Supermarket deception

 

Queen Elizabeth 1          Update on Coronation at foot of page

The present page retains Q E 1 material if required..

 

Elizabethan England

Elizabethan Banquets and Feasts

by Sabina Pellizzari

For two hundred years, food has been the center of development of society. It has dictated population growth and urban expansion; influenced economic, social, and political theory; separated the royalty and peasantry; widened the horizons of commerce; inspired wars of dominion; played no small role in the creation of empires; and precipitated the discovery of new worlds. It has been very important in relations between peoples, particularly in the social gathering of a diverse group of people such as the banquets that were popular in Elizabethan days.

To this day people engage in banquets like people did in the Elizabethan Period. Though the menus have changed, the idea of social gathering with food is just about the same. People now can go to places such as "Old Country Buffet" (a popular "all you can eat buffet") and eat an extravagant amount of food that almost anyone could afford.

Another important difference between modern day buffets and Elizabethan banquets is this: only the royalty and the wealthy in those days could afford to have such a feast because a peasant obviously could not afford roasted peacock or swan. Now all a person needs is $8.14 to stuff himself or herself silly.

 

source

 

 

Elizabethan residences

 

They included

 

Windsor Castle

  • The Castle's Great Kitchen, the oldest working kitchen in the country. Dating back to the reign of Edward III, the Great Kitchen has remained in constant use for over 650 years and has served 32 British monarchs.
  • See photos of the ‘Great Kitchens’ and dining room at Windsor Castle: [on this link]

Hampton Court Palace

  • Built to feed the Court of Henry VIII, these kitchens were designed to feed at least 600 people twice a day. This was a vast operation, larger than any modern hotel, and one that had to cope without modern conveniences.
  • The Great Kitchen contained six fireplaces and above, there were three small courtyards surrounded by all the necessary offices such as the Boiling House (for making stock) the Pastry House (for making pie cases), the confectioners' house, the Wet Larder (for storing fish) and the Dry Larder (for grain). source

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Tour the Great Kitchen at Windsor Castle here


Queen Elizabeth 1 - a miscellany images
potato ... The English, if legend is to be believed, got their first potatoes direct from America, Sir Francis Drake picking up a load of them in the Caribbean in 1586. .... It does not seem to have been until the late eighteenth century that it had established itself as a commonly eaten vegetable in virtually all parts of the continent. In England, ...

The Elizabethans were faced with the problem of what to call these new and unpromising-looking tubers. They decided that they looked sufficiently like the vegetable they called the potato (familiar since the mid-sixteenth century, and known to us now as the sweet potato) to share its name, and so potato it was.


How to cite this entry:
"potato" An A-Z of Food and Drink. Ed. John Ayto. Oxford university Press, 2002. Oxford Reference Online. Oxford University Press. Herefordshire Libraries. 2 April 2012 <http://www.oxfordreference.com/views/ENTRY.html?subview=Main&entry=t134.e988>

Elizabeth's Household

History . Timeline . Elizabeth's Household . References

A Bachelors Thesis in History. By Sara Batty. Mills College. 1994. All Rights Reserved. see it all

Introduction

In the sixteenth century, the king was considered the anointed of God, and was required to maintain his position at the top of the Great Chain of Being. Elizabeth I was a powerful monarch, and it was obvious to her and her fellow monarchs that magnificence was a requirement of their place in the Great Chain of Being. Since they were at the pinnacle of earthly mortals they needed to appear more capable than mere men, better dressed, and more lavishly attended. Elizabeth, being a woman and therefore naturally inferior to a man according to the Great Chain of Being, may have felt this requirement more keenly than other monarchs.

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Generous hospitality was probably the most useful and widespread form of nobles' conspicuous consumption; putting up, feeding and entertaining guests. The efficiency and gentility (or lack thereof) offered by the household in the provision of such hospitality, as well as the hospitality itself, would affect those whom the lord was attempting to impress.

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Kitchen

The Kitchen was one of the largest departments in the Domus Providencie, it had two staffs, the monarch's and the Hall's, which each consisted of "three Clerks, three Master Cooks, six Yeomen, six Grooms, eight Pages, and an unspecified number of 'gallapines'," whose responsibility was "to scrub the kitchens and "outward galleries" twice daily" to maintain cleanliness. By 1601, the Kitchen was divided into the Privy Kitchen and the Great Kitchen - parallel to monarch's and hall kitchens, and Elizabeth's funeral procession only lists "Master Cook of the Housholde, Master Cook of the Kitchen," so she may have removed one of the cooks over the course of her reign.

The Chief Clerk of the Kitchen had two under Clerks, and all three of them were required to oversee the quality of the queen's food and to make sure that the goods were in the larder for the cooks use. The clerks would check each department for waste, and the quality of the goods being used. This function was duplicated in one form or another throughout the Domus Providencie, the clerk was responsible for maintaining the standards laid down by the household ordinances, and therefore the majesty of the queen. The sergeants were responsible for enforcing the clerk's decisions, and making the practical conform to the ceremonial. The Chief Clerk of the Kitchen was traditionally responsible for "all buyings of foodstuffs and sometimes of spices in the household…his function is mainly that of book-keeper", but with all the foodstuffs and departments that required the supervision of the Kitchen Clerks "there [was] matter enough to employ them all therein".

