Cultural foods of Britain during the 19th century?!
I would like to know a tad more about what foods sorta defined Britain during the 19th century (I suppose "define" is odd of a word choice, but foods in relation to Britain's culture). I hear about things like spotted dick, crumpets, and whatnot, but what more?
I would also hope that they be easy to make in [relatively] large quantities.
Answers:
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Contact the Prince Regents Pavillion in Brighton, England and get their menu - 100 courses in one meal. Also look into the Regency Period - when Jane Austen was writing her books. There are all sorts of cookbooks from that period. Pease porridge, large joints of ham, pork and beef were roasted, steamed puddings, roasted veggies. They did eat curry. Go to A Victorian Farmhouse website and you will see the book and the film on what life was like in those days.
Chef/travelled around England
You'll have to do a bit of googling to find this out. Try "19th century British recipes". Some quick searches showed that food and what people ate changed a good deal in the 1800s, particularly towards the end of the century. And what you ate would also have been largely defined by your income level. The ordinary working person probably ate a lot of bread, potatoes, bacon and cheese along with a few other veg that would keep without refrigeration. Soups and stews would have been big because not many people had anything besides an open fire to cook on. Upper class people had everything including fruits and vegetables all year round because they could afford greenhouses and gardeners.
You may already have several ideas about typical British food, but the most popular dish in England at the moment is… curry!
British food has traditionally been based on beef, lamb, pork, chicken and fish and generally served with potatoes and one other vegetable. The most common and typical foods eaten in Britain include the sandwich, fish and chips, pies like the cornish pasty, trifle and roasts dinners. Some of our main dishes have strange names like Bubble & Squeak and Toad-in-the-Hole.
The staple foods of Britain are meat, fish, potatoes, flour, butter and eggs. Many of our dishes are based on these foods.
Main meal dishes in England
Roast Beef - Yorkshire Pudding - Toad-in-the-Hole
Roast Meats - Fish and Chips - Ploughman's Lunch
Cottage Pie - Shepherd's Pie - Gammon Steak with egg
Lancashire Hotpot - Bubble and Squeak - English Breakfast
Bangers and Mash - Black Pudding - Bacon Roly-Poly
Cumberland Sausage Pie and Mash with parsley liquor
The most famous and popular cook book of the 19th century was Mrs Beeton's, so that's the obvious place to look. And to make it even easier, the whole book has been put online, which is a excellent. Link below.
http://www.mrsbeeton.com/