Foods in Season: January

Thinking more about cooking through the season, Victorian style, and decided this year to share the monthly suggestions from Beeton's Book of Household Management.

For January, foodstuffs that should be in season:

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, parships, potatoes, savoys, spinach, turnips,-various herbs

Fruit- Apples, grapes, medlars, nuts, oranges, pears, walnuts, crystalized preserves (foreign), dried fruits, such as almonds and raisins; French and Spanish plums; prunes, figs, dates.

*Terminology notes: "house lamb" is, as the name suggests, a lamb that has been hand-raised in the house (generally over bitter winter weather). "Forced" cucumbers would be grown with artificial heating and protection from the elements (greenhouse, use of glass covers outdoors, a "hot bed" with decaying manure used to warm the soil, etc).