What did Servants Eat? (England 1836)

Soup and bread. But mostly soup.
Probably vegetable soup made from vegetables grown in the servants' kitchen gardens, with only a soup bone in it for flavoring.

For a decent place to start off, I would consider looking at Bill Bryson's At Home (found easily at the library and online), which has chapters on the Kitchen and the Scullery and Larger. This covers what was eaten over a period of time, focusing on the 19th century and goes into some detail over a servant's daily chores.

Of particular note I found in the book was that many things considered delicacies now, were far more plentiful, to the point where Bryson notes lobster was so plentiful that it was served in prisons, orphanages, etc and "servants sought written agreements from their employers that they would no be served lobster more than twice a week" (80).

Depending how much detail you want/need, his immense index would be a good point to jump off from regarding your search. Including Life in an English Country House, Mark Girouard.

Hope that helps!

I'm not an expert, but I'm fairly sure that a domestic servant's diet would have been simple yet fairly nutritious. Of course, what they eat depends very much on the time of year and the agricultural cycles.

There would be an emphasis on vegetables and grains. Porridge with salt or sugar is a good breakfast option, as is plain bread and butter at that time or throughout the day. Soups or stews with beetroot, cabbage, carrots, leeks, parsnips, potatoes, turnips etc would make up evening meals. Occasionally, (once a week, usually on a Sunday) there would be a roast of mutton or beef along with potatoes and vegetables. If fish is available, cheaper varieties such as pilchards or herring might also be included. Seasonal fruits would also be provided, either by the householder or by a servant's own picking during time off - apples, pears, plums, damsons, strawberries, raspberries, blackberries, mullberries and so on and so forth. Jams, pickles, pies, cheeses and sausages could be had also.

In terms of drinks, milk, water or watered-down beer are the most likely beverages, and incidental glasses of sherry or port for the servants on holidays.

Breakfast would be before the family woke up - say around half four to half five in the morning, in between other duties - and dinner would be after they had retired to bed - perhaps nine or ten at night. There would be no real lunchtime, just whatever a servant could snatch while passing through the kitchen during the day.

More exclusive foods would include imported goods like dates, figs, grapes, oranges, lemons and nuts, supplies of which a wily servant could dip into at will!

Hope that's a help!

You might also want to consult Mrs Beeton - http://www.mrsbeeton.com/

Here's a link to a video from English Heritage about Victorian kitchen politics!

Also, being so close to the coast, one could assume a decent amount of fish.

Er...?

David, Resources by Era down in Genres: Historical has an enormous list of resources for both Regency and Victorian England. Google books has Mrs Beeton and Eliza Action on line and both have comments and menus for servants' meals. Details in Resources by Era.

In a house with 12 servants overseen by the housekeeper the servants would have a good plain diet with meat and veg and a pudding. They would eat after the family depending on when the family ate. If the family have a late formal dinner in the evening then the servants eat first.

I doubt you can make your maid filching fancy food stick unless you get her thrown out. The housekeeper would (any housekeeper of that era would) have everything - cleaning things, soap, brushes, dusters, food - counted and under lock and key. However in some houses the wife allowed the servants to eat what was left of the 'fancies' after a family party or special occasion so perhaps the maid saves some of this with the housekeeper's assistance?

And just to point out that you don't call a British sheep farmer a sheep herder. A tenant farmer on a small farm would have a shepherd and a flock of sheep as well as cows and run a mixed farm. He was known as a farmer. Are you thinking of Scottish crofters perhaps or British Smallholders who ran a few sheep and a pig on a couple of acres?

Yes, many things we think of as luxury expensive foods like oysters were poor people's fodder.

pdr said:

I doubt you can make your maid filching fancy food stick unless you get her thrown out. The housekeeper would (any housekeeper of that era would) have everything - cleaning things, soap, brushes, dusters, food - counted and under lock and key.

Click to expand...

I second this. The theft would, by all rights, be noticed. I would be careful as to how you would use the maid's stealing in the story or not use it at all - unless the consequences play out in the plot. Servants were often fired for less.

Even if the housekeeper was gone, the cook would be there--and cooks were notoriously watchful of their supplies and delicacies. Also, the cook will cook for everyone--the family and the servants. A parlour maid would never be permitted to cook for the servants, because the kitchen is wholly and undoubtedly the cook's domain.She's never going to permit some floozy with a feather duster to touch her pots and pans or dig into the larder for spices, most of which were very expensive. And on top of that, a good English house servant isn't going to jeopardize her position for a snack. So if this is a bad house servant, she needs to get the boot. The cook AND the housekeeper tended to go over the inventory for downstairs together, counting everything from the numbers of apples right up to the silver service. That's why the positions of butler, housekeeper and cook are so important to the English manor house traditionally. Their jobs required a great deal of responsibility and knowledge.Not so with a parlour maid, who needs to know how to dust and clean and to make calf's eyes at the younger sons of the house.

I imagine stews and such. If they could afford meat it would last the whole week, stew would form the basis for multiple meals during the week..

Er...?

David, the kitchen maid prepared - prepare does not mean cook - a lot of stuff, that was her job, usually she was learning how to become a cook. It was rare that she cooked a whole meal or did more than a little bit of cooking of each course. She might start a sauce, baste the meat, cut, chop, slice, but unless the cook was sloppy, and in a house your size with a housekeeper this is unlikely, she would not cook a whole meal.

It was the cook and the housekeeper, and often the lady of the house, who decided what was cooked and the menus, day by day or more often, week by week. They doled out the ingredients. It would be very difficult for servants, in the housekeeper's absence, to get away with anything more than chatting and taking a longer time over their meal.

'Chatting and taking a longer time over their meal', maybe a second cup of tea, can be treat enough if normally she's standing over them, watching like a hawk, snapping at the heels of the slow. They're not going to try anything too exciting, they know she'll be back, and, even more important, they're not going to do anything that might be noticeable to those above-stairs, who might ask questions, or bring matters to the housekeeper's attention on her return.
A little slacking-off in the servants' quarters, perhaps, or making a few jokes at her expense, but it's not 'Ding-dong, the witch is dead'.

Ah!

Then think of the maid adding nice sauces to the meat and veg and pudding. That she could do without pinching anything.