What Did Working Class People Eat in the Victorian Era?

The Victorians were a peculiar bunch. Turns out, that could have something to do with what they ate. Though many of the dishes that landed on Victorian dinner tables may appear stomach-churning today, at the time they were commonly enjoyed or even regarded as delicacies.

The Victorians’ penchant for odd food and flavour combinations was especially pronounced since the finest and best quality foods were reserved for the wealthy: poorer Victorians were forced to come up with ingenious and sometimes bizarre recipes to make their ingredients go further. Not ones to waste any part of an animal, you might wash down a mouthful of cow brain with a cup of fresh blood.

In this video, Dan Snow experiences some of the food options that would have been on the menu for a member of the Victorian working-class.

First, he reluctantly tries some sheep's trotters. In the Victorian era, sheep's feet were usually boiled allowing you to just gnaw on the greasy, grisly appendage until you cleaned it down to the bone. There wasn't very much meat on one of these, and there was also the potential that it wasn't very clean either.

Next, Dan tastes some jellied eels. Exactly what it sounds like, the dish ‘jellied eels’ consists of eel chunks coated in their own ‘naturally produced gelatin’. Invented in London’s East End and sold directly from street food carts, the dish was often flavoured with a splash of vinegar or dollop of butter.

After a roast loin of mutton, Dan finishes off his Victorian eating experience with a good old fashioned Christmas pudding - which has become synonymous with the Victorian period thanks to the work of Charles Dickens and the character of Mrs Cratchit.

Do you think you could have got by on the diet of a working class Victorian? Let us know in the comments.

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[jasonuren]

'I'd only eat it if I was desperate' says a lot. They were.

[duded]

sheep trotters can be very delicious if prepared right, and literally fall of the bones tender. i'm quite certain whoever cooked for the show just have no idea how to cook it

[jowolf]

The Victorian era saw a huge rise in cookbooks, experimentation in cuisine, and the consumption of liquor (hence the temperance movements that sprouted up throughout the period). Canned goods were on the rise, especially vegetables, with a number of prominent individuals during the period become vegetarians.

[baldF]

I have eaten both sheep and pigs trotters - and I love them! Don’t let your prejudices rule your lives.

[rattiegirl]

I think with the number of people in work houses and orphanages, and women selling themselves for food and a warm bed, it is safe to say that there were a lot of really desperate people in Victorian England. Cheers from the US.

[ladymeghenderson]

My dad used to bring home jellied eels from the fish market in Birmingham City centre. And he used to eat pigs trotters, although, with the smell they gave off you'd have thought they walked home by themselves

[KC-gyxw]

Pigs trotters, in our house in the 60s/70s, my Jamaican mother would cook what we call Pea Soup (made with Kidney Beans - we call all beans, peas) and either pig trotters or cow feet to bulk it out. Never had the stomach to eat the meat, but damn, the soup was incredibly tasty. If you had no money and were hungry, you'd eat it.. My poor dad never refused a meal until he got very ill in the last few months of his life with stomach cancer. He said he remembered being a child in Jamaica and seeing food and imagining what it would taste like. When a kindly cousin or aunt gave him food to eat, he ate it, no questions asked.

[janerkenbrack]

While it is interesting to see some of the foods we would consider odd, this hardly represents the normal diet of average people in Victorian England. Copious amounts of fresh vegetables and fruits, fish, meat (quality and quantity according to wealth), and of course bread.
Pottages and porridges were typical, and puddings were pretty common. (Not all puddings were Christmas pudding.)
But it should be remembered that during that era, there was widespread disparity between the classes in England. (And most other places). What the poor saw as a rare treat, the middle class had weekly, and the wealthy had elaborate versions created for daily meals. While the poor made do with gruesome cuts of meat, some of the time, the middle class ate good meat at all meals. But the wealthy had the best cuts, and a variety of meats at every meal.

[emom]

My mother was born in 1924 Tottenham. She came over to States as a war bride. When we were growing up, she would tell us about these foods and more, so it wasn't just the Victorian Age.

[monicawarner]

I have never heard of people eating sheep's trotters, but pig's trotters were commonly eaten by my parents working class families and neighbours over a hundred years ago. The rest of the animal would be turned into pork joints, chops, bacon, sausages, and brawn. Cow heels were another working class "delicacy, " and also tripe and tongue. I will be eternally thankful that being born shortly after the end of WW2, during rationing, I have never had to try any of these things apart from pressed cow's tongue, which is actually a rather nice cold meat.

[draoi]

Bread? Vegetables? Porridge? Eggs? Fish? I would have expected these to feature.

[wotfan]

Food and History facts go together so well . Love these videos ty .

[oz]

When I was a small boy, my mother would tell me to go to the butcher and ask him for a sheep's head. She would also add, "And tell him to leave the legs on."

[thexbigxgreen]

Those trotters weren't cooked anywhere near long enough. They should have been braised/slow cooked until the collagen and connective tissue were meltingly tender

[neilfleming]

I wonder sometimes if the food you eat has been prepared correctly or maybe should be eaten hot/warm. the first two items you were eaten seemed cold, maybe heating would improve them

[snowysnowyriver]

I'm pushing 71 years old. When i was a child my grandmother used to serve up pig's trotters, lamb's feet and calf's feet. All were very delicious. She used to serve them with suet dumplings and the veg cooked in the pot such as whole onions, whole carrots etc.

I think the problem with these type of videos is that they don't cook the food properly. The trotters and feet used to be left on the banked up fire overnight to slowly stew. The cooking had to be started the day before you want to eat it. The meat should fall off the bone the way meat does on ox-tails.

This man is behaving like a 21st century spoiled brat. He's trying to eat something that is then complaining about it. Perhaps a nice Big Mac is more his speed.

[danielmoran]

I've had sheeps trotters prepared and cooked in crispy parcels in France. It was lovely.

[sawahtb]

Dan seems to only have access to cold food. As far as "lighting the brandy" you have to heat it up to get some fumes which light very well. You use a ladle with brandy in it, heat it up a bit, catch the fumes on fire and thing pout it on the warm plum pudding.

[Arkantos]

Everything apart from jellied eels I'd just take as an acquired taste.
A lot of people these days can't stand liver pate but I've always enjoyed it.

[Mrdresden]

He should check out the fermented viking era food Icelanders eat in February 😅