A look at Asheville Thanksgiving in 1904, Biltmore style

If you balk at giblet gravy, just imagine how you might have felt at the Biltmore Estate in 1904, when calves’ brain cutlets were on the menu.

Those brains, served with mushroom sauce, shared the Thanksgiving table with other delicacies of the era: oysters on the half shell, consommé royal, broiled Spanish mackerel with cucumber salad, and a salade of Virginia ham, tomatoes and celery.

That’s according to a 1904 menu book, which details menus served Sept. 27-Dec. 31. Kept by estate cook Esther Anderson, it holds information about how many would have attended Thanksgiving dinner that year — just four guests — and also holds a piece of Asheville’s culinary history.

An exact reproduction of the book sits on a table in the Biltmore House butler’s pantry, a two-story treasure trove of fine china just off the Banquet Hall. It bears notations the Vanderbilts made on the dishes they preferred — or lines through those they didn’t.

It serves as a memoir of local food at the turn of the 20th century, albeit one seen through a gilded lens.

Not many were equipped financially, as the Vanderbilts were, to ship coastal seafood to the mountains. But locals weren't going without, as some receipts at the Biltmore Estate show the local fishmongers were quite well-stocked, challenging the notion of early Asheville as a backwater of salt pork and corn mush.

At the time, Asheville's status as a resort town for the well-heeled was already secure. Accordingly, local merchants included a French bakery, several suppliers of "fancy groceries" as well as several butchers, said Biltmore associate curator Lori Garst.

The Vanderbilts ate seafood regularly, and receipts suggest they were able to fill most orders locally, unless they were expecting large crowds. "When we look at menu book, we see a variety of different bass dishes, plus bluefish, halibut, mackerel, oysters, red snapper, sole and trout," Garst noted. "There was quite a bit of variety of fish available."

The Asheville Fish Co., one of two go-to local fishmongers, carried "fish, oysters, clams, lobsters and scallops," according to letterheads on receipts at the estate.

But one thing that never made it to Banquet Hall tables? Fresh squirrel, listed among the fancy seafood that made up the Asheville Fish Co.'s inventory.

"Squirrel was never served at the estate, according to the menu book, but it seems maybe the merchants were trying to accommodate all the different palates of Western North Carolina," Garst said.

Even if the menu book doesn't mention squirrel fricassee, it does show cooks employing methods of preservation like smoking and curing, common techniques at the time that have passed through the industrial food revolution largely intact. The smoked sausages and ham that landed on the Vanderbilt table can be found in similar form on top restaurant menus today, as part of an improbably chic Southern food reclamation project.

Trout, a regular feature on modern menus in Asheville, was also a fixture of the local diet during the Vanderbilts' time, in both smoked and fresh preparations. Estate records show a shipment of 20,000 rainbow trout for Biltmore’s waters. Newspapers at the time took note of Edith Vanderbilt’s prowess in catching them, and Biltmore’s archival menu also has diners divvying up a fish that young Cornelia Vanderbilt caught for dinner.

Game meats often appeared on Appalachian dinner tables of the time. Estate records show rangers stationed near George Vanderbilt’s lodge on Mount Pisgah provided the Biltmore House kitchen with venison and other wild meat, which cooks prepared on a large electric mechanical spit, controlled by a wall-mounted rheostat in the basement kitchen.

One such catch was an acorn-fed wild boar, the meat of which would fetch top dollar in Asheville restaurants. Biltmore Estate cooks were reportedly flummoxed when the wiry-haired beast landed in kitchen quarters.

“They brought it in and gave instructions to the chef to sear the hairs and not take off the skin, because that’s part of the way you cook a wild boar," said Garst.

Weaving cultures together

While some estate-employed chefs were trained in French culinary techniques, Appalachian women made up much of their support staff of more than a dozen.

"Most of the women who were working here were living in this area," Garst said. "I can’t imagine what most of the women were going through, figuring out how to prepare potato dauphinoise or some other French preparation, when they were accustomed to Appalachian and Southern-style food.”

The blending of upscale French techniques and local culture shows up on the 1904 menu book's pages in the form of a little hominy here, some cornbread stuffing there.

"You see these glimpses of Appalachian food culture integrated into this predominantly French-presented food that the Vanderbilts were accustomed to having," Garst said. "It’s very slightly interwoven in.”

