Early morning tea, brought by a housemaid who lit the bedroom fire while the lady sipped her tea, was accompanied by paper-thin bread and butter, or plain biscuits: these were home-made, or probably Digestives at ninepence a pound, Osborne at sevenpence, or Thin Arrowroot at eightpence. The ritual of early morning tea was strictly observed in even moderately wealthy houses. — Kate Caffrey’s The 1900s Lady

Ty.phoo Tea and McVitie’s Digestives from World Market

On the Memorial Wall at Titanic: The Artifact Exhibition at Luxor, next to a list of passenger names is a quote from Jack Foster that reads, “We are all passengers on the Titanic.” The Belfast philosopher understood that The Ship was a small representation of the world; both in its time almost 100 years ago, as well as today. This Thanksgiving, gather with family and friends around a historic meal and remember the human thread that connects everyone. Whether young or old, rich or poor, everyone is grateful for their experience in this world.

Add some flare to your traditional menu and surprise guests with cuisine of the highest standards enjoyed by Titanic passengers in 1912. To fully recreate the lavish Titanic experience, see below for authentic recipes from the book Last Dinner on the Titanic: Menus and Recipes from the Great Liner.

Third Class: Vegetable Soup
2 tbsp butter
1 finely chopped onion
1 cup each sliced celery and carrot
1 potato, peeled and cubed
5 gloves garlic, minced
1 tsp each dried oregano and thyme
1 bay leaf
6 cups chicken or vegetable stock
2 cups white kidney beans, drained
1 cup corn kernels
1 cup asparagus tips
2 cups shredded Swiss chard (or spinach)
Salt & pepper

In large pot, melt butter over medium heat. Stir in onion, celery, carrot, potato, garlic, oregano, thyme, and bay leaf. Cover and cook, stirring often, for 10 minutes or until onion is translucent.
Stir in stock and bring to a boil. Reduce heat to medium and simmer for 15 to 20 minutes or until vegetables are almost tender.
Meanwhile, drain and rinse beans. Stir beans, corn, and asparagus into vegetable mixture. Cook for 5 min­utes or until asparagus is bright green and tender. Stir in Swiss chard (or spinach) and season to taste with salt and pepper. Makes 6 servings.

Third Class: Currant Buns
¼ cup lukewarm water
½ cup granulated sugar
1 pkg active dry yeast (1 tbsp)
3 ½ cups all-purpose flour
½ tsp salt
¾ cup warm milk
¼ cup butter, melted
2 eggs
½ cup currants (or raisins, chopped dates, or other dried fruit)
2 tbsp icing (powdered or Confectioners’) sugar
1 tbsp water

In a small bowl or measuring cup, combine warm water and 1 tbsp of the granulated sugar; sprinkle yeast over top. Let stand for 10 minutes or until frothy.
Meanwhile, in large bowl, blend together remaining sugar, flour, and salt. In small bowl, whisk together milk, butter, and eggs. Stir in yeast mixture until combined.
Make well in dry ingredients; using wooden spoon, stir in yeast mixture until soft dough forms. Turn out onto lightly floured board. Knead for 8 minutes or until dough is smooth and elastic.
Transfer dough to large, greased bowl, turning to coat. Cover with plastic wrap and let rest in a warm place for 1 hour or until doubled in bulk. Punch down; turn onto floured surface; kneed in currants (or substitute). Shape into a 12-inch long log. Cut dough into 12 equal pieces.
Roll pieces of dough into smooth, seamless balls. Place buns on greased baking sheet leaving about 2 inches between each bun. Cover loosely and let rest for 30 minutes.
Bake in 400ºF oven for 15 minutes or until golden brown. Stir together icing sugar and water; brush over warm buns; let cool on rack. Makes 12 buns.

Second Class: Roast Turkey with Savory Cranberry Sauce
One 10 pound turkey
2 tablespoons butter, softened
1 teaspoon crumbled sage leaves
½ teaspoon each of salt and pepper

Stuffing
2 tablespoons butter
2 onions chopped
1 cup finely chopped celery
1 teaspoon each crumbled sage, thyme, and marjoram leaves
¾ teaspoon each salt and pepper
½ cup sherry
10 cups cubed bread, lightly toasted
½ cup chopped fresh parsley
¼ cup chicken stock

Gravy
3 cups chicken stock
1 onion, chopped
1 bay leaf
2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
Salt and pepper

To prepare turkey and stuffing:
In skillet, melt butter over medium heat. Stir in onions, celery, sage, thyme, marjoram, salt and pepper; cook, stirring occasionally, for 10 minutes or until browned. Stir in sherry; bring to boil. Boil for 5 minutes or until liquid is almost completely evaporated. Cool slightly. Gently stir in bread and parsley; drizzle over chicken stock, stirring to combine. Reserve.

Remove giblets and neck from the turkey cavity; reserve for gravy. Rinse turkey inside and out with running water. Pat dry. Stir together butter, sage, salt and pepper; rub over turkey, inside and out. Loosely pack stuffing into neck and body cavities, fold over and skewer neck flap closed over stuffing. Tie legs together. Bend wing tips underneath bird.

Place turkey, breast side up, on rack in roasting pan. Tent with foil and roast in 325 °F oven for about 1 ½ hours, basting with pan juices every 30 minutes. Remove foil and continue to roast for 1 ¾ hours, basting every half hour, or until instant-read meat thermometer inserted into thickest part of thiegh reads 185 °F. Let rest for 2 minutes before carving.

