Airline chicken Bacon Beef Beef Stroganoff Beef Wellington Blood pudding (aka black pudding) Cajun fried turkey (aka deep-fried turkey) Carpetbag steak Chateaubriand Chicken Chicken a la King Chicken & waffles Chicken Cordon Bleu Chicken Francese Chicken fried steak Chicken Kiev Chicken Marengo Chicken Vesuvio Christmas goose City Chicken Coq au vin Corn dogs & Pronto Pups Corned beef Country Captain chicken Croquettes Duck Duck a l'orange

Foie gras Fried chicken Gravy Hot dogs & frankfurters Jerky Kebabs Kobe beef Meatloaf & meatballs Minced meats & hash Mincemeat pies Mole poblano New England Boiled Dinner (& Yankee pot roast) Peking duck Pork & applesauce Salisbury steak Sausages of Italy Sloppy joes Steak au Poivre Steak Diane Steak Tartare Swedish meatballs Tempura Toad-in-the-hole Turkeys & dressing Wiener schnitzel

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About inflight catering.

About pork

Medieval Cattle Remains from a Scandinavian Settlement in Dublin

ABOUT CATTLE IN THE NEW WORLD
Cows were not indigenous to America. Dairy cows were introduced to by English settlers in the early 1700s. Meat cows were introduced by Spanish settlers.

"We have noted that for English yeomen of the seventeenth centiry, their own pigs were the principal source of the meat in their diet. Cattle were kept primarily for dairy production and were slaughtered and eaten only when they could no longer be maintained through the winter. This pattern was long established...As early as 1638 live cattle were driven to Boston, where they commanded high prices...By the nineteenth century, the United States was famous for meat-eating as England had already become by the seventeenth century..."
---America's Founding Food: The Story of New England Cooking, Keith Stavely & Kathleen Fitzgerald [University of North Carolina Press:Chapel Hill NC] 2004 (p. 178-180)

"Americans have been great meat eaters from the beginning of their history and still are...Americans have no doubt always preferred beef, but what they actually ate was necessarily that which was available, and for the first three centuries of white history in America, what was most readily available was pork. Nevertheless as early as 1854, Harper's Weekly reported that the commonest meal in America, from coast to coast, was steak; and at the beginning of the Civil War, Anthony Trollope...reported that Americans ate twice as much beef as Englishmen...At the beginning supplying this demand presented no problem, Each settlement was capable of raising for itself as much beef as it needed...But the population of the East Coast increased rapdily; its inhabitants discovered they were not quite as rich in space as they had thought; and much of the land could be better employed for other purposes than grazing. If Americans were to eat beef in the quantities to which they wanted to become accustomed, more spacious grazing lands had to be found. They were found, on a scale which once again seemed unlimited, in the Far West...There is a story which attributes the discovery that the West was ideal for cattle raising to the mishap of a heavily loaded governmental ox train which was blocked by blizzards in Wyoming toward the end of the Civil War. To save themselves, the drivers abandoned wagons and oxen. Returning in the spring to salvage anything that might be salvageable, they were amazed to find theri oxen not only still alive, but well fed and healthy...it wasn't to a question of climate, it was a question of grass...Texas not only had food for cattle, it had the cattle, waiting to be taken, whose ancestors had been imported by the Spaniards in the sixteenth century and abandoned in Texas, where they had drown wild and become "more dangerious to footmen than the fiercest buffalo."..The first Texas herds were thus composed of wild cattle, captured at considerable risk to life and limb, which in the next generation would become domesticated as the famous Texas Longhorns. They were very far from being the best beef critters in the world...The original Spanish stock had come from dry parched country and their descendants had retained, in another dry parched country, the ability to stand up to hot Texas summers and to make do with a minimum of water...Taken in hand by the Western cattlemen, the herds multiplied and prospered...The legendary epoch of the cattle trails, the routes over which herds of Longhorns were driven north to the markets, dates back to before the Civil War. These movements occurred on a prodigious scale, hardly comparable to the placid processions of fifty or a hundred head which had earlier moved north from Georgia or east from Ohio..."
---Eating in America: A History, Waverley Root & Richard de Rochemont [William Morrow:New York] 1976 (p. 192-195)

"The opening up of the American plains transformed cattle farming in the United States. Until the early 1870s Texas ranchers had held great cattle drives of hundreds of thousands of lanky longhorns, urging them along a 700-mile Chisolm Trail from San Antonio direct to the stockyards of Abilene, at a rate of about a dozen miles a day. From Abilene they were taken by rail to the new meat processing plants in Chicago and Kansas City. But when the Great Plains were cleared of bison and the Indians who had depended upon them, the new land was opened to range cattle. What happened then was that the land Texans sent their cattle to the plains on the hoof to rest and fatten up before the last, easy journey to the stockyards, while new ranchers went into business on a massive scale, financed by the capital poured into the industry by American and foreign investors. The profits were substantial...In 1880 Kansas had sixteen times as many cattle as twenty years earlier."
---Food in History, Reay Tannahill [Three Rivers Press:New York] 1988 (p. 316-7)

• History of cattle breeds, Oklahoma State University
• A brief historical overview of the US cattle industry.
• Steak houses, as we Americans know them today, originated in the USA. 19th century New York, to be specific.

"Despite such ethnic fervor, one of the most popular dishes of the day was the very classic, very British Beef Wellington a fillet of beef tenderloin coated with pate‚ de foie gras and a duxelles of mushrooms that are then all wrapped in a puff pastry crust. Some believe that Wellington's popularity had more to do with America's competitive spirit than with any deep passion for British cuisine. It began in the '60s when couples started dabbling in a bit of culinary one-upmanship. Dinner parties with friends became elaborate as complicated recipes appeared on tables with greater regularity. Beef Wellington was considered the height of difficulty and expense because of the preparation of the puff pastry and the price of the pate‚ de foie gras. Kudos and furtive jealous glances went to the cook who mastered such a bear of a recipe. Although Beef Wellington went the way of Beef Stroganoff and Boeuf Bourguignon, it did stage a comeback in magazines such as Gourmet in the '90s, when prepackaged puff pastry and domestic foie gras made it much easier and less expense to make."
--- Leites Culinaria, Dining Through the Decades: Food of the 1970s

The earliest recipe we find in our cookbooks titled "Beef Wellington" is in Craig Claiborne's The New York Times Cookbook, circa 1966:

Beef Wellington 4 t 6 servings

Pastry:
4 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup butter
1/2 cup shortening
1 egg, lightly beaten
1/2 cup ice water, approximately

Filling:
1 fillet of beef (2 1/2-3 pounds)
2 tablespoons cognac
Salt and freshly ground black pepper
6 slices of bacon
8 ounces pate de foie gras or Chicken Liver Pate
3 or 4 truffles
1 egg, lightly beaten

1. Place the flour, salt, butter and shortening in a bowl and blend with the tips of the fingers or with a pastry blender. Add the egg and enough ice water to make a dough. Wrap in wax paper and chill.
2. Preheat oven to hot (450 degrees F.).
3. Rub the fillet all over with the cognac and season with salt and pepper. Lay the bacon over the top, securing with string if necessary.
4. Place the meat on a rack in a roasting pan and roast for fifteen minutes for rare, for twenty to twenty-five minutes for medium. Remove from the oven; remove the bacon. Cool to room temperature before proceeding.
5. Spread the pate all over the top and sides of the beef. Cut the truffles into halves and sink the pieces in a line along the top.
6. Preheat the oven to hot (425 degrees F.).
7. Roll out the pastry into a rectangle (about 18 X 12 inches) one-quarter inch thick. Place the fillet, top down, in the middle. Draw the long sides up to overlap on the bottom of the fillet; brush with egg to seal.
8. Trim the ends of the pastry and make an envelope fold, brushing again with egg to seal the closure. Transfer the pastry-wrapped meat to a baking sheet, seam side down.
9. Brush all over with egg. Cut out decorative shapes from the pastry trimmings and arrange the pieces down the center of the pastry. Brush the shapes with remaining egg. Bake for about thirty minutes, or until the pastry is cooked. Serve the dish hot with Sauce Madere...or serve cold on a buffet table.
Note: Puff pastry may be used to wrap the beef, but care should be taken to roll it very thin. Brioche dough may also be used."
---The New York Times Menu Cookbook, Craig Claiborne [Harper & Row:New York] 1966 (p. 176-7)

Recipes for beef encased in decorative flaky crust may be found in some 18th and 19th century British cookbooks. They typically employ onions and oysters, not truffles/mushrooms and pate/chopped liver. Presumably, these descend from Medieval meat pies and classic French pates.

