The one food Queen Elizabeth has eaten every day since childhood

From PB&J sandwiches to chicken nuggets, our favourite childhood foods gave us comfort when we were kids and still do the same decades later. And while we may not have snack time slotted into our schedules anymore, most of us still munch our way through the day or grab some late-afternoon food to tide us over until dinner. Needing a little something to nibble on in the afternoon is such a universal experience that even Queen Elizabeth II herself can relate. But the menu for Queen Elizabeth’s afternoon tea isn’t quite what you would expect.

After all, if we commoners like to eat carrot sticks and crackers, surely the royal family’s eating habits are a bit more refined. Caviar and foie gras for her majesty, perhaps? Those fancy foods may satisfy other members of the royal family tree, but when it comes to afternoon tea they’re firmly on the list of foods Queen Elizabeth wouldn’t eat. Turns out, the queen’s preferred afternoon tea is one of her favourite childhood snacks – and she’s eaten it every day since she was a toddler.

Every day for more than 90 years, Queen Elizabeth II has eaten her favourite snack: jam sandwiches, also known as jam pennies. As Darren McGrady, a former chef at Buckingham Palace, explained on his YouTube channel, the young Queen Elizabeth first tried jam pennies in her nursery as a little girl, and she has been a fan ever since.

The recipe for Queen Elizabeth’s afternoon tea snack is simple: Butter two slices of soft, white bread and slather one in strawberry jam – preferably handmade from Scottish strawberries grown in the gardens of Balmoral Castle, the Queen’s summer home in Scotland. Sandwich the bread together and use a small, round cookie cutter to cut out crustless circles.

So why the cutesy name? They’re called jam pennies because they’re the size of old English pennies – around 3cm.

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The queen snacks on her favourite food during afternoon tea, a meal that’s been a United Kingdom tradition since around 1840. That’s when Anna Maria Russell, the seventh Duchess of Bedford, found that she was in need of a snack between lunch at noon and dinner at 9pm. (And who can blame her?) The Duchess asked that tea, cake, and bread and butter be brought to her room every day at 5pm, and the custom soon spread among the upper classes.

Nearly two centuries later, and the trend has spread to hotels and tea shops around the world. (Maybe the desire for cake is why the British drink so much tea.) But perhaps a new trend is in order: After hearing about Queen Elizabeth’s afternoon tea spread, we’re inclined to pair our Earl Grey with a few jam pennies.

Imagine having a private chef on hand to make all your favourite foods from scratch, whenever you want them. That’s the reality for royals, and Elizabeth II has been eating professional-made meals since her father, King George VI, was on the throne. It’s good to be queen! Included among her majesty’s preferred foods are other afternoon tea favourites, as well as regional delicacies and a classically British dish.

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According to McGrady, everyone in Buckingham Palace looks forward to Friday’s traditional lunch of fish and chips. Staff and royals alike enjoy the meal, but the queen’s fish and chips are a little more refined than what’s served downstairs. The queen prefers her fish baked, not fried – McGrady cooked it in the oven with a panko crust. As for the royal chips, the chef cuts them into perfectly sized rectangles before frying them and serving them with a handmade tarragon hollandaise sauce.

Considering the queen’s role in government and the fact that she lives in, you know, a palace, Elizabeth II may seem like someone with little in common with the common folk. But when it comes to food, she’s just like us: It turns out she’s a bit of a chocoholic.

One of Queen Elizabeth’s favourite desserts is what McGrady calls chocolate perfection pie, a chocolate pie layered with dark and white chocolate and chocolate shavings. Don’t expect to see her shovelling in her desserts, though. The queen favours moderation – she’s classy like that.

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English tea scones regularly appear in Queen Elizabeth’s afternoon tea selection, and they’re always served with jam and clotted cream. The queen apparently loves to eat seasonal produce and game from the gardens, rivers and estate of Balmoral. So if you’re hosting an authentic Queen Elizabeth afternoon tea, be sure to make your jam by hand from the best of the summer’s berries.

When it comes to serving, do it the royal way: It’s jam first, cream second, according to her majesty.

When McGrady describes the queen’s diet and favourite foods, a few things are clear: She has a serious sweet tooth and loves to eat fish and seafood. One of her favourite dishes is fresh-caught salmon from the River Dee, which runs through the estates surrounding beautiful Balmoral. The castle has been the site of many a Queen Elizabeth afternoon tea, as it’s the place where the royal family has traditionally spent their summer holidays.

Morecambe Bay in Lancashire, a county in northwest England, is famous for its seafood, including potted shrimp, and Queen Elizabeth is reportedly a huge fan of the snack. In fact, she loves them so much that the supplier, James Baxter & Son, was granted a royal warrant as recognition of its quality as a supplier to the royal family.

The shrimp are served in what McGrady describes as a secret spicy butter, and the queen apparently enjoys them on warm toast, which allows the butter to melt in. Morecambe Bay potted shrimp is also what the royal family eats on Christmas, but they’re probably not part of the Christmas gifts Queen Elizabeth gives to her staff.

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Source: RD.com