To prepare gravy:
Meanwhile, in saucepan, bring chicken stock, turkey neck, giblets, onion and bay leaf to boil, reduce heat and simmer, covered, for 1 hour; strain, reserving liquid. While cooked turkey rests, skim excess fat from roasting pan. Set pan over high heat; whisk in flour until well combined. Gradually whisk in reserved giblet stock. Bring to boil and cook, stirring constantly, for 2 minutes or until thickened. Season to taste with salt and pepper. Strain and serve alongside turkey.

First Class: Asparagus Salad with Champagne-Saffron Vinaigrette
½ lb asparagus
¼ tsp saffron threads
1 ½ tbsp champagne vinegar or white wine vinegar
½ tsp Dijon mustard
Pinch granulated sugar
3 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
Salt & pepper
½ sweet red or yellow pepper, finely diced
Lettuce

Holding asparagus halfway up stalk, snap off woody ends at natural breaking point and discard. In wide, deep skillet or large pot of boiling salted water, cook asparagus for 3 to 5 minutes or until tender but not limp. Drain and run under cold water until completely cooled; drain well.
Meanwhile, in large bowl, stir saffron into 1 tsp boiling water; let stand for 2 minutes or until softened. Stir in champagne vinegar, mustard and sugar. Whisking, drizzle in olive oil. Season with salt and pepper to taste. Add asparagus and diced pepper; toss to coat. Arrange on lettuce-lined serving platter. Makes 6 serv­ings.

– Courtesy of Luxor’s Titanic exhibition

The barbecue was an established institution in the Southwest. It had in no other part of the country so many devotees. There was a charm in the name that would at any time call together a large concourse of people, on the shortest notice, and for any occasion. And the savory smell of roasted ox, sheep, shoats, turkeys, rabbits, or whatever else was prepared to appease the appetite of a crowd, would keep them together to hear the longest political speeches, listen to the most protracted school examinations, give their attention to the most elaborate expositions of the importance of some projected turnpike or railroad, and secure a patient waiting and an unbroken audience on any occasion when the ‘barbecue feast was to be the agreeable conclusion.

~ In the brush; or, Old-time social, political, and religious life in the Southwest by Hamilton Wilcox Pierson, 1881

Hosting a dinner party required more than an elegant setting and congenial guests, it required the host or hostess’s utmost skill in planning a menu. The general serving pattern was hors d’oeuvres, soup, fish, entree, removes, meat, salad, savoury, sorbet, dessert, but the best planners and cooks knew which dishes would complement during a long meal, and how to mix the latest fashions with traditional fare. For the hostess, it was also imperative that the menus be printed in French, and books were published to help ladies with even the slightest knowledge of the language turn plain boiled Artichokes with butter sauce into the more florid Artichauts sauce au beurre.

Here are a few sample menus written in French. Can you decipher the dishes using Nancy Lake’s Menus Made Easy?

In a 1914 issue of Cosmopolitan, Coca-Cola Vice President Samuel Candler Dobbs recounts the history of the drink and the company:

When Coca-Cola was first offered to the trade the soda water business was an insignificant item in both confectionery and drug stores.

Coca-Cola sales in its first year were extremely small, about 25 gallons were sold to local dealers in Atlanta, Georgia, and nearby towns. That was in 1886.

In 1887 small advertisements were run in Atlanta, Columbus, Birmingham and Memphis newspapers, about 1,000 gallons being sold that year. The business grew slowly, but the sales were gradually extended until Coca-Cola could be found in most of the principal cities of the country.

In 1905 The Coca-Cola Company, feeling the need of a nationalized influence, began the use of standard magazines, both monthly and weekly publications. The increase in the sales of Coca-Cola from that time to the present time have been little short of marvelous. The first year showed an increase of nearly a half million gallons; the next year about six hundred thousand gallons.

Later newspapers were added, and today the announcement to the public that ‘Coca Cola is Delicious and Refreshing’ is to be found during the season from the first of April until the first of October, in the principal magazines, and weekly and daily newspapers of this country.

Having no distinctive package to advertise, The Coca-Cola Company has persistently used its peculiar trade mark script, with the catchlines, ‘Delicious and Refreshing,’ usually accompanied by an illustration of a soda fountain or a glass of Coca-Cola, and the curved arrow which has become so much a part of their advertising, linking the name to the product, until to-day wherever observers see an arrow they almost involuntarily think of Coca-Cola.

But this business has not been built up without the expenditure of vast sums of money and a great deal of hard work. Like all great successes Coca-Cola has found its enemies. These attacks have emanated from the misinformed, from the envious, and sometimes from those seeking the natural publicity which comes from attacking a nationalized product.

Recently the mere attacks that have been made against the product culminated in one especially vigorous action brought by the Government to determine whether Coca-Cola was really deleterious, or misbranded under the National Food Law. This attack was defeated, the Circuit Court of Appeals deciding that Coca-Cola was not manufactured, made or sold in violation of the Food Law. That decision can best be summarized in the words of the court:

“No example is so clear as the very one here involved. Every member of Congress has been familiar from childhood, with tea and coffee; perhaps most of them drank it. The average cup of coffee contains more than two grains of caffeine; the average cup of tea, one and one-half grains. A glass of Coca-Cola, as consumed, contains one and one-fifth grains of caffeine. The chemical qualities and the physiological effects of the caffeine which is in the tea or coffee and of the caffeine which is in the Coca-Cola are precisely the same. We are quite convinced that the use in an artificial beverage of a certain element which had been one of its characteristic elements for many years, and when such use was in less proportion than the same element was known to make up in different natural beverages then in universal use and generally thought wholesome— that such an element so employed could not have been within the meaning of Congress when it chose the words ‘added deleterious ingredient’”

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