I’ve recently discovered a YouTube Channel called 18th Century Cooking with John Townsend and have become fascinated with cooking from the Colonial period, which was also about the time my House of Pleasure series was set. I also live about 20 minutes from Colonial Williamsburg, so I am somewhat vested in the subject so I’d like to share my findings about food in the next several posts, beginning what was eaten for breakfast.
Breakfast was not a formal meal in the 18th century unless you were part of the aristocracy. Laborers ate either bread and cheese
or perhaps porridge at first light before hurrying out to work. Men and women of the upper classes, however, would break their fast later than dawn, perhaps between 9:00 and 10:00, with quite a variety of viands.
Most commonplace would be spiced breads, cakes, or buns. In the late 18th century muffins (what we in America specify as “English muffins”) became very popular. All of these could be spread with butter, marmalade, honey, or jams made from a variety of fruits like raspberries, cherries, or apples. John Townsend has found some delicious breakfast recipes from cook books of the period such as toast, bacon, and a poached egg, eggs scrambled in a quarter
pound of butter with a dusting of nutmeg, pancakes, and something called Bacon Fraze which amounts to bacon fried into pancake batter. I’ve actually made this dish and my family is calling for more.
When speaking of the breakfast the aristocracy ate, a quote from Samuel Johnson in 1776 always comes to mind. He wrote about taking a “simple breakfast” breakfast in London at which was served “oatmeal with sweet cream, smoked herrings, sardines with mustard sauce, grilled trout with white butter sauce, cold veal pies, grilled kidneys, sausages with mashed potatoes, with hot horseradish sauce, and ‘enough bacon to feed a hungry army.’” He also had his choice of seven types of bread, with butter, marmalade, jams, jellies, washed down with Spanish and French brandies, fresh apple cider, tea, and coffee. To say that the Georgians could be lavish at their breakfast tables is an understatement.
A well-trained cook was indispensable for the upper classes and some households sent their cooks to France to enhance their cooking skills. The number and variety of cook books surviving from the 18th century attests to the necessity for cooking, both plain and fancy in all households.
Posts
