Her detailed accounts of the Romans is quite fascinating if not the lest bit nauseating. There was a lot of eating with your hands and relieving yourself at the table and eating until you puked. She cites an early book on etiquette that offers this advice. When at dinner avoid digging into your codpiece. Rules to live by!
The sixteenth century saw a new appreciation for and fascination with fruit. Fruits were not simple served but adorned to fit a kings table. During Christmas, Sir William Petrie's household consumed one ton of cheese, 17 oxen, 14 steers, 5 bacon hogs, 13 bucks, 4 cows, 29 calfs, 129 sheep, 3 goats, 5 does, 54 lambs, 2 boars, 9 porks, 7 kids and a stag. That was some Christmas party!
In the 1920's, a flourishing restaurant trade grew up in Britain. In her diaries, Lady Cynthia Asquith rarely lunches alone. For the poor, times were grave with most families subsisting on just over a shilling a week to buy food.
Consuming Passions is a great book if you have an interest in the history of food and how it is consumed. The recipes are culled for old cookery books. Here is a recipe worth the title alone.
Meat Roly Poly
Make a suet crust. Cover it with a mixture of minced meat and kidneys, a little liver if liked, onions and herbs and a few oysters, Roll up and boil. Serve with a good brown gravy.
Grab a glass of wine and remember, don't dig in your cod piece.
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