For
most people in ancient Egypt food was plain and dull. The staple food of the
Egyptians was bread and beer. Bread was baked outside and because of the desert
sand was often blown into dough. In time eating bread with grains of sand in it
wore down peoples teeth. In ancient Egypt as in all early civilisations meat
was a luxury and only the rich could afford to eat it frequently. Nevertheless
the Egyptians ate sheep, pigs, cows and goats but meat often came from ducks
and geese. However fish were plentiful in Egypt.
Egyptian
food included many vegetables, such as marrows, beans, onions, lentils, leeks,
radishes, garlic and lettuces. They also ate fruit like melons, dates and figs.
Pomegranates were quite expensive and were eaten mainly by the rich. The
Egyptians grew herbs and spices and they made cooking oil.
Food in Ancient Greece
Like Egyptians
ordinary Greeks ate plain food. They lived on a staple diet of bread (made from
barley or, if you could afford it, wheat) and goats cheese. Meat was a luxury
but fish and vegetables were plentiful. Ordinary Greeks ate pulses, onions,
garlic and olives. They also ate hens eggs. Peasants caught small birds to eat.
The Greeks also ate fruit such as raisins, apricots, figs, apples,
pears and
pomegranates. Rich Greeks ate many different types of food such as roasted
hare, peacocks eggs or iris bulbs in vinegar.
Poor people drank mainly water.
If they could afford it they added honey to sweeten it. Wine was also a popular
drink. Usually wine was drunk diluted with water.
Food
in Roman Britain
For poor Romans food was basic
and unappatising. Nevertheless the Romans introduced new foods into Britain, among
them celery, cabbages, radishes, cucumbers, broad beans, asparagus, pears and
walnuts. Romans cooked on charcoal stoves. Olive oil was imported. So were
olives, figs and grapes. Wine was also imported (although the Romans grew vines
in Britain).
The
Romans were also very fond of fish sauce called liquamen. They also liked
oysters, which were exported from Britain. A Roman dining room was called a triclinium. The Romans ate a
breakfast of bread and fruit called theientaculum. At midday they ate a
meal called the prandium of fish, cold meat, bread and
vegetables. The main meal was called the cena and was eaten in the evening. The
Romans turned cooking into a fine art. They are also known for their fine cookware.
Saxon
Food
Life was hard and rough in Saxon
England and food was basic. Saxon women brewed beer. Another Saxon drink was
mead, made from fermented honey. (Honey was very important to the Saxons as
there was no sugar for sweetening food. Bees were kept in every village). Upper
class Saxons sometimes drank wine. The women cooked in iron cauldrons over open
fires or in pottery vessels. They also made butter and cheese. Saxons ate from
wooden bowls. There were no forks only knives and wooden spoons. Cups were made
from cow horn.
Food
in the Middle Ages
During the Middle Ages rich
people ate a very good diet. They ate beef, mutton, pork and venison. They also
ate a great variety of birds, swans, herons, ducks, blackbirds, pigeons and
greenfinches. However the church decreed that Wednesday, Friday and Saturday
were fast days when people were not allowed to eat meat. Rich people usually
had fishponds so they could eat pike and carp. They also ate fish caught in
rivers or the sea.
The rich ate breakfast in private
but they ate dinner at mid-morning and supper at 5 or 6 in the great hall. On
special occasions they had huge feasts. The Lord and his lady sat at a table on
a raised wooden platform so they could look down on the rest of the household.
Often musicians entertained them while they ate. Rich people ate their food
from slices of stale bread called trenchers. Afterwards they were given to the
poor.
Poor people ate simple and
monotonous food. For them meat was a luxury. If they were lucky they had rabbit
or pork. They also ate lots of coarse, dark bread and cheese. They only had one
cooked meal a day. In the evening they ate pottage That was a kind of stew. It
was made by boiling grain in water to make a kind of porridge. You added
vegetables and (if you could afford it) pieces of meat or fish.
