Jim Bradshaw
Remembering riding the rails and dining well
Once upon a time, one of the best places in the world to eat was in the dining car of a first-class passenger train.
Chefs comparable to those in the best restaurants turned out delicious meals that were served on fine china set on crisp, white linen tablecloths. The ambiance was of a fine restaurant with impeccable service delivered even as the car swayed and bumped along the line.
Railroads competed tooth-and-nail for passengers back then, and a better-than-good dining car was essential in that competition. “Regulations and Instructions, Dining Car Service,” issued to employees by Union Pacific in the 1930s were typical of the kind of service expected.
“The steward of a dining car has charge of a small restaurant,” the instructions began. “To give the very highest class of service which is desired, a service which will be creditable to the Management and satisfactory to its patrons, the very best efforts of all employees on dining cars will be rendered. … Good cooking is absolutely necessary to a successful service.”
I was reminded of all of this when I found a faded “General Notice” from the Dining Car & Commissary Department of the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad Co. stuck between the pages of an old cookbook. It’s dated Aug. 8, 1961, and was intended for “all stewards, waiters-in-charge, cooks and waiters.”
Railroad travel was beginning to decline by then, and the dining car had become even more important as passenger trains made desperate efforts to hold on to riders.
Deluxe Maryland Crab Cakes top the list of recipes on the Baltimore & Ohio list, which could be expected for trains running next to Chesapeake Bay. The instructions are, “To each pound of crabmeat use one slice of white bread, soaked in water and squeezed dry. Break bread into small pieces and add one level teaspoon pepper, 3/4 teaspoon salt, one tablespoon dry mustard, one tablespoon mayonnaise, and one well beaten egg. Mix and form into seven cakes. Do not break up the large lumps of meat. Serve two cakes to the order.”
The Boiled Brisket of Beef with Horseradish Sauce calls for fresh brisket to be put into boiling salt water with a peeled onions, carrots and celery and cooked until tender, skimming as needed. The sauce required a roux made with a half cup of flour and a spoonful of butter. It was cooked for 10 minutes, and then a quart of broth strained from the brisket was added to it, along with a spoonful of horseradish and a spot of vinegar.
In its heyday, Southern Pacific’s famed Sunset Limited probably outshone the B&O. It was known for a cuisine inspired by Louisiana cooking, with favorites like gumbo, specially roasted coffees, and giant shrimp from the Gulf. A sumptuous Southern Pacific salad was such a point of pride that it was pictured on the line’s matchbook covers.
You’d find not only an array of chefs in a SP kitchen, but bakers and pie makers and other specialists. A 1939 SP menu included an appetizer of cream of chicken soup a la Reine; entrees such as poached filet of salmon, Southern fried chicken, and lamb basted with mint jelly; fresh vegetables, bran muffins or tea biscuits, and Old Fashioned Strawberry Shortcake or pie a la mode for dessert. The fresh-baked pies were sometimes served with a topping of ice cream made fresh on the train.
A collection of Jim Bradshaw’s columns, Cajuns and Other Characters, is now available from Pelican Publishing. You can contact him at jimbradshaw4321@gmail.com or P.O. Box 1121, Washington LA 70589.
