• Facebook
  • Instagram
  • Pinterest
  • Snapchat
  • Twitter
  • YouTube
  • Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar

MsMarmiteLover

  • Food
    • Recipes
    • Vegetarian
    • Vegan
  • Travel
    • France
    • Italy
    • Spain
    • UK
  • Wine
  • Gardens
  • Supperclubs/Events
  • About
    • Published Articles
    • Books
  • Shop
    • Cart

A Georgian lunch at Blacks

June 20, 2011 4 Comments Filed Under: Gardens, Uncategorized

Here is the compleat menu: I do hope that some of the buggeranti, the macaronis, courtesans and fops from Soho will attend.
Broad bean fritters 
Celery soup Madame de Pompadour with truffle oil

Stargazy pie
Vermicelli
Garden peas


Orange flower water profiteroles in a piece montée
Brandy syllabub
 Pineapple Blancmange
Sliced strawberry mosaic with black pepper
Meringues (terribly expensive, using best grade sugar at a guinea a loaf)




Potted cheese and charcoal biscuits kindly provided by Fortnum & Mason’s, grocers to His Majesty King William IV

Ratafias, sweetmeats, dragees and coffee 

Possibly salted taffy
and candied oranges

To drink: 
Citron pressée for ladies of delicate disposition
Home-made Barley water 
Ale available on the premises
as is Wine for those with deep pockets


Commodes will not be provided in the dining room on this occasion nor is vomiting acceptable.
(As always I might change my mind about some or all of this menu)
Book with moira@blacksclub.com
 35 guineas for food. Drinks in addition. Or you shall be put in the creditors prison at Fleet St.

Next Sunday I’m taking over the kitchens at Blacks, a private club in Soho owned by Guiseppe Mascoli the gentleman behind Franco Manca pizza. Blacks is housed in an atmospheric 18th century townhouse which I’m using as my inspiration for the dishes. Now I’m no expert on historical cookery so I am indebted to the Georgian historian Lucy Inglis for help in devising a menu. These are my notes on our discussion, held over a cup of Earl Grey tea in the dim basement bar at Blacks club.
In 1720 the language on the streets of Soho was French. Many Huguenots, protestants who escaped the purges in France, had moved to Britain, also merchants for luxury trades and artisans.
In fact there were petitions against the French for hanging up their garlicky sausages everywhere.
Food in the 18th century: evidently poor and rich ate very differently, but a sign of poverty was eating seasonally. 
A typical working class menu:
Smoked mackerel filets
Fried slip sole (little soles) in butter
Fritters: classic bachelor’s dish…they cooked them on the fire in their rooms. This is how men were taught to cook.
Potatoes not popular in London…it was more bread and flour such as Yorkshire puddings, pastries, buns and cakes.
Buns very popular: for breakfast. They were piled up on boards outside bakeries.
Salad and olive oil popular: John Evelyn’s salad dressing had olive oil. Although butter was used mostly.
There are records of haulage rate scales for porters to carry the large vats of olive oil and dried figs across London. 
There was an Italian food warehouse which supplied olives and Bologna sausages.
Vermicelli noodles a popular side dish for everybody.
Vegetables more popular than one thinks: asparagus, purple sprouting broccoli and rhubarb were also grown. Greens such as chard were eaten. Although they boiled the veg, they still retained crispness.
Loads of herbs were used:

