The Victorian Vittle Market available today

[Angus A Fitziron]

We are, indeed very fortunate in the variety and quality of food available to us these days. Two indicators from my own life would be:-

when I were a lad... in the 1960's you knew what day it was by what we had for dinner! It was always the same - Sunday roast, Monday cold, Tuesday re-hashed cold roast, Wednesday sausages, Thursday chops, Friday fish and Saturday egg and chips! The only condiment from memory was salt and vinegar.

In the early 1970's we were on holiday in Jersey at one of those seaside hotels beloved of Miss Marples and I recall a conversation in the dining room between the waiter and two elderly ladies who were staying there together. He was offering baked swede (turnip?) and one of the ladies was saying "I wouldn't like it, I've never tasted it, I've always thought of it as peasant food!"

I think we are better educated in the matter of food - my 1960's dinners were I remember very good and perfectly cooked - but these days we know so much more. I suspect Victorians, particularly lower and middle classes would have had a simple diet with the same thing several days together and much less meat than we have now. I recall staying at some cousins in Cowdenbeath and the stew pot on a hook by the coal fire contaning the next few day's meals based on a fatty belly of mutton with vegetables, probably to be further eked out with grain like barley.

So, our experiment does indeed contain another variable. To add to socio-economic menu, decade and geographic location, we need to add historically accurate or fine tuned for a modern palate?

[J. Wilhelm]

So, our experiment does indeed contain another variable. To add to socio-economic menu, decade and geographic location, we need to add historically accurate or fine tuned for a modern palate?

I believe as Steampunks we are proposing an alternate past most of the time.  Not unfathomable that we do the same with our themed banquets; after all were are not making historical recreations of banquets; leave that to re-enactors!  We would however be building a good database for those who wish to re-live history.  In our alternate past WE ate better!

Besides we have plenty of food to play with.  Often times peasant food, as I have noted, was more interesting than proper Victorian food.  Don't forget "immigrant food", including the food of the colonies for the British Empire (Indian), as well as the ethnic foods of the US and even Mexico which in the 19th. C showed a real distinction between traditional food and that of the upper classes.  The richness in cultural variations can be used to either recreate of re-invent the banquet, or even "Steampunk" the banquet (just make a small back story to explain the menu).

As a historical basis, in Uncle Bert's Victorian Food Brands thread (http://brassgoggles.co.uk/forum/index.php/topic,35567.0.html)  as well as the Stempunk Mexico forum, I had mentioned the concept of "themes" to Steampunk banquets.  These themes could account for regional variations as (Scottish v. English, Cajun v. Texan) as well as socio-ethnic differences, even if subtle (Cajun vs. Creole, Spanish-Mexican v. Maximilian-French), as well as historical based events (Am. Civil War military rations v. Texan cattle drive fare).  Each theme should carry a distinctive menu.

Ha, ha!  Maybe even have a contest between two separate groups; "The steam engine workers" versus "The train passengers" ha, ha, and have the chefs and the diners dress the part.  

[hardlec]

Tastes do change. Curry was popular in the Victorian era, in England. Imported from India.

BTW:

Do we deliberately adopt a cultural chauvinism?  The Spanish and French and Russians will all comment that British food is bland.

The former colonies and Dominions would concur. 

Spices:
Cloves
Curry
Ginger
Cinnamon
Paprika
(Any can add heat.)

Tabasco sauce dates to 1886.

[J. Wilhelm]

Gentlemen:

It occurs to me that this web-page mught prove fruitfuil in traking the necessary market items, at least for the United States.  Best to look at what was on the table to determine what needed to be in the kitchen:

www.foodtimeline.org/foodpioneer.html

And note I haven't read most of what is in this page(s) as I will be dissecting it little by little; but here's an excerpt on Saloon (Pub) Fare in Chicago and in the  California Territory during the Gold Rush (notice how gold made the diet a tad fancier):


"In 1865, a Chicago restauranteur was still able to offer wild boar's steak, boned wild turkey, patties of quail, aged bear's paws in burgundy sauce, ragout de coon, and squirrel pie.

