The history of food has always fascinated me. Why are some practices followed in our kitchens? Why do some sharp similarities exist in food originating from totally different cultures? The answer lies in our culinary history, some of which has been documented and some put together from various sources. For this article, I chose English food as it is of particular interest to me.

One article obviously cannot do justice to such a subject. The focus of this article therefore is to summarise English food from the 1400′s to the 1600′s.

Medieval Era

There has always been a stark difference between the sources of nutrition available to the rich and the poor. Food such as fresh meat, fruit and vegetables were produced by the estates of the rich. Despite their availability, fresh fruits andvegetables were rarely eaten as is, due to a belief that they caused disease. This is highlighted in The Boke of Kervynge (The Book of Carving) written in 1508 – “Beware of green sallettes and rawe fruytes for they wyll make your soverayne seke.“. Literally translated, this means, “Beware of green salads and raw fruits as they will make your sovereign (master) sick.”. As a result, fruits and vegetables were always cooked before consumption.

Some people used plates called trenches. These were thick, large, slightly hollowed slices of bread, upon which food was piled and eaten. The bread ‘plate’ was later eaten too. Spices and ingredients such nutmeg, pepper, cane sugar, almonds, caraway, figs and raisins were highly prized and used quite heavily in flavoring sauces, meats and fruits.  Ginger, for example was favored for use with Lampreys. Interestingly, potatoes were introduced to English cuisine around 1536.

Social classes were very strictly enforced at the time and were composed of three main classes – Nobility, Clergy and Commoners. People were expected to remain within their class and to respect the authority of superior classes. Nobility and Clergy at the time indulged in fresh meat and vegetables/fruits, seasoned with expensives spices and flavors and demonstrated refined manners at the dining table, whereas commoners sustained themselves on coarse barley bread and preserved foods and were not expected to display any etiquette. Preserved foods consisted largely of food preserved right after slaughter or harvest; meats mostly comprised pork, as pigs could sustain themselves in forests and neighbouring areas quite easily, unlike cows and sheep. In sharp contrast, the Nobility pampered themselves with huge banquets that featured jellies, pies, fried food and roasted animals including peacocks, seals and even whales! The Clergy was supposed to abstain from worldly pleasures, however, higher officials in the Church indulged in gastronomic treats just the same as the Nobility. Monastries however, were stricter in their observance of fasting and feasting days along with rules for day to day consumption of food.

Pottage however, was a dish eaten by both the rich and the poor. A thick, soup like dish containing vegetables, meat and/or bran, pottage had an upmarket version called a ‘mortrew’ and one based on cerials calls ‘frumenty’.

Recipe Sample: Furmenty with purpaysse from Potage Dyvers (1430 – 1440)

Make thin Furmenty in the maner as I sayd be-fore, saue temper it vp with Almaunden, Mylke, & Sugre, & Safroun, than take thin Purpays as a Freysshe Samoun, & sethe it in fayre Water; & when he is I-sothe y-now, bawde it & leche it in fayre pecys, & serue wyth Furmenty in hote Water.

Food in the 1500s

The 1500′s or the Tudor era saw a massive increase in creativity and social transformations. Food however witnessed few changes. Staple diets continued to be based on meat, bread, pottage and wine. Fresh fruits and vegetables were still not eaten. In fact, the sale of fresh fruits and vegetables were banned during the plague of 1569.

International commerce continued to grow and this gave the rich access to even more exotic and unusual ingredients from places such as Chile, Mexico and Peru.  These included French beans, peppers, tapioca, lemons and melons. Consumption of sugar increased greatly among the wealthy. Combined with little or no knowledge of dental hygiene, the rich were highly prone to dental infections. Queen Elizabeth is said to have had black teeth due to her great love for sugar.

An important change in the Tudor era was the shift from bread trenchers to wooden trenchers. Wooden trenchers had three hollows, which were used for meat, gravy and salt. This was also a time when books on cooking began to be written and published regularly. The high cost of these books and that of the ingredients within ensured their circulation solely within wealthy circles.

Recipe Sample: Aristocrats Lard from The Good Huswifes Jewell (1585) by Thomas Dawson

laid upon a peverell or cover to save the mere sauce that commeth from it: then seethe the brine, and lay in your Beefe againe, see the brine be colde so let it lye two dayes and one night: then take it out, and lay it again on a hurdel two or three dayes. Then wype it everie peece with linnen cloth, dry them and couch it with salt, a laying of Beef and another of salt: and ye must lay a stick crosse each way, so that the brine may run from the salt.

References:

• British Library
• Cariadoc’s Miscellany