Victorian food brands still extant

[J. Wilhelm]

Lets have it somewhere mid-atlantic, on my submarine or your airship?

An airship would be smashing wouldn't it?  EDIT: a submarine would be fantastic too.  But I'm afraid due to lack of funding we shall not end up under nor above the ocean surface! Ha, ha!  Realistically, we may have to meet like Sir Winston and Mr. Roosevelt did... bobbing on the waves of the ocean sea (make sure to bring a dose of dramamine or good ginger root extract).

[Camellia Wingnut]

P.S. as for non PC brands, what about the Robertson's Golliwog? I remember a free enamelled Golliwog Badge with marmalade. Interesting to trace that back to the Zulus at Isandlwana (any Flashman readers here?). Also the Camp Coffee label, very much Imperial subaltern style.

P.P.S. Reference to my reading materials prohibited on pain on exclusion from my tea parties on the terrace at Shepheard's. CW

[J. Wilhelm]

I'll let Uncle Bert look revise the entries my dear...  As for the Poppy Pep Up that is a smashing idea, and must be included with the now already discussed and probably made Absinthe Sorbet and Spiked Soda... 

Cheers,
JWD

[Arabella Periscope]

Lets have it somewhere mid-atlantic, on my submarine or your airship?

Gentlemen, A splendid idea, a submersible, an airship, a balloon, a solar cloud-craft, a aether-dome,a  zeppelin -- just not a Titanic anniversary recreation, hmmmm?

[J. Wilhelm]

Titanic! Good heavens no, Ms. Periscope.  Soggy salty bread is terrible.

EDIT: Speaking of which, dear ladies and gentlemen I must take my leave momentarily, as I have a late lunch coming right now!! 

Cheers! And Good health!

JWD

[Arabella Periscope]

Wilhelm has taken the bit between his teeth, the US list goes from strength to strength and eclipses the UK list in its breadth and variety.

Frys chocolate was certainly around in the 19th C. but not the Turkish Delight which is a great pity as it is very more-ish. I could eat the chocolate covering though...

Robertson's Golden Shred Marmalade, Has anyone here not tasted marmalade?  Heavenly on cheese amazingly.


Chlorodyne exists! It is also on the list as Mr. Collis Browne's tincture the modern formulation containing morphine and peppermint oil.
Still available for the relief of coughs and diarrhoea, the female weakness, ague, &c &c. I love the stuff. The morphine is an additional bonus and is abused by some. Not many medicines that you can buy over-the-counter in the UK that contain morphine. I say, I have an idea, lets add some fizz, some sugar and serve it ice cold, it'll be one up on Coca-Cola. We could call it Poppy-Pola, Chlora-Cola or Morphi-Mola.


You should certainly add the L&P wooster sauce to the US list Mr. Wilhelm as it is well-known and used in the US.

I strongly resent the implication that Altoids are not a food. They are, of course.

Wincarnis? I  have never heard of the stuff, a meat wine? I can see why not.  I will have to do some digging.

I'd suggest to make dishes and pastry from that period. Only products would limit your inventory.

- If only, I started out by identifying the brands a steampunk gentleman would be aware of that exist to this day and I must continue along this path to the bitter end. Talking of bitters, Angostura bitters, developed as a tonic by German Dr. Johann Gottlieb Benjamin Siegert in 1824, not a food but certainly makes vile drinks more palatable. We could put some in the Morphi-mola.

Vigroids (formerly Nigroids) is the brand name of a liquorice sweet. The small black pellets are particularly marketed as an expectorant lozenge for singers, using the slogan "for clarity of voice". The product is manufactured by Ernest Jackson & Company Ltd of Crediton in Devon. In November 2010 the name was changed from "Nigroids" to 'Vigroids'.  Gosh, I hate it when they do that though I can understand why. It just makes the list but only just because of the N-change makes a difference to the brand identity.


Tunnock's Tea Cakes make the list.

