Green’s Dictionary of Slang

a thickly cut slice of bread, or cake; sometimes ext. to a couple of doorsteps.

1883		Mankind (Surrey Theatre) in Ware (1909) 134/1: He asks for a pint of mahogany juice, a flight of doorsteps, and a penny halligator.
1885		Cambridge Indep. Press 25 July 3/3: ‘Plum pudding is a penny halfpenny a slice, but I likes two “doorsteps” at a half-penny a piece just as well.’‘Doorsteps,’ I found, were thick slices of bread sprad with jam.
1891		Sporting Times 18 Apr. 3/5: ‘Flight of doorsteps’ Five slices of bread and vutter.
1894		Civil & Milit. Gaz. (Lahore) 18 Oct. 4/3: A man as don’t lower the porter. / Scorfs ’is pice over doorsteps an wads.
1894		Sheffield Eve. Teleg. 18 July 4/3: They consumed what [...] is known as the familiar ‘cup of thick’ and ‘doorsteps’.
1899		C. Rook Hooligan Nights 68: We called for a small do an’ two doorsteps each.
1907		Marvel 26 Jan. 21: The breakfast for the boys consisted of thick chunks of bread-and-butter – commonly called ‘doorsteps’.
1910		Magnet 3 Sept. 28: ‘Cup o’ tea and a doorstep!’ he ordered cheerfully [...] the ‘doorstep’ being simply a thick slice of bread and butter.
1916		Yorks Eve. Post 16 Oct. 5/4: [of a teacake] Munitions workers very glibly speak of [...] tea cakes as ‘doorsteps’ and a rock bun as ‘Hill 60’. Another [...] way of ordering a sausage roll is to ask for a ‘lucky-to-get-hold’.
1921		N&Q 12 Ser. IX 384: Dork (Also Doorstep). A thick slice of bread.
1928		Derby Dly Teleg. 27 Aug. 8/4: [...] enjoying, like myself, a pennypiece of cake, a ‘doorstep’ (slice of bread and margarine) and a tin mug of tea.
1929		‘Henry Green’ Living (1978) 236: I cut steps of bread and cheese that we took with us.
1937		E. Raymond Marsh 328: How could you do with a nice two-eyed steak, eh, and a couple ’a’ doorsteps, with a nice pint of thick to wash it all dahn with, eh?
1943		‘Henry Green’ Caught (2001) 141: He ate his step of bread and jam.
1943		R. Llewellyn None But the Lonely Heart 100: Big doorsteps of bread and marg.
1957		D. Niland Call Me When the Cross Turns Over (1958) 30: Anything I hate it’s them little diamond-shaped sandwiches [...] Gimme a decent doorstep job like this anytime.
1960		J. O’Donoghue In Kerry Long Ago 57: Big door-step slices of home-made raisin cake.
1967		J. Wynnum I’m a Jack, All Right 62: George munched fast on his doorstep slice of bread and jam.
1974		D. Ireland Burn 91: The others come out presently with thick doorsteps of bread and butter and jam.
1985		G. Norman in Norman (1921) 106: Coffee or cocoa and half a dozen ‘doorsteps’ (thick slices of bread).
2003		(con. 1932) W. Woodruff Beyond Nab End 4: Rock buns and ‘doorstep’ ham sandwiches were stacked on glass trays.