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Consommé froid
Beef and dry-sherry consommé chilled until it is jellied and then chopped into small pieces and topped with cream
Rissoles de volaille
Rissoles of minced chicken, ham and tongue which have been rolled in broken vermicelli, wrapped in puff-pastry purses and fried
Filet de boeuf Pompadour
Fillets of beef dressed with sliced tomato and maïtre d’hôtel butter served with a garnish of pasta and cheese
Perdreaux rôtis
Roast Partridges
Compote. Salade
Fruit compotes and salads
Petits pois à l’anglaise
Young peas tossed in butter and parsley
Mousse au melon
A melon shaped bombe made from a mousse prepared from melon and white port which encases an orange citrus mousse to resemble the look of melon when opened.
Fondus au Parmesan
Savoury petit-fours made from pastries topped with grilled parmesan cheese
Dessert
Menu dated 5th September 1897
Luncheon at the Friedrichshof Castle (Schloss Friedrichshof) hosted by Her Imperial Majesty The Dowager Empress Friedrich of Germany, in honour of a visit by Their Majesties King Umberto I and Queen Margherita of Italy.
The Dowager Empress was exhausted after hosting this lunch followed by a dinner the next night.
"I am thankful it is over, as these sort of receptions are always an anxiety in a country house not intended for court ceremonies”, she complained in a letter to her daughter, Princess Sophia of Greece.
The “country house” was her purpose-built Friedrichshof Castle where the Dowager Empress had just entertained twenty-three guests to lunch including the King and Queen of Italy and the King of Saxony, along with her son Kaiser Wilhelm II and his wife Kaiserin Augusta Victoria.
The hostess certainly knew how to entertain. She was the eldest daughter of Queen Victoria and had become the German Empress when her husband Friedrich III took the throne for a short-lived ninety-nine days. Following his death she became the Dowager Empress, took on her husband’s name (Dowager Empress Friedrich) and started construction on the Friedrichshof Castle also named after her late husband.
Two days before this lunch King Umberto and Queen Margherita of Italy had arrived in Germany to witness the spectacular military manœuvres as guests of the Kaiser. The visit was aimed at underlining the importance of the Tripple Alliance: a military pact between Germany, Austria-Hungary and Italy.
On the 5th September the Queen of Italy was made the Honorary Colonel-in-Chief of 11th Jäger Battalion. After the official ceremony the Emperor and Empress, King and Queen of Italy, King of Saxony, Grand Duke of Hesse and the Duke of Cambridge then travelled to Friedrichshof Castle for this lunch as a guest of the Dowager Empress. Her new home had been completed just three years earlier.
“The King and Queen are such easy guests to entertain and so kind”, she wrote to her daughter afterwards.
The luncheon commenced with a cold consommé which, of the era, was jellied and finely diced and often served in tall glasses with cream. “When a consommé is served cold”, celebrated chef Auguste Escoffier would instruct, “it ought to have the qualities of an extremely light and easily-melting jelly, barely firm; but when it is too liquid, it rarely gives that sensation of perfection and succulence to the palate of the consumer which the latter expects”. And then, “when too firm and too gelatinous it is positively disagreeable”.
After a dinner of roast partridges, the dessert was an ice-cream bombe shaped and presented in the form of a cantaloupe with an outside layer of ice-cream made from melon and white Port encasing a centre of orange citrus mousse.
The imperial monogram crosses a mirror image of the letter ‘F’ for Friedrich to form the letter ‘V’ in the middle for Victoria, the Dowager Empress's name.
The Schloss Friedrichshof circa 1890s
(Photo: Royal Collection Trust / © Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II 2021)
In the news...
[Translation from the Allgemeine Zeitung, 6 September 1897]
Homburg vor der Höhe, Sept. 5 (Telegram). Early this morning, the King and Queen of Italy, the King of Saxony, the Bavarian princes, the Imperial Chancellor, and others proceeded to the Catholic church for divine service; at the entrance, they were received by the clergy and escorted into the church. At 11 a.m., an open-air service took place in the Kurpark [spa gardens] in the presence of Their Imperial Majesties. Following the service, His Majesty the Emperor addressed the 11th Jäger Battalion, commending its performance and announcing the great honour that Her Majesty Queen Margherita [of Italy] had graciously consented to accept the position of Honorary Colonel-in-Chief of the 11th Jäger Battalion. The Emperor then walked along the front of the battalion with the Queen of Italy on his arm; the Queen addressed friendly words to the troops. The band played the Italian Royal March. A parade march by all the troops present concluded the ceremony. At 1 p.m., Their Majesties and the other visiting royals drove to Cronberg to visit the Empress Frederick at Friedrichshof Castle, where a family luncheon for twenty-three guests was held. Those attending included the King and Queen of Italy, the Imperial couple, the King of Saxony, the Grand Dukes of Hesse (with his consort [Grand Duchess Victoria Melia]) and of Mecklenburg-Strelitz, and the Bavarian princes, Prince Albrecht of Prussia, the Duke of Cambridge, and others. The Italian royal couple planted two conifers in the palace park to commemorate this, their first visit to Friedrichshof Castle. The royal party returned to Homburg at 4:30 p.m. — The King of Württemberg had already returned to Stuttgart on Saturday evening.
* Homburg, Sept. 6 (Telegram). The Emperor and the King of Italy travelled to the manœuvre grounds by special train at 5:50 a.m. today. Stormy weather and rain prevail.
The Schloss Friedrichshof
The Dowager Empress on the terrace of the Schloss Friedrichshof with family members including her daughter the Crown Princess of the Hellenes (future Queen Sophia of the Hellenes (Greece)) and son-in-law Crown Prince Constantine of the Hellenes (future King Constantine I of the Hellenes (Greece)).
(Photo: Museum der Stadt Eschborn/Peter Lingens / https://hessen.museum-digital.de/singleimage?imagenr=260325
All rights reserved. Jake Smith © 2026