You may be wondering what people ate and how food was prepared in Renaissance England. Of course they didn’t go around munching on turkey legs like we see at modern Renaissance Faires; turkeys came from the new world and didn’t exist in Europe at that time.
Food was obviously of fairly good quality or we wouldn’t be here today. But what exactly did people eat?
Renaissance Brings Change
The rise of the Renaissance Period brought changes to the English lifestyle. What was left from the medieval period was embraced and further improved, deliberately enhanced and progressed as new materials were discovered and introduced. There were vast improvements in the areas of politics, clothing styles, rules of the land, and most especially, in the cuisine.
Read more about the Renaissance life and food in A Compendium of Common Knowledge, 1558-1603: Elizabethan Commonplaces for Writers, Actors & Re-enactors.
Meal Times
The mid day meal, called Dinner, was at 11:00 or noon. Schoolboys, working people, and housewives who get up around 5 or 6 am, or even earlier did not wait until 11:00 to eat dinner so had breakfast.
Supper was in the evening about 6:00pm. Husbandmen and others whose work was never done may have their supper as late as 9:00.
Diets
Food choices and its extravagance differed across a person’s wealth and social status. The poorer you were, the more humble and unvaried diet you had. However, that did not mean you ate worse than your wealthier neighbor as you will see later in this post.
Bread was a staple food for the poor and it would be eaten with butter, cheese, eggs, and pottage (a vegetable soup thickened with oats). Poor people could not afford much red meat, like beef or pork, so tended to eat white meat, like chicken, rabbit or hare, and birds they could catch like blackbirds or pigeons.
Wealthier people on the other hand, enjoyed all kinds of meat, including beef, pork, lamb, mutton, bacon, veal, and deer, and fancy fowl such as peacock, swan, and goose.
Queen Elizabeth made a law in 1563 that compelled everyone to eat fish on Wednesdays, Fridays and Saturdays. This was not a religious fast but a way of supporting the fishing industry. Those that disobeyed the law could land up to three months in jail!
The result was a diet that also included freshwater and sea fish, such as salmon, trout, eel, pike, and sturgeon, and shellfish such as crabs, lobsters, oysters, cockles and mussels for poor and wealthy alike.
The Elizabethans also ate fruit and vegetables. Some of the vegetables available to them were: turnips, parsnips, carrots, lettuce, cucumbers, cabbage, onions, leeks, spinach, radishes, garlic, and skirret (a popular root vegetable of the time).
Some medical texts from that time advised against eating raw vegetables because they thought they cause wind (gas) or evil humours. In fact, people did not understand the nutritional value of vegetables and rich people, who had a vast amount of choice in food, didn’t eat enough of them. In this regard the lower classes, who ate a lot of vegetables as they could not afford meat, actually had a healthier diet.
Fruits eaten were: apples, pears, plums, cherries, lemons, raspberries, blackberries, melons, and strawberries. Expensive fruits, like peaches, oranges and pomegranates, were eaten only by the rich.
They were an important element in completing a fine meal yet they too were regarded with some suspicion and were rarely eaten raw. Meats were often cooked with fruit.
Fruits were mostly baked in tarts or pies or boiled to make jams. These were usually served last in what we now know as dessert. At that time, the word “dessert” meant the last meal course and not necessarily what was served. However, it did become more identified with sweeter dishes when sugar became more available as new crops of sugarcanes were brought in from the Americas.
Pies were very popular and were eaten by rich and poor alike.
As a result, Elizabethan cookery is generally sweeter than today’s, producing a mix of sweet and savory.
Nuts, such as hazelnuts and walnuts, were also widely eaten, along with legumes such as peas, beans and lentils. Spices and herbs were used to flavor food and honey was the most common sweetener as sugar was still very expensive.
Water was considered unsafe to drink and as a result, Elizabethans drank ale instead. Even children drank ale as it was not very strong. The rich also drank wine which was very expensive. Milk was mostly used to make butter, cream, and cheese.
New Food
New tastes were found as Christopher Columbus journeyed to the Americas during the 14th century. A variety of vegetables, spices and fruits were introduced to Elizabethans.
The potato was still a novelty and not yet widely available. It was not yet a crop in Ireland, nor was it found in stews. The turnip, which has that honor, was followed closely by the parsnip.
Elizabethans were apprehensive of some of these new ingredients. Limits were set for consumption and people were advised to eat these new foods with caution. Tomatoes were considered doubtful, if not actually poisonous. Some spices were also thought to be questionable.
European farming was also changed and revolutionized due to the new food discoveries. The demands for new ingredients such as corn and potatoes, coffee, chocolates, beans and teas opened farmers, traders and peasants to new heights of producing and selling.
However many of these new ingredients were so expensive that only a select few could afford them.
Food preparation with all of these new ingredients was also not an easy task. The services of master cooks or chefs were greatly sought after. The royalty would gladly spend a fortune for their services.
Want to cook like an Elizabethan? Get Shakespeare’s Kitchen: Renaissance Recipes for the Contemporary Cook or the A Hastiness of Cooks: A Practical Handbook for Use in Deciphering the Mysteries of Historic Recipes and Cookbooks, For Living-History Reenactors, Historians, Writers, Chefs, Archaeologists, and, of Course, Cooks.
Final Thoughts
Dishes that were made of newly found vegetables like asparagus, carrots and potatoes led to many new food varieties that progressively reformed the standard of taste of not only England but of all the European nations. The renaissance cuisines were sought after. They were so popular and delicious that they were considered food fit for the gods.
The modern world of food preparation is now more diverse and culturally mixed thanks in large part to the Renaissance period. Flavors were carefully enhanced with different techniques and ingredients. Every region, culture and country has their own taste specialties but the renaissance cuisine will forever be present in all our food preparations and preferences.
Want to try your hand at a Renaissance recipe? Head over to godecookery.com.
What Will You Find To Eat At The Renaissance Festival?
By now you may have found yourself salivating for Renaissance food and wondering what will be available at the Central Coast Renaissance Festival.
A variety of delicious food will be available at the festival some of it definitely influence by Renaissance England. Those foods include meat pies, warm red cabbage, sausage with sauerkraut, soft pretzels, haggis, beef/chicken/shrimp on a stick, vegetarian rolls, fish and chips, Scotch eggs, bangers, and handmade sausages.
You will also enjoy gyro, falafel, humus, fresh cut pomme frites (french fries), goulash, mac & cheese, arugula salad with beets or apples, kettle corn and even plant-based organic burgers.
And of course what Renaissance Festival would not be complete without roasted turkey legs!
So eat up and enjoy the taste of the Renaissance!
