OUR ANCESTORS’ MEALS.

Matamata Record, Volume XIII, Issue 1104, 10 March 1930, Page 6

OUR ANCESTORS’ MEALS.

SOME STRANGE RECIPES. Domestic customs have changed rapidly with the centuries. It was only during the fifteenth century that the present custom of placing men and women alternately at a table came into vogue. Before this each sex sat separately, arranged according to rank. Still more recent is the practice of taking four meals a day. T T p to 1800 late dinner was prepared m mid-afternoon, but gradually this meal has become so late that it is now actually supper, if the hour at which it is served is taken into consideration. These, and other more marked changes in our customs, are described in an article on “Meals and Manners in Bygone Days,” by Mr M. Lawson-Tancred in the Christmas number of “ Chamber’s Journal. Our ancestors scorned the use of forks, and used their fingers without compunction. Knives and spoons, however, preceded forks by many years. Before the use of forks became common the first injunction impressed upon youthful minds was to come to the table with clean hands. Children were also enjoined not to pick their teeth with their knives, or to put too much meat on their trenchers at once; they were to be careful, too, not to bring dirty knives to the table. In personal cleanliness England was in the van, leading northern Europe. The ambassador of Peter the Great at St. James’s was invariably verminous, and Charles XII. of Sweden buttered his bread with his Royal thumb long after English people had relinquished this engaging custom. The diet of bygone ages was varied but remarkable. Among animals and birds which pleased the palate, in addition to those used to-day, were hedgehogs, squirrels, magpies, jackdaws, gulls, swans, peacocks, and many smaller birds. In the liili century whale was largely eaten, and porpoise was considered a delicacy. The principal dish at a banquet given by Cardinal Wolsey in 1509 was a young porpoise which had cost Ss. However, the taste for porpoise disappeared, and the author of “ Couit and Country ” in the reign of James I. remarks that not even a dog should eat it. As fruits and vegetables many things were used which would not find favour to-day. Among them were broom, criar hips, walnut buds, violet leaves, strawberry leaves, and tansy. Quinces and cinamon were special favourites, and a few recipes whether Tor fruit or savoury, seemed. to be complete without them. Even flowers such as primroses, cowslips, and violets formed part of salads. Conserves could be made of roses, violets, or gillyflowers, which were beaten to a pulp and then mixed with sugar. Among the more alluring dishes to be found in old cookery books was,a “tart to provoke courage in either man or woman.” Again, there was a “a conserve of borage flowers,, especially good against black choller or melancholic.” A tart of marigolds, primroses and cowslips might have an equally salutary effect upon our emotions.