the change of governemnt a few years later, the adoption of Western civilization became national policy and stew restaurants gradually spread through the main cities...Beef stew spread quickly from the main cities to the provincial towns...But this was not the case in farming districts, wehre cows were used as work animals...and treated more or less like part of the family...By the beginning of the twentieth century, resistance to meat eating was limited to the elderly. Beef stew had come to be a special treat. It was called sukiyaki in Osaka, Kyoto, Kobe and other parts of the Kansai region...By the 1920s the sukiyaki version had became prevalent throughout the country and attained the status of a national dish."
---The History and Culture of Japanese Food, Naomichi Ishige [Kegan Paul:London] 2001 (p. 146-152)

More information here.

• Hamburgers I & II
  
• Meatballs:: Kofta & Swedish meatballs
  
• Meatloaf: modern American style
  
• Minced meat & hash
  
• Porculine meat balls
  
• Salisbury steak
  
• Sloppy joes

About meatloaf, meatballs, & related ground meat products
Who invented meatloaf, why & when? Good question! Food historians tell us from Ancient times to present cooks have been mixing ground meat with minced bread/rice/vegetables, spices, thickeners and serving them with sauce. For what reasons?

1. To distribute meat to more people (protein economy)
2. To conserve resources (use it up, don't throw it out)
3. To make tough meat more palatable (aid digestion)

Early ground (finely chopped or minced) molded meat recipes concentrated on sausages in skin casings, meat fritters (similar to meatballs), rissoles, hashes, terrines, and croquettes. The meat employed in these early recipes was usually already cooked, as opposed to the raw meat typically used by Americans to make meat loaf today. Finished products were typically fried, stewed, or baked (in molds or pastry) and served with sauce. Meatballs (a diminutive form of meatloaf) are known in many cultures and cuisines. Recipes evolved according to local ingredients and tastes. Middle Eastern kofta and Swedish meatballs are two of the most well known.

Some of the earliest recorded ground meat recipes are found in Apicius, written in Ancient Rome. Book II is devoted to "minces."

Ancient Roman meat balls

"Suffed Meat Patties (Apicius 48)
Esicia omentata: pulpam cincisam teres cum medulla siliginei in vino infusi. Piper, liquamen, si velis, et bacam mirteam extenteratum simul sonteres. Pusilla esicia formabis, intus nucleis et pipere positis. Involuta omento subassabis cum careno.

"Ground meat patties in omentum: Grind chopped meat with the center of fine white bread that has been soaked in wine. Grind together pepper, garum, and pitted myrtle berries if desired. Form small patties, putting in pine nuts and pepper. Wrap in omentum and cook slowly in caroenum.

"Within the section dedicated to recipes with ground meat, the Apician manual includes this curious rating: "The ground meat patties of peacock have first place, if they are fried so that they remain tender. Those of pheasant have second place, those of rabbit third, those of chicken fourth, and those of suckling pig fifth." (Apicius 54)."
---A Taste of Ancient Rome, Ilaria Gozzini Giacosa, translated by Anna Herklotz, forward by Mary Taylor Simeti [University of Chicago Press:Chicago] 1992 (p. 89-90)
[NOTE: omentum means pork caul fat; caroenum means reduced wine. This book contains a modernized recipe for above meatball dish.]

Modern Italian meat balls
Meat ball recipes evolved according to family tradition. The following recipe was published in the late 19th century by Pellegrino Artusi. He was as famous in Italy as Fannie Farmer was in the United States. They both cookbooks aimed at the average housewife.

"Polpette (Meatballs)
Do not think for a moment that I would be so pretentious as to tell you how to make meatballs This is a dish that everyone knows how to make...My sole intention is to tell you how to prepare them when you have leftover boiled meat. Should you wish to make them more simply, or with raw meat, you will not need as much seasoning. Chop the boiled meat with a mezzaluna; separately, mince a slice of untrimmed prosciutto and add to the chopped meat. Season with grated Parmesan cheese, salt, pepper, a dash of spices, raisins, pine nuts, and a few tablespoons of a mash made with an egg or two, depending on the amount. Shape the meat into balls the size of an egg, "flatten at the ends like a terrestrial globe," roll in bread crumbs, and fry in oil or lard. Then, transfer them to a baking dish with some chopped garlic and parsley, which you have fried in the grease left in the pan, garnishing with a sauce made with an egg and lemon juice...."
---Science in the Kitchen and the Art of Eating Well, Pellegrino Artusi, originally published in 1892, translated by Murtha Baca and Stepen Saratelli [Marsilio:New York] 1997 (p. 238-9)

Did you know??? Italian meatballs, as we Americans know them today, were not always served with spaghetti. They were an accomodation food.

"In the beginning (around the turn of the century) Italian-America restaurants did not serve meatballs with their spaghetti. These were added to satisfy Amerca's hunger for red meat." ---American Century Cookbook: The Most Popular Recipes of the 20th Century, Jean Anderson [Clarkson Potter:New York] 1997 (p. 183)

Middle Eastern kofta
Kofta is a general term used in Middle East cuisine to denote ground meat products mixed with spices and other products. Meatballs. The history of this type of food is ancient. Apicius included many meat ball-type recipes in his Roman cooking text.

"Kofta. The term for a meatball or small meat patty which may be round, oval, or sausage-shaped and large of small. They can be grilled (broiled), fried or baked, served plain or simmered in a sauce. Dishes of this type are made in North Africa, in Mediterranean countries, through Central Europe, Asia and India. Kofta is the general term and the one commonly used for Indian dishes, but a variety of names are used...Whatever the name, the mixture is likely to be finely minced (ground) meat, mixed with onions and spices."
---Larousse Gastronomique, completely revised and updated edition [Clarkson Potter:New York] 2001 (p. 656)

"In Indian cookery, the term kofta denotes a spiced meatball, or a similarly shaped mass of chopped fish or vegetable, cooked in a spicy sauce. In Hindi, the word means literally 'pounded meat'."
---An A to Z of Food and Drink, John Ayto [Oxford University Press:Oxford] 2002 (p. 180)

"Kofta is the common English form of a term which has currency all the way from India through C. Asia to the Middle East, the Balkans and N. Africa. It refers throughout its range to rissoles, meatballs, croquettes, dumplings, and so on, usually made of ground or mashed meat, well kneaded and often mixed with other ingredients such as rice, burgul...or vegetables to form a smoothe paste. They are sometimes made, e.g. in India, with fish or just vegetables rather than meat. Kofta often have a spicy stuffing, typically of nuts, cheese, or eggs. They can be cooked in numerous ways: grilled or barbecued; fried; steamed or poached, very often in a rich sauce. Margaragret Shaida...says that the word kofta is from the Persian koffteh, meaning pounded meat; and that the first evidence of Persian meatballs appeared in one of the early Arabic cookery books. They consisited of finely minced, well-seasoned lamb, made into orange-sized balls, which were cooked and glazed in saffron and egg yolk three times. This method was later adopted in the West under the name of gilding or endoring. In Iran there are again numerous variations on the preparation of koofteh. Perhaps the most famous and well known are the koofteh Tabrizi. According to Shaida they are the largest dumplings in the world with an average size of 20cm (8") in diameter but they are often much larger...From Persia the kofta migrated to India with the Moghul emperors, and so did the hidden treasure version. On special occasions at the Moghul court nargisi kofta (narcissus meatballs) were served. The mixture of spiced meat is wrapped round hard-boiled eggs before being cooked. When served, they are cut open, and their yellow and white centres remind people of the narcissus flowers which bloom in the hills in the spring time."
---Oxford Companion to Food, Alan Davidson [Oxford University Press:Oxford] 1999 (p. 434)

MEDIEVAL ARABIAN MEATBALL RECIPES

"Mudaqqaqat Hamida.
Cut red meat into thin slices, then mince fine, adding seasonings, coriander, pepper, cinnamon and mastic together with chickpeas and a little onion. Make in to cabobs smaller than oranges. Melt fresh tail, and throw in the cabobs, stirring until browned: then cover with water. Cut up two or three onions and add. When cooked, remove the oils, and sprinkle on top a little lemon or grape-juice, or a mixture of both, or sumach-juice, or pomegranate-juice. Rub over the saucepan some sprigs of dry mint, and throw in a little mastic, pepper and cinnamon. If desired, sprinkle in a little wine-vinegar, and colour with saffron. Spray the saucepan with a little rose-water, and wipe the sides with a clean rag. Leave over the fire an hour: then remove."
---"A Bahgdad Cookery Book," Medieval Arab Cookery, Maxime Rodinson, A.J. Arberry & Charles Perry [Prospect Books:Devon] 2001 (p. 59)

"Muqarrasa
Take red meat and cut into slices, then mince fine with the usual seasonings and a little garlic. Melt fresh tail, throwing out the sediment: make the meat into cakes, and throw them into the oil to brown. The cover with water, and boil. When cooked, and the water has all evaporated, so that only the oils remain, sprinkle with a little fine-ground cumin, coriander and cinnamon. Leave to settle over the fire for an hour: then remove."
---"A Bahgdad Cookery Book," Medieval Arab Cookery, Maxime Rodinson, A.J. Arberry & Charles Perry [Prospect Books:Devon] 2001 (p. 67)

"Mudaqqaqat Hamida [sour meatballs].
Cut lean meat into strips, then pound it fine and throw salt, the well-known spices and a bit of onions minced small on it. Them make it into meatballs as large as you want, and boil it in water and moderate salt. When it is done and the water has evaporated from it, take fat tail and fry it and discard its cracklings. The fry those meatballs in that fat with pieces of onion. As for the sour version, some like to sprinkle it with sumac water, vinegar, verjuice or lemon juice, or both of them [viz. Verjuice and lemon juice] mixed together, and some like to dye it with saffron, so let it [viz. The additional of saffron] be on the vinegar or lemon juice, as much as needed. Sprinkle the described spices on it. If you wish, crumble bunches of dried mint on it. Leave it until it settles, and take it up."
---"The Description of Familiar Foods," Medieval Arab Cookery, Maxime Rodinson, A.J. Arberry & Charles Perry [Prospect Books:Devon] 2001 (p. 346-7)

Swedish meatballs
The American Swedish Institute (Minneapolis, Minnesota) has this to say about the origin of Swedish meatballs:

According to Mathistorisk Uppslagsbok by Jan-Ojvind Swahn, the Swedish word for meatball (k”ttbulle) first appeared in (Swedish) print was in Cajsa Warg's 1754 cookbook. Swahn points out that the meatball could not have been a common food, at least not for common people, until the meatgrinder made the preparation simple. Swedish meatballs, smaller in size that those of Italy or Germany, are traditionally served with a cream gravy and lingonberry preserves.

"Swedish meatballs. A dish of seasoned pork or beef meatballs covered with a brown gravy. There are endless variations on this dish, which is most popular in the Midwest and derives form Swedish origins. Swedish meatballs are usually served at buffets and smorgasbords, a custom that reflects their Swedish origins. Buttered noodles are the traditional accompaniment. Swedish meatballs date in print to the 1920s."
---Encyclopedia of American Food and Drink, John F. Mariani [Lebhar-Friedman:New York] 1999 (p. 318)

According to our books on Swedish food, Swedish meatballs (kottbullar) are traditional old-world Smorgasboard fare. Though none of these books offered a specific history of this recipe, they do offer some interesting insights:

1. In northern Scandinavian countries beef was considered a luxury item, which meant meatballs were highly prized.
2. Meatballs are traditionally in served at Swedish smorgasbords and other festive occasions.
3. Swedish meatballs were brought to our country by Scandinavian immigrants; many of whom settled in America's northern mid-west states. Other Northern European countries also have meatball/gravy recipes. Regional variations are often a reflection of taste and ingredient availability.
4. In America, Swedish meatballs were very popular in the beginning of the 20th century, and again in the 1950s-1960s.

Swedish meatballs.
Meatballs:
5 tablespoons butter or margarine
3 tablespoons finely chopped onion
3/4 cup light cream
3/4 cup packaged dry bread crumbs
1 1/2 lb ground chuck
1/2 lb ground pork
2 eggs, slightly beaen
2 tablespoons salt
1/4 teaspoon pepper
1/4 teaspoon allspice
Dash cloves

Sauce:
2 tablespoons flour
1/2 cup light cream
1 teaspoon salt
Dash pepper
1/2 teaspoon bottled gravy seasoning

Parsley sprigs

Makes 6 to 8 servings
1. Make Meatballs: In 1 tablespoon hot butter in skillet, sautee onion 3 minutes, or until golden.
2. In large bowl, combine cream, 3/4 cup water, and the bread crumbs. Add onion, ground meats, eggs, salt, pepper, allspice, and cloves; toss lightly, to mix well.
3. With teaspoon, shape into 75 meatballs, about 3/4 inch in diameter.
4. In 2 tablespoons hot butter in same skillet, saute meatballs, a few at a time, until browned on all sides. Add more butter as needed. Remove meatballs, and set aside.
5. Make Sauce: Remove all but 2 tablespoons drippings from skillet. Stir in flour until smooth.
6. Gradually stir in cream and 1 1/2cups water; bring to boiling, stirring. Add salt, pepper, and gravy seasoning.
7. Add meatballs; heat gently 5 minutes, or until heated through. Serve garnished with parsley.
---McCall's Cook Book, McCall Corporation [Random House:New York] 1963 (p. 681)

Since that time, meat loaf variations have been introduced and promoted by women's magazines, cookbooks, fairs, food manufacturers, diners and family-style restaurants. Meat loaf & gravy [often paired with mashed potatoes and canned green beans ] was very popular in the 1950s. This meal is still considered by some to be the penultimate comfort food. Did you know that "frosted meatloaf" is ground beef covered with mashed potatoes? Perhaps this recipe is a distant relative of shepherd's pie.

"Meat loaves
Was meat loaf too homely a recipe to make American cookbooks published in the nineteenth century or earlier?...I find no meat loaves in American cookbooks before the 1880s; these were primarily veal loaves (a more economical meat early on than beef) and altogether different from the meal loaves so familiar today...Sarah Tyson Rorer offers a slightly more elaborate veal loaf in Mrs. Rorer's Philadelphia Cook Book [1886] along with something called "Cannelon," which is clearly the precursor of meat loaf as we know it today...Cannelons appear in cookbooks right into the 1920s, although by this time meat loaves were outnumbering them. Were meat loaves slow to come because of the lack of meat grinders? Or was it because of unreliable refrigeration (ground raw meat is extremely perishable)? Possibly a bit of both, but I can't say for sure... Though simple loaves of chopped meat may have been made during America's infancy and adolescence, only in the twentieth century did meat loaves truly arrive. And, yes, many of them did come out of big food company test kitchens. Like it or not."
---American Century Cookbook: The Most Popular Recipes of the 20th Century, Jean Anderson [Clarkson Potter:New York] 1997 (p. 94-100)
[NOTE: this book contains classic meat loaf recipes, including the 1886 recipe for Cannelon]

A sampling of meat loaf recipes printed in American cookbooks:

[1884]
Veal Loaf & meat souffle, Boston Cooking School Cook Book, Mrs. D. A. Lincoln

[1889]
Fleish Kugel (meat ball) & Spiced Veal Loaf, Aunt Babette's Cook Book

[1902]
Cannelon & other recipes from the Enterprise Meat Chopper Company, marketed at the Pan-American Exposition, Buffalo NY.

