Mower County transcript. [volume] (Lansing, Minn.) 1868-1915, 1889-02-20
IN YE OLDEN TIME.
What Was Eaten In England Two Hun
dred Years Ago.

What Was Eaten In England Two Hun
dred Years Ago.
An Englishman's appetite had al
ways been famous. He was fond of
good solid eating. The farmer always
had his tlitches OF salt mutton on hand,
in addition to salt beef and barreled
herrings from Yarmouth. In all good
houses there was an imposing array of
salting-tubs. The art OF stall-feeding
was almost unknown, and fresh meat,
ii procurable in winter, was very lean.
1t cost from half penny to penny per
pound, which was equal to two or four
cents of our money. Fresh fish was
the luxury of the rich, obtained from
their own ponds and streams. Salt
fish was a common article of diet
among the working classes. Rye and
barley bread were eaten by the poor.
Wheat was frequently f3 a quarter or
as we should say, SIS. The price of
bread and beer was regulated by local
assize. Horse-bread was the name
given the bread conveyed in packs;
manchet was fine wheaton loaf, and
mayn bread, or demain, was the same
as that used in the sacrament. Cakes
of oats and spice were on all good ta-
bles.
Pies and pastries were made of all
sorts of things. Page invited Falstatf
and his friends to dinner of "hot
venison PASTE" wound up by ''pippins
and cheese" The fee farm rent of
Norwich consisted of twenty -four her.
ring pasties of the new season fish,
favored with ginger, pepper, cloves,
gallingals and other spices. On one
occasion King James is servants
complained that four instead of five
herrings were in each paste, and that
they were mot baked in good and
strong paste, as they ought to be-
Artichokes were also baked in pies,
with morrow, dates, ginger and raj
sins. In fact, the various pasties still
to be met with in Devon and Cornwall
are representative "survivals'' of
Elizabethan diet. The cooks were
chiefly French, but few of them were
Italians.
Worry few vegetables were used, and
some were regularly imported and
sailed down. Cabbage and onions
were sent from Holland to Hull. The
Flemings commenced the first market
garden. Lettuce was served as q
separate dish, and eaten at supper
before meat. Capers were usually
eaten boiled with oil and vinegar as a
salad. Eschalots were used TO smear
the plate before putting meat on it.
Carrots had been introduced by the
Flemings. Rhubarb, then called
patience, came from China about 1873.
The common people eat turnip leaves
as a salad, and roasted the roots in
wood ashes. Water-cresses were be.
lieved 10 restore the bloom to young
ladies' cheeks. In fact all vegetables
were regarded more as medicines than
as necessary articles of food.
Flesh meals were more believed in
than any thing else. They were eaten
with a knife and napkin. ''The laud-
able use of forks, 'Ias Ben johnson has
it, did not commence until 1911, and
was rare for many years after. The
custom came from Italy, and the first
forks were preserved in glass cases as
curiosities. A jeweled one was among
the New Years gifts to Queen Eliza
beth. Probably the absence of vege-
tables had something to do with the
Immense rotations of the time. Iago
said the English could beat all other
nations, and were ''most potent in pot
ting" AS tea did not come into En-
gland until 1910, and coffee until 1862,
beer or wine was taken at all meals
st. Louis Globe-De mocrat.
a The light Of friendship is the light
OF phOsphorus-seen plainest when al