Victorian Food

[talon]

A lot of the food we eat now - cracker jacks, jello, jelly beans, Coca Cola, Ketchup, Dr. Pepper, Campbell's soups, Fleischmann's yeast, Calumet Baking Soda, potato chips, marshmallows, necco wafers, graham crackers, A-1 Steak Sauce, chicken fried steak, Underwood's devlined ham, cream cheese, Hershey's chocolate bars, Tabasco sauce, Heinz ketchup, fig newtons, cotton candy, thousand island dressing, and the peanut butter and jelly sandwich, among others - that crafting a "junk food" Victorian meal is shamelessly easy to put together.

On May 31st, we're having a Steampunk picnic. Steampunk has its roots in the Gilded Ages of Steam (Regency through WWI). I've been pondering what to bring.

Now, I realize, it doesn't have to be utterly Victorian, but it should have the ambiance of the Gilded Aged - ornate, elaborate, formal. While S'mores are a possibility (after all, Hershey's chocolate bars, marshmallows, and graham crackers are all Victoria era foods), and opening a tin of Campbell's soup would also work, I think something a little flashier would be appropriate.

I'm thinking I'll make deviled bones (assuming I can find enough of the right sort of bones at the Asian or Mexican markets - the American markets sadly don't do bones...), perhaps a molded vegetable mousse, and a bundt cake to share at the picnic. And maybe a bag of fig newtons on crystal to share around with the tea.