We have Nestles (as we called it in the UK) already on the list always being an Anglo-Swiss entity for most of its existence, the only product from them is in the form of their condensed milk though we could probably add the chocolate safely enough. Which other of its 3,000 products was it making at that time?

Here is the UK list. Not A lot of change. Still haven't done the cheese research.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Colman's Mustard - 1814
Harrington Cheese's Stilton (and Derbyshire) -- 1720
McVitie's Biscuits - 1830
Digestives and Rich Tea biscuits
Robertson's Golden Shred Marmalade - 1864
Twinings Tea - 1706
Bassett's Pontefract cakes - ~1760
Matthew Walker's Christmas puddings 1899
Barber's Cheddar Cheese 1833
Andrews Liver Salts - 1894
Warburtons bread - 1876
John West tinned salmon, mackerel and sardines 1857
Crosse and Blackwell chutneys and picallili 1706
Walls sausages and bacon - 1786
Walls pork pies 1786
R Whites lemonade - 1894
Idris ginger beer - 1873
Idris fizzy cream soda
Idris dandelion and baldock
Fyffe's bananas 1878
Taylor's of Harrogate tea and coffee (1886)
Irn Bru - 1901 under the name Strachan's Brew
Holland's Pies 1854
Dickinson and Morris 1851 (maker of Melton Mowbray pork pies)
Sarson's vinegar 1794
Sharwood's chutney 1889
Cerebos Salt 1894
Paxo stuffing (1901)
Hartley's jams 1871
Frank Cooper's 1874
Haywards pickles 1868
Geo. Watkins Mushroom Relish est.1830
HP Sauce 1895
Sharwoods Mango Chutney est 1889
Walkers Shortbread 1898
Suchard chocolate 1826
Atora beef suet 1893
Brown and Poulson's cornflour 1865
Borwick's baking powder 1895
Fentiman's ginger beer 1905
Coca cola 1900 (UK)
Robinson's barley water 1830
Rose's lime juice 1867
Scott's Porage Oats 1880
Perrier water 1898
Schweppes tonic 1771
Schweppes ginger ale (1870)
jacobs cream crackers 1885
oxo 1899
Carrs water biscuits 1841
Cadbury's cocoa 1824
Tate & lyle sugar 1877
Tate & lyle syrup
Tate & lyle treacle
Birds custard 1837
Bovril 1870
Golden shred marmalade 1864
Garabaldi biscuits 1861
Patum Peperium 1828
Fray Bentos corned beef 1899
Nestles condensed milk 1867
Typhoo tea 1903
Camp coffee 1876
Huntley and Palmers nice biscuits 1895
Shippams meat pastes 1896
Rowntrees pastilles 1881
Heinz beans 1886 (UK)
Jesmona Black Bullets
Jackson's of Picadilly fine teas
Tunnocks Tea cakes
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Wincarnis (mixed with Leibigs meat extract to restore the 'meatiness' !)
Nigroids

Lets add some pictures to spice up the thread. I'll drop in a few of the UK brands. Feel free to do the same.

[Arabella Periscope]

Oh dear.

I beg your pardon, Sir.  I have re-posted your whole manifesto in an attempt to quote a part.   Of course, it bears re-statement!  I meant to suggest adding Chlorodyne to Marmite and having Dynamite, which might then not only serve as a food, medicine, and cog-and-gear lubricant, but as a fuel source?

Also, I challenge you to produce competing Transatlantic Menus for the Midatlantic Steampunk Victorian Initiative Feast!

[yereverluvinunclebert]

That is and idea, a menu! Will do so at list completion.

Tomorrow am actually attending a wake so you may not hear much from me. I will be dressed smartly but not in steampunk style - no airships nor submarines,  I will however, be travelling in a very slightly slightly steampunk transport, as close as we get to it in a modern motor vehicle, - a  landrover Defender LWB, as the main transport has broken.

I will study the food and take as many hints I get at the repast and post them here. Most likely to be nasty foreign stuff though.

