“Hangtown fry” is a dish of bacon and oysters and eggs, fried together. “Hangtown” is the old name of what is now Placerville, California. Some legends state that the dish originated during the gold rush in 1849, but oysters would have been rare at this time, and there are no contemporary citations.
“Hangtown Roast” is cited in a syndicated “Good Cookery” newspaper column in March 1898. In The Bulletin (San Francisco, CA) on March 16, 1916, Pish Tush claimed that he invented Hangtown Roast in 1882.
“Hangtown Fry” is cited in the Humboldt (CA) Times on May 16, 1909, and in the San Francisco (CA) Chronicle on December 31, 1910. In an obituary for Gustinian Oleson in The Bulletin (San Francisco, CA) on May 22, 1919, it was printed, “He is the man who invented the famous ‘Hangtown fry,’ a dish that has made San Francisco famous.”
Wikipedia: Placerville, California
Placerville (/ˈplæsərvɪl/, PLASS-ər-vil; formerly Old Dry Diggings, Dry Diggings, and Hangtown) is a city in and the county seat of El Dorado County, California. The population was 10,747 as of the 2020 census, up from 10,389 as of the 2010 census. It is part of the Sacramento–Arden-Arcade–Roseville Metropolitan Statistical Area.
Wikipedia: Hangtown fry
Hangtown fry is a type of omelette made famous during the California Gold Rush in the 1850s. The most common version includes bacon and oysters combined with eggs, and fried together.
History
The dish was invented in Placerville, California, then known as Hangtown. According to most accounts, the dish was invented when a gold prospector struck it rich, headed to the Cary House Hotel, and demanded the most expensive dish that the kitchen could provide. The most expensive ingredients available were eggs, which were delicate and had to be carefully brought to the mining town; bacon, which was shipped from the East Coast; and oysters, which had to be brought on ice from San Francisco, over 100 miles away.
Another creation myth is the one told by the waiters at Sam’s Grill in Tiburon, just north of San Francisco. At the county jail in Placerville, a condemned man was asked what he would like to eat for his last meal. He thought quickly and ordered an oyster omelet, knowing that the oysters would have to be brought from the water, over a hundred miles away by steamship and over rough roads, delaying his execution for a day.
Newspapers.com
23 March 1898, Elmira (NY) Daily Gazette and Free Press, “Good Cookery.” pg. 2, col. 1:
As a bouquet, let me throw you a breakfast dish that I picked up on the Pacific coast. For four people get a pound of sausage meat and place it in a frying pan, over a slow fire, carefully stirring until it is well broken up and well done. Into this break four eggs, stirring until cooked. Serve hot and you have what the California Bohemian calls a “Hangtown Roast.”
Try this some morning and you will pass a vote of confidence in the suggestion of
Yours, sincerely,
LOUIS ROIE.
California Digital Newspaper Collection
16 May 1909, Humboldt (CA) Times, pg. 2, col. 2:
EL MONTE CAFE May 16th. MENU
(...)
ENTREES Oyster Hang Town Fry
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31 December 1910, San Francisco (CA) Chronicle, “Clubmen, in Costumes of Old Days, Enjoy Rollicking Evening,” pg. 9, col. 4:
“caMp fiRe AppetiZer” started the menu, and it went down the line through “Hang toWn frY, to SaGe BRUSH saLad, and “real coffee” with “red or white club Whine” as a chaser.
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15 September 1912, San Francisco (CA) Sunday Call, “Hangtown Today” by William Parker, magazine sec., pt. 1, pg. 3, col. 1:
“Tell me about the Hangtown fry,” you say to him. If he be a head waiter properly qualified for his position by knowing something about everything, it is a dish of goulash to a Hangtown fry that he would say that it is not playing on Broadway now, but that Eddie Foy is still as funnt as painter’s colic.
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25 March 1916, The Bulletin (San Francisco, CA), “Lotus-eating in Montgomery Street” by Pauline Jacobson, pt. 2, pg. 1, col. 1:
Incidentally, Pish Tush is a claimant to the now classical dish of Hangtown Fry. Duncan Nicholl accredits the invention to Dennis, the cook at Collis & Wheeland. Willard Girard, nephew of old Gobey, dates the dish to the Comstock days, when a man about to be hanged, upon being asked what he wanted for his last breakfast, said: “Fried oysters, with scrambled eggs on top, and a few slices of bacon.” The victim’s name and his crime, with its expiation, are forgotten of men, but he then and there gave to the world the recipe for a dish which is served today in every epicurean grill in San Francisco.
ON the other hand, this is the version had from Pish Tush: “It was in 1882. It was in Hangtown, which is Placerville. I had a couple of friend to dine in the hotel. So I buts into the kitchen and I says to the cook, ‘Whatcher got to eat?’ He says, ‘Nothing much but bacon and eggs.’ I says, ‘Whats in those cans on the shelf?’ He says, “Oysters.” I says, ‘All right.” So I takes several slices of bacon and I chops ‘em fine. Then I says to the cook, ‘Put that in the pan and fry it.’ Then I takes the oysters from the can, half a dozen to each person, and I says, ‘Put that in the pan.’ Then when the oysters are half done I scramble the eggs, and I (Col. 2.—ed.) says, ‘Put that in the pan and, when the eggs are done, serve.’
