I love looking at old menus, seeing what Chance & Kye would have dined on when they go out on the town. Here’s one I found from the right era, with two courses, from Elizabeth Raffald, The Experienced English Housekeeper (London, 1756):
I can’t get the images to load, so I’ll just have to type out the two courses and you can imagine how the serving platters would have been set onto the table. Some of the offerings are beyond me, but most are variations on foods you might see today at an elaborate dinner. And the random capitalization and abbreviation is puzzling, too.
First Course:
- Transparent Soup
- Fricas’d Chicken
- Harico (I’m assuming Haricot Vert or Green Beans)
- Pigeons Comport
- Codsounds like little Turkies (your guess is as good as mine)
- Lambs Ears Forc’d
- Fricando Veal
- Pork Griskins
- French Pye
- Broccoli &c
- Kidney Beans
- Small Ham
- Mock Turtle
- Boil’d Turkey
- Sallad (sic)
- Bottl’d Peas
- Sweetbreads Ala Royal
- House Lamb
- Sheeps Rumps & Kidneys in Rice
- Ox Pallets
- Larded Oysters
- Ducks Alamode
- Beef Olives
- Florendine of Rabbits
- Hare Soup
Second Course:
- Pheasant
- Moonshine
- Crawfish in Savoryjelly
- Snowballs
- Globes of Gold Web with Mottoes in Them
- Marbl’d Veal
- Mince Pies
- Pickled Smelts
- Fish Pond
- Pompadore Cream
- Stew’d Cardoons
- Pea Chick with Asparagus
- Transparent pudding cover’d with a Silver Web
- Roast Woodcocks
- Stew’d Mushrooms
- Macaroni
- Floating Island
- Potted Lampreys
- Crocrant with Hot Peppers
- Collar’d Pig
- Pistacha Cream
- Burnt Cream
- Snipes in Savory Jelly
- Rocky Island
- Roasted Hare
You may not think many of those dishes would be tasty, but Victorians ate a lot more organ meat than we do today, since they didn’t have refrigeration to keep meat fresh. Everything was eaten within a short time of butchering the animal.