Royal Soup
Imperial Sticks
Breaded Lamb Chops, Tomato Sauce
*Baked Potatoes, Hotel Style
Moulded Spinach
Wafer Crackers
Cream Cheese
Bar-le-duc Strawberries
Café Noir

In 1914 January 13 was a Tuesday.

Royal Soup with Imperial Sticks sounds so grand! The reality is a very frugal soup with toasted stale bread.

I found a recipe for Breaded Mutton Chops, but not lamb. It should work about the same, maybe with a shortened cooking time.

Bar-le-Duc strawberries are a kind of preserve. The town is famous for their currant preserves, in which the ripe currants are hand-seeded using a goose quill, leaving the fruit intact, like little pearls or caviar. I’m told that they pop delightfully in your mouth, but I haven’t been lucky enough to taste it. I also haven’t found much information about the strawberry version, but I assume it was just as delicious and just as much of a status symbol.

UPDATE: Canning, Preserving and Pickling by Marion Harris Neil (1914) has a recipe!

STRAWBERRY BAR-LE-DUC, p. 124
Perfect strawberries. Sugar.
Three things are indispensable in making strawberry bar-le-duc. The first is strong, steady sunshine, the second, hot platters or plates, the third plenty of window-glass.
The fruit should be of good flavor, the sugar pure. To every pound of fruit allow three cupfuls of sugar. Heat the sugar on plates in the oven, taking care not to let it melt or get too brown. It should be as hot as possible without melting.
Spread a thin layer of hot sugar over the bottoms of hot platters or deep plates, then a layer of fruit and then another layer of sugar.
Cover the platters with a clean sheet of window-glass and place outdoors in the hot sun or in a sunny window. If the fruit is outdoors it must be brought in when the sun sets and put in a dry place indoors.
Return to the sun in the morning. In a few days the fruit will grow plump and firm and the syrup almost a jelly.
Pack in tumblers and seal.
If the syrup is not thick, boil until clear and thickened, then pour in the glasses over the fruit.

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