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 Edwardia ...
(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
![Waddesdon_Manor's_Dining_Room](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/f/f1/Waddesdon_Manor%27s_Dining_Room.jpg)
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 in ...
, 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 var ...
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 afternoon teatime to stave off hunger until the main meal.
The tea sandwich may take a number of different forms, but should be easy to ha ...
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 b ...
, petit fours
A petit four (plural: petits fours, also known as mignardises) is a small bite-sized confectionery or savory appetizer. The name is French, ''petit four'' (), meaning "small oven".
History and etymology
In 18th and 19th century France, g ...
, 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 appearanc ...
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 Death and state funeral of Queen Victoria, her death in 1901. Her reign of 63 years and 21 ...
. His brother Jules Gouffé
Jules Gouffé (1807 – 28 February 1877) was a renowned French chef and pâtissier. He was nicknamed ''l'apôtre de la cuisine décorative'' (french: The apostle of decorative cuisine).
He had a deep impact on the evolution of French gastr ...
wrote the '' Livre de Cuisine'' which Alphonse translated into English. According to census records, Gouffe was a married pastry cook living at Buckingham Palace
Buckingham Palace () is a London royal residence and the administrative headquarters of the monarch of the United Kingdom. Located in the City of Westminster, the palace is often at the centre of state occasions and royal hospitality. It ...
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 county in the English Channel, off the coast of Hampshire, from which it is separated by the Solent. It is the largest and second-most populous island of England. Referred to as 'The Island' by residents, the Isle of ...
. 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 cast ...
.[
]
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
A fritter is a portion of meat, seafood, fruit, vegetables or other ingredients which have been battered or breaded, or just a portion of dough without further ingredients, that is deep-fried. Fritters are prepared in both sweet and savory var ...
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 Lenten s ...
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 Luke ...
. (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 Hol ...
was hot cross buns
A hot cross bun is a spiced sweet bun usually made with fruit, marked with a cross on the top, and has been traditionally eaten on Good Friday in the United Kingdom, Ireland, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, Canada, India, Pakistan an ...
. 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. Situated ...
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
Fruitcake (or fruit cake or fruit bread) is a cake made with candied or dried fruit, nuts, and spices, and optionally soaked in spirits. In the United Kingdom, certain rich versions may be iced and decorated.
Fruitcakes are typically served ...
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 a ...
and sugar. Soul cakes
A soul cake, also known as a soulmass-cake, is a small round cake (though they more resemble in appearance and texture a shortbread biscuit, with sweet spices) which is traditionally made for Halloween, All Saints' Day and All Souls' Day to com ...
were made around Halloween
Halloween or Hallowe'en (less commonly known as Allhalloween, All Hallows' Eve, or All Saints' Eve) is a celebration observed in many countries on 31 October, the eve of the Western Christian feast of All Saints' Day. It begins the observanc ...
, 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
Saint Martin's Day or Martinmas, sometimes historically called Old Halloween or Old Hallowmas Eve, is the feast day of Saint Martin of Tours and is celebrated in the liturgical year on 11 November. In the Middle Ages and early modern period, it ...
Day. Yorkshire Christmas pie was considered a classic Christmas dish by Charles Elmé Francatelli
Charles Elmé Francatelli (180510 August 1876) was an Italian British cook, known for his cookery books popular in the Victorian era, such as '' The Modern Cook''.
Biography
Francatelli was born in London, of Italian descent, in 1805. He was ...
.
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 ar ...
and Jane Austen
Jane Austen (; 16 December 1775 – 18 July 1817) was an English novelist known primarily for her six major novels, which interpret, critique, and comment upon the British landed gentry at the end of the 18th century. Austen's plots of ...
. 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