One of the fun parts about being the grants administrator of the New Mexico Historical Records Advisory Board is that I often get to see historical records before they are made available to the public. And you never can tell when historic food morsels will crumble onto your desk.

Two years ago, the board provided funds to The University of New Mexico Health Sciences Center to preserve and make available to the public the Valmora Industrial Sanatorium and Carl H. Gellenthien Collections. As I reviewed the index for this collection, I noticed references to menus from the 1920s to the 1950s at this sanatorium in Watrous, N.M. — from everyday meals, to dinners during World War II to holiday meals at Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Year's celebrations. I also saw a reference to a talk that Dr. Gellenthien had given before the New Mexico Medical Society in September 1931 titled "A Résumé of Diet Therapy." (Gellenthien was formerly the medical director at Valmora, a nationally recognized tuberculosis specialist, president of the New Mexico Medical Society and vice president of the American Medical Association).

With my culinary curiosity piqued, I contacted Peggy McBride at UNM and asked her to forward me copies of these menus and related photographs, as well as the speech that Gellenthien gave. The documents arrived and I dived into them, as any culinary detective certainly would. I soon saw menu items such as oyster cocktail, Manhattan salad, roast goose, poinsettia salad, creamed sweetbreads on toast, clover leaf rolls and other dishes that I'd never seen before.

Finding a cure in the arid Southwest

While almost every Santa Fean has strong opinions about nutrition, I've found most of them not to be based on nutritional or scientific facts. And I had a general notion that nutritional science was a rather recent phenomenon. But as I read Gellenthien's 1931 presentation, it felt like I was talking to a nutritionist at a university in 2009 as he described practical ways to obtain vitamins A, B, C and D, as well as his concern of the vitamin mania of the times and the dietary misconceptions of this era. But some of his nutritional ideas would probably "shiver the timbers" of many Santa Feans today.

In the 19th century, tuberculosis was the No. 1 cause of death in the United States. In the latter part of that century, German scientist Robert Koch discovered the bacillus responsible for tuberculosis, which changed the perception of the disease and how it could be treated. The treatment approach used was to combine nutritious food with fresh air and rest, preferably in a high, dry, sunny locale. New Mexico fit this prescription to a T, and in 1880, the territory started being promoted as a haven for "lungers" to be cured.

New Mexico's cities vied for these lungers, often coming up with catchy slogans, such as Albuquerque's "Heart of the Well Country," while Santa Fe countered with "Land of Sunshine." Three sanatoriums would be built in Santa Fe — St. Vincent, Diaz and Sun Mount. In perhaps a harbinger of Santa Fe's future nickname, the Sun Mount Sanatorium described itself as "The Sanatorium Different," and attracted artists, writers and other luminaries.

Among the tubercular illuminati who would come here for treatment were Will Schuster, Santa Fe New Mexican publisher, and later United States Sen. Bronson Cutting, fellow Sen. Clinton P. Anderson, poet Alice Corbin Henderson, architect John Gaw Meem and William R. Lovelace, co-founder of the Lovelace Clinic.

Initially, a swashbuckling approach was taken to the nutritional aspect of this treatment. Because tuberculosis literally "consumed its victims" (and thus its other name, "consumption"), sanatoriums plied their patients with food. Sir William Osler stated, "The cure of tuberculosis is a question of nutrition; digestion and assimilation control the situation; make a patient grow fat and the local disease may be left to take care of itself."

In fact, gaining weight was considered such an important indicator for progress that in his 1901 report to the secretary of the interior, Gov. Miguel Otero provided a list of 100 patients at Fort Stanton and the amount of weight that they had gained. I have to admit that when I'm feeling punky, eating additional food is a nutritional pabulum that I exercise.

However, these over-achiever-eaters were nonpareil. Dr. Edmond Long, a former "lunger" who later became director of medical research for the National Tuberculosis Association, said that when he was a sanatorium patient he drank "four quarts of milk and sometimes ate a dozen eggs a day plus three full meals under the 'grow fat' regimen." Perhaps it worked, as he gained 40 pounds and was cured of TB.

But a much more thoughtful dietary approach would later be developed by Gellenthien. He had been diagnosed with TB while in medical school in Chicago. He came to the Valmora Industrial Sanatorium, was cured of the tuberculosis and went back to medical school to complete his studies. While in Watrous, he met and marred the daughter of the founder of the Valmora Sanatorium, Dr. William Brown. Gellenthien came back to Valmora and eventually replaced Brown as the medical director of the sanatorium and continued to practice medicine in Northern New Mexico for more than 60 years.

