Victorian cuisine is the cuisine that was widespread in England during the
Victorian era
In the history of the United Kingdom and the British Empire, the Victorian era was the period of Queen Victoria's reign, from 20 June 1837 until her death on 22 January 1901. The era followed the Georgian period and preceded the Edward ...
(20 June 1837 until her death on 22 January 1901).
Background
There were two seemingly incompatible ideas about the role of women in Victorian society: the "New Women" who clamored for greater participation in public life seemed at odds with the traditional ideal of femininity, the "Angel of the House", that limited women's role in society to matters concerning the household. Despite the restrictiveness of traditional conceptions of femininity, not all women welcomed the
"New Women" philosophies, some seeing the pursuit of political causes as vulgar, and preferring instead to pave other paths for women to seek their own agency. Guiding women writers like
Elizabeth Robins Pennell
Elizabeth Robins Pennell (February 21, 1855 – February 7, 1936) was an American writer who, for most of her adult life, made her home in London. A recent researcher summed her up as "an adventurous, accomplished, self-assured, well-known colum ...
was a belief that women ought not to abandon their traditional role in the kitchen, which society should regard, not as a mere frivolity, but as an inherently valuable pursuit worthy of respect.
Pennell strove to recast the
cult of domestic femininity, duly elevating cooking from the drudgery of bodily labor by encouraging women to become creative in the kitchen. She saw cooking as "the ultimate form of art,” worthy of genius, admiration and respect.
With the new, positive view that “cooking was a high art practised by geniuses", middle and upper class Victorian women in began to express their culinary creativity for the first time, much as male artists had always been able to do.
Dining at home

Many Victorian meals were served at home as a family, prepared by cooks and servants who had studied French and Italian cookbooks. Middle and upper class breakfasts typically consisted of porridge, eggs, fish and bacon. They were eaten together as a family. Sunday lunches included meat, potatoes, vegetables and gravy.
In wealthy British homes the dining customs dictated proper attire that got fancier as the day progressed with separate outfits for breakfast and lunch, then a
tea gown
A tea gown or tea-gown is a woman's dress for informal entertaining at home. These dresses, which became popular around the mid-19th century, are characterized by unstructured lines and light fabrics. Early tea gowns were a European development ...
, with the most splendid attire reserved for dinner.
[ Family meals became common events that linked the comforts of home with this newly recognized art form. Victorian cuisine did not appeal to everyone. British cooks like Mrs. A. B. Marshall encouraged boiling and mutating food until it no longer tasted or resembled its original form.] Victorian England became known throughout Europe for its bland and unappetizing food but many housewives cooked in this fashion since it was the safest way to prepare food before refrigeration.
The Victorian breakfast was usually a heavy meal: sausages, preserves, bacon and eggs, served with bread rolls. The custom of afternoon tea
Tea (in reference to food, rather than the drink) has long been used as an umbrella term for several different meals. English writer Isabella Beeton, whose books on home economics were widely read in the 19th century, describes meals of v ...
served before dinner, with milk and sugar, became well-established in Britain in the early 19th century. A selection of tea sandwich
A tea sandwich (also referred to as finger sandwich) is a small prepared sandwich meant to be eaten at tea (meal), afternoon teatime to stave off hunger until the main meal.
The tea sandwich may take a number of different forms, but should be ...
es and biscuits
A biscuit is a flour-based baked and shaped food product. In most countries biscuits are typically hard, flat, and unleavened. They are usually sweet and may be made with sugar, chocolate, icing, jam, ginger, or cinnamon. They can also be s ...
, petit fours, nuts and glazed fruits would be served on the most beautiful china with the tea, and sometimes alcohol.
Dining
A restaurant is a business that prepares and serves food and drinks to customers. Meals are generally served and eaten on the premises, but many restaurants also offer take-out and food delivery services. Restaurants vary greatly in appearan ...
became an elaborate event that took planning and skill. Hosting elaborate dinner parties was a new way to elevate social class in Victorian England. Instead of cooks and servants, middle and upper-class women began to make complicated dishes themselves to impress family members and guests. This ultimately transformed the once mundane tasks of cooking and eating into artful experiences.
Dinner was the most elaborate meal with multiple courses: soup, roast meats or fish, vegetables, puddings and sweets. Cheese was served at the end of the meal, after dessert. Tea and biscuits were usually offered to guests after the meal.[ A bill of fare and a guideline to plan menus became popular. A three course meal, for example, might begin with soups with fish, followed by meats, roasts or stews, then game and pastry, and ending with salads, cheese and liquor.] Setting the table was an important part of the dining aesthetic, involving expensive silverware and china, with table decorations of “glass, linen, fruits, foliage, flowers, colours, ndlights".
