A New Hotel Bancroft and More Bancroft House Hash Recipes
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“One of Michigan’s Finest Hostelries – The new Hotel Bancroft, recently completed, supplants and succeeds the old Bancroft House, which was founded in 1859, and which earned an enviable reputation for its atmosphere of hospitality, comfortable appointments and excellent table, The ambition of the management to continue-the old-time cordiality and to perpetuate the standard of cuisine is reflected in the sincere efforts of the organization to please all patrons. In modernized refinement, comfort and beauty the new Hotel Bancroft is truly one of Michigan’s finest hotels.”
-From a c.1916 advertising brochure for the “New” Hotel Bancroft.
Note: While this piece stands independently, if you didn’t read last week’s piece, we encourage you to do so.
The original Bancroft House was dedicated with great fanfare on Wednesday, September 7, 1859.
“After a continuous operation of fifty-six years, in which the hotel earned a high reputation for excellence of its cuisine and care of its guests, the old Bancroft was closed on August 28, 1915. During these years many distinguished men, including statesmen, capitalists, politicians, actors and lumbermen stopped at this popular hostelry, and its fame extended far beyond the confines of the State. Its corned-beef hash was one of the numerous items on its daily menu, that became known far and wide and helped to give the house its celebrity. In fact Bancroft House hash may be obtained any day at several large hotels in New York City.” (James Cooke Mills. History of Saginaw County Michigan: Historical, Commercial, Biographical. Saginaw, Seeman & Peters, 1918.)
To explore the “New”--1916–Hotel Bancroft Hotel:
While we still seek hotel and restaurant menus listing Bancroft House Hash or Bancroft Hash, a recipe for Bancroft Hash appears in The Caro Cook Book: A Selection of Tested Recipes. Published in 1894, this is the earliest reference we have found – so far. The recipe provided is one of the simpler versions of this straightforward preparation:
“Bancroft House Hash. Take boiled corned beef and cold boiled potatoes, chop, not too fine. To one cup of meat use three cups of potatoes, one-fourth cup of butter, and one-half cup of milk; stew in a sauce pan over a slow fire and serve plain, or browned in frying pan, omlet[sic]shape- Mrs. C.J. Reynick”
A digital search of newspapers suggests Bancroft Hash had become a recognizable preparation by the first years of the twentieth century. A limited search reveals recipes for Bancroft Hash in the Saline Observer in 1909 and an Atlanta, Georgia paper of the same year. The versions published were a distinctive variation of the dish prepared by Carrie Ives Saunders of Saginaw. Although the recipes published in these papers are verbatim from her cookbook, she is not credited.
Next: Myths of the Bancroft…
Carrie Ives Saunders’ Interpretation of Bancroft [House]Hash
For this week’s interpretation, we turn to Saginaw’s very own cooking expert, Carrie Ives Saunders. If you are not a faithful reader of the Castle Test Kitchen, shame on you. This link will provide some background.
Bancroft Hash (Noted from Shore to Shore). Chip in small pieces three cupfuls of boiled potatoes (do not chop). Make one pint of cream or milk gravy, season with salt and pepper. Thicken this as for the table, stir in the potatoes being careful not break them, then turn into a buttered pudding mold or bake dish, lightly mix in one and one-half cupfuls of cooked corn beef, chopped fine, (that is quite red) two tablespoons of parsley, but do not stir, just lightly mix. Put in the oven and bake for twenty minutes. Serve in the dish it is cooked in. (Saunders, Carrie Ives. Bread-winner's Smiles: Or, Choice Recipes for the Modern Home-maker. Saginaw, Mich.: The Author, 1890. Held at Michigan State University Special Collections.)*
CTK Interpretation of Carrie Ives Saunders Interpretation of Bancroft House Hash
3 cups coarsely chipped potatoes [we used a fork to break cooled potatoes into coarse chips.]
2 cups white sauce made with heavy cream** - seasoned with salt and pepper
1 /2 cups finely chopped corned beeef 2 tablespoons finely chopped parsley
Method
Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
Butter baking dish. In the pan in which white sauce was made, gently combine potatoes and white sauce. Do not overmix. Pour into buttered baking dish. Add parsley and corned beef on top of potato white sauce mixture. Lightly fold last two ingredients into potato mixture, being careful not to overmix or splatter onto sides of baking dish. Bake for 20 minutes. Serve directly from baking dish.
CTK NOTE:
This is an intriguing variation of the numerous variations of Bancroft Hash. In many ways, it seems closer to scalloped potatoes than corned beef hash. It is really quite wonderful. Not photogenic – but wonderful. The next time we make it, we will experiment in cooking it longer at a slightly higher temperature. It desperately wants a crusty, browned top.
*Although in previous segments about Carrie Ives Saunders we claimed no copies of the cookbooks she wrote have been found, team member Dr. Katherine Ellison made a trip to the Special Collections at MSU Library and discovered a cookbook Saunders authored. We will be exploring this book in future posts.
**This is a white sauce recipe from Cook the Story.