Parsley, mostly flat leaf
Watercress
Curly parsley is Victorian.
In Islington they grew strawberries and watercress.
In Fulham there were market gardens, reason for strange shape of Fulham nowadays. They also followed biodynamic gardening (as one can still see today in almanacs with moon phases).
Thyme and bacon eaten.
Oysters very popular…so cheap they were fed to Samuel Johnson’s cat.
Middle Class menu:
A light soup very chichi. (Not tomato). Celery soup. 
No carrots.
Always a fish course. 
In 1760 all the dishes came to the table at the same time ‘service a la francaise’ as opposed to ‘service à la Russe’ as we have today, dishes coming consecutively.
Caviar and sturgeon were found in England at the time, but we were also trading with the Baltic countries.
Sturgeon belonged to the king.
White meat: fowl
Dark meat: beef
They didn’t hang meat.
Showpiece dish would be a big bird.
Stargazy pie with a hot water crust.
Baked turbot.
Fish often served with garden peas.
Puddings:
The poor bought sweets…candied orange, little bundles tied up with raffia. Sold at Blackfriars.
Syllabub
Brandy was a French import, also used in Brandy cream
Rum very popular because of the Caribbean. (Out of a 600,000 population of london, 5 to 10,000 were black.)
Pineapple was popular from 1660s to the Victorian period; pineapples were grown in hothouses in Bermondsey. But they were expensive so poorer housewives wishing to impress would rent a pineapple for lunch as a centrepiece then return it so it could be hired out for dinner.
Custards were popular.
Icecream was popular for the middle/upper classes
People who dealt in ice and snow got it from America (1720) sent over on big ships.
At Berkley square there was an ice-cream place.
Meringues
Ratafias.
Orange and rose flower water very 17th century.
Strawberries with black pepper.
Salted caramel.
Other popular foods of the time:
Oxtail soup : very Huguenot.
Cured fish: salted herring.
Bacon
Salt beef
Salt cod
Salmon was a royal fish…farmed at Richmond.
Trout popular out of London…smoked.
Drinks:
Barley Water
Citron Pressé
Wine: 8 per cent strength, was an aspirational drink, most people drank ale and beer (only 2 per cent)
Pineapple rum.
Coffee taken in the morning on an empty stomach as a stimulant.
1802: canned food started. George IV the first king to eat it. Fortnums sold it. 
Bread:
White bread less than 4%. Light wholemeal or rye.
Baker had to have a bakers mark. Bread sold by weight.
Mechanisation, aerated bread, the Chorleywood process, mid 20th century, changed things forever
Cheese finished the meal:
Parmesan.
Cheshire cheese.
Bread/ crackers.
Tableware:
Enamel plates
Delft
Cookery writers:
Hannah Glasse
Eliza Hayward (George II’s cook)

Recent posts

Competition to win a Master series Microplane gift set

September 29, 2023

Dutch Baby apple and cheese pancake

September 17, 2023

La bomba paella rice

August 25, 2023

Previous Post: « For those about to rock: we sauté you!
Next Post: Masa harina tortillas from scratch »

Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. 365 Tage

    June 20, 2011 at 5:13 pm

    An endless source of learning and entertainment, your blog, Madame. Curly parsley Victorian! I thought it was just English.

    Reply
  2. Belgravia Wife - sort of

    June 20, 2011 at 5:20 pm

    Wow I would love to make this but sadly can't – stargazey pie or celery soup – still deliberating. Off to buy your book x

    Reply
  3. Ian Phillips

    June 20, 2011 at 6:52 pm

    Curses! I won't be able to make that but it looks excellent. Still, looking forward to making it back to one of your little soirées 🙂

    Also: I happened across this just a few days ago, maybe useful for this or other similar meal plans:

    How to Milk an Almond, Stuff an Egg, And Armor a Turnip. A Thousand Years of Recipes.

    Could be of some use here!

    Reply
  4. Katrina@TheGastronomicalMe

    June 24, 2011 at 11:10 am

    am I that slow – is the lunch just on Sunday? ie 3 July, K?

    Reply

Leave a Reply to 365 Tage Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Recipe Rating




Primary Sidebar

MsMarmiteLover aka Kerstin Rodgers.

Chef, photographer, author, journalist, blogger. Pioneer of the supperclub movement.

This is my food and travel blog, with recipes, reviews and travel stories. I also stray into politics, feminism, gardening.

Subscribe to my mailing list

msmarmitelover

Kerstin Rodgers/MsMarmiteLover
Apple rose blossom tarts with rose jam. Rose Appl Apple rose blossom tarts with rose jam.  Rose Apple Blossom Tarts

Serves 8

Equipment: 
Microwave
Cupcake or muffin tin

I use a red-skinned apple to make these, to get a hint of blush at the edges of the ‘petals’.

