Dining with the Victorians: A Delicious History

by Emma Kay

From traditional seaside holiday treats like candy floss, ice cream and fish & chips, to the British fascination for cooking and baking, the Victorian era is one that has shaped British culinary heritage. Victoria's austere attitude after an age of Regency indulgence generated enormous cultural change. Excess and gluttony were replaced with rigid tradition and morally upright values, and Victoria's large family became the centre of the cultural imagination, with the power to begin new traditions. If Queen Victoria's family sat down to turkey on Christmas day, so did the rest of the nation. Emma Kay explores how the wide class divide in the Victorian era created a gulf in the food world. The more destitute would be fed gruel in the workhouses, and the alternative street diet sparked a whole new workforce of 'mudlarks', trotter boilers, food slop traders and sewer 'toshers', to name but a few. Imagine Glastonbury food sellers operating in the porta-loo section, and this might go some way to describing the scene. Wealthy Victorians feasted to excess, but they also struggled with the antithesis of this, with their belief that the control and denial of food were akin to healthy, moral values. Food was a significant part of the Victorians' lives, whether they had too much of it or not enough. The resounding words of Dickens's Oliver with an empty bowl of gruel come to mind: 'Please, sir, I want some more'. Journey through Britain's food history with Emma Kay, and discover the fascinating, gruesome and wonderful culinary traditions of the Victorians.

Genres: Nonfiction, History, Food

272 pages, Hardcover

First published October 13, 2014

Reviews

[Pam · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book covers ideas that have potential for the curious reader or for people interested in the research Kay has done. I found it very disappointing. Who is the reader? It’s not for an academic audience, although it shows lots of research. The casual reader will probably be bored immediately. I was. The style is awful with very long sentences that often take up nearly a page and it’s a mess of disorganized ideas.

I found some of her statements unreliable. They often either did not match other things I’ve read about food and the Victorian period or just did not seem right. For instance, in talking about the Irish influence on British eating, Kay says Champ or Colcannon often used cabbage to disguise the taste of spoiled potatoes. Besides being potentially racist, the fact is those dishes developed long before the potato blight and no amount of cabbage would disguise the fact that spoiled potatoes were inedible. That sort of “fact” tends to make you question the reliability of the author.

The book does include a few recipes but they are more for seeing what recipes of the day looked like. I wouldn’t actually use any of them. That is not the author’s fault as they are from cookbooks and memoirs of the time. There have got to be better books on this subject out there.

[Nicki Markus · Rating 3 out of 5]

I loved the idea behind Dining with the Victorians, and the book was full of interesting information and anecdotes. However, I was disappointed with the quality of the editing. A few typos slip through in all books, but there were a number of grammatical problems in the prose, including some sentences that simply didn't make sense or meant something other than what the author intended. For example, at one point the author wished to say that lack of birth control meant that many children grew up in large family units. However, the sentence, taken as written, said that lack of birth control meant that children were large. The irritation this bad editing caused did spoil my overall appreciation of the book, even though in general I liked it. I would recommend it to casual history lovers, but it's probably not one for the scholars. I give it three stars for the interesting concept.

[Siri Olsen · Rating 4 out of 5]

An entertaining little read, full of interesting information on Victorian eating habits and anecdotes concerning the era and its people. It's not overly academic and targeted at a more casual audience, not necessarily a downside, but definitely a consideration. I also thought its coverage of meals and occasions for eating was quite impressive, and I overall quite enjoyed the book for what it was. I would recommend it to people interested in Victorian everyday life, as well as people with an interest in the history of eating and drinking.

[Linda · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is not a bad book, it's just not all that entertaining. The author had written a previous history: Dining with the Georgians, and this book tends to pick up where it ends. It covers most of the nineteenth century and a little bit of the early twentieth century in Great Britain. It has a nice insert of pictures and is very well documented.

[Lori · Rating 3 out of 5]

I had such high hopes, as I love this type of topic. There were worthwhile tidbits, but it seems like there was no one to proof the final manuscript. Misspellings, grammatical errors, and nonsensical sentences abound. It really diminished the experience of reading the book.

[marz · Rating 1 out of 5]

this was such a slog to get through because it’s like. it’s poorly written i’m so sorry but the grammar freaked me out a lot. like dude that’s not a sentence… also ideas just. go nowhere? feels like i’m being dangled off a small cliff. anyway. andrea broomfield i miss you and your nice writing.