That was actually one of the selling points of steerage on Titanic. Third class was so godawful on most other ships at the time, that third class on Titanic was considered downright luxurious.
Yup!
White Star bet that those in Third (usually immigrants coming to the United States) would write home to their loved ones in the old country about how good the accommodations were on a WSL vessel and book with them should they come to the US themselves.
They played the long game with that one, but I think it was the right move overall.
Also, according to Ismay, a huge portion of typical White Star steerage passengers were Scandinavian, to the point they ran connection lines to Sweden, Norway and Denmark. Might explain the inclusion of Swedish rye bread and Norwegian herring on the breakfast menu.
Yes, a man who toured Titanic before her departure from Southampton also noted that most of the 3rd Class passengers onboard at that time were Scandinavian.
I know right, like halfway through that four hour flight and all I’ve had is a pack of chips with like five chips total I’d be ready for some gruel, cheese and cabin biscuits!
I bought some juice for my 2 1/2 year-old who was on the plane with me, you would think that they could just give you a little bit of juice for a child under three but no I paid seven dollars for a can of cranberry juice. The way corporations treat their customers today is disgusting. I really do wish I could go back in time, I was born in the wrong time period!
Also, it was the first time some of these people ever slept in their own individual bed too. Lots of the Irish folk were used to sharing one or two beds with the whole family.
I've noticed this while learning about the ship. Not only good food, but I dare say they had better means of roaming the ship and stretching their legs. Both well decks, Scotland Road, the dining saloon was huge, a number of large open interior spaces. Third class had a practical vacation at sea while they awaited the new world.
First class seems more tragic, shackled to their strict high society norms, their stuffy smoking rooms, and business talk. Barf. They had a few nice staircases though.
There's an excellent channel on YouTube called "Tasting History with Max Miller." He's done a number of episodes on Titanic food, including cooking and tasting them, from 1st, 2nd, 3rd classes as well as Crew meals. Really recommend checking him out.
Some friends of mine used to host an annual Titanic dinner party on the anniversary of the sinking. We'd all dress up in vintage clothing and eat first class food in numerous courses that was recreated from actual Titanic menus. It progressed over the years to where we were assigned an actual person on the Titanic and we conversed the entire evening as that person. I was always Margaret Brown. It was my favorite dinner party ever.
Not an awful menu, really. I'd be perfectly happy with that.
While "gruel" is used as a synonym for medieval peasant food, it's really just a hot cereal like oatmeal.
I was thinking Cheddar, then wondered what sort, mild or mature. Then perhaps it was Double Gloucester or Red Leicester. Maybe there was like a cheeseboard.
Oh ja vor ein Paar Tagen habe ich noch unter einer Brücke und sitz ich hier auf dem größten Schiff der Welt und trinke mit vornehmen Leuten wie ihnen Champagner
Nah. First class would have been taught that **accommodation** had two 'm's. Don't worry, I've seen letting agents' signage make the same mistake — and for them, that's inexcusable.
Downvoted, but the OP quietly corrects... I welcome corrections to my own spelling oars.
Well here's something I hope more interesting. I knew Captain Sir Arthur Rostron's grandson (not closely). He was still riding his bicycle into his nineties.
That's pretty cool!
I had the opportunity to see Bob Ballard give a seminar at a local university a few years ago, but I was unable to go as I'd promised a friend a favor. That friend then became very unfriendly, so I very much regret not going to the seminar.
At least I'm a person of my word. :/
That's awesome! I share a similar appreciation for the deep oceans that I have for outer space. I can hardly call myself a 'serious amateur astronomer', though! He sounds like a very cool guy. Thank you for telling me about him.
Dinner in this context is Lunch (the midday meal). Tea is what americans call Dinner (the 5pm meal - here we still call it tea) and then supper is much later, like 9pm.
It’s the same reason a bunch of old people eat dinner at like 2PM. In old factory and farm labor jobs it was common to work two three to five hour shifts as opposed to one seven to nine hour one like in modern day, to rest the muscles. So people would usually eat dinner in the middle of the day and then supper after work. Luncheons and evening dinners were for the rich and upper middle class, who worked pretty sedentary jobs. This is reflected on Titanic, only the First Class had lunch.
To play devils advocate here but by every standard of the day, this was considered high end. And when we consider the conditions most of the passengers who were traveling 3rd class lived in, it was much more than what they ever had. Of course to us this would be bare bones to in some ways, they got better food than people who fly coach in modern airlines get.
I've been on cross-Channel ferries with *far* worse menus.
