1800s Typical Breakfast and Tea China, England. Tea cups, Bread and Butter plates, Teapot, Butter Dish, Coffee Cups, Tea Set, Milk Jug, Water Jug, Bread Dish, Sardine Dish, Bacon Dish, Marmalade Jar and Breakfast Cups. From: 1860 Mrs. Isabella Beeton’s Book of Household Management. These are the sort of salads that Jane Austen’s family would have eaten to accompany main dishes during the early 1800s, or Regency Era.
What salads were served in Jane Austen and the Bridgerton households?
Salads
“Persons in health, who feel a craving for salad, may indulge in the enjoyment of it to a great extent with perfect impunity, if not with positive benefit.
Oil, when mixed in salad, appears to render the raw vegetables and herbs more digestible.
Vinegar likewise promotes the digestion of lettuce, celery, and beet-root.
“Endive is very wholesome, strengthening, and easy of digestion; but when strong seasoning is added to it, it becomes an epicurean sauce. — Mayo.”
Recipe for a Winter Salad, by the late Rev. Sydney Smith.
Two large potatoes, passed through kitchen sieve, Unwonted softness to the salad give, Of mordent mustard add a single spoon;
To add a double quantity of salt;
Three times the spoon with oil of Lucca crown,
And once with vinegar, procured from town.
True flavor needs it, and your poet begs
The pounded yellow of two well-boiled eggs.
Let onion atoms lurk within the bowl,
And, scarce suspected, animate the whole;
And, lastly, on the flavored compound toss
A magic teaspoon of anchovy sauce.
Then, though green turtle fail, though venison’s tough, And ham and turkey are not boiled enough,
Serenely full the Epicure may say,-
Fate cannot harm me—I have dined to-day!
The Spanish proverb says four persons are wanted to make a good salad: a spendthrift for oil, a miser for vinegar, a counsellor for salt, and a madman to stir all up.
1859 Hints for the Table by John Timbs.
1800s Typical Salads: Cucumber, Beetroot and Potato, Macedone Salad, Tomato Salad, Jellied Russian and Italian Salads, Prawn Salad, Egg and Lettuce, Lobster Salad and Salad Dumas. From: Mrs. Beeton’s Book of Household Management. via Google Books (PD-150)
What did the lady of the house use to pen notes in Bridgerton and Jane Austen’s years? What sat on the desk of Jane Austen’s male contemporaries when they managed household and estate accounts? books2read.com/SuziLoveWritingTools. Writing Tools, History Notes Book 13.
1800s Early Amputation Instruments used by Alexander Jack in Jane Austen’s times. Jack was a ship’s surgeon aboard H.M.S. Shannon and used by him in the battle between the Shannon & the American frigate the USS Chesapeake on June 1st, 1813, during the War of 1812. via Old Operating Theatre, London.
Jane Austen’s brother, Francis William Austen, was appointed Admiral of the Fleet in the British Royal Navy on 27 April, 1863. He had been a Royal Navy Captain from 1799 to 1830, age 25 to 56, Rear Admiral in 1838, age 64, Full Admiral in 1848, age 74. This is the type of medical instruments found on all of his ships.
In Jane Austen’s time, amputations were carried out frequently to prevent infections that could kill.
1819 January ‘Laceing a Dandy.’ Dandy in underwear, laces of his corset pulled by two servants, left young black page, right French valet with high collar. Dandy, “Fore Gad ye wretches you’ll never get my Stays tight enough go brute and call John James & Thomas, To help you take care you don’t Spoil by Breasts”. Published by: Thomas Tegg. Hand colored etching. Via British Museum, London, UK. britishmuseum.org (PD-Art)
19th Century First Quarter Red Mesh Reticule, British. Small mesh bags known as reticules were the must-have “it bags” of 1800-1825. Too small for carrying much more than a few coins, reticules were often shown in satirical prints as a fashionable foible of women’s attire. Knit into an elegant lantern-like shape, this example survives with its original ribbon trim making it a particularly lovely and rare example of a short-lived fashion trend. via Metropolitan Museum, N.Y.C., U.S.A. metmuseum.org
Definition Reticule: Bag or purse, often with a drawstring to pull closed and usually made of cloth or covered cardboard and often decorated with beading or embroidery. A reticule, or purse, or handbag, was usually carried by a woman during the Regency period to carry all their daily necessities. Earlier, women used pockets that tied at the waistline and were hidden in the folds of their skirts. Empire style, or early 1800s, high-waisted dresses made it impossible to either sewn in a pocket or to tie on a pocket. So women began carrying small, decorated bags called Reticules, or ridicules, which generally pulled close at the top with a drawstring.
1826 Cheltenham Spa, England. From Regency Life Around England In Jane Austen’s Times. From The English Spy By Robert Cruikshank. via Google Books (PD-180)
1800-1810 ca. Yellow Kid Women’s Slippers, British. The sort of shoes Jane Austen and her female friends and family would have worn. Kid shoes bound in kid over white linen, very pointed toes, fronts trimmed with yellow silk tassel fixed by small steel buckle, back of shoe faced with yellow kid
printed with pattern in black, heel of kid and leather. via Manchester Galleries ~ manchestergalleries.org
Shoes in the early 1800s were flat or low heeled and occasionally decorated with a bow or floral embellishments and it wasn’t until the 1820s that square, rather than rounded or pointed toes became fashionable. Made of soft kid or cloth, these delicate shoes were flimsy and wore out quickly. There was often no difference between a left or right shoe, so when one slipper had a hole it was easily replaced. Slippers were often bought in multiples at a time so there were spares.
1826 The Dinner Party. Social Life. From 1826 The English Spy By Robert Cruikshank. via Google Books (PD-180). https://books2read.com/suziloveOLD
1817 February Pelisse, or Redingote, English. Carriage dress of white poplin with a deep blond flounce. Blue levantine pelisse or walking dress, or Redingote in France, shorter than the dress and edged with floss silk. Coburg cap of black velvet turns up on one side in front and is lined and edged with blue satin. The head-dress worn with it has a profusion of white ostrich feathers. Ruff is of plain blond, edged with narrow white satin ribbon, and a pink Indian scarf over the shoulders. An ermine muff, gloves and slippers of blue kid, complete the elegant dress. Fashion Plate via John Belle’s La Belle Assemblée or, Bell’s Court and Fashionable Magazine, London.
Definition Coat or Redingote Or Pelisse: Long fitted outdoor coat worn over other garments for warmth. French word developed from English words, riding coat.