Ahead of his time

At the May 1931 New Mexico Medical Society Session, Gellenthien gave a talk entitled "A Résumé of Diet Therapy":

"When primitive man's use of reason had progressed to such a stage where he was able to supply himself with plentiful quantities of food, he began to be particular, and his trouble as a result of faulty diet started. Today, with our civilization and its sedentary occupations, these troubles have multiplied."

Is he really saying this in 1931?

"Professor Evvard, experimenting with hogs at the Iowa State College, found that if various grain and mineral rations were placed in open bins accessible to the hogs, they would themselves choose the ones that gave optimum growth and development."

I remember a similar study from my undergraduate psychology course where toddlers were given free rein to pick from a variety of food types — sugars, carbohydrates, minerals, vitamins, etc. While they might gorge on one type of food for a day, over a relatively short period of time they always picked a balanced, healthy and nutritious combination of foods. Unfortunately, we seem to have lost this innate ability while a cornucopia of foods surround us.

"Unfortunately, man is governed chiefly by his desires," the doc continues, "and he usually does not choose so wisely. Then, today, he is constantly bewildered by the food faddists and others who have something to sell."

Did someone say "diet books?"

"The yeast fad is an outstanding example of the distortion of partial truths into misleading statements, and of the vitamin hysteria with which we are afflicted. ... The future historian of medicine is going to be somewhat puzzled when he comes to write up the story of the vitamin mania of the twentieth century. He will wonder what could have so frightened the dietitians that they should have behaved each day as if a moment's relaxation of vigilance would plunge all their adult patients into the throes of scurvy, beriberi, pellagra, and xerophthalmia."

The doc seems spot on here, as American are the most over-medicated people in the world. When I see friends popping all kinds of vitamin tablets, I always wonder why they just don't eat the foods that contain these necessary vitamins.

"Strange as it may seem, there is no shadow of an excuse for giving roughage when one wants to supply vitamins or chemical elements. One can get more than enough vitamins 'A' in butter, more than enough of the two 'B's in a little yeast or extract of wheat kernel obtainable in a drug store, more than enough 'C' in a little orange, and more than enough 'D' in a little tablet of concentrated cod liver oil or irradiated ergosterol."

Seems pretty sound to me, though I haven't seen extract of wheat kernel, cod liver oil or ergosterol at my local grocery store recently.

"Another popular misconception is that fresh vegetables are better than canned. Recent work has shown that canned vegetables and fruits are better than fresh vegetables and fruits as cooked in the average household. The canneries are usually located close to the source of supply so the vegetables can ripen in the natural way. Then they are put in the individual can — with water added, sealed, and cooked in the vacuum, vegetables do not require such a high temperature, and that prevents oxidization. The housewife, on the other hand, usually gets veggies from the market that are too ripe or not ripe enough, and then she adds a lot of water and cooks them. This cooking at a room's atmospheric pressure destroys the vitamin, and then the cook frequently throws away the water which contains the minerals so that, when her dish is put on the table, it is mostly cellulose, and most of the minerals and vitamins are gone."

This ties into a recent debate in the culinary world that frozen vegetables are also better than fresh vegetables, due to a similar process of quickly freezing them near their source; rather than "fresh" vegetables being transported thousands of miles by truck and then sitting in supermarket produce stands for several days.

"The propaganda for whole-wheat bread still flourishes. Its advocates attribute many of the ills of mankind to milling of the grain which removes the bran. They assert that white bread is thus deprived of important vitamin constituents, ignoring the fact these elements are supplied when bread is made with milk and eaten with butter, and in other constituents of the diet."

I suspect current nutritionists would not agree with this. But his reasoning makes me feel better about eating Wonder Bread.

"Today, the necessity for the use of bran is over-exaggerated. Bran is indigestible and irritating. Too much of it will produce a colitis ... The cellulose of cooked vegetables has much more to commend it."

I'll certainly think twice about all of those bran commercials that I see on TV now.

"Fats and oils in moderation are ordinarily well borne. Fried foods are usually well digested if they are fried in 'deep fat,' which quickly produces a crusty coagulum on the surface and so prevents the penetration of fat to the interior of the food."

I like this doc. I guess my mother knew what she was doing when she deep-fried all of that fish we ate as children.

"Cheese, if eaten slowly at mealtime as a protein food, is easily digested."

I can't tell you how many Santa Feans have argued the opposite of this point.

"From the practical standpoint, the normal daily diet should contain one pint of milk, two servings of green vegetables — one raw, one serving of raw fruit, two servings of protein foods and of foods from the carbohydrate and fat group."

This 1931 nutritional advice is very close to the new national dietary guidelines issued last year.