Royal household
The Parisian Alphonse Gouffe (b. 1813 - d. 1907) became Head Pastry Chef to Queen Victoria
Victoria (Alexandrina Victoria; 24 May 1819 – 22 January 1901) was Queen of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland from 20 June 1837 until her death in 1901. Her reign of 63 years and 216 days was longer than that of any previ ...
. His brother Jules Gouffé wrote the '' Livre de Cuisine'' which Alphonse translated into English. According to census records, Gouffe was a married pastry cook living at Buckingham Palace in 1851. 1861 census records show Alphonse as a "cook of the kitchen" at Osborne Palace on the Isle of Wight
The Isle of Wight ( ) is a Counties of England, county in the English Channel, off the coast of Hampshire, from which it is separated by the Solent. It is the List of islands of England#Largest islands, largest and List of islands of England#Mo ...
. In 1871 Alphonse is 57 years old, a pastry cook at Windsor Castle
Windsor Castle is a royal residence at Windsor in the English county of Berkshire. It is strongly associated with the English and succeeding British royal family, and embodies almost a millennium of architectural history.
The original c ...
.[
]
Holidays
The custom of Victorian England was to eat pancakes
A pancake (or hotcake, griddlecake, or flapjack) is a flat cake, often thin and round, prepared from a starch-based batter that may contain eggs, milk and butter and cooked on a hot surface such as a griddle or frying pan, often frying wit ...
and fritters on Shrove Tuesday
Shrove Tuesday is the day before Ash Wednesday (the first day of Lent), observed in many Christian countries through participating in confession and absolution, the ritual burning of the previous year's Holy Week palms, finalizing one's Lent ...
in preparation for Lent
Lent ( la, Quadragesima, 'Fortieth') is a solemn religious observance in the liturgical calendar commemorating the 40 days Jesus spent fasting in the desert and enduring temptation by Satan, according to the Gospels of Matthew, Mark and L ...
. (In Norwich small scallop-shaped buns substituted for pancakes.) The traditional bread for Good Friday
Good Friday is a Christian holiday commemorating the crucifixion of Jesus and his death at Calvary. It is observed during Holy Week as part of the Paschal Triduum. It is also known as Holy Friday, Great Friday, Great and Holy Friday (also Ho ...
was hot cross buns. In Penzance
Penzance ( ; kw, Pennsans) is a town, civil parish and port in the Penwith district of Cornwall, United Kingdom. It is the most westerly major town in Cornwall and is about west-southwest of Plymouth and west-southwest of London. Situ ...
people would gather at the local pubs for May Eye playing music and drinking. Later in the evening they would gather at farmhouses to eat fruit cake and drink junket—a mixture of raw milk, rennet
Rennet () is a complex set of enzymes produced in the stomachs of ruminant mammals. Chymosin, its key component, is a protease enzyme that curdles the casein in milk. In addition to chymosin, rennet contains other enzymes, such as pepsin and ...
and sugar. Soul cakes were made around Halloween
Halloween or Hallowe'en (less commonly known as Allhalloween, All Hallows' Eve, or All Saints' Eve) is a celebration geography of Halloween, observed in many countries on 31 October, the eve of the Western Christian feast of All Saints' Day. ...
, coinciding with the end of the wheat-seeding season. In Scotland and parts of North England black pudding
, type =
, course =
, place_of_origin = Great Britain and Ireland
, region =England, Ireland, Scotland
, associated_cuisine = United Kingdom and Ireland
, creator =
, year =
, mintime =
, maxtime =
, served = Hot, occasionally ...
and sausages were prepared for Martinmas Day. Yorkshire Christmas pie was considered a classic Christmas dish by Charles Elmé Francatelli.
In literature
The foodways of different social classes in Victorian England feature in literary works by Charles Dickens
Charles John Huffam Dickens (; 7 February 1812 – 9 June 1870) was an English writer and social critic. He created some of the world's best-known fictional characters and is regarded by many as the greatest novelist of the Victorian e ...
, Anthony Trollope
Anthony Trollope (; 24 April 1815 – 6 December 1882) was an English novelist and civil servant of the Victorian era. Among his best-known works is a series of novels collectively known as the '' Chronicles of Barsetshire'', which revolves ...
and Jane Austen. In ''Great Expectations
''Great Expectations'' is the thirteenth novel by Charles Dickens and his penultimate completed novel. It depicts the education of an orphan nicknamed Pip (Great Expectations), Pip (the book is a ''bildungsroman''; a coming-of-age story). It ...
'', Dickens recounts the custom of the wedding breakfast. (Because all weddings in England were, until the 1880s, legally required to be held in the mornings, such "wedding breakfasts" became customary.)[{{cite book , last1=Thursby , first1=Jacqueline S. , title=Foodways and Folklore , date=2008 , publisher=Greenwood Press , pages=25–26]
References
English cuisine