[Camellia Wingnut]

Sir, Aside - does anyone know if fish paste in small swirly glass pots has an old brand name? I recall being made very unwell by such a jar and still bear a grudge. My theory is that its recipe was supplied by Captain Nemo and it was marketed as a way of ridding the Nautilus of the many tentacles of the giant squid.
Also, perhaps jujubes in Britain were called Zubes.
We used to shop in a Bournemouth grocer's called Williamson and Treadgold's, with a steampunk interior - mahogany counters, and bins for biscuits with brass edges. Or was it a fantasy?

[Camellia Wingnut]

Oh, yes. Dear me! I am pleased to know that One Other used to eat the chocolate off the Turkish delight and discard the strange glassy pink gelatin, as indeed it deserved.
There was also a kind of chocolate called Survival Chocolate, probably made for mountaineers. Has anyone heard of it? I think it may have endowed me with my strange longevity (do NOT inquire). I should like to ask the manufacturer to modify his product, with a view to prolonging the life of a lady's wits as well as her physical form. It may be too late for mine, but other winsome maidens might benefit. And the best of luck to you, gels.
CW

[Camellia Wingnut]

Shocking! I find I am talking to myself. One more word - how much more steampunk could a food be than Peek Freans Teetotal Plum Pudding? Answer: Peek Freans Brandy Soaked Plum Pudding.

Fascinating story of the Dum Dum factory related in Wikipedia under "Peek Freans".

[celephicus]

Coca cola was introduced in 1886

But as an anti-knock agent for early petrol engines!

[von Corax]

Shocking! I find I am talking to myself. One more word - how much more steampunk could a food be than Peek Freans Teetotal Plum Pudding? Answer: Peek Freans Brandy Soaked Plum Pudding.

Fascinating story of the Dum Dum factory related in Wikipedia under "Peek Freans".

According to Kraft Canada's site, Peek Freans were first imported to Ontario some time in the 1870s. I shall add them to the Dominion list.

[J. Wilhelm]

Shocking! I find I am talking to myself. One more word - how much more steampunk could a food be than Peek Freans Teetotal Plum Pudding? Answer: Peek Freans Brandy Soaked Plum Pudding.

Fascinating story of the Dum Dum factory related in Wikipedia under "Peek Freans".

I had never heard of Peek Frean before.    Shocking to see that the brand was actually discontinued in the UK, and is being marketed by Kraft into the colonies - evidence: the usage of the name "cookie" instead of "bisquit" : http://www.kraftbrands.com/peekfreans/ So does this mean that Peek Frean is more appreciated as an import?  What happened in the UK? (similar to the case of A1 sauce).  The only thing preventing me from introducing the mark in the US  list is the exact date when Peek Frean began to export to America.  This really makes me want to go buy a box (no tin's I'm afraid) tomorrow - willing to bet my local HEB carries the brand.  I'm not sure about the plum pudding tins- how long did it survive after changing hands to Kraft?  When was the last time you saw one Ms. Wingnut?

[Camellia Wingnut]

Sir,
Regarding your query re tinned Peek Freans pudding. The Wikipedia entry tells of an actual tin of pudding surviving until the present, having been preserved for troops in the Boer War. It is clearly the first duty of any Steampunk gentleman to sample this no doubt perfectly wholesome substance. Any volunteers?
I know of Peek Freans only because Mr. Peek himself bought the cottage which was our childhood home, for his retirement. Not joking!
CW

[greensteam]

Peak Freans: were available in the UK well into my lifetime and my great grandfather was the importer of their products into northern FRANCE in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.

I read somewhere that they invented my top favourite food of all time, the TWIGLET.

On the other hand that other well known household brand, Fray Bentos, I would never ever ever ever touch, no matter what. Their brand was forever blighted for me by the typhoid outbreak (1960s??) due to their tainted meat products.

[yereverluvinunclebert]

@celephicus
"But as an anti-knock agent for early petrol engines!

Now where did you hear that? - surely an urban myth.