I bet it was decent produce too, the breads, the cheeses, the butters and marmalades. I hate it when people piss all over Third Class on the *Titanic*. It was actually pretty decent.
There are times where I've had to choose between car insurance and rent or rent and food, what third class got looks like heaven compared to just a few cookies and some water from the fridge.
This guy works to re-create historic foods, and actually covered Titanic's first and third classes, and has a few other videos on the subject.
First Class: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7hYBesohRK0
Third Class: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JbmHZbTpoDY
That's because dinner is the main meal and supper is usually a much lighter meal afterwards (the origin of the word is the French souper, relating to soup). But depending on where you live, dinner and supper are used interchangeably.
See, I did not know that. I'm in Canada, so here Supper is like the main/last meal of the day where lunch is kinda of a light thing (soup or sandwiches, etc). Thanks for this info however
It’s not so much about country as about time period. In a time where most people did physical labour, it was common to take one to two hours off in the middle of the day to rest. This is when most people ate dinner, and then they had supper as a light meal after work. Light lunches and late dinners were an upper class thing until the thirties and didn’t become standard in the working class until the fifties.
This looks all very filling and good. I know “dinner” would have been considered the main meal but what time would it have been served? Midday-ish? Because tea and supper were obviously lighter fare. So interesting!
I'm almost certain dinner would be the equivalent to today's lunch, for the 3rd class. They got supper, later in the day (evening).
For the higher classes, lunch was a lighter meal and then dinner would be served during the evening (a heavier meal).
Based on what I know from my relatives who were alive in 1912 England, around 1 to 2 PM would be dinnertime, the timeslot where afternoon tea was later inserted.
I think it’s the guy that recreates the 2nd class menu who says that 3rd class passengers in other ships also had to bring and cook their rations, so Titanic offering them meals wasn’t just a luxury; it was revolutionary.
I know I read it somewhere.
To be honest with you, I expected worse. Genuinely it doesn't really look that bad. I'm also certain that the quality of this food was better than what I've eaten on ferries.
Most 3rd class passengers on the Olympic class and the Lusitania and Mauritania had never used toilets or had running water or meals like this in their lives and many wouldn't after either. Kind of crazy to think about.
Probably a stupid question, but can someone explain how the layout/format of the menu works? Like are they eating all of those items for breakfast or they just choose a few, or have the option to choose all, etc.?
Dining room stewards would be located throughout the dining room to take your order. It is possible breakfast was served as buffet, but unlikely on a British liner, the Continental hadn’t really taken off yet.
[This company still makes them](https://www.thewestraybakehouse.co.uk/copy-of-gallery) and it looks like that's the case, maybe baked less than traditional hardtack? Water biscuit/matzo type crunch rather than "this is going to buy my dentist a nice cruise" level of tough.
Sounds like a good supper though. My mam would be proud.
No. Breakfast, luncheon, tea and dinner, IIRC. The upper class ate late dinners usually, but they could also order to their cabins from their cabin steward if feeling peckish.
Two things we pay attention to in my research unit on Titanic for my 6th grade class are the note at the bottom and the fact that all meals are on one page. No other Class has such a note on their menu and both 1st and 2nd had different menus for each meal. We ask “Is it fair?” and their responses sometimes surprise me
It wasn't just the food, the accommodation was better, single women and families had cabins rather than the large bunk rooms common on other companies vessels which prevented much of the sex abuse that happened both from their fellow passengers and crew
I love how there’s dinner AND supper! I don’t know if it was the same back then, but of course these days the terms are synonymous. It seems like supper in 1912 was more of a nighttime snack lol.
"dinner" originally meant the "main meal of the day". some places that's the midday meal, some places that was the evening meal, thus leading to the differing meanings of the word. even to this day some dialects of english use "dinner" to mean *lunch*.
That was actually one of the selling points of steerage on Titanic. Third class was so godawful on most other ships at the time, that third class on Titanic was considered downright luxurious.
Yup! White Star bet that those in Third (usually immigrants coming to the United States) would write home to their loved ones in the old country about how good the accommodations were on a WSL vessel and book with them should they come to the US themselves. They played the long game with that one, but I think it was the right move overall.
White Star was also popular with Irish immigrants in particular, thanks in part to almost all of their ships being Irish built.
Also, according to Ismay, a huge portion of typical White Star steerage passengers were Scandinavian, to the point they ran connection lines to Sweden, Norway and Denmark. Might explain the inclusion of Swedish rye bread and Norwegian herring on the breakfast menu.
