1/12^th Scale Victorian Table Food

Circa 1837 - 1900

Towards the end of the third decade of the 19th Century, great strides had been made in the kitchen, cooking facilities had made a great deal of progress and this was reflected in the dining room and in what people ate.

The rapid rise of the railways revolutionized the movement of food supplies, resulting in fresher fish, dairy products, vegetables and grocery products of all kinds, now able to be be delivered quickly and easily to markets far way from their point of origin. This meant different and more interesting items on the dinner menu.

The last quarter of the 18th Century had seen meals become more varied with many more 'made up' dishes being introduced from France, instead of just roasting, boiling or stewing, meat and fish could now be prepared and served with a savoury sauce and a combination of ingrediants. Popular cookery books were being published to help the 'plain cook' to lift her cuisine to a more interesting level and by the middle of the 19th Century, grocers and merchants had begun to manufacture and package many dry goods, savoury table sauces such as Worcestershire and Ketchup, to help the average housewife.   Cornflour had begun to replace ordinary flour for thickening, but it was now also mixed with sweeteners and flavours for blancmanges, dessert moulds and custard powder.  Tea had started to be packaged in individual grocers packs earlier in the Century and spices were pre-mixed and sold; savoury for such as curries, nutmeg, cinnamon, mace etc for sweet dishes.