[1769]
"A Beefsteak Pie
Beat five or six rump steaks very well with a paste pin and season them well with pepper and salt. Lay a good puff paste round the dish and put a little water in the bottom. Then lay the steaks in with a lump of butter upon every steak and put on the lid. Cut a little paste in what form you please and lay it on."
---The Experienced English Housekeeper, Elizabeth Raffald, 1769, with an introduction by Roy Shipperbottom [Southover Press:East Sussex] 1997 (p. 74)

[1875]
"Beef Steak Pie.
Take a pie-dish according to the size required; two pounds of fresh rump steak cut into long thin strips will bake a good pie; lay out the strips with a small piece of fat on each, a seasoning of salt and pepper, and a dust of flour; two tea-spoonfuls of salt and one of pepper will be sufficient for the whole pie; roll up each strip neatly and lay it in the dish, and between each layer sprinkle a little of the seasoning and flour; a shred onion or schalot is sometimes liked, and a few oysters will be a great improvement; put an edging of paste round the dish, and throw in water enough to cover the rolls of meat, and lay a crust of about half an inch thick over all; ornament the top tastefully, and bake for two hours in a moderate oven...Sufficient for four or five persons."
---Cassell's Dictionary of Cookery with Numerous Illustrations [Cassell, Petter, Galpin:London] 1875 (p. 63)

Food historians generally agree that fried turkeys trace their roots to Bayou (Louisiana/Texas) creole cuisine. No exact year, restaurant, or person is connected to this particular food by primary documentation. There is no mention of fried turkey in La Cuisine Creole: A Collection of Culinary Recipes [New Orleans:1885] or The Picayune Creole Cook Book, 2nd edition [New Orleans:1901]. We DO find evidence that fried turkeys were cooked outdoors for large popular events (family reunions, charity dinners, church suppers, etc.) in the early years of the twentieth century. About ten years ago fried turkeys received national press and caught the attention of mainstream America. According to articles indexed in the LEXIS/NEXIS reQuester database, this recipe migrated from Louisiana/Texas to Missouri, Tennessee, Georgia (peanut oil), and Washington D.C. before it forked northward toward Seattle and Vancouver. Most articles written in the last couple of years simply reference fried turkey as a tasty alternative to traditional fall holiday meat.

"Frying whole turkeys is sort of the Southern version of making fondue. You have a lot of your friends over, you poke around in a pot of hot oil with some sticks, and then you pull out your dinner. Justin Wilson, he of Cajun fame, recalls first seeing a turkey fry in Louisiana in the 1930s."
---Something Different: Deep-Fried Turkey, Beverly Bundy, St. Louis Dispatch, November 24, 1997 (Food p. 4)

"Fried turkey has been all the rage at least for the last decade in New Orleans, and long before that it was a tradition in the bayou and throughout the South. Like many a vainglorious culinary mania before it, the national renown of fried turkeys can be traced directly to Martha Stewart, who plucked them from regional obscurity and put them in her magazine in 1996. "
---It's Treacherous, But Oh So Tasty; Fried-Turkey Fans Take the Risk, Annie Gowen, Washington Post, November 22, 2001 (p. B1)

"A longtime food favorite in the southern United States, the delicious deep-fried turkey has quickly grown in popularity thanks to celebrity chefs such as Martha Stewart and Emeril Lagasse. While some people rave about this tasty creation, Underwriters Laboratories Inc.'s (UL) safety experts are concerned that backyard chefs may be sacrificing safety for good taste. "We're worried by the increasing reports of fires related with turkey fryer use," says John Drengenberg, UL consumer affairs manager. "Based on our test findings, the fryers used to produce those great-tasting birds are not worth the risks. And, as a result of these tests, UL has decided not to certify any turkey fryers with our trusted UL Mark."
---Deep-Frying That Turkey Could Land You in Hot Water; UL Warns Against Turkey Fryer Use, PR Newswire, June 27, 2002

Authentic Cajun turkey recipes circa 1885
--- Hearn, Lafcadio. La Cuisine Creole, A Collection of Culinary Recipes from Leading Chefs and Noted Creole Housewives, Who Have Made New Orleans Famous for its Cuisine. New Orleans: F.F. Hansell & Bro., Ltd., c1885

About turkeys.

The history of carpetbag steak presents an complicated knot of food lore, culinary history and improbable summations. Food historians generally agree that this dish (thick steak stuffed with oysters) was probably invented in America by a popular chef/restaurant sometime in the first half of the twentieth century. Australians have adopted this recipe, though do not make claims for its invention.

Oyster houses and steak houses (separatetly, not together!) and were all the rage of the rich and wealthy at the turn of the last century. They sprung up everywhere rich diners liked to eat, often combining the restaurant's namesake with other popular foods of the day. It is possible Rector's Oyster House in Chicago and Delmonico's in New York served carpetbag steak, though we have no printed evidence [yet!] to support this theory.

"The oyster house had far outgrown its original simple design and function..."The real Oyster House is a specialized restaurant," explained the author of an 1897 souvenier booklet about Rector's Oyster House in Chicago, "the specialties of which are, in general, sea-food, game, salads, certain delicatessen, and the choicest wines, brandies and ales. In greater detail it is a place where, in their season, the finest and freshest oysters of a dozen varieties are to be found..."
---America Eats Out, John Mariani [William Morrow:New York] 1991 (p.55-6)

Culinary evidence confirms the American tradition of combining oysters and beef steak was practiced in the late 19th century. Oysters were considered a luxury item and were combined with many different foods. Early oyster and beef combinations in American cook books typically "smothered" thick steaks with oysters. There is no mention of a pocket or filling. Food historians generally attribute the first printed recipe for "Carpetbag steak" to Louis Diat, 1941.

This is what the food historians have to say on the subject:

"Carpetbag steak.
A grilled steak of beef into which is cut a pocket enclosing a stuffing of oysters. The name derives from the handbag for travelers that was popular from about 1840 to 1870. The dish resembles the sacklike bag with its top closure. There does not seem to be any specific association with an American slang term, "carpetbagger," for a hated post-Civil War opportunist who took advantage of both white and black southerners politically and economically. In fact, the carpet bag steak is much more popular in Australia and is only menioned for the first time in American print in 1941 in Louis Diat's Cooking a la Ritz. Although there is no proof the dish originated at Chasen's restaurant in Los Angeles, which opened in 1936, it did become one of the restaurant's signature dishes."
---Encyclopedia of American Food and Drink, John F. Mariani [Lebhar-Friedman:New York] 1999 (p. 59)

"Though popular in Australia, this unusual steak stuffed with oysters is apparently of American origin. It takes it name from the cloth satchel travelers used around the time of the Civil War. Just before the turn of the century, when broiled steaks were coming into vogue, a popular way to serve them was under a coverlet of oysters. This recipe simply takes that late-nineteenth-century recipe one step further. Who's responsible? Perhaps Chasen's restaurant, which opened in Hollywood in 1936 (and closed in 1995). Carpetbagger Steak, as Chasen's called it, was a house specialty. Or was Louis Diat, the creator? He includes this recipe for it in Cooking a la Ritz [1941]."
---American Century Cookbook: The Most Popular Recipes of the 20th Century, Jean Anderson [Clarkson Potter:New York] 1997 (p. 92)

"I have, over the years, received more requests for carpetbag steak than almost any other dish, and I suspect much of its appeal has to do with the name, which has a fascinating ring. I own few Australian cookbooks and cannot find the recipe in any of them. The most logical recipe I have ever found appeared thirty years ago in the late Helen Evan Brown's The West Coast Cook Book [1952]...An Australian who now lives in Manhattan...wrote, quoting a passage from The Captain Cook Book: Two Hundred Years of Australian Cooking, by Babette Hayes: "The carpetbag steak is now a truly Australian dish although it came to us from the U.S. of A. A thick chunk of tender sirloin, rump or fillet steak, which has a pocket cut in the middle, is stuffed with oysters and then fried to the required degree of doneness. That's the basic recipe. There are many variations: add chopped mushrooms, onions, herbs, or lemon juice." She says that the name probably derives from the term for a one-pound note in Australia, which is "carpet," and "bag" from the term "in the bag," meaning a winner."
---The New York Times Food Encyclopedia, Craig Claiborne [Times Books:New York] 1985 (p. 71)

CARPETBAG STEAK & AUSTRALIA

The part of this puzzle food historians are not able to solve is who first introduced the carpetbag steak to Australia and when. The Down Under Cookbook: An Authentic Guide to Australian Cooking and Eating Traditions, Graeme Newman [1987] does not include a recipe for carpet bag steak. It does include a recipe for "Pocket Steak Melbourne," which is the same idea but without the oysters. Michael Symons, Australian culinary history expert, believes the recipe can be traced in print to 1899:

"Jean Rutledge's highly successful Goulburn Cookery Book, first appearing in 1899, was designed to meet a "want, especially among the women in the bush, who have often to teach inexperienced maids, and would be glad of accurate recipes." Any dish, she said, much be "mixed with brains."...Out of approximately 1,000 recipes, local additions did not exceed a kangaroo recipe, a couple of new names for simple meat dishes, "Carpet Bag a la Colchester..."
----One Continious Picnic: A History of Eating in Australia, Michael Symons, [Penguin:Victoria] 1984 (p. 54)
[NOTE: Mr. Symons says this about the recipe's origin: "Carpetbag Steak, beef stuffed with oysters, a combination also occurring in the United States, although I have not confirmed where it originated." --(p. 137)]

If you need more information you might consider contacting The University of Adelaide, Cordon Bleu graduate program in gastronomy.

STEAK & OYSTER RECIPES

[1885]
"Beefsteak and Oyster Pie
Cut three pounds of lean beefsteak. Salt, pepper and fry quickly so as to brown without cooking through; then place in a deep dish. Get four dozen oysters, beard them, and lay them in the pan over the beef; season with salt and pepper. Take the gravy in which the steaks were fried, pour out some of the grease; dredge in a tablespoonful of flour, let it brown and add to it a pint of good beef broth, then put in a wine-glassful of mushroom catsup, some of Harvey's or Worcestershire sauce; heat it, and let it boil up a few times, then pour it over the oysters and steak. When the gravy has become cook. Cover the pie with a good puff-paste, and bake it for an hour and a half."
---La Cuisine Creole, Second Edition [F.F. Hansell & Bro.:New Orleans] 1885 (p. 30-1)
[NOTE: Creole cookbooks traditionally combine oysters with poultry, not beef.]