[1918]
Cannelon of Beef, Fannie Merrit Farmer

[1924]
Baked Hamburg Steak, Beef Loaf (made from chopped round steak, not ground meat)
The New Butterick Cook Book, Flora Rose (p. 265)

[1937]
Beef loaf, Italian Hamburg Loaf & Meat Loaf with Chili Sauce
America's Cook Book, The Home Institute (p. 226)

[1942]
Emergency steak
Your Share: How to prepare appetizing, healthful meals with foods available today, Betty Crocker, General Mills
[NOTE: this link provides both accurate recipe and instruction, though no attribution to the original source.]

[1950]
"Fluffy Meat Loaf
1 lb ground beef (or veal)
1/2 lb. ground lean pork
2 cups bread crumbs
1 egg, beaten
1 1/2 cups milk
4 tbsp. minced onion
2 tsp. salt
1/4 tsp. pepper
1/4 tsp. dry mustard
1/8 tsp. sage
Pack into greased 9x5x3" loaf pan. Bake. Unmold. Serve hot...or serve cold. For Catsup-Topped Loaf, spread 3 tbsp. catsup over top before baking. Temperature: 350 degrees F (Mod. oven). Time: Bake 1 1/2 hr. Amount: 8 servings."
---Betty Crocker's Picture Cook Book, 1st edition, 3 ring binder [McGraw-Hill Book Company:New York] 1950 (p. 275)

[1953]
Meatloaf made with Pet Nonfat dry milk:

"Meat Loaf
Directions. Turn on oven and set at moderately slow (350).
2. Mix well: 1 pound ground lea Beef*, 1/3 cup uncooked Rolled Oats, 1/4 cup finely cut Onion, 1 cup drained, canned Tomaotes, 1/2 cup Pet Nonfat Dry milk, 1 1/4 teaspoons Salt, 1/8 teaspoon Pepper.
3. Press meat mixture into a greased loaf pan holding about 6 cups.
4. Bake on center rack of oven 1 hour, or until top is brown. Serve hot or cold. Makes 4 servings.
*Veal, lean pork or a mixture of these meats can also be used."
---Nonfat Dry Milk Recipes by Mary Lee Taylor [Pet Milk Co.:St Louis MO] 1953 (p. 20)

[1955]
Susan's meat loaf, Meat loaf ring, One-apiece loaves, Last-minute meat cups, Old-fashioned meat loaf, Veal loaf, Cheeseburger loaf, Frosted meat loaf (mashed potatoes make the frosting!), Italian-style meat loaf, Mushroom meat loaf, Bacon-dill meat loaf, Rainbow loaf, Spicy peach loaf, Mushroom-stuffed meat loaf, Little sherry-barbecued loaves, Two-in-one rice ring, Superb skilled burger loaf and Minute meat loaves.
Good Housekeeping Cook Book, Dorothy B. Marsh, (p. 68-69).
Perhaps this proliferation is the reason so many people associate meatloaf with the 1950s!

Regarding regional variations/ingredients for American meat loaf?
There are a number of sources you can use to research this topic. The sources you need depend upon which time period you are studying and how much detail you seek. A truly comprehensive study requires scanning a variety of primary docments through time. Expect more contradiction than confirmation. Primary documents include:

1. Community/church cookbooks (best recipes of local cooks)
2. Newspapers & magazines (food articles with reader recipes)
3. Contests (sponsored by local fairs, newspapers, companies etc.)
4. Menus (not for recipes, but for accompaniments & prices)

Porcupine meat balls
Meat/ball porcupines presumably take their name from their resmeblence of the animal by that name. Ground meat (beef, lamb, or chicken) is a perfect medium for simple food sculptures. The "quills" are made of different foods, according to place and period. The concept of "illusion food" (making one food look like something else, real or imaginary) dates to Medieval times. Recipes were introduced to American by European cooks. About illusion food (note recipe for ground meat to resemble hats)

Sample recipes through time

[1769]
"To Make a Porcupine of the Flat Ribs of Beef
Bone the flat ribs, and beat it half an hour with a paste pin. The rumb it over with the yolks of eggs, strew over it breadcrumbs, parsley, leeks, sweet marjoram, lemon peel shred fine, nutmeg, pepper and salt; foll up very close and bind it hard. Lard it across with bacon, then a row of cold boiled tongues, a third row of pickled cucumbers, a fourth row of lemon peel. Do it all over in rows as above till it is larded all round, it will look like red, green, white, and yellow dice. Then spit it or put it in a deep pot with a pint of water, lay over it the caul of veal to keep it from scorching, tie it down with strong paper and send it to the oven. When it comes out skim off the fat, and strain your gravy into a saucepan. Add to it two spoonfuls of red wine, the same of browning, one of mushroom catchup, half a lemon, thicken it with a lump of butter rolled in flour. Dish up the meat and pour the gravy on the dish, lay round forcemeat balls. Garnish with horseradish and serve it up."
---The Experienced English Housekeeper, Elizabeth Raffald [1769 facsimile], with an introduction by Roy Shipperbottom [Southover Press:East Sussex] 1997 (p. 59-60)

[1884] Meat porcupine, Boston Cooking School Cook Book, Mrs. D. A. Lincoln [1884] with picture!:

[20th century]
"Porcupine meat balls. The sort of easy, novelty recipe that appealed to cooks in the 30s, yet it appears to have been developed during World War I as a way to stretch meat. In Conservation Recipes (1918) compiled by the Mobilized Women's Organizations of Berkeley and published by the Berkeley Unit, Council of Defence Women's Committee, there is something called "Rice Meat Balls," a clear forerunner of the recipes."
---American Century Cookbook: The Most Popular Recipes fo the 20th Century, Jean Anderson [Clarkson Potter:New York] 1997 (p. 104)

[1936]
"Porcupines
6 servings
Combine:
1 pound ground beef
1/2 cup bread crumbs
1 egg
1/4 cup chopped onion
2 tablespoons chopped green peppers (optional)
3/4 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon paprika
Roll these ingredients into balls. Press them into flat cakes. Roll them in:
1/4 cup raw rice
Heat in a heavy pot the contents of a:
1 1/2 ounce can tomato soup
2 cups boiling water
Add:
6 small skinned onions
6 ribs of celery cut into inch lengths
1 teaspoon chili powder
Add the meat cakes. Cover the pot. Simmer the meat for 45 minutes. Thicken the sauce with:
Flour
Season it, if needed with:
Salt Paprika."
---The Joy of Cooking, Irma S. Rombauer [Bobbs-Merrill Company:Indianapolis IN] 1936(p. 92)
[NOTE: This recipe was not included in the inaugural 1931 edition.]

[1939]
"Porcupine Meat Balls
1 1/2 pounds ground beef
1/2 cup uncooked rice
1 teaspoon salt
1/8 teaspoon pepper
1 tablespoon grated onion
1 10 1/2-ounce can condensed tomato soup
1 can water
Select beef from neck, shank, or plate, and have ground. Combine meat, rice, seasonings, and onion; shape in small balls. Mix tomato soup and water; heat. Drop in meat balls; cover and cook slowly 60 minutes. Serves 6."
---My Better Homes & Gardens Cook Book [Meredith Publishing:Des Moines IA] 1939 (chapter 10, p. 6)

[1970]
"Yummy Porcupine Meatballs
1 can (10 3/4 ounces) condensed tomato soup
1 pound ground beef
1 cup packaged pre-cooked rice
1 egg, slightly beaten
1/4 cup finely chopped onion
1 teaspoon salt
1 small clove garlic, minced
2 tablespoons shortening
1/2 soup can water
1 teaspoon prepared mustard
Mix 1/4 cup soul with beef, rice, egg, onion, and salt. Shape firmly into 16 meatballs. Brown meatballs and garlic in shortening; pour off fat. Blend in remaining soup, water, and mustard. Cover; simmer for 20 minutes or until done. Stir now and then. 4 servings."
---Cooking With Soup, Home Economics Department, [Campbell Soup Company:Camden NJ] revised edition, 1970 (p. 9)

Salisbury Steak
Salisbury steak is one of those rare foods with nine lives. Did you know this particular recipe originated as 19th century American health prescription? In some ways, J.H. Salisbury's high-protein diet was not unlike those avocated today. By the late 19th/early 20th century Salisbury steak lost its health connection. It became obscured by the more popular "hamburg/hamburger" steak. Who was James Henry Salisbury?

According to some food historians, Salisbury steak resurged in America (in name, but not in mission) during World War I. Why? Nationalism. At that time anything connected with Germany (Hamburg/Hamburger) was popularly obliterated. When the war ended people returned to their old food habits. Hamburgers returned. Salisbury steaks took a new turn. They were now promoted by savvy marketers as upscale hamburgers. After World War II the primary difference between hamburgers and Salisbury steaks was this: hamburgers were marketed as fast food (sold on a bun), Salisbury steaks were marketed as family fare (featured in suburban restaurants).

"Salisbury steak.
A patty made of ground beef and seasonings that is usually broiled. The dish was named after Dr. James Henry Salisbury, who devised a "meat cure" for Civil War soldiers suffering from "camp diarrhea." Salisbury insisted they be fed a diet of chopped beef patties cut from disease-free animals' muscle fibers...He went on to advocate this same diet for all Americans, advising them to eat beef three times a day for health benefits. The term dates in print to 1895. The Salisbury steak is often cited as an early example of what was soon to become the hamburger."
---Encyclopedia of American Food and Drink, John F. Mariani [Lebhar-Friedman:New York] 1999 (p. 280)

"In American English, Salisbury steak is an upmarket name for a hamburger. It commemorates J.H. Salisbury (1823-1905), a doctor well known for his public pronouncements on dietary matters...The term is first recorded in 1897, but it really came into its own during the First World War, when patriotic Americans took exception to the German hamburgers."
---An A to Z of Food & Drink, John Ayto [Oxford University Press:Oxford] 2003 (p. 296)

"Food faddists flourished in the nineteenth-century United States, partly becasue so little was known about human nutrition...Dr. James H. Salsibury (1823-1905) condemned "starches" as the cause of numerous diseases, and advocated a diet consisting mostly of lean beef, preferably ground. ..A well-educated man with a background in chemistry and medicine, Salisbury all his life thought of himself as a research scientist as well as a physician. His early studies of fungi show that he was groping vaguely toward a germ theory of disease..."
---Rare Bits: Unusual Origins of Popular Recipes, Patricia Bunning Stevens [Ohio University Press:Athens OH] 1998 (p. 107)

"On both sides of the Atlantic, the decades that straddled the turn of the century constituted a veritable Golden Age of food faddism. An unusually large array of vegetarians...faced spirited challenges from aggressive meat-eaters who swore by regimens such as the Salisbury all-beef diet."
---Revolution at the Table: The Transformation of the American Diet, Harvey Levenstein [Oxford University Press:New York] 1988 (p. 86)

Compare these recipes:

[1935]
Salisbury Steak
The Salsibury steak does not differ much form the Hamburger. In cooking, the Hamburger is generally fried, while the Salisbury steak is usually broiled. In the composition of Salsibury steak marrow is used in place of the suet, and in the Salisbury mixture the onions are omitted, and the bread is best left out. Water can be used to advantage. On the whole, the beef should be of a choice grade, as the Salisbury has more class, and sells for about ten cents more per portion. Some flavor with sherry wine. Following are some entree suggestions: Grilled Salisbury steak with bacon; Broiled Salisbury steak with French fried onions; Combination Salisbury steak, cafeteria."
---The Hotel Butcher, Garde Manger and Carver, Frank Rivers [Hotel Monthly Press:Chicago] 1935 (p. 22)

[1950]
Salisbury Steak
4 strips bacon
1 1/2 pounds ground beef (chuch or round)
1 tablespoon ground pork
1 tablespoon chopped onion
1 tablespoon minced green pepper
1 tablespoon chopped parsley
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon pepper
Chop bacon and mix lightly with meat, onion, green pepper, parsley and seasonings. Shape into cakes and place them 3 inches under broiler heat. Broil 12 minutes, turning once. Serves 6."
---Culinary Arts Institute Encyclopedic Cookbook, Ruth Berolzheimer editor [Culinary Arts Institute:Chicago] 1950 (p. 361)

Sloppy joes

Was this recipe invented by/for a guy named Joe? Not according to most of the food historians! Recipes for chopped meat mixed with sauce, spices, and served with bread/pastry are hundreds of years old. Consider: medieval minced meat pies, 18th century shepherd's pie, and 19th century TexMex chili. What do these dishes have in common? They are economical and filling. Not so very different from the sloppy joe we Americans know today.

"The origins of this dish are unknown, but recipes for the dish date back at least to the 1940s. It dates in print to 1935. There is probably no Joe after whom it is named--but its rather messy appearance and tendency to drip off plate or roll makes "sloppy" an adequate description, and "Joe" is an American name of proletarian character and unassailable genuineness. There are many individual and regional variations on the dish. In Sioux City, Iowa, a dish of this type is called a "loosemeat sandwich," created in 1934 at Ye Olde Tavern Inn by Abraham and Bertha Kaled."
---The Encyclopedia of American Food & Drink, John F. Mariani [Lebhar-Friedman:New York] 1999 (p.297).

"...it is not known when the [sloppy joe] sandwich was first called "sloppy joe," similar ground beef concoctions have been recorded in American cookbooks since the turn of the twentieth century. Some food historians believe that with the addition of ketchup or tomato sauces, it evolved from the popualr Iowa loosemeat sandwich introduced by Floyd Angell, the founder of Maid-Rite restaurants, in 1926. During the Great Depression and Wrold War II, ground beef provided an enconomical way to stretch meat and ensured the popularity of the sandwich. As for the name "sloppy joe," some say it was inspired by one of two famous bars named Sloppy Joe's in the 1930s--one in Havana, Cuba, and the other in Key West, Florida. The name caught on throughout the United States, and based on the number of establishments that subsequently became known as "Sloppy Joe's" by the late 1930s, it is likely that the messy-to-eat sandwich was named after restaurants that commonly served it."
---Oxford Encyclopedia of Food and Drink in America, Andrew J. Smith editor [Oxford University Press:New York] 2004, Volume 2 (p. 444)

"Sloppy Joes...I remember eating these in the 1940s and suspect they may have been a way of stretching precious ground beef during World War II. Apparently not. My friend and colleague Jim Fobel tells me that in his own quest to trace the origin of the Sloppy Joe, he talked to Marilyn Brown, Director of the Consumer Test Kitchen at H.K. Heinz in Pittsburgh (the Heinz "Joe," not surprisingly, is reddened with ketchup). Brown says their research at the Carnegie Library suggests that the Sloppy Joe began in a Sioux City, Iowa, cafe as a "loose meat sandwich" in 1930, the creation of a cook named Joe..."
---The American Century Cookbook: The Most Popular Recipes of the 20th Century, Jean Anderson [Clarkson Potter:New York] 1997 (p. 349)

The state of Iowa does seem to have a history of loose meat sandwiches: Taylor's Maid-Rites (est. 1926)

"Sloppy Joe's...any cheap restaurant or lunch counter serving cheap food quickly, since 1940."
---Dictionary of American Slang, Harold Wentworth & Stuart Berg Flexner, 2nd supp. edition [Crowell:New York] 1975 (p. 488)

Minced meat recipes were common in colonial America. These economical dishes were generally composed of cooked leftovers. The practice originated in the Old World. Recipes varied according to culture and cuisine. In Colonial America, minced meat dishes could have been either sweet or savory ( mince meat pie) served hot or cold, cooked with vegetables (shepherd's pie), pan fried (hash) or sliced and fried (patties).

