"Mousse" at Delmonico's

Bapopik at AOL.COM Bapopik at AOL.COM
Fri Mar 24 00:33:31 UTC 2000


    What does the online OED have for "mousse"?
    I'm also away from the OED books right now.  I remember an 1892 citation
from Toulouse Lautrec (the BDE has 1892).
    John Ayto's A GOURMET'S GUIDE: FOOD & DRINK FROM A TO Z (1993) states
"English took over the term from French as recently as the 1890s."
    An American classic (not online in the MOA or American Memory databases)
is Charles Ranhofer's (Chef of Delmonico's) THE EPICUREAN: A COMPLETE
TREATISE OF ANALYTICAL AND PRACTICAL STUDIES ON THE CULINARY ART, INCLUDING
Table and Wine Service, How to Prepare and Cook Dishes, an Index for
Marketing, a Great Variety of Bills of Fare for Breakfasts, Luncheons,
Dinners, Suppers, Ambigus, Buffets, etc., and a Selection of Interesting
Bills of Fare of Delmonico's, from 1862 to 1894 (1894).
    Delmonico's (New York City) was perhaps America's most celebrated
restaurant in the 19th century.  How could John Mariani have possibly written
that the first "lobster Newburg" printed recipe appeared in 1895 when it's
here in this 1894 classic?  How could it not make his bibliography??  (Maybe
he was eating too many mashed potatoes.)
    Here are the menus (with some "Tortoni" added):

Pg. (?):  Menu from May 1863.  "Glace mousse au cafe."
Pg. 1076:  Menu from November 5, 1863.  "Mousse aux amandes."
Pg. 1080:  Menu from October 30, 1865.  "Mousse a l'orange."
Pg. 1085:  Menu from November 1867.  "Biscuits Tortoni."
[John Mariani's ENCYCLOPEDIA OF AMERICAN FOOD & DRINK has "...(and often
called 'biscuits tortoni').  The word was first printed in English in 1922."
This guy owes me a free dinner by now--ed.]
Pg. 1089:  Menu from April 1869.  "Mousse cafe."
Pg. 1091:  Menu from December 1871.  "Gateau mousseline."
Pg. 1093:  Menu from January 1871.  "Parfait au cafe garni de Tortoni."
Pg. (?):  Menu from May 1874.  "Glace mousse aux bananes."
Pg. 1102:  Menu from December 1877.  "Mousse aux marrons."



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