When Picnics were for the Privileged Class

by Maria Grace

The concept of a picnic has been existence for a very long time. (Of course, one could argue that eating outdoors was the very first way to eat, but let’s not go back quite that far.) Food historians suggest that the modern concept of the picnic evolved from traditional moveable outdoor feasts. The first English picnics were medieval hunting feasts staged before the chase (not after, I suppose, in case the hunt wasn’t particularly successful, but I digress).

The word picnic (which the OED says did not occur in print in English until 1748, in a letter by Lord Chesterfield) probably originated with the French pique nique found in a 1649 satirical French poem in which Frères Pique-nicques is known for visiting friends “armed with bottles and dishes.” (Kennedy, 2013) The word later was used to mean to ‘pick a place’, typically an isolated spot, where a group could enjoy a pleasant meal together, free from distractions and demands of daily life.

The English word ‘picnic’ became associated with card-playing, drinking and conversation. By 1802, British Francophiles formed a Pic-Nic society in London devoted to eating, drinking and performing amateur theatricals. Dinners for this society were provided by the members who drew lots to determine who would be bringing which dish—we wouldn’t want thirty-seven blancmanges to show up for the same picnic, would we?

The idea of a picnic also referred to a dinner where all those present contributed foods and was eaten indoors—rather like the modern pot luck meal. The meaning gradually changed to include the concept of eating out-of-doors and by 1860 (solidly in the Victorian era), the change in meaning—a meal eaten outdoors—was complete.

Picnics and the Privileged Class

In the 1800s, British authors began to describe picnics: the adventures of characters who staged their meals in pastoral locations, rather like theater sets. Romantic aesthetics were often important in crafting the ideal picnic setting. In “Emma,” Jane Austen’s character Mrs. Elton plans a “sort of Gipsy party.” She had in mind walking about the gardens, gathering strawberries, sitting under trees and the like, in addition to enjoying a meal out-of-doors. Her stated intention was to keep things as natural and simple as possible. (Kennedy, 2013)

However unpretentious picnics might appear, this activity was actually far from being simple. Hubbell (2006) tells us:

“Picnicking, which first evolved in early nineteenth century Britain, is an ideological act, freighted with values for ‘nature’ and ‘culture’, food and taste, aesthetics and ethics, community and solitude. To picnic is to consume not only particular food, but also a specific environment chosen according to an aesthetic standard, and a particular form of sharing food according to certain standards of behavior.

It means creating a moveable feast and overcoming difficulties and inconveniences, not only for preparation and transportation, but also for consumption and cleanup. Yet picnicking is the pleasurable pursuit of a leisured people, so the difficulty of moving the feast has some reward. The reward is primarily ideological: it enables the participant to share a form of eating that creates relationships between small groups of people, natural landmarks, and cultural ideals. These relationships form a consciousness of national identity. Picnicking, especially for early nineteenth-century picnickers, was thus a way of performing Britishness.”

So picnicking was far more than an impromptu meal outdoors. Even when each person attending brought food, it meant a great deal of work for everyone, especially the servants. Since picnicking was, during Jane Austen’s day, mostly the province of the privileged, servants were definitely involved.

Food and furnishing, dining ware and linens, not to mention the accouterments for any intended amusements—games, fishing, reading and the like—all had to be packed up and transported to the picnic site. Keep in mind, too, that the wagons used for transport might not actually be able to make it all the way to the chosen site and the final distance might require everything to be hand carried there. Afterwards, of course, it would all have to be packed up to be taken home, and possibly cleaned or laundered before being put away.

It was not until the Victorian Era with the rise of the middle class and train transportation that picnics became more widely enjoyed.

Sample Menu

With out the benefit of modern refrigeration or convenient packaged food, what might have been eaten at a picnic? This suggested menu comes from Mrs. Beeton’s 1860 book, which is decidedly Victorian, but the foods are indicative of what might have been served in Austen’s era as well.

BILL OF FARE FOR A PICNIC FOR 40 PERSONS

A joint of cold roast beef, a joint of cold boiled beef, 2 ribs of lamb, 2 shoulders of lamb, 4 roast fowls, 2 roast ducks, 1 ham, 1 tongue, 2 veal-and-ham pies, 2 pigeon pies, 6 medium-sized lobsters, 1 piece of collared calf’s head, 18 lettuces, 6 baskets of salad, 6 cucumbers.

Stewed fruit well sweetened, and put into glass bottles well corked; 3 or 4 dozen plain pastry biscuits to eat with the stewed fruit, 2 dozen fruit turnovers, 4 dozen cheesecakes, 2 cold cabinet puddings in moulds, 2 blancmanges in moulds, a few jam puffs, 1 large cold plum-pudding (this must be good), a few baskets of fresh fruit, 3 dozen plain biscuits, a piece of cheese, 6 lbs. of butter (this, of course, includes the butter for tea), 4 quartern loaves of household broad, 3 dozen rolls, 6 loaves of tin bread (for tea), 2 plain plum cakes, 2 pound cakes, 2 sponge cakes, a tin of mixed biscuits, 1/2 lb, of tea. Coffee is not suitable for a picnic, being difficult to make. 