About hash
The idea of hash (pre-cooked meat cut up into tiny pieces and simmered/fried until tender with or without vegetables and spices) dates back into ancient times. Ancient Romans composed similar dishes of various sizes and composition. Food historians tell us minced meat dishes of various sorts were quite popular in the Middle Ages. Mutton, a traditionally tough meat, was often used. Beef, veal, and venison were similarly rendered. Corned beef hash was inevitable.

"Haricot of mutton
Cut it into small pieces, then boil for a moment, and fry it in lard, and fry with some onions finely cut up and cooked, and moisten with beef broth, and add mace, parsley, hyssop, and sage, and boil it together..."Haricot de mouton" is a classic of traditional French cooking--but there are not haricot beans in this early version...So what is the meaning of these terms--hericot, haricot, or even hericoq-found in the titles of a whole series of medieval recipes for lamb or mutton stew? The most common theory is that *haricot* is derived from the verb *aricoter*--to cut into little pieces-which is apt for a stew made with small chunks of meat."
---Medieval Kitchens: Recipes from France and Italy, Redon, Sabban & Serventi [University of Chicago Press:Chicago] 1998 (p. 93-94)...this recipe is from Le Menagier de Paris [approx. 1400]

The notion that hash was first introduced to the English in the mid-17th century is attributed to the fact that it was mentioned by Samuel Pepys in his famous Diary: "Hash v. Taking the place of the earlier hache, hachee, hachey,..and hachis from French. Something cut up into small pieces' sec. A dish consisting of meat which has been previously cooked, cut small, and warmed up with gravy and sauce or other flavoring. 1662: Pepys Diary 12 Jan. 1663...'at fist course, a hash of rabbits, a lamb." ---Oxford English Dictionary Was hachis the precursor to Shepherd's pie? Probably. The English tradition of meat pies also dates back to the Middle ages. Game pie, pot pie and mutton pie were popular and served in *pastry coffyns.* These pies were cooked for hours in a slow oven, and topped with rich aspic jelly and other sweet spices. The eating of *hote [meat] pies* is mentioned in 'Piers Plowman,' and English poem written in the 14th Century. ("Cooking of the British Isles," Adrian Bailey, pages 156-7) The Elizabethans favored minced pies.' A typical Elizabethan recipe ran: Shred your meat (mutton or beef) and suet together fine. Season it with cloves, mace, pepper and some saffron, great raisins and prunes..." ("Food and Drink in Britain: From the Stone Age to the 19th Century," C. Anne Wilson [Academy Chicago:Chicago] 1991 page 273).

A sampler of Colonial American era minced meat recipes

Early English settlers used recipes from their country's cookbooks. Hannah Glasse's Art of Cookery Made Plain and Easy [1747] was one of the most popular. Here are Mrs. Glasse's recipes for mince pie & hashed mutton:

[1747]
"To Hash Cold Mutton.
Cut your Mutton with a very sharp knife in very little Bits, as thin as possible; then boil the Bones with an Onion, a little Sweet Herbs, a Blade of Mace, a very little whole Pepper, a little Salt, a Piece of Crust toasted very crisp; let it boil till there is just enough for Sauce, strain it, and put it inot a Sauce-pan, with a Piece of Butter rolled in Flour; put in the Meat, when it is thorough hot it is enough. Have ready some thin Bread toasted brown, cut thus (picture of a triangle), lay them round the Dish, and pour in the Hash. As to Walnut-pickle, and all Sorts of Pickles, you must put in according to your Fancy. Garnsih with Pickles. Some love a small Onion peeled, and cut very small, and done in the Hash."
---The Art of Cookery Made Plain and Easy, Hannah Glasse, facsimile 1947 edition [Prospect Books:Devon] 1995 (p. 59)

"To Hash Mutton like Venison
Cut it very thin, as above; boil the Bones, as above; strain the Liquor, when there is just enough for your Hash. To a Quarter of a Pint of Gravy, put a large Spoonful of Red Wine, a small Onion peeled and chopped fine, a very little Lemon-peel spread fine, a Piece of Butter, as big as a a small Walnut, rolled in Flour; put it into a Sauce-pan with the Meat, shake it all together, and when it is thorough hot, pour it into your dish. Hash Beef the same Way."
---ibid (p. 59)

[1830] Mince Meat
[1839] Beef Minced
[1846] Force Meat Balls (another Hash) [1847] Excellent Minced Veal

New England boiled dinner is a perfect convergence of culinary tradition, technological convention, and practical sensibility. New Englanders didn't invent the boiled dinner, they adapted/adopted/served it because it, quite simply, made sense. The same holds true for Yankee pot roast.

"New England boiled dinner...A very hearty dish of various meats and vegetables that was originally made with salt beef but that may also contain poultry. It was traditionally served at noontime, but begun early in the morning when the meat would be boiled with cabbage in a kettle over an open fire. Later the other vegetables would go in...Boiled meals have long been part of many countries' culinary heritage: In France such a meal is called pot au feu', in Italy bollito misto', and New England Boiled dinners derive from English versions of the dish. The termed boiled dinner' was in print as of 1882, and New England boiled dinner' as of 1896."
---Encyclopedia of American Food and Drink, John F. Mariani [Lebhar-Freidman:New York] 1999 (p. 216)

"In addition to cooking, much time was devoted to preserving food, with results that include such classic American fare as New England boiled dinner. It was originally a meal-in-one-dish of salt beef cooked at the open fire where meat and vegetables could be combined in a single pot hanging from a crane and bubbling gently for hours while the housewife pursued her dozens of other chores. It remains a meal for the heartiest appetites, still in the repertoire of many women whose ancestors migrated across the country. The average Yankee recipe calls for corned brisket, flank, or beef rump to be simmered with a variety of root vegetables. As preparation, some Maine cooks rub a three-or four-pound piece of beef with coarse salt, then cover it with water so heavily salted it will float a potato or an egg. They may take an old-fasioned iron doorstop to weight down the meat while it absorbs the brine for several weeks.

"Served as a midday meal on farms, a traditional boiled dinner goes to the stove soon after breakfast when corned beef and a piece of salt pork, along with a head of cabbage, are covered with water and simmered very slowly. In about three hours there may be added a dozen whole peeled potatoes, and equal number of scraped carrots, and six to eight peeled white onions; well scrubbed beets are usually cooked separately. When the meat has simmered about four hours, the beef is drained and put on a hot platter, surrounded by the vegetables and garnished with parsely. Some Yankees call for a sprinkling of cider vinegar, but most common accents are homemade horseradish sauce or strong mustard."
---American Food: The Gastronomic Story, Evan Jones, 2nd edition [Vintage:New York] 1981 (p. 117)

"...most of the food New Englanders ate for more than two hundred years came out of heavy black iron pots. The large dinner pot', in which meat was boiled with the suet pudding, hung on stout pot chains from wooden lug poles or later from the crane, a Yankee invention. Bean porridge was made in this pot, as were the fish stews of the daily bill of fare. The famous New England boiled dinner--corned beef and root vegetables...-was a triumph of art over the limitations of fireplace cookery and owed some of its popularity, among the wives at least, to the fact that it could simmer for hours with little attention. Accompanied by mixed mustard pickles and hores-radish and a dessert like baked apple dumplings, a boiled dinner could be counted upon to keep a man putting up a stone wall well-fueled until his afternoon snack."
---American Heritage Cookbook, American Heritage [magazine], [American Heritage:New York] Volume 1 (p. 83)

As noted by Mr. Mariani, New England boiled dinner was not commonly called such until the late 19th century. Early cook books refer to this dish simply as "boiled dinner." Here are some recipes from old cookbooks:

[1833]
"Veal should boil about an hour, if a neck-piece; if the meat comes from a thicker, more solid part, it should boil longer. No diretions about these things wil supply the place of judgement and experience. Both mutton and veal are better for being boiled with a small piece of salt pork..."
---American Frugal Housewife, Mrs. Child [Boston 1833] (p. 5)
[NOTE: this most well-known of early New England cookery books does not contain a recipe for boiled dinner. It does contain a wealth of information on popular meat cuts, proper storage/handling and cooking instructions. It does contain a recipe for beef soup. Soups were usually made from bones and leftovers, not to be confused with boiled dinners. This book is often reprinted and should be relatively easy to find with the help of your librarian].

[1841] "Beef Boiled
The perfection of boiling is that it be done slowly and the pot well skimmed. If the scum be permitted to boil down, it sticks to the meat and gives it a dirty appearance. A quart of water to a pound of meat is an old rule; but there must always be water sufficient to cover it well, so that the scum may be taken off easily. When beef is very salt (which it rearely will be if rightly cured) it must be soaked for half and hour or more before it is put on to boil, when the water much be changed. The Round is the best piece to boil--then the H-Bone. That part of a Round of beef--put into your boiler with plenty of cold water to cover it; set the pot on one side of the fire to boil gently; if it boil quick at first, no art can make the meat tender. The slower it boils the tenderer it will be....When you take the meat up, if any stray scum sticks to it, wash it off with a paste brush. Garnish the dish with carrots and turnips. Boiled potatoes, carrots, turnips and greens, on separate plates, are good accompaniements. If the beef weigh ten pounds it requires to boil, or rather simmer, about three hours. In cold weather all meats need to be cooked longer time than in warm weather. Always cook them till tender."
---Early American Cookery: The Good Housekeeper, Sarah Josepha Hale, [Boston 1841] (p. 39-40)
[Note: the details provided for boiling procedures, scum is the stuff that rises to the top of the pot when boiling beef]

[1845]
"Boiled Dish--Meat
Corned beef should be boiled three hours, pork two hours. Beets need as much boiling as the beef in the winter; one hour will do in the summer, when they are more tender; carrots, cabbage and turnips, each an hour, parsnips forty-five minutes, potatoes twenty to thirty minutes." ---New England Economical Housekeeper and Family Receipt Book, Mrs. E. A. Howland, [Montpelier, VT 1845] (p. 56)
[NOTE: the details provided for the timing of the vegetables, even down to the seasons--it is clear that making sure each ingredient was not over/under cooked was an important factor in preparing a good boiled dinner.]

[1884]An Old-fashioned Boiled Dinner
---Boston Cook Book, Mrs. D. A. Lincoln

Suggested reading:

• A History of Cooks and Cooking, Michael Symons, "The Stewing Pot," (p. 67-74)
  ---overview of the evolution of the iron caudrons/pots and boiling as a cooking method
• 300 Years of Kitchen Collectibles, Linda Franklin, 5th edition
  ---pictures/history of colonial New England cooking pots, cranes, & utensils
• Foods of Old New England, Marjorie Mosser
  
• Saltwater Foodways : New Englanders and their food, at sea and ashore, in the nineteenth century , Sandra L. Oliver

Yankee pot roast is a natural evolution of colonial-era New England Boiled Dinner, a meal generally composed of the same ingredients. The difference? Cooking technique (boiling/stewing vs. roasting in a pot) and type of meat (corned beef vs. fresh rump or round). The hallmarks of classic New England (aka Yankee) cuisine are frugality, sensibility, and simplicity. As such, Yankee pot roast fits the bill perfectly.

Most 17th and 18th century British and American cook books contained recipes for roast meats, including beef. Classic recipes instruct the cook to dredge the meat in flour and spices, and ancient practice for tenderizing. It was not until the 19th century we find recipes for pot roast, as we know it today. This is presumbaly due to advancements in cooking technology. The difference between pot roast and Yankee pot roast is the latter recipe adds vegetables half-way through. The vegetables are similar to those in New England Boiled Dinner: potatoes, turnips, carrots, beans, onions, corn. They are steamed in a combination of natural juices exuded from the cooking meat and other liquid additions (water, cider, wine, etc.). Delicious! And very efficient. One pot to clean!

"Pot roast. A meat that is browned and cooked with vegetables and gravy in a deep pot or saucepan, usually covered. The term dates in print to 1881. Pot roast was once an appetizing way to cook beef from beasts that have been working animals rather than food animals or other inferior cuts of meat. Today, the availability of good beef makes pot roast a delicious hearty dish, though lesser cuts of meat are still used for the cooking. Beef brisket, bottom and top round, and chuck are the usual choices."
---Encyclopedia of American Food and Drink, John Mariani [Lebhar-Friedman:New York] 1999 (p. 254)

[1884] Pot roast
---Boston Cook Book, Mrs. D. A. Lincoln

The history of "pigs in blankets" is a study composed of two parts:
1. The history of the concept of the recipe.
2. The history of the name of the recipe.

THE CONCEPT
While the practice of coating/covering meat in some sort of bread is ancient, culinary evidence suggests pigs in blankets, small cocktail weiners baked in flaky crust, is a mid- 20th century phenomenon. Size and portability typically classifies them as hors d'oeurvres or canapes. Most likely they are direct descendants of Victorian-era canapes. In the beginning of the 20th century, American cookbooks sometimes contained recipes for toasted meat (chicken livers, pate) and bread combinations. These could be made with homemade dough or pre-baked bread and were sometimes rolled up and then baked or broiled. The Fried chicken, Cornish pasties, Russian Pierogi, Texas corn dogs, and Beef Wellington are all variations on this theme. We've appended the history of these foods (and others) to the end of this message.

THE NAME
The earliest recipe we find titled "pigs in blankets" in American cookbooks was published in the 1930s. As evidenced below, there were many dishes known by this name. Together they created a spendid variety of appetizers. Conversely, some recipes producing "pigs and blankets" by contemporary definition were not named such. A thorough study of this subject requires examination of primary sources. WHAT WE DO KNOW???? Is that if you saw this item on a menu in the 1930s-40s you could not be sure what you would be getting. The earliest mention we find for modern-style pastry-encased hot dogs is 1950.

[1936]
"Pigs in Blankets.
Prepare the oysters as directed on page 201. Wrap a thin slice of bacon around each oyster and fasten with a toothpick. Arrange on a rack on a dripping pan. Bake in a hot oven (425 to 450 degrees F.)
---Good Cooking, Marjorie Heseltine and Ula Dow, new edition, revised and enlarged [Houghton Mifflin Company:Boston] 1936 (p. 211) [NOTE: this is very similar to British Angels on Horseback]

[1939]
"Pigs in Blankets.
6 uniform potatoes for baking
shortening
6 link sausages
salt and pepper
Method: 1. Wash potatoes and remove centers with apple corer. 2. Place a sausage in each cavity. 3. Grease potatoes; add salt and peppr. Bake for 60 minutes at 400 degrees."
---Prudence Penny's Cookbook, Prudence Penny [Prentice Hall:New York] 1939 (p. 80)

[1943]
"Pigs in Blankets.
Wrap raw oysters in thin slices of bacon. Fasten with toothpicks. Broil in high heat until bacon is crisp. Garnish with tartar sauce."
---The Lilly Wallace New American Cook Book, Lilly Haxworth Wallace [Books, Inc:New York] 1943 (p. 106)
[NOTE: this book also includes are recipes for onions in blankets, cheese in blankets, chicken livers in blankets, shrimps in blankets, olives in blankets and stuffed prunes in blankets.]

