What Did Working Class People Eat in the Victorian Era?

hi I'm Dan snow and I've come to a Victorian kitchen built in the 1870s to sample the food eaten by the normal men and women let's see what's on the menu the Victorian era was a time of just enormous change a really tumultuous time social political upheaval you got the Industrial Revolution going on you've got Charles Darwin with his ideas about Evolution Transforming Our vision of our place in the world you've got Railways extending out across the globe steam ships huge era of scientific discovery for example you get first telegraphs and telephones as well and there's also a big change in diet as the rise of refrigeration led to the beginning of Global Supply chains under Queen Victoria Britain became the world's richest country and that gave rise to a new class of affluent people we might call them middle class and they all aspired to have servants so under Queen Victoria we see a peak in the number of servants in the UK most middle-class households aspire to have at least one or two servants so in 1871 over four percent of the population were employed in service and the vast majority of them were women sheep's Trotters these were a very common Victorian snack people would sort of just munch on them a bit like a kebab and they were a cheaper alternative to a nice cut of meat disgusting I've been told that people used to rip the nails off and suck out the jelly inside I mean I don't even know if that's a thing I can see that they are a little bit of a snack but I've only eat these if I was desperate but a lot of a Twist gnawing one of these jellied eels I'm going in these are basically chunks of eel in their own naturally produced gelatin First Impressions absolutely disgusting in go the fingers that's absolutely disgusting you bite through the oily greasy gelatin and you you reach a kind of fish-like substance within its dry tastes a bit off oh it does not improve the aftertaste gets worse and worse these are sold on food carts in the East End of London in particular and the dish was often flavor with a splash of vinegar or dollop of butter and I can see why because the natural taste and flavor of this is absolutely disgusting they they were cheap in London particularly at the time because eels one of the few animals that could survive in the sewage choked poisonous Thames river in that period there's nothing more than just an open sewer and cesspit and run off for Industrial Waste so as well as tasting completely disgusting you're also just gnawing on poisonous meat oh I just can't do that anymore oh God [Music] one of the victorian's favorite Meats has fallen out of fashion now and that's mutton it's basically sheep but all grown-up sheeps and those that you would eat in lamb and they liked it because it could stand up to long slow cooking they thought it had a richer flavor too I mean it does taste like lamb just older even Queen Victoria wasn't above chewing a little bit of mutton in the Royal archives we hear that in 1858 she ate mutton chop and mashed potatoes and it's good enough for Queen Victoria it's should be good enough for us let's get mutton back on the menu and when you look at this Victorian cooking book you can see just how popular it was there are no fewer well dozens of pages every single part of the sheep could be eaten including the head very nice the tongue kidneys loin chop so we've got mutton mutton minced mutton boils mutton broth [Laughter] and finally mutton shoulder which may be dressed in a variety of ways boiled and served with onion sauce boned and stuffed with a good veal Force meat or baked with sliced potatoes in the dripping pan delicious [Music] particularly following the marriage of Queen Victoria and German Prince Albert the royal family starts to incorporate lots of Germanic traditions in their Christmas festivities and what could be more Christmassy than the Christmas pudding love this the best part of Christmas let's just get these out and of course with Christmas pudding one thing you have to do is put a bit of French Brandy on it oh there we go and create the old festive Flame come on oh what [Music] okay let's get on with it right nothing better than a bit of Christmas pudding oh beautiful a little Brandy up there it's really Charles Dickens who cements this little bundle of joy at the heart of the British Christmas tradition in A Christmas Carol he writes in half a minute Mrs crack entered flushed but smiling proudly with the pudding like a speckled Cannonball so hard and firm blazing and half a half a quarter of ignited Brandy she's been aligned with that and bed tight with Christmas holly stuck to the top oh what a wonderful pudding what on Charles for the British this was so much more than just a tasty Christmas Day dessert this was a little embodiment of Empire itself the ingredients suet brown sugar raisins currants candied orange peel eggs bread crumbs nutmeg cloves allspice loads of alcohol that was the British Empire in a pudding a little selection of savory and sweet treats like Britain's colonies from all over the world brought together for the enjoyment people back home so for the victorians they might have a nice Christmas pudding once a year but on the whole for a lot of the population slaving away in industrial cities or working in kitchens like this food was bad thanks for joining me folks if you've enjoyed watching please click on any of the videos on this screen for more delicious content [Music]

Channel: History Hit

Views: 115,708

Keywords: history hit, history hit youtube, victorian food, victorian food documentary, victorian food recipes for the poor, victorian food dishes, victoria food, food victorian era, victorian documentary, victorian life, dan snow history, history of food, food history victorian, history of christmas pudding, christmas pudding victorian, jellied eels history, jellied eels victorian, victorian food history, old victorian recipes, victorian era food recipes, victorian era recipes

Id: 5jI6Na2NhU4

Length: 8min 28sec (508 seconds)

Published: Wed Jul 05 2023