One menu entry shows roasted duck served with fried hominy and applesauce, lobster salad on the side, representative of the kind of Appalachian-fusion food that was showing up on Biltmore Estate dining tables.

Certain aspects on the table would have been found outside of the estate's gates, according to Ronni Lundy, a scholar of Appalachian life and the Kentucky-born recipient of the Southern Foodways Alliance Craig Claiborne Lifetime Achievement Award.

But one thing is certain, she said: There was nothing taking place on local tables as elaborate as the Vanderbilts' spread.

Asheville's population included ordinary middle- or merchant-class folks, the black community and the surrounding rural community, all of whom faced varying levels of wealth within their respective classes, Lundy noted.

"But for those who chose to, and were able to, celebrate with a feast, its components would have been drawn from a largely local larder," she said.

George Vanderbilt was born in 1862, the year before Thanksgiving was declared a national holiday, but it was a well-established tradition by 1904. That's long enough for turkey to become a staple on the wealthier Thanksgiving tables. But those who didn't have access to one either bought or raised another type of bird, perhaps a large hen or duck, to sit at the center of the table, Lundy said.

Hunters' households might have seen quail or roasted venison. For those who cured their own meats, there might be a ham.

At the Biltmore Estate, Thanksgiving included a salade of roast Virginia ham with tomatoes and celery. Celery, today a ubiquitous flavoring agent in stuffing and pilaf, was a revered ingredient in the Vanderbilts' time — even a status symbol. It appeared only in dressings served in wealthier homes, said Lundy, who noted that most stuffing of the day would be made with cornbread with onions for seasoning.

Mashed or roasted potatoes would have been likely, but local squash might have supplanted sweet potatoes. Otherwise, the table would have been laden with the spoils from a raid of the larder's "put-up" foods. And shuck beans or leather britches might be on the table if it had been an abundant year and there were not deep concerns about getting through the winter, Lundy said.

At the Banquet Hall table, roast turkey was accompanied by cranberry jelly, sweet potatoes, peas and beets. Though apple Stack Cake might well have been the main dessert elsewhere in Appalachia, dessert at the Vanderbilts' was mince pie, a Thanksgiving favorite, served with pineapple ice cream.

"Mince pie is traditionally a European thing that would use dried fruit and meat that you would pack in a jar and cure, and that would turn into mince pie," explained Biltmore chef Spencer Hilgeman, of the Estate’s Village Social restaurant.

Updating the menu

Though that's a dish that's largely fallen out of favor today, the Vanderbilts' otherwise timeless tastes have make it easier for him to create recipes inspired by the archival 1904 menu.  That mince pie turns into a more modern fruit pie with a cheddar crust.

Higelman's interpretation of the turkey, in 1904 served with cranberry jelly, gets a blood-orange glaze, which nods to the Vanderbilt holiday tradition of giving oranges to children of workers who attended the estate's annual Christmas Eve celebration.

That's why estate visitors still find baskets of oranges in the Banquet Hall, said Biltmore public relations manager Marissa Jamison. “That was delightful to these kids to get this ripe fruit in the middle of winter," she said.

The Vanderbilts were among the privileged class that could import citrus to celebrate the holidays. But for the most part, the order of the day was local, far before "seasonal" became a buzzword. Even the Vanderbilts couldn’t keep trains running constantly, laden with exotic food from far-off climes — like Florida.

“The tradition has always been local and seasonal,” Hilgeman said. “It’s only been in the past 20-30 years that we’ve moved away from that, and luckily, we’re coming back to it.”

Hilgeman’s style, and that of other modern chefs, hearkens back to methods 20th-century cooks at the Biltmore Estate would have employed — canning tomatoes after a season of surplus, for example. “It’s the resourcefulness of using what you can and, if you have excess, what can we do with it so we don’t lose it?” he said.

To that end, there are more similarities in the 1904 menu book than there are differences to modern menus, Higelman said. Turn the page past the 1904 Thanksgiving dinner, for example, and you’ll find dishes made with leftover turkey.

“It’s all coming full-circle right now,” said Hilgeman, noting chefs in the South are investing more in generational knowledge than ever before. And records like the Biltmore Estate’s archival book can help Asheville join that regional revival.

