Day-by-Day Menus from Filippini, “formerly of Delmonico’s”

Awhile back, I posted on a Thanksgiving Day menu from Alexander Fillipini, author of The International Cookbook. While Charles Ranhofer usually gets top billing as Delmonico’s chef, Fillipini headed the kitchens there for many years.

The International Cookbook (1906) title page reads as follows:

The International Cook Book

Over 3,300 Recipes gathered from all over the
World, including many never before
published in English. With com-
plete menus of the three meals
for every day of in the year


By
ALEXANDER FILIPPINI
Formerly of Delmonico’s, and Travelling Inspector of the International
Mercantile Marine Company. Author of “The Table”


New York
Doubleday, Page, & Company
1906

(Here is the scanned online title page.)

I really like the concept of traveling back more than a century to dine-if only in a virtual sense-on the menu Filippini came up with for this season. Today being June 13, 2010, I submit to you Filippini’s suggested menus for Saturday and Sunday, Third Week of June.

Saturday, Third Week of June
BREAKFAST

Strawberries and Cream
Quaker Oats
Eggs, Schiff
Perch Saute, Meuniere
Broiled Pigs’ Feet
Garfield Potatoes
Honey Cakes

The strawberries are stemmed, washed and sieved to dry, then paired with “thick cream and powdered sugar, served separately.”

Eggs Schiff begin with sliced fresh mushrooms sautéed in butter in a cream sauce studded with chopped truffle and anchovies. Hard boiled eggs are added to this sauce and the dish is crusted with parmesan and baked briefly in a hot oven.

Garfield Potatoes are fried, thinly sliced new potatoes.

Perch Saute, Meuniere is white perch filet, dredged in flour, salt and pepper, and fried in butter, served with lemon and parsley.

The broiled pigs’ feet recipe calls for “cooked”, split pigs’ feet, oiled and rolled in fresh bread crumbs, then broiled for five minutes. The pigs’ feet are to be served with maitre d’hotel butter, ( an herbed butter).

Honey Cakes are pancakes made with sweet milk, honey, powdered sugar and nutmeg.

LUNCHEON

Stuffed Devilled Crabs
Goulash of Beef, Hungarian Style
Noodles with Butter
German Pancakes

Stuffed Devilled Crabs are also referred to as “Stuffed Crabs Diable.” The recipe calls for making a cream sauce seasoned with chopped onion and garlic, parsley, butter, English mustard, Worchestershire sauce, cayenne, and nutmeg, and adding raw egg yolks, and crab meat. The crab meat mixture fills crab shells and is baked with a topping of bread crumbs and melted butter and served with parsley and quartered lemons.

Goulash of Beef, Hungarian Style (or Hongroise) is made from cubed rump of beef browned in lard, carrots, onions, potatoes, salt, paprika, garlic and parsley stewed in claret and tomato sauce with the addition of a spice bag made of allspice, bay leaf, cloves and thyme.

Noodles with butter are just that, seasoned with salt and white pepper.

German Pancakes are made from and egg-heavy, flour-light batter, that is cooked on the stovetop, then in the oven, and served with powdered sugar and lemon.*

DINNER

Radishes
Thon Marine
Consomme with Spagettini
Baked Weakfish with Bacon
Potatoes, Anglaise
Fowl with Rice, Menagere
Spinach, Martha
Leg of Spring Lamb, Mint Sauce
Watercress Salad
Ginger Pudding

Thon Marine is simply canned “tunny fish” sliced and served on lettuce leaves with lemon slices.

Consomme with Spagettini is topped with grated Parmesan.

Baked Weakfish with Bacon is cooked in two stages: it is first basted with butter, sprinkled with paprika and salt, and half –baked. Next the fish is draped with slices of bacon and topped with bread crumbs and finished in the oven. Lemon and parsley accompany the fish.

Fowl with Rice Menagere involves making a stuffing of chopped liver, heart and onion, cooked with bread crumbs, beef marrow, chervil, egg, milk, salt and pepper. The stuffed and trussed fowl is then added to a pan in which chopped celery, leek and onion have been browned. Carolina rice is specified as the next addition to the dish, which is covered and baked an hour.

Spinach Martha is a sort of creamed spinach made with vinegar-sprinkled croutons, hardboiled eggs, butter salt, sugar, nutmeg and cream.

The leg of lamb is basted with lard and roasted, garnished with watercress, and served with a sauce of mint in vinegar with sugar and salt.

Watercress salad is dressed with a dressing that includes curry powder and herbs.

