Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1889-11-16
Written for TIE EvxsNe STAR.
WHAT OUR ANCESTORS ATE.
Feasts that May Have Produced Nine
teenth Century Dyspepsia.

Feasts that May Have Produced Nine
teenth Century Dyspepsia.
| THE DIET OF sHAKEsPEARE-ASaLo-sAx AND
NORMAN DIsHEs-QUEEN ANNE's DINNER
TABLE--How THE DUKE AND DUCHESS OF
HAMILTON ATE FROM THE SAME PLATE.
The most interesting part of history is that
which the historians almost invariably omit to
| notice. The wars and the laws, and who made
them, we know. They are what the historian
| chiefly cares for. But, while these i'm
portant, scarcely less SO and far more interest
| ing are the social customs, the dress and food
and the everyday life of past centuries. Who,
| for instance, would not like to sit down to a
table such as Shakespeare was wont to meet;
to SEE the very dishes served on which he fed.
To know them well is to know tho age and time
for We have his word for it thai upon the food
depends the character. In his Julius Cesar"
he says:
,,.Now, in the names Of all the gods at once.
Uron what meat does this Cesar teed
That he Is GROWN so sreA;fn
If in all eras the Englishman's appetite has
been famous he has not always been able to
employ it upon the same material. In Anglo
saxon times and long after the staple food of
the multitude was bread, butter and cheese. 4
few of the coarser vegetables were added and
| IL was only on occasions that this was dlyersl-
ned by 'salred bacon and pancakes, beef or
| fish" The meat, when it was to be had, was
usually boiled over a tripod. The kettle" in
which this was done. says the author of Old
Cookery Books was 1.-The universal vessel for
boiling purposes; and the bacon house, or
harder, was the warehouse for the winter stock
OF provisions" In almost all the foods strong
condiments like garlic aud pepper were freely
used. Phllology shows that the Saxon food
was bread, butter and cheese, for beef. veal,
mutton. pork and bacon re tain the names given
by the Normans.
IN KING ALFRED's TIME
"1n the tenth century co!loquy Of Archbishop
Alfric," says Mr.. Carew Hizitt, 1.-The boy is
made to say that he is too young to eat meat,
but subsists on cabbages, eggs, fish, cheese,
butter. beans, and the drink, which was rarely
ale, was usually water. Tue nursery rhyme
tells US or King Alfred's bag pudding Of bar
ley meal with raisins and meat" Tho trying
pan, MIR. Hazlitt says, preceded the grill, Just
AS the fork Jagged behind the spoon. from which
II Is a seeming evolution" For centuries III
England there was prejudice against the fork
which displaced the fingers, aud forks at first
were the privilege only OF kings. When Coryat
employed one after his visit to Italy, where the
instrument originated i'll the eleventh cen
! tury, he was nick-Gamed Furcfer. 1t took
600 years, or until the seventeenth century, to
establish 1t in England, and even then II did
not attain general use. country boor 'ssiil
eats mis- bacon or his herring with his fingers,
just as Charles MI Of Sweden buJtered his
bread with his royal thumb"
1t Is said that the origin of washing the hands
before eating arose from the fact that food at
hrst was eaten wholly-all around the table
dipping into one dish-with the hands. Now
with the finger bowl an addition ends as we'll
as precedes the meal. Carving knives, like the
fork, were at first a luxury, and as late the
81 nf hn .,
kings tables and those of the nobility. Butter
was not much used in England before the
Norman conquest, although the EnSlismaE
unlike the Italian. had no oil for a substitute
or the introduction OF sugar there is no certain
date given. Mr.. HaZitt thinks it must have
been scarce and dear in 1926, when Henry III
asked the mayor of Winchester to procure him
three pounds Of Alexandria sugar ii SO much
! could De got, and also some rose and violet
coiored sugar; nor hadit grown more plentiful
when the same prince ordered the sherffs of
| London to send him four loaves Of sugar to
| Woodstock. Before the end of tho thirteenth
century. however, 1t gained ground and could
generally be produced. 1t was then sold by
the LOAF or pound at what would be 371f to Is
cents per pound IN American currency.
EARLY ENGLISH RREAD.
There were several kinds of bread used in
the fifteenth century. Paln-main was bread
made of very white -four In addition to this
there was to be had coarser wheat bread: also
barley meal bread, bran bread pease bread. oat
bread or oat cakes, hard bread and unleavened
bread" Rye lentiis and oat meal were some
| times mixed for bread for the poor. Certain
coarse hsh were once eaten which have not
been in modern times much esteemed. Por-
pose pie, once eaten was finally ridiculed in
the time of James as "a dish which not even
dog would eat; although in our own times
on the Hudson river it is the sturgeon-'yery
like porpoise, that used 10 be called albany
beef" Perhaps so called because the early
Dutch settlers may have gone to that city's
market to get it.
IN sHAKEsPEARE's TIME,
says the author of 1.-THE England of Shake
speare," good, solid eating was the habit. 1.-THE
| farmer always had his bacon and his fiitches of
salt mutton on hand. in addition to salt beef
and barreled herrings from Yarmouth. In all
good houses there an imposing array Of
sailing tubs. The art of stall feeding was
almost unknown and fresh meat if procurabie
in winter was very lean. 1t cost from half
penny to penny pound, which was equal to
penny or two pence of our money" Wheat
bread was extravagantly dear, til ough its price
| as we'll as that of beer, was regulated by law
There was sort Of bread called horse bread
sold in packs. Cakes of oats and spice were
on all good tables"
''Hot venison pastry is spoken of by Shake
speare. 1t was to this repast that Page in
vited Falstaff, and it was rounded off by pip
kins and cheese" The author from whom I
gather this Shakespearian bill of fare SAYS
that 1.-The fee farm rent of Norwich consisted
OF twenty-four herring pastries OF the new sea-
son fish, havored with ginger, pepper, cloves,
gaiingals and other spices. On one occasion
King James rs servant complained that four
| instead OF i've herring were in each pastry
and that they were not baked in good and
strong paste as they ought to be.
ArtIchokes were among the few vegetables
| used and they were made into pies. Among
the pastries were those made of pilchards. Ii
| is curious to find that vegetables three hundred
years ago were regularly imported, cabbages
and onions being sent from Holland to Hull.
| And such vegetables as were used were saited
down extensively. Lettuce was a supper dish
Capers made salad when boiled in oil and
vinegar. Rhubarb was called patience" 1t
| was brought from China to England little
over three centuries ago. Carrots were then
known and eschalOts served ito smear the
plate before putting meat on it." A salad
which Shakespeare may have eaten was made
of turnIp leaves. The roots of the turnip
were also used by roasting on wood ashes
SUGGESTIONS ABOUT VEGETABLES
There was a superstition prevalent that vege-
tables produced certain extraordinary effects.
| "Watercresswas believed to restore the bloom to
young ladies' cheeks" green ginger was good
salad Of roses immortalized by Apuleius) was a
capital posset against bedtime. conserve of
rosemary and sage, according to Verme1,
should be used by students, a. it "doth greatly
delight the brain"
RAn ANp h. l.L1~