What was food like in Elizabethan England?

Answer 1

A lot would depend on your socioeconomic level, just as, in fact, it always has to some extent.

The poor usually had to make do with a diet that was largely based on bread, grains, and vegetables. This might be all right in the summer, but in the winter and during times of crop failure, there was a lot of starvation and a fair amount of malnutrition even in the best of times. Some folks got by through the custom of the wealthy (and monasteries and convents, unti their suppression by Henry VIII, father of Elizabeth I) of distributing their leftovers to the poor.

The middle classes and minor nobility (and some propsperous farmers) had a bit more variety in their diet, with meat, poultry, and fish to augment the bread and vegetables, and those at the top of the economic pyramid had a diet very rich in meat and white bread (whole grain bread was the staple of the lower classes), as well as sugary confections such as marchpane (marzipan) and
candied flower petals (violets and roses were espcially popular).

Since there was no refrigeration, meat and fish were preserved by smoking or salting. Even so, it often came to a case of a housewife wondering if the meat was so far tainted as to kill the diners or would it only make them sick. Spices helped disguise the reek of spoiled meat (pepper was really good for this); sometimes, if applied early enough, it would even slow down the spoilage.

Vegetables were often served in soups and stews, and boiled within an inch of their poor little veggie lives. Meats were also boiled, sometimes in the soup or stew, or roasted over a fire for hours on end.

For beverages, there was wine, ale, and beer. Water was often unsafe to drink, so these three were the preferred refreshment--although Elizabeth I is said to always have watered her drinks to make them less potent.

Hope this helps.

Answer 2

For the common people it was mostly stews and soups ("pottage"), with some meat, some fish and shelfish and a lot of turnip and bread. People who have seen the "Blackadder II" TV series, will know.

"Elizabethan cookery is generally sweeter than today's; meats are often cooked with fruits, producing a mix of sweet and savory."

"Some medical texts advise against eating raw vegetables as engendering wind (gas) or evil humours." [...]

"The potato is still a novelty. It is not yet a crop in Ireland, nor is it found in our stews. The turnip, which has that honour, is followed closely by the parsnip."

"Tomatoes are considered doubtful, if not actually poisonous, although they have already appeared in some southern European cooking."

"Sugar is available, but is rather more expensive than honey, since it has to be imported."

More at "What We Eat", Life in Elizabethan England : http://renaissance.duelingmodems.com/compendium/38.html

"Vegetables available in Europe", "Fruits and Nuts available in Europe", "Meat and Fowl available in Europe" : http://renaissance.duelingmodems.com/compendium/47.html

"The common man ate three meals a day: breakfast in the early am, dinner at twelve and supper at six. The poorer sort, supped when they could. A poem by Thomas Tusser gives a good idea of the break fast of the typical farmer: "

"Call Servants to breakfast, by day star appear,
a snatch to wake fellows, but tarry not here.
Let Huswife be carver, let pottage be eat,
a dishful each one with a morsel of meat."

"Elizabethan Food & Dining" : http://jesus-is-lord.com/kjfood.htm

"Blackadder II" : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blackadder_II

Answer 3

If it wasn't fresh, or highly salted, it was at least partially spoiled. The English cooked by boiling a lot.

Answer 4

Mainly wild game,which was salted heavily to keep it from spoiling. This was why ale or port was usually drunk with meals. Lots of bread, as well.

Answer 5

lots of meat, strewn with fresh herbs , for example marigold petals.

Answer 6

Bland and grassy

Answer 7

Burnt, everything was always burnt.