MODERN-DAY food blenders and even can openers were abandoned in favour of muslin strainers and elbow grease at a Victorian cookery course.

Students have been experiencing a real-life "Upstairs, Downstairs" lifestyle at impressive Gawthorpe Hall in Padiham.

The Victorian domestic life course is the first of its kind to be held in East Lancashire and was the brainchild of Victoriana expert Jayne Hewitt from Lancashire County Catering Services.

With a little help from Mrs Beeton's Victorian cookbook she has been sharing the secrets of what life was like in a Victorian kitchen 150 years ago.

Jayne explained: "Most of the course revolves around food and etiquette.

"Food was a very important part of life in Victorian days and the middle classes enjoyed some very extravagant dishes.

"The students have been able to see, and taste both how food was prepared in traditional ways and how it would have been served."

Jayne has used many original recipes from Mrs Beeton cookbook. And re-creating some of the dishes in 1996 has been a bit of a challenge.

She said: "To be authentic we have only used the utensils, such as mortar and pestles and muslin strainers, that would have been found in a Victorian kitchen.

"Things took a lot longer when you didn't have food blenders and microwaves.

"Also ingredients have changed a lot since then.

"One of Mrs Beeton's recipes for marmalade pudding needed breadcrumbs, but I had to choose my bread very carefully because a lot of modern bread is very fine and watery in comparison to Victorian bread." Throughout the course the dozen students enjoyed a variety of traditional dishes including cauliflower soup thickened with tapioca, raised game pie, stewed lettuce, cabinet pudding (a type of custard made with fruit), old fashioned strawberry jelly all washed down with lemonade and barley water.

And today they were enjoying a Victorian picnic followed by a game of croquet.

Jayne said: "The students are living the high-life really and experiencing life as it would have been for the privileged middle classes.

"But we thought we had to give them a taste of life as it would have been for the servants so tomorrow they will be tucking into a typical servants lunch of hash and beer."

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