Plucking the Turkey by Henry Walton (1736-1813)

Dinner, until the later part of the 18th Century, was served at midday. However, as the number of upper-class people increased and upper-class people became more idle, dinner hours were later. Later dinner hours set the upper-class members of society apart from the lower class. Lower-class people prepared dinner during the day because it was cheaper to cook, to serve and to eat the main meal of the day in natural light. Consequently, to avoid being associated with the lower classes of society, upper-class members would eat in the evening.

Eighteenth-century kitchen with servants preparing a meal, (Black, The Jane Austen Cookbook cover page) Meat

Meat made up a large portion of the diets of residents of eighteenth-century England. An example of this is a meal served to Queen Anne in 1705 - selections included were: Oleo, Pigeons, Sirloin of Beef rost, Venison, Chyne of Mutton, Turkey, Snipes, Ducks, Partridge. [1] The consumption of meat was hardly restricted to the upper classes, however: while Queen Anne was feasting on the aforementioned foods, her servants had two kinds of meat per person [2]. Similarly, in 1721 George the First ate a meal which included at least nine different varieties of meat! [3] However, unlike Queen Anne, he ate some vegetables as well (Artichokes and French Beans) [4].

During the 1700s venison was the meat which was a symbol of the highest social status [5]. If a person could serve venison, it meant that he/she was the owner of a vast property, or knew someone who was [6].

A Swedish tourist is known to have said in 1748 that the English were good at cooking big pieces of meat, but did not seem to have talent in any other arenas of cooking [7].

Evening meals might have contained cold meats, sweets, fruit, and wine on ordinary occasions, a choice of hot dishes when company was present. [8] Hot food was generally only served when guests were visiting, and most English often ate cold meats for their evening supper. [9] In fact, tourists complained about the chilly temperature of the victuals they were served [10].

The caliber of food became rather poor during the 1700s in England, as meat rose in popularity. [11] Due to urbanization, large quantities of meat had to be transported from the farms to the cities [12]. Since the trip was by no means short or easy, the quality of meat was bound to be coarse and inferior. [13] A doctor who was the author of the 1788 book The Honours of the Table warned that the odor of meat was such that one should keep it away from his/her nose while eating it! [14] The Roast Beef of Old England -- The Tate Gallery, (Mennell 10th of 29 photoplates) Fruit and Vegetables

Not very many English people in the eighteenth century had fruit at all; only a very select, minuscule group of wealthy people had access to fruit [15].

In the 1700s the British feared uncooked fruit; they thought it would give the person who consumed it indigestion or even the plague. [16]

One interesting use of fruit in eighteenth-century England was that of blackberries, which were marketed for dying clothes such colors as navy blue and indigo [17].

As the 1700s were drawing to a close, citrus fruits became very important to the Navy of England [18]. The consumption of them prevented scurvy [19]. The Admiralty decreed that a fixed amount of lemon juice should be issued daily to all sailors after their fifth or sixth week afloat, and stood by this decision to the tune of 1.6 million gallons of it, in the period between 1795 and 1815. [20]

Today people worry about pesticides, but the good old days may never have existed for fruits or vegetables: in eighteenth-century England they were dirty in the first place and vendors sometimes used saliva as a cleanser! [21]

For meals, vegetables were often prepared with a butter/flour mixture [22].

“One of the greatest luxuries in dining is to be able to command plenty of good vegetables well served up. But this is a luxury vainly hoped for at set parties. The vegetables are made to figure in a very secondary way, except, indeed, whilst they are considered as great delicacies, which is generally before they are at their best -- excellent potatoes, smoking hot and accompanied by melted butter of the first quality would alone stamp merit on any dinner.” -Thomas Walker (Hunt, Eating and Drinking, An Anthology for Epicures, p. 134)

Cheese

Many types of English cheese became available during this time period; a minimum of 40 different kinds have been documented [23].

A recipe for Cheddar Cheese from 1700:

Take the milk of twelve cows in the morning and the evening cream of twelve cows, and put to it three spoonsful of rennet, and when it is come [i.e. the curd] break it, and whey it, and when it is well wheyed break it again, and work into the curd three lb. of fresh butter, and put it in your press, and turn it in the press for an hour, or more, and change the cloths and wash them every time you change them; you may put wet cloths at first on to them, but towards the last put two or three fine dry cloths to them. Let it lie thirty or forty hours in the press, according to the thickness of the cheese; then take it out and wash it in whey, and lay it in a dry cloth till it is dry, then lay it on your shelf, and turn it often. [24]

In the 1790s, the typical English individual consumed about four kilograms of sugar each year [25].

At one point, eighteenth-century English bread was thought to contain bone fragments! [26] (A chemist eventually proved that this was not true) [27].

A key element of bread in eighteenth-century British bread was alum, which is a bleaching ingredient that also makes bread look bigger [28].

A general eighteenth-century England rule for milk: if it was not watered, it was probably sour [29]. However, it was probably digestible if taken from the cow itself immediately before consumption [30].

In England during the 1700s tea was the national drink. [31] It was ruinously expensive, anything between 16s.-50s. per lb., and the used tea leaves would be dried, rolled, and re-sold again by the servants of the rich. This was illegal... [32]

Coffee

In the eighteenth century coffee was more popular in London than any other global location [33]. Coffee was also thought to increase the reproductive capabilities of men [34].

Dessert

Dessert was often served with wine after dinner [35].

