I was talking about my work the other day and I got told to look at Heston Blumenthal's TV series that he made a few years ago called Heston's Feasts. I remember watching these when they were first broadcast so I tried to find the episodes online because I remember he had an episode based on the food from Alice in Wonderland.
I managed to find the episode on 4oD, the series and the episode I needed was Series 1, Episode 1. I started to watch the programme and found out a lot more information than I thought so I started taking notes. This programme made me learn a lot about the history of the Victorian times and the food that they would have eaten which is what Lewis Carroll based Alice in Wonderland on.
The 'Drink Me' potion tasted of 5 different flavours:
- Toffee
- Hot buttered toast
- Custard
- Cherry tart
- Turkey
Heston wanted to turn a fictional drink into a reality so had to work out how to combine all five flavours into one drink. All but one of the ingredients were solids so he used extraction to make them into liquids. He the. used a gelling agent to set the flavours and then turned each liquid pink so it all looked like the same drink so that his guests had no idea!
Mock Turtle Soup
Turtle soup was a luxury for the Victorians, in a way it could be described as caviar for the Victorians. It was definitely a status symbol. Turtle meat can't be bought in the UK and Europe so Heston had to travel all the way to America to be able to get hold of a turtle. He caught a turtle and they cooked it but he didn't like the taste of it so he came back to the UK empty handed.
In the Victorian era they imported 15,000 turtles a year and they could feed 20 people at once with even their shell being eaten. As turtle was so expensive turtle was a cheaper alternative substitute for middle class people. Mock turtle wasn't actually turtle it was actually made by using the leftovers of cows heads. The mock turtle was so popular Lewis Carroll named a character in the book after it. Once Heston had made his own version of the soup using cows head and cheek he went to the general public to what they thought of it, they all seemed to like it until they were told what was in it. He wasn't happy with the soup/broth because it wasn't refined enough and wasn't 'trippy' enough so he went back to the drawing board. He decided to focus it on one of the most famous parts in the book, when the Mad Hatter's fob watch falls into his tea. He made an edible watch out of stock from his mock turtle soup which he made in London and added gelatin and froze them in his fob watch tea bag moulds. He couldn't just have the tea bag so he made a mock turtle egg out of turnip mousse and swede flavoured gel on top, both of these flavours are classic British and Victorian vegetables. He then made a terrine out of ox tongue and slices of pork fat to remind him of the fatty taste of the turtle he tried in America. He called the final dish 'Mock Turtle Soup with Mad Hatter tea'.
Edible Victorian insect garden
Eating insects in the Victorian era was very popular as food was scarce and the class divide was bigger than ever. Vincent Holt was the man that suggested to his workers that they eat insects he even wrote a book called 'Why Not Eat Insects'. Insects are eaten in Africa and Mexico (they were when this programme was made - not sure whether they are now) so Heston had to go and see an expert on insects. He said that insects are exactly what we need to eat as they're not too fatty and are full of protein. Heston deep fried crickets and mealworms and injected them with a flavoured mayo to make them taste nice. He wanted to create a mini edible garden so that his guests got over the fact they were going to be eating insects. His guests did see the bugs nevertheless they did eat them and found them delicious.
Jelly and Ice Cream
In the Victorian era this was one of the most impressive things that could be served at a dinner table however nowadays we just see it as being as dessert for children at a birthday party. He looked back in history and found the alcoholic drink that the Victorians loved to drink in order to get drunk, it was, Absinthe so he wanted to know if he could make an adult only flavoured Absinthe jelly. Oscar Wilde used to like the drink and said that if you drink enough you could see people so Blumenthal went to France, the home of the alcohol to see if he drank enough he would start to see things but he didn't. Eventually he did manage to create a big jelly with the flavour of absinthe and all of his guests felt like they were in Wonderland.
https://www.channel4.com/programmes/hestons-feasts
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