[1887]
"Stewed Steak with Oysters.
Two pounds of rump steak, one pint of oysters, one tablespoonful of lemon juice, three of butter, one of flour, salt, pepper, one cupful of water. Wash the oysters in the water, and drain into a stew-pan. Put this liquor on to heat. As soon as it comes to a boil, skim and set back. Put the butter in a frying-pan, and when hot, put in a steak. Cook ten minutes. Take up the steak, and stir the flour into the butter remaining in the pan. Stir until a dark brown. Add the steak, cover the pan, and simmer half an hour or until the steak seems tender, then add the oysters and lemon juice. Boil one minute. Serve on a hot dish with points of toast for a garnish." ---White House Cook Book: A Selection of Choice Recipes Original and Selected, During a Period of Forty Year's Practical Housekeeping, Mrs. F. L. Gillette [L.P. Miller & Co.:Chicago] 1887 (p. 100)

[1902]
"Steak with Oysters.
Select twenty-five oysters; drain, wash and drain again. Trim the steak, which should be about an inch and a half thickness. When the steak has broiled for five minutes, dust with salt and pepper, baste with butter, and cover it over with the oysters, and without delay run it into a very hot oven for ten minutes. Dish without removing the oysters, baste thoroughly with the juice that is in the bottom of the pan, and send at once to the table. The oysters should have the gills thoroughly curled and be slightly browned."
---Mrs. Rorer's New Cook Book, Sarah Tyson Rorer [Arnold and Company:Philadelphia] 1902 (p. 152)
[NOTE: the extra thick steak used here.]

[1905 or 1907]
"Carpet-Bag A La Colchester
Choose a good tender steak, and have it cut about 2 in. to split it through, and fill in between with raw oysters, lighly seasoned with cayenne and a few drops of lemon juice. Sew up the steak, and grill carefully for 20 minutes to 1/2 hour. Rub steak over with oiled butter or salad oil prevents the juice from escaping, and ensures it coming to table a rich brown outside and tender and juicy inside." ---The Goulburn Cookery Book,Mrs. Forster Rutledge, [The National Trust:Sydney, Australia], 40th edition, a facsimile edition taken from parts of the 2nd in 1905 and 5th in 1907 of the original. xviii + 199 + v 8vo, 1973 (p. 31)

NOTE: Except for the title, the following Australian dish is almost an exact duplication of the recipe above.

[1909]
"Steak and Oyster Filling
Choose a good tender steak, and have it cut about 2 inches thick. Split it through, and fill in between with raw oysters, lightly seasoned with cayenne and a few drops of lemon juice. Sew up the steak, and grill carefully for 20 minutes to 1/2 an hour. Rubbing the steak over with oiled butter or salad oil prevents the juice escaping, and ensures it coming to table a rich brown outside and tender and juicy inside."
---The Schauer Cookery Book, Misses A. and M. Schauer [Edwards, Dunlop & Co:Brisbane and Sydney Australia] 1909 (p. 164)

[1941]
"Carpet-Bag Steak.
Have the butcher cut steak from the sirloin 1 1/2 to 2 inches thick, and then cut through the center to make a pocket. Stuff this pocket with raw oysters, seasoned with salt an pepper. Then sew the edges of pocket together. Broil about fifteen minutes on each side. Serve with any desired potatoes."
---Cooking a la Ritz, Louis Diat, [J.B. Lippincott Company:New York] 1941 (p. 171)

Food historians generally agree on two points when it comes to the history of Chateaubriand: the recipe was named for the Vicomte de Chateaubriand and it first appeared in print during the mid-19th century. Primary evidence confirms the period. It also confirms several recipe variations. On the other hand? Most recipes are not inventions, but evolutions. Good cuts of beef served with maitre d'hotel butter were served in England before this particular recipe was featured in fancy French dinner menus. Thick steaks filled with oysters (aka Carpetbag steak) were also popular at that time. Notes here:

"Chateaubriand...This French version of English beef-steak was probably dedicated to the Vicomte de Chateaubriannd (1768-1848) by his chef, Montmireil: at that time, the steak was cut from the sirloin and served with a reduced sauce made from white wine and shallots moistened with demi-glace and mixed with butter, tarragon and lemon juice. An alternative spelling is chateaubriant and some maintain that the term refers to the quality of the cattle bred around the town of Chateaubriand in the Loire-Atlantique. Pellaprat, probably wrongly, specifies: The dish was created at the Champeax restaurant; it was shortly after publication of Chateaubriand's book L'Itineraire de Paris a Jerusalem (1811) that this grilled steak, comprising a thick slice from the heart of the beef filet, made its first appearance ; its cooking is a delicate process on account of the thickness, for if it is sealed too much, a hard shell is formed on either side and the centre remains uncooked; it must be cooked more slowly than a piece of ordinary thickness."
---Larousse Gastronomique, Completely revised and updated [Clarkson Potter:New York] 2001 (p. 255)

"A chateaubriand is a thick steak cut from a beef fillet. It was named after the French writer and statesman Francois Rene, Vicomte de Chateaubraind. The original application of the term appears to have been to a particular method of preparing steak-grilled and served with bearnaise sauce-which was invented by the chef Montmirail in 1822, when the Vicomte de Chateaubriand was French ambassador in London; but by the 1870s, when it was introduced into English, it had been transferred to the steak itself: The steak which had formerly been served...under the name filet de boeuf was now always announced as 'Chateaubrand,' E.S. Dallas, Kettner's Book of the Table (1877).
---An A-Z of Food & Drink, John Ayto [Oxford University Press:Oxford] 2002 (p. 66-7)

"Chateaubriand is the name given to a large piece of fillet steak, either much thicker that usual or big enough to serve at least two people, or both. There is some disagreement, e.g. between French and American butchers, over the exact size and nature of this cut. A tedious accretion of tales about the origin of the name was robustly hacked out of the way by Dallas (1877) in Kettner's Book of the Table, indeed, the author of this would have gone further and banished the term altogether, as had the members of a certain London club (so he tells us) when a fancy chef sought to install it on their menu.
---Oxford Companion to Food, Alan Davidson [Oxford University Press:Oxford] 1999 (p. 157)

Here is the original passage from Kettner's Book of the Table (1877), quoted in full:

"Take another example of mystification, and it must be added, of exceeding folly--to use no stronger epithet. It is connected with the illustrious name of Chateaubriand. One of the foremost clubs in London one day changed its cook; and its members were astonished to find that the steak which had formerly been served to them under the name filet de boeuf was now always announced as a Chateaubriand. The cook was called to account. What was the meaning of the new name? Why should plain Englishmen be puzzled with a new name--the slang of the kitchen? Why should they not, as of old, get the fillet were accustomed? The cook had really nothing to say. He could only tell that a Chateaubriand was the fashionable name in Paris for a steak cut from the ordinary fillet-steaks--nearly two inches. The members of the club were not satsified with this explanation; and to the great disgust of the chef, who felt the sublimity of the name of Chateaubriand, the order was given that henceforth a steak from the fillet should be announced as before on other bills under the time-honoured name of filet de boeuf.

The were quite right; and even if the cook, better informed, had been able to give them the true history and meaning of a Chateaubriand, there can be little doubt that they would have still arrived at the same decision. He was correct in stating that a Chateaubriand is cut from the best part of the fillet, and is nearly twice the ordinary thickness of steak: but is this all? The thickness of the steak involves a peculiar method of cooking it. It is so thick that by the oridinary method it might be burnt on the surface when quite raw inside; and therefore--though the new method is neglected and is even forgotten very much--it was put upon the fire between two other slices of beef, which, if burnt upon the grill, could have been thrown away. It may still be asked, what has this to do with Chateaubriand, that his name should be attached to a steak so prepared? Here we come into a region of culpapble levity. Chateaubriand published his most famous work under the name of Le Genie du Christianisme. The profane wits of the kitchen thought that a good steak sent to the fire between two malefactor steaks was a fair parody of the Genie du Christianisme. If I remember rightly it was a Champeax' in the Place de la Bourse that this eccentric idea took form and burst upon Paris. As to the name, it is needless to day a word; as to the good sense of the mode of cooking the steak, judgement is pronounced in the fact that, though the Chateaubriand still remains as thick as ever, it is rare now to see it grilled between two other steaks--that being too extravagant. Indeed, in Gouffe's great work on cookery, which must always be mentioned with respect for the good sense and taste whcih pervade it, there is not a hint given that the Chateaubriand is to be cooked, or was ever cooked, between the two robber steaks. Most cookery books say not one word of the Chateaubriand, which ranks now as the prime steak of the French table, and which appears in Parisian dinner bills to bewilder the benighted Englishman with a magnificent but unintelligble name." (p. 6-7)

