Welcome to Titanic Month! Yes, not one episode but an entire month of episodes dedicated to the food and experiences aboard the RMS Titanic. We're starting with the third class experience with this recipe for rice soup served as the first course for dinner on the day of the disaster. Then we'll work our way through
second class the crew, and of course first class. And there are so many stories that I've found and I want to share as many as I can so we'll also probably throw in a couple mini episodes in addition to our normal Tuesday episodes. Titanic Month starts now this time on Tasting History. So I have two major goals with this series. First is to finish my LEGO Titanic and find a place to put it. The second is that by the end
of the series we will have created an entire meal of several different courses inspired by the
menus from April 14th 1912, the last full day that the Titanic sailed 110 years ago. And most of the dishes are going to be from the first class because they were just more exciting, but since today we're talking third class I figured we would start off with the soup served
to third class passengers for dinner on that day. Now the problem is that while we know the names of
a lot of the dishes that were served on the ship we don't have any recipes, so we don't
exactly know what they were making, so I'll have to refer to period cookbooks to
figure out what the recipes might have been. Like this recipe for rice soup from Eliza
Acton's 'Modern Cookery for Private Families.' "Throw four ounces of well-washed rice into
boiling water and in five minutes after pour it into a sieve, drain it well, and put it into a couple of quarts of good white boiling stock; let it stew until tender season the soup with salt
cayenne and pounded mace; stir to it three quarters of a pint of very rich cream give it one boil and serve it quickly." So while this may seem kind of basic it's actually a lot more exciting than the other period rice soup recipes that I found, all of which were just rice and stock
and that's that's basically just rice. So for this recipe what you'll need is: 2/3 cup
or 105 grams of long grain rice, 2 quarts or 2 liters of chicken or veal stock, a large pinch of salt, a quarter teaspoon of cayenne pepper, a quarter teaspoon of mace, and a little bit less
than one cup or about 225 milliliters of cream. So first rinse your rice, then she says to throw
it into boiling water but because I didn't want first-degree burns I went ahead and placed mine into boiling water. Let it boil for five minutes and then pour it into a sieve, then bring the
stalk to a boil and put the rice into that. Then turn the heat down until it's just simmering, and let it simmer for about 45 minutes. Now while it cooks I wanted to call out one of the main
inspirations I had for doing these episodes and that is the book 'Last Dinner on the Titanic." I
was obsessed with this book when it came out about 25 years ago and I am still somewhat obsessed with this book. Now I think it's out of print but I'm going to put a link in the description to where you can get it used, as well as a link to many of the other sources that I use, and just in case you never look down there in the description I always list to a lot of my sources, different ingredients, as well as my social links: Reddit, Discord as well as my Patreon which other than watching the videos themselves is the best way to support the channel. So make sure to always check it out. Now you're going to want to keep an eye on the soup as it boils because it can all pretty much boil away, and then you'll just have rice so make sure to keep an eye on it and if it does look to be getting too low then just put the lid on, but while it finishes simmering let us take a gander
at the third class experience on the Titanic. Now I don't care what class you were whether you were fresh off the farm or dined nightly at the Ritz. In 1912 the RMS Titanic would have been a
spectacular sight. By the way RMS stands for Royal Mail Ship and the Titanic did carry mail but at nearly 900 feet long the biggest ship of its day it carried a lot more than just mail. "75,000 pounds of fresh meat, 25,000 pounds of poultry, 11,000 pounds of fresh fish, 7,000 heads of lettuce, 40 tons of potatoes, 36,000 oranges, and 13,000 grapefruit." Which is about 13,000 too many in my opinion. "250 barrels of flour, 800 pounds of tea, 40,000 fresh eggs and 1,200 quarts of ice cream, 15,000 bottles of ale, a 1000 bottles of
wine and 850 bottles of liquor." Now this huge quantity of food and drink was
necessary because the ship could carry up to 3,547 passengers and crew. Though on its maiden voyage
there were only about 2,200 people 709 of whom were third class passengers. Now if you were one of these third class passengers then your ticket average would cost about seven pounds which would be about $1000 dollars today which doesn't sound like too much for a transatlantic crossing but at the time that was about two months wages for for the average third class passenger but you got a lot for your money. "In my view, nothing approaching the accommodation has been experienced in any of the previous journeys and nothing but a pleasant voyage is anticipated." Though before you board you need to undergo a physical examination from the ship's surgeon Dr. William Francis Norman O'Loughlin and his team. This was because for the vast majority of third class passengers this was meant to be a one-way ticket to America where then they would start a new life, and American immigration required them to go through this examination before boarding. These regulations were also why the third class passengers were not able to gain access to much of the ship. They were meant to be kept separate from the first and second class passengers, and sometimes this was done with gates that were occasionally locked. Though these gates were not locked on the night of the sinking in an effort to keep the third class down, it just happened that they were often locked. Now once you were on board you'd probably head straight to your cabin and for third class passengers you had two options: you may stay in one of the 84 two berth cabins
