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But that’s exactly how the Archduke concluded his dinner in October 1913, after he and the German Emperor finished a day of hunting where they bagged no less than 114 wild-boars.
While it was ultimately a bullet that took the life of the Austrian Archduke just eight months later, earlier on that fateful day it had been a bomb thrown under his car in Sarajevo that triggered the day’s events which calamitously spiralled into World War I.
On this night in 1913 however, the Bombe was not served with vengeance, but rather an 1878 Château Montrose.
In the 1800s and early 1900s, when the ability to make ice-cream at home was considered a decadence due to a requirement to be able to freeze ingredients, the ornately decorated spherical ice-cream bombes were considered a sublime treat.
On this night the imperial chefs had crafted the Wiener Bombe that consisted of a frozen coffee and Cognac custard encased in a layer of vanilla ice-cream; and topped with coffee beans soaked in Cognac.
At this dinner, officially called the Königliche Abendtafel (the royal dinner table), the Archducal heir to the Habsburg throne was a guest of Kaiser Wilhelm II at the emperor’s personal Göhrde Hunting Lodge, in lower Saxony. This was a favourite retreat of the Kaiser and was famed for its quite brutal hunting of wild-boars and stags in huge numbers within just hours.
Austrian and German newspaper accounts of this day proudly boast how 114 wild boars were shot in the one-and-half hours between 2pm and 3:30pm by the imperial shooting-party: with Franz Ferdinand personally bagging 21.
Afterwards the hunting party returned to the castle, reported the same newspapers, “where the hunting dinner took place at 7 pm”.
The grandly etched menu card for this night, edged in gold-leaf, is written in the old Deutsche Schrift: a Germanic cursive typeface rarely used or recognised today.
Russian caviar was served with an 1893 Rüdesheimer Auslese (made from a selected harvest of very ripe grapes from the Rheingau region), before dishes of red salmon, quails, and capons were served; along with Prague ham that we can only assume was cured from one of the imperial swine that had fatefully frolicked near the Göhrde Jagdschloß. (The term Prague is a technique, and not a location, for curing smoked ham in a sweetened brine).
The imperial hunting party toasted their day’s success with a 1906 Heidsieck and Co. Champagne.
I
t seems eerily ironic that Archduke Franz Ferdinand was ever served a dessert titled “Vienna Bomb” (Wiener Bombe).
Menu
Göhrde den 31 Oktober 1913
Königliche Abendtafel
Royal Dinner Table
Rússischer Caviar
Russian Caviar
Windsorsúppe
Windsor Soup: thick soup made from puréed beef
parsnips, leeks, carrots and Madeira
Lachsforellen
Red Salmon
Prager Schinken mit Gemüse
Prague Ham, soaked in a sweetened brine, smoked and wrapped in pastry and then served with vegetables
Salmi von Wachteln
Quail casserole made from roasting quails until they are two-thirds cooked and then jointing them and pan cooking them in a sauce made from quail stock, wine and Cognac-flamed mushrooms and garnished with croûtons
Kalte Kapaúnen, Tomatensalat
Cold capons (castrated young cocks) with tomato salad
Wiener Bombe
A frozen dessert of coffee and Cognac custard encased in a dome of vanilla ice-cream topped with coffee beans soaked in Cognac
Kasserstangen
Cheese sticks
Nachtisch
Dessert
Imperial Hunters: a year earlier, in 1912, Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria (left) and the German Emperor (right) partake in a royal hunt.
Photo: Sueddeutsche Zeitung Photo/Alamy
Royal Menu Collection / © Jake Smith
Göhrde Jagdschloß
Archduke Franz Ferdinand (centre) with Kaiser Wilhelm II (1st left) at the royal hunt at the Göhrde Hunting Palace.
Photo: Sueddeutsche Zeitung Photo/Alamy
[Translation from an article appearing in the
Neuigkeits-Welt-Blatt, 1 November 1913]
The heir to the throne as
Kaiser Wilhelm's hunting companion
Vienna, Friday, 31 October 1913
Archduke Franz Ferdinand, as reported, accepted an invitation from Kaiser Wilhelm to go hunting in the Göhrde in the Wildpark near Potsdam. After a parade to the Wildpark station, where Kaiser Wilhelm gave a reception wearing the Prussian court hunting uniform and accompanied by the Grand Palace Hunting Master, Baron von Rumersfich, the Archduke went to the New Palace (Neues Palais) to pay his respects to Empress Auguste Viktoria, before leaving for Göhrde. Shortly after 8 a.m., Emperor Wilhelm and the Archduke went to the hunting lodge after bidding farewell to the Empress. A large audience gave the Emperor and the Archduke a lively ovation.
In beautiful sunshine, Kaiser Wilhelm and Archduke Franz Ferdinand as well as the other hunting guests partook of breakfast, after which Kaiser Wilhelm, the Archduke and the other hunting guests drove by car to the Zeinik district, where the first hunting of sows took place
When Kaiser Wilhelm, Archduke Franz Ferdinand and the other hunting guests arrived at the rendezvous, they received a royal greeting, after which the hunters went to their stands, and the hunt began before 2pm.
Archduke Franz Ferdinand hunted down 21 wild boar. At 3 o'clock in the afternoon, Emperor Wilhelm ended the hunt, after 114 wild boar had been killed.
After the hunting tally was confirmed, the party returned to the castle, where the hunting dinner took place at 7 p.m. Beer was served in the evening.
Today there is a hunt for big game.
“When anything unusual upset him he always went there” remembered Count Ernst von Heltzendorff, who was a Personal-Adjutant to the imperial family.
Elevated amongst some oak trees, Hubertusstock was nothing more than a simple wooden hunting-box attached to an alpine log cabin built in the 1840s by King Friedrich Wilhelm IV of Prussia.
The hunting-box was depicted on the rustic-looking personal menu-cards used by Kaiser Wilhelm II when dining at his royal escape.
“The Royal owner”, reported a 1905 sports magazine, “lives the life of a woodman when he retires there for rest and recreation, and has naught but nature in all her sylvan beauty to converse with”.
It is claimed the origin of the name and site of Hubertusstock (Hubert’s stck) dates from a day in 1847 when King Friedrich Wilhelm IV took his lunch on a raised stone in his private shooting forest. Taken by its views and surroundings, the King ordered a shooting box should be erected on the site along with a memento of his visit.
Returning to the site a year later, he found it had been marked with a small post with a picture of the patron Saint for hunters, St. Hubert, attached to it. The King exclaimed “Das ist doch kein Denkmal ! das ist ja ein Stockel ! '" (Why! that isn't a monument; it is a stick!) .
H
ubertusstock was the most humble and simple of the Emperor’s residences.
Royal Menu Collection / © Jake Smith
Hubertusstock am 7. Januar 1911
Königliche Mittagstafel
Royal Luncheon
Kartoffelsuppe: Potato soup | Hummermuscheln: Whole lobsters (in their shell) | Hammelschnitten mit frischen grünen bohnen: Mutton chops with fresh green beans | Knäkenten, Früchte, Salat: Roast garganey (small ducks), fruit compotes and salad | Parisen Omelette: Omelettes filled with cream and currant jelly and served with strawberries | Nachtische: Dessert