Victorian Wedding Food

Victorian WeddingFood: 

Victorian Wedding Food

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The Wedding Day Food Who prepared the food for the wedding day? What did the guests eat? Where did the food come from?

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Who prepared the food, where and how? Was it an easy life for the servants and cooks? All the cutting, chopping, mincing, grating, beating and mixing of food had to be done by hand. By Victorian times a wide range of hand operated implements had been made especially for use in the kitchen. Remember there was no electricity, no refrigerators or frozen foods. Tinned foods did not appear until the end of the 19th century and were expensive. Food was sold "loose" and stored at home in tins and jars.

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The first kitchen range - a big cooker - was designed by Thomas Robinson in 1780. The fire in the kitchen range went out each night so every morning it had to be cleaned, black-leaded, polished and re-lit before there was any heat in the kitchen. The Range - a BIG Cooker How early do you think the servant got up to clean the oven?

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What are these objects that would have been used in Topsfields Hall’s big kitchen? Bean Slicer Saucepan Kneeler Cooking Pan Mincer Coffee Grinder Coffee pot Brush and polish Roly Poly tin kettle Ash Bucket Sugar Cutter

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Your task today is to make a food display. But WHAT did they eat a wedding in 1879 in Crouch End? Victorian food:

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What is on the menu? Remember in Victorian times, in a country house like Topsfield Hall, most of the food was produced locally, often from their own grounds. Exotic and packaged food would have not have been available in the same way it is today.

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What kind of food could we eat in Crouch End in 1879? What is on the menu?

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DID YOU KNOW that No baked beans for our guests - Tinned foods did not appear until the end of the 19th century and were expensive. The guests may have nibbled on chocolate - In the 1800s, solid chocolate became popular, with the invention of moulding processes. Ices were likely to have been on a Victorian wedding menu. Ice cream to England when Charles I served Ice cream to his guests in the 1600s. Bananas were in England (they were brought here in the 17th century) but do you think they had as many as we have in the shops today? Why not? Yes we would have had plenty of apples in Crouch End in 1879 - they have grown here for centuries Well we know that they could use the mincer to make sausages. Do you think they would have been at the wedding though? They were often all the leftover bits of meat stuffed together. I think the guests would have enjoyed fish and cold game Cold game was likely to have been on the menu - partridge, pheasant or pigeon

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And don’t forget the Cake This day, my Julia thou must make For mistress bride the wedding cake Knead but the dough and it will be To paste of almonds turned by thee Or kiss it thou but once or twice And for the bride-cake there'll be spice.

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Your task is to make the meal out of play dough and add the items to the menu as you make them.