FIRST DINNER RMS TITANIC APRIL, 2, 1912

The very first meal served aboard RMS Titanic was considerably more modest than the well-known and much-written about final dinner.

Menu

Hor’s D’oeuvre Varies
Consomme Mirrette
Cream of Chicken
Salmon
Sweetbreads
Roast Chicken
Spring Lamb, Mint Sauce
Braised Ham & Spinach
Green Peas & Cauliflower
Bovin & Boiled Potatoes
Golden Plover on Toast
Salad
Pudding Sans Souci
Peaches Imperial
Pastry
Dessert Coffee

The famous last dinner on the Titanic was served to first-class passengers on the night of April 14, just hours before the ‘‘unsinkable’’ ship hit an iceberg and went down with the loss of over 1,500 lives. It was enjoyed by the fabulously wealthy passengers who could afford the $4,350 (equivalent to $93,000 today) for a one-way fare from Southampton, England, to New York. This very first meal, on the other hand, was served to the crew of the ship on its one and only day of sea trials. The menu was preserved thanks to 5th Officer Harold Lowe (whose monthly wage was about $20), when he posted it to his fiance´e as a memento.

There are a few small mysteries and one tragic irony in this menu. The dishes are for the most part instantly recognizeable. Consomme Mirrette (Mirette) is a classic clear soup with chicken quenelles, shredded lettuce, chervil, and cheese croutons. The peaches have been presented in a manner elegant enough for the ruler of an empire, although there are no clues to their exact preparation. The bovin and potatoes is the greatest mystery. In the Oxford English Dictionary there are some similar words, which may either be clues or red herrings. ‘‘Bovinia’’ are a type of large potato, but one reserved for use as cattle fodder. ‘‘Boivin’’ is a name for several sorts of the herb meadow rue, which hardly seems to be the reference here. Boivin is also the name of a character in Guy de Maupassant’s short story Old Mongilet— and Mme. Boivin does serve up ‘‘an earthenware dish containing warmed-up boiled beef and potatoes’’—but there is no obvious connection between this story and the dish appearing aboard ship several decades later. The surname ‘‘Boivin’’ is said to derive from a nickname meaning a wine drinker (from the French words boivre, to drink, and vin for wine). Some food historians have suggested that the potatoes are cooked in wine, and the name is a corruption of beau vin (good wine), which seems very unlikely from either a culinary or linguistic point of view. Finally, there may be a connection with the commercial preparation Bovril—a beef extract popular in Britain since the mid-nineteenth century which was included in military and naval rations. It is likely that many of the sailors aboard the Titanic were trained in the Navy, and perhaps some of their Bovril ration was used to pep up their potatoes. Bovril and potatoes could easily have been abbreviated to bov ‘n potatoes and then interpreted as bovin and potatoes.

The tragic irony is in the name of the pudding. ‘‘Sans souci’’ means ‘‘carefree.’’ Many dishes are named ‘‘sans souci,’’ without any consistent set of ingredients, so the exact nature of this pudding cannot be certain. No doubt the name summed up the feelings of the crew and passengers aboard the luxurious, unsinkable Titanic on this day of sea trials.

Written by Janet Clarkson in "Menus From History -Historic Meals And Recipes For Every Day Of The Year", Greenwood Publising Group (an Imprint of ABC-CLIO, LLC), Santa Barbara. California, USA, 2009, excerps volume 1 pp.215-217. Digitized, adapted and illustrated to be posted by Leopoldo Costa.