Ingredients:
4 Pink Lady or Royal Gala apples, cored, cut into quarters, sliced thinly into half moons
1 lemon, squeezed
1 pack all butter readymade puff pastry 320g, on a roll, cut into 8 strips about 6 cms long
100g of melted butter
1/2 jar of rose jam
1 or 2 tbsp cinnamon or cardamom, ground 
Pinch maldon salt
2 or 3 tbsp icing sugar

Instructions

Prepare a bowl of acidulated water (cold water with lemon juice) to prevent browning.
Core the apples, and cut them in quarters. Slice thinly into half-moons (a mandolin is useful for this). 
Put them into a large bowl of cold water with the lemon.
Microwave the bowl of sliced apples for 5 minutes until soft enough to bend slightly but not cook them.
Preheat the oven to 180ºC.
Roll out the puff pastry. Divide into 8 sections by cutting the roll into quarters then halving each quarter. You will end up with 8 approximately 6cm strips.
Brush the strip with melted butter then paint with a layer of rose jam. You can then dust with either ground cinnamon or cardamom.
Lay the apple slices along the top of the pastry strip, overlapping them. Fold up the bottom half of the pastry strip to make an pleat with the skin side of the apple half moon poking over the top.
Roll up the folded pastry strips until they look like a rose made of apple at the top
Place ‘rose’ side up, in a buttered cupcake tin
Repeat until all are done and bake for 20 -30 minutes.
Using a tea strainer or small sieve, sprinkle with icing sugar.
A lovely vegetarian recipe from @lulugargari - a g A lovely vegetarian recipe from @lulugargari - a green bean and basil pesto with Italian lemon 🍋 pasta. Fresh, light. This was at an Italian cooking class/demo @eatalylondon hosted by @ilovefruitandvegfromeuropecouk @flickflock #london#italy🇮🇹
Digital chefs came from Italy yesterday to teach h Digital chefs came from Italy yesterday to teach how to make pumpkin, chilli, taleggio fondue Paccheri pasta- warming and filling for autumn days. Thanks to @ilovefruitandvegfromeuropecouk @flickflock @eatalylondon @danielerossichef @lulugargari for the event. We then got to go shopping in Italy with a £50 voucher. I spent it on mostardi di frutta, burratta, carciofi, cheeses,. My sis in law @bro0907 spent it on two bottles of wine. 😂 #italianfood #italianingredients #cookingclass #campaniafood
Inspired by @kathybrownstev’s book on edible flo Inspired by @kathybrownstev’s book on edible flowers I did an edible flower supper club featured in my first book ‘supper club’ This weekend I briefly visited her garden. Decades of work and creativity went into creating this English oasis. It’s an hour and a half out of london near Bedford. It closes at the end of September: open Tuesdays and this coming weekend. It was odd to go on holiday so near to where I live! We had a beautiful Airbnb in Pavenham. The countryside starts nearer to home than I thought. #uk #england #gardens
Visited The speciality fine food fair today for th Visited The speciality fine food fair today for the first time. So many tastings! Great to see new products. Particularly impressed by @lamiriharissa which is smoked and delicious run by Jo Lamiri’s children and @quirkymonkeycoffee which is mushroom infused coffee and hot chocolate run by an autistic guy Darwin setting up his own business. Good for him. #foodexplorer
Bones and all. Just made tomato sauce pasta from m Bones and all. Just made tomato sauce pasta from my home made sun dried tomato concentrate made @tenutacammarana in Sicily last summer. It’s the taste of sunshine. Plus my English home-grown tomatoes. #Tomatoes 🍅 🍅 🍅 #dinner #babyledweaning
I’ve made a South African/ Botswana dish that is I’ve made a South African/ Botswana dish that is creamy samp with chakalaka. Samp is corn like hominy or pozole a native Indian or Mexican food. It’s strange that it’s a staple food in Africa. Corn is a new world food I think. Samp itself is quite bland, often eaten with beans. Chakalaka is delicious with peppers, Piri piri seasoning, ginger garlic onions tomatoes and carrots and baked beans.
Samp from Botswana. It’s husked corn and makes a Samp from Botswana. It’s husked corn and makes a porridge like carb- creamy samp. I’m rinsing, soaking and cooking today and will combine it with chakalaka tomorrow. #southafrica #botswana #samp #newworldoldworld
Did my living room floor with @woca_denmark_uk_ire Did my living room floor with @woca_denmark_uk_ireland natural floor soap yesterday which smells lovely. But high traffic areas need rewarding. This is a Scandinavian technique- regularly waxing pale wood floors. I did this floor during the first year of lockdown. I prefer waxed floors to varnished. #interiors #woodfloors
