
Welcome November! This is actually the second November menu today. Why another menu? Because the first was from the 20th century and this one is from the 18th century – and that’s just cool.
Let’s interpret the options.
- Chine of Pork. Fantastic spelling.
- Beef Collops is beef stew. Actually Scottish beef stew. But we’d recognize it. Slow roasted beef, onions, and seasoning.
- Ox Palates are the roofs of cows’ mouths. Hmm…
- Harrico, or haricot, are green beans.

This menu comes for 1792, 225 years ago. What else was happening in 1792?
Glad you asked…
The French Revolution – that’s right. In September of 1792, the French monarchy was abolished. Louis was sitting in jail waiting for his trial, probably eating A dish of Fish. But probably not eating Ragou’d Lobsters.
The first Farmers Almanac was published in November 1792. Huh. I had no idea.
In the U.S., George Washington was President and the national postal service was created. Note: I was going to put a picture of the first postage stamp in this post, but it didn’t come around until 1847 – 55 years after the inauguration of the postal service.
That’s government bureaucracy for you. Some things never change.
More Fun Discoveries
They certainly didn’t waste any of the slaughtered livestock. Thanks for sharing and for your research.
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Yes! Lots and lots of protein – which was my first reaction, too. But scurvy was a thing.
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