Tudor Food and Drink

By Morwenna and Kat

Food and Drink in the Tudor time was different between the rich and the poor. Rich people ate mainly meat because it was a sign of wealth. Henry VIII used to eat lots of meat like deer and rabbits and pig. Rich people went to extremes when it came to showing off – eating things such as Blackbirds! When the Tudors started travelling, different kind of foods were introduced into their diets. Fruit and vegetables were started to be eaten more often and they started getting honey from bee hives.

Did you know wealthy Tudor’s diet was 75% meat?Potatoes were not introduced to the UK until Elizabeth’s reign.Drinking water wasn’t fresh so the rich mostly drunk ale.Very rich Tudors even ate peacock!

FOOD FOR THE POOR

Poor people didn’t eat as much as the rich They had soup, bread and chickens and vegetables. They reared the chickens themselves to sell or eat. Rabbits they would have had to catch. Beef was also available if they had any money – which was not often.

Bread was eaten a lot , here is a recipe for bread:To make Buttered LoavesTo make buttered Loaves. Take the yolks of twelve Eggs, and six whites, and a quarter of a pint of yeast, when you have beaten the Eggs well, strain them with the yeast into a Dish, then put to it a little Salt, and two rases of Ginger beaten very small, then put flower to it till it come to a high Past that will not cleave, then you must roule it upon your hands and afterwards put it into a warm Cloath and let it lye there a quarter of an hour, then make it up in little Loaves, bake; against it is baked prepare a pound and a half of Butter, a quarter of a pint of white wine, and halfe a pound of Sugar; This being melted and beaten together with it, set them into the Oven a quarter of an hour.

Farmers wives grew vegetables such as leeks, garlic, peas, parsnips, cabbage, lentils, turnips, broad beans, onions, spinach, radishes and carrots. Back in those days carrots were not orange, they were usually purple.

PottagePoor people often ate Pottage. A soup

flavoured by herbs and served with coarse bread made from barley or rye. Ingredients:1 litre of waterChoose a selection of the following vegetables. Use 250g each. Leeks, Cabbage, Sorrel, Turnips, Green Beans, Carrots, Celery½ cloves GarlicChoose a selection of fresh herbs...Basil, Thyme, Parsley, Marjoram, Rosemary2tbs Porridge Oats

Equipment:Chopping BoardPeelerWeighing ScalesKnifeMeasuring JugWooden SpoonSaucepan

Method on next page...

Method:Step 1- Wash and prepare vegetables and peel outer skinsStep 2- Chop the vegetables and the herbsStep 3- Pour the water into the saucepan.Step 4- Put the vegetables and herbs into the saucepan.Step 5- Bring the soup to a boil.Step 6- Turn down heat and simmer until vegetables are cooked.Step 7- Add enough oats to thicken and simmer again until cooked.

Top Tip:Add a little salt and pepper to bring out the flavour.

Dressed salmon,Red deer,Pumpkin pie,French Pork,Steak Pie,Chicken with lemons,Stuffed blackbird.

Of course there were other meals and dishes that could be eaten like a nice stuffed peacock!