Things not to be forgotten at a Picnic 

A stick of horseradish, a bottle of mint-sauce well corked, a bottle of salad dressing, a bottle of vinegar, made mustard, pepper, salt, good oil, and pounded sugar. If it can be managed, take a little ice. It is scarcely necessary to say that plates, tumblers, wine-glasses, knives, forks, and spoons, must not be forgotten; as also teacups and saucers, 3 or 4 teapots, some lump sugar, and milk, if this last-named article cannot be obtained in the neighbourhood. Take 3 corkscrews.

3 dozen quart bottles of ale, packed in hampers; ginger-beer, soda-water, and lemonade, of each 2 dozen bottles; 6 bottles of sherry, 6 bottles of claret, champagne à discrétion, and any other light wine that may be preferred, and 2 bottles of brandy. Water can usually be obtained so it is useless to take it.

So, the next time you pack a few sandwiches and some cold cans of soda, reflect back on what the picnic used to be, and how Jane Austen would so be judging you now!

References

Beeton, Isabella. Beeton's Book of Household Management. London: S. O. Beeton Publishing, 1861.

Cameron, Collette. “Pleasures and Proprieties of a Country Picnic. Collette Cameron. / May 31, 2015. Accessed June 3, 2019. https://collettecameron.com/pleasures-and-proprieties-of-a-country-picnic

Davidson, Alan. The Oxford Companion to Food. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1999.

Gaston, Diane. Regency Picnic or a Labor Day? The Risky Regencies. September 5, 2011. Accessed June 3, 2019. http://www.riskyregencies.com/2011/09/05/regency-picnic-or-a-labor-day/

Hubbell, Andrew. How Wordsworth invented picnicking and saved British Culture. Romanticism, Volume 12, Number 1, 2006, pp. 44-51 (Article) Published by Edinburgh University Press DOI: For additional information about this article Access provided at 11 Jun 2019 https://doi.org/10.1353/rom.2006.0003

Kennedy, Pagan. "Who Made That Picnic." New York Times, August 23, 2013. Accessed June 3, 2019. https://www.nytimes.com/2013/08/25/magazine/who-made-that-picnic.html

Oliver, Lynne. “The Food Timeline: Food-Picnics.” The Food Timeline. 2004. Accessed Jun 3, 2019, http://www.foodtimeline.org/foodpicnics.html

Sanford, Vic.Emma: Picnicking on Box Hill Jane Austen’s World. March 21, 2008. Accessed June 3, 2019. https://janeaustensworld.wordpress.com/2008/03/21/emma-picnicking-on-box-hill/

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Though Maria Grace has been writing fiction since she was ten years old, those early efforts happily reside in a file drawer and are unlikely to see the light of day again, for which many are grateful. 

After penning five file-drawer novels in high school, she took a break from writing to pursue college and earn her doctorate. After 16 years of university teaching, she returned to her first love, fiction writing.

Click here to find her books on Amazon. For more on her writing and other Random Bits of Fascination, visit her website. You can also like her on Facebook, or follow on Twitter.

A Dish Fit for a King: Feasts in Medieval England

By Kristin Gleeson

Those food critics who rated British food poorly over the years after the war wouldn’t have recognized the elaborate fare of a Medieval feast. No lumpy gravy, overcooked roast beef or soggy Yorkshire in sight.

The Medieval feast in England was truly something to behold as the chroniclers of the time tell us. Generally it was the monarchs, princes and high ranking prelates who held the feasts on suitable occasions, like religious festivals of Christmas and Easter, or secular occasions, like the end of sheep shearing, or harvests, and of course weddings and coronations.

The purpose of the feast, besides marking the occasion, was to demonstrate the host’s importance and power and for the guests to reinforce the hierarchy by their presence and where they sat. In the case of large, important feasts, a lot of planning was necessary. On the occasion of the marriage of Margaret, daughter of Henry III to Alexander in December 1251 the planning started before the summer. By the end of July beasts were being bought in York and other fairs, though they weren’t slaughtered until just before the wedding. At the same time orders were given to catch, slaughter and salt 300 deer. By November 1000 more deer were ordered. In October the sheriffs of the northern counties were ordered to supply 7000 hens, 170 boars, and various numbers of game birds, rabbits, hares and pigs. In November 68,500 loaves of bread were added to the order. By December the fish order was placed and included 60,000 herring, 1000 greenfish (salted cod?), 10,000 haddock and 500 conger eels. Added to that was the 25,000 gallons of wine ordered in early August and the rice, almonds and sugar at the end of November. Arrangements were also made for the collection of large amounts of wood in various forests.

 The dishes created were complicated to say the least. Colour was an important component that added to the complication, for the cook’s ambition was to disguise nature while conforming to the Medieval notions of the four humours that comprised a human. Each food was categorised for its humoral qualities and had to be brought into balance by the cooking method employed. This explains why, for example, beef (moist) was roasted (dry) and why fish (cool and moist) was generally fried. The endless chopping, grinding, sieving, straining and filtering were all designed to correct any humoral imbalances as well.

