Life for the Stuart lordsFood and drink - fashionable people began to eat salad, grown in their own greenhouses. They drank new drinks like tea from China, cocoa from Mexico and coffee from Arabia. They would eat from porcelain dishes imported from China and drink from glasses.
Most households served three meals a day, although breakfast, if eaten at all, was not substantial: it consisted of bread, perhaps with butter and sage, washed down with a small ale. The main meal of the day was dinner.
Based on the Bible and historical records, Jesus most likely ate a diet similar to the Mediterranean diet, which includes foods like kale, pine nuts, dates, olive oil, lentils and soups. They also baked fish.
During the 1700s, meals typically included pork, beef, lamb, fish, shellfish, chicken, corn, beans and vegetables, fruits, and numerous baked goods. Corn, pork, and beef were staples in most lower and middle class households.
WATCH: The Queen's favourite foods may surprise youShe loved using ingredients off the estate and so if we had salmon from Balmoral from the River Dee, she'd have that, it was one of her favourites." The same is likely true of the venison, with the grounds of her Scottish residence offering plenty of deer.
A peasant food, it was a common meal throughout Europe in medieval times. Most peasants ate what foods were available to them at the time, so pottage became something of a catch-all term that has since come to mean something with little or no value. Pottage often included vegetables like cabbage.
Barley bread, porridge, gruel and pasta, for breakfast, lunch and dinner.
Well, he chowed down on the good stuff — you know, swan, venison, peacock, heron, and seagull. Yes, you read that correctly. During the royal family meals they were eating peacocks — and seagulls!
A lord might have white bread, three meat dishes, three fish dishes (more fish on a saint's day) and wine or ale to drink. Eaten at sunrise. It would consist on dark bread, probably made of rye or barley, with ale to drink.
So yes, they washed their dishes. Water would likely come from a well or one of the town's fountains, if it had them. In some cases people hauled water from a river or a creek, although they understood that some rivers' water was unsafe to drink unless it was boiled.
Until the arrival of the potato in the 16th century, grains such as oats, wheat and barley, cooked either as porridge or bread, formed the staple of the Irish diet.
The Queen Mother was no exception and her favourite food – in common with most members of the royal family – was fish. And one of her favourite pastimes was angling. She loved, when she was in Scotland, to don her waders and catch local fish from the sparkling rivers and streams.
In Mediterranean regions, citrus varieties were common, including lemons, citrons, and bitter oranges. They also enjoyed pomegranates, quince, grapes, and dates. In more northerly climes, apples, pears, plums and strawberries were all available. In northern and central Europe, dairy was ubiquitous.
The Tudors were also fond of sweet foods (if they could afford them). Rich Tudors ate preserved fruit, gingerbread, sugared almonds, and jelly. Marzipan was introduced into England in the late Middle Ages. It is a paste made of almonds and sugar.
The poor ate whatever meat they could find, such as rabbits, blackbirds, pheasants, partridges, hens, ducks, and pigeons, and also fish they caught from lakes and rivers. Meanwhile, the rich people also ate more costly varieties of meat, such as swan, peafowl, geese, boar, and deer (venison).
Breakfast usually consisted of bread and beer, with beef for the better-off or porridge for the peasants, while dinner, the main meal of the day, was served between 11 o'clock and midday. Bread was a major part of the diet of all classes and was very different from the bread we eat now.
The Tudors were also fond of desserts (if they could afford them). The rich ate preserved fruit, gingerbread, sugared almonds, and jelly. However, in the 16th-century sugar was very expensive so most people used honey to sweeten their food.
Recipes for Henry VIII included a variety of pies, game, roasted meats, pottages and sweet dishes such as custards, fritters and jellies. Some of his favourite dishes included venison, pies stuffed with oranges (recipe included here) and an early version of beef olives called Aloes (recipe also included here).
Meat: The Tudors (especially the rich) ate a much wider variety and amount of meat than we do today, including calves, pigs, rabbit, badger, beaver and ox. Birds were also eaten including chicken, pheasant, pigeons, partridge, blackbirds, duck, sparrows, heron, crane and woodcock.
4 Rich Desserts The thing is, Henry VIII didn't actually like desserts much. He only really liked marzipan fruits, jelly and spiced fruit cake. However, he loved pears, apples, plums and damsons. He was also fond of cherries and strawberries.
They ate fruits such as pears, apples, plums and cherries. Bananas and other fruits only grown abroad were not heard of during the Tudor times. Some fruits were preserved in syrup to make them last longer through the winter months. The common vegetables were cabbages and onions.
