sheep trotters can be very delicious if prepared right, and literally fall of the bones tender. i'm quite certain whoever cooked for the show just have no idea how to cook it
I get the same idea for a lot of these videos, they give people such poorly cooked things to try, and then they overreact saying everything is disgusting.
Iranians and their neighbours eat head and hooves for breakfast, it's called Kaleh Pacheh. While I don't much like the jelly-like feet, I do like the head. Never ate the eye though. It's a very sustaining food and healthy indeed
@@charlieross4674 cow trotters are common delicacy here in indonesia, sheep/goat trotters are a bit less common ....it's only disgusting because they had no idea of how to properly make a nice dish out of it.... an american friend of mine (she's from lincoln, nebraska) who visited me years ago loved surabaya style cow trotter curry very much....
The Victorian era saw a huge rise in cookbooks, experimentation in cuisine, and the consumption of liquor (hence the temperance movements that sprouted up throughout the period). Canned goods were on the rise, especially vegetables, with a number of prominent individuals during the period become vegetarians.
My dad used to bring home jellied eels from the fish market in Birmingham City centre. And he used to eat pigs trotters, although, with the smell they gave off you'd have thought they walked home by themselves
In East & Southeast Asia, we put vegetables, spices & other strong flavorings & boil the trotters in it for a long time. So trotter dishes rarely smell bad.
While it is interesting to see some of the foods we would consider odd, this hardly represents the normal diet of average people in Victorian England. Copious amounts of fresh vegetables and fruits, fish, meat (quality and quantity according to wealth), and of course bread. Pottages and porridges were typical, and puddings were pretty common. (Not all puddings were Christmas pudding.) But it should be remembered that during that era, there was widespread disparity between the classes in England. (And most other places). What the poor saw as a rare treat, the middle class had weekly, and the wealthy had elaborate versions created for daily meals. While the poor made do with gruesome cuts of meat, some of the time, the middle class ate good meat at all meals. But the wealthy had the best cuts, and a variety of meats at every meal.
It also depends on when in the Victorian era and where. The Victorian era spans 64 years, from the beginning of the industrial era into urban blight. Villagers and farm workers away from the industrialization probably had a healthier diet. An urban factory worker living in the slums was living mostly on adulterated bread, with very little meat and few vegetables.
In Peter Jackson's doc "They Shall Not Grow Old" it's pointed out that at the beginning of the Great War the average Englishman was in very poor health mostly due to diet, and it took months to get them battle-ready. That was at the end of the era, so per your observation they should have been in better shape. So, your opinion is that they ate better. I'll go with the historians that made this video and believe they ate like crap.
@@martinhoran9529 I didn't say what you imply. There were far more poor in England than middle class or wealthy. What I did say was that diet varied based on income, and that the items featured were not the normal fare of the people.
@@martinhoran9529 It takes months to get people today "battle ready"; it's more a function of mental and physical conditioning than poor health. Plus, the Victorian era saw numerous battles and skirmishes throughout the empire, and the British army was already packed with young men via the idea that was being pushed that it was noble and even glorious to fight and die for god, king, and country. The average English diet often contained more bread, porridge and meat than vegetables because the average Englishman was poor (and the Brits to this day seem to have an odd aversion to any vegetables other than root vegetables). The British empire also included Canada and numerous other territories right up to the first world war (and those territories were by and large not truly given up until after WWII). The Canadians, Indians, people of Hong Kong, and many of the other colonies had diets rich in vegetables and grains (because that's what was available in those areas). Documentaries that were made for commercial consumption (such as the one you're quoting) also gravely sacrifice evidence and the whole truth for commercial viability, that is to say they want to be entertaining as well as informative.
I have never heard of people eating sheep's trotters, but pig's trotters were commonly eaten by my parents working class families and neighbours over a hundred years ago. The rest of the animal would be turned into pork joints, chops, bacon, sausages, and brawn. Cow heels were another working class "delicacy," and also tripe and tongue. I will be eternally thankful that being born shortly after the end of WW2, during rationing, I have never had to try any of these things apart from pressed cow's tongue, which is actually a rather nice cold meat.
@@royfearn4345 • It was my mother's favourite too. I only ever tried one tentative bite of tripe, decided that the feel in my mouth was what I would expect biting a slug would feel like. I wasn't brave enough to actually chew and swallow the piece though. 😬
I think with the number of people in work houses and orphanages, and women selling themselves for food and a warm bed, it is safe to say that there were a lot of really desperate people in Victorian England. Cheers from the US.
My mother was born in 1924 Tottenham. She came over to States as a war bride. When we were growing up, she would tell us about these foods and more, so it wasn't just the Victorian Age.
Those trotters weren't cooked anywhere near long enough. They should have been braised/slow cooked until the collagen and connective tissue were meltingly tender
The Victorian era ended with Queen Victoria's death in 1901, not 1914 as shown. In fact, I'm not sure where you got your dates from at all. She was born in 1819 and became queen in 1837.
The “Victorian era” in some definitions apparently corresponds roughly but not exactly to the period of her reign. I think they know the actual dates perfectly well.
@@nicolad8822 Any definition that quotes the Victorian age as starting before she was even born is simply wrong. Quite aside from the point raised by Rix above.
Pigs trotters, in our house in the 60s/70s, my Jamaican mother would cook what we call Pea Soup (made with Kidney Beans - we call all beans, peas) and either pig trotters or cow feet to bulk it out. Never had the stomach to eat the meat, but damn, the soup was incredibly tasty. If you had no money and were hungry, you'd eat it.. My poor dad never refused a meal until he got very ill in the last few months of his life with stomach cancer. He said he remembered being a child in Jamaica and seeing food and imagining what it would taste like. When a kindly cousin or aunt gave him food to eat, he ate it, no questions asked.