Ginger Pudding is made with breadcrumbs and grated ginger as well as the expected ingredients (eggs, etc.) umolded, and served warm with a Sabayon sauce.

Sunday, Third Week of June

BREAKFAST

Raspberries with Cream
Semolina
Scrambled Eggs, Bretonne
Fried Whitebait
Lamb Chops with Bacon
Potatoes Pont Neuf
Rice Cakes

The raspberries with cream are presented with powdered sugar and cream, served separately.

Scrambled eggs Bretonne involve beaten eggs added to browned sausage, squares of bread and green peas.

Fried Whitebait are dipped in milk and tossed in cornmeal, then fried and served with lemon and parsley.

Lamb Chops with Bacon are simply broiled and served topped with crisp bacon.

Potatoes Pont Neuf are sliced fried potatoes.

Rice Cakes are flannel cakes made with rice flour in place of wheat flour.

LUNCHEON

Chicken Broth in Cups
Broiled Devilled Lobster
Coquilles of Chicken au Gratin
Eggplant Saute, Bordelaise
Souffle of Strawberries

Broiled Devilled Lobster involves halved broiled lobsters topped with a mixtures of chopped broiled lobster and devilled butter and broiled again. (Devilled butter is seasoned with mustard, vinegar, salt, pepper, Worchestershire sauce, cayenns, and egg yolk.)

Coquilles of chicken au gratin is a preparation of cubed, boiled chicken in a flour-thickend sauce of white broth , canned mushrooms, and sliced truffle thickened with cream and egg yolk and seasoned with sherry, salt, cayenne, and nutmeg. The mixture is gratineed with Parmesan and butter in “table shells” ( a bit of batterie de cuisine I know nothing of—could it be the same shells used for Coquilles St. Jacques? Filippini’s reciped for scallops au gratin calls for a “baking dish” - alas!)

Bordelaise-style Eggplant involves cubed eggplant sautéed in butter, seasoned with salt, pepper, shallot, garlic, and parsely, then cooked in claret and demiglace.

Souffle of strawberries is a soufflé made with strawberry jelly and maraschino.

DINNER

Clams
Celery
Canapes of Anchovies
Cream of Fresh Mushrooms
Salmon, Valois
Potatoes, Lisbonne
Filet Mignons, Saute, Hussarde
Sweetbreads, Senora Diaz
Fresh Peas with Butter
Punch a l’Anisette
Roast Chicken
Lettuce Salad
Iced Pudding, Fontainebleau

Canapes of anchovies are toasted one and one-half inch squares of stale bread, topped with two anchovies each, sieved hard-cooked egg and parsley.

Littleneck clams are opened just before serving and presented in deep plates filled with shaved ice.

Celery stalks are cut lengthwise into four pieces and served in a glass dish with ice.

The mushroom soup involves sautéed mushrooms crushed in a mortar, then thickened with flour. To this, broth and milk are added, as well as onion, parsley, chervil, salt, cayenne and nutmeg. This mixture is enriched with cream and egg yolks, then strained and served.

Salmon Valois are filets poached in butter, white wine, and demi-glace under buttered paper, then baked. Fried oysters and fried parsley top the salmon filets.

Potatoes Lisbonne are new potatoes in a tomato sauce flavored with onion, thyme, clove, and broth.

Filets Mignons Hussarde are flattened and dipped in oil and bread crumbs, then broiled and served "in a crown shape" over a browned horseradish sauce, garnished with glazed white onions and sweet corn in the center of the crown.

Senora Diaz’s sweetbreads are larded with “raw ham” then poached in a curry/cayenne-seasoned broth in a pan in which an onion, a leek and celery have been cooked. The sweetbreads are placed in tart shells, topped with sautéed sweet peppers. A flour- thickened cream gravy is made in the pan in which the sweetbreads were cooked, and almonds are added to the gravy, which tops the sweetbread tarts.

Punch a l’Anisette is a lemon ice flavored with anisette.

Iced Pudding Fontainebleau is a bombe of coffee ice cream, sieved and chopped candied marrons, candied pineapple, and rum. The bombe is molded in a dome-shape and decorated with strawberries before serving.

After going through this exercise, I'm glad I did it. However, I found an easier way to share the daily menus with you, at this website. (Recipes are given in full underneath the suggested daily menu, which saves flipping back and forth through the online book):

http://chestofbooks.com/food/recipes/International/index.html

Thanks for sharing, Josephine. Wow. I'm full just reading these menus.