As the lecture ends, a question and answer period follows, and Dr. Curtis Rosser of Dallas stands up and says, "The question of diet has become as much a commercial item as Christmas is with the department stores. Most of us do what the advertisements and magazines tell us to do, and therefore we are on a diet ranging from sun-kissed oranges to all kinds of brans and yeast. As a matter of fact, Battle Creek is probably responsible for the origin of much of this advertising campaign, but what is good for the king's horses is not necessarily good for the king's men."

Touché.

So, with this dietary guidance, how did it play out in the menus and food that the patients at the Valmora Sanatorium had, which were likely similarly duplicated at other sanatoria in Santa Fe and throughout New Mexico? Breakfasts consisted of a variety of cooked fruits, such as stewed prunes, as well as other fresh fruits; those classic hot cereals of oatmeal, Cream of Wheat and Wheatena; and dry cereals still used today, such as Corn Flakes, Grape Nuts, Puffed Rice, Shredded Wheat and Kellogg's Bran Flakes. Hot cakes, toast, French toast, ham, bacon, sausage "once a week during cold weather" and calves liver "served once every ten days or two weeks" also were on the daily breakfast menu.

The lunch and dinner menus pretty much follow the dietary advice of Gellenthien. There are a wide variety of vegetable soups, shrimp and oyster cocktails, and a melange of lettuce and fruit salads, such as Waldorf Salad. The primary meats served were beef, turkey, veal and goose and, periodically, pork roasts. (Strangely enough, chicken is not in any of the menus). The meats are traditionally served with a brown gravy, and mashed potatoes and asparagus are the leading vegetable dishes, though beets, corn and Brussels sprouts also appear on various menus. The desserts are usually pies, which include apricot, pumpkin, gooseberry and lemon cream, along with periodic cakes.

What caught my culinary curiosity, however, were a number of dishes that I had never heard of nor seen before. I therefore pulled out all of my CSI (Culinary Science Investigation) skills to track them down, but the following dishes completely eluded me: peach gelatine, poinsettia salad, oyster bisque soup, beef broth with macaron, perfection salad, snowflake potatoes, Manhattan salad, Italian cocktail, and oyster cocktail. If any of you have recipes for these, please pass them my way.


I did track down some recipes for some sanatorium fare. The following recipes are for dishes eaten by patients at the Valmora Industrial Sanatorium in the early part of the 20th century:

TEA BISCUITS

2 cups all-purpose flour

4 teaspoons baking powder

1 teaspoon salt

1/2 cup shortening

3/4 cup milk

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Grease a baking sheet.

Combine flour, baking powder and salt. Cut shortening in until mixture has a fine crumb texture. Stir in milk with a fork to make a soft dough. Knead 8 to 10 times, and then roll out to a thickness of at least 1/2 inch. Cut into round with a cookie or biscuit cutter. Place on a cookie sheet, and allow to rest for a few minutes. Bake for 12 to 15 minutes. Serve warm.

SCALLOPED CORN

1 (15 ounce) can creamed corn

1 (15.25 ounce) can whole kernel corn

1 (8 ounce) container sour cream

2 eggs

1/2 cup butter

2 tablespoons white sugar

1 (8.5 ounce) package corn muffin mix

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease a 9x13-inch baking pan. Mix together corn, sour cream, eggs, melted butter or margarine, and sugar. Mix in muffin mix. Pour into prepared baking dish. Bake for 35 or 40 minutes, or until a knife inserted midway into pan comes out clean.

CREAMED SWEETBREAD

Parboil a sweetbread, and cut in one-half inch cubes, or separate in small pieces. Reheat in one cup White Sauce II (recipe below). Creamed Sweetbread may be served on toast, or used as filling for Swedish Timbales.

WHITE SAUCE II

2 tablespoons butter

3 tablespoons flour

1 cup milk

1/4 teaspoon salt

Few grains pepper

Put butter in saucepan, stir until melted and bubbling; add flour mixed with seasonings, and stir until thoroughly blended. Pour on gradually the milk, adding about 1/3 at a time, stirring until well mixed, then beating until smooth and glossy. If a wire whisk is used, all the milk may be added at once; and although more quickly made if milk is scalded, it is not necessary.

RAISIN PIE

1 cup sugar

2 1/2 tablespoons all-purpose flour

1 1/2 cups cold water

2 cups raisins

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon

1 tablespoon butter or margarine

1 Pastry for double-crust pie (9 inches)

In a saucepan, stir together sugar and flour. Add water and mix well. Stir in raisins, salt and cinnamon; cook and stir over medium heat until bubbly. Cook and stir 1 minute more. Remove from heat and stir in butter. Pour into a pastry-lined pie plate. Top with lattice crust, or cover with top crust and cut slits for steam to escape. Bake at 375 degrees for about 45 minutes or until crust is golden brown.