 Not unexpectedly versions of a dish changed over the years. In the case of “Mawmenny” which dates from Anglo-Norman times, the dish was originally ground beef, pork or mutton boiled in wine, served in a wine-based sauce which was thickened with capon meat and almonds. The sauce was seasoned with cloves and sugar, fired almonds were added and the dish coloured with indigo or a red dye. About 60 years later it had changed into a dish made from beef broth (no wine) capons cooked in milk of almonds and the whole thickened with rice flour or breadcrumbs. It was seasoned with stronger spices and coloured yellow with saffron. After another 50 years the wine had returned along with a lot more sugar, the beef had vanished, but the capon remained. There were more spices, the almonds replaced by pine nuts and dates the colour was a reddish orange. What remained constant was sufficient complication, a vibrant colour and high cost. 

For the most part each feast consisted of two, three, four and occasionally more courses consisting of many dishes. The more eminent the occasion the more dishes per course. At the coronation of Richard III in 1483 there were three courses of 15, 16 and 17 dishes. The first course consisted of five meat dishes, five fowl dishes, one fish dish and four indeterminate. The second included four meat dishes, probably two fish dishes, six fowl dishes and three indeterminate dishes. The third course consisted of three meat, two fish, five fowl, two fruit and four indeterminate dishes. Only those at the very top table were given the choice of all the dishes, though.

 Several of the dishes were typical of the period. The soup, for example, was partly “frumentie”, which was boiled, hulled wheat and milk of almonds, something like a porridge, to which was added a meat, in this case venison and saffron and other spices. With this was served a broth. A common broth contained rabbit, almond milk and spices such as ginger, cloves, nutmeg and galingale. Sometimes sugar or onions, cloves and raisins were added. Another of the exotic dishes was “blaundsorr” which was a pottage based on almond milk, thickened with rice and containing ground capon to form something of a meaty blancmange. Most records of feasts in the 13th and 14th centuries show they were like that of Richard III. They included things like roasts, rabbit in gravy covered in sugar, mawmenny and fritters. Earlier, in the 12th century, besides the fare already listed, were dishes that included a roast crane and peacock with pepper sauce.

Vegetables are rarely mentioned, but on occasion do appear, like in, for example, the special dish of peas and porpoise. Such dishes as “rapes” (turnips) or parsnips in pottage which also included onions, saffron and spices were made as well as “gourds” in pottage with onions, egg and pork and cabbage with onions, leeks and spices in pottage. Beans, frequently ground, were also eaten in various ways, as well as radishes and carrots which were mainstays in Medieval gardens. Salads were eaten at times, too. One recipe contained a wide range of herbs and vegetables including cress spring onions, onions and also purslane.

 At the end of each course a “sotelty” (subtlety) was often presented which was a table decoration. Sometimes it was an ornament made of sugar or “marchpane” (marzipan) that was eaten, though they weren’t always edible. The object was to impress the guests with the cook’s skill and the cleverness of the host who employed him. The subject of the creation could be the nature of the occasion. For example, at the coronation feast of Katherine, Henry V’s wife, they presented a pelican on its nest (an emblem of piety) and St Katherine (patroness of learning) disputing the heathen clerks, an image of St Katherine with a wheel in her hand (she was martyred on a wheel) and a heraldic tiger looking at a mirror, with a man riding away carrying a tiger’s whelp and throwing down mirrors behind him (an illusion to the marriage).

 Feasts weren’t only comprised of food. Entertainment, sometimes on a grand scale, took place between courses. Trumpets played before each of the courses as well as to signal the beginning and end of the feast, and music was usually played during the meal. Minstrels, several at a time, would be present on special occasions. Singers were popular too. They sang carols as well as “chansons de geste” (tales of romance and chivalry). Acrobats, tumblers, jugglers, conjurors, animal trainers and dancers were all part of the revelry as was the fool. There were also professional raconteurs accompanying themselves on the harp who retold romance tales.

“Disguising” was another form of entertainment and involved a group of strangely and richly clad people entering the hall and performing a dance or song before leaving as mysterious as they had come. It’s possible that kings took part in such displays, as they certainly did later. Mummers provided similar entertainment. Short plays were sometimes performed as well. Other spectacles were presented to give flare to a feast. Pies burst open to reveal jugglers or jesters, and challenges were issued. It might also be the occasion to swear important oaths- like to fight the infidel, or a specific foe.

 In the most elaborate settings a pageant might be enacted, usually of a historical nature, using elaborate moving structures. Cities, ships and mountains might be represented. Things didn’t always go to plan, though. On one occasion in 1389 a tower on wheels representing Troy accompanied by another representing an assault tower manned by Greeks and a model ship manned by 100 soldiers were pushed into the hall for a mock battle. There were so many people in the hall pressing in that a table containing a large number of people overturned. A door near the queen was opened to allow fresh air and all the tables had to be cleared to make room for everyone. The king and queen left in haste.

