The people of the Renaissance also drank non-alcoholic beverages that we drink today like a lemon drink, apple cider, water, tea, etc. They drank a lemon drink that is like the lemonade we drink often, but instead of using sugar like how most of us make lemonade today they used honey as their sweetener. They drank this lemon drink before a meal to get stomach acids going. That also drank sage water that was made by soaking the sage in a pitcher of water overnight. Sage water has benefits because in the article Non-alcoholic beverages it states,” This provides a very refreshing beverage to cleanse the palette between courses at a feast”(Meade). This drink also had a different variations but used coriander seeds and was called coriander water.
The poor people during the time didn’t drink any of these drinks but instead drank water because they could not afford the other drinks. They did not have access to clean water which led to water not being the standard drink, because in the article Renaissance Food it addresses,”The water during this time would have been dirty and not very good to drink, especially in larger towns. Mostly people drank wine or beer (also called ale)”(Ducksters). People preferred beer or ale because they would not want to drink the contaminated water if they could afford beer or wine. Although this was a time of heavy drinking coming from the dark ages, they still had alternatives to alcoholic beverages, even though they gulped beer and wine most commonly. Water was most common to the poor because they could not afford or have access to the fancy ingredients to make the drinks.
Tom Standage has described the beginnings of six beverages: beer, wine, spirits, coffee, tea, and Coca-Cola and has found many connections, and information helpful in finding out history of the drinks themselves but also their impacts on the growth of civilization as a whole. This book connects everything with society both past and present, it makes learning about history and the way drinks connect fun and interesting. Like learning without even realizing you are. A History of the World in Six Glasses is more than just talking about each beverage as a single but as a whole, it’s connections, uses, relations, and growth they started.
Understanding the process of brewing will help explain the time limitations of brewing and storing beer, and will ultimately help explain how this tug of war came into existence, as the process of brewing itself is largely responsible for the limited availability of beer early in American history. The process begins with malted barley which is heated to, and held at, a temperature between 60o and 71o C. This process is known as mashing and serves to activate the amylase enzymes which convert the complex starches into fermentable and unfermentable sugars. The wort is then transferred to a boil kettle where hops are introduced and the liquid is boiled extensively to isomerize the bittering oils in the hops. In their isomerized states, these oils will be more soluble and able to impart their bittering qualities into the wort. Finally the wort is chilled as it is transferred into a fermenter and yeast is added to begin the fermentation. The fermenter is sealed from the environment to prevent oxygen, which would stop fermentation, from entering. Fermentation must then be carried out at cool temperatures – about 18o C when using ale yeast and much colder when using lager yeast. Fermentation above these temperatures will still occur but yields an unpalatable product. These temperature requirements made beer a seasonal beverage and limited storage prior to the advent of mechanical refrigeration.
The Roman writer and naturalist Pliny the Elder, in his treatise Naturalis Historia states “there is nothing more useful than wine for strengthening the body, while, at the same time, there is nothing more pernicious as a luxury, if we are not on our guard against excess.” Years before he wrote those words, wine had in fact come from humble origins outside Italy itself. Furthermore, the process of fermenting grapes goes back thousands of years, and its beginning can be traced to where the wild grown grape-vine, vitis vinifera, flourished and was actively utilized for this reason.
The European Renaissance occurring from 1450 to 1650, marked a change that led to many developments in art, religion, literature and the economy. The impact of the Renaissance changed the thinking and life. The society saw a rise in creativity, in ambition and in politics. During the Renaissance (the rebirth) achievement in art especially rose, though depending on where the Renaissance was, it was a different experience all around. Renaissance art in Italy and southern Europe had more of a grecian theme, while northern Renaissance focused more on life and mythology.
The Renaissance Period is widely known for the abundance of amazing portraiture that circulated around Europe. During the Renaissance, Albrecht Dürer, a German artist painted a self-portrait in 1500 that had qualities that differed from the usual style of artist in that time (Chauhan). Jean Clouet also painted a portrait for the King of France and became the official court painter. Both artists had a talent for portraiture, while their styles were quite different. King Francis I wanted to be seen as a powerful man, and appointed Clouet to paint him in a classically renaissance way that highlights his wealth and authority. Dürer, described as a cocky, self-centered man, painted himself in a light that is unique and puts him on a ‘holy’ pedestal (Stokstad 356). In this essay I will show how although both paintings have clear differences with their style, both men in the compositions are conveyed in a great and very powerful sense.