16th
Century Food
In the 16th century the main diet
of rich people was meat. However the rich rarely ate vegetables. However poor
people ate plenty of vegetables because they had no choice! Vegetables were
cheap but meat was a luxury. In the 16th century new foods were introduced from
the Americas. Turkeys were introduced into England about 1525. Potatoes were brought
to England in the 1580s but at first few English people ate them. Tomatoes came
to England from Mexico and apricots were introduced from Portugal.
Rich
people liked to show off their gold and silver plate. The middle classes would
have dishes and bowls made of pewter. The poor made do with wooden plates and
bowls. There were no forks in Tudor times. People ate food with knives and
their fingers or with spoons. Wealthy people had silver or pewter spoons. The
poor used wooden ones.
In the 16th century people made
much of their own food. A farmers wife cured bacon and salted meat to preserve
it. She baked bread and brewed beer. She also made pickles and conserves and
preserved vegetables. Many prosperous farms kept bees for honey.
Food
in the 17th Century
In the early 17th century people
began eating food with forks for the first time. During the 17th century new
foods were introduced into England (for the rich) such as bananas and
pineapples. New drinks were introduced, chocolate, tea and coffee. In the late
17th century there were many coffee houses in the towns. Merchants and
professional men met there to read newspapers and talk shop.
In
the late 17th century the rich began eating ice cream. Many rich people built
special underground chambers in the grounds of their houses for preserving ice
during the summer. The ice was covered in straw to preserve it. However for the
poor food remained plain and monotonous. They subsisted on food like bread,
cheese and onions. Ordinary people continued to eat pottage each day.
Food
in the 18th Century
There
was little change in diet in the 18th century. Despite the improvements in
farming food for ordinary people remained plain and monotonous. For them meat
was a luxury. A poor person's food was mainly bread and potatoes. In the 18th century
drinking tea became common even among ordinary people.
19th
Century Food
In
the early 19th century the working class lived on plain food such as bread,
butter, potatoes and bacon. Butcher's meat was a luxury. However the diet of
ordinary people greatly improved in Victorian times. Railways and steamships
made it possible to import cheap grain from North America so bread became
cheaper. Refrigeration made it possible to import cheap meat from Argentina and
Australia. Consumption of sugar also increased. By the end of the 19th century
most people (not all) were eating a much better diet.
The
first fish and chip shops in Britain opened in the 1860s. By the late 19th
century they were common in towns and cities.
In
the late 19th century the first convenience food in tins and jars went on sale.
Although the principle of canning was invented at the end of the 18th century
tinned food first became widely available in the 1880s. The can opener was
invented in 1855 and the rotary can opener followed in 1870. Furthermore in the
1870s margarine, a cheap substitute for butter, was invented.
20th
Century Food
The diet eaten by ordinary people
greatly improved during the 20th century. In 1900 some families sat down to tea
of a plate of potatoes and malnutrition was common among poor children. Food
was also expensive. In 1914 a working class family spent about 60% of their
income on food. By 1937 food was cheaper and they only spent about 35% of their
income on food.Ordinary people began to eat a wider variety of food in the late
20th century. That was partly because fridges, freezers and later microwave
ovens became common. (Microwave ovens first became common in the 1980s) in the
home as well as display fridges and freezers in shops.
Chinese
and Indian takeaways and restaurants became common. So, in the 1980s, did
hamburger and pizza chains.Several new types of food were invented in the 20th
century. Hot dogs were invented in 1901. People had been eating ice cream for
centuries but in 1903 the ice cream cone was invented. Choc-ices went on sale
in the USA in 1921. Sliced bread was first sold in 1928. Spam was invented in
1936. Instant coffee was invented in 1901 and tea bags went on sale in Britain
in 1953. Fish fingers went on sale in 1955. Meanwhile in 1954 Marc Gregoire
developed the non-stick frying pan.
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