Guest Blogger: Glitter RedX – Last Dinner On The Titanic

With the anniversary of the Titanic on April 15th, guest blogger Glitter RedX has been kind enough to provide a post regarding the last dinner on the Titanic. Very interesting how different things have become with food trends. Enjoy this sneak peek into a time gone by. Thank you Glitter RedX!

Find her blog here: Vegan Animal Liberation Alliance
Follow her on twitter here: https://twitter.com/#!/redglitterx

We dined the last night in the Ritz restaurant. It was the last word in luxury. The tables were gay with pink roses and white daisies, the women in their beautiful shimmering gowns of satin and silk… the string orchestra playing music from Puccini and Tchaikovsky. The food was supurb … hothouse grapes and fresh peaches. The night was cold and clear, the sea like glass
First-class passenger Mrs. Walter Douglas

While there was not a lot of vegan options for passengers on the Titanic, they did like enjoy their vegetables and fruit. The following are selections from the Steerage (3rd) Class menus with some vegan options suggested.

Dinner, refered to the largest meal of the day, in this case it is at lunch time, which is why the menu skips from breakfast to dinner.

3rd Class – April 14th, 1912–Breakfast–
Oatmeal porridge & milk
Smoked Herrings, Jacket Potatoes
Ham & Eggs
Fresh Bread & Butter
Marmalade, Swedish Bread
Tea, Coffee–Dinner–
Rice soup
Fresh bread, cabin biscuits
Roast beef, brown gravy
Sweet corn, boiled potatoes
Plum pudding, sweet sauce
Fruit–Tea–
Cold meat
Cheese, pickles
Fresh bread & Butter
Stewed figs & Rice
Tea–Supper–
Gruel, Cabin biscuits, Cheese

Breakfast

Oatmeal porridge and milk
1/2 cup rolled oat/oatmeal and 1 cup water
combine in a small saucepan and cook until the oats are creamy, serve with (vegan) milk
*this was usually cooked with a pinch of salt at this time

Jacket potatoes
Another way of serving potatoes on the Titanic was cubed. Jacket potatoes would be whole potatoes, boiled and served with butter (… or vegan margarine)

Marmalade and Swedish Bread
Marmalade is jam made from citrus fruits and Swedish bread most likely refers to a dark rye bread

Dinner

Rice Soup
In a large saucepan, sauteed an onion and a stalk of celery. Add 4 cups of stock (the Titanic would likely have used chicken or beef, this can be vegetable). Add 1 cup of rice (the Titanic had supplies of short-grain rice). Simmer slowly for 2 hours.
Season with salt and pepper to taste, add 4 cups of (vegan) milk, simmer for a few minutes more.
Garnish with watercress

Sweet corn, boiled potatoes
Corn most likely would have been boiled til very soft, served with salt and butter (vegan margarine).
Potatoes would have been cubed and boiled and served with salt and butter (vegan margarine).

Plum Pudding
Despite its name, does not contain plums. This was likely a type of fruit cake. Sweet sauce could perhaps be similar to custard.

Add a cup of milk to a small saucepan, begin to slowly simmer. Add a teaspoon of vanilla extract and sugar to taste.
Mix a tablespoon of cornflour in a small amount of milk, add to the saucepan
Cook until mixture thickens.

Fruit
Grapes, oranges, apples, grapefruit were all part of the stores on the Titanic

Tea

Stewed figs
Figs cooked in water, perhaps with sugar added. The passengers on the Titanic would have been eating in the tradition of Edwardian food, which was overcooked until soft.

Rice may have been plain rice. Or creamed rice, 1 cup of rice and 2 cups of (vegan) milk. Boiled. Sugar and spices added.

Supper

Cabin biscuits were like crackers

Music

This was likely the last song played by the band, or one of the last. Survivors that report hearing Nearer My God To Thee, were probably in a lifeboat and nowhere near the band as they went down with the ship.

extra information from LAST DINNER ON THE TITANIC – MENU AND RECIPES FROM THE LEGENDARY LINER: Rick Archbold & Dana McCauley (1997)

Please enjoy previous posts from Glitter RedX here:
http://wp.me/p1QAYC-9i
http://wp.me/s1QAYC-597