Royal
Menus
Menu
Les Quenelles au Consommé
Chicken consommé with chicken dumplings
La Crême de Riz
Cream of rice soup made from veal stock, rice flour, vegetables and cream
Les Cotelettes d'Agneau à l'Italienne
Lamb cutlets served in a Italian sauce made from mushrooms, onion, ham and herbs
Les Filets de Poulets bigarrés aux Truffes
Sautéed chicken breasts garnished with sliced truffles
Les Anguilettes de Canetons aux Pois
Strips of duck breast cooked in white wine, onions, bacon and garden peas
Les Poulardes à la Jardiniere
Chickens casseroled in a veal stock with turnips, French beans and carrots
Le Filet de Bœuf braisé à la Gelée
Pressed filets of beef served cold wrapped in bacon and stewed in Madeira with onion and carrot
Les Salades à la Parisienne
A macédoine of vegetables, truffles and lobster meat tossed in mayonnaise and set in aspic jelly
Les Aspics de Faisans à la Belle-vue
A cold dish of pheasant breasts that have been double glazed firstly with a brown chaud-froid sauce and then with a layer of aspic.
Les Mayonnaises de Volaille
Chicken breasts tossed in mayonnaise with eggs and chives and served on a bed of lettuce and cucumber
Les Salades de Homards
Medallions of lobster meat tossed in vinaigrette
Les Ortolans and Les Poulets
Spit-roasted ortolans (a small yellow song bird, eaten whole, weighing just 30 grams in the wild) drizzled in a Port and seville sauce; and roast chickens
Les Puddings à la Diplomate
Puff-pastry tarts filled with crystallized fruits that are then glazed with apricot preserve, frosted and decorated with glacé cherries
Les Pois sautés au beurre & Les Epinards au velouté
Sautéed peas & Spinach cooked in a white veal stock
Les Gelées Mosaique
Sponge cakes filled with butter-cream that are then glazed with an apricot preserve, frosted and decorated with alternate lines of apricot and redcurrant jam
Les Crêmes à la D'Orleans
Sponge caked steeped in maraschino syrup and coated in a coffee cream
Les Gateaux Moka
Chocolate and coffee cake filled with coffee cream and toasted almonds and crystallized violets
Les Babas aux raisins
Cake made from leavened dough with raisins which is then steeped in rum and then decorated with glacé cherries
Les Meringues à la Chantilly
Meringues topped with vanilla cream
Les Gateaux Genoises au Chocolat
Sponge cake flavored with citrus, crystallized fruits and almonds and frosted with chocolate cream
Menu dated: 23rd July 1885
Royal Wedding Breakfast at Osborne House, Isle of Wight, hosted by Her Majesty Queen Victoria for the wedding of her youngest daughter, Her Royal Highness Princess Beatrice of the United Kingdom to His Serene Highness Prince Henry Maurice of Battenberg.
This stunning twenty course 1885 menu is from the Royal Wedding Breakfast (that took place in the afternoon) hosted by Queen Victoria for the marriage of her youngest daughter and closest confidant, Princess Beatrice.
The menu features one of the most prized and delectable of all game birds, roast Ortolans: a tiny yellow song bird, eaten whole, weighing no more than thirty grams in the wild.
The royal banquet - served under silk-marquees on the lawns of Queen Victoria’s favorite residence Osborne House on the Isle of Wight – concluded with a three-tiered wedding cake resembling the ornately designed menu cards that had been placed at each table setting. Even the orange-blossom that wraps around the lattice design on the menu-card matched the flowers in the royal bride’s hair and wedding dress.
On the left of the menu card are the royal shield, name and military symbols of the bridegroom, Prince Henry of Battenberg; while on the right of the menu are the royal shield, name and artistic symbols of the bride, Princess Beatrice.
The menu also features an illustration of Osborne House sitting under the personal “VRI” royal monogram of Queen Victoria as hostess of the lunch.
The wedding took place at one o’clock at the nearby Saint Mildred’s Church, in Whippingham, when the dapper bridegroom arrived attired in the white uniform of the Prussian Guard. Princess Beatrice, who was accompanied by no less than ten bridesmaids entered the chapel with her mother Queen Victoria on one side and her brother, the Prince of Wales (future King Edward VII), on the other.
Princess Beatrice on her wedding day in July 1885
The wedding cake for Princess Beatrice and Prince Henry of Battenberg, 23rd July 1885.
(Above photo: Royal Collection Trust / © Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II 2021)
QUEEN VICTORIA
Following is a partial transcript from Queen Victoria's personal journal for 23rd July 1885 on the day of the Royal Wedding of her daughter Princess Beatrice to Prince Henry of Battenberg. [Brackets] have been added by the author of this webpage:
Osborne House
23rd July 1885
“Darling Beatrice's wedding day. Slept soundly, but awoke early, and could hardly realise the event that was going to take place. The day splendid, a very hot sun, but a pleasant air. - Breakfasted alone with Beatrice under the trees...
[After the wedding...]
... We went to luncheon in the tent, Liko [the family name of the Bridegroom, Prince Henry] and Beatrice walking first, and I, following with Princess Alexandra and Bertie [the Prince of Wales], with Princess Battenberg.
Liko sat on my other side. Two bands played during the luncheon, then 10 pipers of the Sutherland and Argyll Highlanders, marched twice around the table, playing splendidly together.
At dessert, I proposed the health of the Bride and Bridegroom, wishing them every possible happiness.
The band played a few bars of the Wedding March, and then Bertie proposed my health. Luncheon over, all the Royalties were photographed on the Terrace, for the picture of the wedding...”
Queen Victoria
Princess Beatrice and Prince Henry of Battenberg on their wedding day
(Photo: Royal Collection Trust / © Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II 2021)
Inside the tent erected on the lawns of Osborne is the table laid for the wedding breakfast for Princess Beatrice and Prince Henry of Battenberg
(Photo: Royal Collection Trust / © Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II 2021)
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