 The feast at the marriage of Katherine of Aragon to Prince Arthur was more successful, with various ceremonies going on for several days. Westminster Hall was hung with rich tapestries of Arras and contained a cupboard of seven shelves filled with rich plate of gold and gilt. There were three pageants displayed on some of the first pageant cars seen in England. There was a castle drawn into the hall on heraldic beasts and a ship on wheels. Speeches were made from all of these and dancers descended from the last. After the pageant was completed there was dancing. Ten year old Prince Henry suddenly threw off his long gown and danced with his twelve year old sister, Margaret, dressed in his jacket with a typical flare that would foreshadow things to come in the even more elaborate and lavish feasts of the Tudor and Stuart courts.

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Originally from Philadelphia, Kristin Gleeson lives in Ireland, in the West Cork Gaeltacht, where she plays harp, and runs a book club for the village library. She holds a Masters in Library Science and a Ph.D. in history, and for a time was an administrator of a national archives, library and museum in America. She has also worked as a public librarian in America and now works at a library in Ireland. You can read more about Kristin on her website. You can read about a Medieval feast in Kristin’s novel, The Imp of Eye set in 15th century London.

WILD FOODS - Historical Fiction Research

By Elaine Moxon

One of the things you swiftly learn, as a historical fiction author, is that you must become well read in a myriad of subjects. Many of these topics, to external eyes, may seem entirely disconnected with writing a novel. Little do they know, this knowledge is invaluable. Creating a historic and accurate landscape within which your characters can travel and interact is hard work.

I thought I’d share some research I’ve been doing for some travelling characters that may not always be able to pop into the local town for supplies. Living in the 5th Century AD as they do, and also wary of bumping into enemies, they have only what they brought with them for the journey, and what they find along the way.

From Saxon settlement, along ancient roadways, across rivers towards the coast, this is what they might discover.

DANDELION, publicdomainpictures.net

Woodland, Hedgerow, Roadside, Heath & Moorland

In scrubby woodland you’ll find young Elder buds for salads, and hazelnuts rich in protein, fats and minerals. The best dandelions are found on hedge banks and roadsides, and their young leaves are good in salads. Eat them in moderation, however. As suggested by their French name ‘pis-le-lit’ (or more politely, wet-the-bed) they are a diuretic and can have you running for the nearest facilities!

Blackberries ripen in August and are at their sweetest then. Also known as the ‘blessed bramble’ it was so called for the joy its fruit brought to areas where fruit was rare. Its leaves soothe burns and bruises, and a rich dye can be made from the berries, as can also be made from sloes. Sloe berries also make delicious wine, though I doubt my travelling companions have time for that.

Columbines love limestone woods and flower May-July. While most of the plant is poisonous, the 17th Century herbalist Nicholas Culpeper observed that ‘the seed taken in wine causeth a speedy delivery of women in childbirth’. Handy if any of your travelling party are in the later stages of child labour!

Pollen from the Common Mallow has been found in Roman remains in Britain, suggesting it was imported for medicinal purposes. Pliny the Elder declared a daily ‘spoonful of the mallows’ to be preventative of illnesses. A decoction of boiled leaves is said to calm fevers and a lotion of the same alleviates swellings. Mucilage of the roots of the variety known as ‘Marsh Mallow’ once provided a chewy filling to chocolate coated biscuits. Today it is somewhat rare and used only in toiletries and cosmetics.

Another ancient acquaintance is the Crocus, harvested since medieval times for the spice ‘saffron’. Although this doesn’t necessarily constitute a ready food source, I felt it worth a mention as an ingredient. Also within this realm is Lady’s Bedstraw or ‘Galium verum’, once used as a rennet in cheese-making. Thyme can flavour soups, stews, sauces and stuffing and is thought to prevent bad dreams. Ideal for travelling nobility with heavy weights on their minds.

Galium verum

Photo credit: bastus917 via VisualHunt / CC BY-SA 

Coastal

The obvious one here is seaweed, of which two types can be cooked as a spring vegetable - laver and caragon. You can also cook ‘Fat Hen’ and nettle leaves as you would spinach (but wear gloves when picking the latter!). Nettle leaves also make a refreshing drink. Molluscs such as cockles, mussels, and if in Cornwall, pilchards, all make tasty additions to a meal. At the end of summer, enjoy sweet chestnuts, eaten raw or even better roasted. Then in autumn, berries, nuts and fungi can be found, mostly in woodland, but field mushrooms are common in pastures and meadows (particularly where horses graze). Pick early in the morning and fry or add to soups.

By streams, fields and riverbanks you can find water-loving mint, watercress and wild garlic – all great for making soups. Wild garlic, also known as Ramsons, gives its name to several settlements in Britain known for the pervasive smell of this pretty flower, including Ramshope, Ramsbottom, Ramsey and Ramsholt. The name derives not from male sheep, but the Old English word ‘hrmsa’ meaning ‘wild garlic’!

