The royal kitchens of the King of Spain glisten and gleam with the stash of copper pots, moulds and pie-tins.

 

In 1885 one of those overly polished pie-tins was used to prepare the Pastel de Liebre for King Alfonso XII of Spain. The traditional cold Spanish pie made from minced hare, truffles, cured ox tongue and cubes of sautéed potato; was elaborately encased in shortcrust pastry with an aspic jelly made from the hare’s pulverised bones.

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This menu-card for the King and Queen’s lunch at the Aranjuez Palace, also featured veal braised in Sherry served atop a bed of saffron rice. The menu is adorned with the royal crest from the House of Bourbon which has [mainly] reigned in Spain for over 300 years.

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Alfonso XII took the Spanish throne in 1874 when His Most Catholic Majesty was just 17 years old. His sister, the Infanta Maria de la Paz, described her older sibling as the “Schoolboy King”. For almost four years however, he was also a bachelor King until he married his first wife, Mercedes of Orléans.

 

At the royal dinner table, remembered the Infanta, the newly married King and Queen used their menu-cards to disregard “superstitious ideas”:

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“In the days preceding the Royal marriage the number of persons every day at the Royal table, King, family and suite, had been twelve”, she recalled. 

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“Mercedes, when she arrived after her marriage, made thirteen. Both she and Alfonso laughed at the fact and, for fun, as [the Duke of] Montpensier was not there, made every one of the thirteen write their name each day on the menu to prove the falsity of the tradition. Nevertheless, as it turned out, Mercedes was destined to become known in Spanish history as ‘the five months’ Queen’!”.

Following Mercedes death, Alfonso XII remarried the following year to Maria Cristina of Austria. 

Spanish gastronome of the era, José Castro y Serrano, claimed that the King started his day enjoying chocolate for breakfast: “he asks for chocolate between 7 and 8 in the morning”. The royal palace in Madrid even had a dedicated hot chocolate pot that could hold 25 kilos.

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The King’s Cocinero Mayor - or chief royal chef – at the time of this luncheon was the famous Loreto Capella Olasagasti who had commenced in the royal kitchens in 1883, and went on to establish Spain’s first culinary academy.