Named after Queen Victoria, who
reigned in the United Kingdom from 1837 until
she passed in 1901, the Victorian era
was a period filled with shifting trends,
attitudes, and innovations. Food itself was part
of these changes, and the Victorians displayed
resourcefulness and creativity in the dishes they prepared. Victorian Britons were a diverse
bunch with eclectic tastes and habits, and the
food they consumed often reflected their
disparate sensibilities. Today we're going to take a look
at what people ate to survive in Victorian England. But before we get started, be
sure to subscribe to the Weird History channel, and let
us know in the comments below what other
culinary history you would like to hear about. OK. For our entree today, we
recommend this Victorian style video. I think it's just delicious. Among other things,
Victorians were enthusiastic
horticulturalists, and they loved to tinker with and create
their own varieties of fruits and vegetables. One of the most
successful fruits to emerge in the
late Victorian period was the royal
sovereign strawberry. Developed by Thomas
Laxton in 1892, it was luscious and tasty. Botanists of the
19th century were on something of a quest to
develop a strawberry that was as large as the American
variety, but as sweet as the European variety,
Laxton's creation scored on both counts. His royal sovereign's
strawberry was such a hit that Country Life
Illustrated declared in 1899 that it was, "One of the finest
strawberries ever raised." McDonald's gave us the Egg
McMuffin breakfast combo, IHOP gave us the Rooty Tooty
Fresh and Fruity breakfast plate, and Victorian
England gave us the full English breakfast. Typically encompassing a
spread of fried eggs, bacon, baked beans, grilled
tomatoes and mushrooms, the full English
breakfast remains to this day, a popular meal. However, prior to
the Victorian era, only the wealthy could
afford to eat eggs and meat for breakfast. That slowly changed
throughout the 19th century, as the standard of living
increased for the vast majority of the population. By the end of the era, even
working class Victorians had the time and money to enjoy
a more elaborate breakfast. It may be hard to
believe now, but one of the most popular beverages
of the Victorian era was beer. Oh, OK. It's actually not
that hard to believe. In fact, by 1865,
British brewers made 25 million barrels
of beer annually. Though it was widely
consumed, Victorian beer had a relatively low alcohol
content, usually less than 3%. You might be wondering why beer
was so popular if it did not get you drunk. Well, the truth is that the
drinking water of the era, especially in crowded
cities like London, could easily become
contaminated with sewage. Consuming beer was therefore
a safer and significantly less disgusting option for Victorians
looking to quench their thirst. Since the climate in the UK
made growing sugar pretty much impossible, it had
to be imported. No one knows exactly when the
importation of sugar began, but some believe it might
have been as early as 1264 in the court of Henry III. It wouldn't be until
the 14th century that sugar came
into general use. But even then, it was
incredibly expensive, commanding prices
that in today's money would be about 50 English
pounds, or $70 American dollars per pound. As you might expect, it remained
a luxury for the ultra rich. However, thanks in part to the
end of taxes on imported sugar in 1874, candy
quickly became popular and could be found
virtually everywhere in the Victorian world. One of the most popular
candies was the Bullseye. Named after the eyes of
a bull, the sweet treat wasn't as unappetizing
as its namesake. The red and white
striped sugary candies were actually mint flavored. The 19th century saw
the birth of what is arguably the most
popular breakfast item of all time, cereal. American entrepreneurs
like Sylvester Graham developed breakfast cereals
to provide healthy food to the masses. Some took it even further. John Kellogg, for example,
developed Cornflakes as a bland food to curb
people's sexual impulses. Because, apparently, he thought
that was something people wanted. Processed breakfast
cereal gained traction in mid-century
America and continued to gain popularity over time. Anyone who's been to a
grocery store recently it could testify to that, as
virtually every supermarket in existence today
has an entire aisle devoted to products like
Frosted Flakes, Cheerios, Honeycombs, and dozens
and dozens of others. Brittons, on the other
hand, didn't really take to the stuff the
way Americans did. Instead, British
Victorians generally preferred to eat gruel,
oats, and porridge. Once you've had Cap'N
Crunch, you'll never go back. They wouldn't really start
to enjoy prepared cereal until the beginning
of the 20th century. Working and middle
class Victorians supplemented their diet
with cheap vegetables. Cabbage in particular
was affordable and a good source of nutrients. The famous housekeeping
expert, Isabella Beeton, even recommended fried
cabbage as a good option for economical meals that
would feed a whole family. But there were a
lot more options in this department
than just cabbage. Onions were also a
widely used staple, given their year-round
availability and dirt cheap price. Leeks, watercress, artichokes,
carrots, turnips, broccoli and peas were similarly
common, although some of these were more subject to seasonal
availability concerns. By the middle of the era,
things were looking up, dietary speaking, and most
Victorians were consuming some kind of meat
at least once during the week. Not every cut or type of
meat was the same though. Wealthier Victorians,
as you might expect, enjoyed the best pieces