For a "History" guy, this episode was very condescending. The plight of the poor during the Victorian era is well documented in English history and literature. Sheep's trotter, when slow cooked in rich broth and consumed while hot, is quite delicious and nutritious. It would have provided some much needed protein for the poor lower classes. Nothing "disgusting" about struggling to survive!!! What a TOFF!
Also as a snack it's way healthier and more nutritious than the crap most people in the UK snack on nowadays like bags of crisps or biscuits. I think he was being more of a Jessie than a toff.
firstly, those lamb trotters need to be cooked longer and highly seasoned, those ones where tough and cold. secondly, eels prefer clean water actually and are still enjoyed by many Londoners
The Victorian era actually ended in 1901 following Queen Victoria's death. The era between her death and WWI is called the Edwardian era, after King Edward VII who succeeded her on the throne.
I'm pushing 71 years old. When i was a child my grandmother used to serve up pig's trotters, lamb's feet and calf's feet. All were very delicious. She used to serve them with suet dumplings and the veg cooked in the pot such as whole onions, whole carrots etc. I think the problem with these type of videos is that they don't cook the food properly. The trotters and feet used to be left on the banked up fire overnight to slowly stew. The cooking had to be started the day before you want to eat it. The meat should fall off the bone the way meat does on ox-tails. This man is behaving like a 21st century spoiled brat. He's trying to eat something that is undercooked.....and then complaining about it. Perhaps a nice Big Mac is more his speed.
My hillbilly ancestors ate every part of the pigs they slaughtered on their farm, even making head cheese (souse). I'm 58. All 4 grandparents born in the 1800's. Sometime ca. 1970's, they started becoming snobby about eating nasty pigs, and they certainly wouldn't keep, let alone eat or milk, goats -- it was just too hillbilly even for them. They were, after all, sending their youngest kids to college and moving up. I'm kind of grossed out by things like braunschweiger but still sneak a package of it home and share it (sparingly) with my dog while trying not to think what it really is.
The thing is, when there's nothing else available, you'll eat just about anything to satisfy your hunger. You didn't waste any part of the animal. Re: the Christmas pudding, you have to warm the alcohol before it will ignite.
@@rustomkanishka If you look at medieval recipes, you'll see that spices were used quite a lot by the upper classes. Peasants would save up in order to buy a little bit of spice, especially cinnamon and ginger, to use in their holiday baking, which is why gingerbread is traditional at Christmastime. By the time you get to the 18th century, spices were more available to average people all through the year. Eighteenth-century people were quite fond of nutmeg, and you find it in a lot of recipes from that time. The very poor in the Victorian era still had trouble affording spices, even though they were widely available for all sorts of dishes, which is why Dickens waxed so lyrical about the Cratchits' pudding.
When I was a small boy, my mother would tell me to go to the butcher and ask him for a sheep's head. She would also add, "And tell him to leave the legs on."
Jellied eels are still a London delicasy even today and you can get them in any Pie and Mash shop. I remember walking around the east end of London 20 years ago with my French girlfriend when we saw a jellied eel stall. I told her what they were and she was keen to try them and actualy, just like my father, loved them !
Not only has mutton itself fallen out of fashion but also the saying ‘mutton dressed as lamb’ referring to a woman ‘past her prime’ who is overly made-up and wearing clothes that perhaps she shouldn’t be wearing ‘at her age’. Not heard anyone say it for years.
Maybe in Britain and America, but everywhere else in Europe, as well as much of the rest of the world, eat mutton happily. People in other countries are less inclined towards our relatively bland food so what's in and out of 'fashion' is relatively subjective.
It's curious how historical cultural practices can overlap the generations.. I mean, I'm not THAT old, but I can remember my grandmother eating (with apparent relish) tripe, a thing so disgusting in appearance and smell that I could not countenance even trying it. Well done on the trotters there Dan. You are a braver man than I. Nice one team! 🌟👍
Dan seems to only have access to cold food. As far as "lighting the brandy" you have to heat it up to get some fumes which light very well. You use a ladle with brandy in it, heat it up a bit, catch the fumes on fire and thing pout it on the warm plum pudding.
Sheep trotters same as pork trotters if prepared correctly are really nice, they just look gross. I recommend The best food review show, it shows a lot of food like this.
I wonder sometimes if the food you eat has been prepared correctly or maybe should be eaten hot/warm. the first two items you were eaten seemed cold, maybe heating would improve them
If you’re Caribbean, African or South Asian English you’d be very familiar with mutton. I had curried mutton (cheaper replacement for goat) a few days ago. Had cow foot recently too.
As an Indian with Iranain ancestry I never understood why Americans tended to shit on British mutton. I tried some. It's like the cooks are going out of their way to insult the poor bugger's memory. I hope the immigrants have shared wisdom from back home.
@@rustomkanishka Yep, when it's cooked well, it's delicious! Love a nice bit of mutton, but goat is so easy to get these days, and damn, they even cut out the evil bones for you!!
No necessary, he got the 1914 date correct. The Edwardian period 1901-1914 is often referred to by historians as an extension of the Victorian period, there was no radical changes in those years from Victoria’s reign apart from it was under her son Edward (a complete Victorian) and hence renamed Edwardian. 1820 is a stretch however as 1820-1830 but also 1810-1830 is famously the ‘Regency Era’ of George 4th, and therefore not the Victorian era. 1830 is probably a better date for the start of the Victorian period as Victoria was heir to the throne and the centre of British life, her uncle William is a forgettable and unremarkable king who let his niece shine, hence why the 1830s have no particular name.
it worries (and sort of annoys me) that offal is just dumped now into whatever pet food will take it. There is nothing wrong with liver, beef, pig, sheep or chicken liver is lovely and each has a different taste, you just have to know the best ways to cook it. There are still cultures where the offal are relished, why is this not so in the world in general?
