Sample these dishes adapted from recipes used by chefs on railcars and in hotel restaurants once operated by The Fred Harvey Company.
Cooking On The Go
By Janet Groene
January 2011
Stephen Fried’s new book, Appetite for America ($27, Bantam), is the story of Fred Harvey restaurants, once found at every major rail station in the Western United States. The Harvey legacy lives on at the venerable El Tovar Hotel at the edge of the Grand Canyon and in the ageless Judy Garland movie The Harvey Girls. Mr. Fried’s book isn’t a cookbook, although it does have several recipes. It’s a treasure for travelers, historians, nostalgia buffs, and those who love the Old West. It’s well-researched, indexed, and thoroughly entertaining.
For motorhome travelers who take the Rails to the Rim RV package at Grand Canyon National Park, food and Fred Harvey are part of the story. My trip began in Williams, Arizona, where you can leave the motorhome and board the train that takes visitors to the rim of the Grand Canyon and back in a day. The train trip is not only a fun way to get to the rim, but it saves you from long waits at the park entrance. Passengers get off the train just a few footsteps from the rim and in the heart of the park’s attractions. Nearby are the Bright Angel Lodge and the revered El Tovar Hotel, which was purchased directly from The Fred Harvey Company. The restaurant and other lodgings in the park continue the proud Harvey tradition.
Although RV cooks don’t prepare meals while the motorhome is hurtling down the highway at 55 mph, we share many of the same problems of 19th-century and early 20th-century chefs working in Fred Harvey dining cars or remote frontier restaurants. They had to provision precisely, carefully preserve water and fuel, and present pleasing meals to fussy eaters. It’s hard to imagine the challenges. Many recipes began with cooking and picking meat from fresh lobster, making gallons of soup stock, or putting meat and potatoes through “hash machines.”
Although I’ve adapted these recipes for today, they are inspired by recipes found in Appetite for America. Nevertheless, it’s great fun to read the original recipes in the book, described by yesterday’s cooks for yesterday’s ingredients.
Stuffed Onions
This recipe, adapted from Appetite for America, is typical of the directions sent to all Harvey chefs. Mr. Harvey himself often showed up as a surprise guest to make sure food and service met his satisfaction. RV cooks can make and serve this dish all at once, or prepare it ahead to bake later.
6 medium onions
1 stick butter, melted
1 cup bread crumbs
1 cup mushrooms, finely chopped
1 medium plum tomato, chopped and drained
Salt, pepper, parsley
Boil the onions until tender and use a tablespoon to scoop out the centers of the onions, keeping the onion shells. Drain the onion centers and allow them to cool. Chop the onion centers and mix with the butter, bread crumbs, mushrooms, tomato, salt, pepper, and parsley. Stuff the mixture back into the onion shells and bake on a flat pan at 350 degrees for 30 minutes or until light brown. This recipe makes six side-dish servings. (If you refrigerate the stuffed onions for later use, baking times will be longer.)
Old Virginia Sour Milk Biscuits
This mixing technique is a new one for me and fun to try. According to the recipe in Mr. Fried’s book, the butter should be melted but not hot, and the teaspoon of baking soda should be rounded but “not more.” In the old days, flour was sifted twice, but today’s flours are said not to need sifting at all. Just measure it lightly into the cup.
4 cups flour
1 tablespoon butter, melted
2 cups “loppered” (sour) milk or buttermilk
1 heaping teaspoon baking soda
Put the flour in a bowl and make a hole in the middle. Stir the melted butter into the sour milk with the soda. Quickly add the frothing milk into the flour, stirring down the dough with a wooden spoon. The dough will be soft. Mix and roll with as little handling as possible. Cut the dough into biscuits and bake at 425 degrees until golden brown.
Chicken Maciel
Legions of GIs passed through the nation’s railway stations during World War II. This recipe was developed at the Kansas City Union Station restaurant by chef Joe Maciel. It’s adapted from Appetite for America.
1 stick butter
2 teaspoons curry powder
1/4 cup sherry
2 cups diced, cooked chicken
2 cups cooked rice
1 cup heavy cream or hot white sauce (optional)
3/4 cup Swiss cheese
Melt the butter and stir in the curry and sherry. Stir in the chicken and saute for five minutes. Stir in the rice and heavy cream. Place in two ramekins; cover with cheese; and bake at 400 degrees until the cheese is browned and bubbly. This recipe makes two servings.
Cook’s note: Fred Harvey’s notes indicate that this also can be placed under a broiler to brown the cheese if it’s in non-glass ramekins.
