What elaborate and refined system of food preparation was brought from Italy to France in the 1500s?

Withal, for aspiring courtiers who spent fortunes trying to outdo one other in lavish display, the sumptuary law was very relevant indeed. Failure to obey it could earn you a fine, equally well equally antipathy for trying to 'ape your betters'. In theory, fifty-fifty the nobles were supposed to limit the amount spent on nutrient each twelvemonth to most 10 per cent of their capital, although that was for their immediate family, and did not include the amount to be spent on the household.

The other rule to take into account was the strict observance of fasting on Fridays, Saturdays and, sometimes, Wednesdays too. Fasting did not mean going without nutrient altogether, just eschewing flesh, and, in Lent, butter, eggs and dairy foods too. Children, pregnant women and the elderly were non expected to fast, however, and information technology was possible to obtain a dispensation from fasting, but this was exceptional.

Henry Howard, Earl of Surrey, was hauled before the King's Council and severely reprimanded in 1543 for flagrantly eating meat during Lent. He was either deliberately risking an accusation of heresy (the reformed church beingness inclined to see fasting as superstitious), or he actively disliked fish.

Pocket permitting, meat was replaced by an extraordinary array of fish and other seafoods, including seal and porpoise, the latter evidently a great favourite of Katharine of Aragon.

Monarchs, although strictly observing the rules of fasting, were, of course, unlimited in what they could consume, or provide for their guests and courtiers. On flesh days at Henry Eight's court, a staggering range of meats and fowl would be enjoyed, including brawn, beef, mutton, bacon, goose, veal and lamb. Child, hens, capons and peacocks also featured, equally did cygnet, mallard, teal, woodcock, ousels, thrush, robins, cranes, bitterns, buzzards and venison of all sorts. Venison was the king of meats – non available to purchase, it was hunted in the deer parks of the king and his nobles, and frequently given every bit a nowadays. Henry VIII sent a hart to Anne Boleyn as a symbol of courtship.

Four seasons

Seasonality was a major factor in 16th-century diets. For pocket-sized-scale farmers, there was insufficient feed to keep livestock over winter, so the majority were slaughtered – traditionally on Martinmas (11 Nov), and every bit much of the meat every bit possible was preserved. But no matter how thrifty the housewife, eking out the meat of a single pig through the whole winter with a few onions and leeks must take been a hard task.

The wealthier landowners could go along more meat, slaughtering as needed. Game continued to be hunted throughout the winter by the wealthy, but poaching by the poor could mean hanging.

Estimates advise the Tudor dignity's nutrition was eighty per cent protein – one wonders how the digestive tract coped! Salads were eaten, frequently comprising a mixture of cooked and raw ingredients and including dark-green vegetables such equally leeks, onions, radishes and cabbage, also as lettuce, chives, boiled carrots, flowers and herbs. They were dressed with oil, vinegar, and sometimes sugar.

Turnips, consumed during the 15th and early on 16th century, later fell out of favour, becoming considered fit only for cattle. Fruit was enjoyed, but with no refrigeration it could merely exist consumed in season, or preserved. Mary I was particularly fond of pears, and Elizabeth of York and Jane Seymour were great lovers of cherries. Henry VIII'due south new palaces were designed with plentiful orchards and fruit trees, including the new apricot trees, introduced in the 1540s. I of his last acts equally male monarch was to order new apple trees for his Privy Gardens.

Nigh households served three meals a twenty-four hour period, although breakfast, if eaten at all, was not substantial: it consisted of bread, perhaps with butter and sage, washed down with a small ale. The principal meal of the twenty-four hours was dinner. In the first half of the century, 10 or 11am was the dining hour, but by the 1580s and 1590s it was condign more usual to consume at around 12pm. In the houses of the rich, the meal could easily concluding a couple of hours. On ordinary days in whatever home of the middle course or above, dinner was divided into two courses, each consisting of several different dishes.

A numbers game

The Sumptuary Law of 31 May 1517 dictated the number of dishes per meal: a cardinal could serve nine dishes, while dukes, marquises, bishops and earls could serve seven. Lower-ranking lords were permitted to serve but six, and the gentry class, with an income of £xl–100 per annum, could serve three.

A dish independent a set corporeality of a particular item – for instance, one swan, bustard or peacock (all reserved for the higher ranks of dignity), but four smaller fowl, or 12 very pocket-size birds, such as larks. To prevent the higher ranks feeling deprived if they went out to dinner, the host could serve the number of dishes and nutrient appropriate to the highest-ranking guest. Additionally, weddings were exempt from the rules.

Both courses would offer a pottage plus a selection of meats, custards, tarts, fritters and fruit. The starting time course tended to offering boiled meats, and the 2d, roasted or baked meats. For formal feasts, each course was heralded by the entrance of the 'subtlety'. This was an extraordinary decorative fine art form, the creation of wonderful representations of castles, cathedrals, hunting scenes or similar, fabricated of marzipan and spun sugar for the nearly important feasts, and of wax for lesser occasions.

