Food In The Victorian Era

One of the important things during the time of the Renaissance was food. Food was very important to the people. They cooked and served food in a unique way. Others had ovens and others did not. Others who did not have ovens, they cooked their food over an open flame. In Renaissance times, food relied on what your social class is. There were the upper class people and lower class people. The upper class people had more choices of what they wanted to it and the lower class people didn’t have many choices of what they wanted to eat. Some of the foods were expensive. For them to have food they had farm. The upper class owned farms and they planted crops and harvested the crops for food. They raised animals for them to have meat and milk.

Food is always an extremely important factor that brings influence to people’s life in diverse ways from the old times to the present. Although it carries the same significance through the whole development of civilization, the English cuisine in Medieval time is very different from it is in modern time. The Medieval cuisine, including the foods, eating habits, food preservation, and seasoning, in England had been hugely affected by the social and political background during the Medieval Age.

One of the many ways the victorian era may stands out from today's daily life would be the overall health. During this time life expectancy was very much shorter than it is today. This is because of the way diseases were spread, conditions

Could you even begin to think of how fast food and grocery stores would be if there were no mandatory monthly inspections or no required food sanitation guidelines? Food plays a huge role in our lives. Food keeps us going through the day. Food to us is like gas to cars. Without gas, the car cannot drive.But is the food we are putting into our systems having a bad impact on our bodies that we can't control? In the early 1900s, the food was incredibly unsanitary. The food was more dangerous than when "The Jungle" was written. We have come a long way.

People of this era usually ate three meals a day which consisted of: breakfast, dinner, and supper.

During the Elizabethan era various types of foods were eaten and extensive details were added to these foods. Social classes also played a big role in what the rich or poor ate.

For the well-to-do, eating during the Elizabethan and Jacobean periods was a fancy affair. A king or queen when going abroad could expect banquet tables filled with hundreds of dishes--for just one meal! There was much pageantry and entertainment. At Leicester, Queen Elizabeth I (predecessor of King James VI & I) was greeted with a pageant of welcome displayed on a temporary bridge. There were cages of live birds--bitterns, curlews, hernshaws and godwits. One pillar held great silver bowls piled with apples, pears, cherries, walnuts and filberts. Other pillars held ears of wheat, oats and barley, gigantic bunches of red and white grapes, great livery pots of claret and white wine, sea fish in quantity laying

Constantly struggling to find available food sources the two were, at times, left starving and

Food is a staple in life. Everyone needs it, but not everyone gets what they want from it. In England during the Elizabethan Era there was a variety of foods. There were many imported foods and spices but a great deal of people never had the chance to try those amazing foods, except for the rich people. In the Elizabethan time period, the food eaten by the different classes, at feasts, and the ingredients used, played a major role in the civilization of England.

Bakers would charge a fee if you brought something that wanted to be baked. Forks were uncommon, everyone had a small knife and a spoon. Also there would be a towel and some water nearby to wash up after each meal. Most households drank and brewed their own ale or beer because the poor water sanitation. Only rich homes could afford to have well water pumped to their houses.

In 1550-1600, the food that the rich ate was bad for them. In the early 16th century 50 guests at a feast held by the London guild consumed 36 chickens, one swan, four geese, and two rumps of beef, and that was just meat only the rich can afford all the meat. The rich, who could afford to buy sugar, were very fond of sugary desserts, so much so that their teeth turned black. In fact, having black teeth became such a status symbol that people would deliberately blacken their teeth so it looked like they were rich enough to buy sugar. Little was known about nutrition and the Elizabethan diet of the rich Nobles lacked Vitamin C, calcium and fibre. Because of the lack of fruits and vegetables, the wealthy didn't get any vitamins or crucial nutrients, instead they ate lots of sugar, which led to an assortment of health problems, including bad teeth,

Poor people were known as squatters, their jobs were to build dwellings on waste land. When farming the land, they would be divided into threes. For this reason, it was for each field to contain one strip of land for wheat (bread), another for barley,

However, when their mother came through the door and told them of a hungry family, the 4 women did not hesitate in giving away their luscious breakfast to those in need. The children delivered the food to the family and “a poor, bare, miserable room it was, with broken windows, no fire, ragged bedclothes, a sick mother, wailing baby, and a group of pale, hungry children cuddled under one old quilt, trying to keep warm”(24). The sisters realize what a harsh environment they live in, and because the setting is so pessimistic, they try to share the little wealth they have so that everyone may live long full lives. The setting in which they live, houses many people who have even less wealth than their own family. However, because of this dreadful place, they try and make sure that their community, or their family, is taken care of, even at the expense of their luxuries.

Rich people had more variety of food than poor peasant people. An important part of a peasant's diet was bread. Peasant's eggs were gathered from their chickens, cheese/butter was made from their cow's milk, and meat was from chickens that no longer made eggs. Fish and meat, were luxurious to most peasants. Peasants who had meat and fish slated them to keep them from spoiling. The wealthier you were the better you ate. For upper class people, instead of eating just normal 'bread' they ate white bread of finest quality bread made from flour that was sifted two or three times. People who were rich would have rabbit, pork, chick and beef flavored with spices. Both the upper and lower-class people all drank ale and

During the first week of class, four readings were assigned. One of the readings, “Food and Eating: Some Persisting Questions,” by Sidney Mintz, discusses the paradoxes of food. Although food seems like a straightforward concept, it is actually extremely complicated. According to Mintz, there are five paradoxes, including: the importance of food to one’s survival, yet we take it for granted, how people stick to their foodways, but are willing to change, whether the government should allow people to freely choose food or if they should protect the people through regulations, the difference in food meanings according to gender, and the morality of eating certain foods. All of these paradoxes give people questions to think about, making this an extremely philosophical look at food studies. It also mentions that food must be viewed through the cultural context that it is in, which became important in “The Old and New World Exchange”, by Mintz, and “Maize as a Culinary Mystery”, by Stanley Brandes. These discuss the diffusion of foods after 1492 in different ways. The Mintz reading gives an overview of all of the foods spread from the Americas to the Old World, and vice-a-versa, but does not go terribly in depth on the social changes and effects of specific foods. Brandes focuses on the cultural impact of specifically maize on the European diet, noticing that most Western Europeans shunned it. He studies the cultural implications of this, concluding that maize was not accepted