A Five-Course Anti-Inflammatory Dinner Inspired by the Victorian Age

Cooking with Flowers: The Happy Table

Open Mrs Beeton's Book of Household Management at November and you find a list of what an English kitchen could buy that month in 1861: cod, haddock, oysters and turbot; pheasant, partridge and hare; beetroot, cabbage, celery, spinach and sprouts; apples, pears, chestnuts and walnuts. Read that list with a modern eye and almost every item on it belongs on an anti-inflammatory table.

The Victorians had the right larder. The cooking and the quantities were the problem. A November dinner for eight in a Victorian cookery guide runs to a soup, two fish dishes, two large joints, two entrées, a second course of roast game, an iced pudding and four smaller dishes, with sherry, hock, claret, champagne and port poured along the way. Fish arrived under sauces built on butter and flour. Green vegetables were boiled far longer than you would boil them today. The evening ended with suet, sugar and a decanter, and gout was common enough at such tables to earn its old name, the disease of kings.

This week you can borrow the Victorian larder and leave the rest behind. The menu below runs to five courses for six people and uses what British markets sell in the first week of November. Bonfire Night falls on Thursday 5th November, and Saturday 7th November gives you an easy evening to host before the season of heavy eating begins.

Inflammation is a repair crew that needs to clock off

Inflammation is how your body heals. A cut finger swells, warms and mends, and that short burst of activity is healthy. The trouble starts when the crew never goes home. Low-grade inflammation that runs for months is linked with heart disease, type 2 diabetes, joint pain and fatigue, and what you eat every day pushes it up or down.

Refined sugar, white flour, processed meat and heavy drinking raise the blood markers doctors use to measure inflammation. Oily fish, extra virgin olive oil, vegetables, nuts, herbs and spices bring them down. The colours on this menu come from the same plant compounds that do the work, so the more colour you put on the plate, the better your guests eat. Saffron, calendula and hibiscus carry the flowers through November, when the garden holds few fresh blooms.

The menu at a glance

1. Saffron, ginger and turmeric broth with leeks
2. Bitter leaf salad with roast pumpkin, walnuts, pomegranate and calendula
3. Pan-fried mackerel with beetroot, horseradish and dill
4. Pheasant with chestnuts, black kale and red cabbage with apple
5. Pears poached in hibiscus with dark chocolate and hazelnuts

Every recipe serves six.

First course: a golden broth takes the place of mulligatawny

On the Victorian table. Mulligatawny appears again and again in Victorian November menus. The soup came home from British India, and its curry powder carried turmeric into English kitchens. The English cook then fried the onions in butter, thickened the pot with flour and served it heavy enough to stand a spoon in, which buried the spice beneath the starch.

Turmeric's active compound, curcumin, is poorly absorbed on its own. Black pepper contains piperine, which raises that absorption sharply, and a little fat helps further, so this broth uses both. Fresh ginger brings gingerols, which act on the same inflammatory pathways. Saffron comes from the saffron crocus, which flowers in autumn, and its gold pigment, crocin, is a strong antioxidant. Leeks and garlic add the fibre your gut bacteria feed on.

Ingredients (prep 10 minutes, cook 25 minutes)

• 1.5 litres good chicken or vegetable stock
• A generous pinch of saffron, about 20 threads
• 5 cm fresh ginger, thinly sliced
• 1 teaspoon ground turmeric, or 3 cm fresh turmeric root, grated
• ½ teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
• 2 leeks, washed and cut into fine ribbons
• 2 garlic cloves, thinly sliced
• 1 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil
• Juice of half a lemon
• A small handful of coriander leaves
• Sea salt

How to Make It

1. Crumble the saffron into 2 tablespoons of warm water and leave it to steep for 10 minutes while you prepare the vegetables.
2. Warm the olive oil in a large pan over a medium heat. Add the leeks and garlic with a pinch of salt and cook for 5 minutes until soft but still bright green.
3. Stir in the ginger, turmeric and black pepper and cook for 1 minute until fragrant.
4. Pour in the stock and the saffron with its water. Bring to a simmer and cook gently for 15 minutes.
5. Lift out the ginger slices, add the lemon juice and taste for salt.
6. Serve in small cups or shallow bowls with a few coriander leaves on top.

The broth keeps for three days in the fridge, so you can make it on Thursday and warm it through as your guests arrive.