In the Renaissance, some aspects of medicine and doctors were still in a Dark Age. Outbreaks of disease were common, doctors were poor, medicine was primitive and many times doctors would kill a patient with a severe treatment for a minor disease! But, there were other sections where medicine and the use of medications improved greatly. This paper is written to illustrate the "light and dark" sides of medicine in the Renaissance.
Women throughout history have fought very hard to earn a respectable place in society, despite a patriarchal society and male dominance that remains. The roles of women have developed widely over time. Women frequently fall inferior to men politically, socially, and intellectually. This intellectual gap restricted many women to the role of a domestic caretaker. For others, an education was the foundation to discover new ideas and new ways of thinking. While many Renaissance women had access to an education, a small group of writers captured the attention of others. As Laura Cereta, a humanistic writer noted, “knowledge is not given as a gift, but is gained with diligence.” Humanistic writers fostered ideas of intellectual growth, independence,
Medieval Food Food is something that all people have always and will always need to consume in order to survive and thrive. Not only this, but it is also has an important societal function. Food is an important part of celebrations and sometimes dictates roles in societies. In Medieval society food was important for banquets, what was eaten by a person could denote what class a person was from, and was often mentioned in the literature. For my project I presented desserts, bread, and a couple of drinks.
The Renaissance was a cultural and intellectual movement that had its peak during the 15th and 16th centuries. During these times there was a heightened interest with the classical learning that was brought about in the middle ages. The renaissance first started in Italy and then eventually spread to Western Europe. During this period there was a high interest in the aesthetics of the classical world like architecture. The renaissance focused on the 17th century philosophy which came from the Greeks.
In the 1600's and 1700's, the American colonists drank large quantities of beer, rum, wine, and hard cider. These alcoholic beverages were often safer to drink than impure water or unpasteurized milk and also less expensive than coffee or tea. By the 1820's, people in the United States were drinking, on the average, the equivalent of 7 gallons of pure alcohol per person each year (“drinkingprohibition” 1). As early as the seventeenth century, America was showing interest towards prohibition. Some people, including physicians and ministers, became concerned about the extent of alcohol use (“There was one...” 1). They believed that drinking alcohol damaged people's health and moral behavior, and promoted poverty. People concerned about alcohol use u...
Throughout Victorian society “gin was the preferred spirit of the lower class, while wine and brandy were imbibed by the more comfortable citizenry” (Alcoholic Beverages 12).
In the early 1800s, alcohol consumption in the United States was getting out of control. The average person over age thirteen consumed over 40 gallons of alcoholic drinks each year (book). Alcohol consumption was blamed for society’s health problems, crimes, and poverty. In a response to this overconsumption, many Americans, mostly women, started a social movement which denounced the consumption of alcohol, called the temperance movement. The movements typically promoted complete abstinence or at least abstinence from hard liquor (The Temperance).
During the Renaissance, Florence profited from a mercantile economy due to the guilds, the quality and variety of goods and the style and management of the market place.
Alcohol was originally considered to cure a wide variety of illnesses such as: intestinal worms, teething for babies, bleareyedness, “warding off the plague”, and, "defend the body from corruption”; back in the time before medical advances proved otherwise. As of late they have actually been shown to do the exact opposite.
Imagine Italian cuisine without tomato as an ingredient or your favorite pasta without any tomato sauce. It sounds extraordinary to think that at one point in history Italian cuisine didn’t have tomato as a staple food. After the European exploration of the Americas, numerous amounts food we introduced into Europe, Eurasia and Africa. This helped evolve the Mediterranean diet as well as traditional Italian cuisine (MacLennan and Zhang, 131.) What makes Italian cuisine popular around the world today is that most dishes are made with a small number of ingredients; cooking methods are simple and the recipes are healthy. This is a perfect mix for the food lover, and the upcoming cook with hopes to become a chef. This is why traditional Italian cuisine has influence my pursuit into the culinary field. (”Italian Food Made Easy; Traditional Fare Just Like Mama Used to Make,” par. 1-11.)