Dinner With Dickens

Recipes and menus from the novels and the household of Charles Dickens, one of the world's favorite authors. Recipes and menus from the novels and the household of Charles Dickens, one of the world's favorite authors. Dinner with Dickens celebrates the food of Victorian England by recreating dishes the author wrote about with such gusto, and enjoyed in real life. Food in the novels not only creates character and comedy, but is also a means of highlighting social issues. A grand wedding breakfast skewers ostentation in a wealthy household. A bread-and-butter tea conjures honesty and companionship. The gruel given to hungry children exposes a cruel and unjust regime. The characters who throng Dickens novels are forever offering one another punch or seed biscuits; arranging a nice little supper of pickled salmon, salad and tea; showing concern with a roast fowl; or sisterly love with a painstakingly made beefsteak pudding. And, of course, there is the great feast of Christmas, celebrated in glorious style even by the impoverished Cratchits. At home, Dickens’ wife Catherine helped him entertain, and published (under a pseudonym) her own book, What Shall We Have for Dinner?, with pages of menus or “bills of fare” for different sizes of party and the changing seasons. In Dinner with Dickens, Pen Vogler has fully updated recipes from contemporary Victorian cookbooks, including Catherine’s own book. Clear instructions enable you to recreate mutton stuffed with oysters, Betsey Prig’s Twopenny Salad, Dickens’ own recipe for punch, and the Dickens family’s Twelfth Cake. In addition there are features on topics such as Dickens Abroad, Shopping for Food, and Eating Out, with fascinating insights into housekeeping, entertaining, and social history.

Catherine Dickens, under the pseuonym of Lady Maria Clutterbuck, wrote a little book called What Shall we Have for Dinner? Satisfactorily Answered by Numerous Bills of Fare for from Two to Eighteen Persons in 1851. It had two subsequent editions in 1852 and 1854. The foreword was contribured (anonymously) by her husband, Charles. Susan Rossi-Wilcox reprints this work and contributes asn engaging study of the domestic arrangements of the Dickens household together with a culinary commentary on the recipes and foodstuffs mentioned in the original work.

Drinking with Dickens is a light-hearted sketch by Cedric Dickens, the great-grandson of Charles Dickens. There are vivid and memorable drinking scenes in Dickens' books, and Drinking with Dickens abounds in recipes, many based on the drinks of Dickensian England and America: Bishop, Dog's Nose, Hot Bowl Punch, Milk Punch, Mint Julep, Sherry Cobbler, Shrub and Negus, to mention only a few. Unbelievably it seems to be the first book on this vast and important subject, and Cedric has added some recipes and experiences of his own. The Victorian sources include a penny notebook dated 1859 and kept by "Auntie Georgie," Georgina Hogarth, when she was looking after the younger children of Charles Dickens at Gads Hill. It starts with a recipe for Ginger Beer, a teetotal drink which calls for a quart of brandy! Then there is the catalogue for the sale of Gads Hill after Charles Dickens died which shows what was in the cellar at that time. This book transcends the generations. Cedric, with an eye for people and detail, describes a whole series of joyous episodes where drink, wisely taken, has been the catalyst.

A Dickens Dinner, a music and rhymes performance, it is a dinner theater play that has known to raise money for charities and nonprofit companies. A Dickens Dinner theater event is based upon characters written into a novella, A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens in 1843. Audience for A Dickens Dinner, those who attended are entertained by actors, singers, magicians, strolling violinists, mimes, still-walkers and Christmas carolers who provide entertainment between each dinner course. During dinner, merrymakers pretend to send cranky, miserly Scrooge reeling in his grave, while they serve dinner and humorous poetry, while handing out poultry, fish, side dishes and English desserts during holidays.

No author is more closely associated with the food of Christmas than Charles Dickens, and with this collection you will be able to recreate classic Victorian dishes and drinks of the season, as featured in the writings of “the man who invented Christmas.” No author is more closely associated with the food of Christmas than Charles Dickens, and with this collection you will be able to recreate classic Victorian dishes and drinks of the season, as featured in the writings of “the man who invented Christmas.” From Mrs Cratchit’s plum pudding to Mr Pickwick’s "mighty bowl of wassail," Charles Dickens's novels and other writings are alive with examples of good food being enjoyed in good company. In this selection of Victorian classics, updated for modern cooks, you will find old favorites for Christmas dinner such as roast fowl with tarragon, plus recipes for entertaining, such as lobster patties and a Charlotte Russe. There’s even a recipe for a hand-raised pork pie to keep in the pantry for unexpected visitors (or escaped convicts.)