History

Delmonico steak:  a mystery solved

By Joe O'Connell, Food Writer
First posted 3 July 2003 at 1840 GMT
Last updated 30 November 2003 at 1724 GMT

MANHATTAN BEACH, California -- This sets forth a bibliography of authorities about Delmonico's Restaurant, the Delmonico Steak, Delmonico Potatoes, and related information.  The bibliography is organized into several different area.

• Delmonico's Official Website
• A short history of Delmonico's by Louise 
• New York Food Museum's short entry about the restaurant
• Ranhofer, Charles.  The Epicurean.  (New York:  C. Ranhofer).  (Editions of 1894, 1900 and 1916.)
• Filippini, Alessandro. The Table (various editions). New York:  C.L. Webster & Co. or Baker & Taylor Co.). (Editions of 1889, 1890, 1891, 1892, 1895.)
• Next Magazine's Review of Delmonico's Restaurant
• ABC Business News has a review of the restaurant with much of its history.
• Food Reference Website for Delmonico's Restaurant
• Infoplease on How Some Famous Dishes Got Their Names (such as Beef Stroganoff, Beef Wellington, and Caesar Salad)
• Beef cut identification from the University of Nebraska, which has very good picture of various steaks.
• Detailed descriptions of each cut of meat, including diagrams and detailed muscle descriptions, are available in PDF form from the USDA website.
• Beef cut identification is available from Canadian Beef, which also has very good pictures of various steaks and roasts.
• Fine Cooking Online has a very good story by Molly Stevens, "Choosing Tender Steaks for the Grill".
• Robb Walsh wrote a story in the Houston Press entitled "A Matter of Fat:  The U.S. beef industry's lower standards have led to an increase in chop houses."  The story explains the reason that the quality of beef has declined so much during the last 20 years.
• The Cook's Thesaurus on steaks includes excellent descriptions and pictures of all the steaks and roasts from the loin section and from the rib section.
• The Yellow Sheet also includes pictures and descriptions.
• Steve's Steak Central includes illustrations showing where the different meat cuts come from, an explanation of  the meaning of Certified Angus Beef, and the dry-aging process.
• The Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco.  Westward Expansion:  Broken Bank Notes & Wildcat Issues:  Private Issues (which depicts a copy of the Delmonico $0.15 note.  <www.frbsf.org/currency/expansion/private/s35.html> October 18, 2000 at 11:40 AM PDT (1834 GMT).   
• WABC TV report which includes information on the 1999 change of ownership.
• ExploreNYC includes the architectural history of the restaurant.
• Texas Monthly provides a history of the hamburger
• MCNY includes an entry about two of the restaurant locations.
• Clemens, Samuel (Mark Twain).  A Tramp Abroad.  1894.
• Mariani, John.  "Ready for Prime Time -- A Good Steak is Hard to Find."  Cigar Aficionado, The Library, Archives.  Published Winter 1993.
• Meyer, Craig.  Ask the Meatman FAQ.  October 22, 2002.
• ______, Oxford English Dictionary.  Oxford:  Clarandon Press.  1933.
• Starr, Kevin.  "The Musso & Frank Grill in Hollywood" (in PDF format) includes some of the history of Delmonico's Restaurant.
• Thomas, Lately.  Delmonico's -- A Century of Splendor.  Houghton Mifflin Co, Boston, 1967.  [Authorship attributed erroneously to Robert Steele.]