An extremely rare menu from the ill-fated Titanic has sold at auction for £83,000 (or $159,529).

While previously discovered menus aboard the doomed ship came from April 14, 1912 – the day of the disaster, this latest menu is from April 11, 1912, which is three days before it sank.

A paper menu seems like a strange artefact to have survived the disaster. Rumour has it that some of the men onboard would have kept the menu card from dinner in their jacket pocket. When the iceberg hit, the men would have put their jackets on their wives, and they were the ones who ended up surviving on the lifeboats.

So, what were the passengers eating on the maiden voyage?

Various hors d’oeuvres and fresh oysters start the menu, followed by soups of Consommé Renaissance (a chicken broth with carrots and a herb sauce) and creme d’asperges (pureed asparagus soup).

A fish course of salmon with hollandaise sauce and whitebait came next before beef tournedos a la Victoria, a very daring dish featuring crumbed and fried bananas with glazed tenderloin. 

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Other highlights include a spring lamb with mint sauce (which cinephiles will recall Cal ordering for Rose in the 1997 movie), squab with a white wine and truffle sauce, and mallard duck with port sauce and pommes Anna. 

Dessert included a very elegant almond and apricot tart and rich French ice cream.

The menu was found in a photo album from the 1960s that once belonged to Len Stephenson, a community historian in Dominion, Nova Scotia. The Canadian province welcomed survivors of the shipwreck and was the final resting place for many of those that died at sea due to its proximity to the wreck site.

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