Elizabethan Era Food Essay

Elizabethan Era Food
Food and drink were a major part of life in the Elizabethan times. Food in the Elizabethan Era was very backward from modern food and beliefs. This was because back then not many knew the actual nutrients of food. So what was the diet like of the people in the Elizabethan Era. Elizabethan food and drink varied according to status and wealth. It was also known that food was a serious situation based on region in England depicted perfectly by Wm. Harrison in 1577. “The situation of our region, lying near unto the north, doth cause the heat of our stomachs to be of somewhat greater force: therefore our bodies do crave a little more ample nourishment than the inhabitants of the hotter regions are accustomed withal, whose digestive

force is not altogether so vehement, because their internal heat is not so strong as ours, which is kept in by the coldness of the air that from time to time (especially in winter) doth environ our bodies”.
What food did the wealthy and high class people eat? In the Elizabethan Era food was a great sign of wealth and class. The rich ate a diet consisting largely of various meats, cheeses, pastries and breads. Eating vegetables and fruits raw from the ground was considered dirty and cheap. Instead they preserved fruits in sugar and honey and ate them that way only in breads and pastries. This caused their teeth to blacken which was thought of as attractive and was used to prove to others how wealthy you were. The New World which was found in the Americas and the islands nearby that England had recently colonized provided new exotic foods and spices to the wealthy people in England that were foreign to them. Another way people proved their wealth was using many different spices from the spice trade which was an international trade of spices such as cinnamon, cassia, ginger and pepper from Asia, Northeast Africa and Europe. In other ways preparation had too look as beautiful as it tasted so the “art” of cooking became more pronounced.
The lower class in the Elizabethan Era were actually the ones who had the best diet. Their diet was much simpler and consisted largely of breads, vegetables and fruits. This was because the upper class didn't eat the vegetables or fruit they deemed “dirty” so the lower class got them. The lower class also did not have access or money to the foods and spices that came from the New World some of these were corn, tomato, chili pepper, vanilla, black-eyed susan, wild rice and chocolate. Therefore they had to eat what was only available locally to them.
Food and spices were a huge part of medicine in the Elizabethan Era.

Many foods and spices were believed to be cures and treatments for infections, diseases and injuries. For example Vinegar was used widely in medicine as a cleansing agent and was believed to be able to kill disease and bacteria. The Black Death was a plague that is believed to have killed over one third of the population in this period it was said that if you used a warm poultice or cloth of butter, onion and garlic and lay it on the person's body it would help cure the Black Death. In Castle of Helth, Sir Thomas Elyot wrote that “apples are right holsome and do confirme the stomacke and make good digestion, specially if they be roasted or baken”. This is an example of food being used for health benefits that is accurate in modern times as well almost like the saying “eating an apple a day will keep the doctor

away.”
Drinks in the Elizabethan Era were not varied greatly. They were not given very many options. People in the Elizabethan Era mostly drank alcohol because it was easiest to preserve. People in the upper class drank wine while the lower class drank ale, rhenish which is a German wine, brandy and brandy wine which is distilled wine. They did not consider drinking water because plumbing and filtering water was not invented yet. Water was also not considered “clean” or “sterile”. Consumption of weak, low-alcohol drinks at this time has been estimated at around one-gallon per person per day. Honey was also used not only in preservation but was used to make a sweet alcoholic drink called mead which was drunk by all classes of people during this time.
Preparation of food in the Elizabethan as you can imagine was a house wifes duty.

In the introduction to the chapter on cookery in The english housewife, Gervase Markham wrote “to speak then of the outward and active knowledge which belong to our English housewife, I hold the first and most principal to be a perfect skill and knowledge in cookery, together with all the secrets belonging to the same, because it is a duty really belonging to a woman, and she that is utterly ignorant therein may not by the laws of strict justice challenge the freedom of marriage, because indeed she can then but perform half her vow, for that she was love and obey, but she cannot serve and keep him with that true duty which is ever expected” further proves what was expected of a housewife in the preparation of food or “cookery” in the Elizabethan Era. She goes on to explain that if you aren’t skilled in the knowledge of cooking you are going against the laws of strict justice and are going against your wedding

vows.
In the Elizabethan Era food was a need for survival, an image of class and wealth, used for medicinal purposes and was strictly a house wifes duty. The food available to the Elizabethan upper class differed considerably to the food available to the lower class. It goes to show how much our knowledge and opinion of food has improved from that period of time to today. However food and drinks will always be a large impact on the Elizabethan Era.