Dinner will recreate meal that Lewis and Clark might have eaten

They ate nine pounds of meat per person per day. Though they took seven tons of foodstuffs with them, they supplemented their larder along the way by hunting and fishing. Thus, over the course of their journey they killed and consumed more than 1,000 deer, 375 elk, 227 bison, 35 bighorned sheep, 62 antelopes, 43 grizzly bears, 113 beavers, 104 geese and brant, 46 grouse, nine turkeys, 48 plovers, and nearly 200 dogs (a "favorite food" with most of the party and judged far superior to horse), not to mention a large assortment of exotic animals such as hawk, coyote, fox, crow, eagle, gopher, muskrat, seal, whale, turtle, mussels, crab, salmon, and trout -- plus all kinds of fruits, vegetables, seeds, and nuts.

Yet there were nights when they went to bed hungry, and by the time they reached the Pacific Northwest in 1805 they may have had to resort to gnawing on beef tallow candles. During their 7,700 mile, two-year expedition, there is scarcely a day they did not mention food in their journals. Clearly, Lewis and Clark and their Corps of Discovery were characterized by "undaunted courage," to use Thomas Jefferson's phrase, but just as clearly they possessed undaunted appetites as well.

Still, curiously, the culinary aspects of the Lewis and Clark expedition, and even Missouri's role in the crossing, have often been overlooked by historians. The Cape Girardeau Lewis and Clark Bicentennial Commission hopes to correct such oversights Oct. 11 by hosting a gourmet dinner to raise funds for the reconstruction of Cape Girardeau's historic Red House, where prior to the expedition Lewis dined with Louis Lorimier, the city's founder. (Clark, perhaps remembering that his brother had burned Lorimier's trading post back in Ohio during the Revolutionary War, stayed behind at Cape Rock.)

The culinary dimension of the Lewis and Clark trail deserves recognition, I think, because it provides another window into the lives of the famed explorers, the native peoples they encountered and their impact on our nation. Studying what the Corps of Discovery ate helps answer the question of whether there ever was a true American cuisine and reminds us that even frontier cooking could reach a relatively high level of sophistication.

"May your appetite and opportunity ever coincide," said Lewis, in a toast to Clark during a birthday meal of venison, elk and beavertail served on the trail over a table of planks covered with red flannel pilfered from an Indian gift bundle. Examining the extent to which the two coincided or collided furthers our appreciation for what these pioneers accomplished during the most celebrated instance of trailblazing in American history. Besides, I can't think of a better way to bring history alive than through food. After all, the Corps of Discovery spent most of their time looking for it.

Diners at the Oct. 11 commemorative dinner will have things much easier. They'll be pampered in the comfortable surroundings of Celebrations Restaurant in Cape Girardeau. The dinner menu, carefully researched and assembled by Chef James Allen, who is generously donating the meal, will feature dishes which, while reminiscent of the Lewis and Clark expedition, are thoroughly contemporary. There'll be no coyote, muskrat or gopher, nor any dog or horse. Ingredients such as wapato (a potato-like tuber harvested from swamplands by the Chinook with their toes), cous (sometimes called Indian celery), camas root (a staple of the Nez Percé that tasted something like an onion) and yampah (similar to fennel) have likewise been omitted (they're not available commercially in any case) and nothing will be fried in bear grease (the Corps' favorite fat). Moreover, patrons won't have to contend with "portable soup," made by reconstituting a gluey condensed broth, sort of a precursor to the bouillon cube. Used only as an emergency ration, the members of the Corps hated it.

Instead, Chef Allen will prepare an elegant modern feast utilizing items that would nonetheless have been available to Lewis and Clark during their trek. The dinner will begin with a salad of baby field greens, smoked duck breast, dried cherries and walnuts with a vinaigrette dressing. The fish course will consist of smoked trout with truffled mashed potatoes and corn maque choux. The second entrée will be venison medallions with creamy polenta, wild mushroom sauce and wilted greens. The repast will conclude with a dessert version of pain perdu, served with seasonal fruit compote and crème chantilly.

The restaurant, which has recently won a prestigious Wine Spectator award for the caliber of its cellar, will pair each course with a specially selected French wine of the type favored by Thomas Jefferson, the gourmet president who commissioned the Lewis and Clark expedition.

Charbonneau's Boudin Blanc Terrine

This recipe, adapted from Leslie Mansfield's "The Lewis & Clark Cookbook," is a variation of the buffalo sausage made to rave reviews by Toussaint Charbonneau, husband of Sacagawea, during the expedition of the Corps of Discovery. Meriwether Lewis called it "one of the greatest delicacies of the forest" and described its preparation in detail in his journal. Charbonneau began with six feet of buffalo intestine which he stuffed with ground meat, then ceremoniously baptized in the Missouri River and fried in bear oil. Using a food processor and serving the dish as a terrine simplify matters considerably.

Ingredients:

1 1/2 cups heavy cream

2 onions, chopped

5 shallots, chopped

2 cloves garlic, minced

5 teaspoons salt

1 teaspoon black peppercorns

1/8 teaspoon ground nutmeg

1/8 teaspoon thyme

2 tablespoons butter

1 pound pork loin, cut into 1/2-inch cubes and chilled

3 eggs

1/4 cup flour

1/4 cup tawny Port

Directions:

Stir together cream, onions, two of the shallots, garlic, salt, peppercorns, nutmeg and thyme. Bring to a boil over medium heat, then reduce heat to medium-low and simmer for 20 minutes. Let stand, uncovered, for one hour, then cover and chill in refrigerator overnight. Strain cream, pressing on solids to extract maximum liquid. If there is more than 1 1/2 cups liquid, simmer until reduced to 1 1/2 cups. Line a 6-cup loaf pan with parchment paper and butter parchment. Sauté remaining 3 shallots in butter over medium heat until soft. Transfer to bowl of food processor, add pork, eggs, flour and Port and process just until smooth. With motor running, add cream mixture and process just until combined with pork. Place mixture in terrine, cover with foil and bake in water bath at 325 degrees for 1 1/2 hours until knife inserted into center comes out clean. Uncover and let cool completely, then cover and chill. Unmold and serve. Serves 10-12.

Listen to A Harte Appetite at 8:49 a.m. Fridays and at 11:59 a.m. Saturdays on KRCU, 90.9 on your FM dial. Write A Harte Appetite, c/o the Southeast Missourian, P.O. Box 699, Cape Girardeau, Mo., 63702-0699 or by e-mail to tharte@semissourian. com.