It is the case in the world in general. In all continental European countries people still eat offal, like pig's liver and chicken livers, tripe, and outside Europe people hearts and gizzards, even lungs. I know dozens of ways to cook them from all over. Pate is eaten a lot more in the Netherlands, Belgium and France, probably more than once a week as a staple in peoples' fridges, and that's made from liver. It's only really in the anglosphere - UK and USA particularly - that we don't eat it so much nowadays as most people live off ultra processed food, ''artificial'' food as a Jamaican guy I knew used to call it. That's less than half a billion out of a planet of 7-8 billion so it's just us that's in the minority. But these ingredients are easy to get hold of, they even sell chicken livers in my local small Tesco, and easy to cook, and very nutritious. Halal butchers are everywhere in cities nowadays and they sell lots of offal.
I agree, i live in asia and its not even weird at all to eat offal. Its a shame really how we find this stuff weird in england, if most people tried it they would change their mind.
The problem is not only being trotters. It’s how you cook them. In Portugal we eat pig’s trotters (“pézinhos de coentrada”). Traditionally poor man’s food, today a delicacy. Of course not everyone eats them (especially the younger generations that are only used to eating clean cuts of meat). But well done and well seasoned (with lots of garlic and coriander leaves) they’re quite a treat!!
Growing up in the United States, Montana to be specific, we raised sheep for wool and meat but we NEVER did the trotters! We’d cook trotters (sheep or pig) down for the protein and then use it as a base for bean or lentil soups, I thought that was pretty extreme. Dan, you are seriously an OG! ❤
From his book ''People of the abyss'' where he came to London and lived amongst the poor in the East End of London around 1900ish. Really good book. Orwell did the same thing about 20-30 years later which he describes in ''Down and out in Paris and London'', and in northern England which he wrote about in ''The road to Wigan Pier''. The mainstay of the working class diet in England then was bread and margarine, and tea.
I have had smoked eel and mutton stew and spit roast mutton spiked with garlic. I had veal and beef tongue. I had German Blutwurst ( kinda like bloodsausage/pudding)
We still like our black pudding (blood sausage) here in the UK as part of an English breakfast. The German Blutwurst, Polish one (I've forgotten the name) and Spanish morcilla are pretty good too. But the Dutch black pudding is so full of sweet spices like cinnamon it's revolting, I bought some once when I lived there and chucked it in the bin as it was so overspiced it was inedible.
I feel so frustrated when historians leave out the gigantic part of British history which is....colonisation. Dan says 'Under Queen Victoria, Britain became the richest country'... yeah, so don't you want to explain how that was possible? Due to the forced labour of tens of thousands of people in the global south maybe? It's such an important part of British history and it should not be omitted from even lighter videos like this
If you could be bothered to research then you will discover that in the Victorian era Great Britain manufactured 60% of global goods. Yes, that’s over half of everything manufactured worldwide. A vast amounts of goods were exported via the long established London, Liverpool and Bristol docks. Railways were built all over the world using British built locomotives & infrastructure expertise. Maybe it was the ‘forced labour’ of the British working classes that made the country so wealthy?
@@billiejoemcallisterwaspushed Hi, I have a master's degree in this, but thanks for the mansplain, and thanks for the completely irrelevant response to the point I was making. I have lots of books to recommend if you decide to do some further research! Let me know.
I disagree about the jellied eels. Get rid of the jelly - although great for a fish sauce or such - and the eel meat is amazing without any little bones. I wish Tesco would bring them back.
Victoria reigned from 1837-1901 preceded by William IV , George IV and III, Followed by Edward VII and Geoge V. So Victorian Era 1820-1914 is incorrect.
I’m sorry to be laughing at you, Dan.. but your responses to the first two are hilarious! You are the bravest man I know- I am sure of , I saw you eat sweetbreads!
I think most people ate a very plain boring diet. Not always healthy. There was a lot of food adulteration. My dad loves jellied eels for some reason,and welks. From the East End.
Pigs trotters used to be quite popular in Ireland, sold as 'cruíbíns' which is the gaelic word for trotters. I imagine mutton would be too gamey but apparently pigs feet is still popular in some southern states in america
I'm not a fussy eater but I fully agree with you about the jellied eels, I tried the muck once and I can only assume it would be like eating a corpses dead fingers in cold snot.
Awww don't be such a big jessie, they're yummo! So just out of curiosity, how many cold snotty fingers have you eaten? 🤣👍 A great comparison by the way!
I like eel, especially smoked eel, but I tried jellied eels as a kid and didn't like it. I reckon if I just ate the eel, not the jelly, I'd probably like it.
We used to get sheep's trotters and cow heel from the local market in the Fifties and sixties. As well as tripe Ox tongue was a favourite as well and of course sheep and pigs' heads.
I remember growing up in the 60's/70's and kids at school being amazed that we had a whole chicken to roast on Sunday lunch.. Remember they were not so cheap and popular back then, until farming methods made them so cheap..
Imagine a documentary from 2223 about what people ate in 2023: “People those days ate a thing called a hamburger made from ground up animal parts and processed carbs. I’m going to give a try at this cold, flavorless chunk of ground up offal harvested from killed live animals and stacked between two pieces of stale bread. Oh that’s absolutely disgusting! How could people back in 2023 eat such horrendous food?? And harvested from living animals 🤮”
Where the hell has this date range come from, the Victorian era lasted from 1837 to 1901. Not sure why you've chosen to ignore William 4th and then the Edwardian era. I expect better from a history channel.
Used to go fishing down the old coal wharfs in Brisbane, caught a lot of Eels, The old Italian guy a bit up the hill from me used to buy 'em off me. My mate and I were delighted at the money he gave us for them. never tried them myself.My mum thought they were disgusting and would have nothing to do with them.
