The Forgotten Menu
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Recipes

Dishes from history’s famous tables, from the old menus and cookbooks. Each one names its source and scales to the size of your table.

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13–24 of 213 recipes

  2. Four thick white portions of poached cod, their flakes starting to part, on an oval white platter with sprigs of curly parsley, beside a white sauce boat of creamy oyster sauce with five plump oysters showing, on a white marble slab.
    Cod and Oyster Sauce

    Fish & Seafood · 45 min total

    Cod with Oyster Sauce (1846) 

    Cod with oyster sauce after Alexis Soyer’s 1846 Cabillaud aux Huîtres: poached cod with parsley and a milk sauce of oysters, anchovy and mace in a boat.

  3. A dark square metal pan of golden cornbread cut into squares, seven left in the pan and two on a plate beside it showing a fine, even yellow crumb, with a small bowl of butter and a butter knife on a butcher-block counter.
    Corn Bread

    Breads & Cakes · 30 min total

    Golden Corn Cake (1896) 

    Golden corn cake, Fannie Farmer’s sweetened cornbread of 1896: yellow cornmeal, wheat flour, milk and one egg, baked in a shallow pan in twenty minutes.

  5. A deep oval pie dish of greengage tart under a golden pastry lid, crimped at the rim and crusted with crackled sugar, one piece cut away to show halved green plums in pale syrup, beside a pie server on a blue gingham cloth.
    Greengage Tart

    Desserts & Sweets · 3 hr 25 min total

    Greengage Tart (1846) 

    Greengage tart from Alexis Soyer’s 1846 cookbook: green plums domed in a pie dish under a sweet short-pastry lid, glazed with egg white and sugar, served cold.

  6. Two slices of golden-brown toast, softened and lying flat in a shallow white scalloped dish of thin, pale milk sauce with a sheen of melted butter, beside a spoon and a blue-and-white check napkin.
    Dipped or Milk toast

    Breads & Cakes · 40 min total

    Milk Toast (1896) 

    Milk toast as Fannie Farmer made it in 1896: dry toast dipped slice by slice in a milk sauce cooked for twenty minutes, then covered with the rest of the sauce.

  7. A white soup tureen with a ladle in it and two shallow white rimmed soup plates of light brown, lightly thickened soup with cubes of braised beef and pink ham, on a white linen tablecloth.
    Mock Turtle

    Soups & Broths · 4 hr total

    Mock Turtle Soup (1846) 

    Mock turtle soup after Alexis Soyer’s 1846 recipe: a light brown soup thickened with a roux, scented with savory, thyme, marjoram, basil and bay, with sherry.

  8. Two white china cups of thin, smooth, pale cream oatmeal gruel on saucers, one on a linen napkin, with a small fine sieve holding the strained-out oatmeal on a plate beside them, on a white enamel table.
    Gruel

    Soups & Broths · 40 min total

    Oatmeal Gruel (1906) 

    Oatmeal gruel, the first item at Titanic third-class supper on April 14, 1912: fine oatmeal simmered in milk and water, then strained, from the 1906 Beeton.

  9. Three plain white bowls of thick, nubbly oatmeal porridge on a pale wooden table, a thin ring of milk around the edge of each and a spoon in the middle bowl, with a small white jug of milk behind.
    Oatmeal Porridge & Milk

    Breakfast · 8 hr 35 min total

    Oatmeal Porridge (1906) 

    Oatmeal porridge with milk, the first dish at third-class breakfast on the Titanic on April 14, 1912: coarse oatmeal soaked overnight, from the 1906 Beeton.