Hello and Welcome!

Hello, and welcome to Turning Back the Kitchen Clock!

In my family, we love food.  We are also interested in history, and when it is food history, that is an ideal combination!

Whilst it can certainly be interesting to learn about battles, the successions of kings, and other such exalted subjects, it is the everyday history of everyday people that I find the most fascinating.  And of course, there are few subjects to which we as a species give such universal attention, as food.  Everyone throughout all of history has had to eat, after all.

We are, of course, not remotely unique in this interest.  There are any number of documentaries and YouTube channels on the subject (we love Tasting History with Max Miller, for example).  There have also been many television shows made over the years, in which modern people are placed in the situation of "living the life of" people from another age.  Some of our favourites include the BBC's wonderful Turn Back Time series, and a similar (rather more food-focused) Australian series, Back In Time For Dinner.

We have watched many of these with envious fascination, always saying to each other, "Wouldn't it be awesome to do this?"

Finally, I decided to do something about it.

Sadly, we do not have a TV production company offering to dress, house and entertain us in period-appropriate fashion, so we will be adopting the rather more practical plan of just concentrating on food.  So no, we won't be giving up electricity, or television, or our mobile phones.  But we will be attempting to eat as though we are living in another era.

For our first attempt at this, we have chosen the Victorian era - specifically, mid-Victorian England.  Our target decades are the 1850s and 1860s, so there will be meat, seafood, vegetables and fruit - and yes, there will be sugar - but very little in the way of processed food.

What do we hope to get out of this?  Fun, mostly.  I think it will be interesting - I am hoping it will give us just a tiny glimpse of what mealtimes were like for people who lived in a bygone era.  I am also hoping to be pushed a little out of my comfort zone, by trying some recipes and ingredients I might not usually use.

The fun kicks off properly this Saturday the 7th of September, although I may start some prep a day early, so stay tuned.  Along the way, I will be recording our experiences in this blog, both as a kind of diary I can look back on, and just in case anyone else - like you! - would like to read it.  (I swear there'll be photos next time, and not so much of my rambling!)

And who knows?  If we enjoy this experience as much as I am hoping we will, perhaps we will visit another era sometime - wartime rationing, anyone?