This does such a disservice to the food people ate in their lifetime. There is no attention to preparation, and no respect given to the people who gladly enjoyed this cuisine. I really enjoy most of his historical work, but a culinary historian he is not.
Yep, they must have been very hungry to eat these things. Thanks for illuminating this little known bit of British history. It was certainly “interesting”!
Little known I don't think so some of these foods are still eaten and extremely nutritious most offal is now put into dog food and it's the most nutritious part of an animal very good for the gut micro biome which is largely over looked it's all protein powder and ultra processed food and they wonder why there is so much depression and poor health
You Need to boil the pig feet untill it fall of the bone, after a first boil in salt water, than a second boil in clean water with spice like five spice and bay leaf, pepper corn, and soysauce
Beats starving to death. In Australia in the 1980's, my dad would use the fat from a Sunday roast to have bread and dripping. His parents went thru the great depression and he learnt his lessons well. In todays cost of living crisis, beggars cant be chooses.
cow trotters are common delicacy here in indonesia, sheep/goat trotters are a bit less common ....it's only disgusting because you have no idea of how to properly make a nice dish out of it.... an american friend of mine (she's from lincoln, nebraska) who visited me years ago loved surabaya style cow trotter curry very much.......
What? Did this video seriously try to claim that the victorian era lasted from 1820 to 1914? It was from 1837 to 1901. If you can't get that right you have no business making videos like this, nor calling yourself history anything
Even as of today…. Most people around the world still eating trotters: pork, lamb, veal… and tripe …. I was luck to tried these dishes in Marocco, Turkey, Singapore, Italy, Romania, France, Munich, Poland … and they were delicious… so the taste is not depends on the main ingredient but on how you prepare and on how you cook it…. The British was never knows for their cooking were they?
'I'd only eat it if I was desperate' says a lot. They were.
Lol skill issue
why didn't they eat KFC
@@SpiderPiggggMaybe because KFC didn't come to the UK until 1965? 🤔
Probably really nutritious
i mean it doesn't taste nice but probably better than our junk food and sugary lmao
sheep trotters can be very delicious if prepared right, and literally fall of the bones tender. i'm quite certain whoever cooked for the show just have no idea how to cook it
I get the same idea for a lot of these videos, they give people such poorly cooked things to try, and then they overreact saying everything is disgusting.
Still cooked in some Asian cuisine the jelly is full of collagen
Iranians and their neighbours eat head and hooves for breakfast, it's called Kaleh Pacheh. While I don't much like the jelly-like feet, I do like the head. Never ate the eye though. It's a very sustaining food and healthy indeed
That trotter was hardly cooked- it should be cooked for several hours, preferably overnight!
@@charlieross4674 cow trotters are common delicacy here in indonesia, sheep/goat trotters are a bit less common ....it's only disgusting because they had no idea of how to properly make a nice dish out of it....
an american friend of mine (she's from lincoln, nebraska) who visited me years ago loved surabaya style cow trotter curry very much....
The Victorian era saw a huge rise in cookbooks, experimentation in cuisine, and the consumption of liquor (hence the temperance movements that sprouted up throughout the period). Canned goods were on the rise, especially vegetables, with a number of prominent individuals during the period become vegetarians.
I have eaten both sheep and pigs trotters - and I love them! Don’t let your prejudices rule your lives.
🤮🤮each to their own! But, 🤮🤮
It's his taste buds, everyone has them even you !
My dad used to bring home jellied eels from the fish market in Birmingham City centre. And he used to eat pigs trotters, although, with the smell they gave off you'd have thought they walked home by themselves
how did he prepare the trotters?
In East & Southeast Asia, we put vegetables, spices & other strong flavorings & boil the trotters in it for a long time. So trotter dishes rarely smell bad.
And tripe now a delicacy only served in Michelin star restaurants
😂😂😂
While it is interesting to see some of the foods we would consider odd, this hardly represents the normal diet of average people in Victorian England. Copious amounts of fresh vegetables and fruits, fish, meat (quality and quantity according to wealth), and of course bread.
Pottages and porridges were typical, and puddings were pretty common. (Not all puddings were Christmas pudding.)
But it should be remembered that during that era, there was widespread disparity between the classes in England. (And most other places). What the poor saw as a rare treat, the middle class had weekly, and the wealthy had elaborate versions created for daily meals. While the poor made do with gruesome cuts of meat, some of the time, the middle class ate good meat at all meals. But the wealthy had the best cuts, and a variety of meats at every meal.
Bread and vinegar on Sundays.
It also depends on when in the Victorian era and where.
The Victorian era spans 64 years, from the beginning of the industrial era into urban blight.
Villagers and farm workers away from the industrialization probably had a healthier diet.
An urban factory worker living in the slums was living mostly on adulterated bread, with very little meat and few vegetables.
In Peter Jackson's doc "They Shall Not Grow Old" it's pointed out that at the beginning of the Great War the average Englishman was in very poor health mostly due to diet, and it took months to get them battle-ready. That was at the end of the era, so per your observation they should have been in better shape.
So, your opinion is that they ate better. I'll go with the historians that made this video and believe they ate like crap.
@@martinhoran9529 I didn't say what you imply. There were far more poor in England than middle class or wealthy. What I did say was that diet varied based on income, and that the items featured were not the normal fare of the people.
@@martinhoran9529 It takes months to get people today "battle ready"; it's more a function of mental and physical conditioning than poor health. Plus, the Victorian era saw numerous battles and skirmishes throughout the empire, and the British army was already packed with young men via the idea that was being pushed that it was noble and even glorious to fight and die for god, king, and country. The average English diet often contained more bread, porridge and meat than vegetables because the average Englishman was poor (and the Brits to this day seem to have an odd aversion to any vegetables other than root vegetables). The British empire also included Canada and numerous other territories right up to the first world war (and those territories were by and large not truly given up until after WWII). The Canadians, Indians, people of Hong Kong, and many of the other colonies had diets rich in vegetables and grains (because that's what was available in those areas). Documentaries that were made for commercial consumption (such as the one you're quoting) also gravely sacrifice evidence and the whole truth for commercial viability, that is to say they want to be entertaining as well as informative.
