Steamship dinner, 1935.

I have another nautical menu for you today. Dinner aboard a steamship of the French Line on this day in 1935 was classical French cuisine as one would expect. This menu does not seem to be the usual multi-choice shipboard restaurant à la carte menu, so perhaps it was for a private dinner party.
The menu has the words ‘Saint Dominique’ printed opposite the list of dishes, but I cannot find any mention of a ship by this name, so presumably it indicates the location of the vessel at the time of the dinner.

Potage Fontange

Poisson Gratine Menagere

Aubergines Farcis

Coq au Vin Auvergnate

Pommes a l’Anglaise

Salade

Tartelettes

Fromages – Fruits

In a previous post some long time ago I gave you the recipe for Potage Fontage. Today I give you a recipe for stuffed eggplant from that wonderful book The Epicurean, by Charles Ranhofer (1893), and one from The Steward’s Handbook and Guide to Party Catering, by Jessup Whitehead (1903) for the potato dish.

Aubergines Farcies Gratinées.
Divide some small eggplants, each one in two, without peeling them; score and fry, then drain and empty out the centre with a spoon, leaving a layer a quarter of an inch thick against the peel. Chop up the parts that have been removed, adding as much soaked and well-pressed bread-crumbs, and a clove of crushed garlic; cook the preparation for a few moments, season with salt, pepper, and nutmeg, and remove from the fire until it loses its greatest heat, then finish with a few raw egg-yolks and chopped parsley. Fill the interior of the halved eggplants with this, smooth the tops and range them on a baking sheet; pour over plenty of oil and cook in a slack oven. When a fine color, dress them on an espagnole sauce reduced with tomato sauce and run through a fine sieve.

Pommes à l’Anglaise.
Boiled in their skins, peeled, cut into quarters if large, shaken up in a hot dish with soft
butter, salt and parsley dust; sent in hot with the butter poured over.

Quotation for the Day.
What shall we say of the hundreds of cooks who, for several centuries now, leave France every year to exploit the appetites of other lands?
Jean-Antheleme Brillat-Savarin; The Physiology of Taste (1825)