1920's Menu for a party

[tino27]

I'm catering a friend's cast party in November and the play he is in (Hay Fever) was set in the mid 1920's in England. We talked about possibly presenting some dishes at his cast party that would've been popular at that time.

I've been Googling around the Internet this morning and haven't had much luck finding anything. Any of you eGulleters on either side of the pond have any interesting info or links you can send my way?

Thanks!

[bigkoiguy]

At the turn of the last century, one of the food magazines (Gourmet? maybe?) did an issue recounting food from the last 100 years and they had a section discussin the 1920s. I don't remember much in the article...

For some reason, Oysters Rockefeller seems like it was created in the 20s.

[srhcb]

A 1920's style table setting would enhance the dinner. I'll bet This Item, which was common in the 20's, would impress your guests!

[MissMeglet]

how about this...

Canape of Anchovies

Cream of Celery with Toasties

Celery Olives

Aiguillette of Striped Bass Joinville

Potatoes a la Hollandaise

Medaillon of Spring Lamb, Chasseur

Asparagus Tips au Gratin

***

Breast of Chicken a la Rose

Waldorf Salad, Mayonnaise

***

Venetian Ice Cream

Assorted Cakes Coffee

Apollinaris White Rock."

....from the Waldorf Astoria Cookbook, James and Cole.

http://www.foodtimeline.org/fooddecades.html#1920s

God knows what any of it means though

Edited September 26, 2006 by MissMeglet (log)

[Nina C.]

You might find this link helpful: http://www.foodtimeline.org/fooddecades.html#1920s

Oysters Rockefeller was created in the 1890s but certainly opulent foods were popular before the stock market crash.

It is my impression that this was the decade that caused the popularity of the cocktail - you needed juices and other mixers to cover up the harshness of bathtub gin.

BLTs, triple-decker clubs, grilled cheese and other sandwiches were invented in the 20s

[srhcb]

Ceasar Salad!

[tino27]

Can I expect that upper society eating habits would be the same whether in New York or London? I've found a ton of information on American eating habits (thanks to that foodtimeline.org link), but nothing specifically British. I may have to settle for whatever was popular in the 20's, regardless of where it came from.

Thanks for all of your responses ... they've been very helpful so far.

[gus_tatory]

Also, do books that are set in the 20s, such as The Great Gatsby, make mention of food? just an idea... good luck!

edit to add: several ideas...?

Edited September 26, 2006 by gus_tatory (log)

[rooftop1000]

how about

"where British cuisine went wrong"

http://forums.egullet.org/index.php?showtopic=9307

tracey

[The Old Foodie]

Hello - I have a database of about 5000 menus from the 14thC onwards. I just did a quick check and there are over 400 for the 1920's. Quite a number are for events with royalty, or presidents etc.

I also have quite a few books that give a recommended menu-a-day (with recipes for the dishes), and I have one each from America and England for the 1920's.

I also have a number of 1920's cookbooks.

If you can give me some idea of the type of meal you want (formal, informal, buffet etc), I can send you a specific menu. I might even have one for the exact day on the calendar.

You can PM me if you want to talk in more detail.

[Carolyn Tillie]

I've pulled out a couple of books from my shelves... Seven Centuries of English Cooking by Maxime de la Falaise, British Gastronomy by Gregory Houston Bowden, and British Food by Colin Spencer.

This was the post-Edwardian (i.e. opulent) era and recovering from WWI, the British middle class suffered a bit while the wealthy ate well "in the French style." The Savoy hotel was still the place to eat and included dishes like omelettes, filet of sole au vin blanc, escalopes de veau a la creme, sauce Sabayon, and crepes flambees.

Soups

Curried Apricot and Fresh Mint Soup

Chestnut and Apple Soup

Fish

Salmon Mousse with Cucumber

Lobster Merville

Kedgeree

Oyster Puffs

Poultry & Game

Chicken with Oysters

Curried Pheasant

Roasted Grouse

Quails in Pastry (think Babette's Feast

Meat

Braised Veal

Kidneys, Chives & Bacon

Leg of Lamb

Vegetables

Iced Artichoke Bottoms w/Cream & Tomatoes

Rice Salad

Ice Vegetable Creams (remember, refrigerating was a new and exciting technique!)

Tomato Ice

Desserts

Apple Charlotte

Brown Betty

Rhubarb Flummery

Atholl Brose

Hope that helps!

Edited September 26, 2006 by Carolyn Tillie (log)

[Tim Hayward]

Nicola Humble's Culinary Pleasures has a load of stuff on cookbooks of the period and you should easily get a working menu out of it.

It might also be amusing to try to replicate one of Anatole's (Aunt Dahlia's Chef) menus from the Jeeves and Wooster books.

Bizarrely, I've only been able to track it down on an Italian website (perhaps someone here could help out with translation....

Sherry

Welsh Rarebit

Filetti di Sogliola alla Princesse

Asparagi con Maionese

Anatroccoli agli aromi

Patatine arrosto

Torta di ribes con crema

Amaretto di Saronno per lei

Goccetto di Porto "a seguire" per lui

To be accurate, the Welsh Rabbit (Dammit, Dear Boy!) should come at the end.

I've got a few cookbooks of the period but unfortunately the lot is sealed in plastic while the room's being redecorated so I won't be able to get at them for a week or so. If time isn't too pressing I'll see what else I can find.

Edited September 26, 2006 by Tim Hayward (log)

[The Old Foodie]

Hello again - a follow-on from my post a few minutes ago - I just did a quick check, and there is one menu specifically from a theatrical event.

Supper menu from a show called “The Midnight Follies”, at the Hotel Metropole in London on April 29th, 1927.