Old West saloon fare

"In 1865, a Chicago restauranteur was still able to offer wild boar's steak, boned wild turkey, patties of quail, aged bear's paws in burgundy sauce, ragout de coon, and squirrel pie. While frontiersmen heartily approved of this fare, foreigners often complanied that, in the absence of ice, the meat generally was in an advanced stage of decomposition, its taste disguised with hot sauces and pepper. Customers suffered...Englishmen and Frenchmen bemoaned the lack of fresh food. Coffee, to the foreigners' disgust, was often a brew made of brown bread, acorns, dandelion roots, barley, and snuff...From 1860 on, food in the out-of-the-way places became somewhat standardized. For breakfast a tin cup and plate were filled with coffee, "sowbelly," bread, and syrup. Lunch, and dinner again, consisted of bread and steak, the steaks being generally overcooked and hard as stone...Lamb fries and Rocky Mountain oysters...slightly shirred in the pan, or roasted in the ashes of a campfire until they "popped," were considered a delicacy. Rattlesnake meat was fancied by some and said to taste like the white meat of chicken. Dried, pale beans known as Arizona strawberries were the only vegetable besides corn and squash in certain areas of the Southwest...Some people said that western saloon food was confined to the "Basic Four B's'--sourdough biscuits, beans, beef, and bacon ("overland trout" in cowboyese). Wild onions were sometimes served as a side dish "against scurvy." The chief complaint of travelers was the scarcity of vegetables...Coffee was the universal drink...

"Westerners ate to fill the belly, not for pleasure. Food was Food. One california traveler cheerfully commented: 'We are now ready to replenish the inner man. The bar is convenient for those who wish to imbibe. Breakfast is announced. We seat ourselves at the table. Before us is a reasonable quantity of beans, pork, and flapjacks served up in tin plates. Pea tea, which the landlord calls coffee with a bold emphasis, is handed to us. We help yourselves to such other things as may be in reach. Neither spices, sauces, nor seasonings are necessary to accomodate them to the palate. Our appetites need not nursing. The richest condiments are the poorest provisions.'...

Table manners were atrocious by European standards. Food was wolfed down with a speed that astounded the foreigner. At saloons that were also stagecoach stations, with only a limited time avaialble for a stopover, it was every man for himself. A run was made for the table set out smorgasbord fashion, guests elbowing and trampling each other, devouring everything in sight in record time...Things were no different on the northwest coast: 'They breakfast in the middle of the night, dine when they aught to be breakfasting and take supper when they should be dining; and the "feed" is most distasteful--all noise,dirt, grease, mess, slop, confusion, and disorder; chunks of meat of all kinds and no flavor, placed in plates, and "sot" on the table; and before you have time to look at your meat, a piece of very flat pie, with a doughy crust, and dried fruit inside is placed under your nose, on the same plate with your meat. Men pick their teeth with forks and jackknives, gobble down gallons of water, and "slide." This is the style in Oregon...

"Sudden wealth from gold and silver brought sudden change. It came earliest in California. Bayard Taylor reported in 1850 "it was no unusual thing to see a company of these men, who had never before thought of luxury beyond a good beefsteak and glass of whiskey, drinking their champagne at ten dollars a bottle, and eating their tongue and sardines, or warming in the smoky campfire their tin cannisters of turtle soup and lobster salad."...Teddy Blue, a Montana cowboy during the 1880s when the cattle trade flourished, wrote: 'talking about food, do you know what was the first thing a cowpuncher ordered to eat when he got to town? Oysters and celery. And eggs. Those things were what he didn't get and what he was crazy for.'...It was not only oysters that, with the coming of the railroads, suddenly became avaialble in Sheridan, Wyoming, in Miles City, Montana, or Virginia City, Nevada. Gambling and concert saloons as well as hotel bars offered their well-heeled customers fancy fare printed on equally fancy menus, often in broken French...

"In Wyatt Earp's and Doc Holliday's Tombstone, the Occidental Saloon served a Sunday dinner to tickle "Doc's" fashionable palate:

Soups
Chicken Giblet and Consumme, with Egg
Fish
Columbia River Salmon, au Beurre Noir
Relieves
Filet a Boeuf, a la Financier
Leg of Lamb, Sauce, Oysters
Cold Meats
Loin of Beef, Loin of Ham, Loin of Pork, Westphalia Ham, Corned Beef, Imported Lunches
Boiled Meats
Leg of Mutton, Ribs of Beef, Corned Beef and Cabbage, Russian River Bacon
Entrees
Pinons a Poulett, aux Champignons
Cream Fricasse of Chicken, Asparagus Points,br> Lapine Domestique, a la Matire d'Hote
Casserole d'Ritz aux Oeufs, a la Chinoise
Ducks of Mutton, Braze, with Chipoluta Ragout
California Fresh Peach, a la Conde
Roasts
Loin of Beef, Loin of Mutton, Leg of Pork
Apple Sauce, Suckling Pig, with Jelly, Chicken Stuffed Veal
Pastry
Peach, Apple, Plum, and Custard Pies
English Plum Pudding, Hard Sauce, Lemon Flavor

And we will have it or perish.
This dinner will be served for 50 cents."