Bogbean can be found in wet soil, mud and water – its bitter trifoliate leaves were used as infusions to alleviate scurvy and rheumatism. Laplanders used the powdered roots to bulk up the meal in their bread, though it leaves a bitter taste. Another lover of moist ground is Common Comfrey. All parts of the plant have a reputation for healing cuts and fractures and reducing swelling. Often going by the name ‘knitbone’, an infusion of the leaves in warm water gives relief to sprained wrists and ankles. My heroine in WULFSUNA uses a comfrey poultice beside a stream to alleviate swollen ankles.

Mentioned by the Greeks as early as the 1st Century AD, ‘seseli’ or as we know it Sweet Cicely, can be added to salads. Its fresh, sweet leaves counteract any bitterness or remove tartness when boiling fruit. With an aniseed flavour, it was used as an aphrodisiac in the 16th Century to ‘increaseth...lust and strength’ (John Gerard’s ‘Herball’).

Photo credit: col&tasha via Visualhunt.com / CC BY

Wild Animals

Some wild animals are predators to be cautious of, others may be sacred and some will be food sources. Wolves, foxes and badgers are main predators. Boar, while a ferocious beast particularly when breeding, makes a large meal, as do deer. Hares were considered sacred by some pagans and eating them was forbidden if not all of the time, then at least during certain symbolic festivals especially around springtime. Others believed them to be witches in animal form and were so avoided. Their later cousins, rabbits, are low in fat and good in a stew, though not widely available. Introduced by the Romans, they died out post-Empire and were not reintroduced until later centuries. Snakes and certain birds were also pagan symbols and so may have had a bearing on whether they were eaten. Poisonous snakes would be avoided for obvious reasons.

With an abundant array of salad leaves and stewing vegetables, my characters’ wild food table will be replete with tasty dishes to serve alongside freshly caught fish, berries and nuts, and maybe even a boar if they’re lucky. However, I must stress it is not suggested nor advised that you go munching on anything you find growing along the roadside. Some plants are highly poisonous. As Ben Law says, if you can’t identify them, ‘don’t eat them!’.

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BIBLIOGRAPHY

Farmhouse Cookery, Readers’ Digest

Wild flowers, Graham Murphy

The Woodland Way, Ben Law

Blood, betrayal and brotherhood.

An ancient saga is weaving their destiny.

A treacherous rival threatens their fate.

A Seer's magic may be all that can save them.

WULFSUNA

Elaine Moxon writes historical fiction as ‘E S Moxon’. Her debut Wulfsuna was published January 21st, 2015 and is the first in her Wolf Spear Saga series of Saxon adventures, where a Seer and one named ‘Wolf Spear’ are destined to meet. 

She is currently writing her second novel, set once again in the Dark Ages of 5th Century Britain. You can find out more about Book 2 from Elaine’s website where she has a video diary charting her writing progress. She also runs a blog. Elaine lives in the Midlands with her family and their chocolate Labrador.

Spit and Grease - Food and the Hearth

by Deborah Swift

When we lived outdoors, the fire was essential for warmth and for cooking, and the earliest 'oven' was in fact a cauldron, covered in a lid, which itself was covered in burning embers, and then was suspended above the fire.

Norwegian early cauldron

Once we built houses and moved indoors, the focal point of any room, up until the invention of electricity, remained the hearth. This was the natural gathering place and should be in any historical novel. Because of this, I pay close attention to the correct type of hearth, mantelpiece, and fire tools when I'm planning my novels. For example, poorer houses might not light a fire every day but would send food out to the baker to be cooked in his big ovens for a fee. These characters would be colder and probably a lot less cheerful than their wealthier counterparts who would have many servants managing the whole paraphernalia of fire and cookery!

Up until the invention of matches, keeping the fire going was a priority because striking a light with a tinder and flint was very much a hit and miss affair. (For more information on Tinderboxes check Wikipedia ) Nobody wanted to wake to the chore of lighting a fire, so in the evenings the fire was banked up to keep it in, and smothered by a couvrefeu (fire cover) to stop it burning too hot. (I discuss these more in this article) So characters before they retire for bed, would ensure this task was done.

Tudor fireplace with firebasket and bread oven

Here is a Tudor fireplace where you can see wooden pegs on the mantel for hanging an upright spit, or for drying cloth or herbs, and also the essential  bread oven next to the main fire. Bread was a staple food, so most houses had a bread oven if they could afford it. Fireplaces were built to be wide and deep to enable cooking to take place there. When the fireplace moved to the wall of the room in medieval times, the back of the fire was lined with a metal fire-back. The fire was raised on bricks or sometimes on a fire-basket or brazier to provide for an up-draught under the fire.

18th/19thC firebasket with 17thC back plate

Bread and Meat

Bread ovens were built into the walls next to the fire to take advantage of the heat. In addition brushwood which burns fast and hot would be burnt inside with the door closed. The ashes would be raked out and then the bread put into the still hot oven to cook. Bread was inserted and removed on a peel - a long paddle. It had to be carefully watched in case it burned. No shoving it in and then coming back a few hours later!

