A Golden Lamb Thanksgiving: A Treat Since 1870

            I’ve spent a lot of time lately traversing Indiana, Illinois, Kentucky and Ohio following, so to speak, in Abraham Lincoln’s footsteps . And while it’s not recorded that Lincoln stayed at the Golden Lamb in Lebanon, Ohio, it’s certainly possible ashe traveled throughout the area. The connection seems apt because the GoldenLamb has been in continuous operation since it first opened in 1803 when Jonas Seaman spent four dollars on a license to open a log-cabin tavern under the sign of a golden lamb (because literacy wasn’t common, signs with images were used instead).

            A host of other famous people have stayed there including, according to General Manager Bill Kilimnik, 12 presidents, Mark Twain and Charles Dickins. Harriet Beecher Stowe, author of Uncle Tom’s Cabin and an avid abolitionist was also a guest and I slept in the room she occupied and no (to the people who have asked) it’s not haunted though another room is said to be and there’s also a ghost cat that some have seen. But that’s a different holiday and the tie-in with Lincoln is that in 1870, he proclaimed the fourth Thursday of November a national holiday and the inn’s restaurant has served Thanksgiving dinner since then–which has got to be some type of record. 

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            The restaurant is famed for many of their menu items including fried chicken, sauerkraut balls,Sister Lizzie’s Sugar Shaker Pie (White Water Shaker Village was once a large settlement of Shakers about three miles from Lebanon)–named by USA Today as the Best Pie in Ohio–and their yeast rolls made from a recipe first used by Robert and Virginia Jones in the early 1930s whose family still owns the inn. Their turkey dinners at Thanksgiving are very popular but if you can’t make it this coming Thursday,roast turkey is on the menu year round.

            According to several newspaper articles, back in the 1800s, the inn’s Thanksgiving menu included several oyster dishes including just plain oysters, consommé oysters as well as turkey stuffed with oysters. Other dishes were  whitefish, roast beef, chicken croquettes, wild duck, broiled quail, celery and lettuce—you could order it plain or with mayonnaise), plum pudding, mince pie, pineapple with “De Brie cheese”  and Charlotte Russe. I couldn’t find a description of the cheese, but plenty of advertisements for it in the late 1800s and early 1900s so my guess is it’s a type of creamy brie. Charlotte Russe a dessert of sweet cream and sponge cake popular during both the Victorian and Edwardian eras. 

            The Golden Lamb may be one of the few long-time restaurants that doesn’t have a cookbook and their recipes are hard to come by, but Paige Drees who works at the inn shared their Mushroom Cobbler which she said (and I agree) would make a great Thanksgiving side dish. I also found an original handwritten recipe for Sister Lizzie’s Sugar Shaker Pie on the website of the Vintage Recipe Project, an online site founded in order to document and preserve historic recipes from the past. I’m not sure if it’s the same as what the inn serves but I tried the recipe and it seems very similar to what I had at the restaurant.  

Golden Lamb’s Mushroom Cobbler

1 cup Shitake mushrooms sliced

1 cup button mushrooms quartered

1 cups oyster mushrooms sliced

1 cups cremini mushrooms sliced

2 each shallot sliced

1 packet fresh poultry blend herbs

1 cup heavy cream

8 ounces goat cheese

2 ounces dry sherry

4 cooked crumbled biscuits

1 packet fresh poultry blend herbs, cleaned and chopped reserve ½ for Biscuit topping

1 cup heavy cream

 8 ounces goat cheese reserve ½ for Biscuit topping

2 ounces dry sherry

Heat a medium sized skillet add one tablespoon of vegetable oil and sauté your shallots until tender, add all mushrooms and a pinch of salt and pepper. once the mushrooms are fork tender add sherry to deglaze pan. add your cream and reduce by half, fold in your goat cheese and fresh herbs, turn off and set aside.

Biscuit topping

4 cooked crumbled biscuits

2 tablespoons melted butter

Remaining goat cheese

Remaining fresh herbs

Place all ingredients into medium sized bowl mix until it resembles a crumb topping.

1 bunch chopped asparagus

2 ounces sliced sun-dried tomatoes

2 ounces pearl onions

½ cup baby spinach

Prepared mushroom mix

In a medium skillet sauté your pearl onion until caramelized, add your asparagus and sundried tomatoes and sauté for two minutes add the mushroom mix from earlier. add spinach, check seasoning and put mix into casserole dish sprinkle on biscuit topping and bake at 350 for eight minutes until bubbly and golden brown

Golden Lamb Yeast Dinner Rolls

1 ½ cup milk

4 teaspoons dry yeast

4 cups bread flour

2 teaspoons salt

½ cup sugar

5 tablespoons vegetable shortening

1 egg

Heat milk until warm, 100 degrees. Put yeast in a small bowl, add about ½ teaspoon sugar, then stir in milk. Let sit until foamy. Combine flour, salt, sugar and shortening in a mixer bowl, and mix to combine. Add the milk mixture and egg. Mix on mixer until combined, then beat for about 13 minutes.  Or, by hand, mix until combined, then turn out onto floured surface and knead until smooth and elastic.

Oil the dough ball lightly, cover the bowl with a towel and let rise for an hour, when it should be doubled in size. Punch down. Divide the dough into about 24 balls of dough. One way to do this is to divide the dough into two, then all each half of the dough into a long rope on a flour-covered counter. Cut each rope into 12 equal portions, and roll each into a ball.

Place on a flat baking sheet and cover with a towel, Preheat oven to 350. After the rolls have risen about half an hour,  bake them  until golden brown and fragrant, about 10-15 minutes. Check frequently. Serve as soon as possible after they come out of the oven. 

Yields 8-10 servings.

Sister Lizzie’s Sugar Shaker Pie

     1/4  pound butter

    1 cup brown sugar

    1 3/4  cups light cream

    1/3  cup flour

    1/2 teaspoon vanilla

    Grated nutmeg

    1  9-inch pie shell, unbaked

Thoroughly mix the flour and brown sugar and spread evenly in the bottom of the unbaked pie shell.  Pour the cream and vanilla over this.  Slice the butter into 12-16 pieces and add.  Sprinkle with nutmeg.  Bake in a 350°F oven for 40-45 minutes or until firm.

For more information, 513-932-5065; goldenlamb.com