of succulent meats, while their poor
counterparts had to make do with
the cheaper cuts. Butchers sold most
parts of the animal, making everything from
the head to the hoof available for purchase. A budget conscious
Victorian could buy a sheep's head for
three pennies, which would be just about two
and 1/2 pounds today. Civic rituals and
festivals punctuated life in the Victorian era, and
food always played a role in such festivities. No one made
celebratory food better than the community of Denby
Dale in West Yorkshire. To mark national occasions,
bakers in the town were known to create giant
meat and potato pies. Some of the events that
warranted a giant pie were Napoleon's defeat
at Waterloo in 1815, the repeal of corn laws in
1846, and the 50th anniversary of Queen Victoria's
reign in 1887. In the year 2000, the University
of Huddersfield School of Engineering baked the
Millennium Pie, which, according to reports, measured
40 feet by eight feet, held two tons of potatoes, a ton
of onions, five tons of beef, and nearly 200 pints
of John Smith's bitter. Victorians were keen
gardeners, and their enthusiasm meant that they often sampled
the fruits of their labors. The medlar, an
aggressively hard fruit, wouldn't be an obvious
choice for a meal. But Victorians gave it a go
by letting it rot slightly. This softened the fruit,
thereby making it edible. Softened medlars
could be eaten as is, but many Victorians
opted to turn it into medlar cheese or jelly. Medlar, it's worth
noting, weren't unique to the Victorians. They dated way back
before Victoria's era, and even merited mentions in
the works of Chaucer, Dekker, and Middleton. No less than four
mentions of Medlars can be found in the plays
of William Shakespeare, including in Timon of Athens,
As You Like It, Measure for Measure, and even,
Romeo and Juliet. While it may sound strange
to some in the modern era, bone marrow was a
relatively popular treat in the Victorian era. Chefs and diners
would use a tool called a marrow scoop to remove
the yellow marrow from animal bones. And it was much sought after,
since as a fatty rich food, it gave Victorians
savory calories. In fact, Queen Victoria
herself is reputed to have eaten marrow every day. Her one-time chef,
Charles Francatelli created marrow toast for her. His relatively simple
recipe involves serving bone marrow,
seasoned with ingredients like parsley and
lemon juice on toast. Turtle soup was one of
the most beloved dishes of the 18th and
early 19th centuries, on both sides of the Atlantic. But the essential
ingredient, turtle meat, was relatively hard to come
by and extremely expensive. Enterprising Victoria cooks
thus made up their own version of the popular soup. It was just like
the expensive kind, only it lacked one
crucial thing, the turtle. Something else needed
to be substituted for the eponymous
ingredient, hence the "mock" in mock turtle soup. So what did they use? Well, among other
things, mock turtle soup could be made with
other types of meat like calf's head,
brains, or organ meats. Oysters were part of
the Victorian diet, but many working class folks
didn't always have access to fresh batches of them. So as horrible as
this might seem to people used to
modern standards, they often had to weigh the
risk of eating spoiled seafood. That being said, a much
safer method of enjoying less than fresh seafood was by
eating pickled oysters, which would keep longer. Street vendors even
sold pickled oysters for the bargain price
of four for a penny. Not a bad deal considering the
only alternative for most folks was to eat rotten ones. When it came to food, Victorians
were nothing if not efficient, and they generally used
most parts of an animal once it was butchered. This frugality meant that
items like calf's head were a relatively popular
and affordable cut of meat among all classes. And why wouldn't it be? Calf's head was a surprisingly
versatile ingredient, and could be prepared
in a number of ways. Some recipes called
for boiling the head, while others explained
how to roast it. That being said,
preparing a calf's head could be labor intensive,
and require the cook to remove the bones and skin. The brains and tongue,
on the other hand, seldom went to waste. Victorians loved gelatins and
jellies, even savory ones. To make calf's foot
jelly, cooks would have to boil actual
calves hooves in water. The boiled water would then be
cooled to form a rich gelatin. Incidentally, this
is where it's worth noting that calf's foot jelly is
an ancestor of today's gelatin, which is a chief ingredient
in many foods, beverages, medications, and other products. Some examples include foods
like gelatin desserts, puddings, gummy bears, candy
corns, marshmallows, yogurts, cream cheeses, and
margarine, as well as a host of other widely
consumed products. It also turns up in non-food
items like cosmetics, lighting equipment, blue match heads,
and photographic films, just to name a few. That's right. In case you didn't
already know, gelatin, which is in all of those
foods and products, is mostly made
from animal parts. Anyway, Victorians believe
that calf's foot jelly was a nourishing food
for the infirmed, and recipes for it often
appeared in cook books for invalids. Modern science, for
the record, verifies that gelatin may play some role
in joint and brain function, as well as provide benefits
to the skin and hair. But the jury is still
out on exactly how useful it is in those departments. So what do you think? Which of these Victorian food
sounds the most delicious to you? Let us know in the
comments below. And while you're at it, check
out some of these other videos from our Weird History.
