Queen Victoria's 17-Course Breakfast Menu Was Truly Fit For Royalty

When you're the Queen of the United Kingdom, you can eat whatever you want, whenever you want, wherever you want. And Queen Victoria knew how to eat. Her 17-course breakfast menu for the royal wedding breakfast celebrating the marriage of her grandson, His Royal Highness the Duke of York (future King George V), to Her Serene Highness Princess Victoria Mary of Teck (future Queen Mary), is more opulent than you could possibly imagine.

This menu, which is from 1893, involves a whopping 10 meat dishes, including "fattened chickens in a watercress cream," "sliced cold ham in aspic jelly," "sliced cold tongue in aspic jelly," and "a calf liver terrine" in — you're not going to believe this — aspic jelly. Then, there's an entire side table of "cold roast fowls." Sides include spinach, green beans, "jellies and creams," and "creamed cauliflower and asparagus soup thickened with rice flour." Lest those sound too appetizing, there was also "chicken consommé with cock's combs, cock's kidneys, rice, and garden peas garnished with shredded savory pancakes" on the table that day, which doesn't actually sound too bad except for the fleshy parts of chicken heads.

The braised lamb cutlet dish is actually fairly appetizing — they were baked in an Italian ham, mushroom, and herb sauce and topped with artichoke hearts. There was also duck, veal, beef, chicken salad, lobster salad, and "assorted pastries." Strangely, there is a distinct lack of Queen Victoria's favorite food — potatoes — or her favorite soup. But needless to say, it was a meal fit for a queen and her guests, many of whom were also royalty, like the King and Queen of Denmark and the Tsarevich of Russia. 

According to the BBC, even though this 17-course breakfast seems like a bountiful and indulgent meal — there was a veritable embarrassment of aspic jellies — there was a catch when it came to dining with Queen Victoria. Every guest was served after her, and all dishes were cleared just as she personally finished eating, so you were lucky if you got a few bites in at a meal that she hosted. Fortunately for the guests at this wedding breakfast, they had 17 chances to snag some food.

Michael Mosley at the BBC describes Queen Victoria as "something of a glutton," and the sheer number of dishes at this one breakfast seems to support that point. But she was also unapologetic and a trailblazer when it came to innovative ways to dine. Not to mention, she was also a connoisseur of Scottish whisky distillers. What can we say? Queen Victoria knew how to live the good life.

An 1892 item in the Buffalo Evening News relayed a story of an instance of a "plain" woman and her small child dining with Queen Victoria. The Queen picked up a chicken wing to eat with her hands — standard now, but apparently unheard of in the late 19th century — and the child looked at her and said, "Pig-ee! Pig-ee!" While everyone else at the table was beside themselves with shock and horror, the Queen calmly responded, "You are right, my dear. An English lady would not take a chicken wing in her fingers, but you must bear in mind that I am a German woman."