The Victorian Era

Victorian Food and Dining

Article · Society & Daily Life · The Victorian Era, 1837–1901

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Victorian food and dining was a central feature of the social, the domestic, and the cultural life of the British people, and the period saw a revolution in the British diet, in the structure of the British meal, and in the institutions of British eating and drinking. The Victorian period saw the introduction of new foods from the British Empire in the Victorian Era, the development of the new industrial food industries, the gradual improvement of the working-class diet, and the transformation of the British meal from a hasty snack into an elaborate ritual. The Victorian period saw the development of the new restaurant, the new hotel, the new pub, the new tea shop, the new department store food hall, the new railway dining car, the new ocean-liner dining saloon, the new suburban dining room, and the new middle-class kitchen that defined the British food of the period.

This page examines the structure of the Victorian meal, the principal foods of the period, the new foods from the empire, the new industrial food industries, the new restaurants, the new hotels, the afternoon tea, the Victorian kitchen, and the Victorian dinner. For the broader context of Victorian society, see Victorian Society, Class, and Daily Life, and for the parent overview, see The Victorian Era: A Complete Historical Overview.

The Structure of the Victorian Meal

The Victorian meal was a formal affair, particularly in the upper and middle classes, and the structure of the meal, the sequence of courses, the choice of wines, the setting of the table, the dress of the diners, the etiquette of the service, and the conversation at the table were all carefully regulated. The principal meals of the day were breakfast, lunch, dinner, tea, and supper, and each had its own conventions.

Breakfast, served between eight and ten in the morning, was a substantial meal of eggs, bacon, ham, kippers, kedgeree, toast, marmalade, and tea, eaten in the morning room or the breakfast room. The kedgeree, the fish breakfast, the eggs-and-bacon, the devilled kidneys, the grilled herring, the smoked haddock, and the muffin and crumpet were the central dishes of the Victorian breakfast. The middle-class breakfast was a substantial affair; the upper-class breakfast of the great country house was an even more substantial affair, with the silver dishes, the epergnes, the flower arrangements, the candelabra, the great silver teapot, the great silver coffee pot, the great silver hot-water jug, and the great silver muffin dish and muffin stand.

Lunch, served between one and two in the afternoon, was a lighter meal of cold meat, salads, and puddings, eaten in the dining room or the morning room. The lunch was a feature of the upper-class life of the London Season, the country-house party, and the weekend at the seaside. The lunch party, the lunch in town, the country-house lunch, the shoot lunch, the hunt breakfast, and the hunt tea were a particular institution of the upper-class life.

Dinner, served between seven and nine in the evening, was the principal meal of the day, with soup, fish, joint, vegetables, sweets, cheese, and dessert. The dinner is the subject of What did Victorians eat for dinner?, and the dinner of the great country house was an elaborate affair of many courses.

Tea, served between four and five in the afternoon, was the central social meal of the period, and it is the subject of How did afternoon tea become a tradition?. Supper, served late in the evening, was a light meal of bread, cheese, and beer, eaten in the dining room or the drawing room after the theatre, the opera, or the concert.

The New Foods from the Empire

The Victorian period saw a revolution in the British diet, with the introduction of new foods from the British Empire in the Victorian Era. The new foods included the tea of India and Ceylon, the coffee of East Africa and the West Indies, the cocoa of West Africa, the sugar of the West Indies and Mauritius, the rice of India and Burma, the curries and chutneys of India, the spices of the East Indies, tinned meat and tinned fruit from Australia and the Americas, frozen lamb and mutton from New Zealand, chilled beef from Argentina, Danish bacon and butter, and bananas and oranges from the West Indies and the Mediterranean. The 1901 New Zealand Lamb Trade, the introduction of refrigerated shipping, the development of the new canning industry, and the new Australian, New Zealand, and South American meat trades all transformed the British diet in the second half of the nineteenth century.

The introduction of the new foods was made possible by the Victorian ships, by the growth of the railway network, and by the development of the new cold storage, canning, and food processing industries. The Victorian Engineering Marvels of the period made the new foods possible, and the Victorian Economy and Industrialization of the period made them affordable.

The Industrial Food Industries

The Victorian period saw the development of a long list of new industrial food industries: milling, baking, brewing, distilling, sugar refining, chocolate, biscuit, confectionery, jam, marmalade, tinned food, frozen food, dairy, margarine, baking powder, vinegar, pickle, sauce, condiment, and breakfast cereal.

The key firms of the new food industries were the great chocolate firms of Cadbury (founded 1824, moved to the model village of Bournville in 1879), Fry (1759–1922, merged with Cadbury in 1919), and Rowntree (founded 1862, moved to the model village of New Earswick in 1902); the great biscuit firms of Peek Frean (founded 1857 in London), Carr’s (1831, Carlisle), and Huntley & Palmers (1822, Reading); the great tea firms of Twinings (1706, London), Brooke Bond (1869), and Lipton (1871); the great jam firms of Wilkin & Sons (Tiptree, 1885), Crosse & Blackwell (1830), and Chivers (1873); the great sauce firms of Colman’s (1814, mustard) and HP Sauce (1895); the great custard-powder firm of Bird’s (1837); the great breakfast-cereal firms of Post (1895) and Kellogg (1906, just after the period); the great confectionery firms of Bassett’s (1842), Rowntree’s, Maynards (1880), and Trebor (1907); the great marmalade firms of Keiller’s (1797, Dundee) and Frank Cooper’s (1874, Oxford); the great sugar-refining firms of Tate (1883) and Lyle (1881, merged 1921); and the great brewing firms of Bass (1777, Burton), Whitbread (1742, London), Guinness (1759, Dublin), and the great Burton breweries.