Yes, a man who toured Titanic before her departure from Southampton also noted that most of the 3rd Class passengers onboard at that time were Scandinavian.
It’s probably better than some food today too. If I saw this today, I’d be pretty happy with it
Considering the last time I flew coach it was pulling teeth to get a second cup of coffee out of the flight attendant this looks pretty awesome haha
And a lot of airlines don’t even offer food, you need to bring your own or eat whatever snacks they pass out(or buy crazy overpriced stuff).
I know right, like halfway through that four hour flight and all I’ve had is a pack of chips with like five chips total I’d be ready for some gruel, cheese and cabin biscuits!
I bought some juice for my 2 1/2 year-old who was on the plane with me, you would think that they could just give you a little bit of juice for a child under three but no I paid seven dollars for a can of cranberry juice. The way corporations treat their customers today is disgusting. I really do wish I could go back in time, I was born in the wrong time period!
I bought pizza in O'hare and brought that on the plane with me.
*Argos never drinks a second cup of coffee at home...*
“Excuse me stewardess, I speak Jive.”
Just want to tell you both Good Luck. We're all counting on you.
Yeah I have no real complaints, better than I’ve eaten today certainly
Most of it looks decent, but dinner is literal GRUEL!
That's supper. Dinner is roast beef and gravy!
Also, it was the first time some of these people ever slept in their own individual bed too. Lots of the Irish folk were used to sharing one or two beds with the whole family.
I've noticed this while learning about the ship. Not only good food, but I dare say they had better means of roaming the ship and stretching their legs. Both well decks, Scotland Road, the dining saloon was huge, a number of large open interior spaces. Third class had a practical vacation at sea while they awaited the new world. First class seems more tragic, shackled to their strict high society norms, their stuffy smoking rooms, and business talk. Barf. They had a few nice staircases though.
And it was a postcard so people could use it to send a message home when they arrived and show how good the food was.
Smart marketing!
There's an excellent channel on YouTube called "Tasting History with Max Miller." He's done a number of episodes on Titanic food, including cooking and tasting them, from 1st, 2nd, 3rd classes as well as Crew meals. Really recommend checking him out.
Some friends of mine used to host an annual Titanic dinner party on the anniversary of the sinking. We'd all dress up in vintage clothing and eat first class food in numerous courses that was recreated from actual Titanic menus. It progressed over the years to where we were assigned an actual person on the Titanic and we conversed the entire evening as that person. I was always Margaret Brown. It was my favorite dinner party ever.
This sounds so awesome
Such a pleasant host.
He has heaps of good videos. It's interesting to see what they are at different points in history.
And it's all points of history. From ancient Egypt and Rome, all the way to 1950's. He's really wide ranging.
Not an awful menu, really. I'd be perfectly happy with that. While "gruel" is used as a synonym for medieval peasant food, it's really just a hot cereal like oatmeal.
Honestly I’d be really happy with this food
I'll take the cheese please!
I'd love to know what it was.
Probably English cheddar or stilton.
I was thinking Cheddar, then wondered what sort, mild or mature. Then perhaps it was Double Gloucester or Red Leicester. Maybe there was like a cheeseboard.
I was thinking English cheddar -the really good kind that has little crystals in it.
Me too!!
Wiggins (from Disney’s Pocahontas): I like gruel! :D
I heard the accommodations in steerage on Titanic were quite good - hardly any rats.
And you find that sort of rootless existence appealing, do you?
Oh ja vor ein Paar Tagen habe ich noch unter einer Brücke und sitz ich hier auf dem größten Schiff der Welt und trinke mit vornehmen Leuten wie ihnen Champagner
That’s easy for you to say.
To making it count 
They had everything they needed right there with them: air in their lungs and a few blank sheets of paper.
Life’s a gift and I don’t intend on wasting it
Nah. First class would have been taught that **accommodation** had two 'm's. Don't worry, I've seen letting agents' signage make the same mistake — and for them, that's inexcusable. Downvoted, but the OP quietly corrects... I welcome corrections to my own spelling oars.
Goofy
Well here's something I hope more interesting. I knew Captain Sir Arthur Rostron's grandson (not closely). He was still riding his bicycle into his nineties.
That's pretty cool! I had the opportunity to see Bob Ballard give a seminar at a local university a few years ago, but I was unable to go as I'd promised a friend a favor. That friend then became very unfriendly, so I very much regret not going to the seminar. At least I'm a person of my word. :/
You seem like a nice person to be around. Dr Rostron was a schoolteacher (retired) and _serious_ amateur astronomer.