Consomme au Marsala

Compote de Madrilène en Gelée

--

Oeufs poché Daumont

Oeuf à la Gelée d’Estragon

Oeuf sur la plat au Bacon

--

Filet de Sole Joinville

Homard froid Sauce Mayonnaise

Haddock poché Métropole

--

Poussin en Cocotte Ménagère

Caille de Vigne aux Raisins

Cuisse de Poulet grille Américaine

Rognons d’Agneau Vert Pré

Jambon Langue Roast Beef

--

Salade de Volaille

Coeur de Laitues Fines Herbes

Sandwiches Variés

--

Biscuit Glacé Cote d’Azur

Coupe Cressane Friandises

--

Welsh Rarebit Canapé Rabelais

Toast au Anchois

It sounds like great fun. I hope you all dress in 1920's clothes too!

[and the Welsh Rarebit is in its proper menu position here!]

Edited September 26, 2006 by The Old Foodie (log)

[Nina C.]

This is why I love eGullet! Tons of ideas, including a member with a database of 5000 menus. Good luck - you're sure to have fun with the party. Do let us know what you decide to make.

[tino27]

Wow! You all rock!

The date and time for the cast party hasn't been set yet, so I can't offer any specifics on whether it would be brunch, or an appetizer party, etc. However, you guys have really given me some great ideas to build on.

Old Foodie ... once I get the specifics of the event, I may just take you up on that offer of some sample menus.

Thanks, again, and feel free to keep the suggestions coming if you have them.

I'll post the menu once I get a better idea of the type of party it is going to be.

[PoppySeedBagel]

Arabella Boxer published a book about 14 years ago on inter-war food as eaten in the big country houses. It won a Glenfiddich award in 1992 -and is jolly good. The food is often simpler than the grand menus mentioned above - it's Arabella Boxer's Book of English Food

Edited September 27, 2006 by PoppySeedBagel (log)

[jayrayner]

I agree with the ever correct poppyseedbagel. Hay Fever is set around a country house party. Therefore you can be a rather less intricate: think kedgeree, devilled kidneys and boiled ham with parsley sauce and you won't go far wrong.

If you want to be a little exotic go for peach melba, invented by escoffier for dame nellie well before the 20s but still very popular then.

And to the contributors in the US, no, British food in the 20s was not the same as that in North America.

Edited September 27, 2006 by jayrayner (log)

[The Old Foodie]

I absolutely agree with the comments about Arabella Boxer's book - it is full of wonderful anecdotes about life in the grand houses of England between the wars.

The other gem is "The Gentle Art of Cookery" by Mrs C. F Leyela and Miss Olga Hartley (authors' marital status doesn't make the cover these days!). It was first published in 1925. There is a chapter on Sandwiches:

"There is as much art in making sandwiches as in preparing a French menu, and many hostesses who offer their friends indifferently cooked but pretentious lunches could, with far less trouble, gain an epicurean reputation if they were content with the simplicity of wine and sandwiches."

The ladies suggest "a glass of champagne, or some of the excellent white French wines which at present are cheaper than beer" as the correct accompaniment to sandwiches (and they give over 30 recipes for them).

English "supper dishes" ( I second the idea of kedgeree) and sandwiches (with the ladies' "Green Butter") would be an easy meal.

[oceanfish]

Fruitcake has certainly been around that long.

[Carolyn Tillie]

Fruitcake has certainly been around that long.

←

Somehow an image sprang to my head -- that Edward Gorey Christmas card of Victorian folks on ice skates, dumping fruitcakes into a hole in the ice... with thoughts that there is undoubtedly a fruitcake from the '20s sitting in someone's pantry!

Edited September 29, 2006 by Carolyn Tillie (log)

[The Old Foodie]

Fruitcake has certainly been around that long.

←

Somehow an image sprang to my head -- that Edward Gorey Christmas card of Victorian folks on ice skates, dumping fruitcakes into a hole in the ice... with thoughts that there is undoubtedly a fruitcake from the '20s sitting in someone's pantry!

←

I just had to look for a fruit cake recipe from the lovely ladies I mentioned in my earlier post - Mrs C.F.Leyel and Miss Olga Hartley, in their "The Gentle Art of Cookery". Fruit cake there, certainly, but fruit cake is fruit cake whenever and wherever you look. I got waylaid by this recipe instead, which would not at all be out of place on the dessert table today. I think I'll try it this weekend.

A Hazel Nut Cake.

A quarter of a pound of finely ground hazel nuts, three and a half ounces of sugar, three eggs, two tablespoonfuls of dry breadcrumbs, and a quarter of a teaspoonful of baking powder.

Beat the yolks of eggs and sugar for twenty minutes [i guess we could make that a lot shorter today with electric power rather than arm power], add the nuts, the breadcrumbs, the baking powder and the whites of the eggs, whipped to a stiff snow.

Fill a buttered cake tin with the mixture and bake for half an hour (or more) in a slow oven. When cold the cake can be iced over with coffee icing.

What do you think?

Edited to add what I really intended: the ladies' comments on cake

"One of the minor mysteries of food is the dignity conceded to the British cake with which we celebrate the most important joyful and poetical occasions of life. At weddings and christenings, birthdays, Christmas festivities and Easter holidays, the Cake, "black as the devil, heavy as sin, sweet as young love", covered with almond paste, and encrusted with devices of white sugar, is part of the fun. By its solid virtues it has acquired a romantic place as the centre of the hospitable rites of a romantic people".

So there you have it, the Brits are a romantic people.

Edited September 29, 2006 by The Old Foodie (log)