“I called it a Hangtown Roast, but you can call it a Hangtown Fry if you like. It took fine, so when I returned to San Francisco I introduced it to the chef at Collins & Wheeland, where it has been served as a famous dish ever since. Many’s the time I served it to a bunch of us artists and writers who used to live in Montgomery street—Frank Nankerville, Bob Davis, Pete Bigelow.”
Newspapers.com
17 February 1917, The Chat (Brooklyn, NY), pg. 18, col. 7:
HOUSEHOLD CHAT
HANGTOWN FRY.
Three small sausages, cut crosswise in rings, one cupful oysters drained; two eggs slightly beaten. Fry the sausage rings until medium brown. Put in the oysters when the edges curl, stir in the eggs and cook until they are set. Stir as for scrambled eggs.
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22 May 1919, The Bulletin (San Francisco, CA), pg. 24, col. 2:
Gustinian Oleson,
S. F. Character, to
Be Buried Tomorrow
Funeral services will be held tomorrow at the undertaking chapel, 100 Fillmore Street, for Gustinian Oleson, who died last Tuesday at the age of 57.
Oleson was one of the old-time characters. He was a friend of Pete Bigelow, Frank Nankivell, Bob and Sam Davis, and famous for his original sayings and some eccentricities of manner. He is the man who invented the famous “Hangtown fry,” a dish that has made San Francisco famous, and a stickler for Montgomery street, which he designated as a gentleman’s street after the water came up there and whisky went to two bits in price.
19 July 1951, Mountain Democrat (Placerville, CA), pg. 12, col. 3:
Oakland Mayor, Visiting Newspapermen, Other
Dignitaries to Sample “Hangtown Fry” Breakfast
“Hangtown Fry,” a delectable breakfast dish which had its origins at the Cary House in the early mining days and has since appeared on tables of the nation’s leading hotels and restaurants, will be served to members of the visiting press delegation, Oakland’s Mayor Clifford Rishell and other dignitaries attending the Wagon Caravan Breakfast at the fair grounds Sunday morning.
Mayor A. H. “Sandy” Murray, who issued invitations to the mayors of Oakland and San Francisco to attend the Caravan festivities this week end, has been assured that Mayor Rishell will be present. Mayor Robinson of San Francisco had an important prior official obligation.
Lloyd Raffetto, owner of the Raffles Hotel, says the story of the origin of Hangtown Fry, though well known here, is worthy of repetition.
A well-heeled miner who has been panning a rich sand bar for several weeks and eating his own sorry cooking came into the Cary House and demanded:
“What is the most expensive meal you serve to a hungry man for breakfast?”
He was told that fresh eggs, then selling for about a dollar apiece and hard to get, was considered the No. 1 breakfast, or that a breakfast of fried
oysters might be considered a first line (Col. 4—ed.) delicacy.
“Well, give me three of four eggs and put in some oysters,” the miner said, “And throw in a couple slabs of bacon, too.”
The resulting dish was so pleasing that others (presumably those whose pokes were full of dust and nuggets) followed suit, and the recipe became famous.
For guidance of those whose appetites are whetted by reference to the good old days, here is Raff’s recipe:
Saute two or three slices of bacon. Add a few oysters and saute them.
Add beaten eggs, about three per serving, so that the eggs surround the oysters and cover the bacon. Season to taste.
Serve by turning the pan’s contents out upside down on a serving platter.
The browned bacon will then be on top.
8 April 1987, Mountain Democrat (Placerville, CA), pg. B-6, col. 1:
A story of the “Hangtown Fry”
This story originally ran in a 1948 issue of Gourmet Magazine and was written by Idwal Jones, a friend of Lloyd Raffetto. Thank you, Lloyd Raffetto, for bringing it to our attention. Raffetto is referred to in the story as “Doctor.”
(The Gourmet article is long.—ed.)
14 October 1993, Mountain Democrat (Placerville, CA), pg. B-2, col. 2:
Hangtown Fry
Official dish of California?
(...)
...a prospector rushed into the saloon of the El Dorado Hotel…
The El Dorado Hotel burned down in one of the great fires of 1856 that leveled most of Hangtown, which by that time had become a growing Gold Rush city named Placerville. On the site of the El Dorado Hotel, the large brick Cary House Hotel was built where it still stands to this day on Placerville’s Main Street. It is interesting to note that some say the owner of the Cary House recovered enough gold from under the building to pay for the cost of restoration.
Over the years since, Hangtown Fry has continued to have been served at many of the local resaurants in Placerville. One of the more famous places was the Blue Bell Cafe, just a few doors east of the Cary House, which proudly advertised and served the basic recipe from the late 1930s into the 1970s when the restaurant was sold.
(Blue Bell Cafe and Cary House Hangtown Fry recipes are here.—ed.)