"Chateaubriand.--It is not necessary to add to the account of this given in the introduction, and I am not anxious to repeat the story. The peculiarity of the steak is in its thickness, and in the way fo broiling it; but sometimes also it is served with a peculiar sauce, namely, Spanish sauce diluted with white wine, then considerably reduced and at the moment of serving enriched with a pat of maitre d'hotel butter." (p. 114)
---Kettner's Book of the Table, E.S. Dallas, facsimile reprint 1877 edition [Centaur Press:London] 1968

CHATEAUBRIAND RECIPES THROUGH TIME

[1869]
"Fillet steaks a la Chateaubriand.
Cut a fillet of beef crosswise, in 1 3/4-inch steaks; trim them; sprinkle them with salt and pepper, and oil them slightly; broil the steaks over the fire, --six minutes each side; put them on a dish; and garnish with potatoes sautees, and cut to an olive shape; pour some Chateaubriand Sauce (vide page 279)--over the steaks only; and serve." (p. 337)

Thickened Maitre d'Hotel Sauce a la Chateaubriand.
Reduce 2 gills of French white wine, and 1 oz. of Meat Glaze; add 1 quart of Espagnole Sauce; continue reducing; then strain, through a tammy cloth, into a bain-marie pan; Before serving, boil up the sauce, and thicken it with 1/4 lb. Of Maitre d'Hotel Butter." (p. 279)
---The Royal Cookery Book, Jules Gouffe, translated by Alphonse Gouffe [Sampson Low, Sone and Marston:London] 1869

[1894]
"Chateaubriand Steak.
This is considered the acme of steaks. It should be cut from the fillet, quite two inches thick, and put into a marinade of the purest olive oil, with a little pepper, for a few hours. Some cooks add a few drops of French vinegar. The steak is best grilled; to ensure perfection, a double gridiron, well oiled, is recommended, and some authorities insist upon the envelopment of the steak in two thin slices of beef (any lean part; it can be put in the stock pot afterwards), to protect the exterior, as it should not be allowed to harden. Without this precaution, great care is needed to cook thoroughly, without hardening, owing to the thickness of the meat. After eighteen to twenty minutes' grilling, lay the meat before the fire on a hot dish, and finish off in either of the following ways: (1) Put a pat of maitre d'hotel butter under the steak, and a little gravy round; this can be made by mixing a grill of stock No. 16 with the same measure of brown sauce No. 2. (2) Put a pat of maitre d'hotel butter in a gill of brown sauce, first heated with a glass of white wine and a teaspoonful of lemon juice. (2) Mix chopped parsley and lemon juice, a teaspoonful of each, with a gill and a half of stock No. 16, thickened with a small quantitiy of roux and glaze, to the consistency of good cream. Serve fried potatoes, chips or ribbons with this steak. Cost, variable."
---Cassell's New Universal Cookery Book, Lizzie Heritage [Cassell and Company:London] 1894 (p. 243)

[1896]
"Chateaubriand of Beef.
Cut the desired number of thick slices from a tenderloin of beef, and slit each one nearly in halves; place a teaspoonful of beef marrow seasoned with salt and cayenne and a few strips of onion in this cavity, pressing the sides together, and brush over with warm butter or oil; place on a warm gridiron over a clear fire for ten minutes. Remove, dish and squeeze a litte lemon juice over them, serving as hot as possible. Care should be take to prevent the marrow from oozing out during the process of cooking."
---The Cookbook by "Oscar" of the Waldorf, Oscar Tschirky [Saafield Publishing:Chicago] 1896 (p. 143-4)

[1903]
"2294. Chateaubriand.
Chateaubriands are obtained from the centre of the trimmed fillet of beef, cut two or three times the thickness of an ordinary fillet of steak. However, when it is to be cooked by grilling the Chateaubriand should not be more than 500 g (1 lb 2 oz) in weight as, if larger than this, the outside tends to become too dry and hard before the inside is properly cooked. Many strange ideas have been put forward concerning the proper accompaniements for Chateaubriand; correctly speaking it should be Sauce Colbert or a similar sauce and small potatoes cooked in butter. In modern practice though, Chateaubriands are served with any of the sauces and garnishes suitable for Tournedos and fillet steaks."
---The Complete Guide to the Art of Modern Cookery, Escoffier [1903], first tranlsation in to English by H.L. Cracknell and R.J. Kaufmann [Wiley:new York] 1979 (p. 279)

[1935]
"Chateaubriand steak.
The Chateaubriand steak is an aristocrat, and is listed on most all a la carte bills. It is a double tenderloin served for two, three, or four. In price it ranges from $2.50 to $5.00, depending upon the size and garnish. Only one Chateaubriand is listed, as a rule, and is named after the house, as "Chateaubriand, Tip Top Inn," $3.50; "Chateaubriand, Blackstone," $4.00. The above quoted bills list but one Chateaubriand steak and the service is for four. The garnish varies with the different establishments, and generally consists of a rich sauce, fresh mushrooms, and fancy vegetables. Some places list two or three sizes with varying prices and garnishes, such as "Marchand du vin," "Bernaise," or "fresh mushrooms." In cutting the Chateaubriand for two it should be cut to weigh one and a half pounds; for three, two and a quarter pounds; for four, three pounds; and to be at its best is should be take from the "heart" or center of the tenderloin strip."
---The Hotel Butcher, Garde Manger and Carver, Frank Rivers [Hotel Monthly Press:Chicago] 1935 (p. 23)

Chicken

The history of chicken is long and complicated.

"The origins of the domestic fowl (Gallus domesticus, as the Romasn named it) go back tens of thousands of years. Charles Darwin, observing the Red Jungle Fowl of southeast Asia, identified it as the progenitor or the modern barnyard chicken. Some present-day archeologists assume the time of domestication to be in 3000B.C. and, following Darwin's lead, the place India, or the Indus valley. Others perfer Burma and others the Malay Peninsula. There is evidence that chickens were known in Sumer in the second millenium and the Sumero-Babylonian word for the cock was "the king bird."..In Egypt we find mention of chickens as early as the Second Dynasty...references in Greek writings of the fourth century B.C. to the fact that the Egyptians kept chickens and , moreover, that they were able to incubate large numbers of eggs...Indeed it was no accident that Egypt, like ancient China, was a mass society which mastered the technology of large-scale incubation. Some four thousand years ago the Egyptians invented incubators capable of hatching as many as ten thousand chicks at a time...From Greece, the chicken spread to Rome...When the Romans conquered Britain, they brought chickens with them...But they also found domestic fowl already there."
---The Chicken Book, Paige Smith and Charles Daniel [Univeristy of Georgia Press:Athens] 1975 (p. 10-16)
[NOTE: This book contains far more information than can be paraphrased here. Your librarian can help you obtain a copy.]

"Chicken. The Indian jungle fowl. Gallus gallus, is the acknowledge progenitor of domestic fowls the world over. It is native to a wide region all the way from Kashmir to Cambodia, with perhaps the centre of origin in the Malaysian land mass. The bird may have been domesticated not as a source of meat, but for purposes of divination...the fowl is a scavenger, and perhaps for this reason, the domestic fowl frequently finds a place in lists of foods prohibited for brahmans. For example, the Manusmriti includes in this category the domestic pig and the domestic fowl, and in AD 916 the visitor A-Masudi records prohibition agains 'cows, tame poultry, and all kinds of eggs among the people'...Other travellers however note the consumption of chicken as food. Chicken kabob, paloa with murgmasallam, and roasted fowl (dojaj) all figure in meals served at the Delhi Sultanate corut. In Vijayanagar, Domingo Pases remarks on 'poultry fowls, remarkably cheap', and in AD 1780 Mrs. Eliza Fay serves 'roast fowl' for lunch in Calcutta. Since good beef was scarce or unavailable, the domestic fowl was indeed the great colonial standby, whether at home or when travelling."
---A Historical Dictionary of Indian Food, K.T. Achaya [Oxford University Press:Delhi] 1998 (p. 41-2)

"Chicken, the domestic or barnyard fowl, native to India; source of meat and of eggs. The earliest sources for the presence of chickens in Euope are Laconian vases dated to the sixth century BC (the chickens identified by some in early Egyptian and Minoan wall paintings are in fact guinea fowl). Greek texts of the fifth century call chickens alektryones awakeners (a salient trait)...Several varieties of chicken are mentioned in ancient sources."
---Food in the Ancient World From A-Z, Andrew Dalby [Routledge:London] 2003 (p. 83-4)

"The chicken (Gallus gallus or Gallus domesticus) is generally considered to have evolved from the jungle fowl...which ranges throughout the area between eastern India and Java....Debates regarding the origin and spread of the domestic chicken focus both on its genetic basis and the "hearth area" of its inital domestication...archaeological evidence [shows] domestic chickens to be present at China's Yangshao on Peiligan Neolithic sites, which dated from circa 6000to 4000 B.C. As a consequence, because wild forms of Gallus are entirely absent in China, and as the climate would have been inimical to them in the early Holocene, it seems likely that chickens were domesticated elsewhere at an even earlier date. in the absence of evidence from India, Southeast Asia (i.e. Thailand) has been put forward as a likely hearth area...Although chickens are strongly associated with egg production in European and neo-European cultures, elsewhere they have very different associations..."
---Cambridge World History of Food, Kenneth F. Kiple and Kriemhild Conee Ornelas, Volume One [Cambridge University Press:Cambridge] 2000 (p. 496-499)
[NOTE: This book has much more information than can be paraphrased here. It also contains an extensive bibliography for further study and a separate chapter devoted to chicken eggs. If you are conducting an academic research project, ask your librarian to help you find a copy of this book.]

