So posh it needs only two words in its name, The Getty is really two places, the much better known Getty Center and the magnificent Getty Villa, a recreation of a Roman country house circa 1 A.D.
Photo courtesy of getty.edu
The latter is all-ancient Roman and Greek art—running the gamut of paintings, pottery, sculptures, glass and all that made this period so culturally rich but don’t look for anything newer than the fall of the Roman Empire amongst the 23 galleries and in the four glorious gardens brimming with plantings of pomegranates, oleanders, stone pines and damask roses, all known to have existed several millenniums ago.
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).
Sister Lizzie’s Shaker Sugar Pie Photo courtesy of the Golden Lamb
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.
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.
Golden Lamb’s Mushroom Cobbler Photo courtesy of the Golden Lamb
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.
Yeast Rolls Photo courtesy of the Golden Lamb
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.
One of the private dining rooms at the Golden Lamb
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
