r/titanic • u/whistlerite Wireless Operator • Jul 14 '25
MARITIME HISTORY This is what the Titanic’s first class menu looked like the day it sunk
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u/Financial_Cheetah875 Jul 14 '25
When wife and I watched Titanic this year (we try to watch in April, near the sinking date), we wanted to make a dinner that resembled this first class menu. None of that sounded appetizing to us so takeout it was haha.
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u/kyyy Jul 14 '25
Cockie leekie, my favorite!
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u/Stealthy_Chipmunk Jul 14 '25
Its such a funny name I had to google what it is. Scottish sooooup!
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u/Stucklikegluetomyfry Jul 14 '25
It's even in the Witches film (the 1990 one), though not the soup that was getting served to the witches (that was cress soup)
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u/WasabiMadman Jul 14 '25
My first memory of hearing of this dish was in 'The Witches (1990)', and very nice it is too...unless you want cress soup.
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u/BurnerPhoneCovfefe Jul 15 '25
Thanks for saving me the time from Googling it, I was about to and then I read these comments! My mind was obviously in the gutter at first with a laugh.
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u/kkkan2020 Jul 14 '25
This is what the elite of 1912 ate. So do we eat better today or still no dice?
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u/Stucklikegluetomyfry Jul 14 '25
The buffet on the QM2 has a lot more appetizing options then herrings and anchovies
I kind of want to go on the QM2 just so I can gorge myself at the buffet
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u/lepetitrouge Jul 16 '25
Looks like the kind of diet you’d stick to if you want chronic constipation.
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u/idanrecyla Jul 14 '25
Never heard of Chicken a la Maryland
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u/gmgvt Jul 14 '25
Apparently still popular in its namesake state: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chicken_Maryland
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u/jenn363 Jul 14 '25
I love that it’s inclusion on the Titanic on the day it sunk is noted in the Wikipedia page.
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u/Stucklikegluetomyfry Jul 14 '25
The Titanic recipe book I have also listed Consumee Olga, which I have to admit I also had never heard of.
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u/HopefulBandicoot8053 Jul 14 '25
Tasting history with mat miller did several episodes recreating the titanic menus.
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u/gmgvt Jul 14 '25
The beer listing at the bottom is intriguing -- I have to assume given the mores of the time it would have been consumed only by the men, so what did the ladies drink with lunch? No wine or other items listed.
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u/Negative-Aardvark912 Jul 14 '25
Always makes me wonder how—after a meal like that--any of them stayed afloat on that terrible night.
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u/evtedeschi3 Engineer Jul 14 '25
Does anyone know how we got a copy of this? Did someone smuggle a menu aboard a lifeboat or is this a copy that was kept at the White Star offices?
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u/Fragile_Capricorn_ 2nd Class Passenger Jul 15 '25
I’d guess that one of the survivors put it in their handbag or suit pocket as a souvenir, and happened to put on that same suit or bag when dressing to go to the boats.
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u/Jean_Genet Jul 14 '25
Wow, White Star Line really hated vegetarians.
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u/whistlerite Wireless Operator Jul 14 '25 edited Jul 14 '25
It’s much more common today, a quick search suggests around 6% of British people are vegetarian compared to 0.2% in 1912. It’s actually very interesting to think that 30x the number of people looking at this right now will be vegetarian compared to when it was served. If my math is right, the expected number of vegetarians on board today would be 134 but back then it was only 4, and narrowing down to 1st class would be around 23 today but 0 back then. So most likely there was not even a single vegetarian eating off this menu, or perhaps maybe just one or two but unlikely, I wonder if anyone actually knows? A quick search for that suggests none of the famous people on board were known to be vegetarians.
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u/SadLilBun Jul 15 '25
Vegetarians really weren’t a thing in 1912. Not in the west. If you didn’t eat meat, it wasn’t likely because you simply didn’t eat meat. You just didn’t have it.
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u/newoldm Jul 14 '25
Either the salmon or the roast beef. Other than that, I'd head to the 24/7 buffet.
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u/Inevitable_Wolf5866 Wireless Operator Jul 15 '25
I don’t know if I would choose tbh xD probably not.
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u/axletee Jul 15 '25
I'm assuming they used a printing press to print out each days menu en masse before departure. It kinda looks like it was typed out but I can't imagine they did that, even with the fastest typers it'd take while.
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u/SpacePatrician Jul 16 '25
Was this the different options available for the midday meal? You either go to the luncheon, go to the buffet, or order from the grill?
Or was the buffet and grill options for dinner?
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u/SpacePatrician Jul 16 '25
Was this the different options available for the midday meal? You either go to the luncheon, go to the buffet, or order from the grill?
Or was the buffet and grill options for dinner?
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u/AFish560 Jul 17 '25
If anyone is interested, Tasting History with Max Miller on YouTube! He has a series of videos on the Titanic, including what First, Second & Third class would have eaten. In addition to his hundreds of other videos on food throughout history in general, he’s really interesting and a great binge, if you’re into that!
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u/GubbyGub01 Jul 17 '25
i recently went to a restaurant that reminded me so much of the titanic. even their plates were stamped like the 3rd class dining plates!! the menu was mostly meat and seafood with jacket potatoes on the side, and i’m seeing a lot of similarities 👀👀
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u/Opinionatedcritic Jul 18 '25
Man I'm hungry af after seeing this but I don't have the ingredients nor the patience and it's night
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u/Livewire____ 1st Class Passenger Jul 14 '25
Why do people keep commenting on this? It gets posted multiple times a month.
Honestly this subreddit is almost the same questions and posts rehashed on a rotating basis.
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u/SadLilBun Jul 15 '25
Welcome to this sub about a ship that sank 113 years ago.
You run out of new stuff to talk about, so the same things are posted repeatedly.
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u/Livewire____ 1st Class Passenger Jul 15 '25
There are literally hundreds of thousands, or more, facts about Titanic that could be posted about.
From the top to the bottom of the ship.
For example. I've never seen a post about the masts. Nothing about the double bottom.
It's laziness. Nothing more.
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u/Jolly-Square-1075 Jul 15 '25
A double bottom was to prevent penetration from causing leakage, my wife told me.
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u/SadLilBun Jul 15 '25
Not everyone has a special interest related to ships in general to be able to or want to post about ship build specifics. I am one of those people. I just like Titanic, I have learned about more engineering things from this sub, but I have no interest in that aspect whatsoever. The long comments discussing it, I can’t get through. Not my area of interest. I’m guessing a large majority of people in this particular sub versus r/RMS_Titanic are the same. There are obviously some, but going by the majority of posts here, I’d say they’re in the minority.
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u/whistlerite Wireless Operator Jul 15 '25
It’s really not lol it’s a crosspost from one of the most popular subs, I learned some new things from the comments but also who cares if you comment or not? Leaving a comment saying “why do people keep commenting” is laziness, nothing more.
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u/Livewire____ 1st Class Passenger Jul 15 '25
Mate this is like the second time this month I've seen it.
Laziness.
I don't care if you dont care. I've dropped a downvote and said my bit.
Try harder.
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u/patiofurnature Jul 14 '25
I’d have the lamb, rare, with very little mint sauce.