FoodNetArchive

The thorough good cook

1895

Page 14

Presented as published in 1895. Historical recipes may not meet modern food-safety standards. Cook from the modern interpretation, not the original instructions.
There Avas still another Delmonico's down town near Wall Street, and yet another on a most palatial scale in Fifth Avenue, corner of East Fourteenth Street ; but the last time that I was in the Empire City I found only a single Delmonico, installed in a magnificent mansion fronting on Fifth Avenue, Broadway, and Twenty-sixth Street, into the last of which thoroughfares looks out a magnificent cafe with a tessellated floor, lofty ceiling, and any number of small marble-topped tables. In this room smoking and drinking, as well as eating, are indulged in by gentlemen. The remaining moiety of the ground floor is occupied by a similar apartment fronting on Fifth Avenue, and used as a public restaurant. An elevator gives access to the second floor ; and here is a series of private apartments and dining- rooms en suite, with a spacious and sjDlendidly decorated ball- room or dining-hall. On the upper floors are a limited number of apartments for gentlemen; and in one of these suites of chambers Dion Boucicault, the dramatist, resided for a considerable period. The cuisine and the service at this house are not surpassed by any restaurant in the world, and the same may safely be said of the prices, which are 12 THE THOriOUGH GOOD COnK. comiuensiirate Avitli the excellence of the fare and the | er- fection with Avhich it is served. Yet two persons can dine modestly at Dehnonico's for live dollars, or £1 sterling. This .sum includes a bottle of very good claret, although it is the cheapest on the list. It may be added that at iJelmonico's the rule obtains that a " portion " for one is quite enough for two. The author of "The Delmonico Ccok Book" is ^I. Ales- sandro Filippini, who has been twenty-tive years vlicf at this historic house, and in an autograph letter which serves as a preface, he dedicates his exhaustive work to the Delmonico family. In tive hundred closely printed pages one finds, to begin with, ample information touching the markets of New York ; and the Britisher will derive much interesting inform- ation concerning a large variety of edibles which are rarely met with in this country. For example, M. Filippini men- tions wild turkey's, " trutfled grouse, commonly called ])ar- tridge," squabs, robin or red-breasted .snipe — oh ! M. Fi!ip[)ini ! — sora or Yirginia rail, antelope, brant, red-heads, cygnet or 3'oung swans, with, of course, the famous canvas-back duck. Among tisli mainly strange to the English palate are pompanos, sheep's head, red- snapper, grouper, white fish, cisco, cattish, wall-eyed pike. Then there are green turtle and terrapin; followed by clams, soft-shell crabs, and twenty varieties of 03'sters. ^I. Filippini proceeds to give a series of menus for every day in the year; in which, among a host of truly American dainties, you will tind stutfed and devilled crabs, sweet potatoes, I'ried scollops with tomato sauce, stringed beans with cream, hsh-balls, Saratoga potatt)es, pigs' feet a la Boston, Martha Washington's pie, black tish (in (jnitin, squash, broiled sea-bass, scrambled eggs with asparagus tops, tender loin steak, turke}- with cranberry sauce, antelope chops, lamb steak, flat sausages Avith white wine, and blue tish Ct Vltalienne. CHATS ABOUT COOKERY. V.\ The Kitclien of the Tatherlaiid.