Sticking with the general topic we started last week, let’s take a look at some of the foods popular during the Victorian Era.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The Victorian Era lasted from 1837 to 1901, and got its name from the reign of Queen Victoria in the United Kingdom. In the kitchen, many of the foods, recipes, conventions, products, and even meal formats that we use today were invented and popularized during this era.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The invention of the gas stove revolutionized Victorian cooking. A gas stove made it far easier to control the temperature and tweak cooking habits than a wood-burning stove. Another notion that gained popularity during this time was the idea that “a woman’s place is in the kitchen.” Rather than a labor-intensive chore meant for servants and lower-class citizens, cooking became more of an art form that the “little woman” was expected to master. This idea, plus the advancing kitchen technology (whiskers, mechanical peelers, potato mashers, and even a prototype icebox), encouraged Victorian women to become ever more creative, experimental, and complex in their home recipes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The typical Victorian diet consisted of a lot of fish (meat was still more expensive), local, seasonal fruits and vegetables and greens like onions, turnips, spinach, broccoli, apples, cherries, and parsnips. Nuts were available and popular too. These could be roasted and sold from food carts. Some rare and expensive foods and products (like ice, sugar, and spices) experienced a tax reduction over the century, which brought about the creation of new foods and snacks. Street vendors were making and selling hard candy for the first time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The Victorians invented the full English breakfast, with eggs, sausages, tomatoes, and baked beans. The two- and three-course meals, invented for the queen, consisted of meals served in batches of soups, roasts, and salads at the end. And there was the ever-famous afternoon tea, usually served with milk and sugar, a rarity that previously only the very rich could afford. Meals became a very important and intricate affair, with people changing clothes for each one. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Some other notable inventions of the period were rolled oats (in particular, Quaker oats), breakfast cereal, ice cream (which led to ice cream soda floats) and, by the end of the century, even hamburgers. Many of the brands we know and eat today were invented in the Victorian era: Amaretti cookie tins, Bell’s poultry seasoning, Coca-Cola and Pepsi both, and Colman’s mustard. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Here are some unusual Victorian foods that were popular then, but not so much now:<\/p>\n\n\n\n I’m not sure I’d have enjoyed a Victorian feast, but it would have been interesting to watch the show!<\/p>\n![\"A](\"http:\/\/www.jeshays.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/06\/blog_victorian_foods.jpg\")
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