---Saloons of the Old West, Richard Erdoes [Alfred A. Knopf:New York] 1979 (p. 110-114)

Chipoluta Ragou??? (I guess Chipolata - a small French type of sausage)

[Angus A Fitziron]

Amazing find Wilhelm. That will take some study and not a little imagination!

"Casserole d'Ritz aux Oeufs, a la Chinoise"!!??

[J. Wilhelm]

Amazing find Wilhelm. That will take some study and not a little imagination!

"Casserole d'Ritz aux Oeufs, a la Chinoise"!!??

It just means is that the chef once worked at the Ritz and his cook assistant is Chinese    Actually Chinoise is a fine mesh sieve used in a professional kitchen.  But what in the name of God are you doing to those eggs?


Dear ladies and gentlemen:

From the same page I quoted in my last post, here is a list of provisions that played a key role in a very famous historical event in America:  The Lewis and Clark Expedition, also known as the Corps of Discovery Expedition (1804–1806).  While not Victorian, it does relate to what "pioneers" were expected to carry during America's westward expansion.

As quoted from Wiki:

This was the first transcontinental expedition to the Pacific coast undertaken by the United States. Commissioned by President Thomas Jefferson, it was led by two Virginia-born veterans of Indian wars in the Ohio Valley, Meriwether Lewis and William Clark. Their objectives were both scientific and commercial – to study the area's plants, animal life, and geography, and to learn how the region could be exploited economically.

Click for map of expedition

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lewis_and_Clark_Expedition

Source: http://www.foodtimeline.org/foodpioneer.html

Provisioning Lewis & Clark's expedition was a complicated work in progress. Commercial supplies were heavy and there was a limit to how much could be transported at any given time. Initial Philadelphia edibles were restocked by St. Louis & local town/fort grocers. Local bartering opportunities (eggs, flour, coffee) were regularly engaged and highly prized. Hunting (animals large & small), fishing, and foraging (nuts, berries, vegetables, fruit) provided much needed fresh foods. Sometimes the expeditioners had plenty to eat. Other times they endured days of hunger. Portable soup was purchased in mass quantities to stave off hunger.

"When Lewis leaves for St. Louis, he has with him all the food items he intends to order in the East. From what he's not carrying, it's obvious that he has full confidence that he can get anything and everything he needs either on the way...or from the military commissaries during the upcoming winter, as suggested by Jefferson. Here is his shipping list, annotated with what he actually obtains: Provisions and Means of Subsistence. 3 bushels of Allum or Rock Salt (Lewis did not buy this.) 6 Kegs of 5 Gallons each making 30 Gallons of rectified spirits as used for the Indian trade (Lewis actually buys 30 gallons of Strong Spt. Wine.) 6 Kegs bound with iron Hoops (These become the kegs to hold the 'Spt. Wine'.) 150 lbs. Portable Soup (Lewis is delivered 193 pounds.) Spices assorted.

"The few spices Lewis actually purchases are not used in cooking and are never mentioned as seasonings for anything; they are from a druggist along with the Expedition's other medical goods: '2 oz. Nutmegs--75 cents; 2 oz, Cloves-31 cents; and 4 oz Cinnammon-20 cents.' Mostly forgotten is the 1800s use of spices as curatives: cinnamon bark relieves diarrhea and nausea and is useful for digestive problems; cloves have anticeptic and anti-parasitic properties and also act as a digestive aid; nutmeg or mace is a tonic...what is 'Strong Spt. Wine'? Brandy is a fine example...Since this purchase is obtained from David Jackson, druggist, we can carry this supposition one step further. Brandy has a long tradition of being a medication...Lewis' bill for thirty gallons is $70, approximately $0.47 a bottle (in today's 750ml size). As it is considerably more expensive than whiskey later purchased in St. Louis for an exquivalent of $0.25 per bottle.

