lthough, unlike its rival Punch. Judy does not appear to have devoted cartoons and poems to the subject of tinned and frozen meats from Australia, its “The Toothpick Papers” does mention several times mention it in passing. For example, in the issue for 18 June 1873, we read “She has been gone an hour. The boy from the grocer's has brought in a pound of moist sugar, two ounces of tea, a halfpenny fly-paper, and a tin of Australian; beef” (219), and “The bad boy then went straightway and laid out his good money in all manner and kinds of nasty indigestible messes—hardbake, cocoa-nut (he bought fourteen of these), bulls'-eyes, stick-liquorice, tamarinds, and Australianbeef” (149), and on page 64 someone asks, “Was it the Australian Beef made such a 'difference, Sir? ”
Six years later the issue of 3 December 1879 proclaims “We now live on Australian beef” (274).
Links to Related Material
- Punch on Imports of Tinned and Frozen Meats
- The invention of canning and its effect on what Victorians ate
Bibliography
Judy, or the London Serio-Comic Journal. (1873-1879): Courtesy of the HathiTrust and the Harvard University Library.
Created 17 March 2022