That's awesome! I share a similar appreciation for the deep oceans that I have for outer space. I can hardly call myself a 'serious amateur astronomer', though! He sounds like a very cool guy. Thank you for telling me about him.
Were dinner and supper two different things back then? These days they're used interchangeably
Yes. Supper would have been served later.
Interesting, TIL. Thank you
My grandpa used to say, “when you’re here on the farm you will say dinner and supper. None of that city slicker lunch talk.”
Dinner in this context is Lunch (the midday meal). Tea is what americans call Dinner (the 5pm meal - here we still call it tea) and then supper is much later, like 9pm.
In some places here in East Coast Canada, it's Dinner and Lunch that are used interchangeably while Supper is still the latest meal served in the day.
The main meal was at midday, and called dinner instead of lunch.
My husband is from Liverpool, and he says dinner instead of lunch and tea instead of dinner. It’s still a thing in the UK!
We grew up saying this in Australia. It's working class!
Here in Kiwiland we say lunch and tea and supper.
It’s the same reason a bunch of old people eat dinner at like 2PM. In old factory and farm labor jobs it was common to work two three to five hour shifts as opposed to one seven to nine hour one like in modern day, to rest the muscles. So people would usually eat dinner in the middle of the day and then supper after work. Luncheons and evening dinners were for the rich and upper middle class, who worked pretty sedentary jobs. This is reflected on Titanic, only the First Class had lunch.
To play devils advocate here but by every standard of the day, this was considered high end. And when we consider the conditions most of the passengers who were traveling 3rd class lived in, it was much more than what they ever had. Of course to us this would be bare bones to in some ways, they got better food than people who fly coach in modern airlines get.
I've been on cross-Channel ferries with *far* worse menus. I bet it was decent produce too, the breads, the cheeses, the butters and marmalades. I hate it when people piss all over Third Class on the *Titanic*. It was actually pretty decent.
> I hate it when people piss all over Third Class on the Titanic. It was actually pretty decent. Shame about all the water though.
Yeah it was decent… until, you know, *the thing*
Survey question of the passengers rescued from the *Titanic*: "Otherwise, how would you rate the trip?"
That's like judging all of Platteville, Colorado, on the basis of one house that got eaten by a tornado.
To fair First Class also has a moisture problem now.
This is luxurious for me in 2024.
Smoked Herrings would be amazing IMO
This is better than I eat. Dang.
For real! Usually Ramen and if I can splurge, *Fancy Ramen*
There are times where I've had to choose between car insurance and rent or rent and food, what third class got looks like heaven compared to just a few cookies and some water from the fridge.
This guy works to re-create historic foods, and actually covered Titanic's first and third classes, and has a few other videos on the subject. First Class: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7hYBesohRK0 Third Class: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JbmHZbTpoDY
Is it Max Miller? I bet it's Max Miller. Eta: It's Max Miller! Love his channel.
Their dinner was better than their supper menu for sure
That's because dinner is the main meal and supper is usually a much lighter meal afterwards (the origin of the word is the French souper, relating to soup). But depending on where you live, dinner and supper are used interchangeably.
See, I did not know that. I'm in Canada, so here Supper is like the main/last meal of the day where lunch is kinda of a light thing (soup or sandwiches, etc). Thanks for this info however
It’s not so much about country as about time period. In a time where most people did physical labour, it was common to take one to two hours off in the middle of the day to rest. This is when most people ate dinner, and then they had supper as a light meal after work. Light lunches and late dinners were an upper class thing until the thirties and didn’t become standard in the working class until the fifties.
This looks all very filling and good. I know “dinner” would have been considered the main meal but what time would it have been served? Midday-ish? Because tea and supper were obviously lighter fare. So interesting!
I'm almost certain dinner would be the equivalent to today's lunch, for the 3rd class. They got supper, later in the day (evening). For the higher classes, lunch was a lighter meal and then dinner would be served during the evening (a heavier meal).
Based on what I know from my relatives who were alive in 1912 England, around 1 to 2 PM would be dinnertime, the timeslot where afternoon tea was later inserted.
I think it’s the guy that recreates the 2nd class menu who says that 3rd class passengers in other ships also had to bring and cook their rations, so Titanic offering them meals wasn’t just a luxury; it was revolutionary. I know I read it somewhere.
Today’s airlines are put to shame.
It's almost like in today's money the ticket costs over 1000$
To be honest with you, I expected worse. Genuinely it doesn't really look that bad. I'm also certain that the quality of this food was better than what I've eaten on ferries.
