The period of Queen Victoria’s reign, from 1837 until her death in 1901 was very important in educating the people, leading to higher moral standards, impacting religion, social values and various art fields. During this time, our world embraced the first Industrial Revolution, political reform and social change. However, Queen Victoria took the crown at the age of 18 because her father and three other uncles died, putting her first in line as heir to the British throne.

During the Queen’s reign, it was time for Britain to enjoy the strongest naval superiority, becoming a world leader in various fields, from manufacturing, finance, railways, shipping to entrepreneurship. That being said, having so much power and high social standards, especially for the middle class, you would expect them to eat all sorts of sophisticated and expensive goodies. This is partly true, in the sense that their foods were actually special, but many of us certainly would not try them today.

Of course, things change over time and what seems extravagant and refined can take different forms in human eyes. Probably in a few years, our great-grandchildren will probably think that the sushi we consider a delicacy today is terrible. Who knows?! The future is unpredictable and society is constantly evolving.

So read on to find out what bizarre dishes the Victorians ate!

Boiled calf head

There were two ways to prepare the calf’s head in Victorian households. The first one: in some cases, especially when they had guests, they bought a calf’s head from the butcher, and the cook was responsible for cleaning it off the hair and preparing it properly.

So, first of all, they had to boil it, and after this process, they had to remove the tongue, cut it into slices and put it in a place along with the eyeballs which were cut in half. Of course, they ate these organs, considering them a delicacy. The cook also prepared a sauce for the calf’s brain to be served with the other organs.

Another way to serve this calf’s head was to simply boil it without separating the organs. This was common in families who did not always have guests. Well, imagine that you have an animal’s head in front of you at the dinner table and you have to cut it and choose which boiled organs to eat from it… What a grotesque scenario!

Jelly from the calf’s head and feet

This type of aspic dish was actually made from the boiled head and feet of a calf. This recipe involved boiling these organs for an hour or more until they were about to become like jelly. Then they had to add the pre-cooked brain of that calf.

Before pouring the liquid composition and the organs in a container, they had to put some parts of the brain and a few boiled eggs on its bottom for extra flavor. Then all they had to do was to leave the pot cool down and get a gelatinous texture.

Crimped fish

Well, there are many people who prefer to eat fish and consider it a delicacy at the same time, especially when it comes to salmon. So, there is nothing strange about dishes that contain various types of fish. However, what many people don’t know is that the Victorian people had a different way of preparing fish that is considered bizarre and weird nowadays. In fact, many animal lovers and cooks consider this cooking method a sort of animal cruelty.

For example, the cooks of the Victorian era considered that the fish did not have firm flesh if it was not cut into their sides with a knife until it was crimped (especially cod because it was consumed the most during those times). This method was practiced while the fish was still alive, leaving it struggling for its life.

Flour soup

Today’s soups contain many ingredients, such as vegetables of all kinds, chicken, pork or calf and various spices. Of course, this is just a simple example, because soup recipes generally contain other more or less common ingredients.

However, Victorian families preferred to eat mostly flour soup. There were many types of soups, but almost every recipe contained flour, and the most common kind of soup was literally one that contained mostly flour. For example, they used to opt for brown roux, so they cooked the butter and flour together in a container first, then added boiling water and salt. They could eat this soup when it became smooth, like a cream.

It’s no secret that even today, some cooks sometimes use flour to thicken certain sauces and smooth their texture, but large amounts of flour can be harmful to your health. According to health experts, white flour, for example, can adversely affect your health.

”During the processing of white flour from wheat, a substance called endo sperm is removed from the wheat germ including the wheat bran, which is extremely crucial for your digestion. Apart from that, all the essential nutrients too gets lost during this processing. Which in return, deprives your body from healthy life promoting vitamins, minerals and dietary fiber. In huge shelves of supermarket, you also must have noticed that, few manufacturers use the tactic of attracting customers by labeling the products as ‘enriched flour’, which is nothing, but just the addition of three to four vitamins at the cost of ten lost vitamins during processing,” added nutritionist Nmami Agarwal.

Pickled pork face

We have to admit that the Victorian people were obsessed with eating the animals’ heads… However, if we saw earlier in this article that they liked to eat boiled or jelly like dishes made from the calf’s head, now you will also find out that pickled pork face was another specialty of theirs.

So, they boiled the head of a pig for a few hours and then rubbed it with some spices. After this process, they had to leave the pig’s head to get brined for a few days. The brine consisted of lemon juice, pepper, some cayenne, salt and water. When this delicacy was ready to eat, people served the organs with mustard and vinegar.

In addition, it’s important to know that in modern society people still prefer a lot of pickled foods and it’s true that there are many ingredients that could be marinated in brine, such as meat, cheese, vegetables and so on. There are many ways to create a brine, but they differ from recipe to recipe and chef to chef. However, what’s strange about this Victorian delicacy is that they had to brine the whole head of a pig, without removing some organs, such as the eyes and brain.

Strangled duck

It seems that the methods of cooking in the Victorian era were very bizarre and special, unlike those of today. The chefs preferred a different method of cooking the duck, so they opted for strangling one because this way they could preserve the body fluids – which were also added to the main dish.

After they strangled the duck, they removed the legs, breast and liver, semi-roasted the rest of the duck and then crushed it in a special press, to squeeze out the body fluids. As I said before, they added these fluids over the meat for extra flavor. You can still find this type of duck dish, known as ‘foie gras’ if you visit the La Tour d’Argent restaurant in Paris, France.

Broxy

Broxy was a term invented by a butcher to describe any kind of meat, usually sheep, that had dropped dead of disease. Broxys were cheaper, so poor people who couldn’t afford other types of fresh meat bought it. Unfortunately, meat was much more expensive during the Victorian era than it is nowadays and the most common source of protein as well.

The most common diseases that can cause death in these animals are tetanus, toxoplasmosis, scabby, salmonella, cryptosporidia, ringworm, Q-fever, and campylobacter infections. All of these diseases can be transmitted to humans if they eat broxy.