Traveling back in time to the culinary world of airline dining during the 1900s offers a fascinating glimpse into how much air travel and in-flight services have evolved. Let's embark on a nostalgic journey through the aisles of bygone aircraft, exploring fourteen unique plane foods once served aloft that airlines no longer offer today.
Lobster Thermidor
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Flying used to be a luxury, and first-class passengers enjoyed fancy meals like lobster thermidor. This swanky French dish mixes lobster with a creamy sauce spiked with cognac. However, it's off the menu now, mainly because it was just too pricey and complex to whip up in a tiny plane kitchen. It's a classic case of economics clipping the wings of luxury.
Roast Goose
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With its rich and flavorful meat, roast goose is a culinary staple everywhere—from Cantonese to European to Middle Eastern dishes. It used to be a holiday treat on transatlantic flights, adding a bit of festive cheer in the skies. However, as airlines pushed for more efficiency and scaled down their kitchens, this time-intensive delicacy became too much of a hassle. Now, it's a rare sight on menus, sacrificed for quicker, simpler meal prep.
Consommé
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Consommé, a clear soup brewed from intensely flavored stock, was the go-to starter in the early days of flying. Served up in fancy bowls, it really kicked off in-flight dining with a touch of class. But handling liquid dishes like soup up in the air, especially when it gets bumpy, proved too tricky. Gradually, this elegant appetizer exited from airline menus, nudged out by the need for spill-proof options.
Chateaubriand
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Chateaubriand, a luxurious beef cut served with creamy béarnaise sauce, defined gourmet dining in the skies. It was typically prepared for two and carved directly at your seat, showcasing the airline's commitment to exceptional service. However, this elaborate presentation has since fallen out of favor. Today, you're more likely to encounter a simple sandwich than a tableside-carved steak during your flight.
Caviar Service
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Caviar Service was an indulgence that was once a hallmark of premium air travel, offering a selection of fine caviar accompanied by blini and a proper setup of accouterments like chopped onions and eggs. Due to skyrocketing prices and changing consumer tastes, caviar service has become a rarity reserved for only a few luxury carriers.
Quail Eggs
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Delicately presented as gourmet starters or salads, quail eggs were another luxury item that graced the menus of early jet-setters. However, their fragile nature and the required careful handling made them less suitable as airlines moved towards more durable and easy-to-serve food options.
Cornish Game Hen
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Whole and roasted Cornish game hen served up in the air offered travelers a personal and elegant dining experience. However, as times changed, airlines swapped luxury for efficiency and cost-cutting, and these labor-intensive, individual meals started disappearing. Now, instead of your own little bird, you're more likely to get a quick, one-size-fits-all dish.
Aspic
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Gelatin-based dishes like aspic were popular in-flight because they could be made in advance and served cold, featuring ingredients like vegetables or seafood. The waning popularity of aspic in general cuisine and evolving passenger preferences for fresher, lighter meals led to its disappearance.
Pheasant Under Glass
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Pheasant Under Glass? Talk about dining in the clouds! This dish screamed luxury back in the day, a tangible status symbol on those long-haul flights. But let's face it: trying to prep and serve such a fancy meal in a tiny airplane kitchen was like fitting a square peg into a round hole. So, eventually, this high-flying delicacy had to wave goodbye to the skies.
Veal Orloff
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Veal Orloff, a fancy French concoction with sliced veal, onions, mushrooms, and a creamy sauce, used to be the star of the show on those marathon flights. But as tastes changed, folks started craving simpler, lighter fare that wouldn't weigh them down mid-air. Plus, airlines found it easier to manage and accommodate everyone's dietary quirks with less elaborate dishes.
Frog Legs
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Frog legs—talk about a French delicacy that hopped onto airline menus back in the day! Sautéed to perfection and served with garlic and parsley butter, they offered passengers a taste of the exotic. However, sourcing and prepping these amphibian treats posed some serious logistical hurdles for airlines. So, as modern air catering took flight, frog legs ended up leaping off the menu.
Potted Shrimp
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You know what sounds like a quaint little appetizer? Potted shrimp. It's shrimp cooked in spiced butter and left to chill in tiny pots. Yum! But here's the catch: keeping these babies fresh meant needing a fridge, which wasn't practical at 30,000 feet. Airlines also opted for more universally loved starters that could handle the long haul without spoiling.
Baked Alaska
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Baked Alaska, a dessert with ice cream and cake wrapped in fluffy meringue, used to steal the spotlight as the grand finale of airline meals. Getting this beauty flambeed, though, just right before serving was no piece of cake for modern in-flight services. So, as airlines streamlined their operations, this show-stopping treat got benched.
Pineapple and Ham Skewers
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Pineapple and ham skewers were like a mini Hawaiian vacation on your tray up in the air. But as food fads shifted, these classic sticks got swapped out for a more diverse lineup of sophisticated snacks from around the globe. It's a sign of the times—while the nostalgia's sweet, sometimes you just have to trade in the tiki vibes for a taste of something new.
Duck à l'Orange
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This classic French dish, combining roasted duck with a tangy orange sauce, was once a highlight on the menus of many international flights. Duck à l'Orange was favored for its sophisticated flavor and presentation, embodying the luxury that early air travel sought to convey. However, as airlines transitioned towards more cost-effective meal preparations and began catering to different dietary preferences, this labor-intensive duck dish was gradually retired from in-flight menus.