William Randolph Hearst between the 2 hats in the middle of the table
I can’t deny it –– I have the teensiest bit of an acquisitive streak. I admit to collections of cookbooks and dishes and textiles and silver and, well, you get the idea. I know many of you love collecting many of the same things. But there are other, more eccentric items that some of us can’t resist. No, I don’t mean rooms worthy of a Hoarders episode filled floor-to-ceiling with glass eyes or Mahjong sets. This predilection is one that I can divulge with nary a blush.
I love those little booklets you get when you visit historic houses. They are easier to take away than a coffee table book and much more convenient, especially when you are traveling to a few places in a day –– you would need a cart or a back brace after a few stops and an extra suitcase on the plane home. Booklets are a great way to remember a visit and don’t take up much shelf space.
I lost my collection when I downsized a few years ago –– horrors. They were accidently tossed with boxes of magazines. They chronicled where I’d been over so many years of coming and going.
In the last few years, I’ve started a new collection –– many of them from Great Britain’s National Trust (that does a sterling job with them). Today’s booklets are well produced with great pictures and fine writing.
Most are just about the houses, others are about the gardens or a famous resident, but some houses sell small cookbooks. These are real gems if they are collections of the recipes of the inhabitants and not of trustees or docents (Bobo’s Tuna Melt doesn’t belong in a cookbook for an 18th century house!). You can learn a lot about a house and its occupants when you see what they ate.
I came across a little book called Hearst Castle Fare a few years ago. Priced at $2.25 in 1972, it is not well produced but a gem of a cookbooklet full of real recipes served at the Castle. I have seen the booklet in a 60’s edition for sale on ETSY –– the first printing could have been the 50’s (judging by the outfits and hairstyles on the female kitchen staff in a photo). The housekeeper of Hearst Castle, Ann Rotanzi, put the collection together. Although the title page of my booklet says they are authentic recipes served in the castle, a bit further in it says, “ Recipes have been altered to make them family-sized and to use foods available at this time.” –– fingers crossed that they aren’t too different from the originals (perhaps using chicken instead of guinea hen that wasn’t available to many in the 1970’s (before D’Artagnan) and not whole-scale changes).
It seems only right that I mention Hearst’s Castle when I talk about the acquisitive spirit. William Randolph Hearst collected lots and lots of everything from armor to entire rooms (you can check out the house HERE). The photos in the booklet are blurry black and white, which is a pity, but the stories are good and the foreword by no less than William Randolph Hearst, Jr.
In the foreword, Hearst Jr. said:
“Today, with somewhat of a reputation as a world traveler, I can honestly say that I have never eaten better food any place.
“Practically all of the perishable food –– beef and venison, all sorts of poultry, eggs, most of the fish, vegetables and fruits were raised, shot, caught or grown and eaten right there on the place, which of course, contributes a great deal to the savory result.
“The cooking was, with exception of a very few dishes, just plain American home cooking.”
Guests from Cary Grant, Charles Chaplin, Joan Crawford, Clark Gable, Gary Cooper, Claudette Colbert and the Marx Brothers to Baron Rothchild, Winston Churchill and Franklin Roosevelt dined in the 27’ x 67’ dining room (with a 27’ ceiling).
Curiously, he chose to set the table with Booth’s Old Willow china (a pleasant but decidedly middle class set of dishes) with paper napkins and mustard and ketchup in bottles always set at the table –– more like a genteel boarding house than a castle. He liked to think of the food eaten there as “ranch food” –– eaten at a table that was hundreds of years old in a room filled with priceless tapestries and one of the largest private antique silver collections around –– go figure.
Mr. Hearst’s favorite dish wasn’t plain food though, it was pressed duck (Caneton à la rouennaise).
Christofle Silver Duck Press
To make it, the bird is barely cooked and the breast meat is removed, then the carcass is put in a duck press and the blood is squeezed out and used to make a rich wine sauce for the breast meat. It is a classic preparation that is at once simple and very elegant. This dish was served at the dinner of the century–– the 3 Emperors dinner in 1867 Paris so you could say it had a pretty impressive pedigree (that you can read about HERE). You can see the press in action at D’Artagnan HERE.
Dinners at Hearst Castle were prepared with the estate’s own fruits and vegetables (oranges, lemons, persimmons, pears, apples, tangerines, apricots, prunes, plums nectarines, figs grapefruit, mulberries, kumquats, peaches, avocados, guava, quince and many kinds of berries –– black and English walnuts). His son said his father enjoyed “fowl and birds [pheasant, guinea hen, partridges, quail, ducks, geese and turkey were raised there], lamb chops, cornbeef [sic] and cabbage, hominy grits, and on rare cases, roast beef [always well-aged], kidneys tripe etc.”
Late in the evening after screening a movie (there was a full-size movie theatre at the house), Mr. Hearst would go down to his kitchen on his own and make Welsh rarebit to share with his guests or pick up a plate of cold meat and cheese to nibble.
Looking through the little book, I can see the food at Hearst Castle was simple and easy to prepare. It’s obvious Mr. Hearst loved cheese and buttery, creamy sauces (lots of cheese puffs and hollandaises and escalloped this and that). It's also obvious that the Castle was run a bit like a hotel!
Buffet lunches were served on electric warmers at 2 pm (promptness was requested, a loud cow bell would be rung). Dinner was served at 9pm. Breakfast was served between 9am and 12 and guests would have juice, fruit and coffee and then order their breakfast that would be cooked to order (Mr. Hearst only had fresh fruit and coffee with a lot of hot milk –– he rose quite late).
You can see some original Hearst menus HERE at The American Menu blog –– one of my personal favorites.
You can see some original Hearst menus HERE at The American Menu blog –– one of my personal favorites.
When I looked through my little recipe book Eggs Newburg stopped me in my tracks. I love Lobster Newburg (that I wrote about HERE) but this is a little different. It’s poached eggs on toast bedizened with a lovely sherried, creamy shrimp Newburg sauce. This would be a perfect thing to eat in a castle, don’t you think?
Although I would want to have my Eggs Newberg breakfast in bed (served by Clark Gable, perhaps?), that wouldn’t have happened –– Mr. Hearst didn’t approve of breakfast in bed.
The original recipe says this is enough sauce for 12 eggs and 6 slices of toast –– serving 6. It would be a little slight I think unless the bread was large and you only had 2-3 shrimp per serving since there are about 8 -10 m shrimp per cup –– your call. Also, with the rich sauce and the shrimp, I thought one egg was a good portion.
William Randolph Heart’s Egg s Newburg serves 4
1 recipe Shrimp Newberg
4 - 8 eggs
4 – 8 slices of toast (I used my mother’s recipe for pain de mie – a dense, milky, buttery loaf that’s perfect for fancy sandwiches and a dish like this but with small slices)
Poach eggs, Place eggs on toast and spoon Newburg sauce over them
William Randolph Hearst’s Shrimp Newberg Sauce
2 T butter
1 ½ T flour
½ t salt
few grains cayenne pepper
1 T sherry
dash of nutmeg
½ c cream
½ cup milk
2 cups cooked shrimp
2 egg yolks beaten
Broccoli or asparagus or pimento and parsley to serve.
Melt butter in top of double boiler add flour, salt cayenne and mix well. Add cream and milk gradually, stirring. Cook and stir until thickened. Add shrimp. Just before serving add the egg yolks and flavorings. Serve topped with parsley and think slices of pimento.
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