Elizabethan Era: Food

Although there are many differences between their diets, all classes drank beer because the water was too polluted to drink. Bread was also a staple to Elizabethan meals. Upper classes ate a thick bread called manchet, while lower classes ate rye.

Elizabethan Era: Food

by Olivia Hippolyte

During the Elizabethan Era, the food you ate was ultimately decided by your social status. The daily diet of the lower class greatly differed from the daily diet of the upper class. Food at this time was more of a social statement and royalty often hosted banquets in which large amounts of food were served to show off their wealth.

Diet of Upper Class

Diet of Lower Class

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Vegetables and fresh fruit were eaten by the poor - vegetables would have been included in some form of stew, soup or pottage. Food items which came from the ground were only are considered fit for the poor. Only vegetables such as rape, onions, garlic and leeks graced a Noble's table. Dairy products were also deemed as inferior foods and therefore only to be eaten by the poor.

Fish and meat were considered a luxury which is why it made up a large part of the nobility's diet. Meat included venison, chicken, eels, and veal.

The number of courses and variety of Elizabethan foods consumed by the Upper Classes included ingredients which were too expensive for the majority of English people. Spices and meat were among these ingredients.

Because of the lack of fruits and vegetables, the wealthy didn't get any vitamins or other crucial nutrients. Instead, they ate lots of sugar which led to an assortment of health problems including bad teeth, skin diseases, scurvy and rickets.

Despite the harsh living conditions of the Elizabethan Era, the lower classes were healthier than the upper class due to their consumption of vitamin C, fiber, and calcium

The food eaten daily by the average Lower Class Elizabethan consisted of at least ½ lb. bread, 1 pint of beer, 1 pint of porridge, and 1/4 lb of meat.

Elizabethan Banquet

The banquets and feasts enjoyed by the Elizabethan Royalty, Nobility and Upper Classes were sumptuous and lavish. It was a huge dinner consisting of 5 loaded courses.

This topic ties into the banquet featured in Act 3 Scene 4 of Macbeth. Banquets were used to entertain guests and show off wealth which is what Macbeth probably intended to do.

"Sweet remembrancer!Now, good digestion wait on appetite,And health on both!" -Macbeth

Cooks employed by Nobles during the Elizabethan era would have been aware of the high standards set by the French and endeavored to provide Queen Elizabeth with a feast or banquet of a similar standard and content.

BANQUET MENU

Second Course

First Course

Third Course

Fourth Course

Fifth Course

wine

fruit

sweet pastries

cream and fennel seeds

cheese

strawberries

plums stewed in rosewater

Venison

Lampreys with hot sauce

Fritters

Jellies

Roast bream and darioles (a small cream tart with puff pastry, in a circular mold)

Sturgeon

Frumenty (hulled wheat boiled in milk, with flavored sugar and spices)

Freshwater fish

Broth with bacon

A meat tile

Carpon pasties and crisps

Bream and eel pasties

Blancmange

Miniature pastries filled with cod liver or beef marrow

A cameline meat "brewet," pieces of meat in a thin cinnamon sauce

Beef marrow

fritters

Eels in a thick spicy puree

Loach in cold-green sauce flavored with spices and sage

Large cuts of roast or boiled meat

Saltwater fish

Work cited:

• http://www.elizabethan-era.org.uk/elizabethan-food.htm
• http://www2.springfield.k12.il.us/schools/springfield/eliz/elizfood.html
• http://www.elizabethi.org/us/food/
• http://www.elizabethan-era.org.uk/elizabethan-daily-meals.htm
• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elizabethan_era