What was on the menu in January 1861?

Hi, I'm Tess, this is my first post here. Kate asked me to join in to share my love of all things culinary, I'm very new to blogging so please be gentle.

It's impossible to discuss cookery in a historical context without mentioning Mrs Beeton. Her Book of Household Management is still a best-seller, even if most people tend not to follow the recipes. It's actually not a cookery book as such, it's far more comprehensive and covers all aspects of household management as the title suggests. Obviously, the house that was being managed was unlikely to be that of ordinary people, this was a tome aimed very much at the middle and upper classes who could afford a small army of staff to keep them in the style to which they had become accustomed.
Despite, or perhaps because of, this, it does give an interesting insight into social history, and with that in mind, my first post highlights the way our diets and purchasing options have changed. We now take it for granted that we can, for example, buy fresh strawberries at Christmas, but that wasn't always the case.
This extract from The Book of Household Management lists what would have been available in January ... assuming you were wealthy enough to afford them.

JANUARY.
FISH.—Barbel, brill, carp, cod, crabs, crayfish, dace, eels, flounders, haddocks, herrings, lampreys, lobsters, mussels, oysters, perch, pike, plaice, prawns, shrimps, skate, smelts, soles, sprats, sturgeon, tench, thornback, turbot, whitings.
MEAT.—Beef, house lamb, mutton, pork, veal, venison.
POULTRY.—Capons, fowls, tame pigeons, pullets, rabbits, turkeys.
GAME.—Grouse, hares, partridges, pheasants, snipe, wild-fowl, woodcock.
VEGETABLES.—Beetroot, broccoli, cabbages, carrots, celery, chervil, cresses, cucumbers (forced), endive, lettuces, parsnips, potatoes, savoys, spinach, turnips,—various herbs.
FRUIT.—Apples, grapes, medlars, nuts, oranges, pears, walnuts, crystallized preserves (foreign), dried fruits, such as almonds and raisins; French and Spanish plums; prunes, figs, dates.

The Suffragettes

Updated to add: I can't get the video to appear here, so if you aren't seeing it, here is the link.

I found this video highlighting the work of the suffragette movement over on YouTube. I know their efforts are often dismissed nowadays, and it is true that the combined effort of women in World War 1 probably did play a bigger part in them winning the right to vote, but I still think the suffragettes were admirable and they certainly focused national attention on to the issue of womens' suffrage. We owe them a lot!

This video sadly isn't embeddable, but it gives a more detailed look at the suffragette movement, and the music (Aretha Franklyn) is pretty funky.

Something to alleviate post-Xmas boredom

Just a quick post to let you know, the full series of The 1900 House is available to watch on the 4OD channel on YouTube. If you haven't seen it, it's well worth a look. It's a kind of social experiment, which involves a modern family living as people did in 1900, hence the title. Fascinating to watch, but a reminder of how much easier life is with labour saving devices and modern medicine.