"Finally there is 'Portable Soup.' For the Corps of Discovery this is an emergency ration...Lewis has become aware of this dried soup and writes to General William Irvine concerning it on April 15, 1803, Israel Whelan for the United States writes payment for '193 lbs. of Portable Soup at 150 cents (for a total of) $289.50.' The 150 pounds of ordered soup has turned into a billable 193 pounds of delivered soup. Francois Baillet, the cook/provisioner, is probably the person who packs the finished product into the separately ordered tin cannisters.

"In the end, the Expedition's edible provisions from Philadelphia are tallied at $360 for soup and liquor. This is just the start of the food shopping; the bulk of the prepared provisions will be obtained in St. Louis: TWO TONS for the winter at Camp River Dubois, and EIGHT TONS taken with the Expedition when they leave in May 1804--altogether costing more than $2,000."


---Feasting and Fasting With Lewis & Clark: A Food and Social History of the Early 1800s, Leandra Zim Holland [Old Yellowstone Publishing:Emigrant MT] 2003
[NOTE: This book is THE best source for L&C provisioning overview (items/sources/prices) arranged by trip segments. Your local public librarian will help you obtain a copy.]

"Portable Soup"  From Wiki it is stated that portable soup was stored in canisters... Not that different to the concept of Chili in the Texas after the Am. Civil War, where "bricks' were carried in the chuck wagon.  

From: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Portable_soup
Lewis and Clark on their 1804–1806 expedition into the territory of the newly acquired Louisiana Purchase carried portable soup. According to his letter from Fredericktown, Ohio on April 15, 1803, Lewis purchased the soup from Francois Baillet, a cook in Philadelphia. He paid $289.50 for the 193 pounds of portable soup stored in "32 canisters". Lewis carried it with him overland to the embarkation point on the Ohio River.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

 
Portable soup was a kind of dehydrated food used in the 18th and 19th centuries. It was a precursor of the later meat extract and bouillon cubes, and of industrially dehydrated food. It is also known as pocket soup or veal glew. It is a cousin of the glace de viande of French cooking. It was long a staple of seamen and explorers, for it would keep for many months or even years.

Soup was made in the usual way reduced, degreased — or the fat would go rancid — and then reduced repeatedly until it took on the consistency of jelly. Once it was sufficiently gelatinous to hold its form, it was placed on pieces of flannel or unglazed earthenware dishes and rotated regularly to dry it further. This was a seasonal process attempted only in the winter when humidity was low. Once dry, it was wrapped in paper and stored in boxes.

[The British Navy made use of Portable soup] The naval authorities[clarification needed] hoped that portable soup would prevent scurvy among their crews. Therefore they allotted a daily ration to each sailor beginning in the 1750s. Captain Cook was convinced of its efficacy and carried it on both his South-Seas voyages.

and it gets more interesting, again British influence on American food emerges again:

Portable soup is held to have been invented by Mrs Dubois, a London tradeswoman. Together with William Cookworthy, she won a contract to manufacture it for the Royal Navy in 1756. However, the existence of portable soups (called "bouillons en tablettes" in French) is thus mentioned, as early as 1690, in Antoine Furetière's Dictionnaire universel, under the article Tablette: "On a veu des consommés reduits en tablettes, ou des bouillons à porter en poche." ("We have seen consommés reduced into tablets, or broth to carry in your pocket.") Considering "Mrs Dubois"'s French last name, it is likelier that she carried an invention from her native country to England, and developed it there.

[pakled]

I think there was a lot more of 'organ meats' (as we so euphemistically refer to them). One recipe from the Old West was something called 'son of a b*tch stew', which was just about everything from the abdomina(b)le cavity...

Another thing would be most of the produce would be local; shipping things long distances was done, but not nearly to the extent it's done nowadays...

'Yeesh' - Sin City

[The Squire]

I think there was a lot more of 'organ meats' (as we so euphemistically refer to them). One recipe from the Old West was something called 'son of a b*tch stew', which was just about everything from the abdomina(b)le cavity...
'Yeesh' - Sin City

We, in the Southwest, can still *enjoy* this tripe-based concoction - it goes by the name MENUDO.



I am sure Señor Wilhelm can provide further information on this delicacy, also known as a hangover cure par excellence.

[J. Wilhelm]

I can honestly say I didn't eat Menudo during my 17 year tenure in Mexico (shocking, I know).  There were some dishes that my grandmother never cooked (being French she tended toward a more international fare - if I wanted "hyper-Mexican" food I'd have to go to a neighbor's house).  I did eat Tuetano  tacos (bone marrow ), though...