HISTORY

BRIEF HISTORY OF FOOD

Food In Ancient Egypt

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.