Three Thousand Dishes on a Georgian Table: The Data of Royal Eating in England, 1788-1813

Abstract

This data paper introduces and contextualizes a new digital resource in food history that includes a digitization and interpretation of two substantial kitchen ledgers from the palaces of King George III and his son (future) George IV of Great Britain, between 1788 and 1813. These bills of fare contain the daily food allocations of every table in the two palaces. They include more than 3,000 unique dish constructions and more than 40,000 served dishes. Each dish has been classified by a number of categories related to cooking, from details of key ingredients, to cooking method, resulting in over 1.3 million points of scholarly data about daily eating in Georgian Britain. Importantly the volumes digitized include two periods in which George III was suffering acutely from his mental health crises, raising significant questions about