Second course: raw bitter leaves take the place of creamed spinach

On the Victorian table. Vegetables reached the Victorian dinner party as small side dishes in the second course: spinach with cream, sprouts tossed in butter, potatoes in a rich sauce. Raw leaves rarely appeared at a winter dinner, and the long boiling of greens drained away much of the vitamin C and many of the plant compounds you want from them.

Red and white chicory are rich in inulin, a fibre your gut bacteria ferment into short-chain fatty acids such as butyrate, which help keep the lining of your gut calm and intact. The red leaves also carry anthocyanins, the same pigments found in berries. Pumpkin brings beta-carotene. Walnuts are the richest common nut source of alpha-linolenic acid, the plant form of omega-3. Pomegranate seeds hold punicalagins, powerful antioxidants found mainly in this fruit, and calendula petals add carotenoids and a bright orange finish.

Ingredients (prep 15 minutes, cook 30 minutes)

• 1 small pumpkin or squash, about 1 kg, such as Crown Prince or butternut, peeled and cut into wedges
• 2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
• 2 heads red chicory
• 1 head white chicory
• 80 g walnut halves
• Seeds of 1 pomegranate
• 2 tablespoons dried calendula petals, food grade
• Sea salt and black pepper

For the dressing:

• 4 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
• 1 tablespoon apple cider vinegar
• 1 teaspoon Dijon mustard
• 1 teaspoon runny honey
• A pinch of salt

How to Make It

1. Heat the oven to 200°C (180°C fan). Toss the pumpkin with the olive oil, salt and pepper and roast for 25 to 30 minutes until the edges caramelise.
2. Toast the walnuts on a separate tray for the last 6 minutes, then chop them roughly.
3. Shake the dressing ingredients together in a jar.
4. Separate the chicory leaves, then wash and dry them well.
5. Arrange the leaves on a platter, tuck the warm pumpkin among them and scatter over the walnuts and pomegranate seeds. Spoon over the dressing.
6. Finish with the calendula petals just before the platter goes to the table.

Third course: mackerel takes the place of turbot in butter sauce

On the Victorian table. Turbot, cod and soles headed the fish course at a wealthy Victorian dinner, usually boiled and served with lobster or oyster sauce made on a base of melted butter and flour. The twist lies further down the social scale. Herring sold cheaply from barrows and oysters from street stalls fed the working poor, and those humble fish gave them far more of the fats that settle inflammation than turbot gave the rich.

Mackerel is one of the richest sources of the long-chain omega-3 fats EPA and DHA. Your body turns these fats into molecules called resolvins, which help switch inflammation off once its job is done. Beetroot brings betalains, the pigments behind its colour, and nitrates that help your blood vessels relax. Horseradish belongs to the cabbage family and releases sharp, protective isothiocyanates the moment you grate it.

Ingredients (prep 15 minutes, cook 1 hour, with the beetroot roasted ahead)

• 6 mackerel fillets, pin-boned
• 4 medium beetroot
• 1 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil, plus a little for the pan
• 1 tablespoon apple cider vinegar
• 150 g thick natural yoghurt
• 2 tablespoons freshly grated horseradish, or 1 tablespoon from a jar
• Finely grated zest of 1 lemon, plus a squeeze of juice
• A small bunch of dill, chopped
• Sea salt and black pepper

How to Make It

1. Wrap the beetroot in foil and roast at 200°C (180°C fan) for 50 to 60 minutes until a knife slides in easily. You can do this the day before.
2. When the beetroot is cool, rub off the skins, cut it into wedges and dress it with the olive oil, vinegar and a pinch of salt.
3. Stir the horseradish, lemon zest and half the dill into the yoghurt, season and set aside.
4. Pat the mackerel dry, score the skin three times and season both sides.
5. Heat a little oil in a large frying pan over a medium-high heat. Lay the fillets skin side down and press them gently for 10 seconds to stop them curling. Cook for 3 minutes until the skin crisps, then turn and cook for 1 minute more.
6. Spoon the horseradish yoghurt onto each plate, add the beetroot and a fillet, and finish with the remaining dill and a squeeze of lemon.