[1950]
"Pigs in Blankets.
Wash and pare medium potatoes. Make a hole through each with an apple corer and force a link sausage into each cavity. Place potatoes in baking dish and bake in hot oven (425 degrees F.) 45 minutes or until tender, basting with sausage drippings several times during the baking. A slice of salt pork or bacon may be placed over each potato."
---Culinary Arts Institute Encyclopedic Cookbook, Ruth Berolzheimer [Culinary Arts Institute:Chicago] 1950 (p. 479)

"Cocktail sausages in blankets.
2 cups sifted flour
3 teasooons baking powder
1/8 teaspoon salt
1/4 cup shortening
3/4 cup milk (about)
8 cooked cocktail sausages
Sift dry ingredients together 3 times. Cut in shortening with a pastry blender. Add milk, stirring until a soft dough is formed. Knead on floured board for 20 seconds or until dough forms a smooth ball. Roll 1/4 inch thick and cut into small oblongs. Place sausages on oblongs of dough, fold over, moisten edges with water and press together to seal. Place on greased baking sheet and bake in hot oven (450 degrees F.) Until browned, about 15 minutes. Serve immediately. Makes 8 rolls."
---ibid(p. 226)

[1956]
"Pigs in blankets.
The "pigs" are sausages wrapped in blankets of fluffy biscuit dough. Follow the recipe for Typical Biscuits (p. 83)--except roll dough only 1/4" thick. Cut into oblong pieces, 4X3". Roll each piece around a weiner or frankfurter, letting tip show at each end. Seal well by pinching edge of dough into roll. Bake with sealed edge underneath, about 15 mins. Serve hot with mustard, catsup, or relishes."
---Betty Crocker's Picture Cook Book, Revised and Enlarged, second edition [McGraw-Hill Book Publishing Company:New York] 1956 (p. 84)
[NOTE: Also contains recipe for "Tiny Pigs in Blankets," using Vienna sausages.]

In the culinary world, there are three edible porcupines:

1. A uniquely armored nocturnal game animal providing protein and fat to hungry people in both Old World & New
2. A neatly formed ground meat dish resembling this quilly creature
3. A stewed apple dessert sporting nut "quills": Apple Porcupine & Porcupine pudding

Because wild game generally has a denser muscle mass (less fat) than domesticated animals, the meat is tougher. Long, slow cooking (soup, stew) is the perfect antidote. Game protected by a thick, insulating layer of fat below its skin is sometimes viewed somewhat differently in the culinary world. Such is the case of porcupines. In some cultures, porcupine fat & fried skin (cracklings) is considered a delicacy.

Our survey of historic American cookbooks uncovered several recipes for squirrel, opossum, venison and rabbit. Scant references to porcupine were more descriptive than culinary. This is not surprising. Cookbooks focus on norms; not adaptable exception. No matter how tasty they may be. Which means? We can't place Porcupine Stew to a specific place/period/people.

About porcupine cookery (general)

"Porcupine.--Animal, whose rather fat flesh is good to eat, especially when young."
---Larousse Gastronomique, Prosper Montagne [Crown Publishers:New York] 1961 (p. 749)

"Porcupine, the name used of several species of animal, belonging to two families (Erethizontidae for New World porcupines, and Hystricidae for those of the Old World) and having in common the long quills (spines) which constitute their protection...The common or crested porcupine...of the Old World is the largest...There are few records of its being eaten, save by gypsies and rural people who have nothing better and insofar as one can establish anything about methods of preparing and cooking these seem to be as for the hedgehog. For the Canadian porcupine...Faith Medlin...has collected a number of conflicting pieces of advice about which bits to cook and how to do the cooking. Leipoldt...reproduces from an early manuscript directs for cooking porcupine crackling, which is to be sent to table with plenty of rice and lemons cut in halves."
---Oxford Companion to Food, Alan Davidson [Oxford University Press:Oxford] 2006, 2nd edition (p. 623-4)

"The flesh of a young porcupine is said to be excellent eating, and very nutritious. The flavour is something between pork and fowl. To be cooked properly, it should be boiled first, and afterwards roasted. This necessary to soften the thick, gristly skin, which is the best part of the animal. The flesh of the porcupine is said to be used by the Italians as stimulant; but, never having tasted it myself, I cannot speak from experience as to the virtue of this kind of food. The Dutch and the Hottentots are very fond of it; and when skinned and embowelled, the body will sometimes weigh 20 lbs. The flesh is said to eat better when it has been hung in the smoke of a chimney for a couple of days. The flesh of the crested porcupine (Hystrix cristata) is good and very agreeable eating. Some of the Hudson Bay trappers used to depend upon the Hystrix dorsata for food at some seasons of the year."
---The Curiosities of Food, Peter Lund Simmons, facsimile 1859 edition with an introduction by Alan Davidson [Ten Speed Press:Berkeley CA] 2001 (p. 72-73)

"Several authors mention game dishes of which little is known today. We read for example that porcupine meat was served to Augusta de Mist when she accompanied her father, Commissioner de Mist, on an official journey into the interior in 1803...The skin of the porcupine was considered a rare delicacy. The recipe was reproduced by Miss Allie Hewett in her 1890 cookery book, Cape Cookery, Simple Yet Distinctive. The spines are plucked and the air singed off. After the skin has been scraped clean, it is soaked for 24 hours in the brine and then boiled in fresh water. It is then cut into strips, broiled over live coals and served with butter and lemon."
---The South African Culinary Tradition, Renata Coetzee [C. Struik Publishers:Cape Town, South Africa] 1977 (p. 26)

Porcupine eating in America

"Over the centuries, Americans have eaten an astonishing array of game animals and birds...Frontiersmen and trappers killed and ate a wide variety of animals, some of which became important culinary items...Small game was especially important for slaves and the rural poor. Because they were forbidden firearms, slaves focused on what they could acquire by trapping, snaring, and hunting with dogs. Slaves, poor whites, and frontiersmen commonly ate opossum, raccoon, porcupine, rattlesnake, squirrel, and occasionally skunk. In Kentucky and Tennessee, game meats were combined with vegetables to make burgoo, a soup or stew..."
---Oxford Encyclopedia of Food and Drink in America, Andrew F. Smith editor [Oxford University Press:New York], 2004, Volume 1 (p. 548)

[1910]
"Porcupine.--I quote from Nessmik: 'And do not despise the fretful porcupine; he is better than he looks. If you happen on a healthy young specimen when you are needing meat, give him a show before condemning him. Shoot him humanely in the head, and dress him. It is easily done; there are no quills on the belly, and the skin peels as freely as a rabbit's. Take him to camp, parboil him for thirty minutes, and roast or broil him to a rich brown over a bed of glowing coals. He will need no pork to make him juicy, and you will find him very like spring lamb, only better.' The porcupine may also be baked in clay, without skinning him; the quills and skin peel off with the hard clay covering. Or, fry quickly. As I have never eaten porcupine, I will do some more quoting--this time from Dr. Bresk: 'It may either be roasted or made into a stew, in the manner of hares, but must be parboiled at least a half-hour to be tender. One part of the porcupine is always a delicacy--the liver, which is easily removed by making a cut just under the neck into which the hand is thrust, and the liver pulled out. It may be fried with bacon, or baked slowly and carefully in the baker-pan with slices of bacon.'"
---Camp Cookery, Horace Kephart, facsimile 1910 edition [Applewood Books:Bedford MA] 2000 (p 73)

[1916]
"The oil fried out in cooking the meat of bear, racoon, porcupine, and other animals is kept and used for medicinal pupposes, such as rubbing on the back and chest for 'cramps' and for application to newly-born infants."
---Iroquois Foods and Food Preparation, F.W. Waugh, facsimile 1916 edition [University Press of the Pacific:Honolulu, HI] 2003 (p. 134)

[1942]
"I cannot agree with the oft' heard statement about the porcupine being a harmless creature--at least not since I've been awakened (more than once) in the middle of the night by one of these walking pin-cushions gnawing at my belonings within an arm's reach. In the wilderness the 'porky' is considered the hunter's friend, as it may be killed with a club when ammunition runs short and in the absence of other game it may furnish the only sustenance for lost explorers. In some of the more civilized sections of the country, however, conservationists encourage the killing of porcupine because of the damage it does to trees. Meat of the porcupine has a good reputation, even though it is dark and coarse looking. Onsome of hist trips into the North, Dillon Wallace, after a prolongued diet of venison, claims to have preferred porcupuine for a change although there was plenty of deer meat on had. Skinning the porcupine might appear a formidable task, but it is really quite simple. Hang him up by his hind legs spread apart and start skinning the belly, which is free of quills. The hide may then be workd off very easily in a short time. The meat, which tastes something like lamb, should be stewed...A young animal, however, may be roasted or broiled."
---Come and Get It!: The Compleat Outdoor Chef, George W. Martin [A.S. Barnes Company:New York] 1942 (p. 175-176)

[1956]
"A nationwide search for recipes for cooking porcupine has been launched by the Western Pine Association. The purpose is to get rid of some of the porcupines which do millions of dollars of damage to pine woods in the west each year. The animals feed on the bark of young growing trees, killing some and stunting others with the result that forest productivity is drastically reduced. Recipes for porcupines may be sent to the Eastern Pine Association, Ycon Building, Portland 4, Oregon."
---"Seek Recipes for Cooking Porcupine," Daily Defender [Chicago IL], February 15, 1956 (p. 15)

How to cook your porcupine?

"Porcupine Stew
Porcupine meat cut into cubes
1 sliced onion
1 tablespoon salt
1/2 cup sliced onions
2 tablespoons melted butter
1 chopped green pepper (optional)
1/2 cup diced celery
3 cups diced turnips
1/4 teaspoon pepper
1/4 teaspoon basil
1 tablespoon flour
8 ounce can tomato sauce
Parboil meat 45 minutes with sliced onion and salt. Drain. Saute onions in 2 tablespoons butter until clear, then add meat which has been dredged with flour. Add 1 quart water, vegetables and seasoning. Cook until tender then thicken slightly with flour dissolved in water."
---Valley Independent [Monessen PA], October 31, 1979 (p. 63)

"The word "sausage" comes from the Latin salsus, meaning "salted." The Romans, who loved highly spiced food, ate enourmous quantities of spicy...sausages...The Romans...developed a wide variety, including pendulus, a large slicing sausage, and hilla, a very thin sausage using the small intestine, rather like today's dried mountain sausages. The first-century Roman gourmet gives this recipe for the still famous smoked Lucanica sausage from southern Italy: "Pound pepper, cumin, savory, rue, parsley, mixed herbs, laurel berries, and liquamen, and mix with this well-beaten meat, pounding it again with the ground spice mixture. Work in liquanum, peppercorns, plenty of pate and pine-kernels, insert into an intestine, drawn out very thickly, and hang in the smoke." Pepper, the most popular Roman spice, was a strong deterrent against bacterial growth. The fat an airtight skins protected the stuffing mixture form airbourne microbes and the spices and herbs helped to make the meat more palatable and easier to digest. Many of the preserved sausages still made today have their skins treated in some way to keep out bacteria. Often they are brushed with oil and then covered in a mixture of dried herbs, crushed pepper, or ashes before being hung high up in the smokehouse or a cool, dry place." In Italy...may types of sausages are preserved...The number and variety of sausages and salami that have been dried, smoked, or lightly fermented is so great and the names so colorful that it is impossible not to mention a few. Italy boasts some of the finest sausages of all types, including the many famous regional varities of raw air-dried salami. Served in thin, cherry-red slices dotted with white, waxy pieces of fat, they are eaten as antipasto. For travel and snacks there are the thin, hard, spicy straps of peperone..."
---Pickled, Potted and Canned: How the Art and Science of Food Preserving Changed the World, Sue Shepard [Simon & Schuster:New York] 2000 (p. 112-4)
[NOTE: This book has much more information than can be paraphrased here. Ask your librarian to help you find a copy]

"Sausages of Italy. These include one outstandingly large and important family, the salami. This name (the plural of the Italian word salame) applies to matured raw meat slicing sausages made to recipes of Italian origin, either in that country or elsewhere. Within Italy there are scores of types. Salami are mostly medium to large in size, and those made in Italy are usually dried without smoking. Charactaristically, when cut across, they display a section which is pink or red with many small to medium-sized flecks of white fat. Pork, or mixtures of pork and beef or pork and vitellone (young beef), form the basis; seasonings and fineness or coarsness of cut vary to regional taste. Names denote style, a principle ingredient, or place of origin... Salami made in south Italy and Sardinia are distinguished by their spiciness. They include: Napoletano...Sardo...Calabrese...Peperone (long, narrow, and highly spiced)...all these belong to the class of salame crudo, raw salame."
---Oxford Companion to Food, Alan Davidson [Oxford University Press:Oxford] 1999 (p. 701)

Pepperoni/peperoni/peperone belongs to the ancient family of spicy salt-cured air-dried salamis famous in southern Italy and Sardinia. Food historians tell us there are many variations on this recipe and that it is very difficult to single out a specific one for study. One of the reasons we Americans are so familiar with pepperoni is that many of the Italian people who immigrated to our country came from southern Italy. When they opened restaurants and pizzerias, they introduced us to the ingredients they knew from home. The tradition continues.

Additional information on Italian sausage/salami

• Clifford A. Wright's history notes
• All About Italian Salami --includes history, books, & more.
• Ancient Roman Lucinian Sausage recipe (with modernized version)

According to the food historians, the true history of Steak Diane is a complicated affair. The answer may be one of semantics rather than straight culinary history. Why? There are as many names for this dish as there are recipe variations. One of the closest variations is Steak au Poivre, also sometimes served flambe.

The history of cooking and serving meat with spiced sauces dates back to ancient times. Sauces were employed to tenderize cuts and add flavour. Pepper was highly favored by Ancient Roman and Medieval cooks and figured prominently in many recipes. According to the Larousse Gastonomique, Sauce Diane (Diana...aka Artemis...a powerful mythological huntress) is traditionally associated with venison (a tough meat), which makes it a curious choice for the finest beef cuts that are used today for Steak Diane.

"Diane, a la
The description "a la Diane" is given to certain game dishes that are dedicated to the goddess Diana (the huntress). Joints of venison a la Diane are sauteed and coated with sauce Diane (a highly peppered sauce with cream and truffles). They are served with chestnut puree and croutons spread with game forcemeat."
---Larousse Gastronomique, Competely Revised and Updated edition [Clarkson Potter:New York] 2001 (p. 416)

"Steak Diane was originally a way of serving venison, and its sharp sauce was intended to complement the sweet flavor of deer meat. It was named for Diana, Roman goddess of the hunt, and since Diana was also the moon goddess, the small pieces of toast used to sop up the delicious juices are traditionally cut in crescent shapes."
---Rare Bits: Unusual Origins of Popular Recipes, Patricia Bunning Stevens [Ohio University Press:Athens OH] 1998 (p. 100)

When was Sauce Diane invented? The earliest mention we find of a sauce with this particular name is 1907, from Escoffier:

"Sauce Diane
Lightly whip 2dl of cream and add it at the last moment to 5dl well seasoned and reduced Sauce Poivrade. Finish with 2 tbs each of small crescent shaped pieces of truffle and hard-boiled white of egg. This sauce is suitable for serving with cutlets, noisettes and other cuts of venison."
---Le Guide Culinaire, A. Escoffier, translated by H. L. Cracknell and R. J. Kaufman recipe 44[1907] (p. 12)

Steak Diane is an evolution of an ancient dish that was *rediscovered* in the late 19th and early 20th centuries by European chefs. Interestingly enough, this time period coincides with the popularity of the chafing dish and table cookery [though none of the chafing dish recipes we have from that time period approximate Steak Diane]. These dishes were not called Steak Diane. They were known by several names, most famously "Steak au Poivre." Recipes for sauce poivre (pepper sauce) are found in both American and British cookbooks in the 1880s. The American Wine Cook Book, Ted Hatch [1941] has a recipe for "Noisette of Beef Rossini," (p. 118) which would produce something quite similar to Steak Diane. The Waldorf Astoria Cookbook, Ted James and Rosalind Cole [book published in 1981, recipe undated] prints a similar recipe (p. 157). Neither Rossini recipe is cooked at the table or served flambe.