I have never heard of people eating sheep's trotters, but pig's trotters were commonly eaten by my parents working class families and neighbours over a hundred years ago. The rest of the animal would be turned into pork joints, chops, bacon, sausages, and brawn. Cow heels were another working class "delicacy," and also tripe and tongue. I will be eternally thankful that being born shortly after the end of WW2, during rationing, I have never had to try any of these things apart from pressed cow's tongue, which is actually a rather nice cold meat.
Tripe and onions is a favourite delicacy of mine!
@@royfearn4345 and mine😍
@@royfearn4345 • It was my mother's favourite too. I only ever tried one tentative bite of tripe, decided that the feel in my mouth was what I would expect biting a slug would feel like. I wasn't brave enough to actually chew and swallow the piece though. 😬
Pickled pig feet are common in the Southern US, Scandinavia, and China. Of course the Chinese eat things we would never touch.
I was born in 1960’s and can remember eating tongue into the 1980’s. It was bought cooked and sliced; actually quite tasty.
I think with the number of people in work houses and orphanages, and women selling themselves for food and a warm bed, it is safe to say that there were a lot of really desperate people in Victorian England. Cheers from the US.
My mother was born in 1924 Tottenham. She came over to States as a war bride. When we were growing up, she would tell us about these foods and more, so it wasn't just the Victorian Age.
Of course poor people kept eating cheap food years after a specific date. They couldn't afford to shop for newer trendier recipes.
Those trotters weren't cooked anywhere near long enough. They should have been braised/slow cooked until the collagen and connective tissue were meltingly tender
The Victorian era ended with Queen Victoria's death in 1901, not 1914 as shown. In fact, I'm not sure where you got your dates from at all. She was born in 1819 and became queen in 1837.
Yeah, doesn't bode well when a 'History' channel cannot get basic dates right. According to that bizarre date range the Edwardian era didn't exist.
The “Victorian era” in some definitions apparently corresponds roughly but not exactly to the period of her reign. I think they know the actual dates perfectly well.
@@nicolad8822 Any definition that quotes the Victorian age as starting before she was even born is simply wrong. Quite aside from the point raised by Rix above.
@@resnonverba137Well it seems to be an accepted thing.🤷🏻♀️ see Encyclopaedia Britannica, the Historical Association.
@@nicolad8822 Some seem to think that men can be women. Common sense dictates otherwise in both cases.
Pigs trotters, in our house in the 60s/70s, my Jamaican mother would cook what we call Pea Soup (made with Kidney Beans - we call all beans, peas) and either pig trotters or cow feet to bulk it out. Never had the stomach to eat the meat, but damn, the soup was incredibly tasty. If you had no money and were hungry, you'd eat it.. My poor dad never refused a meal until he got very ill in the last few months of his life with stomach cancer. He said he remembered being a child in Jamaica and seeing food and imagining what it would taste like. When a kindly cousin or aunt gave him food to eat, he ate it, no questions asked.
Pig feet is common for southern black Americans
For a "History" guy, this episode was very condescending. The plight of the poor during the Victorian era is well documented in English history and literature. Sheep's trotter, when slow cooked in rich broth and consumed while hot, is quite delicious and nutritious. It would have provided some much needed protein for the poor lower classes. Nothing "disgusting" about struggling to survive!!! What a TOFF!
Also as a snack it's way healthier and more nutritious than the crap most people in the UK snack on nowadays like bags of crisps or biscuits. I think he was being more of a Jessie than a toff.
Yeah he comes across as a bit of a big girls blouse.
Thank you!
Bread? Vegetables? Porridge? Eggs? Fish? I would have expected these to feature.
firstly, those lamb trotters need to be cooked longer and highly seasoned, those ones where tough and cold. secondly, eels prefer clean water actually and are still enjoyed by many Londoners
Are eels really eaten given they are so rare? I am not from London (berks) but never ever saw eel.
@@Tryingcounts yes, though most are imported from the Netherlands
@@alexanderclaire wow, interesting. Thanks!
Have you tried smoked eel? That's delicious, really nice and oily and moist like mackerel or salmon.
Many of his shows have the food served cold, where they should have been served hot.
The Victorian era actually ended in 1901 following Queen Victoria's death. The era between her death and WWI is called the Edwardian era, after King Edward VII who succeeded her on the throne.
It also didn't start in 1820 but in 1837 when Queen Victoria came to the throne...
I'm glad I wasn't the only one that noticed the error.
I'm pushing 71 years old. When i was a child my grandmother used to serve up pig's trotters, lamb's feet and calf's feet. All were very delicious. She used to serve them with suet dumplings and the veg cooked in the pot such as whole onions, whole carrots etc.
I think the problem with these type of videos is that they don't cook the food properly. The trotters and feet used to be left on the banked up fire overnight to slowly stew. The cooking had to be started the day before you want to eat it. The meat should fall off the bone the way meat does on ox-tails.
This man is behaving like a 21st century spoiled brat. He's trying to eat something that is undercooked.....and then complaining about it. Perhaps a nice Big Mac is more his speed.
Everything apart from jellied eels I'd just take as an acquired taste.
A lot of people these days can't stand liver pate but I've always enjoyed it.
