#(tenuously)

Also please look at how small Renault era Carlos looks next to Mark thank you. (x)

I didn't realise vegetarianism was enough of a thing for Victorian London to have dedicated vegetarian restaurants, but apparently there was a surge of interest from the 1880s onwards.

Edward E Howe's The Vegetarian Cook Book (published in the USA in 1887, but referencing British writers) provides the following arguments for vegetarianism:

It's healthier; Howe is particularly concerned with people eating too much nitrogen, but he also highlights illnesses that people get from eating meat.

It stops you from wanting alcohol - the pro-vegetarian movement was closely linked with the temperance movement at this time.

It saves you money, in particular in making you not need to eat as much.

Eating meat is disgusting; he describes this as the aesthetic argument.

Some scripture opposes eating meat.

It's noticeable that ethical arguments about the rights and wrongs of killing animals for food don't appear.

Howe's "vegetarian" diet is actually a semi-vegan diet (the word "vegan" was only invented in the 1940s) since he prefers to avoid milk and eggs (except for children), though he seems to be OK with cheese. He also advocates for prioritising raw food, not eating food that's too hot, not eating anything too soft, not drinking ice water or eating ice cream, avoiding tea and coffee, and if that's not enough:

Condiments should be very sparingly used, for they tend to create undue thirst, and inflame the coats of the stomach and internal passages. Pure food requires no condiments, and will be relished if the taste for spicy foods is discouraged.

If that makes it sound as if the recipes in the book would be terrible... well, they are. There's a lot of boiling veg for hours on end - onions for 45 mins, green beans for 1-1.5 hours, and carrots for up to 2 hours.

Seasonings are not mentioned.

Here's a "macaroni" recipe:

Wash it and then break into lengths of 6 or 8 inches. To 2 oz. of macaroni add a teaspoonful of salt and a quart of boiling water. Simmer gently until tender, and the water quite evaporated, about half an hour. Then lay it in a dish and grate over it old cheese, after which set in an oven till of a brown color, about 20 mins.

Yes this is plain pasta with a bit of (old) cheese on top. Delicious.

Thankfully not all vegetarian cooking was like this in Victorian times. New Vegetarian Dishes by Mrs Bowdich comes to the rescue (published in London, in 1892).

In the preface, Earnest Bell, treasurer of the London Vegetarian Society, says "to have to live by some [vegetarian cook books] would almost make a vegetarian turn meat-eater". He notes that while some vegetarians "prefer a plain diet", most people don't. He also cites animal welfare as a possible reason for vegetarianism - that "in some cases, I hope, that [people] would willingly diminish the sufferings involved in the transport and slaughter of animals".

Mrs Bowdich's recipes live up to the promise of the preface, with things like this perfectly good veggie sausage recipe:

one wants to draw something feat. gai’s peachy ass

08.31 

The suspect (washing her guilty paws):