Evidence suggests Steak Diane is an American invention of the late 1950s/early1960s, when French cooking (think Julia Child & the Kennedy White House menus) was all the rage. Rich wine sauces and flamboyant presentation were the norm for many top restaurants. If Steak Diane is an American recipe, then New York City is the most likely place or origin. Jane Nickerson's article "Steak Worthy of the Name," (New York Times, January 25, 1953 p. SM 32) offers three likely candidates: "The Drake Hotel, the Sherry-Netherland Hotel and the Colony Restaurant each said, not knowing that any other dining place had done so, that their patrons praised their steak Diane. Nino of the Drake claimed he was the first to introduce this dish to New York and, in fact, to the entire United States. Essentially it consists of steak cooked in butter and further seasoned with butter mixed with fresh chives; usually the beef is pounded thin. The chef of each establishment has his own version."

The earliest recipes we find for Steak Diane were printed in Nickerson's article. Craig Claiborne's Steak Diane (New York Times Cookbook [1961]) is not served flambe. Julia Child's The French Chef Cookbook, [1968] contains a recipe for "Steak au Poivre" with optional flambe.

"Steak Diane...I always associated this recipe with New York City's Colony Restaurant because that was where I first tried it. Yet I find no mention of it in "The Colony" [1945], in Brody's portrait of that restaurant. It is featured, however, in Michael Lomonaco's "The 21 Cookbook" [1995] together with this description: "At 21 Steak Diane is traditionally prepared tableside by the captains or Maitre Walter Weiss. The beef, sizzling in a large copper pan with brandy flaming and cause bubbling, makes a wonderful show reminiscent of the days when Humphrey Bogart and friends would bound in at midnight following the newest opening on Broadway..."
---American Century Cookbook: The Most Popular Recipes of the 20th Century, Jean Anderson [Clarkson Potter:New York] 1997 (p. 92)

"He serves stand-bys that the trendy places don't carry. Steak Diane and Bananas Flambe."
[NOTE: Bananas foster was introduced in 1951 at Brennans in New Orleans] are as wonderful today as they were in the '50s and '60s."
--- Review of The Arches [restaurant]

Other claims to the origin of Steak Diane (no authentication provided):

"Q: What is Steak Diane, and where did it originate? A: Created at the Copacabana Palace Hotel in Rio de Janiero, individual beef steaks are pounded flat, quickly cooked in butter, and flamed with cognac. The cognac sauce is typically finished with sherry, butter, and chives."
--- Minnesota Beef Council

"Rumored to have originated in Belgium during the 1920s, today's recipe has forever left its mark in the minds and pallets of great chefs as one of the most fantastic tales of a meal prepared to change course of unrequited love."
--- DirectRecipes

[1953]
Steak Diane (Colony Restaurant)

1 to one and one-half tablespoons butter
1/4 teaspoon salt
Freshly gound black pepper to taste
1/2 to one teaspoon each finely chopped chives and parsley
1 teaspoon Worcestershire sauce
Individual steak of any thickness (one pound with bone, eight to ten ounces without bone and fat)
Mix all ingredients except meat in heavy fry pan and when very hot place steak in pan, cooking at very high heat until done. Serve immediately, pouring residue of sauce over meat.<
---"Steak Worthy of the Name," Jane Nickerson, The New York Times, January 25, 1953 (p. SM 32)

[1961]
"Steak Diane, 1 serving

1 ten-ounce sirloin steak
1 1/2 tablespoon butter
1 tablespoon congnac, heated
2 tablespoons sherry
1 tablespoon sweet butter
1 teaspoon chopped chives.

1. Trim the meat well and pound very thin with a mallet.
2. Heat one and one-half tablespoons butter in a chafing-dish platter. Add the steak and cook quickly, turning it once.
3. Add the congnac and flame. Add the sherry and the sweet butter creamed with chives.
4. Place the steak on a warm platter and pour the pan juices over it."
---The New York Times Cook Book, Craig Claiborne [Harper & Row:New York] 1961 (p. 91)

STEAK AU POIVRE

Descending from Steak Diane, the true orgins of "Steak Au Poivre" are sketchy at best.

"The origins of steak "au poivre", a steak coated with crushed peppercorns or served with a peppercorn sauce, are controversial. Chefs who claim to have created this dish include E. Lerch in 1930, when he was chef a the Restaurant Albert on the Champs-Elysees; and M. Deveau in about 1920, at Maxim's. However, M.G. Comte certifies that steak "au poivre" was already established as a specialty of the Hotel de Paris at Monte Carlo in 1910, and O. Becker states that he prepared it in 1905 at Palliard's!"
---Larousse Gastronomique, Completely Revised and Updated Edition, [Clarkson Potter:New York] 2001 (p. 1142)

Craig Claiborne's New York Times Food Encyclopedia (p.429-30) contains information that suggests the origins of steak au poivre may be traced to Leopold I of Germany in 1790. Your librarian can help you find a copy of this passage if you would like to read it in full.

"...the classic French Steak au Poivre (pepper steak), a restaurant showpiece demanding pyrotechnical skills, remains popular in some quarters. The recipe appears to be relatively new: Escoffier doesn't include Steak au Poivre in Ma Cuisine (1934) but his contemporary, Henri-Paul Pellaprat, does give a recipe for it in Modern Culinary Art (1953)...Food historians of solid reputation dismiss the Prince Leopold theory as apocryphal. Or pure fantasy. Whatever the origin, though, Steak au Poivre became the culinary tour de force of many stylish big-city American restaurants early this century."
---The American Century Cookbook: The Most Popular Recipes of the 20th Century, Jean Anderson [Clarkson Potter:New York] 1997 (p. 122)

Which cuts to use? Depends upon the recipe's author. Julia Child observes "This famous dish usually calls for individual tenderloin or loin strip steaks, but other cuts may be used if they are of top quality and tender."
SOURCE: The French Chef Cookbook [Alfred A. Knopf:New York] 1972 (p. 262). Craig Claiborne recommends "boneless sirloin steak." SOURCE: New York Times Menu Cook Book [Harper & Row:New York] 1966 (P. 180)

"Tartare has two culinary applications in Englsih, both of them inspired by the supposed fitness of the Tatar people of central Asia."
---An A-Z of Food & Drink, John Ayto [Oxford Univeristy Press:Oxford] 2002 (p. 338)

"One of the great old food legends, right up there with the tale of an English king dubbing a particular cut of meat "Sir Loin," is the one about Mongol horsemen (sometimes Huns) supposedly sticking steaks under their saddles before riding off to war. Thus tenderized, the story goes, the steaks could be cooked quickly, and from this, it continues, descends the dish of raw chopped beef we call steak tartare. A Berkeley, Calif., scholar named John Masson Smith notes that there's no reference to this practice in Chinese historical records, and medieval observers in the Middle East never wrote anything about it either. Smith says there's a theory that European observers got this idea because central Asian nomads do sometimes put pieces of meat on horses' backs. But the reason they do it is to lubricate and soothe their mounts' sores, much as Americans put a piece of beefsteak on a black eye. They don't eat the "tenderized steaks" afterward. Traditionally, Turkish nomads such as the Huns and Tatars didn't even eat steak as such. They would cut meat in small pieces for shish kebab or mince it fine for frying, or they'd boil it, so the toughness issue scarcely arose. As for the Mongols, they cooked nearly everything by boiling. "
---"Steak tenderizing legends have been marinated in myth," Chicago Tribune, May 16, 2001 (p.7A)

"The English word "Tartar" comes via the Latin. Because the Romans considered the Taatatrs-the Central Asian Turkic nomads--savage, they inserted an "r" in their name, thereby linking them with Tartarus, or Hell. Even in our day, the idea of barbarism underlies the names of these foods. In the case of Steak Tartare, legend holds that the fierce horsemen of the Golden Horde tenderized their meat by packing it under their saddles. When they retrieved the meat, now so tenderized from the saddle's friction that they could eat it raw, as befits barbarians,. In fact, there is no historical evidence that the Tatars ate raw meat. More often than not, they boiled meat for soups and stews, as they still do today, or placed it on skewers to grill, or minced it to fill rounds of dough that they fried. Nevertheless, the myth lives on. As for Tartar sauce, the Tatars were certainly not eating mayonnaise int he fourteenth century!"
---"Scratch Russian Cuisine," Darra Goldstein, Russian Life, September/October 2005 (p. 61)

"Steak tartare is raw steak (beef or horsemeat), chopped and seasoned and presented with accompaniments such as onion, parsley, and capers, often with a raw egg yolk as a finishing touch. In Belgium, particularly in Flanders, it is known as filet americain. The origins of steak tartare are wuethed with myth, usually involving the Russians learning the dish from their Tatar conquerors, then exporting it to Europe via German contacts in the 19th century. American scholars suggest it reached their shores through German migrants, figuring on German-American restaurant menus...It was first known in France in the late 19th century. The first citation in the OED [Oxford English Dictionary] is for 1911."
---Oxford Companion to Food, Alan Davidson [Oxford University Press:Oxford] 2nd edition, 2006 (p. 786-7)

[1935]
"Steak a la Tartare
Tartare steak is another chopped steak, and you find it on a majority of a la carte bills of fare. It is so seldom called for, however, that many cooks are "up in the air" when they get an order for it, never having served it, even after years of service as a cook. This steak is served raw, and should be made of tenderloin. Cut the meat finely, season with salt or pepper, rather highly. Add some fine chopped onions, and bind with a little egg yolk. Mold for platter service. Indent the center and in the hollow so made place an unbroken raw egg yolk. Garnish with lettuce leaf, scattered capers, onion rings soaked in vinegar, and fancy cuts of spiced beets and pickles."
---The Hotel Butcher, Garde Manger and Carver, Frank Rivers [Hotel Monthly Press:Chicago] 1935 (p. 23)

Why is steak tartare called steak (filet, beefsteak) Americaine in some countries?
It's not. The French have developed a rich and complex vocabulary when it comes to the culinary arts. For these chefs, and those in neighboring countries, two recipes are similar but not synonymous. The earliest examples we find are from Escoffier. Unfortunately, he chose not to enlighten us with regards to the American connection. The classic 1961 edition of Larousse Gastronomique notes in the entry for Beefsteak a l'americaine "This dish is often prescribed in a building-up diet." (p. 120).

[1903]
"Beefsteak a l'Americaine. Cut off a piece of the head of the fillet, remove any fat or sinew and finely chop the flesh, seasoning it with salt and pepper...
Beefsteak a la Tartare. Prepare the steak as for Beefsteak a l'Americaine but without the egg yolk on top. Serve Sauce Tartare separately."
---The Complete Guide to the Art of Modern Cookery, Escoffier, first translation into English by H.L. Cracknell and R.J. Kaufmann of Le Guide Culinaire in its entirety [John Wiley:New York] 1979 (p. 278-9)

Madame E. Saint-Ange (La Bonne Cuisine, circa 1929) notes "Steak Tartar is a culinary fantasy made of raw ingredients." She does not offer any other information regarding the origin of the name, nor does she offer a recipe for Steak A L'Americaine.

The practice of using all parts of an animal for human consumption/use dates back to prehistoric times. Food historians confirm all parts of animals, including offal and organ meat, were consumed regularly. In fact? Some of these parts were considered delicacies because they were rare. The term "sweetbreads" as it pertains (most commonly) to thymus [throat glands] of calves and lambs traces back to the 16th century. Notes here:

"Precisely which internal organ of a calf, lamb, etc. the word sweetbread ought to be applied to is a matter of considerable controversy, but in practice it is clear that for centuries it has been employed for both the 'pancreas,' and the 'thymus gland' used for food. And historically these have been distinguished as, respectively, the heart, stomach, or belly sweetbread and the throat, gullet, or neck sweetbread. It is not certain where the name comes from (it first turns up in the middle of the sixteenth century, in Tomas Cooper's Thesaurus) but, unless it originally had some deeply-dyed euphemistic undercurrents, it would seem to reflect the glands' reputation as prized delicacies (unusual amongst offal) which survives to this day. It is possible that the second element represents not modern English bread by the Old English word broed, meaning 'flesh'."
---An A-Z of Food and Drink, John Ayto [Oxford University Press:Oxford] 2002 (p. 331)

"Although sweetbreads (fr. Ris de veau and Ris d'agneau) are always sold under that name alone, as if there were but one sort, there are two distinct white glands, taken from calves or lambs, covered by that name, and one placed immediately below the throat and the other, rounder in shape, lying nearer the heart, and very much the better from the gastronome's point of view. The first or 'throat' sweetbreads are elongated in form and neither so white nor so fat as the other sort, which would always be chosen by discriminating cooks."
---Concise Encyclopedia of Gastronomy, Andre L. Simon, complete and unabridged [Harcourt, Brace and Company:New York] 1952 (p. 491)

"Sweetbread: the soft, milky thymus glands of the young calf and lamb, the former being the more highly esteemed and considered one of the greatest of all meat delicacies...The glands are divided into the "throat sweetbread" and the "heart sweetbread," the latter being generally preferred because of its special tenderness and large size. They are most delicate when obtained from a young calf, and they gradually disappear after it is turned out to grass...The Pancreas of the older animal, frequently but incorrectly styled "sweetbread," and also known as the "Belly Sweetbread," is an entirely gland, but it bears a resemblance sufficiently close to warrant its consideration under this heading."
---The Grocer's Encyclopedia, Artemas Ward [New York] 1911 (p. 610-611)

A survey of sweetbread notes through time

[16th century Italy: Martino]
"How to Make Veal and Kid Sweetbreads Pottage
Take a libra of sweetbreads and boil well; when cooked through, crush thoroughly on a cutting board as you would with the best of them; and take five hard eggs yolks that have been well crushed and add together with the sweetbreads in a mortar and grind; then take a little good fatty capon broth or sukling calf broth and thin; put in a pot on hot coals away from the flame, and when it boils, add a little verjuice, if it pleases your master; and when it is done, remove from heat and add a bit of saffron and ginger; then take three or four well-beaten egg yolks and add, stirring vigorously so that the pottage does not go bad; and before dividing in bowls, add a half ounce of rose water, and when you serve, top with sugar and cinnamon. Veal and kid sweetbreads can be prepared similarly. Note that they should be only lightly seasoned."
---The Art of Cooking, Martino of Como, edited and with an introduction by Luigi Ballerini, Translated and annotated by Jeremy Parzen [University of California Press:Berkeley] 2005 (p. 119)

[17th century England: May]
"To make Pies of Sweet-breads or Lamb stones
Parboil them and blanche them, or raw sweetbreads or stones, part them in halves, & season them with pepper, nutmeg, and salt, season them lightly; then put in the bottom of the pie some slices of interlarded bacon,& some pieces of artichocks or mushrooms, then sweet-breads or stones, marrow, gooseberries, barberries, grapes, or slic't lemon, close it up and bake it, being baked liquor it with butter only. Or otherwise with butter, white wine, and sugar, and sometimes add some yolks of eggs."
---The Accomplist Cook, Robert May, facsimile 1685 edition [Prospect Books:Devon] 1994 (p. 231-2)

[17th century France: La Varenne]
"Sweetbreads stuck. Take the fairest you can get, and best shaped, whiten them in cold water, stick them and put them on a prick; rost them very neatly, and after they are roasted, serve them with the juice of a lemon upon them. "Sweetbreads with ragoust. After they are whitened, cut them into slices, and pass them in the pan, or whole, if you iwll, with large, and well seasoned with parsley, chibol whole, mushrums and truffles, and after they are well stoved with good broth, and the sauce being short and well thickened, serve."
---The French Cook, Francois Pierre, La Varenne, translated into English in 1653 by I.D.G. [Southover Press:East Sussex] 2001 (p. 83-84)

[18th century England: Glasse]
"There are many Ways of dressing Sweetbreads: You may lard them with thin Slips of Bacon, and roast them with what Sauce you please; or you may marinate them, cut them into thin Slices, flour them, and fry them. Serve them up with fry'd Parsley, and either Butter or Gravy. Garnish with Lemon."
---The Art of Cookery Made Plain and Easy, Hannah Glasse, facsimile 1747 edition [Prospect Books:Devon] 1995 (p. 30)

[19th century France: Ude]
"Sweetbreads a la Dauphine
If you use round dishes, you must have four sweetbreads; if a long dish, three large ones will be sufficient. Mind, at any rate, to select them of a large size and very white. Pare the sinews and the fat; threw them into warm water, and let them disgorge, to draw out the blood, and make them as white as possible. When thoroughly disgorged, blanch the a little in boiling water to make them firm, that you may lard them with greater facility. As soon as they are larded, rub a stew-pan all over with butter, cut a few carrots and onions over the butter; cover this with some fat bacon, lay the sweetbreads over the bacon, powder them over with salt, and stew them with a great deal of fire on the top, and very little beneath. When they are of a fine brown, cover them with a round of paper, and lessen the fire on the top. If they are large, it will require three-quarters of an hour to do them. If they are too much done, they become soft, and are not so palatable. When properly done, drain them, and put in a pan with some glaze till dinner-time; then drain them afresh, and glaze them of a fine brown. Serve them up with sorrel or endive. There is no necessity to moisten a sweetbread, as they have so much original moisture, that they will never be too dry."
---The French Cook, Louis Eustache Ude, orignally published in Paris 1828 [Arco Publishing:New York] 1978 (p. 143-144)
[NOTE: recipes for Sweetbreads a la Financier and a la Dreux included.]

