The Forgotten Menu
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19 recipes

Royal Dinners

Recipes from royal tables: Henry IV’s coronation feast of 1399, the King’s Dinner of 1902, the 1939 Hyde Park picnic and the 1947 wedding breakfast.

A royal meal leaves paper behind: a list of courses, a printed card, a typed menu tucked in with a timetable. Henry IV’s coronation feast of 1399 came in three courses, with boar’s head, peacocks and cranes, a custard tart of dates and marrow, rice cream and quinces, as What Was Served at Henry IV’s Coronation Feast? sets out. Five centuries later, in July 1902, London’s poor were given a dinner in Edward VII’s name, and Fulham’s card promised roast beef, potatoes, bread ad lib. and plum pudding: What Did London’s Poor Eat at the King’s Dinner in 1902?

On June 11, 1939, the Roosevelts gave King George VI and Queen Elizabeth a picnic at Hyde Park with Virginia ham, hot dogs, cold turkey, cranberry jelly and strawberry shortcake (What Did the King and Queen Eat at the Roosevelts’ 1939 Picnic?). A typed menu of July 1, 1945, survives with the timetable of the Sultan of Morocco’s train to Paris, the source of What Was on the Royal Train’s Menu in 1945? And in November 1947, in a Britain still on rations, Princess Elizabeth’s wedding breakfast served sole, partridge and an iced bombe named for the bride: What Was Served at Princess Elizabeth’s Wedding Breakfast in 1947?

What Was Served at Henry IV’s Coronation Feast?

What Did London’s Poor Eat at the King’s Dinner in 1902?

  • A tall, golden-brown steamed pudding turned out onto a plain white plate, its sides darkened with sugar and its top dusted with fine white sugar, one wedge cut away to show raisins, currants, pale pieces of apple and chopped almond in an open, cake-like crumb.
    Plum Pudding

    Desserts & Sweets · 5 hr 35 min total

    Plum Pudding (1894) 

    Agnes Marshall’s plum pudding of suet, raisins, currants, sultanas, chopped apple, almonds and peel, raised with baking powder and steamed in a basin, about 1894.

What Did the King and Queen Eat at the Roosevelts’ 1939 Picnic?

  • A smooth, deep red cranberry jelly turned out of a small fluted mold onto a white plate, with one wedge cut away to show it is clear of skins.
    Cranberry jelly

    Vegetables & Sides · 6 hr 30 min total

    Cranberry Jelly (1931) 

    Aunt Sammy’s cranberry jelly, 1931: cranberries cooked soft, pressed through a sieve, boiled briefly with sugar to the jelly point and set in a mold.

  • Golden folded Parker House rolls baked close together in a metal pan, their tops shiny with butter, with one lifted out and pulled apart to show a soft white crumb.
    Rolls

    Breads & Cakes · 3 hr total

    Parker House Rolls (1931) 

    Parker House rolls from the 1931 USDA bulletin Home Baking: soft milk-and-butter yeast rolls cut in rounds, buttered, creased and folded over, then baked hot.

  • A round biscuit shortcake split in two, with crushed red strawberries between the layers and soft whipped cream on top heaped with more crushed berries, on a pale stoneware plate.
    Strawberry shortcake

    Desserts & Sweets · 45 min total

    Strawberry Shortcake (1918) 

    Fannie Farmer’s strawberry shortcake: biscuit dough baked in two pans, split and buttered, with warm crushed strawberries and her whipped Cream Sauce I.

What Was on the Royal Train’s Menu in 1945?

  • A gold-rimmed white soup plate of clear golden consommé holding thin sticks of carrot and turnip, green peas, asparagus tips, diamonds of green bean, small rounds of lettuce, chervil leaves and pale yellow squares of custard, with a silver spoon on white linen.
    Consommé Printanier Royal

    Soups & Broths · 1 hr 30 min total

    Consommé Printanier Royal (1907) 

    Consommé printanier royal after Escoffier (1907): clear chicken consommé with tiny rods of carrot and turnip, peas, green beans, asparagus tips and squares of chervil royale custard.

  • Two upright rolls of white sole fillet with pale forcemeat showing at the top, in a pool of butter sauce on an oval white plate, beside a folded half of glossy braised lettuce, with a fish knife on a dark wooden table.
    Paupiettes de Soles Choisy

    Fish & Seafood · 1 hr 40 min total

    Paupiettes of Sole Choisy (1907) 

    Paupiettes of sole Choisy after Escoffier (1907): fillets spread with fish mousseline, rolled, stood upright and poached in fish stock, with braised lettuce for the Choisy garnish.

  • An oval white dish heaped with thin, bright green beans glossed with butter and flecked with black pepper, a silver serving spoon resting in it, on a pale marble surface.
    Haricots verts du Saumurois

    Vegetables & Sides · 20 min total

    French Beans (1907) 

    French beans as Escoffier wrote them in 1907: thin green beans boiled until just firm, tossed over the heat to dry, then finished with fresh butter, salt and pepper.

  • A small stemmed glass coupe holding two scoops of pale apricot-orange fruit ice with a fine, grainy texture, beside an old silver dessert spoon on a worn blue-gray wooden table.
    Glace aux Abricots

    Drinks, Punches & Ices · 4 hr 50 min total

    Apricot Ice (1907) 

    Ripe apricot purée, sugar syrup and lemon juice, frozen smooth: Escoffier’s apricot ice of 1907, the Glace aux Abricots on a 1945 train menu.

What Was Served at Princess Elizabeth’s Wedding Breakfast in 1947?

  • Eight folded fillets of sole in two rows in a long oval white dish with a silver rim, covered in a thick pale yellow butter sauce lightly glazed gold on the tops, with a silver serving spoon on a grey linen cloth beside it.
    Filet de Sole Mountbatten

    Fish & Seafood · 1 hr total

    Fillets of Sole in White Wine (1907) 

    Fillets of sole poached in white wine, fish stock and mushroom liquor, then coated with a butter sauce of egg yolks: Escoffier’s sole au vin blanc of 1907, for the Filet de Sole Mountbatten of 1947.

  • Four small roasted partridges, golden-brown and glistening with butter, side by side in a little dark pan juice in a round brown glazed earthenware casserole, its lid set beside it on a dark polished wooden table.
    Perdreau en Casserole

    Meat & Poultry · 1 hr 5 min total

    Partridge en Casserole (1907) 

    Young partridges pot-roasted in butter alone in a covered earthenware dish, finished with flamed brandy and game gravy and served in the dish: Escoffier’s en casserole method of 1907.

  • A domed ice bombe on a white cake stand, a wedge cut away to show a pale vanilla shell speckled with vanilla seeds around a pink strawberry filling, ringed with halved strawberries in their juice, with a silver cake server on a pink napkin beside it.
    Bombe Glacée Princess Elizabeth

    Drinks, Punches & Ices · 11 hr total

    Strawberry Bombe (1907) 

    A mold lined with vanilla ice cream, filled with a strawberry bombe mixture of egg yolks, syrup and whipped cream, and ringed with strawberries in kirsch: Escoffier’s Bombe Alhambra of 1907.