which included electricity a wardrobe and even a sink with running water or there were also larger cabins with up to six bunks and these were meant for either large families or more often for single travelers of the same sex. Now this was quite luxurious compared to other ships of the day but it is still third class so their placement on the ship wasn't the best they were usually either at the back or the stern or the very front of the ship or the bow. And those are not the best places on the ship because those are the places where you feel the most movement and vibration from the ship. When I worked on a cruise ship my cabin was pretty much all the way at the bow, and I can tell you, you better like the feeling of being rocked to sleep at night. There were also two baths for third class, just two. Most people washed in their room just in their basin but if you wanted to take a bath they did have two of them. One for men and one for women and I can venture a guess which one had the longer line. Now even though you're barred from most of the ship the parts that you do have access to are really quite nice. For a bit of entertainment you can go to the general room. "It is paneled and framed in pine and finished enamel white, with furniture of teak. This will be the general rendezvous of the third class passengers- men, women and children- and will doubtless
prove one of the liveliest rooms on the ship. The new field of endeavor is looked forward to
with hope and confidence the interval between the old life and the new is spent under the happiest possible conditions." Well the happiest possible conditions were probably a few decks up in
first class, but even so it was very nice. The room had a piano and it was a place where passengers often gathered with their own instruments to play live music and hold dances. Now if you wanted a little peace and quiet and you were a man then you could go relax in the third class smoking room. With linoleum floors, oak paneled walls and a bar that served ale and beer, it was a cozy place to smoke and play cards. The chairs were designed to be more comfortable but just like in the general room they would have been made of wood and not upholstered. And this was because despite your checkup with the surgeon it was just assumed that all third class passengers had lice. Now if you wanted a bit of fresh air you had a few places on board where you could go feel the ocean breeze. There were several spots to promenade but the main third class area was at the back of the ship on the poop deck. It isn't funny, it's French. Poop deck comes from the French word la poupe which referred to the stern of the ship. Originally it was an elevated level at the back
of an old ship and it was there to protect the stern from being swamped by large waves but as ships got larger and didn't worry about big waves the poop deck lost its real necessity, and it made it so that the Titanic was actually the last ship to be made with a true poop deck. So you've got your accommodations, your place to relax, but as anyone who's ever been on a cruise knows the most important thing is the food. And on the Titanic the third class got food which seems like a no duh kind of statement, but not long before that wasn't always the case. Many times the third class had to bring not only all of their own food but their own cutlery as well, but not on the Titanic. On the Titanic even the third class food was first class. "...we had a grand time on the
Titanic. We got very good diet and had a very jolly time dancing and singing. We had every kind of instrument on board to amuse us..." Where you ate was in one of two dining rooms on F deck which was separated by the watertight bulkhead. The "two saloons extending from ship's side to ship's side, well lighted with sidelights, and all finished enamel white; the chairs are of special design. The position of this apartment i.e. in the center of the ship- illustrates the wonderful strides made in passenger comfort in modern times." Together the rooms could accommodate 473 people so you'd be assigned one of two seatings. As you entered you'd likely hang up your coat and hat on hooks along the wall which were decorated with posters of the White Star Line's ships and ports of call. Then you'd sit at communal tables of about 20 which were lined in linen and you would be served by a steward. Your food coming in on
white china featuring the White Star Line logo, and you'd know what your options were ahead of
time because every day the menu was printed on a card in German, English, Finnish and Swedish. And there were four meals a day: breakfast, dinner, tea, and supper. On Titanic's final day breakfast consisted of among other things oatmeal, porridge, and milk, smoked herrings, jacket potatoes, ham
and eggs, and plenty of fresh bread, butter, and marmalade with tea and coffee. Dinner
being the main meal of the day in third class and served around noon would have started
off with the rice soup that we're making today. After that you'd have roast beef, and brown gravy, sweet corn, boiled potatoes, and plum pudding with sweet sauce and fruit. For tea it was cold meat,
cheese, pickles, bread and butter, stewed figs, and rice. And while pretty much everyone
had an afternoon meal called tea at the time the way that this tea happened was very different depending on your place in society. In 1914 a book called "The Whole Art of Dining" contemptuously described this version of tea. "The tea of the English working-class is the most eccentric of
meals and one of the greatest injuries a gourmet can possibly conceive... This incongruous kind of food may no doubt be quite nice and tasty for this class of people, but it must shock anyone
endowed with refined epicurean instinct." Well I think it sounds just lovely. Less lovely sounding was supper which consisted of gruel, cabin biscuits, and cheese. Now gruel gets a bad rap, and one of these days I'll do an entire episode on gruel but in this case it was probably similar to oatmeal that you made just using way too much water. And the cabin biscuits were a fancier version of hardtack. [clack clack] In the lifeboats they had a less fancy version of hardtack called Spillers and Baker's pilot biscuits. So the meals were simple but they were filling and they were probably a lot better than most of what the third class was accustomed to and White Star Line even made an allowance for "Kosher meat supplied and cooked for Jewish passengers as desired." And "Any complaint respecting the food supplied, want of attention or incivility, should