"Hen/chicken breeds: Domesticated versions of the species Gallus domesticus. Their wild ancestors are thought to be several species of jungle fowl, of the same genus, native to the Indian subcontinent and SE Asia. Remains from Chinese sites indicated that the birds could have been domesticated as early as the 2nd millennium BC. However, their diffusion westwards was a long process. They probably reached Britain, for example, with Celtic tribes during the 1st century BC. They had arrived in Greece, probably from Persia, about 500 years before that, and there are numerious references tin classical literature, for example to their being served as food at symposia. The Romas bread hens for their meat, selecting docile, heavy birds...An old English breed, the Dorking, also shares these characteristics, leading to speculation that ancestors of these birds flourished in Roman Britain...In 1815 Bonington Moubray was able to specify 12 hen breeds (in his Pracitcal Treatise on Breeding, Rearing and Fattening all Kinds of Domestic poultry, a book which formalized the husbandry of poultry in Britain."
---Oxford Companion to Food, Alan Davidson [Oxford University Press:Oxford] 1999 (p. 378)

U.S. chicken industry history/National Chicken Council & U.S. broiler industry history/ U.S. Dept. Agriculture

ABOUT CHICKEN DISHES
"Chicken dishes are possibly the most nearly ubiquitious menu item of a non-vegetarian kind. They may be taboo in certain circumstances in some cultures, but are generally available to all irrespective of religion and with fewer financial constraints than other flesh. The history of the species...has also been the subject of a...book by Page Smith and Charles Daniel [The Chicken Book, North Point Press:San Francisco 1982], which carries the story from antiquity through publication of the famous book on chickens by Aldrovandi (1600) up to the late 20th century and does not shrink from describing the horrors of some intensive rearing practices. It is these practices which have tended to turn chicken--once something of a luxury for most people--into an inexpensive meat, lacking flavour and provoking uneasy qualms of conscience...This consideration applies in many parts of the world...The lack of flavour has meat that chickens are particularly suited to dishes which involve distinct added flavours. Many ethnic cuisines are rich in such dishes, and many of them have become popular in the western world on tables where they would formerly have been seen as almost unimaginably exotic....Among well known or particularly interesting dishes are the following: Hindle wakes (medieval)...Coronation chicken (Queen Elizabeth II), Chicken a la Kiev (20th century Russia), Southern fried chicken (United States), and Tampumpie (Solomon Islands)."
---Oxford Companion to Food, Davidson (p. 166-7) [NOTE: This book has separate entries for a variety of chicken dishes]

Related foods: airline chicken, eggs, Cajun fried turkey (aka deep-fried turkey), chicken & waffles chicken fried steak, city Chicken, Coq au vin, fried chicken, & Peking duck

While creamy combinations of chicken and sauce have been made for hundreds of years, food historians generally place the *invention* of Chicken a la King in the late 19th/early 20th centuries. They offer several theories with regards to the origin and naming of this dish:

"Chicken a la king. A dish of chicken with a cream sauce garnished with pimientos. Several theories as to the dish's orgins date from the late nineteenth century. One credits New York's Brighton Beach Hotel, where chef George Greenwald supposedly made it for the proprietors, Mr. and Mrs. E. Clark King III. Chef Charles Ranhofer of Delmonico's Restaurant in New York City suggested that Foxhall P. Keene, son of Wall Street broker and sportsman James R. Keene, came up with the idea at Delmonico's in the 1880s. A third story credits James R. Keene himself as the namesake and the place and time of origin as Claridge's Restaurant in London after Keene's horse won the 1881 Grand Prix. However the dish got its name, first mentioned in print in 1912, it became a standard luncheon item in the decades that followed, often served from a chafing dish and with rice or on a pastry shell."
---Encyclopedia of American Food and Drink, John F. Mariani [Lebhar-Friedman:New York] 1999 (p. 71-2)

"Over the years I have speculated about the origin of the dish called chicken a la king. Curiosity about the source has to do with a possible sea change that may have occurred when the dish arrived here, as I supposed, from France. Numerous classic dishes in the French kitchen are listed on menus as a la reine or in the queen's style. Thus you find omelette a la reine, or an omelet filled with creamed chicken, potage a la reine, a cream of chicken soup, and so on. James N. Keen, a professional photographer on Louisville, Kentucky, has a brochure that purports to tell the genesis of the name chicken a la king. Mr. Keen states that a brochure was given to him forty years ago by one E. Clark King 3rd, whose father was a restauranteur. "It was in the early 1900s that chicken a la King was first served to the public," the brochure says. "My father was the proprieter of the Brighton Beach Hotel, a fashionable summer resort outside Manhattan. "One night his head chef, George Greenwald, sent word he had concocted a dish he would like to serve my parents. It was enjoyed immensely and they asked for seconds...The next morning, the chef asked permission to place it on the menu...The next day the bill of fare carried the following" Chicken a la King--$1.25 a portion." If that was the indeed the origin of the name, then here is the original recipe as detailed in the brochure."
---Craig Claiborne's The New York Times Food Encyclopedia, compiled by Joan Whitman [Times Books:New York] 1985 (p. 84-5)

"There's nothing royal about Chicken a la King, which is an entree of cubed cooked chicken breast in a cream sauce that is dotted with pimento and mushrooms and often flavored with Madeira or a similar wine. An early claim for its invention appeared in 1915 in the obituary of William King, who had worked as a cook at Philadelphia's fashionable Bellevue Hotel around 1895. King included truffles and red and green peppers in his recipe. Under the more pedestrian name "creamed chicken," similar recipes appeared in cookbooks beginning in the late nineteenth century. Peas are often added to the sauce in these recipes, and the sauced chicken is served over hot toast, biscuits, or waffles. The first located recipe titled "Chicken a la King" appeared in Paul Richard's The Lunch Room (1911). The name quickly became popular, and the dish became a standard menu item in all kinds of restaurants, upscale and down, especially tearooms that catered to women, since this dish could be eaten in a most ladylike way without picking up a knife."
---Oxford Encycopedia of Food and Drink in America, Andrew F. Smith editor [Oxford University Press:New York] 2004, Volume 1 (p. 227)
[NOTE: The source cited for this information is the New York Tribune, March 5, 1915 (p. 9)]

E. Clarke King III published his side of the story in Better Homes and Gardens, April 1937 (p. 86, 154):

"How Chicken a la King Originated
Of course, you've Chicken a la King at one time or another. Everybody has--and nearly everybody likes it. Perhaps at was in a swanky restaurant or a side-arm lunch. Or you may have made it yourself or turned it out of a can. But aside from a fleeting suspicion that it was likely named for some royal head of Europe, have you ever really wondered who thought it up and how, when, and why it got its name? The whole thing started soon after the turn of the century in the once famous Palm Room of the old Brighton Beach Hotel at Brighton Beach, just out of New York City. Everybody who was somebody knew the place...Head chef at this summer hotel was George Greenwald, who in the winter and spring ran a restaurant of his own in New York's Flatiron Building. One warm summer evening, casting about for a concoction to tempt the palate of the proprietor and his wife, Greenwald developed a new sort of chicken dish. He was a bit dubious about it, so made up only two servings and sent them in. There was a long period of silence. No word came from the diningroom of the success or failure of the invention. Finally a waiter was commissioned to find out how the dish had fared. The proprieter and his lady craved second servings--and there was no more! Gaily the chef returned to his kitchen. If critical E. Clark King had praised it, to what popular heights might his dish not rise if presented to the public? Next morning, in crackling white uniform and billowing cap, he approached his employer. "You enjoyed the chicken dish I prepared for you last night?" "Yes, indeed--and wished there had been more." "Do you have any objection to my placing it on the menu?" "None at all. But you'll have to ask a fairly high price with all those ingredients. I think it will sell, tho." That was all, and the hotel man little guessed the fame his name was to gain from that idly given permission. For the next day there appeared on the menu: Chicken a la King.....$1.25. But E. Charles King II, my father, was shy of personal publicity. The name was never copyrighted and very few of the millions who have since delighted in its piquant flavor ever suspected that is was born just outside the city of New York.

The Original Chicken a la King [A Taste-Test Kitchen Endorsed Recipe]

2 tablespoons butter
1/2 green pepper, shredded
1 cup mushrooms, sliced thin
2 tablspoons flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 cups cream
3 cups chicken, cut in pieces
1/2 cup butter, creamed
3 egg yolks
1 teaspoon onion juice
1 tablespoon lemon juice
1/2 teaspoon paprika
Cooking sherry
Shredded pimiento
Hot toast
Simmer butter, green pepper, and mushrooms 5 minutes. Add flour and salt, cooking gently until frothy. Mix in cream and stir until sauce thickens. Turn into double boiler, add chicken, and heat thoroghly. Beat the 1/4 cup soft butter into the egg yolks. Add onion juice, lemon juice, and paprika. Stir this slowly into hot chicken mixture, stirring until eggs thicken it. Add a little cooking sherry and pimiento. Serve at once on hot toast. Serves 8."

The oldest recipe we have for Chicken a la King was published in a San Francisco restaurant cookbook. This may confirm the immediate popularity of this dish in fine dining establishments. It certainly confirms variations on the original instructions.