Fourth course: one pheasant main takes the place of four meat dishes

On the Victorian table. A Victorian November dinner served its meat in waves. Large joints such as boiled turkey with oyster sauce or roast sucking pig came first, small rich entrées such as croquettes of ox palate came next, and roast game such as hare, woodcock or pheasant followed, with bread sauce, fried breadcrumbs and gravy. Pheasant, chestnuts and cabbage all sit on Mrs Beeton's November list. The difference this week is that you serve the game bird as the one and only main.

Pheasant is a lean game bird, lower in fat than most farmed meat. Red cabbage owes its purple to anthocyanins, black kale brings glucosinolates from the cabbage family, and apple skin adds quercetin. Chestnuts are the low-fat nut, high in fibre and gentle in flavour. A little cinnamon in the cabbage adds warmth without sugar.

Ingredients (prep 20 minutes, cook 1 hour, with the cabbage made ahead)

For the red cabbage:

• ½ red cabbage, finely shredded
• 1 red onion, thinly sliced
• 2 eating apples, cored and grated
• 2 tablespoons apple cider vinegar
• ½ teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil
• 150 ml water
• Sea salt and black pepper

For the pheasant:

• 6 pheasant breasts, skin on
• 1 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil
• A few sprigs of thyme
• 2 garlic cloves, lightly crushed
• 200 g cooked, peeled chestnuts, halved
• 300 g black kale, stalks removed and leaves torn
• 100 ml chicken stock
• Sea salt and black pepper

How to Make It

1. For the cabbage, warm the oil in a heavy pan and soften the onion for 5 minutes. Add the cabbage, apple, vinegar, cinnamon, water and a pinch of salt. Cover and cook on a low heat for 45 minutes, stirring now and then, until soft and glossy. The cabbage tastes even better the next day.
2. Take the pheasant out of the fridge 20 minutes before cooking. Pat it dry and season.
3. Heat the oil in a large frying pan over a medium heat. Lay the breasts skin side down with the thyme and garlic and cook for 4 minutes until golden. Turn and cook for 3 to 4 minutes more, depending on size, until just firm to the touch. Pheasant dries out fast, so take it off the heat while it still gives a little. Rest it for 5 minutes.
4. In the same pan, fry the chestnuts for 2 minutes, then add the kale and stock and cook for 3 to 4 minutes until the leaves wilt.
5. Slice each breast and serve it on the kale and chestnuts with a spoonful of warm red cabbage.

For a plant-based guest, roast thick slices of celeriac with olive oil and thyme at 200°C for 35 minutes and serve them the same way.

Fifth course: hibiscus pears take the place of the sugar-laden pudding

On the Victorian table. The Victorian sweet course brought orange pudding, meringues, iced rice pudding and, as winter drew on, suet puddings packed with dried fruit. After Parliament abolished the sugar duty in 1874, sugar became cheap and the nation's sweet tooth grew through the rest of the century. Then came the dessert proper: grapes, pears, filberts and walnuts, passed round with port. That final plate of fruit and nuts was the healthiest thing on the table, and the port undid much of its good.

Dried hibiscus flowers are rich in anthocyanins, which turn the poaching liquid a deep ruby. Pears bring soluble fibre. Dark chocolate at 85 per cent cocoa carries flavanols with little sugar. Hazelnuts, the filberts of the Victorian dessert, supply vitamin E and the same healthy fats you find in olive oil. Two tablespoons of honey sweeten six pears, a fraction of the sugar in a single slice of suet pudding.

Ingredients (prep 15 minutes, cook 45 minutes)

• 6 firm pears, such as Conference, peeled with stalks left on
• 20 g dried hibiscus flowers, food grade
• 1 litre water
• 1 cinnamon stick
• 3 cm fresh ginger, sliced
• 1 strip of orange peel
• 2 tablespoons runny honey
• 60 g hazelnuts
• 60 g dark chocolate, 85 per cent cocoa
• 200 g thick natural yoghurt, to serve

How to Make It

1. Put the water, hibiscus, cinnamon, ginger, orange peel and honey in a pan just wide enough to hold the pears. Bring to a simmer.
2. Lower in the pears, cover them with a circle of baking paper and simmer for 25 to 30 minutes, turning them halfway, until a knife slides in easily.
3. Lift out the pears. Strain the liquid, return it to the pan and boil it for 10 to 15 minutes until it thickens to a light syrup.
4. Toast the hazelnuts at 180°C for 8 minutes, rub off the skins in a clean tea towel and chop them roughly.
5. Serve each pear in a shallow bowl with a spoonful of yoghurt, the ruby syrup poured over and the hazelnuts scattered round. Shave the chocolate over the top with a vegetable peeler.