Puddings were extremely popular [36]. They sometimes contained Flower, Milk, Eggs, Butter, Sugar, Suet, Marrow, Raisins. [37] They were usually cooked alongside meat of some kind [38]. Chocolate was a novelty during the 1700s in England [39]. To be eaten it was stewed for hours, deprived of cocoa butter, reboiled with milk and flavouring, and, just before serving, thickened with eggs. [40] During this period, the British thought chocolate worked as a fertility drug for women! [41] In fact one health expert in the eighteenth century described how, by the use of chocolate, his wife was brought to bed of twins, three times.[42]

White soup contained veal stock, cream and...almonds. [43] Occasionally, it was thickened with rice or white breadcrumbs. [44]

Pease-soup was served in the colder months. [45] This addition to the entree of a meal was comprised of dried peas, which would be simmered in stock or water with celery, onion, and seasoning. [46] Peas were an integral part of the English diet during the eighteenth century because people could dry them, and thus keep them in storage for a considerable amount of time [47].

Syllabub

This beverage was popular in the eighteenth century and contained cider or wine sweetened and flavoured with nutmeg, milk and then cream. [48]

This common eighteenth-century British dish was composed of boiled oatmeal...with a little butter. [49] Interestingly, it also often contained alcoholic beverages, especially wine. [50] This dish was popular (especially as an evening meal) because it helped compensate for the lack of central heating in drafty houses [51]. For diners in eighteenth-century England, the cultural customs of dining were the focus of the meal. For an upper-class individual, there were cultural rules that dictated everything from dressing for the meal to leaving the dining room.

Upper-class women could spend over an hour dressing for dinner because it was customary for women to change their entire outfit for the evening meal [1]. The elaborate dinner dress consisted of a corset, a bodice, stockings, a petticoat, a gown, ruffles and shoes [2]. Men also would spend time preparing for dinner. However, it would not take men as long because, in most cases, they only repowdered their hair [3]. Dress for dinner was important because young men and women looking for a companion used dinner parties as a way to meet and court potential mates.

After preparing for dinner, guests would proceed into the dining room. Following an elaborate ritual, the host of the dinner would enter first with the most senior lady. The host would seat himself at the foot of the table and, later, when the hostess entered the room as part of the procession, she sat at the head. The senior lady was first to choose her seat. After the senior lady was seated, the remaining guests were free to choose their places at the table. Most likely, the senior lady would sit near the hostess because the seats near the hostess were places of honor and reserved for the most important guests. The same number of male and female guests rarely were invited to dinner, and each person could choose with whom they wanted to sit. There was no specific placement for the guests at the dinner party. Consequently, this arrangement was favorable to courting because the guests could choose their seat mates [4]. An example of the appropriate places of the dishes for a course, (Black, The Jane Austen Cookbook, p. 15)

Every meal consisted of two courses and a dessert. However, a course in eighteenth-century upper-class society consisted of between five and twenty-five dishes. In one course, soup or creams, main dishes, side dishes and pastries would be placed on the table all at once. Unfortunately, this type of presentation meant that by the time the guests finished eating the soup, the other foods had to be eaten cold [5]. The dishes were placed on the table with a certain balance. In the center of the table meat dishes were placed, while accompaniments were placed on the sides and corners. On one end, the soup was placed and on the other, the fish would be placed. Vegetable, fish or custard dishes were never placed at the center of the dinner table [6].

Eating would begin with the host serving soup to the guests [7] . After the serving of the soup, guests would begin taking wine [8] with each other, which meant toasting to each person’s health [9]. The host then would carve the large joints of meat which replaced the empty soup tureens. After the initial carving, each gentleman would serve himself a portion of the dish in front of him, and then offer the same dish to those around him. If the gentleman wanted to eat from a dish located across the table, he would send a manservant to bring the dish to him. Although there were many dishes on the table, each person was to choose two or three dishes he preferred and eat only those things [10].

The Industrious Prentice grown rich and Sheriff of London -- The Mansell Collection, (Mennell 9th of 29 photoplates)

When the second course was served, new dishes, new utensils and a new table cloth were placed on the table. The second course consisted of as many dishes as the first. However, the dishes for the second course were lighter, with accompaniments to the meats such as fruit tarts, jellies and creams. To accompany the first and second courses most guests drank wine, beer, ale, soda or water. However, some gentlemen preferred to drink port or sherry [11].

After the second course the table cloth was removed and dessert was served. Dessert usually consisted of food that could be eaten with the fingers such as dried fruit, nuts, small cakes, confections and cheese [12]. With dessert, the gentlemen would drink port and the ladies a sweet wine [13].

At the conclusion of dinner, which lasted approximately two hours [14], each guest was served a glass of wine. After drinking the wine, the hostess would rise and a gentleman would open the door to the dining room. The women at the dinner party would follow the hostess? lead and exit to the drawing-room, leaving the gentlemen to drink and converse [15].

Consequently, it can be seen that the cultural customs of dining required considerable effort. These customs established upper-class standards which set the upper class apart from the lower class. However, as for the food dishes themselves, most English people preferred to combine urban and rural food styles which were similar in all social classes [16]. The cuisine which women cooks prepared for upper-class dinner parties was based on a British cuisine that was socially homogeneous. [17] The absence of a firm distinction between upper and lower class cuisine and the mediocrity of the food itself, as described on the types of food link, illustrates that cultural customs were the most important component of an upper-class eighteenth-century dinner.

Completed 4/16/1999 Prof. David Porter Rise of the Novel : English 430.001 Winter 1999 A.D. Sarah Janoch Kim Kochanek Carrie Mleczko