My hillbilly ancestors ate every part of the pigs they slaughtered on their farm, even making head cheese (souse). I'm 58. All 4 grandparents born in the 1800's. Sometime ca. 1970's, they started becoming snobby about eating nasty pigs, and they certainly wouldn't keep, let alone eat or milk, goats -- it was just too hillbilly even for them. They were, after all, sending their youngest kids to college and moving up. I'm kind of grossed out by things like braunschweiger but still sneak a package of it home and share it (sparingly) with my dog while trying not to think what it really is.
The thing is, when there's nothing else available, you'll eat just about anything to satisfy your hunger. You didn't waste any part of the animal.
Re: the Christmas pudding, you have to warm the alcohol before it will ignite.
The Christmas pudding seems to be the only place anyone used any of the spices the empire conquered.
@@rustomkanishka If you look at medieval recipes, you'll see that spices were used quite a lot by the upper classes. Peasants would save up in order to buy a little bit of spice, especially cinnamon and ginger, to use in their holiday baking, which is why gingerbread is traditional at Christmastime. By the time you get to the 18th century, spices were more available to average people all through the year. Eighteenth-century people were quite fond of nutmeg, and you find it in a lot of recipes from that time. The very poor in the Victorian era still had trouble affording spices, even though they were widely available for all sorts of dishes, which is why Dickens waxed so lyrical about the Cratchits' pudding.
Trouble is, when you Light it, you lose all the booze.
@@babuzzard6470 True, but you use so little, it really doesn't matter. It's mostly for effect.
I was amazed that Dan tried to set cold brandy alight. He must have seen someone doing it before now.
When I was a small boy, my mother would tell me to go to the butcher and ask him for a sheep's head. She would also add, "And tell him to leave the legs on."
😂
Did you actually have to visit the butcher? I'd like to know more, if you would share
@@charlieross4674 It's a very old joke I'm afraid.
Pickled pigs feet a delicacy here in the south. And I've had cow tongue many times.
Here in mexico cow tongue tacos are a delicacy. We put alot of oil when cooking. Nice and tender
Absolutely delicious!
Jellied eels are still a London delicasy even today and you can get them in any Pie and Mash shop.
I remember walking around the east end of London 20 years ago with my French girlfriend when we saw a jellied eel stall. I told her what they were and she was keen to try them and actualy, just like my father, loved them !
Spices and cooking makes all the difference.
Not only has mutton itself fallen out of fashion but also the saying ‘mutton dressed as lamb’ referring to a woman ‘past her prime’ who is overly made-up and wearing clothes that perhaps she shouldn’t be wearing ‘at her age’. Not heard anyone say it for years.
Maybe in Britain and America, but everywhere else in Europe, as well as much of the rest of the world, eat mutton happily. People in other countries are less inclined towards our relatively bland food so what's in and out of 'fashion' is relatively subjective.
Queen Victoria came to the throne in 1837, 1820 was the Georgian period… 🙄 She died in 1901.
I'm sure mutton shoulder browned and braised in stock and ale till falling apart would be quite good. Much like a beef pot roast.
The Donnybrook pub do the best lamb shanks, you just have to look at them and the meat falls off the bone!
It's curious how historical cultural practices can overlap the generations.. I mean, I'm not THAT old, but I can remember my grandmother eating (with apparent relish) tripe, a thing so disgusting in appearance and smell that I could not countenance even trying it. Well done on the trotters there Dan. You are a braver man than I.
Nice one team! 🌟👍
Tripe is yummy, cold with salt, Pepper and vinegar or hot in tripe and onions!
Cook with onions, vinegar, and ginger. It’s surprisingly easy to make delicious.
Dan seems to only have access to cold food. As far as "lighting the brandy" you have to heat it up to get some fumes which light very well. You use a ladle with brandy in it, heat it up a bit, catch the fumes on fire and thing pout it on the warm plum pudding.
Sheep trotters same as pork trotters if prepared correctly are really nice, they just look gross. I recommend The best food review show, it shows a lot of food like this.
I wonder sometimes if the food you eat has been prepared correctly or maybe should be eaten hot/warm. the first two items you were eaten seemed cold, maybe heating would improve them
The christmas pudding seemed hard!
He should check out the fermented viking era food Icelanders eat in February 😅
I've had sheeps trotters prepared and cooked in crispy parcels in France. It was lovely.
historical fear factor...i hate this, i feel bad for dan 😭
If you’re Caribbean, African or South Asian English you’d be very familiar with mutton. I had curried mutton (cheaper replacement for goat) a few days ago. Had cow foot recently too.
As an Indian with Iranain ancestry I never understood why Americans tended to shit on British mutton.
I tried some. It's like the cooks are going out of their way to insult the poor bugger's memory. I hope the immigrants have shared wisdom from back home.
@@rustomkanishka Yep, when it's cooked well, it's delicious! Love a nice bit of mutton, but goat is so easy to get these days, and damn, they even cut out the evil bones for you!!
Food and History facts go together so well . Love these videos ty .
Great video thank you, not sure on the dates there though, 1837 - 1901 surely?
No necessary, he got the 1914 date correct. The Edwardian period 1901-1914 is often referred to by historians as an extension of the Victorian period, there was no radical changes in those years from Victoria’s reign apart from it was under her son Edward (a complete Victorian) and hence renamed Edwardian.
1820 is a stretch however as 1820-1830 but also 1810-1830 is famously the ‘Regency Era’ of George 4th, and therefore not the Victorian era.
1830 is probably a better date for the start of the Victorian period as Victoria was heir to the throne and the centre of British life, her uncle William is a forgettable and unremarkable king who let his niece shine, hence why the 1830s have no particular name.
You have to warm your brandy in a ladle before you light it and pour it on the pudding.
it worries (and sort of annoys me) that offal is just dumped now into whatever pet food will take it. There is nothing wrong with liver, beef, pig, sheep or chicken liver is lovely and each has a different taste, you just have to know the best ways to cook it. There are still cultures where the offal are relished, why is this not so in the world in general?
