Brioche in the UK

Over 200 different types of bread are manufactured in the UK today. One of these is the French butter rich Brioche. With it's origins in the eighteenth century, it is understood that Louis XIV's wife Marie Antoinette did not say 'Let them eat Cake', but in fact stated 'Let them eat brioche', with reference to food shortages affecting the French poor. Although this phrase has since been typically attributed elsewhere.

Brioche tines from the early 1900s, from a kitchen in Suffolk

©MuseumofKitchenalia

A 'Celebrated Brioche, or Festival of Cake' as it was termed, appears in an article in Freeman's Journal and Daily Commercial Advertiser in 1832, suggesting that this French buttery treat was a known consumable in the UK at least as early as the nineteenth century. And the Museum of Kitchenalia boasts a pair of brioche tins from the early 1900s, illustrated above. These remained popular in domestic kitchens up to the 1950s when they were then produced in shiny tinned steel.