[1919]
"Chicken a la King
Take the breast of a boiled chicken or hen (fowl), and cut in very thin diamond-shape pieces. Put in pan and add three-quarters of a pint of cream, salt and Cayenne pepper. Boil from three to five minutes. Add a glass of best sherry or Madeira wine. Boil for a minute and thicken with the yolks of two eggs, mixed with one-quarter pint of cream. Put some sliced truffles on top."
---The Hotel St. Francis Cook Book, Victor Hirtzler [Hotel Monthly Press:Chicago IL] 1919 (p. 337)

According to an article titled "Serving up chicken and waffles," Los Angeles Business Journal, September 22, 1997 (p.1):

"As unusual as it might seem, the marriage of chicken and waffles actually has deep roots. Thomas Jefferson brought a waffle iron back from France in the 1790s and the combination began appearing in cookbooks shortly thereafter. The pairing was enthusiastically embraced by African Americans in the South. For a people whose cuisine was based almost entirely on the scraps left behind by landowners and plantation families, poultry was a rare delicacy; in a flapjack culture, waffles were similarly exotic. As a result, chicken and waffles for decades has been a special-occasion meal in African American families, often supplying a hearty Sunday morning meal before a long day in church..."

It is interesting to note that this combination and/or recipe does not appear in What Mrs. Fisher Knows About Old Southern Cooking, Abby Fisher, 1881. Mrs. Fisher was a former slave and her book is generally considered the first cookbook written by an African-American. These foods appear (but not together) in Mrs. Porter's Southern Cookery Book, Mrs. Porter, 1871.

Wells Restaurant in Harlem, New York City is generally regarded as the home of chicken and waffles. This restaurant opened in 1938 and was a very popular during the Harlem Renaissance.

"No appetites are safe from the magnificent Southern Creole cuisine when visiting Wells restaurant, located uptown in the Big Apple. Famous for more than their chicken and waffles, Wells entertains customers with Caribbean flair and a frenzy of live music. Harlem hasn't been the same since Wells opened in May 1938. The owner, Elizabeth Wells, is determined to bring people a humble, homey atmosphere with exciting home-style cooking, but with a twist of island flavor and a lot of fun. Joseph T. Wells, the late husband of Wells, had a record of cooking techniques in the mix. Working as a waiter and manager of a restaurant in Florida, Joseph took his craft to New York during the late 1920s. It was inevitable for the young entrepreneur to start his business and, by the spring of 1938, the restaurant bearing his name opened its doors. Elizabeth Wells entered the picture later. They married in 1966, even though she had joined the establishment in 1963. The married couple produced a son named Tommy Wells. With an avalanche of victory for the restaurant, Wells bloomed as one of the greatest hot spots in Harlem, with a bevy of entertainers who dropped in...Wells has been spinning the wheels of the restaurant with tip-top soul food and no regrets...."
---"For 60 Years, Wells has Nourished the Harlem Community," New York Amsterdam News, April 8, 1999 (p.27)

The "Wells Home of Chicken and Waffles, Since 1938" logo used in the mid-eighties is available online from the US Patent & Trademark Office. Select trademarks, TESS search, registration #1431599.

Was Chicken & Waffles a popular combination before Wells? The following poem suggests so:

Chicken And Waffles

I do love the perfume of roses
As fair and graceful they grow;
I do love the odor of lillies
With petals as white as snow.

I love the smell of new mown hay,
Of violets that from grasses peep;
I love the smell of lillies gay
And artubus tendrills deep

But the smell that risise form down below--
The fragrance of chicken meat=
That starts up the saliva flow=
That smell is far more sweet.

I love to hear the robins sing
And list to thrushes trill.
Tis music when the woodlands ring
With songs from hill to hill.

But, oh, the song of the waffle iron--
The song so full of charm
That turns the golden waffles out.
So rich, so light, so warm.

Just let your waistband out a foot
Pile waffles on your plate;
Now pour the chicken gravy on
And laugh at any fate."
---"Poultry Notes," C.M. Barnitz, Riverside PA, Correspondence Solicited, Daily Record [Morris County, NJ newspaper], September 12, 1908 (p. 5)

The term "Cordon Bleu" (by itself) relates to a special order of French knights. Presumably, by association, cordon bleu as it relates to recipes (as in, chicken cordon bleu...boneless breast of chicken wrapped around cheese and thinly sliced ham) also originated in France as dishes of distinguished classes. Food historians tell us the notion is debatable.

On the other hand? Recipes are not invented. They evolve. Culinary evidence confirms roulades and bracioline composed of veal/chicken, ham and cheese were favored in centuries past by several cultures and cuisines. Most notably: Germany, Austria, Switzerland, France, and Italy. Recipes (and recipe names) varied according local tastes and language. Italian-inspired recipes generally feature prosciutto (ham) and Parmesan (cheese). "Cordon bleu," as we Americans know it today, first surfaced in the early 1960s. Our country's culinary interpretation parlayed prosciutto for thinly sliced deli ham and Parmesan for mozzerella, Gruyere, or Swiss cheese. Old World masterpiece going with the flow. The perfect American convergence. Of course? The timing was perfect.

What is the "Cordon Bleu?"

"Cordon Bleu. This was originally a wide blue ribbon worn by members of the highest order of knighthood, L'Ordre des Chevaliers du Satin-Espirit, instituted by Henri III of France in 1578. By extension, the term has since been applied to food prepared to a very high standard and to outstanding cooks. The analogy no doubt arose from the similarity between the sash worn by the knights and the ribbons (generally blue) of a cook's apron."
---Larousse Gastronomique, completey updated and revised [Clarkson Potter:New York] 2001 (p. 340)

"Chicken Cordon Bleu appears to have no connection whatsoever with the great cooking schools of Paris or London. Instead it is an American innovation of quite recent origin, but one that draws from two distinctly European traditions. The story begins with Chicken Kiev, and authentic Ukranian dish...Made of flattened chicken breasts wrapped securely around seasoned butter, breaded, and then fried, Chicken Kiev became popular in the United States in the 1960s, first as a specialty of fine restaurants...Variations inevitably proliferated. Someone...thought of the Veal Cordon Bleu or Switzerland and the almost identical Schnitzel Cordon Bleu of Austria. Both consist of flattened pieces of veal folded around thin slices of ham and Emmentaler or Gruyere cheese (both products of Switzerland), then breaded and fried. A combination of the concepts for Chicken Kiev and Veal Cordon Bleu resulted in Chicken Cordon Bleu."
---Rare Bits: Unusual of Popular Recipes, Patricia Bunning Stevens [Ohio University Press: Athens 1998 (p. 120)

"...poulet Alsace is chicken breast enveloping a savory stuffing of mushrooms, cheese and smoky pancetta, a close kin to chicken Cordon Bleu."
---"Peasant serves well in its 'people place'," Celeste McCall, The Washington Times, December 26, 1991, Part M; WASHINGTON WEEKEND; DINING OUT; Pg. M7

Dating the modern American cordon bleu
The earliest reference to veal cordon bleu in The Los Angeles Times was published in 1958. It is listed among the trendy dishes served at a swank affair: "Veal cordon bleu will be the piece de resistance on the menu." (P. SG A9). The earliest reference in the New York Times is an advertisement for United Airlines: "Your Entree. It might be a tender filet mignon, stuffed breast of chicken or veal Cordon Bleu. Served with it, a vegetable and potatoes in one of a dozen tempting styles." (February 21, 1962 p. 39). The oldest reference in the NYT for chicken cordon bleu is also an United Airlines, circa 1967: "Top Sirloin. Fine Wine. Color Movies. This is Coach? United's Blue Carpet to California. Blue Carpet is the best reason for flying Coach on your vacation to Los Angeles or San Francisco. What's in it for you? Top Sirloin Steak-or Chicken Cordon Bleu, if you wish-prepared by our own European-trained chefs. Champagne or fine red wine (at nominal cost)...Even a special children's menu." (June 5, 1967, p. 27).

Compare these recipes:

[1955]
"Stuffed Pillows
12 small slices veal cutlet, cut very thin
12 small slices prosciutto or ham, thinly sliced
3/4 pound mozzarella cheese, thinly sliced
1/2 cup butter
1/2 cup Marsala or sherry wine
1 teaspoon butter
1/8 teaspoon salt
1/8 teaspoon pepper
Flatten out veal cutlets with a mallet or ask butcher to do it. Place on slice or rpscriutto or ham and a thin layer of mozzarella cheese on each cutlet, and fold together like an envelope, using toothpicks to hold together. Melt butter in frying pan. Brown pillows well on one side, then turn gently, and brown on the other side. They should be cooked in a short time. Remove meat from the pan, pour the Marsala or sherry into it, scraping bottom and sides of pan well. Add 1 teaspoon butter, salt, and pepper and pour sauce over pillows on serving dish. Serves 2."
---The Talisman Italian Cook Book, Ada Boni [Crown:New York] 1955 (p. 103)