be at once reported to the Purser or Chief Steward. For purposes of identification each Steward wears a numbered badge on the arm." Now supper ended at 10 o'clock and if you were like most people on that April 14th 1912 you probably went to bed shortly after but at 11:40 pm you would be rudely roused from your slumber. "There were four of us sleeping in the same apartment. We had a bed of our own and in every apartment there were four lifebelts, one for each person. At the time when the ship got struck I heard a terrible noise. I jumped out of bed and told my comrades there was something wrong but they only laughed. I turned on the gas and to my surprise there was a small stream of water running along the floor. I had only just dressed myself when the sailors came along shouting, 'All up on deck unless you want to get drowned.' " That was third class passenger
Daniel Buckley and he was in one of those forward cabins and if you were up there you
would have likely felt the iceberg as well, and very soon afterwards seen water on the floor. Many of the men up there felt it and put on their life belts right away and headed down what was known as Scotland Road which was a long corridor connecting the front to the back of the ship. They went back to the third class smoking room which was all the way aft but many of the men who were back there hadn't really felt the iceberg, and definitely hadn't seen any water and so they weren't taking it seriously. They mocked the men for wearing the life belts and there were Stewards
who instructed the men to actually remove the life belts. Now while the third class was not forced to stay below decks they were encouraged to stay in one place and await further instructions from the crew, but as the crew went out onto deck and started loading lifeboats they got distracted and never went back down to tell the third class passengers what to do, and by the time the third class passengers realized this it was too late and the last of the lifeboats was gone. Though Daniel Buckley having seen the water in his room did not wait for instructions. "I went on deck and met a sailor who asked me to help him lower the boats. The sailor said 'take a chance yourself'. I did, as did my friend, but the officers came along and ordered us off the boat. A woman said 'lay down
lad you are somebody's child'. She put a rug over me and the boat went out so I was saved." Gershon Cohen, another third class passenger, said that he didn't have a life belt in his room but he wasn't that worried because when he went to the general room everyone was dancing and singing and nobody seemed that worried. It was only when he too went out on deck and saw ice all over the place that he realized the gravity of the situation. He actually climbed up onto the first class deck and started searching for a lifebelt which took him 30 minutes before he found one. "I had just put it on when the boat tilted right over and a lot of people fell into the water and were drowned. I clung to the railings of the deck for dear life and I was about 200 feet above the level of the water." Also below him was the very last lifeboat leaving the Titanic and he tried to get on it by jumping out five feet to the lowering rope, but the rope cut through his gloves and his hands and he too fell into the water. "After being five minutes in the water (it seemed hours) I was dragged into the last lifeboat. There was nearly all women and children and 3 men. I was given one of the oars to pull the boat. We had to pull very hard because the Titanic was sinking and suction would pull us all down." We know a lot less about what was happening on the Titanic during the very last minutes but there are a few stories from survivors who were pulled from the water. One tells of a third class passenger running through the general room on his way to try to get out of the ship, and the room
was empty except for a woman and her young child. She was sitting at the piano playing and singing a song to her child trying to keep them calm, she being resigned to their fate. Now of the over 700 third class passengers 536 died that night, more than any other class. Though it was actually the crew that suffered the most loss and we'll do an entire episode covering the crew at large, but in the next mini episode I'm going to do I'm going to talk about one crew member specifically, the baker, this guy from the 1997 movie. But before we move on from third class I wanted
to tell one more first-hand account and I was actually not going to because it's really strange
and can seem almost callous but after reflecting on it I realized that it shows an aspect of
humanity that none of the other accounts- none of the other accounts have. It's a letter from Bertha Mulvihill to her sister Maude and Bertha wrote this on the Carpathia which was the ship that picked up the survivors after the actual sinking is when she's writing this letter, and I don't know if she was in shock or just disbelief or what but it's it's fascinating. "Dear Maud, experience is great- I'm fine and dandy- never better. What time did you hear of the
disaster? I AM SO GLAD I WAS IN IT. I shall never forget it... I never saw such a sight as when the dear old Titanic sank. She broke in two pieces. The scene was awful. Don't think me mad for being so
happy to witness the sight. I am awfully happy- like the night I was born never felt happier in my life." Go figure. Now I could tell countless stories from the third class on that fateful April night but as it happens it's time to spice up our rice soup. So once the rice is nice and soft add in the salt, cayenne pepper, and the mace, and then pour in the cream and stir it while you bring it back to a boil for one minute, and then it's ready to serve. And here we are rice soup has served
to third class passengers aboard the Titanic. It smells really good. It's so interesting because it's kind of soup and it's kind of porridge. It's like in this kind of weird middle place especially once you add the cream but let's give it a shot. Hmm. Oh weird, interesting. So the mace really hits you first. It's that and the chicken stock, those are the dominant flavors um which is interesting for for a soup or any kind of dish. That's an odd combination and then after a couple seconds you don't get the flavor of the cayenne but you get the heat of the cayenne which is really interesting especially from food of this time period you don't really think of it as spicy but it is. I have to say it's weird but it's also good and wow it would be so filling and you know it's the first of quite a large meal but the meals after this we're going to cover the other classes they get huge. This is a tiny meal in comparison to what we're going to cover in future episodes. So I hope you're as excited as I am about Titanic Month. I've wanted to do it for a very long time so I'm very glad that it's here and I will see you next time on Titanic Month on Tasting History!