Woman using a peel from a painting by Millet

This method was used right up until the 20th century in the countryside in England. (see this BBC link) Meat was cooked by rotating the joint on a spit before the fire, which had to be burning bright. Until the 18th century, a horizontal spit rested on hooks or notches in front of the blaze. For smaller joints, such as fowl, fish or rabbit, a cradle spit or basket spit, in which the joint was enclosed in a cage, were used. Fenders were devised in the 17th century to stop stray embers rolling out into the room. In books set before that, your characters would be likely to have to kick the embers back in using their boot.

The spit was turned by hand, using a cog and pulley system, or by dog power. (See the 17th century engraving below!) But by the 18th century an ingenious mechanical jack that ran by clockwork had been invented. At this time too, burnished metal hasteners (mirrors to reflect the heat) were clipped to the mantelpiece.

Medical use of Fat

Fat was collected in a 'dripping tray' and the dripping served many uses - in the 17th century it was used for candles, soap, and to waterproof shoes, as well as to grease cart axles and mill gears. Fat was also used in medicine mixed with herbs to make salves, but the type of fat was important, because the fat conveyed the quality of the animal to the person. For example the fat from a lively and lithe hare was used as an ointment for rheumatism.

Obviously in smaller households, the cooking would be done over the same fire that was used to heat the living space, whereas in wealthier households the cooking would be kept away from the owners of the house in a specially designated kitchen.

When I am researching my books I always investigate how the characters were fed - who did the preparing and cooking, and where it happened in the house. Each particular period has its new invention for the preparation of food, particularly the cooking of meat on the fire. By paying attention to these I can get to know intimate details of my characters' lives.

Links:
I  recommend 'Food in England - Dorothy Hartley'
Cooking with Fire
Roasting Christmas Beef
Tudor fireplace

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Deborah Swift ~ Word addict, book addict. Nature, art and poetry fan, and writer of thought-provoking historical fiction, published by Macmillan/St Martin's Press/Endeavour Press. Creative writing tutor and writing mentor.
www.deborahswift.com 
@swiftstory
Amazon

In a Pickle

by Lauren Gilbert

Being American, when I think of “pickle”, I think of pickled cucumbers heavy with dill and garlic. Pickled beets, too, are a favourite of mine. However, in Georgian England, a wide range of foods was pickled, as it was still a common method of preservation. Many exotic foods from other parts of the world became popular in a pickled form, as that was the only way they could be preserved for shipping.

Pickling, as in preserving via a brine or salt solution, has been known since ancient times. Some attribute it to the ancient Egyptians. China, Mesopotamia and India also used this method. (Pickled cucumbers were a favourite in ancient India.) Once disseminated to the Romans, the rest, as they say, is history. In one form or another, pickling has been used for centuries in virtually all cultures. The word pickle itself is supposed to derive from the old Dutch “pekel” which meant the pickling brine or a spicy sauce. Pickling was a common method of preserving seasonal food for later use. The item to be pickled was usually steeped in brine (usually water with a quantity of salt “enough to float an egg”) and then boiled in a mixture of vinegar, salt and other spices. The early cook books are filled with recipes for a variety of pickled vegetables and other items.

In England, pickles of various kinds have always been popular. However, it is important to realize that a wide range of foodstuffs were pickled, ranging from various vegetables, to eggs, fish, meats and poultry. Today, we forget that eggs and vegetables were once seasonal foods, and pickling was a favourite means of extending their shelf life. The addition of spices, sugar and herbs imparted a strong flavour that must have made dining much more pleasurable, especially during the colder months when pickled foods would have been consumed most frequently. Elizabeth I and Samuel Pepys were known to be fond of pickles and pickled fruits and vegetables of all kinds were commonly served on their own in pickle dishes or used in sauces.

A popular dish in England for centuries was puffin meat and, in the Georgian era, pickled puffin was quite popular. A sea bird whose diet is mainly fish, pickling not only preserved the meat but helped to reduce the strong fishy taste. The Cookbook of Unknown Ladies blog posted a recipe for pigeons “to make pigeons look like puffins” (this would appeal to someone who could not afford puffin meat which was a delicacy). This recipe includes boiling the meat in a mixture that included vinegar. While it was intended to be eaten right away, the recipe contains an additional step: “If you keep them anytime, boyle the pickle again & put it to them when cold.” (Eliza Smith also has a recipe for pickled pigeon which, when served, were eaten with vinegar and oil.)

“India pickle” was a popular pickle during the Georgian era. In Hannah Glasse’s cookbooks, the recipe for “Indian pickle” contains turmeric, garlic, mustard seed, “long pepper” (an Indian flowering vine which fruit is dried and used as a seasoning and is hotter than black pepper), and ginger mixed in vinegar in which two cabbages and two cauliflowers are pickled. In A Jane Austen Household Book, a similar combination of ingredients is used. This dish evolved to piccalilli which is still common.

