Oranges, Havana Style.

It appears that I was wrong yesterday, when I assumed that breakfast in the time of Practical Cooking and Dinner Giving, (New York, 1876) was a relatively simple affair. I continued browsing the book after I copied the dinner drill routine, and found the section containing sample menus.

Early Spring Breakfast.

1^st course - An Havana orange for each person, dressed on a fork.

2^nd course - Boiled shad, maitre d’hôtel sauce; Saratoga potatoes. Tea or coffee.

3^rd course - Lamb-chops, tomato sauce. Château Yquem.

4^th course - Omelet, with green pease, or garnished with parsley and thin diamonds of ham, or with shrimps, etc, etc.

5^th course – Fillets of beef, garnished with water-cresses and little round radishes, muffins.

6^th course – Rice pancakes, with maple sirup.

The third course alone is awfully tempting. Château Yquem. For breakfast. A bit hard to go past that choice, isn’t it?

It is always good to start the day with fruit, however, so perhaps I would have the orange first. Here are some detailed instructions on eating a Havana orange as they do in Havana, from the book of the day.

How they Eat Oranges in Havana.

A fork is pierced partly through the centre of an orange, entering it from the stem side; the fork serves for a handle, which is held in the left hand, while with a sharp knife the peel and thin skin are cut off in strips from the top of the orange to the fork handle; now, holding it in the right hand, the orange can be eaten, leaving all the fibrous pulp on the fork.

I don’t think these instructions qualify as a recipe for the day, so here is another orange option.

Puff-Ball Oranges.

1 egg white

½  cup powdered sugar

4 Sunkist oranges

Peel small Sunkist oranges, removing white membrane with outer skin. Beat egg white, slightly, using wire whisk; add sugar, gradually, and continue beating until meringue is stiff and will hold its shape. Thrust a long, slender wire skewer through the centre of each orange; frost them completely with the meringue, and suspend them, by the skewers, across a narrow pan, and bake twelve minutes in a slow oven, being careful not to let them brown. Twist skewers gently to remove them. These oranges make a pretty dessert or supper dish.

Sunkist recipes, oranges-lemons, (c.1916) Alice Bradley.

Quotation for the Day.

Washington, July 8. Dr. Harvey W. Wiley, former Chief of the Bureau of Chemistry of the Department of Agriculture, and universally admitted to be one of the greatest authorities on pure foods and dietetics in the world says: “Eat oranges; eat them in Winter, eat them in Summer; eat as many as you can afford to buy; they are better for you than physic.”

Sunkist recipes, oranges-lemons, (c.1916) Alice Bradley.