From Schnitzel to Salsa

The Culinary Institute of America's special collection of 30,000 menus.

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It’s Election Day- don’t forget to vote! As the bottom of this 1942 New York Central System beverage menu notes, the United States once completely banned the sale of alcohol on Election Days. In fact, Kentucky and South Carolina still do!

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November is National Fun with Fondue Month! This menu from La Chalet, the restaurant of the pavilion of Switzerland at the 1964-1965 New York World’s Fair, features two types of fondue: Fondue Suisse and Fondue Bourguignonne. 

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Happy National Taco Day! Once upon a time, the Culinary Institute of America’s Escoffier Room included a Taco de Cerdo y de Res, in addition to various other Latin American dishes, alongside its traditional French offerings. The Escoffier Room closed its doors in 2012, then re-opened in 2013 as the Bocuse Restaurant.

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October is National American Cheese Month! The pasteurized processed cheese food we know and love today was patented by James L. Kraft in 1916. After trying to package cheese in jars and cans, Kraft turned his cheese preservation ideas around and shredded cheddar cheese that was rejected by other manufacturers, re-pasteurized it, and mixed it with sodium phosphate. It is officially recognized by law as “a homogeneous plastic mass,” and it’s very popular in sandwiches. It can be seen on menus across the country, including this one from the Madison Food Shop.

Source

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On this day in 1725, Arthur Guinness, founder of the Guinness brewing company, was born in Ireland. His business was so successful that Guinness products are still enjoyed today all over the world. Here, we see two varieties of Guinness’s Stout being offered by the Princess Hotel in Hamilton, Bermuda, in 1927.

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September 27th is National Corned Beef Hash Day!

Check out this prohibition-era breakfast menu from Trenton, New Jersey’s Stacy-Trent Coffee Room. It may be lacking in Mimosas and Bloody Marys (in fact, the menu’s front cover features a warning against drinking alcohol on the premises, “In order to avoid embarrassing situations.”), but this menu features Corned Beef Hash alongside other breakfast favorites, such as broiled chicken liver and kippered herring. 

You can see the entire menu here.

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September 26th is Johnny Appleseed’s birthday! We’re celebrating his legacy with treats from the CIA’s Apple Pie Bakery Cafe. 

According to legend, John Chapman (or “Johnny Appleseed”) introduced and spread apple trees throughout the Ohio River Valley area in the early 1800s. The trees Chapman planted bore fruit that was small and tart, making it undesirable for eating but ideal for producing hard cider. Most of Chapman’s trees were destroyed during Prohibition to prevent illegal alcohol production. However, one of Johnny Appleseed’s trees still stands; it is located in Nova, Ohio, and it is 177 years old. 

Source: http://www.smithsonianmag.com/arts-culture/real-johnny-appleseed-brought-applesand-booze-american-frontier-180953263/?no-ist

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There is nothing more rewarding than watching our students be inspired by history.

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Cookbook readers today would be disconcerted to be offered a cure for deafness or ‘‘fumes in the head’’ alongside instructions for puff pastry. Yet recipes are all still remedies in some form or other — everyday enchantments for making life better. Cookbooks show us at our most defenseless because they expose things we believe we lack: meringues that don’t fall; soup that will fill us up without making us fat; dinners that cook in no time at all. They allow us to imagine ourselves as bountiful hosts or artisanal pastry makers. It isn’t all fantasy, though. Cookbooks also speak to, and soothe, something real: the hunger that started when we were babies, when food and security were one and the same.

Bee Wilson in “The Archive of Eating,” The New York Times Oct. 29, 2015

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Today we’re celebrating the female chefs of the CIA!

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We love First Thursdays and today is the best of the best--all of favorites are out of boxes and we are excited to share them with you!  Stop by the Archives today between 12:00 and 2:00 pm.

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January 23 is National Pie Day.

Looking for a new pie to try tomorrow? Here are recipes for walnut and custard pies from the Republican Congressional Cook Book, circa 1962.

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Is it too early in the morning to be thinking about a 42 cent cocktail?  Yes, in 1943 on the Burlington Route railroad, a Martini, Old Fashioned or Gin Rickey would have been 42 cents. I’ll take a pack of playing cards and box of aspirin, as well.

Happy Friday, Happy Weekend, Happy Snow Days to those near the coast!  None forecast for us, unfortunately :(

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Today feels like a Creamed Macaroni with Ham, au Gratin kind of day. Or Pot Roast and some split pea soup. Either way, we could use some comfort food here in the chilly northeast. How about you?

(Menu for January 20th, Castle Hot Springs Hotel, Arizona.  Working with menus, we do spend a lot of time daydreaming about food!)

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Princess Hotel, Hamilton, Bermuda, January 1, 1927

The call of two owls sitting on a tree branch against a full moon in a night sky brought in this new year at the Princess Hotel in Bermuda. The a la carte menu lists several dinner options, including filet of rockfish, boiled bacon and greens, chicken saute, roast prime ribs of beef, and stuffed Long Island duckling. It also notes which items are from Bermuda (the rockfish, bananas, potatoes, sugar beets, carrots, and spinach). An extensive wine list includes French champagnes, clarets, German wines, Sherries, Beers, Sundries, and more.

Shakespeare wrote,

Then nightly sings the staring owl                    Tu-whoo!     Tu-whit! tu-whoo! A merry note!

From the Culinary Institute of America Menu Collection, Smiley Family Menu Collection, menu 27-888.

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Happy New Year from the CIA Menu Collection!

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Hotel Governor Clinton, New York, N.Y., December 31, 1932

This New Year's Eve menu from the 1930s has great style.  During the struggles of the Great Depression, people still celebrated . . .  and dined out!  According to The New York Times, restaurants and hotels, including the Governor Clinton across from Penn Station, anticipated larger crowds that year, moderate weather, and lower prices. (Dec. 30, 1932)  The Clinton served Jenny Lind soup, patty of lobster, and breast of chicken.  Contrary to its stylized cover, the menu reads like a product of the depression, without the extravagance we see on other holiday menus.  Luckily, 1933 would see the beginnings of an economic recovery and, alas, the repeal of Prohibition!

From the Culinary Institute of America Menu Collection, Eugene Hiller Menu Collection, menu 30-23.