French Apple Pie With Nutmeg Sauce
This pie, described in Appetite for America, is different from any other crumb-topped apple pie, and the sauce is very different, too. It’s said to be from the Fred Harvey restaurant in Union Station, Los Angeles. Watch carefully so the graham cracker topping doesn’t burn. For a shortcut version, use two cans of apple pie filling, then make the crumb topping and sauce.
8 cups sliced apples
½ cup water
½ cup sugar
1 large, deep-dish pie shell
1 cup graham cracker crumbs
½ cup flour
½ cup sugar
Few drops vanilla flavoring
1/3 cup butter
Bring the apples to a boil in the water for about five minutes until tender, and then carefully stir in the sugar to avoid breaking up the apples. Using a slotted spoon, place the apples in a pie tin lined with pastry.
Mix the graham cracker crumbs, flour, sugar, vanilla, and butter with a fork until crumbly and sprinkle over the apples. Bake at 400 degrees for 10 minutes, and then reduce the heat to 350 degrees and bake for another 30 to 40 minutes or until the pastry shell turns golden brown.
Nutmeg sauce:
1 egg yolk
½ cup sugar
1 cup milk
1 teaspoon ground nutmeg
In a small saucepan, beat together everything except the nutmeg and heat to boiling while stirring constantly. Remove from heat; add the nutmeg; and stir well.
Rice Griddle Cakes
In Fred Harvey restaurants these pancakes were cooked on a soapstone griddle that was heated and then rubbed with the cut side of a raw turnip, presumably to create a nonstick surface.
2 ½ cups flour
4 teaspoons baking powder
2 tablespoons sugar
½ cup cold, cooked rice
1 ½ cups milk
1 beaten egg
2 tablespoons melted butter
Combine the flour, baking powder, and sugar, and use your fingertips to work in the rice. Mix in the milk, egg, and butter. Cook as for pancakes.
Fred Harvey Guacamole
The Fred Harvey recipe said, “or cream cheese,” but cottage cheese is easier to mix in.
1 avocado, mashed
1 tomato, seeded and finely chopped
½ cup cottage cheese
2 tablespoons chopped green onions
1 tablespoon lemon juice
½ tablespoon chopped chives
½ tablespoon salt
Dash each pepper, Worcestershire sauce
Mix well, chill, and serve in lettuce cups with tomato wedges as a salad. This guacamole also makes a good dip.
Angels On Horseback
Despite the distance from the ocean and the difficulty of keeping seafood cold, oysters were a popular item on Fred Harvey menus. Like many Harvey items, these are fried in lard. Because many recipes had a Mexican influence in the Old West, lard was used in many dishes where we’d use butter today. This is truly a show-off dish.
Dry large oysters with a towel; season with salt and cayenne pepper; wrap in parboiled pieces of bacon; and fasten with a toothpick. Dredge in flour; dip in egg beaten with a little water added; and then coat with fresh bread crumbs. Thread the oysters onto skewers and fry in hot lard until they are golden brown. Serve on toast garnished with lemon wedges and chopped parsley.
Chocolate Puffs
This is a standard way of making cream puffs, but the Harvey twist is that they are chocolate puffs with a strawberry filling. It’s easy to fill them if you have a squirt can of whipped cream on hand.
1 cup flour
1 cup water
1 stick butter
1 ounce semisweet baking chocolate, melted
3 eggs
Combine the flour, water, and butter in a saucepan and bring to a boil; remove from heat; and stir in an ounce of melted semisweet chocolate. Stir in three eggs, one at a time. Drop the batter by tablespoons onto a baking sheet and bake at 425 degrees until puffy and firm. Cool; cut off tops; and fill with a teaspoon of strawberry preserves plus whipped cream.
Rich Raisin Cakes
These small, moist, dense cookie cakes are easily made in paper-lined cupcake pans.
2 cups raisins
2 cups water
1 ½ cups sugar
2 teaspoons shortening or butter
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon ground cloves
½ teaspoon ground nutmeg
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 cup flour
1 cup chopped nuts
Heat the oven to 350 degrees. In a pan, combine the raisins, water, sugar, and butter. Bring to a boil and allow the mixture to cool. Then stir in the remaining ingredients and mix. Place a tablespoon of dough in each cupcake paper and bake for approximately 15 minutes or until firm. This recipe makes 24 cakes. Stephen Fried’s book doesn’t explain how these cakes were served, but they’re good with lemon or vanilla sauce, whipped cream, or whipped topping.
For more information about a package that includes the round-trip train ride to the rim of the Grand Canyon plus two or three nights in the RV campground in Williams, go to http://www.thetrain.com/ or call (800) 843-8724. You also can add hotel nights in the park, leaving the motorhome in Williams.
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