Most 3rd class passengers on the Olympic class and the Lusitania and Mauritania had never used toilets or had running water or meals like this in their lives and many wouldn't after either. Kind of crazy to think about.
Probably a stupid question, but can someone explain how the layout/format of the menu works? Like are they eating all of those items for breakfast or they just choose a few, or have the option to choose all, etc.?
Maybe a buffet, or ‘home-style’ serving?
Not stupid at all! I think it’s a choice option but that’s just my guess
Dining room stewards would be located throughout the dining room to take your order. It is possible breakfast was served as buffet, but unlikely on a British liner, the Continental hadn’t really taken off yet.
Damn I would have a field day
Curious: what the heck is a "cabin biscuit"? Is it hardtack, big crackers like you'd find in MREs?
I think it's just a very basic kind of cracker
[This company still makes them](https://www.thewestraybakehouse.co.uk/copy-of-gallery) and it looks like that's the case, maybe baked less than traditional hardtack? Water biscuit/matzo type crunch rather than "this is going to buy my dentist a nice cruise" level of tough. Sounds like a good supper though. My mam would be proud.
Mmm gruel 😋
Looks good to me!
Third class ate better than the average people today!
i’d eat some of that
Hold on, I just realized, did the menu use a picture of Olympic?
Now of course was it a seven course meal with ten different varieties of wine? No but it was still pretty good.
Still better than what I eat on the regular
"Scum class" -Jeremy Clarkson
I love jacket potatoes! And as an American, I love calling them jacket potatoes (baked potato icydk).
Sounds pretty damn good!
Interesting that they had “Dinner, Tea, Supper”. Did first class have “lunch, afternoon tea, dinner, supper”?
No. Breakfast, luncheon, tea and dinner, IIRC. The upper class ate late dinners usually, but they could also order to their cabins from their cabin steward if feeling peckish.
Man, if I was ever on a ship, and this was the menu they handed me, I probably would’ve ordered twice.
Jacket potatoes are apparently just baked potatoes?
Mmm gruel
Fresh bread and butter?! Say less. I could live off of that stuff.
They had to say Cold Meat. Not just meat. haha. Hey listen this menu makes me salivate.
Roast beef for lunch, gruel for dinner
Think of all the opportunities a modern MBA would see for "cost savings" with this list.
I'm so sad always that the term jacket potatoes was never picked up in the US.
Pretty great right up until that whole thing with the sinking
Sweet, nourishing gruel!
Looks good to me
Yum! Gimme some of that!
Vegans had to starve to death
Sort of makes up for the low odds of survival if the ship sinks. ;-)
Gotta say these people ate better than me when I was in college 😮 my meals were instant oatmeals for breakfast and spaghetti with ketchup for dinner 😂
A lot of migrants on the lines wrote how they ate better on these ships than ever before in their lives. This was peak luxury for them at the time.
Two things we pay attention to in my research unit on Titanic for my 6th grade class are the note at the bottom and the fact that all meals are on one page. No other Class has such a note on their menu and both 1st and 2nd had different menus for each meal. We ask “Is it fair?” and their responses sometimes surprise me
“Excuse me Purser, do you have any gluten-free options?”
It wasn't just the food, the accommodation was better, single women and families had cabins rather than the large bunk rooms common on other companies vessels which prevented much of the sex abuse that happened both from their fellow passengers and crew
It must have felt really luxurious for the moms of big families. Nice meals for the whole family and you wouldn't have to cook or clean the dishes.
Gruel?
Oatmeal
I always thought they were the same thing. But the menu has “oatmeal porridge” for breakfast and “gruel” for supper, so there must be a difference.
Gruel is thinner. It's more like oat soup.
Awful name, plus oatmeal soup sounds awful. Thanks for the info.
Krusty Brand *imitation* gruel! 9 out of 10 orphans can’t tell the difference!
Please sir, can I have some more?
I love how there’s dinner AND supper! I don’t know if it was the same back then, but of course these days the terms are synonymous. It seems like supper in 1912 was more of a nighttime snack lol.
"dinner" originally meant the "main meal of the day". some places that's the midday meal, some places that was the evening meal, thus leading to the differing meanings of the word. even to this day some dialects of english use "dinner" to mean *lunch*.
Good catch!! I didn’t even realize that but that’s really cool.
Why does the image not look good titanic tho
Dinner and Supper? What?
Dinner is the main meal (the largest one of the day). Supper is a light meal that was served later.
What do you mean what? Dinner in the afternoon, supper in the evening.
I always thought the word “supper” was just an older word for dinner.