The Clerks of the Kitchen supervised "the cellar, the buttery, the acatry, the poultry, the bakehouse, the pantry, the kitchen, and other subdivisions of the household". Under the more direct control of the sergeant of the Kitchen were the Larder, the Boilinghouse, and the Pastry. The Boilinghouse was responsible for boiling all the meat to sterilize it, and was staffed by only three men. Once the meat had been preserved or boiled, it was stored in the larder. The larder was one of the departments that employed the children of other servants, and was run by the Sergeants, since it was under the control of the Kitchen.The Larder was a storeroom for the food the Kitchen would need for the preparation of meals. The pastry was an area of the kitchen that specialized in meat pies and baked meats.

Cellar

After the kitchen, the Cellar had the most responsibility since it controlled the Buttery, the Pitcherhouse. The cellar itself stored and dispensed the wine, like all the other food departments, always checking that the quality was the best and that none of it had spoiled. The Buttery was traditionally a small chamber near the main hall, it had been where beer and wine were laid out before being served. By the sixteenth century, the buttery was the division of the cellar that bought, stored, served and checked the quality of beer and ale. The pitcherhouse "kept the cups, mugs and pitchers in which potables were dispensed." It was responsible for their cleaning and storage, which was not a minor chore, Elizabethan etiquette required the nobility to have a new glass with each cup of wine or beer.

It was the responsibility of the officers of the Cellar to "keepe their office of the celler cleane, without servants or others," which they may have done, but they probably had servants to do it for them. And, of course, they had to make sure the king had the best wine at the best price. The sergeant of the cellar "had to ensure that all the casks he signed for were of full measure and filled to the brim and that they were properly sealed when the court "removed" to prevent spillage and pollution by dust." In addition, he would taste the wine and ale to be sure of its quality, a duty that he no doubt exploited by drinking more than absolutely necessary.

Anthony Viscount Montague's Book of Orders and Rules 1595

A noble household in Elizabethan England

Managing a noble household in Elizabethan England

Lord Anthony Maria Browne, 2nd Viscount Montague (also rendered Montacute) wrote the "Book of Orders and Rules" in 1595, when he was just 21/22, for the "better direction and government of my household and family, together with the several duties and charges appertaining to mine officers and other servants".

In this document, the young Viscount sounds somewhat defensive. His father had died before his grandfather, so young Anthony inherited at the age of 18 a noble household that had long been under the hand of one man who had gotten old and sick in Queen Elizabeth I's service. It appears as though the staff had gotten used to doing things without much supervision or accountability, and may have gotten very lax in performance. He mentions several times, for example, that the woods and meadows both need looking into.

The senior staff in particular may have developed a little attitude problem about what "perks" of office were theirs of right and ancient custom, as opposed to the generous hand of their master. At the time of writing, they are likely still thinking of their new viscount as "the boy", who doesn't understand how we do things around here. In the end we see his lordship taking back all privileges to remind them that they come from him, not from some inalienable right. And he'll choose to restore them one at a time, maybe, if he sees fit to do so.

source leading to the book in pdf format

Elizabethan Food


Elizabethan Food and Drink varied according to status and wealth. In the early Medieval era meat was a sign of wealth. But as the population rose, this was supported by improving agricultural techniques and inventions. The Elizabethan era also saw the introductions of different food from the New World. And the Elizabethan period saw the expanded use of sugar. Increased cultivation of fruit trees and bee hives was also seen during the Elizabethan era increasing the range of foods available. The section and era covering Elizabethan Food includes sections on Daily Meals, Elizabethan food preservation, Elizabethan food and diet, food availability, food served at a Banquet or feast and food from the New World. There is also a separate section containing old Elizabethan recipes.

Old Elizabethan Recipes
Elizabethan Daily Meals
Elizabethan Food Preservation
Elizabethan Food and Diet
Elizabethan Foods from the New World
Elizabethan Food Availability
Elizabethan Banquet & Feast

source header pic from same source

More than any other English monarch before or since, Queen Elizabeth I used her annual progresses to shape her royal persona and to bolster her popularity and authority. During the spring and summer, accompanied by her court, Elizabeth toured southern England, the Midlands, and parts of the West Country, staying with private and civic hosts, and at the universities of Oxford and Cambridge. The progresses provided hosts with unique opportunities to impress and influence the Queen, and became occasions for magnificent and ingenious entertainments and pageants, drawing on the skills of architects, artists, and ...

source - pic might be useful

 Wright, Clarissa, A History of English Food, Random House Books, 2011

 

Using this excellent book, we will continue the Coronation aspects before looking at other topics.

Coronation Chicken

Coronation menus 

 

Tuiles d'amandes here