Clearly a wide range of foods were consumed as a pickle. Eliza Smith, Hannah Glasse and others preserved recipes for pickled ham and tongue, nasturtium buds, quinces, asparagus, oysters and lobsters. Multiple ways to pickle walnuts mushroom and fruits were known. The spices and seasonings used evolved as availability and affordability increased. The term “pickle” had a much broader culinary meaning than most of us know today.

Sources

Glasse, Hannah. The Art of Cookery Made Plain and Easy. (Facsimile of first American edition published in 1805, reprinted1997 by Applewood Books, Bedford, MA).

Hickman, Peggy. A Jane Austen Household Book with Martha Lloyd’s recipes.

Smith, Eliza. The Compleat Housewife. (First published 1758, published 1994 by Studio Editions Ltd., London, England).

The Food Timeline.

The Cookbook of Unknown Ladies.

British History Online. Dictionary of Traded Goods and Commodities 1550-1820, by Nancy Cox and Karen Dannehl, 2007.

InDepthInfo.com  In Depth Info on Pickles.  “Pickle History.”

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Lauren Gilbert, author of Heyerwood, A Novel, lives in Florida with her husband.  Visit her website to find out more.  Her second book is due out later this year.

The English Cavalier and his Stomach

by Deborah Swift

The Chef - artist unknown, first half of 17th C (Wiki)

It has long been recognised that an army marches on its stomach - that the importance of food to morale is vital. Apart from just the sustenance, the regularity of meals provides a routine in what can often be chaos during a war or campaign. Eating together has always bonded people and created friendships and loyalties which extend onto the battlefield. Particularly in cold wet weather (and England is often cold and wet!) the cheer of a good hot meal cannot be under-estimated. 

The English Civil War , illustration from British Library online

In the English Civil War, a period I am researching right now, the official ration for a Cavalier was two pounds of bread, one pound of meat and two bottles of beer.

Meat was considered essential by both armies in the conflict, and between January and June 1645 (a six month period) the two hundred Roundheads stationed at Chalfield House,Wiltshire ate:

40000 lbs beef
1600 lbs bacon
580 lbs pork
1900 lbs mutton
64 lbs veal

As well as this heavy diet of meat, they also ate:

15000 pints of wheat
27000 pints of oats
20000 malt
5000 beans
5000 peas

All this was supplemented with small amounts of cheese and dairy produce.(statistics from Charles Carlton, Going to the Wars.)

The fact that vegetables are not mentioned does not necessarily mean that people ate no vegetables, it is perhaps that their cost does not appear in records in the same way as other foods. Pulses were widely grown in England and formed an essential part of most people's diet.

Who remembers this old rhyme?
Pease Pudding hot, Pease Pudding cold,
Pease Pudding in the pot, five days old.

Great Chalfield Manor (National Trust)

So how did the troops keep up this diet whilst on the move? When the Earl of Essex came to the aid of Gloucester, the thousand sheep and sixty cows that they drove along with them for food slowed them down. The meat had to be killed, skinned and butchered as they went, often in unsanitary conditions. The carcases were left behind to rot, but were taken by local people to use the bones for glue.

Once farther from a garrison town or when on the move, food became scarcer and scrounging or plundering food was a common occupation. Many citizens during the English Civil War found themselves with unwelcome guests. After their victory in Taunton in 1644, the Roundheads were so hungry that they stopped chasing the King's Army and went in search of food. Finding themselves unguarded, the Royalists counter-attacked, killing many with the bread still 'in their mouths'.

Plunder was a way to show high spirits, but also a way for defeated troops to vent their anger and shame . After the battle of Edgehill, one Royalist platoon got out of hand and brutally plundered their own home towns of Droitwich and Bromsgrove. And in a blind rage after being beaten at Marston Moor, Prince Rupert's men seized cattle, sheep, and chickens, killing all who tried to stop them.

Because the troops sometimes could not carry all their plunder, special market days were arranged where they would sell off what they had pillaged. Records show for example that Joyce Hammon managed to buy back gold plate and also some beaver hats that troops had stolen from her house in Hereford.

Feeding the soldiers on the march was compulsory - in the sense that refusal led to threats and violence. Householders were expected to billet soldiers at a set rate in exchange for an IOU that was often never paid. They were expected to provide food and ale and to feed their horses. The soldiers (on both sides) fresh from blood and battle were often the worst kind of house guest - violent, greedy, and out of control.

The cost to England of free quarter and plunder was enormous. In Cheshire £120,000 of free quarter was said never to have been re-imbursed, not to mention the claims of villages in the same county which lost as much as £190.000 worth of goods and livestock in plunder. Often a lifetime's hard work could be laid waste in one night.

Women alone in their houses whilst the men were at war feared the arrival of troops from both sides, even from the side they supported. In her memoirs Lucy Hutchinson condemned plunderers as 'the scum of mankind', and Milton wrote in his Poem to The Lord General Fairfax,
"In vain doth valour bleed,
Where avarice and rapine share the land."

I recommend these sources:

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For more about my books set in the English Civil War and the 17th Century, please visit my website, www.deborahswift.co.uk .

