A Lusitania Lunch.

There is something eternally interesting about cruise ship menus, especially those from legendary vessels such as the RMS Lusitania. On this day in 1911, the second class passengers aboard the famous ship sat down to the following lunch:

Luncheon

June 3^rd 1911

Hodge Podge

Whitefish, Fines Herbes

Navarin of Lamb, Printaniere

Roast Beef, Sauce Robert

Corned Pig’s Cheek, Spinach

Stewed Carrots in Cream                    Marrowfat Peas

COLD

Roast Beef                  Boar’s Head                Boiled Ham

Lyon Sausage              Ox Tongue

Salad

Apricots and Rice                   Small Pastry

Golden Pudding

Ice Cream

Cheese                         Dessert

Tea                              Coffee

Nothing too scary on that menu for the mostly British passengers, I think. But what to choose for the recipe for the day?

In a post some time ago I mentioned Hodge-Podge, but failed to give you an actual recipe. Hodge-Podge is a dish of mixed ingredients, as the name suggests, so there is a huge number of variations, as you might expect. Here is Mrs. Beeton’s version:

Hodge-Podge.

[Cold Meat Cookery.] Ingredients.-About 1 lb. of underdone cold mutton, 2 lettuces, 1 pint of green peas, 5 or 6 green onions, 2 oz. of butter, pepper and, salt to taste, 4 teacupful of water. Mode.—Mince the mutton, and cut up the lettuces and onions in slices. Put these in a stewpan, with all the ingredients except the peas, and let these simmer very gently for 1 hour, keeping them well stirred. Boil the peas separately, mix these with the mutton, and serve very hot. Time.—3/4 hour. Sufficient for 3 or 4 persons. Seasonable from the end of May to August.

Mrs. Beeton's Dictionary of Every-day Cookery (1865)

The stewed carrots in cream sound rather good, but I was a little put off by the following recipe which calls for the carrots to be cooked for two hours. I know that in the past, vegetable varieties were not so tender as they are nowadays after considerable development by horticulturalists, but two hours sounds extra-ordinarily excessive, doesn’t it?

Stewed Carrots.

Take any quantity desired, divide the carrots lengthwise, and boil on Majestic Range until perfectly tender, which will require from one to two hours. When done, have ready a sauce-pan with one or two tablespoons butter, and small cup cream; slice the carrots very thin, and put in the sauce-pan; add salt and pepper, and let stew ten or fifteen minutes, stirring gently once or twice, and serve in a vegetable dish. Some add more milk or cream; when done skim out carrots, and to the cream; add a little flour thickening, or the beaten yolks of one or two eggs. When it boils pour over the carrots and serve. Carrots may also be boiled with meat like turnips or parsnips, but they take longer to cook than either.

Majestic Range Catalog and Cook Book, (Los Angeles) 1893