Meal Planning For Every–Err, Some Occasions!

This week, we’re back a favorite topic around here: meal planning! Today’s feature (or special, if you will) is “More Menus” for Luncheons, Dinners, Etc. from 1933.

The image on the cover certainly catches your attention!

At least two menus in this book have an “Emergency Soup” listed and it’s not the same recipe! Apparently “Emergency Soup” is defined by the meal it’s part of and not a specific recipe!

It can be hard to find all the recipes for a single meal on the same two pages, but this one comes close. The dessert looks to be the most intricate part of this meal.

Some menus feature classic dishes like pot roast…

Others can include items like “canned green turtle.” While turtle as an ingredient isn’t new on the blog, canned turtle certainly is!

Clearly, our author wasn’t afraid to show off the diversity of an ingredient, either.

As “More Menus” for Luncheons, Dinners, Etc. suggests, this isn’t the first title by Mrs. Lang. Nor it is the first one about meal planning. In 1929, she wrote Choice Menus for Luncheons and Dinners, and in 1939 published a third book, The Complete Menu Book. Sadly, we don’t have either of these in our collection (I’ll be on the lookout now, though!).

“More Menus” for Luncheons, Dinners, Etc. is full of a mixture of dishes and menus. They appear to be a little more on the upscale side, though “Emergency Soup” (either variation) doesn’t have the same ring as “Molded Caviar and Egg Salad.” There’s a recipe for “Green Turtle and Puree of Pea Soup” with the intriguing ingredient of “canned green turtle.” Turtle isn’t new to the blog, but this is the first time we’ve come across canned turtle. One wonders how wide the availability of that might have been in 1933. In general, however, the meals are balanced, each one including main dishes, sides, and desserts. They vary in complexity, both as menus and within menus, but books like this always offer us some great insight into what people were consuming (as diners and buyers of ingredients).

Tune in next week for our next culinary treasure. And in the meantime, we hope you plan some good meals!

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