Steampunk Party Food: Edible Gears, a Pimm’s Cup and a Tea Table

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A theme party stands or falls by its refreshments, and steampunk is kinder to the host than most, because the Victorian tea table supplies the whole menu. What follows is a small bill of fare, drawn from recipes we can credit and a few facts about the period’s own table. It is the food chapter of our wider guide to steampunk party ideas; the other crafts of the genre are gathered in the steampunk DIY guide, and a fuller account of the tea itself will be found in how to host a steampunk tea party. This page replaces an older post at the same address and has been written afresh.

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The Outfitters' Catalogue

Everything named in this guide, by budget

AllThriftyMid-rangeHeirloom

Fig. 1Thrifty

Gear-shaped cookie cutters

The whole of the edible-gears trick: a cutter and a sugar-cookie dough.

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Fig. 2Thrifty

Instant-read food thermometer

For hot dishes that must stay at 140 F or above.

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Fig. 3Thrifty

Collins glasses, set of six

The tall glass for a Pimm's Cup.

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Fig. 4Mid-range

Three-tier serving stand

The tea table's centerpiece, for scones, sandwiches and cakes.

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Fig. 5Mid-range

Teapot with infuser

For the tea itself, and for the duel.

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Fig. 6Heirloom

Bone china tea set

Cups, saucers and pot in a pattern made to last.

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I.What a Victorian Tea Table Held

Mental Floss traces the afternoon tea of the 1840s to Anna Maria Russell, the Duchess of Bedford, who took tea and a light bite about four o’clock because of the long gap between meals. The middle classes adopted it readily, being economical. The same account lists plum, rice, sponge, seed and pound cakes; hot muffins, crumpets and toast; bread and butter cut very thin; small sandwiches; preserved fruit, jams and fancy biscuits; and strawberries and cream in summer. For drink, tea or coffee, and for some guests sherry, claret, lemonade or seltzer.

Its table advice is equally useful. Spread a white cloth, with flowers or fruit at the center; put the tea tray at one end and the coffee at the other; and let the hostess pour. That is a framework on which a steampunk host may hang as much brass as the room will bear.

II.Edible Gears: Cut-Out Cookies

There is, we regret to say, no particular secret to an edible gear. It is a cut-out sugar cookie in the shape of a gear. What matters is a dough that keeps the cutter’s edge. The recipe at Once Upon a Chef, adapted from King Arthur Flour, makes about five dozen 2-inch cookies from butter, confectioners’ sugar, an egg yolk, salt, flavoring and flour. In outline:

1. Beat the butter, sugar, yolk, salt and flavoring, mix in the flour, divide into two discs, and chill for at least 2 hours or overnight.
2. Let the dough soften on the counter for 30 minutes to an hour, preheat the oven to 350 F, and roll to between 1/8 and 1/4 inch thick.
3. Cut the gears, lift them with a thin metal spatula, and bake 10 to 14 minutes until set and barely browned at the edges; small cookies may take as little as 8 minutes.
4. Cool on a rack before icing.

For icing, the same page offers an easy glaze of confectioners’ sugar, light corn syrup and milk, with sprinkles applied while it is wet; it contains no egg. We prefer that to a royal icing, which some recipes make with raw egg white; the page we read links its royal icing to a separate recipe and does not say. The CDC lists raw or undercooked eggs among the riskier foods and advises keeping raw eggs apart from ready-to-eat food.

We found no sourced instruction for giving cookies a brass finish, and so give none. The shape, a brown or gold glaze and a line of sprinkles will carry the idea.

III.Scones

King Arthur’s scone recipe yields twelve: the dough is cut into wedges from two rounds about three-quarters of an inch thick, frozen for 30 minutes, and baked at 425 F for 18 to 23 minutes. The recipe takes dried fruit, chocolate or nuts, and calls for starting with the smaller amount of liquid, since flour absorbs differently with humidity. Serve them with jam on a three-tier stand; Mental Floss lists jams and preserves among the period’s own offerings.

IV.A Drink: The Pimm's Cup

Punch publishes a Pimm’s Cup of 2 oz Pimm’s No. 1, half an ounce of lemon juice and a quarter ounce of simple syrup, stirred in a Collins glass, topped with ginger ale and two dashes of Angostura bitters, and garnished with cucumber, mint, berries and citrus. The drink rests on a gin-based liqueur created by James Pimm at his London oyster bar in the mid-nineteenth century, so the tale is period enough for a steampunk table. We offer one cocktail and not several because it is the one we could cite; a host who wants a non-alcoholic round may serve the lemon, syrup and ginger ale alone, which is our suggestion and not a sourced recipe.

V.The Tea Duel

The Ministry of Steampunk records that tea duelling was invented in 2010 by Dr Geof Banyard and John Naylor, uses Malted Milk biscuits, and follows the third edition (1899) of the articles of the Honourable Association of Tea Duellists. The rules themselves were in a PDF we did not read, and we repeat none of them. It is, at all events, an inexpensive entertainment: tea, biscuits and a dry sense of occasion.

VI.Keeping the Food Safe

A party table is a long-standing arrangement of food at room temperature, which is exactly the circumstance that food-safety authorities warn against. The FDA’s rules for food eaten outdoors, and the CDC’s for preventing food poisoning, agree on the following:

• Perishable food should be discarded after more than 2 hours out, or 1 hour when the air is above 90 F.
• Keep cold food at 40 F or below until serving, and hot food at 140 F or above; the range between is the “Danger Zone”.
• Keep raw eggs apart from ready-to-eat food, and wash hands after handling them.

An instant-read thermometer settles any dispute about whether the hot dish is still hot. We state these rules from the FDA and CDC pages and add none of our own. Alcohol is the host’s responsibility, and we have no source to cite on it.

VII.Frequently Asked Questions

How do you make edible gears?

Cut a gear shape from a chilled sugar-cookie dough rolled 1/8 to 1/4 inch thick, and bake 10 to 14 minutes at 350 F.

What food do you serve at a steampunk party?

A Victorian tea table: scones, small sandwiches, cakes, jam and gear-shaped cookies.

What do you drink at a steampunk tea party?

Tea and coffee, as the period did, and a Pimm’s Cup for those who want something stronger.

How long can party food sit out?

No more than 2 hours, or 1 hour above 90 F.

What is tea duelling?

A game played with mugs of tea and Malted Milk biscuits, invented in 2010 and run under articles dated 1899.

Is royal icing safe?

That depends on the recipe; some use raw egg white, and the CDC lists raw eggs among the riskier foods. The glaze above uses none.

Sources