“I’ve researched a little bit and unfortunately there’s not a lot of information out there that’s easily accessible," Hilgeman said. "Luckily we have Biltmore and the Vanderbilts to have a little bit of that history.”

​Chef Spencer Hilgeman of the Village Social’s recipes inspired by the archival 1904 menu book for a modern Thanksgiving celebration are below.

OYSTERS ON THE HALF SHELL WITH A HOLIDAY SAUCE TRIO

Oyster shucking tips: be sure to us a folded towel to protect your hand. When using the shucker, rather than pushing hard, jiggle it like a key to pop the hinge of the oysters. Once open, be sure to remove the muscle from the bottom of the shell for easy eating. 

Cocktail sauce

½ cup ketchup

2 tablespoons prepared horseradish

1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce

Charred onion relish

5 green onions, charred or lightly sauteed and chopped

2 tablespoons chopped parsley

½ jalapeno, thinly sliced

2 tablespoons white balsamic vinegar

3 teaspoons olive oil

2 teaspoons salt

1 teaspoon ground pepper

Biltmore sparkling mignonette

2 tablespoons chopped parsley

1 tablespoon Mirin

1 shallot, sliced

2 tablespoons champagne vinaigrette

1 tablespoon honey

2 teaspoons salt

1 teaspoon ground pepper

¼ cup Biltmore brut sparkling wine

Combine ingredients for each sauce into separate bowls, allowing mignonette to sit for two hours. Top a platter of oysters with any or all of the three holiday sauces and enjoy.

BLOOD ORANGE ROAST TURKEY WITH HEIRLOOM POTATOES

Blood orange glaze

2 cups Biltmore century red wine

2 cups blood orange juice

1 cup sugar

2 tablespoons honey

Bring to a boil, then reduce to a simmer until a light syrup consistency.

Compound butter

1 pound unsalted butter

2 tablespoons chopped herbs (parsley, thyme, chives)

3 tablespoons chopped shallots

Zest of 3 blood oranges

3 tablespoons kosher salt

1 tablespoon ground black pepper

Combine all ingredients and mix. Separate the skin from the breast and stuff the compound butter underneath. Spread out evenly and roast uncovered at 375 F for 1 ½ -2 hours or until the internal temperatures reaches 165 F.

Allow turkey to rest before applying blood orange glaze.

HERB ROASTED HEIRLOOM POTATOES

2 pounds baby heirloom potatoes

3 sprigs fresh rosemary

4 sprigs fresh thyme

3 tablespoons chopped garlic

2 shallots sliced

3 tablespoons olive oil

2 tablespoons kosher salt

1 tablespoons ground pepper

Combine all ingredients, ensuring the oil coats everything. Place on small baking sheet and bake for 30-45 minutes at 350 F, or until potatoes are tender.

APPLE AND CURRANT MINCE PIE WITH WHITE CHEDDAR CRUST

Mince pie dough

3 cups all-purpose flour

½ pound butter, chopped and chilled

½ cup water

1 ½ teaspoons salt

2 tablespoons sugar

½ cup shredded white cheddar

Combine all ingredients except water and knead until butter is incorporated into the flour. Add water and continue to knead. Wrap in plastic wrap and allow to rest in the refrigerator for at least 2 hours.

Mince pie filling

6-7 Granny Smith apples

2 cups dried currants

1/8 teaspoon ginger

¼ teaspoon nutmeg

¼ teaspoon ground cinnamon

2 bay leaves

1 cup light brown sugar

2 tablespoons honey

1 cup apple cider

In a medium pot, combine all ingredients and bring to a boil. Reduce heat and simmer until apples are soft and apple cider has reduced. Allow to cool to at least room temperature.

Mince pie finish

Roll out the pie dough large enough to cut two circles 1-2 inches larger than your pie pan. Cut out 2 circles with a knife. Place one in the bottom of your pie pan and trim off any excess. “blind bake” in oven for 15 minutes or until crust is very light brown on the edges. Remove and cool.

Fill bottom crust with pie filling. Place other dough circle over the top and trim any excess. Crimp the edges with a fork, brush with egg wash (1 egg beaten) and score in the middle to allow steam to escape. Bake at 350 F for 35-45 minutes or until crust is golden brown. Remove from oven, allow to cool for 30 minutes and enjoy.