Happy Hour [15/04/22]

I need a drink

15/4/22 Hannibal 13

It’s the 110th anniversary of the sinking of the Titanic. Menus from the ship offer a glimpse of life aboard the ill-fated ocean liner. The amount of alcohol on board is unclear. Some estimates are as high as 12,000 cases of Bordeaux, Burgandy, champagne, port, and sherry alone. There were also casks of Wrexham Lagar, a reported 15,000 bottles of ale, and spirits.

The final first-class dinner was a lavish 10-course meal. I wonder if the person who ordered the vegetable marrow regretted not having the filet mignon? Recreating the full menu may not be feasible, but you can whip up a Punch Romaine, the shaved ice cocktail offered as the 6th-course palate cleanser.

Ingredients

  • 1 egg white
  • 1 oz. white rum
  • 1 oz. white wine
  • 1⁄2 oz. simple syrup
  • 1⁄2 oz. lemon juice
  • 1 oz. fresh orange juice
  • 2 oz. Champagne or sparkling wine
  • Twist of orange peel, for garnish

Instructions

  1. In an ice-filled cocktail shaker, combine egg white, rum, wine, simple syrup, lemon, and orange juice; shake vigorously until well mixed and frothy. Mound crushed ice in a large coupe glass, and pour drink around it. Top with champagne, and garnish with orange peel.

I hope you’re having a better day than those unlucky passengers.

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13 Comments

  2. Sorry for the double Titanic post this week. I put mine up without realizing Cousin M was doing one too. And by the time I do d it was too late for me to come up with something else.

        • This is the last thing I’m going to say for now about the Titanic. The sinking of the Titanic shocked the nation so much in those relatively innocent pre-WWI days (and remember, at the time all of Ireland was under British control, so all those victims were British subjects too) that, at a time long before the Royal Family seemed to only exist for PR stunts and to titillate the masses, King George V and Queen Mary and their children had a hand in convening and attended a special service for the dead at St. Paul’s Cathedral. It was held just four days after the sinking. Having George V show up anywhere was a huge deal, and to have him and the whole fam show up at a “come one, come all” event was very, very rare.

    • Great minds think alike and besides, yours is complementary to mine. I didn’t go into how soused everyone must have been when the alarms started going off.

      There is a story that someone was so drunk that they went into the water and managed to float around, conscious, but not feeling any pain, and was ultimately rescued. He was one of the few who survived without boarding a lifeboat.

      • I really like seeing the menus from 1st and 2nd class too. That awful movie would have had us believe they were practically starving anyone who wasn’t 1st class.

      • @MatthewCrawley– According to noted Titanic scholar Jim Cameron – the drunk man was an Irish cook that was holding on to the railing with Rose and Jack as the poop deck got dragged underwater. He was in a few shots on the Carpathia but they may have been cut along with most of the shots of Ida and Isidor Strauss of Macy’s fame. I think the only thing left of their storyline was a shot of them holding each other in bed as the water swirled around them. We shot scenes of her refusing to leave the ship without him – but they didn’t make it to the final cut.

        • I was going to say that in real life the one who bobbed around for a while was a member of the crew but I couldn’t imagine what rank they would have held. An Irish cook sounds plausible. Cameron may have been more of a Titanic-stan than is commonly known.

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