Victorian Christmas Cake: Cake Recipe To two pounds of flour well sifted unite Of loaf-sugar ounces sixteen; Two pounds of fresh butter, with eighteen fine eggs, And four pounds of currants washed clean; Eight ounces of almonds well blanched and cut small, The same weight of citron sliced; Of orange and lemon-peel candied one pound. THESE are some stores and shops that carry gifts that evoke the Victorian era. Bakery Soutine, 104 West 70th Street; 212-496-1450. Balducci's, 424 Avenue of the Americas (Ninth Street); 212-673-2600. Episode 2 2/4 The team works in an urban bakery during the 1870s, the era of the Industrial Revolution. Episode 1 1/4 Four bakers leave their businesses behind to bake their way through the. Victorian era gave us many great inventions that we still use today - bicycles, Morse code, ice cream as we know it, and even the telephone. The era of Queen Victoria's reign, though, had some pretty bizarre happenings too. Such as ladies getting stuck in doorways because of their extra big dress.

1. Victorian Era Movies
2. Era After The Victorian Era
3. Victorian Era Names
4. Victorian Era Music
5. Victorian Era Baking

Christmas is a holiday steeped in the traditions of Victorian-era England. Before Queen Victoria married Prince Albert Christmas wasn't given much thought at all, but once pictures were taken of the Queen and her husband gathered around the Christmas tree the rest of the country soon began to celebrate too, creating many of the traditions we still follow today.

Christmas cards were invented and popularized during this time period and, though caroling was not a new custom, carols specific to Christmas were indeed a creation of the time. They took old words and set them to new music, creating many of the classic carols we still sing today.

Gift-Giving as A Tradition

Victorian Era Movies

The giving of gifts, previously associated with New Year's, quickly became a Christmas tradition as well. Though the gifts started as small candies and fruit they slowly got bigger and more expensive over time, leading to our current practice of wrapping gifts and putting them under the tree.

Many of our Christmas dinner traditions date back to this same era. Though people have been having Christmas feasts as far back as the middle ages, the tradition of the Christmas turkey came about during Victoria's reign.

If you are looking to create a Christmas dinner the likes of which might have graced the table of Queen Victoria (or, even better, Goth Queen Mary Shelley) consider serving some of these delicious Victorian-era treats.

Ginger Beer

Ginger beer is a robust alcoholic beverage that was created in England in the 1700s. While the fermenting yeast does create a small amount of carbonation, the drink itself is less carbonated and has a much stronger ginger taste than ginger ale.

As Julia at The Roasted Root will tell you, making ginger beer at home is an excellent way to procure a few bottles of the stuff for your Christmas dinner. A number of brewing companies sell ginger beer alongside their other products though, so you certainly don't have to go the home brewing route if you aren't comfortable with that.

Ginger beer can be served on its own, but it is also a common mixer (Moscow Mules, anyone?) and can be used in the cooking and baking process. There is no wrong way to enjoy a ginger beer this year!

Wassail

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If you are looking for drink that is more family friendly you might consider wassail instead. Traditionally served on Christmas eve, this particular beverage is so steeped in Christmas tradition that it made it into the songs - here we come a wassailing!

While you probably won't find a bottle of wassail in your local grocery store, this one is easy to make in your slow cooker according to Elizabeth at Frugal Mom Eh. A combination of apple cider, orange juice, cinnamon sticks, nutmeg, and ginger come together to create this delicious traditional drink.

Talmouses

A talmouse is simply a pastry shell with a filling of cheese but the Victorian recipe provided at Recipes Past and Present substitutes an almond choux paste filling, both of which sound like they would be pretty amazing. If you chose to make both to serve at your holiday party this year, I don't think anyone could blame you!

These are pastry circles with a bit of cheese or almond paste in the middle. Then you pick up the pastry edges and crimp them together in a point before baking, creating a delicious little triangular pastry your guests will be swooning over all night long.

Mincemeat Pie

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Despite the savory sounding name, most mincemeat doesn't actually have any meat in it. While there are some versions of mincemeat pie that are made with meat or suet, the traditional Christmas mincemeat is made of fruits, sugar, and spices. Elaine at The Spruce Eats has a simple recipe to follow if you want to bake a mincemeat pie this year, and if you want to really go for it and make the mincemeat from scratch you can find an epic recipe for that at Recipes Past and Present.

Era After The Victorian Era

While a mincemeat pie is perfectly tasty, the best part about making one is teasing the kids in the family about how you had to go out into the yard with a net and catch all the minces running around in the yard before you could make the pie. Or, for people who don't have any kids around, you could probably tell the story to someone on their 4th or 5th ginger beer with similar results!

Nesselrode Pudding

It just isn't a traditional Victorian Christmas without some sort of chestnut dish, making Nesselrode pudding a perfect addition to the list. While you can find dozens of recipes for Nesselrode pudding on the internet, this classic recipe found at Victoriana.com seems like it is probably the closest to the original.

Nesselrode pudding was a dish that could be afforded only by the wealthiest people of the Victorian era, with sugar, sherry or other liquors, and other ingredients that would have been quite pricey at the time. It is also a time-consuming process, requiring sieving and chilling that would have made this an incredibly difficult dish to make at home for the 99% of Victorian England.