In 1527, Key Wolsey served a tiptop feast for the French embassy, including subtleties of castles, of the church building and spire of St Paul'southward, of "beasts, birds, fowls of diverse kinds, personages… some fighting… some leaping… some dancing", and a whole chess prepare of sugar paste, which the French delighted in so much information technology was boxed up and sent habitation with them.

At court, following the two main courses was a tertiary, consisting of spiced wine, known as hippocras; sweetmeats, comfits of all kinds, and wafers. Wafers, forbidden to all but the highest ranks, were sparse, crisp biscuits fabricated by pressing flavoured concoction betwixt hot irons. This course, eaten standing, was known every bit the 'void', variously taken as meaning that the tabular array had been cleared, or 'voided', or that the course was eaten in a smaller room, thus 'voiding' the hall.

Supper, eaten at around 4 or 5pm outside courtroom circles, was a much simpler affair. Meanwhile at court there were again two courses, each made up of numerous dishes.

If this sounds similar a huge amount of nutrient, it is worth remembering that the lives of fifty-fifty the aristocracy required far greater calorie intake than is necessary today: houses were extremely cold, with no carpets or defunction, and the only source of oestrus was a fire. Travel was on foot or horseback for most of the fourth dimension, both of which crave substantial amounts of energy. Hunting, hawking, dancing and archery are also energetic pastimes. Elizabeth I was famous for continuing for hours, and walking long distances at a brisk pace with her ladies trailing behind her, complaining bitterly.

Social community

In the medieval period, dining, similar everything else, was a communal affair. Henry Vii and Elizabeth of York frequently dined in public in the Dandy Hall, surrounded past the court. However, Henry VIII preferred to dine in his Presence Chamber – a one-half public, one-half private space – and frequently took supper in his private rooms with a few friends and his electric current married woman. Elizabeth I followed this case, and, unless she was entertaining foreign dignitaries or was on progress, commonly dined solitary.

At dinner in the Great Hall, whether in i of the royal palaces or the castle of a nobleman, the highest-ranking people saturday at the superlative tabular array, raised on a belvedere, with other tables arranged at right angles. A strict guild of bureaucracy was adhered to, with the higher-ranking people sitting at the table to the right hand of the top table, on both sides, moving down to the lowest ranking present at the furthest end of the table to the left of the tiptop table.

To brand sure everyone was seated correctly, books of etiquette gave elaborate orders of precedence, fifty-fifty including instructions for the seating of the pope's foster-parents – woe betide the hostess whose steward got it incorrect!

Dining furniture consisted of trestles, which were stored when not in use. The highest-ranking person had a chair, simply everyone else sat on benches. The table was covered with a cloth, and it was considered very poor manners to spill. The price of apparel and the difficulty of laundering besides added to the demand to eat carefully.

Food was shared in a 'mess': a portion of each dish. At the height tabular array, there was a mess between two (except the king and queen, who each had their own), but the lower ranks shared between iv – two on either side of the table. Following her proxy spousal relationship to James IV of Scotland, Margaret, daughter of Henry 7, shared a mess with her mother, Elizabeth of York, to demonstrate her new rank as a fellow queen. The highest-ranking person helped himself first.

Every bit eating was communal, information technology was important to follow the strict rules of etiquette: these were elaborate, notwithstanding practical, as they prevented anyone touching nutrient that would be eaten by someone else. Everyone brought his own knife and spoon to the repast – forks being considered a fancy, foreign notion. The requirement for a personal spoon is behind the custom of giving i equally a christening gift.

The identify setting was a trencher – made of silver, or even gilt, for the male monarch, so of lesser value material through to the standard ash, or, for the poorest, bread; together with a cup, a loaf of breadstuff of appropriate quality (fine white for the lord, and coarse brown for bottom mortals). Among the upper classes a linen napkin was provided, which was draped over the left shoulder. Salt, existence costly, was usually only seen on the top tabular array.

For soft foods, the diner would spoon some of the serving onto his trencher, being careful not to leave his spoon in the dish. Before taking a helping of anything else, he would wipe his spoon clean with breadstuff. He would eat the food past dipping his bread into it, rather than spooning it up, then none of his saliva could enter the communal bowl.

For meat, he would grasp the piece he wanted with the thumb and two fingers of his left hand, and so sever it from the joint, using his knife in his right paw, over again ensuring his fingers touched only his own portion. The food was lifted to the mouth in the thumb and fingers.

Dinner in larger households was in relays. Once the main, family and guests had dined, the servants ate what was left. At court, afterwards the rex and queen and courtiers had finished, the senior servants would accept their places, followed by the junior servants, before the tables were dismantled and stored for the side by side repast. If any food were left, it was given to the poor.

Melita Thomas is the editor of Tudor Times. To discover out more, visit www.tudortimes.co.britain

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Source: https://www.historyextra.com/period/tudor/tudor-dining-a-guide-to-food-and-status-in-the-16th-century/

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