# history: "Bill of Fare During the Siege of Paris"



## sgl42 (Jan 20, 2004)

stumbled across this, and thought some here might find it of interest:


> http://www.foodreference.com/html/a-siege-menu2.html
> 
> Bill of Fare During the Siege of Paris
> 
> ...


--sgl


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## Bearfootfarm (Jul 13, 2006)

Yummmm Yummmmmmmmm!!


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## WanderingOak (Jul 12, 2004)

Interesting, although I do have to wonder if it was real or meant as a joke...


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## Sweetsurrender (Jan 14, 2009)

I also wonder if it isn't meant as a joke. My first language is French and I find it odd that all of the less chocking menu items were not translated: peas, potatoes, mache and celery salad, plum pudding.

Also if all the animals were bought by an English butcher before the siege then it would mean those were commonly eaten animals?


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## Guest (Jul 29, 2009)

Must have been early in the siege if they had all of that still available to them.

Take a close look at the siege of Stalingrad if you want to see desperate straits.

Or the siege of Vicksburg.

Food storage and even producing your own will only take you so far. History is full of examples where circumstances came together to use up the available resources of a given time and place.

.....Alan.


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## NoClue (Jan 22, 2007)

I wonder where they got the ostriches


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## Guest (Jul 29, 2009)

Likely from the Paris Zoo.

.....Alan.


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## Bearfootfarm (Jul 13, 2006)

> Also if all the animals were bought by an English butcher before the siege then it would mean those were commonly eaten animals?


It would mean they were common animals, but not necessarily for food.

And the butcher was just smart enough to realize meat would be in short supply, plus he probably already knew all the area farmers who would have those animals


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## sgl42 (Jan 20, 2004)

WanderingOak said:


> Interesting, although I do have to wonder if it was real or meant as a joke...





Sweetsurrender said:


> I also wonder if it isn't meant as a joke. My first language is French and I find it odd that all of the less chocking menu items were not translated: peas, potatoes, mache and celery salad, plum pudding.
> 
> Also if all the animals were bought by an English butcher before the siege then it would mean those were commonly eaten animals?


i don't think it is a joke.

it's mentioned in the wiki under seige of paris, under the jardin, and under the name of the chef. it's also mentioned on the website of the jardin, altho in french.



> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Siege_of_Paris
> 
> Due to a severe shortage of food, Parisians were forced to slaughter whatever animals at hand. Rats, dogs, cats, and horses were regular fare on restaurant menus. Even Castor and Pollux, the only pair of elephants in Paris, were not spared.
> 
> ...





> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jardin_d'Acclimatation
> 
> During the Siege of Paris in 1870-1871, many of the animals in the menagerie were cooked and served in one of Paris' finest restaurants (Voisin) by famed chef Alexandre Ãtienne Choron.





> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alexandre_Ãtienne_Choron
> 
> Choron is also remembered for his dishes served during the Siege of Paris by the Prussians in which began on September 19, 1870. During the siege, Parisians were reduced to eating cats, dogs, and rats.[2] The bourgeois were not content to eat on such low animals, and demand at the de luxe restaurants remained high. As food reserves dwindled, these restaurants, including Voisin, improvised.[2] Choron eyed the animals kept at the local zoo, and served exotic animal dishes at Voisin. For the midnight Christmas meal of 1870, Choron proposed a menu principally composed of the best parts of the animals kept in the Jardin d'acclimatation (one of Paris' zoos)[2][3] &#8211; stuffed head of donkey, elephant consommÃ©, roasted camel, kangaroo stew, bear shanks roasted in pepper sauce, wolf in deer sauce, cat with rat, and antelope in truffle sauce &#8211; has become legendary. The menu's wines were Mouton-Rothschild 1846, RomanÃ©e-Conti 1858 and ChÃ¢teau Palmer 1864.[4]





> Jardin d'acclimatation official website, (http://www.jardindacclimatation.fr/) view histoire:
> 
> 
> > La guerre de 1870 avec la Prusse interrompt pour un temps les visites sous les nobles frondaisons du Jardin. La famine Ã  Paris impose en effet des mesures d&#8217;urgence. Les pensionnaires du Jardin sont abattus afin de nourrir la population de la capitale, et c&#8217;est ainsi qu&#8217;au menu de la Saint Sylvestre de 1870 on trouve de l&#8217;entrecÃ´te d&#8217;Ã©lÃ©phant !
> ...


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