Steampunk Food The victorian dining guide

Steampunk Food The victorian dining guide

STEAMPUNK FOOD and DINNER PARTY IDEAS- TIPS FOR RECIPES, GAMES AND DECORATIONS

Steampunk food reflects both an appreciation for the food and the method with which it was cooked. It is also a direct reflection of the people preparing it.

How to have a steampunk dinner party complete with recipes, decor and entertainment on the cheap.

The gears have been turning, trying to come up with as many ideas as possible for a child’s airship pirate/steampunk birthday party. This week my thoughts went to food, beyond the cake or cupcakes.

If I had a little girl who wanted a steampunk party, I would go with a tea party. I really like the idea of going around to all the area thrift stores and buying pretty teacup and saucer sets, so each guest has a unique teacup that is theirs to take home after the party.

I wouldn’t do that for a boy’s party, though. Despite a long standing family joke about DH and Blaze having MANLY tea parties, I don’t think that would go over well with the other little boys around here.

I think we need to stick to gears, airships, and pirates, with maybe a little “mad scientist” thrown in.

Steampunk Food

Steampunk Chocolate Airship

When planning your steampunk festivities, you should let your imagination play while planning the menu, entertainment and decorations. If you have a Victorian or retro-industrial space in your home, then you are more than halfway to your goal of creating a steampunk-appropriate venue for your party. The addition of a few more accessories, like vintage international travel posters, railroad, airplane, steamship or hot-air balloon memorabilia, or interesting Victorian bric-a-brac will finish your space nicely. If your home is more modern than steampunk, you can work with your living room, back or front yard, or even your garage, to create the right ambiance. Outdoor spaces, especially, can often be made to look like the “wilderness” or a “crash landing site” fairly easily. Another venue idea — especially if you’re planning a big bash — is to rent an empty airplane hangar, warehouse, or other old industrial space.

As for steampunk Food, A menu for “tea on an airship” can include bags of roasted peanuts “from the airship stewardesses”, as well as ship’s biscuits, dried salted fish, corned/salt beef and/or beef jerky. Portable food like “little savory pies” (pasties or meat-filled turnovers), canned and dried foods, and cured sausage don’t need refrigeration, were common on 19th century ships, and convenient for the steampunk “mad scientist”. Pickles and chutney are Victorian exotics that were brought, along with limes and other citrus fruits, to fight scurvy among sailors. Steampunk airships are run

with steam power, making hot surfaces a common occurrence for cooking things on; crumpets and small pancakes can be “baked on a red-hot coal shovel from the airship”, and puddings, dumplings, and eggs can be “boiled in the airship’s boiler room” or “over a laboratory burner” for the tea table. Mix some dried fruit with “hot water from the boiler” to make chunky jam or fruit compotes.

To allude to international travel during the 19th century, and the exotic places mentioned in Jules Verne’s books, consider including Asian, African and Latin American foods. The Victorian era was also a time of intense experimentation and the development of food science, resulting in “scientific” and “health food” like Graham flour, corn flakes and “patent” foods. All these are options for the steampunk table. Beverages should include English, Asian, or Chinese-style teas, but can also include popular Victorian alcoholic drinks such as port, rum and whiskey. You can even purchase steampunk-themed flavored tea blends, like Steampunk Airship and Back To The Lab blends from Adagio Teas.

Victorian food merged w/ molecular gastronomy. Spherified figgy pudding? Black pudding dust? An English breakfast terrine?

Gear-filled tartlettes; whole boiled potatoes; green glowing plasma.

I think a good tea, the dinner kind, with toast and cheese, such as an adventurer or tinkerer might enjoy.

Nothing green. Photosynthesis rarely happens in steampunk scenarios because the technology almost always creates environmental pollution and either blocks out the sun or drives people underground or to ocean. I always envision a diet of potatoes and tuber veggies. I think the cooking method is always heavy steaming or an unconventional open high heat source like a radiator, batteries or butane lighters. The foodstuffs would be highly preserved like pickled radishes and cured meats.

I think steampunk embraces the innovative and transformative, the implications of a super science without limits. Food that has those aspects in preparation, presentation, or taste seems to fit. Surprises, doing something completely unexpected with the available tools and parts. The more impossible seeming the better. I chose popcorn since it’s transformation is itself so remarkable. Toast actually has that kind of feel, bread slices vanishing into a metal box with two narrow slots to be returned with a new texture and taste.

Things that can be flambed in creative ways. Anything steamed and steamable, especially at the table. Pressure cooking.

Bon Apetit and have fun with making and eating your Steampunk Food!

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