by erin thursby scopes1925@msn.com
When we record the last moments of a person’s life, there are two things that inevitably come up: their last words and their last meal. Here’s my salute to the less quoted, but often more interesting last meals--
The public’s fascination with the last meals ordered by death row inmates is undeniable, though thoroughly morbid. There’s even a website (www.deadmaneating.com) devoted to the last morsels to pass the lips of those condemned to die. Fried chicken, hamburgers, steak and Mexican food are the top choices for the soon to die.
The last meal Marie Antoinette had before she went to the guillotine was a simple soup. However simple the soup was supposed to have been, Marie-Antoine Carême, a Frenchman who is considered one of the first celebrity chefs, immortalized that soup by publishing his own elaborate idea of what she ate. He invented the French Haute cuisine, is credited with popularizing the chef’s hat and cooked for every important diplomat and royal that touched French soil in the 19th century. Here’s the translated recipe of Carême’s idea of Queen Marie Antoinette last meal. It’s intricate and takes at least four hours to prepare:
Vermicelli Soup
1 whole fowl (4-5 pounds) NOTE: do not use any beef bones in the broth or to clarify the soup
3 quarts cold water
6 stalks celery, with leaves
1 small onion, chopped
1/2 cup scrubbed and chopped carrots
1 bay leaf
6 sprigs parsley
salt and pepper, to taste
3 egg whites and their crumpled shells
12 ounces fine soup noodles
2 cups peas (or asparagus, sliced on the diagonal) blanched to a fine green with a little sugar
Garnish: blanched chervil or Italian parsley
Fill a large pot with the cold water, add the fowl, celery, onion, carrots, bay leaf, and parsley, and bring to a simmer over low heat, skimming as necessary. Simmer, uncovered, for 3 hours. Strain through dampened cheesecloth, season to taste, and cool (you can cheat with ice cubes to cool the broth).
Clarify the cool broth by whisking the egg whites and stirring them and their shells into it, then heating over very low heat just to a simmer. The eggs whites will bring all the impurities to the top in a foamy crust--do not skim! Just let the crust form and continue to simmer for 10-15 minutes. Push the foam to one side and carefully ladle the crystal clear broth through dampened cheesecloth. Let this beautiful broth cool, uncovered.
When you are ready to finalize the soup for serving, bring the broth to a boil, stir in the pasta, then reduce heat and simmer for about 25 minutes. To serve, ladle the soup into consommé cups (preferably two-handled), sprinkle with the blanched peas or asparagus, and garnish with a chervil or parsley leaf.
Whether you drink this fine soup to stimulate your appetite before a fine meal or to bring yourself back to health, I hope you will remember with compassion the words this poor woman wrote three years before her death: “Oh my God, if we have committed faults, we have certainly expiated them.” Requiescat in pace, Marie Antoinette.
Marie Antoinette isn’t the only famous person who consumed soup just before death. From John Belushi (lentil soup) to Julia Child (onion soup), soup seems to be the food of choice for those near death. It’s not too surprising considering that soup is an easy food to consume when you aren’t feeling well. You can find a complete list of those who succumbed to mortality after downing a few spoonfuls or an entire bowl on www.soupsong.com.
Zachary Taylor died after about a year in office as the twelfth President of the United States. In the heat of the summer he ate a rather large amount of cherries with cold milk, suffered from a bout of indigestion and expired within five days. These circumstances led to his exhumation, after which it was determined that he was not poisoned, though many conspiracy theorists still hold to the hypothesis that he was.
The last meal passengers ate on the Titanic varied depending on what class their ticket was. First class passengers enjoyed a ten course meal prior to their watery demise. Oysters, poached salmon, lamb, foie de gras are just a few of the things on the massive menu. Each course was accompanied by a different wine to compliment it, and the meal was followed by a plate of cheeses and fresh fruits. For complete menus and recipes you’ll want to pick up the book Last Dinner On the Titanic Menus and Recipes From the Great Liner by Rick Archbold.
Sometimes it’s that last meal that kills you. In 260 A.D. the Roman emperor Valerian died as the result of molten gold being poured down his throat. The unfortunate emperor had been captured by the Persian king Shapur the First. After Shapur used Valerian as his footstool for a while, Valerian suggested that Shapur could ransom him for a vast sum. Shapur replied by feeding him his last, very expensive meal. Shapur had Valerian’s body stuffed and mounted as a sort of gruesome trophy.
In 2006 a Canadian woman choked on marshmallows at London, Ontario’s Western Fair while participating in a “Chubby Bunny” contest. There were medical personnel at the scene with suction equipment but they were apparently unable to save her because of the expansion of marshmallows and because of their stickiness. It’s not the only chocking death attributed to the game: in 1999 a schoolgirl in Illinois also died. The game involves placing as many marshmallows as possible in your mouth and saying the phrase “Chubby Bunny.”
Urban legend holds that Mama Cass died as the result of chocking on a ham sandwich, probably the product of speculation before her autopsy was released. It’s possible that there was a half-eaten sandwich in her room, but nothing was found in her windpipe and the coroner found the cause of death to be heart failure. Even if the story isn’t true, it spawned a favorite, if mean, punch line: “If Mama Cass had given Karen Carpenter that ham sandwich, why, they’d both be alive today.” (Karen Carpenter, of course, died as a result of complications brought on by anorexia).
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