Here are a number of tourist-class menus from a single trans-Atlantic trip aboard the Empress of Australia in 1931. There are fewer selections on these menus than on first-class menus, but no tourist-class passenger would go hungry on one of these voyages.
Click image to view and download a 461-KB PDF of this menu from the Chung collection.
First is a lunch menu featuring a scene on the St. Lawrence Seaway. The menu has no appetizers but otherwise has as many courses as a first-class menu. However, there are fewer selections in each course and the selections are lower quality, such as rump steak instead of sirloin steak.
Click image to view and download a 443-KB PDF of this menu from the Chung collection.
The dinner menu does include an appetizer, but again there are far fewer selections. While first-class dinner menus might have more than 60 different items, this dinner menu has barely more than a dozen.
Click image to view and download a 433-KB PDF of this menu from the Chung collection.
This dinner menu from the next night is a slight step down. Where the previous dinner menu offered prime rib, this one had baked ham. CP chef’s probably wanted passengers to have the most memorable meals on their first and last nights.
Click image to view and download a 465-KB PDF of this menu from the Chung collection.
This breakfast menu has more selection than either the lunch or dinner menus. These included several kinds of fruit, six cereals, two kinds of fish, a variety of eggs, black pudding, cold meats, three kinds of bread, plus several digestives to help people hung over from the night before.
Click image to view and download a 449-KB PDF of this menu from the Chung collection.
Here’s another dinner menu featuring the Banff Springs Hotel.
Click image to view and download a 3.0-MB PDF of this menu from the Chung collection.
Aiquillette of beef sounds fancy, but as I understand it, it is simply a thin strip of rump roast.
Click image to view and download a 426-KB PDF of this menu from the Chung collection.
The illustration on this breakfast menu advertises the Empress of Japan, CP’s flagship on the other ocean. One of the items on the menu is deviled beef bones, which are braised and roasted spare ribs.
Click image to view and download a 449-KB PDF of this menu from the Chung collection.
The entrée choices on this dinner menu are chicken wings or calf’s head while the joint, which sounds more appetizing, is beef sirloin.
Click image to view and download a 416-KB PDF of this menu from the Chung collection.
This breakfast menu is another reminder that Canadian Pacific offered ocean liner service to Hawaii and Asia.
Click image to view and download a 492-KB PDF of this menu from the Chung collection.
This lunch menu promotes the York Hotel, CP’s lodging in Toronto. Along with several other menus, this includes mutton, which was regarded as a working-class dish at the time.
Click image to view and download a 439-KB PDF of this menu from the Chung collection.
The final dinner menu of the voyage offered halibut with Hollandaise sauce, lamb, Paupiette of beef (a thin slice of beef wrapped around vegetables), and roast turkey. As suggested above, CP probably tried to make the final meal especially memorable.