Tudor food refers to the food consumed during the Tudor period, which occurred in 16th century England.
Contents
Meat
For the poor, they ate whatever meat they could find, such as rabbits, blackbirds, pheasants, partridges, hens, duck, and pigeon, and also fish they caught from lakes and rivers. Meanwhile, the rich Tudors' diet was based around eating meat. They ate the types of meat like the poor as well, but they also consumed more expensive ones, for instance, swan, peacock, geese, boar, and deer (venison).
Herbs
Herbs were often used to flavor their meals and the rich had a separate herb garden to grow what they needed, such as parsley, mint, rosemary, thyme, and sage.
Bread
Tudors from all classes consumed bread in all of their meals as a main source of carbohydrates, the difference is in the quality of it. The cheapest bread available was the Carter's bread which was a mixture of rye and wheat. The middle class or prosperous tenants ate ravel—also known as yeoman's bread—made of wholemeal. The most expensive bread was marchet, made of white wheat flour.
Banquets and Feasts
The aristocrats held banquets and feasts consisting of different courses where each course had a variety of dishes brought out at the same time. People then could choose what they want to eat.
First course
Second course
Beverage
Everyone drank ale liberally during the Tudor period because water was considered unhealthy. Ale at the time was brewed without hops and was not particularly alcoholic. The rich also drank wine, which was mostly brought from Europe, but some of them were produced in the vineyards in Southern England.
The rich drank from Wine glasses imported from Italy which were incredibly expensive while the poor drank from wooden goblets.
Table Manners
Having clean hands at the time was important due to several people digging into a common dish with their fingers. Therefore, they were advised by "Miss Manners" of the day to wash their hands out in the open where everyone could see to make sure that they were clean. Besides that, manuals for manners from the Renaissance and Middle Ages listed some things that are frowned upon at the dinner table, including: