These beers were an excellent source of nutrients including B vitamins, minerals and enzymes. During a visit to Manchester in 1618, the poet John Taylor recorded a total of nine different ales served at the same meal. Eight of them were herbal ales, flavored with hyssop, wormwood, rosemary, betony and scurvy grass. Farm families drank milk, buttermilk or whey. These were used in soups and stews, rather than served plain.
Most cookbooks list a salad made of lettuces and herbs.
Potatoes and tomatoes did not gain acceptance until the Victorian era. Not all foodstuffs in wide use were locally produced. Since the Crusades, a variety of spices and other exotic foods had been available to the upper classes and to townspeople. In the Winter's Tale, Shakespeare's Perdita instructs the Clown to obtain foods for the sheep-shearing feast. Her shopping list includes rice, saffron, mace, dates, nutmegs, ginger and sugar.