"I dine at seven" -- Sherlock Holmes (BLUE).

Everyone must eat. Holmes and Watson were no exception; and food pops in and out of Dr. Watson's chronicles - often as a quick bite as they pursued cases, but sometimes with a little more emphasis on thoughtful digestion.

Breakfast was not permanently set at a specific time, but, if dining together, it was normally around 9:30 (BLAC, BERY). However, Holmes notes Watson's "irregularity at meals" in 3STU. There is also evidence that Holmes was not prompt at meals, and they did not always dine together.

Early on, Mrs. Hudson employed a cook but soon took over the duties of preparing meals (usually breakfast and dinner) for her boarders as well as delivering tea and coffee. Of her fare, Holmes says, "Her cuisine is a little limited but she has as good an idea of breakfast as a Scotchwoman" (NAVA).

Although Holmes "diet was usually of the sparest" (YELL), he still had staples at a bell's ring to Mrs. Hudson when he needed them. Holmes and Watson breakfasted on rashers (fried or broiled thin slices of bacon or ham) and eggs (ENGI), ham, eggs, and curried chicken (NAVA), scrambled eggs (BLAC), hard boiled eggs, or simple toast (SCAN).

Curried Chicken

Curried Chicken Recipe from lovetoknow.com. Clean and dress a 3-pound chicken and cut in pieces for serving. Put 1/3 cup vegetable shortening in a hot frying pan, add chicken, and cook 10 minutes, tightly covered. Then add liver and gizzard, and continue cooking for 10 minutes longer. Cut 2 medium-sized onions in thin slices, and add to chicken with 2 teaspoons salt and 1 tablespoon curry powder. Add sufficient boiling water to cover, and simmer until chicken is tender. Remove chicken, strain liquor, and thicken it with a roux of flour and water. Make border of boiled rice around platter or serving dish, arrange chicken in center, and pour curry sauce over it.

Lunch (and sometimes breakfast) was often on taken in a rush, and the fare reflects this. The sideboard was usually stocked with bread and other simple necessities in just these sorts of instances, so that Holmes and Watson could grab things as simple as cold beef (SCAN), a sandwich and a cup off coffee, a loaf of bread, bread and water, a slice of beef sandwiched between two rounds of bread (BERY), a "paper of sandwiches" and a filled flask (NAVA), or just a chunk of bread from the sideboard (FIVE).

When in the greatest throes of a problem, Holmes would sometimes forgo all this food, filling his palate with only tobacco for hours and days on end; and, in turn, the tobacco "kills the appetite" (GOLD). In HOUN, Holmes consumed "two large pots of coffee and an incredible amount of tobacco" while pontificating the problem at hand.

On other times, his exertions would summon hunger as in BLAC when he says, "I returned with an excellent appetite."

Evening fare could be somewhat more exotic than earlier meals and included such things as oysters, a brace of grouse (brace means a pair or score of two) (SIGN), or warmed woodcock (their fare at Christmas, 1889) (BLUE).

Pheasant

One such meal consisted cold woodcock, pheasant, paté de foie gras pie (or Strasbourg pie) and a "group of ancient and cobwebby bottles (NOBL).

Woodcock

Woodcock recipes can be found at Traders Creek.

Paté de foie gras (or paté de foie gras pie as Holmes called it, otherwise known as Strasbourg Pie) is also known as Strasbourg Pie, as it originated Strasbourg (the capital of the Alsace région in northeastern France). Inside, one finds fattened goose livers and white truffles encased in pastry. Following is an excerpt (including a recipe) from Food Timeline:

British notes on paté de foies gras:

Pate de Foies Gras

These pasties, so highly esteemed by epicures, are made at Strasburg, and thence exported to various parts. They are prepared from the livers of geese, which have been tied down for three or four weeks to prevent them from moving, and forcibly compelled to swallow, at intervals, a certain amount of fattening food. When they have become so fat that they would die in a short time, they are killed, and their livers, which have become very rich, fat, and pale during the process, are used for the above purpose. These patés are very expensive. A good imitation of them may be made without subjecting the unfortunately geese to the cruelties described by following the direction: Take the livers from three fine fat geese, and in drawing the birds be careful not to bread the gall-bag, as the contents would impart a bitter taste to the livers.

Carefully remove any yellow spots there may be upon them, and lay the livers in milk for six or eight hours to whiten; cut them in halves, and put three halves aside for forcemeat.

Soak, wash, and scrub, and peel three-quarters of a pound of truffles, carefully preserving the cuttings.

Slice a third of them into narrow strips, like lardoons, and tick them into the remainder of the livers three-quarters of an inch apart, sprinkle over them a little pepper, salt, and spice, and put them in a cool place until the forcemeat is made.

Mince finely, first separately and afterwards together, a pound of fresh bacon, a thrid of the truffles, the halves of the livers that were put away for the purpose, two shallots, and eight or ten button mushrooms; season the mixture with plenty of pepper and salt, two or three grates of nutmeg, and half a salt-spoonful of powdered marjoram, and keep chopping until it is quite smooth.

Make the paste according to the directions given in Paste for Raised Pies...Cover the bottom of the pie with thin rashers of ham, fat and lean together; spread evenly on these one-half of the forcemeat, then put in the three livers, with the slices of truffle stuck in them, and afterwards the remainder of the forcemeat.

Intersperse amongst the contents of the pie the remaining quarter of a pound of truffles, and cover the whole with two or three more slices of ham or bacon.

Put the cover on the pie, ornament as fancy dictates, brush it over with beaten egg, make a hole in the centre for the steam to escape, and bake in a moderate oven.

Time to bake, two hours or more...Sufficient for a dozen persons."

---Cassell's Dictionary of Cookery with Numerous Illustrations [Cassell, Petter, Galpin:London] 1875 (p. 517-8)

For other Victorian Recipes see Victorian Recipes, Averyl's Attic, 1893 Victorian Recipes, Diogenes Club Recipes, or Shana and Natalie's Victorian Recipes.