Elizabethan Era Food Essay

Elizabethan Era Food
Food and drink were a major part of life in the Elizabethan times. Food in the Elizabethan Era was very backward from modern food and beliefs. This was because back then not many knew the actual nutrients of food. So what was the diet like of the people in the Elizabethan Era. Elizabethan food and drink varied according to status and wealth. It was also known that food was a serious situation based on region in England depicted perfectly by Wm. Harrison in 1577. “The situation of our region, lying near unto the north, doth cause the heat of our stomachs to be of somewhat greater force: therefore our bodies do crave a little more ample nourishment than the inhabitants of the hotter regions are accustomed withal, whose digestive

Many foods and spices were believed to be cures and treatments for infections, diseases and injuries. For example Vinegar was used widely in medicine as a cleansing agent and was believed to be able to kill disease and bacteria. The Black Death was a plague that is believed to have killed over one third of the population in this period it was said that if you used a warm poultice or cloth of butter, onion and garlic and lay it on the person's body it would help cure the Black Death. In Castle of Helth, Sir Thomas Elyot wrote that “apples are right holsome and do confirme the stomacke and make good digestion, specially if they be roasted or baken”. This is an example of food being used for health benefits that is accurate in modern times as well almost like the saying “eating an apple a day will keep the doctor

In the introduction to the chapter on cookery in The english housewife, Gervase Markham wrote “to speak then of the outward and active knowledge which belong to our English housewife, I hold the first and most principal to be a perfect skill and knowledge in cookery, together with all the secrets belonging to the same, because it is a duty really belonging to a woman, and she that is utterly ignorant therein may not by the laws of strict justice challenge the freedom of marriage, because indeed she can then but perform half her vow, for that she was love and obey, but she cannot serve and keep him with that true duty which is ever expected” further proves what was expected of a housewife in the preparation of food or “cookery” in the Elizabethan Era. She goes on to explain that if you aren’t skilled in the knowledge of cooking you are going against the laws of strict justice and are going against your wedding