[19th century Italy: Artusi]
"Animelle alla Bottiglia (sweetbreads with wine sauce)
While lamb sweetbreads do not need any prior preparation, sweetbreads from larger animals must first be cooked halfway in water, and skinned if necessary. Leave the former whole but cut the latter into pieces. Dredge well in flour, brown in butter, and season with salt and pepper. The moisten with Marsala or Madeira wine, and bring to a boil. Tou can also make a sauce separately with a pinch of flour, a bit of butter, and the wine. If you enhance them with brown stock, instead of being just good, they will become delicious."
---Science in the Kitchen and the Art of Eating Well, Pellegrino Artusi, originally published in 1891 [Marsilio Publishers:New York] 1997 (p. 249)
[NOTE: this book also offers a recipe for Crochette D'Animelle (sweetbread croquettes).]

[19th century England: Cassells]
"Sweetbreads should be chosen as fresh as possible, as they very quickly spoil. There are two sorts--heart sweetbreads and throat sweetbreads. The heart sweetbreads are the best, and also the most expensive. In whatever way sweetbreads are dressed, they should first be soaked in lukewarm water for a couple of hours. They should then be put into boiling water and simmered gently for five or ten minutes, according to size, and when taken up they should be laid in cold water. Sweetbreads vary considerably in price, according to the time of year. They are quite as frequently employed as ingredients in sundry made dishes, such as vol-au-vents, ragouts, &c., as served alone, and as they do not possess a very decided natural flavor they need to be accompanied by a highly-seasoned sauce, or they will taste rather insipid. They are in full season from May to August."
---Cassell's Dictionary of Cookery with numerous illustrations [Cassell, Petter, Galpin & Co.:London] 1875 (p. 947)
[NOTE: this book offers recipes from Sweetbreads a la Dauphine, Sweetbreads a la Maitre d'Hotel, Sweetbread Kromeskies, Pie of Sweetbreads and Palates, Sweetbreads and Palates Stewed, Sweetbreads au Gratin, Baked, Broiled, Browned, Cold, Cotolets, Croquettes, Cutlets, Fricasseed cutlets, Fried, Larded, Minced in paper cases, Patties, Ragout, Roast, s Stewed, Vol-au Vent, White, with Mushrooms, and with Truffles.]

[20th century France: Child]
"Sweetbreads and brains have much the same texture and flavor, but brains are more delicate. They both receive almost the same treatments. Both must be soaked for several hours in cold water before they are cooked, to soften the filament which covers them so that it may be removed, to dissolve their bloody patches, and to whiten them. Some authorities direct that they always be blanched before cooking--that is, poached in salted and acidulated water or a court bouillon; others do not agree. If the sweetbreads or brains are to be braised, blanching is a useless and flavor-losing step. If they are to be sliced and sauteed, blanching firms them up so they are easier to cut, but removes some of their delicacy and tenderness. Both brains and sweetbreads are perishable, and if they are not to be cooked within 24 hours, they should be soaked and blanched which will help to preserve them. Soaking Sweetbreads and Brains. Wash in cold water, then place in a bowl and soak in several changes of cold water or under a dripping tap for 1 1/2 to 2 hours. Delicately pull off as much as you easily can of the filament which encloses them, without tearing the flesh. This is a rather slow process. Soak them again for 1 1/2 to 2 hours, this time in several changes of cold water containing 1 tablespoon of vinegar per quart. Peel off as much more filament as you can, and they are ready for trimming and cooking. Trimming. A whole sweetbread, which is they thymus gland of a calf and usually weighs about 1 pound, consists of 2 lobes connected by a soft, white tube, the cornet. The smoother, rounder, and more solid of the two lobes is the kernel, heart, or noix, the choicest part. The second lobe, called throat sweetbread or gorge, is more uneven in shape, broken by veins, and is often slit. Separate the two lobes from the tube with a knife. The tube may be added to the stock pot.

"Blanching Sweetbreads Sweetbreads, trimmed and soaked as in preceding directions
An enameled saucepan just large enough to hold them
Cold water
Per quart water: 1 Tsp salt and 1 Tb lemon juice
Place sweetbreads in saucepan and cover by 2 inches with cold water; add salt and lemon juice. Bring to simmer and cook, uncovered, at barest simmer for 15 minutes. Drain and lunge into cold water for 5 minutes. Drain. The sweetbreads are now ready for sauteeing."
---Mastering the Art of French Cooking, Simone Beck, Louisette Bertholle & Julia Child [Alfred A. Knopf:New York] 1963 (p. 408-409)
[NOTE: This book offers recipes for Ris de Veau Braises (braised sweetbreads), Ris de Veau a la Creme, Ris de Veay a la Marechale (creamed sweetbreads), Ris de Veau a la Creme et au Champignons (creamed sweetbreads with mushrooms), Ris de Veau au Gratin (sweetbreads au gratin) and Escalopes de Ris de Veau Sautes (Sweetbreads sauteed in butter).]

[20th century England: Grigson]
"Skuets. I first came across this recipe in French, in Careme's L'art de la cuisine francaise au dix-neuvieme siecle, which first came out in 1833. He describes it as an English recipe, and praises it. I imagine he may have come across it in England while he was working for the Prince Regent. The odd thing is that it is not in the most popular cookery books of the eighteenth and early nineteenth century. I came across it eventually in The Compleat Housewife, by E. Smith, a reprint from the fifteenth and eighteenth editions, of 1753 and 1773...This early recipe lacks the bread sauce, and the crumbs are pressed into the skuets of meat before they are hung up to roast before the fire. Careme's refinements really make the dish.

For 4
500 g (1 lb) veal or lamb sweetbreads
Salt
Light veal or chicken stock
2 teaspoons lemon juice or wine vinegar
8 thin rashers of smoked streaky bacon
16 mushrooms
Chopped parsley and thyme
Freshly ground pepper
Browned breadcrumbs
Bread sauce
To prepare sweetbreads, place them in a bowl and ocver them with water. Stir in a tablespoon of salt. Leave for an hour or longer if you like. If they are frozen, leave them for several hours. Drain them, rinse them with cold water and place them in a pan. Pour enought stock over them to cover them by about 1/2 cm (1/4"), and add the lemon and vinegar. Bring slowly to the boil, and simmer gently until they lose their raw pinkish white look and turn opaque. This takes a couple of minutes with lamb's sweetbreads; veal sweetbreads, being much larger, can take 20 minutes. Pour off the cooking liquor, which can be used in soups and sauces (some sweetbread recipes use the stock to make the appropriate sauce). Run the sweetbreads under the cold tap and pull off the gristly bits. Go carefully, though; if you pull off too much, sheep's sweetbreads will disintegrate into very small knobs. Put the sweetbreads on a plate, with another plate on top to press them. They can now be left in the refrigerator for later use, or overnight. To assemble the skuets, cut the sweetbreads into slices or chunks about an inch wide, and divide them into four even rows. Cut the bacon into enough small pieces to go between them, and put them in place. The mushrooms should be fitted in at appropriate intervals. Scatter with chopped parsley and thyme. Now take four skewers and run them through the four lines of sweetbreads and bacon, etc. Brush them over with melted butter and grill them under a medium heat for about 15 minutes. Serve them on a long dish over with the browned crumbs. The bread sauce should go in a separate bowl."
---English Food, Jane Grigson, originally published in 1974 [Penguin Books:London] 1992 (p. 148-149)
[NOTE: Bread Sauce recipe is included in this book. We can send if you like.]

Food historians tell us 16th century Portuguese cooks may have been the first to deep-fry batter-dipped shrimp. The recipe was inspired by Catholic dietary regulations requiring the abstinence from meat during certain days. Portuguese cooks subsequently shared their fried shrimp recipe with the Japanese, where the dish was renamed tempura.

ABOUT SHRIMP
Archaeologists tell us humans have been eating fish, shellfish (mussels, clams), and crustaceans (lobsters, crabs, shrimp) since prehistoric times. They know this from excavating "middens," deposits of shells and bones left by early civilizations. These foods weren't "discovered" (like Columbus "discovered" America) but noticed. The earliest hunter-gatherers took advantage of every available food resource. People who lived near water (oceans, seas, lakes, rivers) naturally took advantage of the foods offered by these resources.

"Shrimp and prawn, group of small river and sea creatures. The larger species are easily cooked and very easily eaten...Shrimps were best and biggest at Iasus in Caria, according to Archestratus [Greece 4th century BC]; he adds that there were plenty of them in Macedonia...and in Ambracia. ...In Italy, if Marital is to be believed, the shrimp was at its best in the tidal reaches of the River Liris in southern Latium. This river reached the sea at Minturnae. Now it was at Minturnae, according to legend, that Apicius lived--eighty years before Marital's time--and enjoyed the local magnificent shrimps, which grow bigger than the shrimps at Smyrna, bigger indeed than the lobsters at Alexandria' to quote Athnaeus...Pliny the Younger boasted of good shrimps a little further north, at his Laurentan villa. Shrimps danced when roasted on the coals, Ophelion tells us...The were served hone-glazed at the dinner described by Philoxenus, and in general in ancient cuisine they were roasted, or fried in a skillet, rather than boiled."
---Food in the Ancient World from A to Z, Andrew Dalby [Routledge:London] 2003 (p. 301)

ABOUT TEMPURA
"The earliest record of tempura is from the end of the sixteenth century, and it probably came from a cooking method introduced by Portuguese missionaries. In the late Edo period the term meant different things in Kansai and Edo, according to an encyclopedia of customs from the mid-nineteenth century...The Tempura of Kyoto and Osaka was what is now known as satsuma-age...Frying with pil or fat was rare in the Japanese diet that developed through medieval times. The main exception was the vegetarian food eaten in and around Zen temples, with its deep-fried bean curd and wheat gluten. It was during the Edo period that the general population acquired a taste for food cooked in oil, due to the stpread of oil-based cooking styles introduced from abroad: Portuguese-inspired tempura in the sixteenth century, and the Chinese-style fucha and shippoku cooking that crystalized in Nagasaki during the seventeenth century. Only sesame oil, which was expensive, had been used for cooking until the Edo period. Then, as cheaper rapeseed oil came into production, mainly for lighting, the new oil-pressing techniques were introduced, the stage was set for the popularization fo deep-fried foods. Tempura is one of the national dishes of Japan that developed into its curren form in the city of Edo...Tempura became popular in the 1770s as a snack food sold at street stalls, where the customers ate standing and did not use chopsticks. The morsels of fish, prawns and vegetables were stuck on bamboo skewers, coated with batter, deep-fried and eaten on the spot, as an inexepensive food for the common people. Tempura restaurants first appeared at the beginning of the nineteenth century, and by the middle fo the century were lsited in Edo restaurant guides, indicating tempura had come to be appreciated by people of higher social standing."
---The History and Culture of Japanese Food, Naomichi Ishige [Kegan Paul:London] 2001 (p. 246)

"The cooking technique which is said to owe its name to a shrimp is Japanese deep frying--tempura--variously ascribed to the influence of Jesuit missionarie or Portuguese explorers. They were supposed to have explained to the Japanese that they could not eat meat on the fast days described in ecclasiastical Latin as the quatuor tempora, the "four times" included in the Ember days, and must have fish. The Japanese thought tempora the key word in this context, and are said to have applied it first to shrimp and then to other fish or vegetables cooked in the same fashion. I do not vouch for the story, I simply pass it on."
---Food, Waverley Root [Smithmark:New York] 1980 (p. 458)

"The history of tempura goes back about 400 years, to the time when Portuguese missionaries arrived in Japan. The Portuguese word "tempuras" means Ember Days, when meat was not eaten. It has been plausibly suggested that on these days the missionaries cooked fish and vegetables in the manner most palatable to them, by frying in batter, and that the Japanese adopted the technique and the name from them. Since then tempura has come to be regarded as on of the most important Japanese dishes..."
---The Oxford Companion to Food, Alan Davidson [Oxford University Press:Oxford] 1999 (p. 788-9)

"Tempura or Tendon: In 1550, batter-dipped and fried shrimp was introduced ot the Japanese by Portuguese traders. The Portuguese did not eat meat on Catholic Ember Days (four times annually); these days came to be known as Quator Tempora and the fried shrimp that became the specialty was called Tempura. Tempura now refers to the Japanese cooking method of coating cleaned cut or sliced foods in a light batter and frying quickly in a light vegetable oil. Tendon refers specifically to fried crustaceans."
---You Eat What You Are: People, Culture and Food Traditions, Thelma Barer-Stein [Firefly:Ontario] 1999 (page 275)

Related food? Corn dogs.

>why is toad-in-the-hole so named when there are no toads or holes involved??
Food historians have been wondering about this for years. No toads, certainly. The hole, however, presumably refers to the position of the meat in the recipe. Batter puddings are remarkably versatile.

