In the mid-1870s, the woman of an upper-class household planned lunch and evening meals, but she had a cook to actually do the work for her. Because upper-class families were not doing hard physical labor during the day, their largest meal was served in the evening. When they entertained, they served twelve or thirteen course meals. When they dined alone, they ate five or six courses. An example:
Usually, one would eat dinner in late afternoon and then supper at early evening, or dinner at early evening and then supper later at night. You could say Supper is the Victorian mid-night snack ;)
Some other food that was used in the Victorian (judging by when these words were first used in the English language,) are: crêpes, consommé, spaghetto, soufflé, bechamel, ice cream, chowder, meringue, bouillabaisse, mayonnaise, grapefruit, eclair, and chips.
Sources:
calacademy.org
The cambridge encyclopedia of the English language, D. Crystal.
This post is part of a series on cooking! Follow the links to see the other posts:
A Victorian Christmas
Victorian cooking
Victorian kitchens
Links to recipes & etiquette
Stumble It!
Hello,
I’m doing a project over victorian cooking and I’ve enjoyed your site very much. I have a question for you. Do you have any information on victorian restaurants in the 1800’s? I cannot seem to find any information on that. Thank you again for making such a great site!!
Cali from the states
Thank you, I’m glad you appreciate my blog!
You’re right, there isn’t a lot of information online. Looking at literature (for example a book like Trollope’s “The way we live now”) I think Victorian restaurants were mostly a place for men, where they could go to get dinner. Most Victorian gentlemen were member of a club, where they could dine, drink, and sometimes gamble. From around the 1820s on, it was more usual for everyone to have their own table, or sit with friends if they invite you, but around 1800 there might be a chance a restaurant would have a big shared table that everyone sits around and helps themselves to dinner.
I think the restaurant as we know it now, where gentlemen can take a lady or where ladies can go by themselves started around the turn of the century, and was not common yet around 1800.
If you want to cite sources I think your best bet is contemporary literature, as mentioned Trollope, but possibly there is also some mentioning of clubs in earlier literature.
Good luck with your project!
hello. i was wondering if you knew anything about what the middle and lower class meals were like in the victorian era. i need this info for a project so a quick respnse is almost necessary thanks so much
Hi Ashton, lowerclass families ate simple meals, for example potatoes and / or soup, and often ate in their kitchens. In Europe it was common to have a warm meal for lunch and bread for dinner, I’m not sure if this was the case for American families as well. If you want to cite a source, have a look at D.H. Lawrence’s story ‘the Odour of Chrysanthemums’ (it should be available to read for free online), in this story a workingclass family waits for the husband to come home for dinner so it can give you some information on how things worked.
Good luck with your project! :)
hi,
i also have a project and was wondering what kind of meals middle class cooked?
I found plum pudding!
I hope that works..haha
Thank you for posting this page, I did not know the Victorians had meringues :D
I’m looking for information on Victorian meals in general, but I have an especial need for Victorian dinner party food. For example, fancy dishes that someone would serve when hosting a grand entertainment dinner for friends and important guests, rather than what a family would eat in a sit down dinner. I’ve found sources on game and side vegetables, but do you have any information on other kinds of main courses, or special desserts? Any info would be useful, thanks. :)
Hi Aleee,
I have written a post on the meals that were served in a dinner for family and multiple friends and acquaintances, which you can see here: http://19thcentury.wordpress.com/2008/06/01/public-lives-womens-position-family-life-dinner-parties/
It gives some desserts as well. For really large feasts it can be assumed that it would be the same sort of food, but with more variety and in larger quantities. I think you might be able to find some info in Victorian society novels like Trollope’s “the way we live now” or works by George Eliot.
Good luck! :)
hey supp
[...] How did people in Victorian Era England outline their meals? I need to do a project for my Hon Brit. Literature…and we're required to do a Victorian Era cookbook. I figured it would be nice to put the different recipes in section (which course they were for). Could somebody please tell me how Victorian English outlined their meals by course? Thanks! ANSWER: Try these, good luck! http://www.victoriaspast.com/DiningRoom/... Victorian Tea Parties – the History of the Tea Tradition! http://www.bricksandbrass.co.uk/people/f... http://www.localhistory.scit.wlv.ac.uk/M... http://www.victoriatravelguide.com/trave... http://19thcentury.wordpress.com/2007/11... [...]
hello. I am organising an event at college which i have decided to use a victorian theme. i was wondering if you knew of any victorian games or entertainment that would be suitable to use in a restauraunt after a meal.
I have created the menu and have created a victorian table setting but i am finding it difficult thinking of some sort of entertainment to provide.
If you know of anything i could use your help would be greatly appriciated.
Thank you
Hi Lindsay, that sounds exciting! Unfortunately I think there was not a whole lot of entertainment: after the meal the men generally went to the smoking room for a smoke, and the ladies went to the drawing room, probably to gossip or relax a little. Most entertainment was provided by guests, since most ladies could sing and play the piano it was usual to play and listen to music.
For entertainment, cardgames were usual, mostly for men. Cricket was played a lot by both men and women but it was more of an afternoon activity.
I hope you can find something suitable!
[...] because a story is short doesn’t mean it can’t be good. If a meal doesn’t include soup, salad, three courses, dessert and coffee, does that mean it’s okay to serve food that’s old, flavorless or just leaves a bad [...]
[...] just because a story is short doesn’t mean it can’t be good. If a meal doesn’t include soup, salad, three courses, dessert and coffee does that mean it’s okay to serve food that’s old, flavorless or just leaves a bad taste in [...]
thank you very much for the info,I needed the exact things.I’m from Argentina,and I’m studying this.
Chawton House have recently reissued “The Compleat Housewife” a book of receipes and remedies from the long 18th Century. It’s a fascinating insight into the life of the Victorian era…what funny things they ate! See http://tiny.cc/YPmhE
I have to do homework on victorian cooking so thanks.
LOOK AT THIS WEBSITE!
hi i am a school cook and been asked to do a theme next week have you got any ideas please
Hello,
My 12th grade western civ class is putting on a victorian tea party for our final exam and I am on the foods committy. Though we call it a tea party it is really more of a christmas party. I was wondering what would be the typical type of meal served during a Victorian Christmas Party. Any info you could give would be amazingly helpful.
Thank you!
Rachel