The key factories of the new food industries were the great chocolate factory at Bournville, established by George Cadbury in 1879 as a model village for the workers; the great chocolate factory at York, established by the Rowntree family in 1862; the great biscuit factory of Huntley & Palmers at Reading; and the great margarine factory at Hamm, near Hamburg, established by the Anglo-Dutch firm of Van den Bergh in 1871.

The Working-Class Diet

The working-class diet of the Victorian period was a different matter from the middle-class diet. The working-class family ate bread, potatoes, bacon, cheese, onions, herrings, tea, and beer, and the diet was supplemented by seasonal vegetables, by fruit, by milk, and by the occasional joint of meat. The working-class diet was monotonous, was often insufficient, and was often contaminated. The Victorian Workhouses of the period, the How did Victorians treat the poor? campaign, the What was the temperance movement?, the new public health legislation, the new factory legislation, and the new school meals campaign of the period all contributed to a gradual improvement of the working-class diet over the period.

The working-class diet was eaten in the Victorian kitchen of the working-class home, which was a small, dark, and smoky room with a cast-iron range, a deal table, a few wooden chairs, a dresser, and a chimney corner. The working-class family ate together, they ate with their hands when cutlery was scarce, and they ate quickly. The working-class family drank tea, the new national drink of the period, which was cheap, hot, sweet, and filling, and which was the subject of the What was the temperance movement? of the period.

The Kitchen Equipment

The Victorian kitchen was equipped with new and improved equipment. The kitchen range, the great cast-iron kitchen range of the period, with its open fire, its hot plate, its roasting oven, its baking oven, its boiler, and its warming closet, was the centrepiece of the kitchen. The gas stove, introduced in the 1850s by the Leeds and Bradford gas companies, was a feature of the late Victorian kitchen. The ice box, the predecessor of the refrigerator, was a feature of the upper-class kitchen from the 1850s onwards; the refrigerator, with its compression system, was a feature of the upper-class kitchen from the 1880s onwards. The mincing machine, the mortar and pestle, the rolling pin, the moulds, the jelly bag, the copper for boiling laundry, the bread bin, the cake tin, the pie mould, the pudding basin, the steamer, the bain-marie, the whisk, the sieve, the colander, the grater, the lemon squeezer, and the egg slicer were the central utensils of the upper-class kitchen.

The working kitchen, the range, the gas stove, the ice box, the refrigerator, the mincer, the steamer, the bain-marie, the whisk, the sieve, the colander, the grater, the lemon squeezer, the egg slicer, the pastry cutter, the biscuit cutter, the cake stand, the muffin dish, the muffin stand, the toast rack, the tea caddy, the coffee mill, the pepper mill, the salt cellar, the mustard pot, the sauce boat, the gravy boat, the serving spoon, the serving fork, the carving knife, the carving fork, the bread knife, the butter knife, the fish knife, the fish fork, the dessert spoon, the dessert fork, the tea spoon, the tea strainer, the tea cosy, the kettle, the kettle stand, the spirit lamp, the hot water jug, the coffee pot, the teapot, the sugar basin, the cream jug, the slop basin, the cup, the saucer, the plate, the side plate, the soup plate, the dinner plate, the dessert plate, the bread plate, the butter dish, the butter knife, the egg cup, the egg spoon, the napkin, the napkin ring, the tablecloth, the sideboard, the dresser, the kitchen table, the kitchen chair, the kitchen stool, the larder, the pantry, the cellar, the scullery, the stillroom, the dairy, the bakehouse, the brewhouse, and the kitchen garden were the central equipment of the late Victorian kitchen.

The Restaurant and the Hotel

The Victorian period saw the rise of the new restaurant. The new restaurant of the period was a Parisian invention, exported to London in the 1850s and 1860s. The great restaurants of the West End of London included the Café Royal (1865, Regent Street), the Savoy Hotel (1889, with the Savoy kitchen and the American Bar), the Berkeley (1897), and the Ritz (1906, just after the period). The great provincial restaurants included Simpson’s in the Strand (1828), the Criterion (1874, Piccadilly Circus), and Romano’s (1875, Strand). The great clubs of Pall Mall — Brooks’s, White’s, Boodle’s, the Carlton, the Athenaeum, the Reform, the Travellers — were the principal venues of the upper-class dinner.

The Victorian period saw the rise of the new hotel. The new hotel of the period was a large, luxuriously appointed building with hundreds of bedrooms, a grand dining room, a coffee room, a smoking room, a reading room, a barber’s shop, and a bath house. The great London hotels included the Savoy (1889), the Cecil (1896), the Hotel Metropole (1885), the Hotel Victoria (1887), the Hotel Russell (1898), the Hotel Waldorf (1893), and the Hotel Midland (1873, St Pancras). The great provincial hotels included the Adelphi (Liverpool, 1827, rebuilt 1912), the Midland (Manchester, 1903, just after the period), the Grand (Brighton, 1864), the Royal York (York, 1877), and the Station Hotel (York, 1880, opened in connection with the new station).