Poach the pears in the morning and leave them in their liquid until dinner, and the colour deepens all day.

Your hosting timeline

• Thursday 5th November: make the broth and braise the red cabbage. Both improve overnight.
• Friday 6th November: roast the beetroot, then peel and dress it. Shake the salad dressing in its jar.
• Saturday 7th November, morning: poach the pears and reduce the syrup. Toast the walnuts and hazelnuts.
• One hour before guests arrive: roast the pumpkin, mix the horseradish yoghurt and take the pheasant out of the fridge.
• During dinner: the mackerel takes 4 minutes and the pheasant takes 8, so you spend the evening at the table, not at the stove.

The Table

The modern dinner of courses served one after another descends from the Victorians. Mrs Beeton explained the newer fashion, the Russian service, in which dishes were carved at the sideboard and handed round to the guests. Before it, a host set every dish of a course on the table at once. Your five plated courses keep the Russian rhythm and drop the excess.

Setting the table step by step

• Cloth: a heavy linen cloth in deep forest green or charcoal, which makes the gold, ruby and orange of the food glow under candlelight.
• Colour scheme: saffron gold, beetroot and hibiscus ruby, and the dark green of black kale, with calendula orange as the accent.
• Napkins: mustard or ruby linen napkins folded flat on each plate, with a sprig of rosemary tucked into the fold.
• Centrepiece: a low run of small pumpkins, whole pears, walnuts and chestnuts in their shells down the middle of the table, with beeswax candles in brass holders. Keep everything below eye level so your guests can see one another.
• The drink to pour: sparkling water with a splash of pomegranate juice and a sprig of rosemary as guests arrive. For those who drink wine, pour one glass of a light Pinot Noir with the pheasant. Close the evening with a pot of chamomile tea, the last flower of the night, in place of the Victorian port.
• Finishing touch: a small card at each place listing your five courses, with the Victorian dish each one replaced written beneath it in italics. Your guests will read the old menu against the new one before the broth arrives.

Honouring the Earth

• Buy pheasant from a local butcher or game dealer, and ask for birds shot with non-lead shot where possible.
• Ask your fishmonger for handline-caught mackerel from Cornwall, caught one fish at a time with very little waste.
• Rinse and roast the pumpkin seeds with a little salt and serve them with the sparkling water.
• Keep any spare hibiscus syrup in the fridge and stir a spoonful into sparkling water through the week.
• Compost the vegetable peelings, beetroot skins and spent hibiscus flowers.

With the Children

• Children can strip the kale leaves from their stalks and scatter the calendula petals over the salad.
• Halve the pomegranate, hold it cut side down over a bowl and let them tap the skin with a wooden spoon until the seeds rain out.
• Give them the dressing jar to shake and the place cards to write. Ask them to guess what an ox palate was before you tell them it is the roof of an ox's mouth, a Victorian delicacy.
• Serve them a smaller mackerel fillet with the skin extra crisp and the pears with a little more yoghurt.

From Supper to Street

Make a double batch of the golden broth and fill a flask for the Bonfire Night display on Thursday 5th November, where a warm cup passes easily from hand to hand. Take a jar to a neighbour who lives alone during the first cold week of the month, and leave it on the doorstep with a note and the recipe. A Victorian household sent its leftover joints to the poor at the back door; you can send the healthiest course of your week to the front.

A note on safety

• Buy calendula and hibiscus labelled food grade. Never use flowers from a florist, which may carry sprays.
• Avoid hibiscus and calendula if you are pregnant. Hibiscus can lower blood pressure and may interact with blood pressure medication.
• If you are allergic to ragweed, daisies or marigolds, you may react to calendula.
• Turmeric in supplement doses can interact with blood thinners. The amount in this broth is a cooking quantity.
• Check each pheasant breast for shot before cooking.
• If you are pregnant, the NHS advises no more than two portions of oily fish such as mackerel a week.

This article shares general information about food and is not medical advice. Speak to your GP or a registered dietitian before changing your diet if you have a health condition or take regular medication.