Preparing a Gelatin Dish That Was Once Featured at a Vanderbilt Dinner During the Gilded Age

Max Miller of Tasting History prepared “Gelée macédoine aux fruits”, a molded gelatin dish that was once featured at a lavish supper hosted by Grace (Mrs. Cornelius) Vanderbilt during the Gilded Age of the late 19th century.

During the Gilded Age balls and dinner parties  were out of this world. One evening’s festivities could cost up to $10 million in today’s money. Now this was of course for the privileged very, very few of which I am not one of them but that doesn’t mean that I can’t eat like one of them.

As the dish was setting, Miller talked about why this period was known as “gilded”, particularly since much of the city was living in abject poverty at the time.

The term the Gilded Age came from the 1873 novel of the same name by Mark Twain and Charles Dudley Warner, …See when something is golden it’s typically gold all the way through but when it’s gilded it’s just a little bit of gold on top of a hunk of iron or some other less precious metal. And while the wealthy of the Gilded Age glittered at the top just beneath that was a sea of political corruption with many Americans living in desperate poverty.

He also spoke in detail about these unbelievably extravagant meals that were served in wealthy households such as the Astors or Vanderbilts, gentlemen’s clubs, and other exclusive events.

And perhaps nothing illustrates this dichotomy more than the grand dinners and balls of New York society…Many of these plates would end up going back to the kitchen barely even touched, and there sometimes the food would be eaten by the servants but very often it would just be tossed out or givento the animals. And there was something to be said about being able  to waste food at this period, it was a sign that you could afford to do it.