STIRRING IT UP: THE CHANGING OF THE BRITISH NATION THROUGH FOOD by ARIEL WEYGANDT Bachelor of Arts, 2009 Grove City College Grove City, Pennsylvania Master of Arts, 2013 Northeastern Illinois University Chicago, Illinois Submitted to the Graduate Faculty of AddRan College of Liberal Arts Texas Christian University in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy May 2018 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS This completed work would not have been possible without the help, guidance, and support from many amazing people throughout this process. Major thanks must be given to my parents, Brian and Mary Weygandt. The never-ending and unfaltering support they provided was priceless. Their ability to listen attentively about to my research discoveries as well as give advice during moments of self-doubt was crucial to finishing this once daunting goal. To my granddad, James Weygandt, whose proud introduction of me as “my granddaughter, Ariel, the almost doctor,” motivated me to ensure he could eventually say, “my granddaughter, Ariel, the doctor.” To Michelle Bussemeier, who willingly hunkered down in various Portland coffee shops with me for study dates, just so we could see each other. To Jade George, who provided key “insider advice” on modern British eating habits and culinary traditions, sometimes with edible examples. To Dr. Samantha Allen Wright, whose comradery and friendship throughout our doctoral program arguably saved my sanity. And lastly, an appreciative “thank you” to all my committee members: Dr. Linda Hughes, Dr. Anne Frey, Dr. Mona Narain, and Dr. William Meier. Their encouraging feedback and advice was critical to my continued motivation and eventual completion of my dissertation. ii TABLE OF CONTENTS Introduction ..................................................................................................................................... 1 Chapter One—Tea with Cream and Sugar: The Civilizing Ceremony of Afternoon Tea ............ 28 Chapter Two—Ritual Transformation: Mixing the Colonial Out of Rum Punch ........................ 81 Chapter Three—What’s Yours is Mine: The Cultural Transformation and Rise of Anglo-Indian Food ............................................................................................................................................ 137 Chapter Four—Cultural Fusion: Mixing Great Britain with its Colonies in Christmas Pudding ..................................................................................................................................................... 184 Conclusion .................................................................................................................................. 233 References .................................................................................................................................. 258 iii LIST OF FIGURES Figure 1 – United Kingdom Tea Company, 1890......................................................................... 48 Figure 2 – Lipton Teas, 1894 ........................................................................................................ 50 Figure 3 – Twining’s Tea Advertisement ..................................................................................... 51 Figure 4 – McVitie’s and Prices, The Queen’s Dominions ........................................................ 190 Figure 5 - Victorian Christmas Card, 1843 ................................................................................. 191 Figure 6 – Empire Marketing Board, “Have an EMPIRE Xmas Pudding,” 1926 ..................... 194 Figure 7 – Empire Marketing Board, “The Empire Christmas Pudding, ” 1926 ........................ 196 Figure 8 – John Bull Showing the Foreign Powers How to Make a Constitutional Pudding, 1848 ..................................................................................................................................................... 213 iv Introduction Food is an integral part of life. It sustains us, inspires us, and pleases us. Societies often come together around it, using meals as a time to socialize, strengthen bonds, and create community. Our world is intimately tied to food, so much so that food often defines cultures and societies take pride in upholding specific culinary traditions. This intersection between food and culture has gained increasing attention recently as academic fields have taken interest in how food impacts a variety of fields, including art, science, and society. Specifically, the use of cultural food studies within these spheres shows how food—its creation, exhibition, and consumption—effects these scholarly areas. However, one cannot truly understand the importance of a particular foodstuff without delving into its past, and history scholars have been interested in the critical examination of food and have produced a significant amount of work regarding the intersection of cuisine and culture throughout history. This mode of study blossomed in the late 1990s with the publication of such texts as Alan Beardsworth and Theresa Keil’s Sociology on the Menu (1997), Alan Warde’s Consumption, Food, and Taste (1997), and Penny van Esterik’s Food and Culture (1997). This attention has since spawned a wave of texts throughout the 2000s and 2010s, both scholarly and not, on the impact of food on society and the way in which food provides a means to analyze the different elements of a society.1 The interest around food has spawned Food Studies degree programs at major universities like Syracuse University, the American University in Rome, and the Dublin Institute of Technology. While history scholars have championed cultural food studies within their field, only recently have literary scholars begun studying the effect of food descriptions within written texts. The 1 Including Michael Pollan’s In Defense of Food (2008), Sarah Lohman’s Eight Flavors: The Untold Story of American Cuisine (2016), and Laura Shapiro’s What She Ate: Six Remarkable Women and the Food That Tells Their Stories (2017). 1 scholarship is minute in comparison to history-based texts, and only within the last few years have literary scholars begun to examine the impact of food within literature with the publication of texts such as Annette Cozzi’s Discourses of Food in Nineteenth-Century British Fiction (2015); Michael Parrish Lee’s The Food Plot in the Nineteenth-Century British Novel (2016); and Mary Addyman, Laura Wood, and Christopher Yiannitsaros’s reader Food, Drink, and the Written Word in Britain, 1820–1945 (2017). There is still much to uncover and this dissertation seeks to continue the examination of cultural food studies within nineteenth-century literature and its effect on readers, society, and the creation of a national cuisine. The use of food to examine and analyze the British Empire provides a fascinating look into studying the transformation of their society as the nation expanded and changed with the influx of colonial and global influences. Food is something that is globally relevant. Every society eats, and the consumption choices of these nations provides an interesting look into how specific dishes impact how a country relates to its citizens and to the world. The inclusion of a “national cuisine” is meant to differentiate one society from another. However, these “cultural” dishes are not static, but ever transforming as a society adapts and adjusts to the changing nation and world around them. The inclusion and exclusion of certain foods within a culture’s cuisine represents the differing culinary influences present effect a country. Studying how colonial foodstuffs impacted England’s eating habits provides another lens in which to examine the effect the British Empire and its colonial territories had on its citizens and their understanding of themselves as British and imperial subjects. The nineteenth century is also particularly appealing with its food history due to Great Britain’s imperial expansion and its increased sustained contact with other far-flung cultures. In this vein, several questions arise: how did the British associate particular dishes with its colonies and which were reappropriated as British foods? Who 2 decided? How did Great Britain and its merchants promote particular dishes to citizens so they knew which dishes were “theirs”? Written scenes of eating showcased in nineteenth-century literary novels are strikingly familiar to modern day advertisements in utilizing food product placements common in today’s television and movies. An author’s use of sensory descriptors aids in tempting a reader to purchase or try the foods chronicled in these works much like the visual performances modern advertisers construct on screen. In The Discourses of Food in Nineteenth-Century British Fiction, Cozzi argues that food is “one of the most fundamental signifiers of national identity, and literary representations…reveal how that identity is culturally constructed” (Cozzi 5). Food and its representation in literature constructs and reveals a nation’s cultural identity. Writers utilize literature to mirror culture and to construct specific food practices that readers may perform themselves. In this way, novels are integral to understanding the formation and continuation of a nation’s culinary habits and provide a fascinating look into why England still enjoys specific dishes that have become designated as “theirs.” For England, the imperial endeavors of the British Empire drastically changed the way in which its citizens ate. The colonization of