The Summer Menu

What does Wolfe prefer to eat in the summertime (as summer is fast approaching)? I recall that one story revolved around his need to have sweet-corn picked at precisely the right time and shipped to the brownstone.

I can't quite place the time of year, but weren't there specially raised and fed quail or grouse? I also don't know when shad roe is in season. Like you, the corn is a standout memory for me. :)

The novel Murder is Corny is inside "Trio for Blunt instruments". Yes it was in Summer:" By an arrangement with a farmer named Duncan McLeod up in Putman County, every Tuesday from July 20 to October 5, sixteen ears of just-picked corn were delivered".

I don't remember another summer menu, i'll check

Wolfe's speech in Too Many Cooks might give a clue, I'm not sure he mentions specific seasons though. Possibly just specific regions in America. I love that speech.

So, I just bought a book while visiting Boston, which gives the answer. It's The New England Table, and in the Conneticut section we find a very Wolfe-ian menu: Sauteed Shad Roe, Steamed Fiddlehead Ferns, Jazzy Brown Rice, and Lemon Pudding Cake. It says Conneticut River shad roe "turn up in fish markets in late March and early April". I am assuming other rivers in the region cannot be far off in season. It looks like very early spring.

Hopefully, tonight, I can post on some of the summer menus in The Nero Wolfe Cookbook. :) Now I must run.

Great speech, I agree, MrsLee!

Until later....

Well, now I want that dinner! Sadly, I'm in California and I've never heard of shad in our streams. I know they harvest Fiddlehead Ferns in S.F., but not sure if they are up here or not.

There is also a book that mentions blackbirds, if I recall correctly, and another that mentions some other fowl fed on blueberries. Very particular was Mr. Wolfe.

I have The Nero Wolfe Cookbook at home, as well. I'm going to have to look at some of the summer dishes. And as far as I could tell, every season was shad roe season at Wolfe's table!

The Nero Wolfe Cookbook has a recipe for a simple but wonderful summer salad, with cantaloupe and celery. Turmeric is among the seasonings. I was surprised by how good it was.

Ostrom, nice to have the recommendation. But did you mean coriander? It sounds more likely, if still unexpected - with its gentle, slightly lemony flavor - and I don't see turmeric in my recipe.

Lobster, shrimp, and cold beef dishes seem to head the summer-entree list. If I could afford lobster, what fun it would be! Brazilian lobster salad with a green salad of six kinds of greens and a light vinaigrette sounds lovely. Wouldn't the papaya custard (laced with coconut!) suit it?

Maybe I'll try shrimp bordelaise and what - salad beatrice? pineapple sherbet? - or curried beef roll, salad, and blueberry grunt. I think we need fried chicken and mush, with cream gravy, and three kinds of pie, for Archie; or an abbreviated version of the dinner of clam cakes, beef braised in red wine, zucchini with sour cream and dill, and avocado with watercress and black walnuts, which Lon Cohen got. :)

Maybe pork loin medallions or lamb chops with white wine, plus tomato tarts, a mixed green salad, and... raspberries in sherry cream?

Or just corn fritters with savory toppings, then sweet, and - breaking a Wolfe norm, I think - beer.

You can see how dangerous it is to let me loose with cookbooks.... ;)

Best wishes to all of you on your summer eating. I'll try to make something that would please Fritz, however small, before the season ends.

It might have been coriander, but I seem to remember adding some turmeric, which isn't as spicy as I expected--rather sweet. Anyway, the combination of celery and cantaloupe is inspired.