Alliums in a purple pot. Note to self: plant more Alliums in a purple pot. Note to self: plant more bobble headed alliums. Love the colour and shape. This is in a neighbours garden who I met on Saturday while working in the front garden. Traditionally the British have front gardens but now they are turned into driveways and building are developed into flats. Only very rich people in london can afford houses. But the front is very important for the community- it’s how you meet your neighbours. On Saturday I visited 2 different sets of neighbours gardens- the first time since I moved to this street 23 years ago. Our front garden is communal and has been an unloved space- I’m trying to change that. Tonight I cleaned all the wheely bins. A yucky job but otherwise they smell so bad in summer. I was thinking about all the terrible dirty jobs that someone has to do- clearing up after a road accident, or sorting out sewers, or unblocking toilets. The stuff that nobody likes to think about. #frontgardens #neighbours #londoners
What I’ve been up to: awning from @victorianawni What I’ve been up to: awning from @victorianawnings which has transformed our al fresco eating possibilities. Also been working on the front garden of our building using talented work men I found on fb marketplace: railings by @lincsecproducts ( the gates were bought by me some years ago and I’ve scraped off the rust and repainted), the arch, which took me 3 years to find on fb marketplace for the right price and size. The wisteria which will grow over the arch planted by @christina_erskine ( I’ve always wanted a wisteria and they apparently add to the value of your house), the Swiss style bike/buggy shed. Needs to be painted dark green to match the walls. My friend Jim repaired the walls, the coping, and laid the  concrete plinth. Now need to find coping for the pillars or perhaps urns for more plants. 47cm2. #interiors #exteriordesign #gates #railings #bikeshed #awning #design
Made a vegetarian paella with La bomba rice from @ Made a vegetarian paella with La bomba rice from @brindisaspanishfoods I used red and green peppers, saffron, sherry, Nyora peppers, smoked almonds and green olives #vegetarian #vegetariansummer #paella
Quick snap of my bedroom chimney wall with the @sa Quick snap of my bedroom chimney wall with the @sanderson1860 wallpaper - finally done. Never wallpapered before. By the way I’m totally open to interiors collaborations email me: marmitelover@mac.com #interiordesign #wallpaper #london
Cooking powders or flavour bombs: two of my favour Cooking powders or flavour bombs: two of my favourite are ‘chaat’ which you can buy in Indian shops- here I’ve sprinkled yoghurt with lime/achaar chaat and decorated with day lily petals. My other favourite culinary powder is @tajinuk which gives instant mexicanness to any dish. #tajin #chaat
Me and my beautiful granddaughter Ophelia. I look Me and my beautiful granddaughter Ophelia. I look a mess ( really need to dye hair but it’s sooo expensive) but I don’t care because my heart just bursts when I cuddle this little being who has been in my life for 8 months. Babies are a blessing. #granfluencer pic: @clairebelljar
Made arepas last week with masarepa, a precooked m Made arepas last week with masarepa, a precooked maize meal, topped with Wensleydale cheese which isn’t too dissimilar to a fresh Latin American cheese. I also added fresh corn kernels for texture. #colombia #venezuela #arepas #vegetarian
Quinoa salad cooked in a mushroom stock cube solut Quinoa salad cooked in a mushroom stock cube solution with hazelnuts & preserved lemons, home grown curly parsley. I’m not cooking most of my grains in a rice steamer. Turn out fluffy & perfect every time. #quinoa #grainbowl #summerfood
I took this photo of Jane Birkin when she performe I took this photo of Jane Birkin when she performed at @theroundhouse in 2008. Shabby chic with a sweet voice. #RIP #janebirkin #concert #london #rockphotographer
Oxford food symposium 2023 lots of talks, meals an Oxford food symposium 2023 lots of talks, meals and drinks
‘Soft serve’ ice cream. Easy! Add condensed mi ‘Soft serve’ ice cream. Easy! Add condensed milk & vanilla to whipped cream and freeze! Pipe out. Buy a flake if you want a 99. #nochurnicecream #99 #icecream #summer23
Load More... Follow on Instagram

Archives

Copyright © 2023 msmarmitelover