"Toad-in-the-hole. Nowadays this British dish typically consists of sausage cooked in batter, but in its earliest incarnations in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries (when it was usually called toad in a hole) various cuts of meat were used. Mrs. Beeton, for instance, used steak and kidney, and recipes recommending the finest fillet steak are to be found, but often enough toad in the hole was a repository for leftovers. Even today lamb chops are occasionally found lurking in batter, and sausage toad' is the unappetizing colloquialism that distinguishes the orthodox version. The notion of secreting delicacies in holes' in a batter pudding goes back to Roman times, and in the earliest recorded uses of this actual expression in the eighteenth century they do not contain only toads': Hannah Glasse, for example, gives a recipe for pigeons in the hole.'"
---An A-Z of Food and Drink, John Ayto [Oxford University Press:Oxford] 2002 (p. 344)

"Toad in the hole...provokes historical questions of exceptional interest. What are the origins of the dish and how did it get its name? Enquiries are best commenced from two starting points. The first is that batter puddings (whether baked in the oven by themselves or cooked under the spit or jack in the drippings falling from a joint--in the latter case they could be classed as Yorkshire pudding) only began to be popular in the early part of the 18th century. ..Jennifer Stead's essay is the best reference for studying the complex historical questions regarding batter pudding and Yorkshire pudding...The second is that the earliest recorded reference in print to toad in the hole occurs in a provincial glossary of 1787, quoted by the Oxford English Dictionary (OED) as saying: the dish called toad in a hole meat boiled in a crust.' That gives the name, but the technique is different form that subsequently established...Mrs. Beeton (1861) describes the dish as homely but savoury.'"
---Oxford Companion to Food, Alan Davidson [Oxford University Press:Oxford] 1999 (p. 796)
About Yorkshire pudding.

None of the definitions for the word toad' in the OED connect it to a particular type of food---including slang/colloquial meanings. This infers the use of the word toad' in this recipe might have been selected to describe the appearance of the final product. Perhaps Mrs. Beeton thought toads were homely?]

RECIPES THROUGH TIME

[1747]
"Piceons in a Hole
Take your Pigeons, season them with beaten Mace, Pepper and Salt; put a little Piece of Butter in the Belly, lay them in a Dish and pour a light Batter all over them, make with a Quart of Mik and Eggs, and four or five Sploonfuls of Flour; bake it, and sent it to Table. It is a good Dish."
---The Art of Cookery, Made Plain and Easy, Hannah Glasse, facsimile 1747 edition [Prospect Books:Devon] 1995 (p. 46)

[1769]
"Pigeons in a hole
Pick, draw, and wash four young pigeons, stick their legs into their belly as you do boiled pigeons. Season them with pepper, salt, and beaten mace, put into the belly of every pigeon a lump of butter the size of a walnut. Lay your pigeons in a pie dish, pour over them a batter made of three eggs, two spoonfuls of flour and a half a pint of good milk. Bake in a moderate oven and serve them to table in the same dish."
---The Experienced English Housekeeper, Elizabeth Raffald, 1769 reprint edition with an introduction by Roy Shipperbottm [Southover Press:East Sussex] 1997 (p. 65-6)

[1861]
"No. 59. Toad in the Hole.
To make this cheap dinner, you should buy 6d. Or 1s. Worth of bits or pieces ofa ny kind of meat, whciha re to be had cheapest at night when the day's sale is over. The pieces of meat should be first carefully overlooked, to acertain if there be any necessity to pare away some tainted part, or perhaps a fly-blow, as this, if left on any one piece of beat, would tend to impart a bad taste to the whole, and spoil the dish. You then rub a little flour, pepper, and salt all over the meat, and fry it brown with a little butter or fat in the gfrying pan, and when done, put it with the fat it has been fried in into a baking-dish containing some Yorkshire or suet pudding batter, amde as directed at Nos. 57 and 58, and bake the toad-in-the-hole for about an hour and a half, or selse send it to the bakers."
---A Plain Cookery Book for the Working Classes, Charles Elme Francatelli, facsimile 1861 edition [Prior Publications:Kent] 1993 (p. 36)

[1874]
"Toad-In-The-Hole (a Homely but Savoury Dish)
Ingredients.-1 1/2 lb of rump-steak, 1 sheep's kidney, pepper and salt to taste. For the batter, 3 eggs, 1 pint of milk, 4 tablespoonfuls of flour, 1/2 saltspoonful of salt.
Mode.--Cut up the steak and kidney into convenient-sized pieces, and put them into a pie-dish, with a good seasoning of salt and pepper; mix the flour with a small quantity of milk at first, to prevent its being lumpy; add the remainder, and the 3 eggs, which should be well beaten; put in the salt, stir the batter for about 5 minutes, and pour it over the steak. Place it in a tolerably brisk oven immediately, and bake for 1 1/2 hour.
Time.--1 1/2 hour. Average Cost, 2s.
Sufficient for 4 or 5 persons.
Seasonable at any time.
Note.--The remains of cold beef, rather underdone, may be substituted for the steak, and when liked, the smallest possible quanitie of minced onion or shalot may be added."
---Mrs. Beeton's Cook Book [London] 1874 edition (p. 320-1)

[1894]
"Toad-in-the-Hole.--Required: a pound and a half of lean meat (mutton or beef), a pint of milk, two eggs, half a pound of flour, a little salt, pepper, baking powder and dripping. Costs, about 1s. 9d. Melt the dripping in a baking tin, let it get hot, and grease it well. Make a batter of the milk, flour, &c., as if for Yorkshire Pudding. Pour it in the tin, then pepper the meat a little; lay it in the bater and bake. The oven should be quick at first for the batter to rise, then rather slow for the meat to cook. Time, about an hour. If the meat is cut up into four or six pieces it is more conveniently served, but if in one piece, the gravy is better preserved. Tender meat is a necessity for this dish. Kidneys and liver can be cooked as above, and sausages make a savoury dish of the kind, though somewhat rich."
---Cassell's New Universal Cookery Book, Lizzie Heritage [Cassell and Company:London] 1894 (p.293)

Did you know? In the 1930s some British cooks made "Tomato Toad-in-the-Hole," a vegetarian version of this dish? SOURCE: Cookery Illustrated and Household Management, Elizabeth Craig [Odhams Press Ltd.:London] 1936 (p. 414)

There are many theories regarding the history of the dispersion of turkey. In fact? There are also many theories regarding the definition of a turkey. Some early food historians believed turkeys were orginally an old world birds, originating in India. They contended it was known to the Greeks and featured in the famous Bayeaux tapestry. Modern food historians believe this old-world bird was probably the guinea fowl. True turkeys (Melieagris gallopavo) are native to North America. Adding to the confusion? Etymologists tell us in early times, the words turkey and guinea fowl were often used interchangeably.

The stories of the introduction of new world turkeys to Europe are likewise full of conflicts, legend and lore. Food historians do not credit a specific person with the introduction of this bird to the old world. The do agree, however, the bird was most likely introduced in the early sixteenth century by Spanish or Portuguese explorers.

Recommended reading: The Turkey: An American Story, Andrew F. Smith
[Best source for overall history: origins, distribution, economics, linguistic challenges, symbolism, cookery & historic recipes. Includes copious footnotes and extensive biblography.] ]

"There were many large fowl in the tropical New World. Two of them were domesticated: the turkey (Meleagris gallopavo) and the mucovy duck (Cairina moschata)....The original range of Meleagris gallopavo, the turkey we all know, seems to have been north of the Rio Balsas in Mexico, that is to say among the mountains of the central plateau. It is a paradoxical creature, being at the same time wild and tame, wary and stupid. People who have lived in its territory in the southwestern United States decribe it as aggressively being to be domesticated, but at the same time it is considered one of the craftiest birds. The earliest bones of turkeys that could be considered domesticated were found in bones of turkeys that could be considered domesticated were found in Tehuacan and date from between 200B.C. and A.D. 700. Their use must have spread rapidly, because by the time the Europeans came exploring, turkeys seem to have been available far beyond their natural range. Columbus may have brought them back from the islands on his first voyage, or perhaps he first saw them when he landed in Honduras on his fourth voyage,. By 1511 the king of Spain was ordering every ship returning to Spain from the New World to bring back ten turkeys, five males and five females. It was one of the most rapid successes as far as the adoption of New World foodstuffs goes, speedily replacing the tough, stringy peacock as a spectacular dish for banquets....The turkey so quickly became an article of conspicuous consumption that it early attracted the attention of legistlators anxious to quell the conumerism of the epoch. As early as 1561, the vote was 60 to 18 in Vincenza, Italy, to exclude turkeys from banquets as being overly luxurious."
---America's First Cuisines, Sophie D. Coe [University of Texas Press:Austin] 1994 (p. 124-5)

"The first European country to receive the turkey from the New World was Spain; Pedro Alonso Nino took some birds to that country in the early 1500s. The birds were established on Spanish poultry farms by 1530, were in Rome by 1525, were in France by 1538, and then spread rapidly to other parts of the Old World."
---The Cambridge World History of Food, Kenneth F. Kiple & Kriemhild Conee Ornelas [Cambridge University Press:Cambridge] 2000, Volume One (p. 581)

"When turkeys reached the Old World, they appear (unlike other foods from the Americas, such as tomatoes and potatoes) to have diffused swiftly and been consumed enthusiastically. In England in 1541, they were cited amongst large birds such as cranes and swans in sumputary laws; their prices had been fixed in the London markets by the mid- 1550s...Reasons for this speedy acceptance are not hard to find. The turkey would have been seen as similar to the domestic poulty familiar in Europe since ancient times, and confused with guinea-fowl; and there was anyway a firm medieval precedent for eating all sorts of fowl, wild and tame, large and small...In England, turkeys were being made into pies during the reign of Elizabeth I, and soon afterwards Gervase Markham (1615) recommended that they be roast, and served with a sauce of onions, flavoured with claret, orange juice, and lemon peel."
---Oxford Companion to Food, Alan Davidson [Oxford University Press:Oxford] 1999 (p. 809-810)

"The turkey had already been domesticated in Mexico and central America when the early explorers brought it back to Europe about 1523 or 1524. It may have owed its northern European names (Turkey bird...) To the fact that it was brought on the last lap of its journey from southern Europe to the countries of the north by way of agents of the East India spice trade....By [1621] turkeys has already won their way as domestic birds in old England. The earliest written record of their existence there was supplied by Archbishop Cramner in 1541...Turkeys grew in popularity, and eventually replaced the old celebratory birds of the Middle Ages, the peacocks and swans of the rich, the bustards and herons of the poor, in the nation's diet...Turkeys became farmyard fowls. Soon they were a usual part of the husbandman's Christmas cheer. During the seventeenth and eighteeth centuries great numbers of turkeys, and also geese, were brought to the London market from as far away as Cambridgeshire, Suffolk and Norfolk."
---Food and Drink in Britain From the Stone Age to the 19th Century, C. Anne Wilson [Academy Chicago:Chicago] 1991 (p. 128-131)

"While turkeys were known in Ireland since the 17th century, it is only in the present century that they are associated with the Christmas dinner. Possibly the goose was the first fowl domesticated in Europe. Certainly foie gras was a delicacy in 1st-century Rome..."
---Land of Milk and Honey: The Story of Traditional Irish Food and Drink, Brid Mahon [Mercier Press:Dublin] 1998 (p. 116)

"The advent of the turkey is something of a mystery. It is usually said that what Brillat-Savarin described as the best gift of the New World to the Old was brought home from his travels by Cortez, who had feasted on turkey in the West Indies during the sixteenth century....In English, however, the word is turkey, which, to add to the confusion, was originally applied to the guinea-fowl. But why turkey anyway? One tradition is that the first turkey to find its way into a British stomach was eaten in Cadiz by merchants on their way home from a business trip to Turkey. They encountered it at the house of a friend who knew the explorers of the West Indies: ...The merchants' host gave them some live birds which they brought back to England. This may or may not be true, but then why Turkey rather than Spain? And anyway, were the merchants of the time to be believed?"
---History of Food, Maguelonne Toussaint-Samat [Barnes & Noble:New York] 1992 (p. 341-343)

"The guinea-fowl was not unlike a miniaturized version of the turkey in looks and in its reluctance to fly, and it seems to have been assumed they belonged to the same family. But although some sources claim that in sixteenth-century England any reference to turkey really meant guinea-fowl, this is not the case. When Archbishop Cramner framed his sumptuary laws of 1541 he classed turkey-cocks with birds of the size of crane and swan, not--as he would have done with guinea-fowl--with capons and pheasants. At much the same time a certain Sir William Petre was keeping his table birds alive until wanted in a large cage in is Essex orchard, partridges, pheasants, guinea-hens, turkey hens and such like. "
---Food in History, Reay Tannahill [Three Rivers Press:New York] 1988 (p. 210-211)

"It is not known who first brought the turkey back to Europe...but by the first quarter of the sixteenth century Spanish explorers had brought the bird home. On English chronicler of the seventeenth century noted that turkeys were brought to England about 1524, giving rise to the ditty, "Turkeys, Carpes, Hoppes, Piccarell, and Beer, Came to England in one year." By 1570 Englishman Thomas Trusser could vouch that the domesticated turkey already formed part of the common farmer's "Christmas husbandlie fare," and across the channel the bird was highly esteemed."
---The Encyclopedia of American Food and Drink, John F. Mariani [Lebhar-Friedman:New York] 1999 (p. 334)

Did you know Benjamin Franklin proposed the turkey for our national Symbol? He thought the eagle too violent. Notes from the Franklin Institute here.

Wild Turkey, Andrew F. Smith

American Turkey and Thanksgiving, Alice Ross Journal of Antiques

Related food? Mole poblano

Why do we pair cranberries with turkey?

ABOUT DRESSING & STUFFING
Food historians tell us the practice of dressing (or stuffing) the cavities of fowl and other animals with mixtures of breads, spices and other chopped items is ancient. The Romans and the Arabs both employed such techniques. The terms "dressing" and "stuffing, " as they relate to cookery, are derived from Medieval European culinary practices:

In English, the use of the term "stuff" in cookery emerged from a mass of generalized meanings to do with victuals (perserved in the expression foodstuff') and non-edible possessions, to become, sometime in the 16th century, attached to mixtures for filling pies. It developed, a little later, into the idea of stuffing the cavity left by the removal of a bone before meat is cooked. The French word farce...also carries other meanings, including that of padding out. It is recorded in English from the late 14th century onwards and eventually gave English the term forcemeat, applied to fine-textured, elaborate mixtures used especially with meat and fish."
---Oxford Companion to Food, Alan Davidson [Oxford University Press:Oxford] 1999 (p. 759)

The Oxford English Dictionary traces the first printed mention of the word "dressing" as it relates to food to 1504:

"Dressing.
4. concretely. That which is used in the preceding actions and processes; that with which any thing or person is dressed for use or ornament.
a. Cookery. The seasoning substance used in cooking; stuffing; the sauce, etc., used in preparing a dish, a salad, etc...
a. 1504. Nottingham Rec. III. 319. For floure and peper, and dressing.""