Nom nom nom ~ Regency style

by M.M. Bennetts

With much of the western world so indisputably in the grip of culinary multi-culturalism, it can be hard to imagine an age in which mealtimes weren't dominated by a need for ready-meals, speed-eating, 24-hour electrical supplies, ease of world transportation, or advertising.

But so it was in early 19th century Britain.

To begin with, there was no ready supply of electricity or gas to fuel either household lighting or a stove or open hearth for cooking and baking.  Instead there were candles, made of beeswax or tallow, oil lamps, wood and coal--all of which were immeasurably more expensive comparatively than our modern equivalents.

Hence the beginning of one's day, obviously depending on social class, came with the rising sun and daylight.  Within the prosperous middle class, the gentry and aristocracy this was probably somewhere between seven and eight.

The first meal of the day was generally taken at ten.  It lasted for about an hour and it was a good solid English breakfast.  'Morning' itself then lasted until dinner at perhaps three or four in the afternoon.  Dinner went on for about two hours.

And it's important to note that the hours at which these meals are served also provide for the greatest amount of natural light in the kitchen for the preparation of the food, and also, the least number of candles required, both upstairs and down.

London society of the Beau Monde dined at five o'clock, or even later, and generally had their tea or a light supper sometime late in the evening, after returning from the theatre or in the middle of a ball...But in the country, one kept 'country hours' and thus mealtime was dictated by the hours of light and also by the fact that travelling at night was often inconvenient and certainly hazardous even on a moonlit night.

Dinner, then...

First off, this is the moment to drop those preconceptions about how many courses served one after another--five or seven or nine--was a sign of wealth and breeding.  Because English service didn't have many courses, one served after another.

For the most part, there were two courses, often called removes, plus dessert.  And the servants didn't serve each individual from a tray onto their plate either.

Oh, and there was no allotted placement either, with the exception that the host would be the first into the room, escorting the 'senior' lady, and taking his place at the foot of the table, while the hostess sat at the upper end of the table and the guest(s) of honour sat near her.

When the family or family and guests walked into the dining room, the table would already be spread with an array of dishes of every kind of food--soup, fish, game, poultry, meat, pies, sauces, pickles, vegetables, puddings both sweet and savoury, jellies and custards.  Depending upon the occasion, there might be anything from five to twenty five different dishes, all arranged symmetrically around a centre dish.

Initially, it was the host who would supervise the serving of the soup and/or carve the joints of meat that might be brought in once the soup tureens were removed.  A kind of balance was also maintained with fish--usually with salmon at one end of the table and perhaps turbot at the other.

After the meat--saddle of mutton, haunch of venison, sirloin of beef--had been carved, the gentlemen at the table helped themselves from the nearest dishes and offered it to his neighbour, or else a servant was to fetch a dish from another part of the table.

It does sound like a great deal of food, yes.  But generally, one didn't eat one's way through everything.  It seems to have been more a case of choosing three or four things that one liked from amongst the array...

To wash it all down, ale, beer, wine as well as soda water would have been served, though some gentlemen are recorded as having preferred port, hock or sherry with their food.  And importantly--for dining was a very social element in their days--once the soup had been served, both ladies and gentlemen would start drinking everyone's health round the table--'taking wine' with each other as it's called.

Once the family and guests had eaten as much as they wished from that first selection, an intermediate course of cheese, salad, raw celery and suchlike might be brought round.  Then the table was cleared, and a second remove of an equal quantity of different dishes was brought in and arranged on the table, with, just as previously, both sweet and savoury dishes included.

Finally, the guests and family having eaten their full, the table would again be cleared and the cloth removed to reveal either the polished table surface or another cloth lying beneath and the dessert was laid out.  This dessert consisted of fruits and nuts, perhaps ice-cream or sweetmeats.  And this was usually accompanied by port or Madeira.

Once the company had sat over dessert for about a quarter of an hour, the ladies would leave the dining room and retire to the drawing room, where they would embroider, chat, play the fortepiano or read aloud for about an hour.  After which point they would order their tea and coffee to be brought in, and the gentlemen, having discussed the war, the government, the iniquitous price of wheat, their efforts at sheep-rearing and other such thrilling topics over their wine, would join them.

Louis Simond, a Franco-American with an English wife, visited England in 1810-11 and left this record:  "There are commonly two courses and a dessert.  I shall venture to give a sketch of a moderate dinner for ten or twelve persons--First course [included] Oyster sauce, Fish, Spinage, Fowls, Soup, Bacon, Vegetables, Roast or Boiled Beef, Vegetables.  Second course [included] Creams, Ragout a la Francaise, Pastry, Cream, Macaroni, Cauliflowers, Game, Pastry.  Dessert [included] Walnuts, Apples, Raisins and Almonds, Cakes, Raisins and Almonds, Pears, Oranges."

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M.M. Bennetts is a specialist in early nineteenth-century British and European history, and the author of two historical novels set in the period - May 1812 and Of Honest Fame. Find out more at www.mmbennetts.com.