[1961]
"Italian Stuffed Veal Cutlet
3 to 4 servings
1 pound veal cutlet, cut in serving pieces about 1/2 inch thikc
1/4 pound Swiss cheese, sliced very thin
1/4 pound prosciutto, sliced very thin
2/3 cup fine, fresh bread crumbs
1/2 cup grated Parmesan cheese
1 tablespoon finely chopped parsley
2 teaspoons finely choppped celery leaves
1 clove garlic, inced
Pinch each of oregano, basil and rosemary
Sat and freshly ground black pepper
flour
1 egg
3 tablespoons milk
1/4 cup butter
1. With a short, sharp-bladed knife, cut a deep pocket in each piece of veal. (Insert the knife in the longest side and cut through almost the entire area of the meat.)
2. Wrap a slice of Swiss cheese around a slice of prosciutto for each piece of veal. Fit into the veal pocket and press tightly closed.
3. Mix the bread crumbs with the Parmesan cheese, parsely, celery, garlic and herbs to make breading mixture.,br. 4. Season the meat on both sides with salt and pepper and dredge with flour. Beat the egg well with the milk and dip the cutlets into the mixture, then roll in the seasoned crumbs.
5. Melt the butter in a heavy skillet, add the cutlets and cook uncovered over moderate heat twenty minutes, turning to brown evenly."
---New York Times Cook Book, Craig Claiborne [Harper & Row:New York] 1961(p. 160-161)

[1964]
"Veal cutlets romnichel
For four people
4 French-cut veal cutlets
4 slices ham
4 slices Gruyere cheese
flour
1 egg, slightly beaten
1/2 cup soft breadcrumbs
5 tablespoons butter
salt and pepper ---La Cuisine de France, Mapie, the Countess de Toulouse-Lautrec, edited and translated by Charlotte Turgeon [Orion Press:New York] 1964 (p. 346)

[1964]
"Veal Cutlet Cordon Bleu
The French and Italians do marvelous tings with many veal cutlets or steaks, many dishes with special appeal to American tastes. Veal Cordon Bleu, thin cutlets sandwiched with Swiss cheese and ham, is a classic French dish. This version can be managed easily for a company dinner...
4 cups corn flakes or 1 cup packaged corn flake crumbs
1 egg
2 tablespoons milk or water
1 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon pepper
12 thin veal cutlets
6 slices Swiss cheese
6 thin slices cooked ham
1 cup flour
Shortening
If using corn flakes, crush into crmbs. Beat egg and milk together. Stir in salt an eppper. Pound cutlets with meat mallet to flatten. Place a slice of cheese and ham on half the cutlets. Top with remaining cutlets. Press edges together to seal. Roll in flour, dip in egg mixture, then roll in crumbs, coating all sides. Fry in hot shortening until golden brown on both sides, about 6 min. on each side. Add more shortening as necessary. Garnish with lemon slices., if wished. Makes 6 servings."
---"Variations with Veal," Los Angeles Times, March 5, 1964 (p. D8)

[1968]
"Chicken Breasts Cordon Bleu
3 whole chicken breasts
6 thin slices ham or prosciutto
6 slices Swiss cheese
3 eggs
Salt, pepper
Flour fat for deep frying
Have chicken breasts skinned, boned and split in halves. Place each hlaf, boned side up, between pieces of waxed paper. Pound with wood mallet or flat side of knife blade to flatten, being careful hot to puncture meat. As chicken flattens a rolling pin may be used to make it thinner. Cut each ham and cheese slice into halves. Place a piece of ham on each breast half, then top with cheese. Roll up, jellyroll fashion, tucking in ends. Fasten with wood picks. Beat eggs with salt and papper to taste. Dip rolled chicken in flour, then egg mixture, then bread crumbs. Fry chicken in deep fat heated to 360 deg. until golden brown on all sides. Drain on absorbent paper. Makes 6 servings. Note: To prepare ahead, stuff, roll and bread the rolls. Arrange rolls in a single layer on a tray or large flat platter. Cover with wax paper or transparent wrap and refrigerate until ready to fry. Or fry then refrigerate rolls. To reheat cooked chicken breasts, place in a shallow pan and bake at 350 deg. 15 to 20 mon. or until heated through, being careful rolls do not overbrown. Do not cover rolls or they will become soggy."
---"Time and Care Go Into Chicken Cordon Bleu," Los Angeles Times, July 11, 1968 (p. H10)

References to "Cordon Bleu"-type recipes can be found in 19th/20th century American/British cookbooks. It takes a little work because they are listed by different names. The Doubleday Cookbook/Jean Anderson & Elaine Hanna [1975] offers a recipe for "Ham and Cheese Stuffed Chicken Breasts (p. 504).

According to the food specialists, Chicken Francese is an Italian-American dish introduced in the New York City area sometime after World War II. This was a popular trend at that time. The earliest mention we find in the New York Times for this dish is this restaurant review published January 2, 1970 (p. 25): "There was also a dish called chicken francese or chicken French-style with lemon, and it would have been good except it was overly salted."

Of course few recipes are "invented." They evolve. Breaded and fried chicken/veal recipes were known to ancient Roman cooks. This recipe diffused as the Roman Empire marched through Europe. It evolved according to local taste, ingredients, and cuisine. You know? In some respects, chicken francese is not so very different from German schnitzel, or Italian Scallopinne, lightly breaded cutlets fried and seasoned with lemon.

"Chicken francese. An Italian-American dish of sauteed chicken cutlets with a lemon-butter sauce. The word francese is Italian for "French style," although there is no specific dish by this name in either Italian or French cookery."
---Encyclopedia of American Food and Drink, John F. Mariani [Lebhar-Friedman:New York] 1999 (p. 72)

"Some of the most interesting dishes on the menus of Italian restaurants in America are of uncertain or dubious origin. They bear Italian names, but are commonly supposed to have been created in this country. Three of these dishes are clams Posillippo, chicken scarpariello, and veal Francese. One will rarely, if ever, find recipes for these dishes in standard or tradtional Italian cookbooks, either regional or classic...Frances means French-style, and, in most Italian-American restaurants, veal Francese is batter-fried."
---"Three Rarely Found Recipes for Interesting Italian Dishes," Craig Claiborne & Pierre Franey, New York Times, June 4, 1981 (p. W_A18D)

"Now for a bit of background: Having enjoyed Chicken and/or Veal Francese (or Francaise) many times, I knew the sauce consisted of lemon juice, sometimes white wine, chicken broth and unsalted butter. However, it's not a classical sauce. I did find one written recipe for a Sauce Francaise made with fish stock, garlic and mashed anchovies in a bechamel (white) sauce, in Henri-Paul Pellaprat's Modern French Culinary Art (World Publishing Co., 1996). But I could not find any written recipe for the lemony sauce we are familiar with. Even August Escoffier, who died in 1935 and was regarded as the Emperor of Cooks, never mentioned a Sauce Francaise (or Francese) in his Le Guide Culinaire (published in English by Crown Publishers, 1941). I spoke with Jean Bert, chef/owner of La Coquille in Fort Lauderdale. After research in his classical cookbooks, he came to the same conclusion. Whatever the origin of this light, lemony sauce, it is the perfect foil for the delicate flavors of chicken, veal or fish, and Il Bacio's is one you will want to make often."
---"FINDING FRANCESE; THE ORIGIN OF THIS WELL-KNOWN LEMONY SAUCE IS UNCLEAR," Sun-Sentinel (Fort Lauderdale, FL), March 20, 1997 (Food p. 3)

"This is a delicious and easy recipe that's very hard to find because people look in Italian cookbooks for it. It isn't entirely Italian, so they search in vain. Indeed, it is hardly even known outside the New York metro area, which leads me to believe that it is a strictly local dish. In fact, the only English language cookbook in which I have EVER seen the recipe is in one of my own, Cooking In A Small Kitchen, published by Little Brown in 1978 and now out of print, and The Brooklyn Cookbook by Lyn Stallworth and Rod Kennedy, Jr., published by Knopf in 1991 and still widely available. The recipe does, however, have antecedents in recipes that I have found in Italian language Neapolitan cookbooks, but its final refinement must have been in New York. When I was growing up in Brooklyn in the 1950s, it was just beginning to gain in popularity over veal and chicken parmigiana. You can also have veal francese, shrimp francese, and fish (usually sole or flounder fillets) francese. Francese of course means "in the French manner," but it refers to a food that is dipped in flour and egg, then fried, then dressed with lemon juice or lemon sauce. In Neapolitan cookbooks, there's mozzarella or provola (aged mozzarella) treated this way, and chicken thighs on the bone treated this way. But a thin slice of veal or chicken? No. And these days, such a dish would not be called francese in Naples anyway. It would most likely be called indorati e fritti -- gilded and fried. Entirely an Italian dish." ---Authur Schwartz, The Food Maven

Possible precursors?

