Victoria sandwiches and cheese straws

Classic recipes from Mrs Beeton’s cookbook

Like many people, I always assumed that our most established and well-known writer of cookery books, Mrs Beeton, was a grey-haired old lady who spent her whole life writing recipes and instructions on how to run a household. But actually she began writing aged just 21, and died seven years later.

Isabella Mary Beeton was born in 1836 and in her short life she wrote several books, most notably Mrs Beeton’s Book of Household Management which sold 60,000 copies in the first year (1861) and continues to be revised and updated over 150 years later. It’s still very easy to find original copies of her books and I located one from 1902 and another from 1907. These old editions are enormously interesting to read – of course some parts are outdated, but others surprisingly ahead of their time. I was particularly struck with the chapter on vegetarianism.

Mrs Beeton’s enthusiasm for taking afternoon tea was on a par with Queen Victoria, considering it a necessity when dinner was served late. So I’ve chosen two of her teatime recipes, shown here as printed in the 1907 edition of the book.

Victoria sandwiches

There are no recipes in Mrs Beeton’s cookbook for the large circular cake we know today, just for these fingers of jam-filled sponge, and absolutely no suggestions for including a cream filling.

4oz caster sugar
3 eggs
2oz butter
6oz flour
1 teaspoonful of baking powder
a little milk, jam, salt

• Stir the sugar and yolks of eggs together until thick and creamy, then add the butter melted. Pass the flour, baking powder and a good pinch of salt through a sieve, stir it lightly into the rest of the ingredients and add milk by degrees until the mixture drops readily from the spoon.
• Now whisk the whites of eggs stiffly, stir them in as lightly as possible and pour the preparation into a well buttered Yorkshire pudding tin. Bake in a moderately hot oven for about 20 minutes, let it cool, split in halves, spread thickly with jam, replace the parts and press lightly together.
• Cut them in groups of three, letting the layers cross each other, sprinkle liberally with caster sugar and serve.

Cheese straws

2oz Parmesan cheese
1oz Cheshire or Cheddar cheese
2 1/2 oz flour
2oz butter
salt
cayenne pepper
yolk of 1 egg

• Grate the cheese, mix it with the flour, rub in the butter and season with salt and cayenne pepper. Now form into a stiff paste with the yolk of egg and cold water, adding the latter gradually until the desired consistency is obtained.
• Roll out thinly, cut into strips about 4 inches long and about 1/2 inch wide, and from the trimmings stamp out some rings about 1 1/2 inches in diameter.
• Bake in a moderate oven until crisp, fill each ring with straws and arrange them neatly on a dish covered with a napkin or dish paper.

Styling tip

Serve your Victorian afternoon tea on the most popular design for china at the time, the Asiatic Pheasant. I love this pattern which is still available from its original makers – Burleigh in Stoke on Trent. This blue and white, traditional design dates back to somewhere between 1830 and 1862, first made at the Swan Bank Pottery in Tunstall and soon adopted by other potteries such as Burleigh. You can buy new direct from Burleigh, or find antique pieces on Etsy.

Janice Issitt