The Saloop-ers (Lower Class)

The working lower class of Victorian England lived off of "fast-food." Having no time to cook and no money for restaurants, urban laborers often grabbed their daily meals from vendors on the street. There would be hundreds of stalls lined up well before sunrise, offering cheap options to the workers hurrying to various factories and mills. The food was prepared directly for consumption by the customers (Broomfield 30). 


Beverages

Saloop

Many vendors would keep containers of warm coffee or tea to be sold at a penny for a mug. Saloop (shown in th was a sweet and starchy drink that had been around since the 1600s. It was made from either ground orchid roots or sassafras bark and was considered one of the more nutritious options available to the lower class (Broomfield 32). 

Bloaters

Seafood
Bloaters and other types of fish were commonly sold on the streets. Bloaters, pickled oysters, and whelks were abundant and cost next to nothing. Additionally, pieces of eel were often broiled, thickened with flour, and served to the workers in cups. Stall holders would give their customers very little time to eat the eel before asking them to return the cup. The vendor would then scoop another portion and immediately hand it to the next customer to keep business flowing. Breakfast was both a hurried and often unsanitary process for the lower class (Broomfield 32). 

Meat

Meat pie

Good meat was a rarity for lower class citizens. The options most commonly seen and available were meat pies sold on the street. Many vendors obtained a supply of leftover meat scraps from their local butcher shop and then sold their pies at a low price. The meat filling was usually mutton or occasionally beef. Although, there was a popular suspicion that dishonest vendors used stray animals from the street as their ingredients (Johnston 21).

Plum Duff

Carbohydrates
Most of these street foods tasted fairly good and did the job of filling hungry stomachs. Many customers were less concerned with nutrition and more worried about ingesting something to last them through a 14 hour workday. Some of the options in the food stalls catered toward the working class were simply portions of carbohydrates. There were vendors that sold pieces of warm toast and other vendors that sold tastier options such as plum duff, a boiled "pudding" of damp dough sometimes sprinkled with raisins (Broomfield 33). 
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The Street Corner: food in Great Expectations 

 One of the worst, but common, fates for orphans in nineteenth-century England was to live of the streets. As we learn from Magwitch himself at the end of Great Expectations, his career as a convict began by stealing food as a street prowling orphan. His targets were very likely these type of food vendors catering to the factory workers.

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Food at home 

Potato and Cabbage soup

Those who had time to cook and the kitchen equipment to do so could eat at home. However, these meals were rarely better than the options sold in street stalls. The lower class could only afford a basic, usually meatless, diet. Dishes often were made of cheap vegetables and starches, such as cabbage, potatoes, or bread. The most "meat" available to families came as dripping, a mash of beef or pork fat resembling lard. Some other common options were gruel and local fruits ("How the Mid-Victorians"). 
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The Drafty Corner: food in Jane Eyre 

Meals were never fulfilling in amount or nutrition. Jane's experience at Lowood school ,with porridge and minimal portions, showed a typical diet for members of the lower class. Unfortunately, the Lowood meals were often also inedible, adding to the girls' hunger. These unhealthy diets often stunted the growth of nineteenth-century children and made them more susceptible to diseases. The food (or lack thereof) was no doubt a factor in the deaths of the TB infected Lowood girls.