[15th century]
"56. Lemon Sauce for Chickens or Capons
Get one or more chickens, capons or cockerels than have been cooked a little in water; take them out of the water and mount them on a spit; then get peeled, well ground almonds and temper them with the bouillon of the chickens; then get lemon juice and mix it all together with good spices; and put it into a saucepan to cook a little; then pour it over the roast with a little fat; serve it very hot."
---The Neapolitan Recipes Collection: Cuoco Napoletano, 15th century cooking text, critical edition and English translation by Terence Scully [Universtiy of Michigan Press:Ann Arbor] 2000 (p. 184)

[1945]
"167. Chicken Breasts a la Saute
This is a palatable dish as well as an economic one. If cooked as decribed, a single breast of capon is sufficient for four portions. Cut the breasts into thin slices, almost as thin as paper. Trim these pieces as nicely as possible. Add a pinch of salt and pepper and place them in a beaten egg. Let them remain in the egg for one hour. Remove and cover the slices of breasts with cracker dust. If the meat is preferred plain, just fry the slices and serve with lemon. Otherwise, prepare a sauce in the following manner: Take a small pan and barely cover the bottom with oil. Put in some sliced mushrooms, spread a pinch of cracker dust or grated stale bread on them. Repeat the operation three or four times. Add some oil, salt and pepper, some butter, all in small quantities, so as not to give the food a fatty taste. Now place this small pot on the fire, and as it comes to a boiling point, add a small ladleful of meat soup and a few drops of lemon. Remove from fire quickly, add it to the breasts already cooked, and serve."
---Italian Cook Book, Pellegrino Artusi [S.F. Vanni:New York] 1945 (p. 110-1)

[1952]
"Veal Scallopine alla Francese
(Tastes as good as it sounds!)...We dip the veal scallopine in egg yoke, saute it in butter and lemon juice, and leave the adjectives to you."
---advertisement for restaurant Villa Camillo (New York City), New York Times, July 17, 1952 (p. 2)

[1967]
"Scalloppine Alla Francese...Very, very thin preaded veal cutlets, cut into 2-inch squares. Serve with lemon wedges."
---"The Fast Gourmet," Poppy Cannon, Chicago Daily Defender, January 5, 1967 (p. 20)

[1977]
"Morton Kaplan's Veal Francese
Pursuant to an inquiry from a reader for a recipe for veal francses we printed a formula for what we presumed to be a basic version of the dish. Dr. Morton Kaplan of Queens writes to state what we printed was a recipe for veal piccata, not francese. 'I've discussed this dish with many of the chefs of New York's Italian restaurants and here is my version,' he said. 'I will challenge anyone to a veal francese cookoff.'...
1/2 pound veal, preferably taken from the leg and cut into four thin slices as for scaloppine
Salt and freshly ground pepper to taste
Flour for dredging
Peanut, corn or vegetable oil
2 eggs, beaten
1/2 cup chicken broth
2 tablespoons butter
2 lemon wedges
4 thin slices lemon
1 tablespoon finely chopped parsley
1 teaspoon paprika
1. Place the slices of veal between two sheets of wax paper and pound to about one-eigth of an inch thickness. Sprinle meat with salt and pepper to taste. Dredge the scaloppine in egg to coat well on both sides in flour.
2. Add oil to a depth of about one-eighth of an inch in a large heavy skillet. Dredge the scaloppine in egg to coat well on both sides. Cook quickly in the hot oil until golden brown on both sides. Cook about one minute or less on the first side, turn and cook about two minutes on the other.
3. Quickly but carefully pour off the fat from the skillet, holding th meat back with a fork.
4. Return the skillet to the heat and add the chicken broth and butter, cooking over high heat to reduce quickly. Squeeze the lemon wedges into the sauce, then add the wedges. Turn the pieces of meat once in the sauce and transfer to a hot platter. Discard the lemon pieces and our the sauce over the meat.
5. Sprinkle half of each lemon slice with parsley and dust the other half with paprika. Use as a garnish for the meat. Yield: 4 servings."
---"De Gustibus," Craig Claiborne, New York Times, March 14, 1977 (p. 34)

The history of chicken fried steak (aka country fried steak) is a fabulous example of cultural diversity, regional pride and just plain confusion. Why? Because there are as many names/recipes for this dish as people who claim they know how it started. That's part of what makes the study of food history so interesting.

As is true with many popular foods we know today, the recipe preceded the name.

Food historians generally agree the practice of dredging meat (all kinds) in flour/spices, frying/baking it up and serving it with a sauce/gravy dates back to ancient times. This cooking method tenderizes the meat and enhances its flavor. Think Wiener schnitzel. Europeans who settled in America knew all about making tough cuts of meat palatable. Many historic American cookbooks contain "chicken-fried" type recipes for beef, veal, chicken & lamb, though they go by different names. Veal is traditionally considered to be a tough cut of meat and was often cooked in such a way as to make it more tender, as in weiner schnitzel. Sensible American cooks would have treated tough cuts of beef in a similar fashion. The chicken connection? Some food historians suggest the coating and pan-fried cooking technique commonly used on fried chicken was easily adapted to tenderize steak.

In America, country fried steak is generally considered to be a regional dish. It is commonly found in the southern and central western states. The meat used for this American dish is always beef, the cuts vary. The "chicken-fried" moniker seems to be a mid-20th century invention. The earliest printed recipe we have for in chicken-fried steak was published in 1949.

What the food historians say:

"Chicken-fried steak...A beefsteak that has been tenderized by pounding, coated with flour or batter, and fried crisp. The name refers to the style of cooking, which is much the same as for southern fried chicken. Chicken-fried steak has been a staple dish of the South, Southwest, and Midwest for decades, although it dates in print only to 1952."
---Encyclopedia of American Food and Drink, John F. Mariani [Lebhar-Friedman:New York] 1999 (p. 72)

"Chicken-fried steak...dating back to the times when beef was not nurtured with tender, loving care, steak identified as chicken-fried or country-fried, or sometimes smothered, can be prepared with any cut of beef but is obviously no better than the quality of the piece chosen. It is still popular in the South and West, especially at roadside eating places."
---American Food: The Gastronomic Story, Evan Jones, 2nd edition [Vintage Books:New York] 1981(p. 275) [includes recipe]

"Chicken-fried steak...Particularly popular in the South and Midwest, this dish is said to have been created to use inexpensive beef."
---Food Lover's Companion, Sharon Tyler Herbst, 3rd edition [Barrons:New York] 2001 (p. 126)

"Chicken-fried steaks...I have never seen a recipe for chicken-fried steaks. It is my conjecture that the name came about years ago when it was impossible to get beefsteaks of good quality in the rural South...I believe Swiss steaks had more or less the same origin. After the steaks were fried they were covered with a sauce of tomatoes, carrots, celery, and peas and baked until fork-tender."
---Craig Claiborne's The New York Times Food Encyclopedia, compiled by Joan Whitman [Times Books:New York] 1985 (p. 86)

What the regional people say:

"The basic recipe for country-fried steak, for example, includes lightly floured steak sauteed and then baked in the oven. It's smothered with brown gravy and onions. Chicken-fried steak, on the other hand, uses breading similar to that for chicken before it's fried in a skillet. It's topped off with a cream gravy."
---"Folks from 'round here know down-home cooking," The Augusta (Ga.) Chronicle, April 7, 2000, Pg. O2

"Of course, there's chicken fried steak, another Texas curiosity. Not the dish, but the name. But battered and pan-fried beef steak is a home-cooking tradition in many regions. It goes by different names - country-fried steak, for example - in different parts of the country."
---"Dallas' signature foods: not what you'd expect," The Dallas Morning News, September 29, 1993, Pg. 2F

"For the sake of argument, let's say a chicken-fried steak is a piece of beef, dipped in a mixture of egg and milk, dredged in seasoned flour and either pan-fried or deep-fried in hot oil, shortening or drippings. Let's also assume the great majority of chicken-fried steaks are served on top of or underneath a ladle of cream gravy, and usually sits next to a big helping of mashed potatoes. Although chicken-fried steak is considered a Southern staple, and most assuredly holds elite status in nearly any Oklahoma diner, its written history surprisingly dates to only about 1950."
---"Batter up Texas has the longhorn. Kansas City the strip. But we've got chicken fry." Tulsa World, December 22, 2000

"Matt's El Rancho [restaurant] opened in 1952 at 302 E. 1st. [Austin, TX]. The original menu consisted of only blue plate specials such as chicken fried steak."
Matt's El Rancho

"The German-Austrian dish is an illustrious forebear to our chicken-fried steak. German immigrants brought the breaded and fried cutlet to the Texas frontier, where it was quickly copied -with less finesse-by chuck-wagon cooks and farm wives trying to make a tough cut of beef more palatable. Even the gravy ladled on top has Teutonic roots: Rahmschnitzel is garnished with cream sauce. Schnitzel is German for cutlet. It is most often made from veal, but pork and, less frequently, beef also are used. Though there are many variations, the most popular is probably Wiener schnitzel, a crisply coated cutlet served plain except for a squeeze of lemon."
---"Plate Teutonics; Hofstetter's Wiener schnitzel is a cut from history," The Dallas Morning News, January 23, 1994, Pg. 21

"According to the Lone Star Book of Records, the CFS was invented in 1911 by Jimmy Don Perkins, a cook in a small cafe in Lamesa, Texas, who misunderstood a customer's order and battered a thin steak and deep-fried it in hot oil. Unfortunately this oft-reported food fact is a complete fable. Nobody is really sure when the CFS was invented, but it was long before 1952. In the Best Read Guide to San Antonio, Carol B. Sowa reports that the Pig Stand Drive-in locations in San Antonio started serving chicken-fried steak sandwiches when they opened in the 1940s. Gourmet columnists Jane and Michael Stern speculate in Eat Your Way Across the U.S.A. that the chicken-fried steak was a Depression-era invention of Hill Country German-Texans. My own guess is that the dish existed as beefsteak Wiener schnitzel long before the catchy Southern name was coined."
---Houston Press, January 11, 2001

"It was in this restaurant where the famous Fred Hill Steak was invented by Fred Hill. This steak is a round steak dipped in batter and flour and other secret ingredients, then fried in a skillet on the stove. This may sound like a Chicken Fried Steak, however, there is no comparison with the