Eat Like an Edwardian

I read with fascination this article from the Times, in which the author and his wife enjoyed a typical Edwardian diet of 5000 calories per day.

Here’s the menu for the first day.

DAY 1
Breakfast: Porridge, sardines, curried eggs, grilled cutlets, coffee, hot chocolate, bread, butter, honey.

Lunch: Sauté of kidneys on toast, mashed potatoes, macaroni au gratin, rolled ox tongue.

Afternoon tea: Fruit cake, Madeira cake, hot potato cakes, coconut rocks, bread, toast, butter.

Dinner: Oyster patties, sirloin steak, braised celery, roast goose, potato scallops, vanilla soufflé.

Midnight snack of roast chicken and Madeira. (King Edward always took a roast chicken to bed with him.)

Now there’s a diet for empire-builders! There’s nothing like a bracing breakfast of sardines, curried eggs, and five or six cutlets to motivate you into spending the rest of the morning annexing Natal!

And I like the homey touch of mac and cheese for lunch, though I admit I’ve never had it with mashed potatoes and rolled ox tongue and kidneys and toast. These Edwardians didn’t even pretend to include vegetables in their diet.

And with no roughage, how many pounds of starch, protein, and fat was rolling around in their innards at any given time?

I’ve had periods of high dining— the recent trip to France comes to mind— but this list shows what a complete amateur I’ve been when it comes to being a gourmand.