CREAMED TURNIP

Wash turnips, and cut in one-half inch cubes. Cook three cups cubes in boiling salted water 20 minutes, or until soft. Drain, and add one cup White Sauce I.

WHITE SAUCE I

2 tablespoons butter

2 tablespoons flour

1 cup milk

1/4 teaspoon salt

Few grains pepper

Make the same as thin white sauce, which is included with the creamed sweetbread recipe.

CLOVERLEAF ROLLS

Grease twelve 2- or 3-inch muffin-pan cups. With sharp knife or kitchen shears, cut one-half of basic roll dough (see recipe below) into 36 equal pieces; shape each piece into a smooth ball. Place 3 balls into each muffin-pan cup. Brush tops with melted butter or margarine and sprinkle with sesame seed, if desired. Cover with towel; let rise in warm place until doubled, about 45 minutes. (Dough is doubled when one finger very lightly pressed against dough leaves a dent).

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Bake rolls 10 to 15 minutes until golden. Remove from pan. Makes 12 rolls.

BASIC ROLL DOUGH

4 1/2 to 5 1/2 cups all-purpose flour

1/3 cup sugar

1 1/2 teaspoons salt

2 packages active dry yeast

1/2 cup milk

1/4 cup butter or margarine

2 eggs

About 3 1/2 hours before serving:

In large bowl, combine 1 1/2 cups flours, sugar, salt and yeast. In medium saucepan over low heat, heat 1/2 cup water, milk and butter or margarine until very warm (120 to 130 degrees). Butter or margarine does not need to melt. With mixer at low speed, gradually pour liquid into dry ingredients. Increase speed to medium; beat 2 minutes, occasionally scraping bowl with rubber spatula. Beat in eggs and 1/2 cup flour or enough to make a thick batter; continue beating 2 minutes, occasionally scraping bowl. With spoon, stir in enough additional flour (2 to 2 1/2 cups) to make a soft dough.

Turn dough onto lightly floured surface and knead until smooth and elastic, about 10 minutes. Shape dough into ball and place in greased large bowl, turning over so that top of dough is greased. Cover with towel; let rise in warm place (80 to 85 degrees), away from draft, until doubled, about 1 hour.

Punch down dough by pushing down the center of dough with fist, then pushing edges of dough into center. Turn dough onto lightly floured surface; cut in half; cover with towel for 15 minutes proceed as directed for variations above (cloverleaf rolls).

ROAST STUFFED GOOSE WITH GRAVY

1 10- to 12-pound goose

Sage-onion stuffing (recipe below)

3 pounds fresh pork-sausage links

3 10-ounce packages frozen Brussels sprouts

2 chicken-bouillon cubes or envelopes

1 13-ounce can chicken broth

2 tablespoons all-purpose flour

About 4 1/2 hours before serving:

Preheat over to 350 degrees. Remove neck and giblets from goose; discard fat from body cavity; rinse and drain goose. Stuff goose lightly with sage-onion stuffing. Skewer neck skin to back of goose.

With string, tie legs and tail together. With two-tined fork, price skin of goose in several places. Insert meat thermometer into thickest part of meat between breast and thigh, being careful that the thermometer does not touch bone. Place goose, breast side up, on rack in open roasting pan.

Roast goose 3 1/2 to 4 1/2 hours until meat thermometer reaches 190 degrees and thigh is tender when pierced with fork.

About 45 minutes before serving:

In covered, 12-inch skillet over medium-high heat, cook sausage and 1/2- cup water 10 minutes. Remove cover; reduce heat to low, cook until sausages are browned on all sides, turning occasionally. Meanwhile, cook Brussels sprouts as label directs but add chicken bouillon to water; drain. When goose is done (about 165 degrees internally), place on warm, large platter; remove strings. Arrange sausages and Brussels sprouts around goose; keep warm.

To make gravy, spoon as much fat as possible from drippings in pan, leaving juice and browned bits; stir in chicken broth. Over medium heat, heat mixture to boiling. In cup, blend flour and 1/2 cup cold water until smooth; gradually stir into hot mixture and cook, stirring constantly, until mixture is thickened. Serve gravy with goose. Makes 10 servings.

SAGE-ONION STUFFING

1/2 cup butter or margarine

3 small onions

2 teaspoons sage leaves

2 eggs

2 7-ounce package herb-seasoned stuffing croutons

In a small saucepan over medium heat, heat 1/2 cup hot butter or margarine and cook 3 small onions, chopped, until tender. In large bowl, mix onion with 2 teaspoons sage leaves, crushed, 2 eggs and two 7-ounce packages herb-seasoned stuffing croutons.