Bread slice smeared with the richly flavoured, cold, set, juices and fat collected from beneath a roast, long considered a very basic food for the lowest members of a household. This 'dripping' is not the refined fat of today's supermarkets.
Charles Kingsley's novel 'Westward Ho!' of 1855 has;"We'm half starved this three months - bread and dripping, bread and dripping, oh dear Sir!"
Giving evidence to parliament on the famous Chimney Sweeper's Regulation Bill of 30th June 1834, young John Ross was asked by the committee:
"What Sort of Food had you in the course of the Day ?
For Breakfast we used to have Bread and Dripping; Dinner very seldom through the Week we never had any, barring Sunday."