It is the case in the world in general. In all continental European countries people still eat offal, like pig's liver and chicken livers, tripe, and outside Europe people hearts and gizzards, even lungs. I know dozens of ways to cook them from all over. Pate is eaten a lot more in the Netherlands, Belgium and France, probably more than once a week as a staple in peoples' fridges, and that's made from liver.
It's only really in the anglosphere - UK and USA particularly - that we don't eat it so much nowadays as most people live off ultra processed food, ''artificial'' food as a Jamaican guy I knew used to call it. That's less than half a billion out of a planet of 7-8 billion so it's just us that's in the minority.
But these ingredients are easy to get hold of, they even sell chicken livers in my local small Tesco, and easy to cook, and very nutritious. Halal butchers are everywhere in cities nowadays and they sell lots of offal.
I agree, i live in asia and its not even weird at all to eat offal. Its a shame really how we find this stuff weird in england, if most people tried it they would change their mind.
Well for one it has an awful name
There is nothing wrong with jellies eels with vinegar and pepper. I still love them these days at 63 years old😊
yes the young lad is a whiner and puts on a show like it's undrinkable.
The problem is not only being trotters. It’s how you cook them. In Portugal we eat pig’s trotters (“pézinhos de coentrada”). Traditionally poor man’s food, today a delicacy. Of course not everyone eats them (especially the younger generations that are only used to eating clean cuts of meat). But well done and well seasoned (with lots of garlic and coriander leaves) they’re quite a treat!!
Just a bit of Xmas pudding for me please 😋
Lovely if cooked properly.....
I'm doing pigs trotters for tea today...😊
Growing up in the United States, Montana to be specific, we raised sheep for wool and meat but we NEVER did the trotters! We’d cook trotters (sheep or pig) down for the protein and then use it as a base for bean or lentil soups, I thought that was pretty extreme.
Dan, you are seriously an OG! ❤
Mutton isn't that bad. It's actually pretty nice
Mutton is amazing if you know how to cook it.
Jack London wrote about a fellow on his way to the work house who picked up a discarded grape stem from the spit covered sidewalk and ate it.
Thanks very much, you just put me off my jellied eels!
From his book ''People of the abyss'' where he came to London and lived amongst the poor in the East End of London around 1900ish. Really good book. Orwell did the same thing about 20-30 years later which he describes in ''Down and out in Paris and London'', and in northern England which he wrote about in ''The road to Wigan Pier''. The mainstay of the working class diet in England then was bread and margarine, and tea.
How sad thay you feel that way about pigs feet. They are a delicacy in my culture! When slow cooked and seasoned correctly😊
I have had smoked eel and mutton stew and spit roast mutton spiked with garlic. I had veal and beef tongue. I had German Blutwurst ( kinda like bloodsausage/pudding)
Mutton barbecued with a good peppery vinegar baste, Kentucky style, is really good!
We still like our black pudding (blood sausage) here in the UK as part of an English breakfast. The German Blutwurst, Polish one (I've forgotten the name) and Spanish morcilla are pretty good too. But the Dutch black pudding is so full of sweet spices like cinnamon it's revolting, I bought some once when I lived there and chucked it in the bin as it was so overspiced it was inedible.
Amazng how dan wouldnt even know what the working class eat today!
I feel so frustrated when historians leave out the gigantic part of British history which is....colonisation. Dan says 'Under Queen Victoria, Britain became the richest country'... yeah, so don't you want to explain how that was possible? Due to the forced labour of tens of thousands of people in the global south maybe? It's such an important part of British history and it should not be omitted from even lighter videos like this
If you could be bothered to research then you will discover that in the Victorian era Great Britain manufactured 60% of global goods. Yes, that’s over half of everything manufactured worldwide. A vast amounts of goods were exported via the long established London, Liverpool and Bristol docks. Railways were built all over the world using British built locomotives & infrastructure expertise. Maybe it was the ‘forced labour’ of the British working classes that made the country so wealthy?
@@billiejoemcallisterwaspushed Hi, I have a master's degree in this, but thanks for the mansplain, and thanks for the completely irrelevant response to the point I was making. I have lots of books to recommend if you decide to do some further research! Let me know.
"I'm going in..." 🤣🤣🤣🤣
I disagree about the jellied eels. Get rid of the jelly - although great for a fish sauce or such - and the eel meat is amazing without any little bones. I wish Tesco would bring them back.
Very true fatty but tasty.Had them roasted in Comacchio (Italy) where it's traditional
Sheeps feet are not even cooked fully. How could you possibly get a real comparison?
Dan is the man.
Love your work 👍
Victoria reigned from 1837-1901 preceded by William IV , George IV and III, Followed by Edward VII and Geoge V. So Victorian Era 1820-1914 is incorrect.
Was about to ask about The Edwardian Age. The Victorian era certainly did not last until 1914.
The brandy for Christmas pudding needs to be warmed before being lit. It’s not going to light cold.
@@greighax Dan snow is acting like a baby in this series turning his nose up at jellied eels 🐟
The Era in some definitions is not the same as the actual dates of her reign.
@@nicolad8822 that is absolute nonsense 👎
The class system is alive and kicking the working classes.
Revolution of thought and compassion is desperately needed..
It takes a special kind of person to go back for a second bite. Respect!
I’m sorry to be laughing at you, Dan.. but your responses to the first two are hilarious! You are the bravest man I know- I am sure of , I saw you eat sweetbreads!
Fair play to Dan for eating some of these things. I certainly couldn't hahaha.
I love jellied eels and don’t care who knows it!
I think most people ate a very plain boring diet. Not always healthy. There was a lot of food adulteration.
My dad loves jellied eels for some reason,and welks. From the East End.
