18th-century bills of fare for December and January
If you think that you have been overindulging during the festive season, it may cheer you to read these menu plans for three-course meals. They are taken from the 1791 edition of Hannah Glasse’s The Art of Cookery, Made Plain and Easy.
Here is ‘The Order of a Modern Bill of Fare’ for December.
First course –
Cod’s head; chickens; stewed beef; fricandau of veal (slice cut from the leg); almond puddings; Soup Santea (ham, beef, onions, carrots, turnips, celery, sweet herbs, cloves, mace, leeks, ‘cabbage-lettuce’, sorrel, chervil, and ‘a crust of French roll’); calves’ feet pie; fillet of pork with sharp sauce (based on wine vinegar and sugar); chine of lamb; tongue; fried and boiled sole.
Recipe for Soup Santea or Gravy Soup from The Art of Cookery, Made Plain and Easy (1791) p.148
Second course –
Wild fowl; lambs’ fry (liver); orange puffs; sturgeon; galantine (boned, stuffed meat); jellies; savoury cake; prawns; tartlets; mushrooms; partridges.
Third course –
‘Ragooed palates’ (ragout of tongue?); Savoy cakes; Dutch beef scraped; China oranges; lambs’ tails; half moon; calves’ burs; Jargonel pears (a variety that ripens early); potted larks; lemon biscuits; fricassee of crawfish.
We’re stumped by ‘half moon’ and ‘calves’ burs’ – any ideas out there?
The suggested menu for January is just as lavish.
First course –
Chestnut soup; leg of lamb; petit patties; boiled chickens; chicken and veal pie; cod’s head; roast beef; tongue; raisolds (rissoles); Scotch collops (slices of meat cooked with onions, salt, pepper and suet); vermicelli soup.
There should also be a side table with dishes of ‘Garden Stuff suitable to your Meat’ placed on a water dish filled with hot water. Sauces in boats or basins are to be placed at the corners.
Second course:
Roast turkey; marinated smelts (fish); tartlets; mince pies; roast sweetbreads; stands of jellies; larks; almond ‘tort’; maids of honour; lobsters; woodcocks.
Third course –
Morels (mushrooms); artichoke bottoms; Dutch beef scraped; macaroni; custards; cut pastry; black caps (baked apples); scalloped oysters; potted chars (fish); stewed celery; rabbit fricassee.
Anyone for baked beans on toast?
Margaret Makepeace
Lead Curator, East India Company Records
Further reading;
Hannah Glasse, The Art of Cookery, Made Plain and Easy (1791)