EARLIER this week, we regaled you with the story of how the Bishop of Durham may well have enjoyed whale vomit ice cream in his palace at Auckland, so let’s return to the menu with which the Tees Commissioners celebrated the opening of South Gare on October 26, 1888 to discover more foodie delights.
READ MORE: WHEN THE BISHOP FEASTED ON WHALE VOMIT ICE CREAM
South Gare is the finger of land made from 4.5m tons of blast furnace slag that provides the southern jaw of Teesmouth, turning the river into a deep port and making enough land for the Teesworks site – Europe’s largest brownfield.
READ MORE: THE CONSTRUCTION AND OPENING OF SOUTH GARE
South Gare was opened by WH Smith, the First Lord of the Treasury, and after speeches on the pier, a procession of paddlesteamers sailed the 400 VIPs - led by Sir Joseph Whitwell Pease, the chair of the Commissioners who lived in Hutton Hall in Guisborough and the Woodlands in Darlington - into the Exchange Hall in Middlesbrough for a feast.
South Gare lighthouse, at the very end of the world, in March 1931, when the railway still ran up to it. Two lighthousekeepers lived on the Gare to look after it
The food was supplied the finest caterers outside London, Ferguson & Forrester of Glasgow, and The Northern Echo printed the menu (below)– in its entirety, and in French, with the names of the wines which accompanied each of the seven courses. Quite what the humble miner in his one-up one-down County Durham terraced home made of such extravagance is unknown.
The VIPs started with Tortue Claire – mock turtle soup. It was very fashionable in the 1880s, although it was just a boiled calf’s head which made a broth that was said to be similar to turtle in taste and texture. It was served with “gras verte”, which translates, unappealingly, as “green fat”.
The second course was fish, a Normandy-style turbot poached in a buttery sauce plus a cod – “cabillard” – dish.
Then came the main courses of veal escalopes and Marengo Chicken – chicken fried with shallots, onions and garlic which Napoleon Bonaparte dined on immediately before winning the Battle of Marengo on June 14, 1800, against the Austrians. Thereafter, it was his favourite dish.
Our Teesside VIPs then had a break, or “releves”, followed by an extraordinary selection of roast meat: haunch of venison, sirloin, saddle of mutton, turkey and ham, plus pheasant, partridge and grouse, all served with a little French salad.
They must have been stuffed but they valiantly moved onto desserts: a fruit souffle, Bavarian creamy custard with strawberries, a cake stuffed with more cream and a jelly named in honour of Queen Victoria.
Finally, they concluded with the ice cream course: Poudin a la Nesselrode. Count Karl von Nesselrode was a Russian diplomat who helped negotiate the peace in Europe after Napoleon’s wars and so had a dessert of frozen custard and cream flavoured with rum and chestnut puree named after him. This was one of the most popular desserts of the 1880s.
Sir Joseph Whitwell Pease, chairman of the Tees Commissioners who built South Gare, lived at Hutton Hall, Guisborough, and The Woodlands, Darlington
Our heroes of the banquet then washed it all down with glasses of port and cups of coffee.
If you can help us with any of our translations, or have ever tasted Nesselrode Pudding, we’d love to hear from you.
READ MORE: HOW DID THE MONKS OF MONKEND MEET THEIR END IN THE GARDENS OF CROFT?
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