17th Century Recipes (2024)

FAQs

What food did they eat in the 17th century? ›

This main meal was generally three courses. The first was made up of the heaviest meat dishes, including beef and venison, and the second usually contained lighter meats, fish or poultry, while the third course was made up of sweets, cakes, comfits, cheeses and fruits.

The rich ate pottage too, but instead of what was basically cabbage soup with some barley or oats – and a sniff of bacon if you were lucky – a nobleman's pottage might contain almonds, ginger and saffron, as well as wine.

They cooked foods by frying, roasting, baking, grilling, and boiling just as we do in our homes. During the 1700s, meals typically included pork, beef, lamb, fish, shellfish, chicken, corn, beans and vegetables, fruits, and numerous baked goods.

Typical dishes among the upper classes were fricassees of various meats with herbs, and sometimes a good amount of claret. Common food among the lower classes was corn porridge or mush, hominy with greens and salt-cured meat, and later the traditional southern fried chicken and chitlins.

In common households during the middle ages and through the mid-19^th centuries however, little consideration was given to feeding dogs, as a dog's diet was much like that of its owners, consisting of whatever owners could spare, such as knuckles of bone, cabbage, potatoes, onions and crusts of bread.

“I assume it would have been a peasant diet in the Mediterranean world, heavy on olives and breads, grains, grapes, dates, wheat, barley and maybe fruits,” said Rabbi Barry Marks of Temple Israel, 1120 W. Governor St.

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.

Avoided sugar, cigarettes, drank weak alcohol and did

The mid-Victorian era, between the years of 1850 and 1872, was a 'golden age of nutrition', according to Dr Judith Rowbotham, of the University of Plymouth, who co-authored research with Dr Paul Clayton, of the Institute of Food, Brain and Behaviour.

For lunch many colonists would have had bread, meat or cheese along with water, beer or cider. Most cheese making was done at home, and was very hard work. At dinnertime the colonial people might have had a meat stew, meat pies, or more of that porridge, and again beer, water or coder to drink.

What did royalty eat in the 1700s? ›

Food for a King

Dishes included game, roasted or served in pies, lamb, venison and swan. For banquets, more unusual items, such as conger eel and porpoise could be on the menu. Sweet dishes were often served along with savoury.

For example, dishes and utensils were washed using water, soap, and sometimes sand or ash as a scrubbing agent. Linens and clothing were washed using large wooden tubs, often outdoors, and soap made from animal fat or lye was used to remove dirt and stains.

Moulded cakes (and fancy ices) reached their zenith in Victorian times. "For the cakes of the seventeenth century onwards tin or iron hoops were increasingly used and are mentioned with great frequency in the cookery books.

In the 1700s, there was no baking soda or baking powder. To get their cakes to rise, cooks of that time had to use a branch from a peach tree - "they were very specific about using a peach branch," Kornblum said - to whip either egg yolks for about 15 minutes or egg whites for a full hour.

During the week, if there was a dessert, it would be a piece of corn bread with some molasses poured on top or some fruit. In addition, slave cabins rarely had the cooking equipment or appliances necessary to adequately bake a pie.

By the 17th century, breakfast was commonplace in Europe and in the newly-settled land of America. Generally, the morning repast might include meats and bits of bread left over from the previous evening meal, and for some, wine or beer.

In the 17th century cider making reached a peak. Wine was very much the drink of the wealthy as it had to be imported. Wine was imported predominantly from France and Germany but an increasing amount was also imported from Spain and Portugal.

Meals tended over time to be eaten later and later in the day: by the eighteenth century, dinner was eaten at about 3:00PM... By the early nineteenth century, lunch, what Palmer in Moveable Feasts calls "the furtive snack," had become a sit-down meal at the dning table in the middle of the day.

For lunch many colonists would have had bread, meat or cheese along with water, beer or cider. Most cheese making was done at home, and was very hard work. At dinnertime the colonial people might have had a meat stew, meat pies, or more of that porridge, and again beer, water or coder to drink.