Recently the MCR held a Bridgerton themed dinner, which got me thinking, what were they eating in College in the early 19th century? For those of you unfamiliar with Bridgerton, it is a historical romance book series set in Regency London, which took the world by storm in 2021 when it was adapted into a tv series by Netflix.
A fortunate and rare survival of receipts covering 1724 to 1894 provided a wealth of information about the food being served here. The diet in college in the 1720’s and 30’s was predominantly meat based with little by way of fruits and vegetables. By the early 19th century, the lists of dishes become longer and more complex including some more vegetable side dishes, but still almost entirely meat. Many of the things they were eating seem quite normal by today’s standards like roast beef, ham, potatoes, broccoli, and apple pie. However, there were other dishes that might give some people today pause, such as pig’s face, tongue, and turtle soup.
It was customary to start with soup and fish. Pease soup (pea soup) and the aforementioned turtle soup were the most common in the receipts. By all accounts, turtles and tortoises were delicious. They became a staple food for sailors, because they could live on ships and guarantee fresh meat on long voyages. The HMS Beagle took about 40 tortoises from the Galapagos mostly for food and some as scientific specimens. It was a comment made by the Vice-Governor of the Galapagos, Nicholas Lawson, that he could tell which island a tortoise came from just by looking at its shell that proved fundamental to Darwin developing his theory of Evolution.
Eating turtles in the “West Indian way” became haute cuisine by the mid-18th century, and the English spread their love of turtle throughout their empire. As it became more accessible to the middle classes, the trend spread to North American and Continental Europe. By the late 1860s green turtles were being canned for mass consumption. Turtles were still being eaten in Florida as recently as 50 years ago.
Fish was cheap and plentiful in this period, and oysters were enjoyed by all, rich and poor alike. At Trinity Hall, they ate a good variety of fish, such as salmon, pike, sole, eels, and especially oysters. The oysters were eaten raw or made into a sauce most commonly served with boiled turkey. The 18th and 19th centuries were considered the “golden age of oysters,” but overharvesting dramatically reduced natural oyster stocks by the mid-20th century.
The second course would have been a selection of meat and vegetable dishes. Until 1815, meals would have been served à la francaise, which is serving all the dishes on the table at the same time. After 1815, the transition to service à la russe (bringing dishes out one by one) began. The most popular meat dishes at Trinity Hall were haunch mutton with jelly, veal, ham, roast beef, and various fowl such as duck, partridge, pheasant, and turkey. Venison, which would have been the height of luxury at the time, was not found in the surviving receipts. Alongside the meat was broccoli, greens (most likely some form of bean), potatoes, carrots, and occasionally turnips.
The last, and possibly most important course in this period, was dessert. The variety of desserts served at Trinity Hall is impressive. They had lemon cheesecake, custards, lemon and apricot tarts, apple pie, plum pudding, mince pies, jellies, blancmange, chestnut pudding, college pudding, and bread pudding. Although the slave trade was abolished in the British Empire in 1807, slavery continued to flourish and was fuelled in large part by Britian’s sweet tooth. In 1704 Britain’s consumption of sugar per capita was 1.8kgs, by 1800 it was up to 8kgs, and by 1901 it was 40.8kgs, which is about what it is today.
Their sugar consumption was not just down to their love of dessert, but also the ever-increasing popularity of black tea. Tea was exceedingly expensive when it first arrived from China in the mid-17th century and could only be afforded by the aristocracy. Tea overtook coffee as the caffeinated beverage of choice in the late 18th century as it became more affordable. The British found tea too bitter, so they sweetened it with sugar. The more tea they drank, the more sugar they consumed.
At Trinity Hall they drank both tea and coffee in this period, although it does not appear to be in large quantities. By far their favourite drink was ale. The College paid regular bills to its brewer (who was a woman at this time), purchasing barrels of ale at a time. Other favourites were port, tent wine (a red wine from Spain), madeira, and at Christmas, milk punch (a sort of eggnog).
It is easy to romanticise this era, in large parts thanks to the abundance of historical romance books and movies set in this period, but it is important not to ignore the horrible human and natural cost paid to afford such a lifestyle. Britian’s growing love of sweets and tea enabled the slave trade to thrive even after it had been abolished. What’s more, in this period we can see the underpinnings of many of our modern problems from the endangerment of animals due to unsustainable practices to deforestation and loss of biodiversity due to the growth of cash crops such as sugar, tea and coffee.
The Archives and Old Library at Trinity Hall 