It always seems like when I plan ahead something comes up and I fall behind again! Here is the menu from Irene B. that I had planned to post for Lincoln’s Birthday, just a week late.

Lincoln Birthday Menu & American Chop Suey

I would imagine this to have been a more festive menu that the previous page of menus, of which a reader commented they were all “easy on the teeth” haha. Those at her Lincoln Birthday party would have enjoyed:

Fruit cocktail

Nut & potato croquettes

Chicken

Flag salad / Lincoln sandwiches

Angel Charlotte Russe

Coffee

I’m curious exactly what the Lincoln sandwiches consisted of…or were they cut into his profile likeness? We shall never know, because Irene did not elaborate. Well, I take it back, it is possible the recipe for Lincoln sandwiches is hidden somewhere in this book. The book appears to have various chapters and where there were blank pages she filled them with clipped recipes. So the trade school notes are intermingled with very old newspaper clippings, which are also fun to read.

The biggest challenge about this book is it is literally falling apart. As you can see, the edges are tattered and quite worn and many pages simply fell out when I first opened the book. I found this on ebay and the seller stated that if no one bought it she was going to throw it away. It was such a great find and I watched the auction until the very last minute. I think the condition of the book was intimidating to the usual ephemera collector because I was the only bidder in the last 5 minutes. For me it is the perfect challenge. Where possible I am keeping the pages in order but I can tell that some are probably lost because sections just end mid sentence.

Note the recipe for American Chop Suey on the lower portion of the page:

Salt and pepper to taste

Bits bacon cut up an fry

? tablespoon butter and salt

?? sized onions and fry then add lb chopped beef and let simmer, then add 1 bunch celery cut up

pkg macaronies boil

can tomatoe soup

?? milk

Bake 3/4 hours

The really funny thing is that “chop suey” is an American dish invented in San Francisco and I believe it means something along the lines of “all the extra leftovers, fried.” Americans were hungry for Chinese food but didn’t appreciate the true Chinese food found in San Francisco Chinatown restaurants. One enterprising restrauntier put a variety of items that seemed to appeal to the American palette and voila, chop suey was born. The dish above sounds a lot like hamburger macaroni.