The Victorian Age

1832–1901

Typically this period in history is associated with the reign of Queen Victoria (1837 to 1901), but many commentators start the period five years earlier in 1832, with the passage of the Reform Act through parliament. Which is when, arguably, many of the political sensibilities and horse-trading associated with the Victorians were first established.

Victoria's reign coincided with a long period of British prosperity where new scientific discoveries and an ever-expanding Empire brought wealth and prosperity that allowed an educated middle class to develop. Often these were people unused to dealing with staff and large households, but who were avid readers. As a result small publications prospered and a great literary period developed. To cater for the new middle classes, authors, beginning with Eliza Acton and most notably including Mrs Beeton wrote articles and published books on the matters of household management and cookery. Indeed, it was during this period that the first modern-style cookery books, with lists of ingredients and instructions on how to cook them were written and published.

Breakfast:
bacon, eggs, kedgeree, devilled kidneys, toast, marmalade, tea, coffee

Luncheon:
Soup
hot and cold meats
cheese
fruit tarts, blancmange, ices

Dinner:
soup
fish
roast beef and vegetables
stewed apples
jelly, fruit
savouries
cheese For more authentic versions of Victorian meals, see the page on Victorian bills of fare (menus) derived from Francatelli's cookbook. Of course, there was also the daily ritual of serving afternoon tea, often accompanied with cakes, pastries and small sandwiches. The advent of canning also opened the diet to new possibilities; this was also accompanied by a revolution in stoves, cookware and kitchen gadgets allowing meals to be served in new ways. As in previous ages, meals were often large, elaborate affairs. The difference in the Victorian era was that such meals were the purview of the middle classes and not just for the rich and the nobility. A typically middle class family would have breakfast at 9am, followed by lunch at mid-day (this was always followed by pudding) and dinner was served at 6pm to allow up to three hours for a meal that could consist of between 20 and 40 separate dishes. Below you will see a day's typical menu:

Breakfast:
bacon, eggs, kedgeree, devilled kidneys, toast, marmalade, tea, coffee

Luncheon:
Soup
hot and cold meats
cheese
fruit tarts, blancmange, ices

Dinner:
soup
fish
roast beef and vegetables
stewed apples
jelly, fruit
savouries
cheese

For more authentic versions of Victorian meals, see the page on Victorian bills of fare (menus) derived from Francatelli's cookbook.

Of course, there was also the daily ritual of serving afternoon tea, often accompanied with cakes, pastries and small sandwiches. The advent of canning also opened the diet to new possibilities; this was also accompanied by a revolution in stoves, cookware and kitchen gadgets allowing meals to be served in new ways.

This was also the time when Charles Dickens popularized the turkey as the centrepiece of the Christmas table. Indeed, holiday meals were special celebrations and called for nothing but the very finest of dishes; including: Roast Mutton, Pork or Turkey, Boiled Beef, Stewed Rabbits, Plum Pudding and Mince Pies.

The Victorian era was also the first era of the Celebrity Chef, with one of the most well know of the age being Charles Elmé Francatelli (1805–1876); an Englishman of Italian extraction who traveled to France to study under the legendary Antonin Carême the founder of French haute cuisine. He was most revered for blending the best of Italian and French cuisines. He was briefly maitre-d'hotel and chief cook in ordinary to Queen Victoria, an appointment Francatelli saw as the highlight of his career. In 1854 he was appointed chef de cuisine at the famous Reform Club in London. His first book, entitled The Modern Cook, was published in 1846 and was so popular that it went through an amazing twenty nine editions. He also wrote A Plain Cookery Book for the Working Classes (1852) and The Cook's Guide and Housekeeper's & Butler's Assistant (1861), recipes from which (along with the entire original text) are available on this site.

Of course, the original celebrity chef was Alexis Bénoist Soyer (1810 to 1858), a Frenchman, naturalized in England after the Les Trois Glorieuses revolution of 1830. Soyer was the original chef of the Reform Club from 1838 to 1850 and it was he who designed the kitchens. As well as being a chef, Soyer was also a prolific writer and an inventor (he invented a table-top stove, the kitchen timer and an army cooking stove). He was also a philanthropist, inventing the modern soup kitchen during the Irish Potato Famine, helping the poor improve their nutrition and helping the British soldiers improve their conditions during the Crimean war. His practices and inventions led to thousands of lives being saved. But, because his papers were destroyed after his death, Alexis Soyer is the first celebrity chef that no one knows about.

The Victorian age coincided with increased literacy and a significant expansion of the middle classes, with newly wealthy wives running a household for the first time. This explains the rise of books such as Mis Beeton's 'Book of Household Management' as women sought advice and information. Of course, the recipes in the various recipe books were intended for the cook, not the lady of the house, but they allowed the cook to be overseen and for the heads of the household to ensure the cook was making the most of her provisions. In the Victorian age, the heads of middle class households were thrust into the same positions that large landowners would have been in during previous ages.

Recipes became a part of daily life, so much so that in his 1859 volume The Dictionary of Daily Wants (an encyclopedia of the everyday), Robert Kemp Philp added recipes to the storehouse of knowledge he was presenting in that volume. Again, recipes from this book have been and made available on this site.

Here you will find a cross-section of Victorian fare, from the well-known recipes of Mrs Beeton and Eliza Acton to the less familiar works of Charles Elmé Francatelli and Alexis Bénoist Soyer (as well as many recipes from far less well known cookery writers of the period). Recipes that cover the entire range, from the food of the working man and the humblest of families.

As one of this site's focuses is curry, I now have the full recipe text from the 1869 edition of The Indian Cookery Book a volume published in Calcutta and which was a recipe guide to Anglo-Indian households. This is the first book on Indian cookery written in English.