[1792]
"Turkey.
Truss your turkey as directed for roasting; make a stuffing as follows: take the crumb of a halfpenny roll, rub it through a cullender, a quarter of a pound of beef-suet chopped fine, some sweet herbs, parsley, and lemon-peel shred fine, grate in a little nutmeg, season it with pepper and salt, mix it up with a egg, and put it in the breast of the turkey, put the skin over and fasten it to the back with a skewer; spit it, singe it, and tie paper over the breast, put it before a moderate fire, and baste it well all the time it is roasting; when it is done take off the paper, baste it with butter, sprinkle a little salt on it, and dredge it with flour then take it up, put it on a hot dish, with good gravy, or brown celery sauce under it; garnish with lemon and beetroot, with onion and bread sauce in boats. A middling-sized turkey will take one hour and a quarter, bigger or less in proportion. N.B. You may stuff the breast with sausage-meat, or veal force-meat, as you like it best."
---New Art of Cookery According to Present Practice, Richard Briggs [W. Spotwswood, R. Campbell, and B. Johnson:Philadelpha] 1792 (p. 137)

"Turkey with chestnuts.
Truss your turkey for roasting, take half a hundred of chestnuts, boil them till they are tender, peel them, chop half a dozen very fine, and put in the stuffing as above; take the marrow out of two beef marrow-bones, cut it into pieces, and stuff the belly of the turkey with the marrow and chestnuts; spit it, and tie the vent close to the spit with a string, singe and paper the breast, put it down to a good fire, and baste it well all the time it is roasting; then take off the paper, baste it with butter, sprinkle a little salt on it, and dredge it with flour, to make the froth rise; take it up, and put it into a hot dish; have ready a dozen of the chestnuts split into two, stew them in half a pint of brown gravy, a gill of white wine, two shallots chopped fine, thicken it with a little butter rolled in flour, boil it smooth, pour it in the dish; and garnish with lemon and beet-root, with bread sauce and gravy in boats. N.B. It will take a quarter of an hour longer roasting than without the marrow and chestnuts."
---ibid (p. 137-8)

[1796]
To Stuff a Turkey/American Cookery, Amelia Simmons

[1803]
To Roast Turkey/Frugal Housewife, Susannah Carter

ABOUT OYSTER STUFFING
While Native Americans may have combined oysters with grains and herbs we do not find evidence they used this combination to stuff fowl. "Classic American" oyster stuffing appears to have been a gift from our European forefathers. Culinary evidence suggests the French originated oyster dressings in conjuction with modern cuisine [17th century]. This practice was adopted by the English and neighboring countries. About oysters.

"As in the case of fungi, the sixteenth-century French cookbooks show no great interest in oysters, again revealing a cultural split between what the humanists were reporting and what the cookbooks specify. The great oyster vogue began in France in the seventeenth century. Now a legion of oysters troop through the cookery works in sauces, ragouts, and stuffings. Oysters are even larded into roasts. The use of oysters reaches its zenith in eighteenth-century England, there they become one of the most important tastes in fashionable food."
---Acquired Taste: The French Origins of Modern Cooking, T. Sarah Peterson [Cornell University Press:Ithaca] 1994(p. 86,88)

American cookbooks confirm oyster suffing recipes were published throughout the eastern seaboard during the 18th and 19th centuries. The oldest of these were printed in the southern colonies. Early 19th century New England cookbooks did not suggest using oysters in fowl dressings. By the middle of the 19th century oyster dressings were ubiquitious. Today, oyster stuffing is generally associated with southern/cajun cuisine. Presumably there is a connection between this and the French immigration patterns. There is little doubt that Cajun/Creole Louisana cooks love their oysters!

A SURVEY OF HISTORIC OYSTER STUFFING RECIPES
[NOTES: (1) Check the variety of poultry cooking methods (boiling, roasting) preparation methods (ingredients, combinations) and serving suggestions (inside or out). (2) 17th and 18th century cookbooks also suggest oyster stuffing for mutton, veal, and fish.

[1651:Paris]
"58. Capon with Oysters.
After your Capon is dressed, and barded with lard, and with butter'd paper over it, rost it, and as it rosteth, put under it a dripping pan. After you have well cleansed your Oysters, you shall whiten them, if they are old. When they are well cleansed and whitened, pass them in the pan with what is fallen form your Capon, and season them with mushrums, onion stuck, and a bundle of herbs. After they are well fried, you shall take out the bundle of herbs, and the rest you shall put it in the body of the Capon, which you shall shove with a few capers, then serve."
---The French Cook, Francois Pierre, La Varenne, Englished by I.D.G. 1653, Introduced by Philip and Mary Hyman [Southover Press:East Sussex] 2001 (p. 56)

[1683:Netherlands]
"To stuff a Capon or Hen with Oysters and to roast [them].
Take a good Capon cleaned on the inside then Oysters and some finely crushed Rusk, Pepper, Mace, Nutmeg-powder and a thin little slice or three fresh Lemons, mix together, fill [the bird] with this. When it is oaosted one uses for a sauce nothing but the fat from the pan. It is found to be good [that way]."
---The Sensible Cook, translated and edited by Peter G. Rose [Syracuse University Press:Syracuse NY] 1989 (p. 58)
[NOTE: The recipes in this book were also used in New Netherlands, later renamed New York.]

[1685:London]
"To boil the aforesaid Fowls otherways, with Muscles, Oysters, or Cockles; or fried Wickles in Butter, and after stewed with Butter, white Wine, Nutmeg, a slic't Orange, and gravy. Either boil the Fowl or roast them, boil them by themselves in water and alat, scum them clean, and put to them mace, sweet hergs, and onions chopped together, some white-wine, pepper, and sugar, if you please, and a few cloves stuck in the fowls, some grated or strained bread with some of the broth, and give it a warm; dish up the fowls on fine sippets, or French bread, and carve the breast, broth it, and pour on your shell-fish runt it over with beaten butter, and slic't lemon or orange."
---The Accomplisht Cook, Robert May, facsimile 1685 editon [Prospect Books:Devon] 2000 (p. 90)

[1769:London]
"To stew a Turkey brown.
When you have drawn the craw out of your turkey, cut it up the back and take out the entrails that the turkey may appear whole, and take all the bones out of the body very carefully. The rump, legs and wings are to be left whole. Then take the crumb of a penny loaf, and chop half a hundred of oysters very small with half a pound of beef marrow, a little lemon peel cut fine, and pepper and salt. Mix them well up together with the yolks of four eggs, and stuff your turkey with it, sew it up and lard it down each side with bacon. Half roast it, then put it into a tossing pan with two quarts of veal gravy, and cover it close up. When it has stewed on hour, add a spoonful of mushroom catchup, half an anchovy, a slice or two of lemon, a little Chyan pepper and a bunch of sweet herbs. Cover them colse up atain and stew it half an hour longer. Then take it up and skim the fat off the gravy and strain it, thicken it with flour and butter. Let it boil a few minutes, and pour it hot upon your turkey. Lay round it oyster patties and serve it up."
---The Experience English Housekeeper, Elizabeth Raffald, with an introduction by Roy Shipperbottom [Southover Press:East Sussex] 1997 (p. 62)

[1796:Albany]
NOTE: Amelia Simmon's American Cookery contains two recipes for stuffed turkey/fowl. Neither of these employs oysters.

[1824:Virginia]
"To Boil a Turkey With Oyster Sauce.
Grate a loaf of bread, chop a score or more of oysters fine, add nutmeg pepper and salt to your taste, mix it up into a light forcemeat to your taste, mix it up into a light forecemat with a quarter of a pound of butter, a spoonful or two of cream, and three eggs; stuff the craw with it, and make the rest into balls and boil them; sew up the turkey, dredge it well with flour, put it in a kettle of cold water, cover it, and set it over the fire; as the scum begins to rise, take it off, let it boil very slowly for half an hour, then take off your kettle and keep it close covered; if it be of a middle size, let it stand in the hot water half an hour, the steam being kept in will stew it enough, make it rise, keep the skin whole, tender, and very white; when you dish it, pour on a little oyster sauce, lay the balls round, and serve it up with the rest of the sauce in a boat."
---The Virginia House-wife, Mary Randolph, with historical Notes and Commentaries by Karen Hess [University of South Carolina Press:Columbia] 1984 (p. 81)

[1884:Boston]
"Roast Turkey.
Clean as directed...Stuff with soft bread or cracker crumbs highly seasoned with sage, thyme, salt, and pepper; mositen the stuffing with half a cup of melted butter, and hot water enought to make it quite moist. Add one beaten egg. Some use salt pork chipped fine, but stuffing is more wholesome without it. Oysters, chestnuts, chopped celelry, stoned raisins, or dates mae a pleasing variety."
---Boston Cooking School Cook Book, Mrs. D.A. Lincoln, facsimle 1884 reprint [Dover Publications:Mineola NY] 1996 (p. 256)

[1885:New Orleans]
"Oyster Stuffing for Turkey.
Take three or four dozen nice plump oysters, wash and beard them, add to them a tumblerful of bread crumbs; chop up a tumblerful of nice beef suet; mix together, and moisten with three eggs; season with salt, pepper, a little butter, a teaspoonful of mace, and some cayenne pepper. Roll force-meat into cakes, and fry them. They are pretty laid around a turkey or chicken."
---La Cuisine Creole: A Collection of Culinary Recipes, second edition [F.F. Hansell & Bro.:New Orleans] 1885 (p. 27)

[1901:New Orleans]
"The Creoles claim that oysters, eggs, chestnuts or truffles are the only elegant dressings for poultry or game, and oysters or egg stuffing for fish...Oyster Stuffing for Poultry (Farci d'Huitres) All depends upon the size of the fowl. For the ordinary-sized fifteen or sixteen-pound turkey, take
3 Dozen Oysters
1 Quart of Stale Bread, Wet and Squeezed
1 Tablespoon of Butter
1 Tablespoon of Parsley
1 Sprig of Thyme
1 Bay Leaf. 3 Tablespoons of Sage
Salt and Pepper to Taste.
Drain the oysters; wet the stale bread with hot water, squeezing thoroughly. Chop fine the liver and gizzard of the fowl, and put a tablespoonful of lard into the frying pan. Mix in the chopped onions and add the chopped liver and gizzard. As it begins to brown, throw in the chopped herbs, and then add the bread which has been mixed well and seasoned with the chopped sage. Mix well. Add to this one tablespoonful of butter and stir, blending all thoroughly. Now add the pint or so of oyster water, and as it is reduced mix in the oysters. Stir for three or four minutes and take off and dress the fowl. This dressing is highly recommended."
---The Picauyne's Creole Cook Book, second edition, facsimile 1901 reprint [Dover Publications:New York] 1971(p. 155-6)
[NOTE: This book contains a separate recipes for "Oyster Dressing."]

Food historians generally agree the practice of dredging meat (all kinds) in flour/spices, frying/baking it up and serving it with a sauce/gravy dates back to ancient times. This cooking method tenderizes the meat and enhances its flavor. When the Roman legions marched through the Alps around 100BC they left their culinary mark. Culinary evidence suggests schnitzel-type foods (typically veal-based) were served during the Medieval and Renaissance periods in many parts of central Europe, most notably Northern Italy (Milan) and the region that is now known as Austria. Schnitzel can be made with other white' meats, most notably chicken and pork.

There are many variations on the schnitzel theme. Viennese Cooking by O. and A. Hess [Crown Publishers:New York] 1952 lists these: Pariser Schnitzel (Parisian style), Naturschnitzel (plain veal cutlets), Holsteiner Schnitzel (topped with fried egg), Sardellenschnitzel (with anchovies), Kalbsscnhitzel auf italienische Art (Italian style), Florentiner Kalbsschnitzel (with tomatoes and risotto), Paprikaschnitezel (with paprika sauce), Wiener Schnitzel (Vienna style).

What is schnitzel?
"Schnitzel. Etymologically, schnitzel is a diminutive form of a now obsolete German noun sniz, slice', which is related to modern German schneiden, cut'. German for escalope', especially of veal, it made its debut in English in the middle of the nineteenth century. Its appearance on English menus is virtually restricted to Wiener schnitzel, Viennese escalope', and Austrian dish in which the thin boneless cutlet of veal is coated with egg and breadcrumbs and shallow-fried."
---An A-Z of Food & Drink, John Ayto [Oxford University Press:Oxford] 2003 (p. 304)

About Wiener Schnitzel:
"Wiener Schnitzel and its Italian counterpart, Cotoletta Milanese, involved two Hapsburg domains in a culinary quarrel. Both branches of the family, Austrian and Italian, claimed credit for the invention of the dish, the latter branch tracing their claim all the way back to a banquet given in 1134 for the canon of Milan's St. Ambrogio Cathedral."
---Horizon Cookbook and Illustrated History of Eating and Drinking Through the Ages, William Harlan Hale [American Heritage:New York] 1968 (p. 516)

"Costeletta alla milanes, one of the most famous dishes of Milan, is a breaded flattened veal rib chop with the bone, fried in butter and served with lemon, which actually antedated the Austrian Wiener Schnitzel it is sometimes said to be copied from."
---Dictionary of Italian Food and Drink, John Mariani [Broadway Books:New York] 1998 (p. 83)

"...it's the Wiener Schnitzel that is Vienna's most favorite meat dish outside of Austria. A Schnitzel is traditionally a veal scallop, but not all Schnitzel are made of veal. Some economical Viennese housewives use a thin, well-flattened slice of beef to make a Weiner Schnitzel, and some cooks, often Czechs, use pork. Many Viennese cooks claim that the Schnitzel would burn in hot butter, and so today, for the most part, the Viennese fry their Wiener Schnitzel in lard, or sometimes a mixture of lard and butter. Some people even claim that the lard gives it the charactaristic taste...Experienced 'schnitzlers' plan well ahead. First they prepare the potato salad or green salad that goes with it, and the roasted or mashed potatoes. They make their own toasted bread crumbs rather than buying them ready-made..."
---Cooking of Vienna's Empire, Joseph Wechsberg, Time-Life Books [Time Life:New York] 1968 (p. 47)
[NOTE: This book offers a wealth of information on the history of Austrian cuisine. Your librarian can help you find a copy of it.]

About veal:
"A name derived from the Latin vitellus, a calf, via Norman French, means the flesh of calves, young cattle of the species Bos taurus. National and regional variations in its consumption are strongly marked. In Europe it is important in the cookery of the Netherlands, France, Italy, Germany, and...Spain...How much distinction had been made between the flesh of calves and that of mature cattle in the remote past is unclear. By classical Roman times, however, veal was being prescribed in some recipes. Later, in the Middle Ages, there are enough references to veal in France and England to show that it was known and appreciated... Perhaps partly because veal recipes owe so much to Italian cookery, there is considerable consensus amongst cooks from different countries about appropriate flavours and accompaniments...Costoletta alla milanese, a well-known Milanese dish, is a veal chop (or cutlet on the bone), dipped in egg and breadcrumbs, fried gently in butter and served with lemon wedges. This bears a resemblance to but is not the same thing as Wiener Schnitzel which is so popular on the other side of the Alps, in Austria and Germany."
---Oxford Companion to Food, Alan Davidson [Oxford University Press:Oxford] 1999 (p. 822-3)

Holstein Schnitzel
There are many different types of weiner schnitzel recipes. Classic weiner schnitzel is served with a wedge of fresh lemon. The schnitzel served with fried egg on top is called Weiner Schnitzel a la Holstein (aka Holstein Schnitzel, Veal Holstein). This dish also [may] include anchovies and capers. Why is it served this way? Excellent question. Our food history sources are rather vague on the subject. We know who this dish is purportedly named for and, but can't make the connection between him and eggs. Generally, it's summed up this way:

"Schnitzel a la Holstein..is one of the more elaborate cutlet dishes. Named for Baron Friedrich von Holstein (1837-1909), a famous diplomat who liked to have lots of different foods on his plate, it has the same preparation as Wiener schnitzel, but is topped with a fried egg, anchovy fillets and capers. Sometimes the cutlet also is surrounded by tiny heaps of such delicacies as smoked salmon, caviar, truffles, crawfish tails and mushrooms."
---"Plate Teutonics; Hofstetter's Wiener schnitzel is a cut from history," THE DALLAS MORNING NEWS, January 23, 1994, FOOD; Pg. 21

Schnitzel dishes traveled to America where they adapted to local tastes. Think chicken-fried steak.

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Research conducted by Lynne Olver, editor The Food Timeline. About this site.