Christmas Dinner Menu, 1881.

At this time of the year, newspapers and magazines are usually full of recipe and menu suggestions for the Christmas season. I have chosen a menu suggestion (with an accompanying recipe) for you today from the Fort Wayne Daily Gazette (Fort Wayne, Indiana) on Saturday, December 24, 1881. The menu does add an interesting spin to the concept of the “traditional” Christmas dinner:

CHRISTMAS DINNER MENU

Raw Oysters.

Spanish Soup.

Boiled White fish. Lobster Sauce.

Potato Puffs.

Roast Leg of Mutton Stuffed. Stewed Cabbage with Cream Sauce.

Roast Turkey. Sweet Potatoes.

Cranberry Jelly. Oyster Salad.

Cheese. Celery. Wafers.

Plum Pudding. Mince Pie. Ice Cream and Cake.

Oranges. Grapes. Bananas. Nuts. Raisins.

Coffee.

Spanish Soup.

Cut into slices a head of celery, two onions, one carrot, two apples, and place them in a stewpan with one ounce of butter, a few allspice, a blade of mace, the rind of one lemon, some seasoning and two quarts of water; place on the fire and let boil. Add two pounds of neck of veal; take off the foam as it rises; when free from scum and sufficiently boiled to be cooked, add one quart of milk, let it simmer slowly for one hour, then strain it through a hair sieve; let it boil a few  minutes, then add half a pint of cream, stand the stewpan in not too hot a place after adding the cream; take out the stones from twelve olives, then cut them into very  thin slices, throw these into boiling water with a pinch of sugar and the same of salt added; boil two minutes, and then drain them in a sieve; pour the boiling soup into the tureen, throw in the slices of olives, and serve immediately.