Serving Nesselrode pudding is a way to let your guests taste what obscene wealth would have provided them several hundred years ago, so if you want to experience 19th century decadence you'll definitely want to include this on your dessert table.

Cooking some amazingly delicious Victorian-era recipes is an excellent way to enhance your traditional Christmas celebration!

What are your favorite traditional holiday dishes?

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Victorian Era Names

Victorian Graham bread made from scratch – so easy to make and so delicious!

Graham bread is named after reverend Sylvester Graham, who invented the bread in 1829. Victorians preferred white bread bought at the bakery because homemade brown bread was considered backward – a bread eaten by poor peasants. In the Victorian era, Graham bread was promoted as ‘health bread’ since Victorian white bread wasn’t made with white flour but with bleached whole wheat flour.

What Is Graham Bread?

Today Graham bread is made with Graham flour: Graham flour is whole wheat flour with finely ground endosperm and coarsely ground bran and germ. However, Victorian Graham bread recipes don’t mention Graham flour, they use unbolted flour (unsifted whole wheat flour). ‘Graham flour is the unbolted meal of wheat […] Whole wheat flour is made out of the better grades of wheat, with half of the bran left out’ (Bakers’ Bread, 1918) Graham considered whole wheat bread to be healthier than white bread. Graham also propagated a vegetarian Graham diet, alcohol abstinence, daily tooth brushing and frequent bathing. His followers were called Grahamites.

According to many different online sources original Graham bread was made without any leavening agent, such as yeast, baking powder, backing soda, sourdough … Instead it’s made with spontaneous fermentation with wild yeasts. I searched the internet and my antique recipe books for Graham bread recipes but I found not even one Graham bread recipe without yeast or baking soda and sour milk, not even a recipe from the Victorian era. So I chose a mid-Victorian Graham bread recipe with just some yeast and molasses. Molasses are used in the production of yeast, so that may help to rise the bread dough.

Related: Victorian Graham Bread – No Yeast & Vegan

Victorian Era Music

The Victorian Graham bread recipe is different to modern yeast bread recipes: it uses less yeast, it’s made without a pre-ferment or yeast sponge – all flour (and salt) is added at once – and the bread dough is not kneaded again after it’s risen. The recipe is from 1849/1850, published in Mrs. Putnam’s receipt book.

Mrs Putnam’s 1850s Graham Bread

• 4 qt unbolted wheat (unsifted whole wheat flour)
• teacup good yeast
• 1/2 cup molasses
• 1 tbsp salt
• enough warm water ‘to make a stiff dough’

You’ll find the adapted Graham bread recipe below.

Adapting The Victorian Graham Bread Recipe

There are many difficulties in recreating this bread recipe: I don’t know what teacups and cups Mrs Putnam might have used. I found different definitions of cup measurements: A modern teacup might hold something between 90 and 115 grams water and a cup something between 200 and 250 grams water.

Victorian Era Baking

And I’m using modern yeast. In the Victorian era, yeast was usually brewers’ yeast, bought from a local brewer, or yeast made at home with hops or potatoes (Maybe I’ll make Victorian hops yeast when the hops are ripe in August or September.) I’m also using a modern oven. According to Mrs Beeton’s Household Management book (published in 1861): ‘Brick ovens are generally considered the best adapted for baking bread […] Iron ovens are more difficult to manage’ and it might be necessary for the bread to bake evenly to leave the oven ‘door open for a time’. Even wheat grains are different than they were in the Victorian era. Therefore I mixed wheat grains with wild einkorn wheat. Below is my adapted Graham bread recipe.

Ingredients:

• 750g wheat grains
• 200g wild einkorn wheat
• cake yeast or dry yeast (enough for 500g flour)
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 2 tbsp molasses dissolved in lukewarm water
• lukewarm water

Directions:

I ground the grains in an electric grain mill. Then I sifted half of the flour through a coarse sieve because I needed new bran for my Victorian shampoo. 😉

I kneaded all ingredients together and added enough lukewarm water for a stiff dough. The dough is smooth and not at all sticky.

Already after four hours, the dough has more than doubled in size.

I let the bread dough rise overnight covered with a kitchen towel – the Victorian recipe says to let the dough rise for about six or eight hours.

Then I greased a glass loaf pan with butter. The recipe says to wet the hands and put the dough into a pan without kneading it again. Then the bread dough should rise another inch – after about one hour the bread dough was ready for baking. As usual, the Victorian recipe doesn’t state how to bake the bread. I preheated the oven to 200°C and baked the bread for 50 minutes.

The Graham bread is my entry for the Historical Food Fortnightly challenge 16 – Foods named after people. I really like this Graham bread. It has a wonderful flavor: It tastes mild and not yeasty. Because of the unobtrusive, mild taste, the bread can be eaten with ham or with jam.

It tastes unusually saltless – compared to store-bought bread and other homemade bread recipes I tried.

The bread is fluffy and has a crispy crust. And it’s much more filling than store-bought brown bread: One slice is more filling than two or three slices of store-bought bread. I’ll definitely bake the Graham bread again. 😀

More Victorian Bread Recipes

In the Edwardian era, Graham bread was also used as dog food – other breads were considered unhealthy for dogs.

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