By Fred Steiner
www.BlufftonForever.com

Blue point oysters, bisque of lobster, baked shad with piquant sauce, cheese straws, Philadelphia capon, Roman punch, cream tartlets with foam sauce…and, we’ve not yet mentioned the roasts on the menu.

Sounding like exceptional cuisine of a multi-star restaurant, it is actually from a Main Street Bluffton restaurant of 125 winters ago.

Here’s your invitation to enjoy an 1898 Christmas dinner in the Stephan Hotel at the corner of Main and Church streets. Read the history of the hotel at the bottom of this story.

As found in a December, 1898,  Bluffton News, the following is the Christmas dinner 1898 bill of fare.

OYSTERS
Blue Points, lemon quarters

SOUP
Bisque of lobster, cheese straws

RELISH
Celery, queen olives, mixed pickles
Durkee’s salad dressing
Olive oil

FISH
Baked shad
Sauce piquant

BOIL
Philadelphia capon
Sauce a la Stephan

ROASTS
Prime western beef
Mushroom sauce
Young turkey, cranberry sauce
Brown ribbed beef
Brown Jersey potatoes

DRINK
Roman punch with fruit

ENTREES
Little pigs in blankets
Sauce imperial
Cream tartlets with foam sauce

VEGETABLES
Mash potatoes
Brown Jersey sweet potatoes
Evergreen corn
French peas

PASTRY
Apple
Mince
Pumpkin

DESSERT
Metropolitan ice cream
Assorted cake
Oranges
Bananas
Apples
Malaga grapes

Coffee
Tea
Milk

How significant was this Christmas dinner? It is the earliest of such menus ever discovered in the Bluffton News. 

Click HERE for more of this story plus photos.