Victorian times
We do have some ideas of breakfast recipes from Mrs Beeton’s Cookery books, however the actual cooking process was very different from today. Most houses in Victorian times would have had a cooking range, although some very poor households still had open fires. So the first job of the morning was to rekindle the fire in the hope it had not gone out overnight.
Many workers in the poorer households faced a long walk to work so would have taken bread and any other cold food with them to either eat on the way or during a break in the morning, as few would have had time to wait for a cooked breakfast to be prepared. Sometimes the bread was dipped in dripping (the fat collected under roasting meat) or spread with lard (rendered pig fat) to make the dry bread more palatable.
In middle class houses where there was a servant or several servants to prepare the food, breakfast would consist of cooked meat and eggs, possibly with toast made by holding slices of bread on toasting forks over the open fire on the range. These households would often have their own chickens, even in tiny yards there was room for a small chicken coop, some also kept rabbits for food.
In Upper class establishments food was prepared and served by servants, the members of the household and their guests could eat as much or as little as they wanted of up to 12 courses. Many Upper class people ‘dressed’ for breakfast much like people today still dress for dinner.
Foods served to the Upper classes might consist of ham, lamb cutlets, fish dishes, scrambled eggs, several types of sausages, cold game birds, jellies, fruit, hot toast and butter with marmalades and jams to name but a few dishes. All would be washed down with tea, coffee or wine!
Not many households had cold storage facilities such as iceboxes, and food was usually either bought in fresh every day or delivered to more well off households. In cities cows were even kept in special dairies so the milk could be delivered to customers. Rats and other pests would often find the food so ingenious methods of storing food, from cages suspended from beams to mesh fronted meat safes were devised. Many of these items remained in daily use until well into the 20th century.
A selection of breakfast items available from Buttercup Miniatures for your dolls house
1918 to present
Following the start of the First World War, many large establishments cut back on breakfast menus to avoid wasting food and with the rise of dried breakfast goods such as cornflakes the large breakfasts went into decline.
Most families in the UK still have a good Sunday breakfast and if it is a special day may even be treated to breakfast in bed!
Breakfast may consist of toast with jam, savoury spreads or honey, cereals or porridge. Some people may have eggs (scrambled, poached or fried) on toast, not forgetting boiled egg and toast soldiers! Some may prefer more traditional foods like crumpets or muffins, whilst others prefer American muffins.
Whatever you choose make sure your dolls house inhabitants have a good breakfast!