Delmonico’s NYC Re-Creation

[SheilaAnn]

If anyone recalls, I belong to the Culinary Historians of SoCal. We are non-profit and hold a silent auction at our annual members only dinner. One of the auction items is a dinner prepared by our president, Charles Perry (former LA Times guy, middle eastern cuisine expert). This year he offered up a Delmonico’s Dinner….. an OG dinner! He asked if I would assist. Squeeeeeee! I can’t wait! So far, this is the menu:

Potage velours
Basse de mer au beurre d’amandes
Poulets à sauce aux huitres
Petits pois au laitues ciselées
Noisettes de filet de boeuf à la Magny (tomatoes Provençal and stuffed mushrooms as sides)
Bombe Fifth Avenue

yakima Mosca this comes from Epicurean. The author was a chef at Delmonico’s in the mid 1800s. The book sounded familiar. Turns out I own it!



this book is a beast! I went down the rabbit hole earlier and some versions are going for $500!

[WI Bubba]

That sounds like it will be an amazing experience!

[Mosca]

Holy heck!

Im going to relate this to the introduction of The Meathead Method, where Meathead writes,


“Some dishes are a simple flute solo, direct, pure, elegant, uncomplicated, soaring. Think grilled steak, with salt and pepper only. Then there’s the string quartet, complex, harmonious, yet simple. Think grilled salmon, lightly salted, with tarragon and a brown butter sauce. Some dishes are the whole orchestra, graceful, luxurious, swelling with sumptuous depth and compatible notes. Think grilled Cornish game hen, dry-brined for hours, with a velvety mole sauce fashioned unsweetened dark chocolate, and knitted together with a rich broth. Some dishes are a brass band, loud, boisterous, attention getting. Think Southern-style pork ribs, salted, rubbed with half the spice rack and sugar, smoked, unctuous with rivers of fat, crowned with two layers of a succulent sweet tomato-based sauce amped up with chiles, vinegar, and molasses.”


Thats the friggin’ whole orchestra, right there. It’s fantastic that you get to be part of it!

[58limited]

That is a cool cookbook. I looked on ebay and found prices ranging from $35.00 for the 1971 edition up to $450.00 for the 1920 edition. I also saw a 1903 edition and a 1916 edition for sale. I might buy one of the $35.00 copies.

One old copy on ebay has what the seller calls a "Prohibition Insert" from The Hotel Monthly that gives an alternative for wine reductions: preseasoned wines from France ( they are basically undrinkable with the salt and seasonings already in them and thus legal for sale) that can be reduced for various recipes. I thought that was a cool piece of history (but I'm not paying $350.00 for that copy).

[dubob]

Potage velours
Basse de mer au beurre d’amandes
Poulets à sauce aux huitres
Petits pois au laitues ciselées
Noisettes de filet de boeuf à la Magny (tomatoes Provençal and stuffed mushrooms as sides)
Bombe Fifth Avenue

Sorry, but as just a meat and potato guy I have to ask - is anything listed here real food? 😁

[SheilaAnn]

dubob define real food? Nothing here comes from a box or a can, etc. 🤣

gboss thank you for jumping on the translations!

Velvet soup is just reduced chicken stock finished with puréed carrots.
Beef Filet is topped with a slice of foie gras and a sprinkle of parm.
Bombe is strawberry ice cream with hazelnut spumoni (I think this is the one dish Charles is taking a little creative license with). The recipe intimidates the heck out of me!

[dubob]

HEY, if I can't read the name, I ain't eatin' it. Why the Hell couldn't the OP have just said:

Soup
Fish in butter
Chicken in oyster sauce
Salad
Beef w/ noodles
Ice Cream

I can eat any of those. 😂

[gboss]

SheilaAnn anytime! I had my ctrl-c and ctrl-v fingers ready to go with google translate open....

[GolfGeezer]

There used to be a great Delmonico’s steak house on Pico in West LA. I'm pretty sure it was part of a chain of them that cropped up in the 80's & 90's. We would eat there on occasion when visiting my wife's family. And if memory (which can be sketch these days!) serves, there is or was a Delmonico style steak which supposedly got its name from the restaurant in NYC. Essentially, a thick cut, usually from the chuck portion.

Looking forward to pics of your adventure SheilaAnn !

[yakima]

In the mid-1800s, cattle were still being driven on foot to NYC, and butchered in many small slaughterhouses in town. Fat cattle as we know them, corn fed and shipped by rail to Chicago, slaughtered, with carcasses shipped by ice refrigerated rail cars to NYC are a post-Civil War development. I suspect those early steaks were pretty lean and tough.

[Richard Chrz]

Wow, that’s super cool!

[TripleB]

WHAT!!! I have never heard of the Culinary Historians of SoCal. I feel ashamed and embarrassed. The meeting location (LA Public Library) is only 15 miles from my house and less than 3 miles from my work (USC).

ShielaAnn can you contact me via the message center with your cell phone number. I'd love to talk to you about this and get some clarification on the membership benefits. Maybe I can make it in time for the annual dinner

[SheilaAnn]

🙌🏼🙌🏼🙌🏼

[SheilaAnn]

And in case you are wondering…. Have I heard of this guy before? You have if you were an avid reader of Rolling Stone!

https://www.rollingstone.com/author/charles-perry/

[texastweeter]

Are there gonna be kanuter valves for dessert?

[SheilaAnn]

What?

[Michael_in_TX]

I've tried, but I just can't read "Bombe Fifth Avenue" as anything other than "Bomb Fifth Avenue".....which seems to be a rather drastic after-dinner activity. I mean, I am against rampant commercialism as the next person, but blowing it up?

[SheilaAnn]

Michael_in_TX 🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣

that said….




this is why this recipe scares me! But Charles said he’s done them a lot, so he’s running point on this recipe.

[Michael_in_TX]

Fascinating! That is a unique dessert. My sister is a pastry chef and teaches at one of our local culinary schools. This recipe reminds me of her final exams!

[yakima]

Heck, even in English I cannot follow that recipe.

[SheilaAnn]

yakima tell me about it!

[58limited]

My copy of this beast of a book arrived today. Turns out that SheilaAnn didn't make up all of those fancy words after all.

[SheilaAnn]

🧑🏼🍳🧑🏼🍳🧑🏼🍳

Oui chef!

[SheilaAnn]

OMG!!! 😱😱😱😱

After the soup is plated, my lead partner in this says, “aren’t we going to eat?” I told him to sit down and I will take care of it and to not worry about me. 😔😔😔😔😔

this is the only picture of the food I was able to take. It was my “family meal”.



two tomatoes imploded on themselves, peas with braised lettuce and some of the filet with foie. I was able to taste the fish and it was interestingly good. Missed the chicken. It was devoured.

the wine!



Amantillado was poured upon arrival (sherry, Niles?) and sipped with the soup. Good pairing!

chablis was enjoyed with both the fish and chicken, so we never opened the PF. Yay! That came home with me!



served with the filet. We opened it about 90 minutes before service. Perfect tannins for the rich beef and foie



sipped after the dessert. It’s like orange blossoms and honeysuckle had a baby! It was too sweet for the dessert, imho, I would have liked the pairing to be with maybe a tart apple something…. That’s just me!

overall, a success. My hosts husband asked if he could do the every year, and I said yes…. He just has to outbid everyone else! 💕💕💕🥂