[yereverluvinunclebert]

P.S. as for non PC brands, what about the Robertson's Golliwog? I remember a free enamelled Golliwog Badge with marmalade. Interesting to trace that back to the Zulus at Isandlwana (any Flashman readers here?).

I remember the golli well, you used to be able to pull a small paper version of him from the back of the jam pot labels. In my mind there was no racial overtone but that was probably because I was a very small boy at the time. It was inevitable that he would go. On my travels I have climbed Isandlwana, learnt a fair smidgen of Zulu and listened to many stories about the imperial battles of 1879 but I wasn't aware of any connection to the jam.

[yereverluvinunclebert]

Sir, Aside - does anyone know if fish paste in small swirly glass pots has an old brand name?

You may be referring to Shippam's pastes or Patum Paperium, never eat a shippam's that has been pre-opened... I swear by the crab version, most of the others are fairly bland or rather off-putting. They do, however, all go very well cucumber sandwiches. Cucumber and fresh bread improve them immeasurably.



Patum Paperium can still be bought in a ceramic pot. It is an acquired taste, very very anchovy and used sparingly.

[yereverluvinunclebert]

Also, perhaps jujubes in Britain were called Zubes.

“Zubes are good for your tubes” - they aren't jubjubs. They were/are lozenges, used to appear in a bag with a zebra on. "Hoarse? Go suck a Zube"

Maynards Wine gums - our version of the jujub sweet was created in 1905, they contain no wine...

[yereverluvinunclebert]

Fry's Chocolate Cream - one of the first chocolate bars ever produced, launched in 1866


Re: the Fry's Turkish Delight - in some respects it is not too bad an idea for a chocolate bar. Regardless, I have always stripped the chocolate from bars with centres I don't really like that much. Kit kat is a particularly fine chocolate-strip. First the ends then the sides, finally the tops and bottoms to varying degrees of success. Then the unsatisfying crunchy middle is disposed of. I once found a faulty kit kat that gave me chcocolate up to 50% of it's length. I've been trying to replicate the same pleasure ever since. (This is beginning to sound a bit too much like Mr. Humphries, I'd better stop)  

[yereverluvinunclebert]

Peak Freans: were available in the UK well into my lifetime

I hadn't realised that Peak Freans had gone from the UK, you stick to your favourite biscuit I find and don't notice the others.
They made a biscuit called Playbox that was most exciting to a child. I still have a tin somewhere. I am most surprised that they have gone. I'd have thought these would be appealling to today's fatties...



Peak Freans used to make a biscuit that looked like the GPO manhole covers. I always wondered if you get manhole-cover-sized biscuits, I am sure there would be a market for them. Type "biscuit shaped manhole covers" into Google and you'll see what I mean.

[yereverluvinunclebert]

We used to shop in a Bournemouth grocer's called Williamson and Treadgold's, with a steampunk interior - mahogany counters, and bins for biscuits with brass edges. Or was it a fantasy?

I believe it still exists.

[yereverluvinunclebert]

On the other hand that other well known household brand, Fray Bentos, I would never ever ever ever touch, no matter what. Their brand was forever blighted for me by the typhoid outbreak (1960s??) due to their tainted meat products.

You are showing your age... can you remember the 1970s John West salmonella scare? I do, I was sick for days but it was entirely psychological. Fear of food is a terrible thing. These days we have the food safety boards which were introduced exactly because of this sort of problem. When I worked at Mars, they stored some tones of sweets (in boxes, all safely wrapped) on pallets containing a disallowed wood preservative. The contamination was only one part in many millions, they scrapped the lot. Food is a lot safer these days.

[yereverluvinunclebert]

There was also a kind of chocolate called Survival Chocolate, probably made for mountaineers.

Here you go Camellia:
http://www.chocogram.com.au/survival-chocolate-1.html

J & A Fergusons Chocolate Manufacturer Greenock established in 1794 - another sweetie for the list

John Miller & Sons Chocolate Eclair sweets 1844  "Sweets are first tasted by the eye, but flavour is the heart and soul of all confectionery" John Millar