Brown Derby Spaghetti Tetrazzini with Sherry (1955)

• 3 oz butter
• 4 large mushrooms, julienne
• 4 slices truffle, julienne (optional)
• 1/3 cup sherry
• 1 cup Cream Sauce (see below)
• 1/3 cup Pastry Cream (see below)
• 1 cooked chicken breast, julienne
• 1-1/2 cups chicken dark meat
• 2 egg yolks
• Salt and pepper
• 2 cups spaghetti, cooked 8 minutes
• 1/2 cup Parmesan cheese

Heat butter in medium-sized heavy skillet.  Add mushrooms and saute until lightly browned. Add truffle.  Add sherry and reduce by one-third.

Add Cream Sauce, Pastry Cream, and chicken. Blend well, and allow to simmer 5 minutes.  Thicken with egg yolks mixed with a little of the cream. Season with salt and pepper to taste.

Arrange well-drained spaghetti in heated, buttered casserole dish.  Pour chicken sauce over spaghetti.  Sprinkle with Parmesan cheese.  Brown over open flame.  Serve at once.  Serves two. 

Brown Derby Cream Sauce

• 2 tbspns butter
• 2 heaping tbspns flour
• 2 cups milk, heated
• Pinch each, salt and nutmeg

Heat butter and add flour.  Mix well until smooth and all lumps have disappeared.  Add milk, salt, and nutmeg.  Cook 15 to 20 minutes.  Strain through fine sieve.

Classic Pastry Cream

• 2-1/4 cups whole milk
• 6 large egg yolks
• 2/3 cups sugar
• 1/3 cup cornstarch
• 1 vanilla split, or 1 tspn vanilla extract

In medium bowl. whisk together 1/2 cup milk, egg yolks, 1/3 cup sugar, and cornstarch. Transfer remaining 1-3/4 cups milk to heavy medium saucepan.  Add vanilla extract, or scrape in seeds from vanilla bean, then add pod.  Sprinkle remaining 1/3 cup sugar over, letting sugar sink undisturbed to bottom.  Set pan over moderate heat, and bring to simmer without stirring.

Whisk hot milk mixture, then gradually whisk into egg yolk mixture.  Return to saucepan over moderate heat and cook, whisking constantly, until pastry cream simmers and thickens, about 1 minute.  Remove from heat, discard vanilla pod, and whisk cream until smooth.  Makes 3 cups.  (Pastry cream can be made ahead and refrigerated, wrapped well, up to 3 days.)

(Origin - "The Brown Derby Cookbook - 50th Anniversary Edition, 1926 - 1976."  Forward by Walter Scharfe, President of Brown Derby International Ltd; Hollywood, California.)

More "Lost" Restaurant Recipes

Classic Brown Derby Cobb Salad (1937)

Trader Vic's Baked Bananas with Rum Sauce (1968)

Trader Vic's Celery Victor with Crab Legs or Shrimp (1946)

Antoine's Cream of Oyster Soup (1965)
Old Bookbinder's Oysters, Broiled (1961)