Is anyone cooking these properly for you ? Trotters and eels are delicious….if done properly
Pigs trotters used to be quite popular in Ireland, sold as 'cruíbíns' which is the gaelic word for trotters. I imagine mutton would be too gamey but apparently pigs feet is still popular in some southern states in america
My Grandmother who was Irish, tried Pigs Trotters and Tripe on me ' NO ' - I did like Oxtail Stew.
I'm not a fussy eater but I fully agree with you about the jellied eels, I tried the muck once and I can only assume it would be like eating a corpses dead fingers in cold snot.
Awww don't be such a big jessie, they're yummo! So just out of curiosity, how many cold snotty fingers have you eaten? 🤣👍 A great comparison by the way!
I like eel, especially smoked eel, but I tried jellied eels as a kid and didn't like it. I reckon if I just ate the eel, not the jelly, I'd probably like it.
@@simonh6371 Mmmmm,smoked eels too, yum!
We used to get sheep's trotters and cow heel from the local market in the Fifties and sixties. As well as tripe Ox tongue was a favourite as well and of course sheep and pigs' heads.
I remember growing up in the 60's/70's and kids at school being amazed that we had a whole chicken to roast on Sunday lunch.. Remember they were not so cheap and popular back then, until farming methods made them so cheap..
I love Jellied Eels and have bought online from Bradleys on occasions.
Imagine a documentary from 2223 about what people ate in 2023:
“People those days ate a thing called a hamburger made from ground up animal parts and processed carbs.
I’m going to give a try at this cold, flavorless chunk of ground up offal harvested from killed live animals and stacked between two pieces of stale bread.
Oh that’s absolutely disgusting! How could people back in 2023 eat such horrendous food?? And harvested from living animals 🤮”
Roast mutton was the only roast we had growing up.
People were eating jellied eels when I was a schoolchild. We eat pigs trotters at home - horrible, but if you’re hungry, you eat them…
Where the hell has this date range come from, the Victorian era lasted from 1837 to 1901. Not sure why you've chosen to ignore William 4th and then the Edwardian era. I expect better from a history channel.
Used to go fishing down the old coal wharfs in Brisbane, caught a lot of Eels, The old Italian guy a bit up the hill from me used to buy 'em off me. My mate and I were delighted at the money he gave us for them. never tried them myself.My mum thought they were disgusting and would have nothing to do with them.
The Victorian era was until 1901, and it was the Edwardian era after that. She didn’t take the throne until 1837 as well.
You need to heat the Brandy if you want it to flambe
You would eat all of these if it was all you could afford.
When he ate the eels all I could think of was the mighty boosh song eels!
You should have tried the Upper class food instead.
If you eat them unprepared like this of course they don't taste right.
This does such a disservice to the food people ate in their lifetime. There is no attention to preparation, and no respect given to the people who gladly enjoyed this cuisine. I really enjoy most of his historical work, but a culinary historian he is not.
Dan Snow should do these historical food review videos together with James May.
Im no fan of the show but id pay to watch him do a bush tucka trial😂
There's a line in a Dorothy L Sayers novel in which someone makes the disparaging comment about another woman "Mutton dressed as lamb"
I've never heard of sheep Trotters. 😂 I seriously thought it was going to be a sheep turd.
why does he not cook the food and add seasoning and it probably taste better
This is why I strongly opposed time travel.
🤣
Went around the world... for SPICES..still didnt season the TROTS. Needed to be cooked tender in a stew, quite nice.
I had boiled goat feet made by some friends from Afghanistan and my reaction was pretty much the same as you eating the sheep trotters
Mutton is still big in Australia today.
Nothing here looks inedible, just acquired tastes.
I'm Moroccan and I think mutton feet are quite tasty. You just need to prepare them right and with the right seasoning. :)
Yep, they must have been very hungry to eat these things.
Thanks for illuminating this little known bit of British history.
It was certainly “interesting”!
Little known I don't think so some of these foods are still eaten and extremely nutritious most offal is now put into dog food and it's the most nutritious part of an animal very good for the gut micro biome which is largely over looked it's all protein powder and ultra processed food and they wonder why there is so much depression and poor health
You state that the Victorian period was between 1820-1914.
Surely you mean 1837-1901?
Dan will not die of of a surfeit of eels! 😂😂😂
Great video
Jellied eels amazing😊
I'm in my late 40's (so not THAT old). I loved calvesfoot jelly as a kid, with vinegar and white pepper!!
You Need to boil the pig feet untill it fall of the bone, after a first boil in salt water, than a second boil in clean water with spice like five spice and bay leaf, pepper corn, and soysauce
Beats starving to death. In Australia in the 1980's, my dad would use the fat from a Sunday roast to have bread and dripping. His parents went thru the great depression and he learnt his lessons well. In todays cost of living crisis, beggars cant be chooses.
Big delicacy in poorer countries. Pampered first worlders.
cow trotters are common delicacy here in indonesia, sheep/goat trotters are a bit less common ....it's only disgusting because you have no idea of how to properly make a nice dish out of it....
an american friend of mine (she's from lincoln, nebraska) who visited me years ago loved surabaya style cow trotter curry very much.......
PLEASE tell me you washed your hands before handling that book, Dan!! 😱
Someone who actually likes food and meats should be doing these videos.
What? Did this video seriously try to claim that the victorian era lasted from 1820 to 1914? It was from 1837 to 1901. If you can't get that right you have no business making videos like this, nor calling yourself history anything
Even as of today…. Most people around the world still eating trotters: pork, lamb, veal… and tripe …. I was luck to tried these dishes in Marocco, Turkey, Singapore, Italy, Romania, France, Munich, Poland … and they were delicious… so the taste is not depends on the main ingredient but on how you prepare and on how you cook it…. The British was never knows for their cooking were they?
If you douse your Christmas pudding in tequila, it goes up real quick!