A BRIEF HISTORY OF FOOD

Food In Ancient Egypt

The staple diet of the Egyptians was bread and beer. Bread was baked outside. Because of the desert sand was often blown into drought. In time eating bread with grains of sand in it wore down peoples teeth.
In ancient Egypt as in all early civilisations meat was a luxury and only the rich could afford to eat it frequently. The Egyptians ate sheep, pigs, cows and goats but meat often came from ducks and geese. However fish were plentiful in Egypt.
The Egyptians ate many vegetables including, marrows, bens, onions, lentils, leeks, radishes, garlic and lettuces. They also ate fruit like melons, dates and figs. Pomegranates were quite expensive and were eaten mainly by the rich.
The Egyptians grew herbs and spices and they made cooking oil.
Beer was made from crumbled barley bread and barley with water so it was lumpy. It was strained before it was drunk. Even so it was still lumpy so it had to be drunk through a wooden straw with a filter. Better off Egyptians drank wine.

Food in Ancient Greece

Ordinary Greeks lived on a staple diet of bread (made from barley or, if you could afford it, wheat) and goats cheese. Meat was a luxury but fish and vegetables were plentiful. Ordinary Greeks ate pulses, onions, garlic and olives. They also ate hen’s eggs. Peasants caught small birds to eat.
The Greeks also ate fruit such as raisins, apricots, figs, apples, pears and pomegranates. They drank wine diluted with water.
Rich Greeks ate a much more varied and interesting diet such as roasted hare, peacocks eggs or iris bulbs in vinegar.
Poor people drank mainly water. If they could afford it they added honey to sweeten it. Wine was also a popular drink. Usually wine was drunk diluted with water.

Food in Roman Britain

The Romans introduced new foods into Britain, among them celery, cabbages, radishes, carrots, cucumbers, broad beans and walnuts. Romans cooked on charcoal stoves. Olive oil was imported. So were olives, figs and grapes. Wine was also imported (although the Romans attempted to grow vines in Britain).
The Romans were also very fond of fish sauce called liquamen. They also liked oysters, which were exported from Britain.
A Roman dining room was called a triclinium. The Romans ate a breakfast of bread and fruit called the ientaculum. At midday they ate a meal called the prandium of fish, cold meat, bread and vegetables. The main meal was called the cena and was eaten in the evening.

Saxon Food

Saxon women brewed beer. Another Saxon drink was mead, made from fermented honey. (Honey was very important to the Saxons as there was no sugar for sweetening food. Bees were kept in every village). Upper class Saxons sometimes drank wine). The women cooked in iron cauldrons over open fires or in pottery vessels. They also made butter and cheese. Saxons ate from wooden bowls. There were no forks only knives and wooden spoons. Cups were made from cow horn.
Saxons were fond of meat and fish. However meat was a luxury and only the rich could eat it frequently. The ordinary people usually ate a dreary diet of bread, cheese and eggs. They ate not just chickens eggs but eggs from ducks, geese and wild birds.

Food in the Middle Ages

During the Middle Ages the rich ate well. They ate beef, mutton, pork and venison. They also ate a great variety of birds, swans, herons, ducks, blackbirds, pigeons and greenfinches. However the church decreed that Wednesday, Friday and Saturday were fast days when people were not allowed to eat meat. Rich people usually had fishponds so they could eat pike and carp. They also ate fish caught in rivers or the sea.
The rich also used spices. In the 13th century a new spice arrived in England. It was called sugar.
The rich ate breakfast in private but they ate dinner at mid-morning and supper at 5 or 6 in the great hall. On special occasions they had huge feasts. The Lord and his lady sat at a table on a raised wooden platform so they could look down on the rest of the household. Often musicians entertained them while they ate. Rich people ate their food from slices of stale bread called trenchers. Afterwards they were given to the poor.
Poor people ate a simple and monotonous diet. For them meat was a luxury. If they were lucky they had rabbit or pork. They also ate lots of coarse, dark bread and cheese. They only had one cooked meal a day. In the evening they ate pottage That was a kind of stew. It was made by boiling grain in water to make a kind of porridge. You added vegetables and (if you could afford it) pieces of meat or fish. In the autumn peasants gathered fruit and nuts. In normal years the peasants had an adequate diet but if there was a famine they might starve.

Aztec Food

Meanwhile in Central America maize was the staple crop of the Aztecs. Aztec women ground the maize into flour on a stone slab with a stone roller. It was then made into flour and baked into a kind of pancake called a tortilla. Aztec women cooked on a clay disc called a comal, which stood on stones above.
Also maize was made into a kind of porridge called atole. The Aztecs ate 'envelopes' of steamed maize called tamales stuffed with vegetables, meat or eggs.
The Aztecs also ate tomatoes, avocados, beans and peppers, as well as pumpkins, squashes, peanuts and amaranth seeds. They also ate fruit such as limes and cactus fruits.
The Aztecs diet also included rabbits, turkeys and armadillos. They also ate dogs. However meat was a luxury for the Aztecs and ordinary people only ate it infrequently.
The Aztec nobles drank an alcoholic drink called octli, from fermented maguey juice. Upper class Aztecs drank chocolate made from cocoa beans. It was flavoured with vanilla and honey.
Poor people drank water or sometimes an alcoholic drink called pulque.

Inca Food

The Incas lived in the highlands and lowlands of what is now Peru. In the lowlands the staple food was maize. In the highlands it was potatoes. Incas also ate peppers, tomatoes and avocadoes. They also ate peanuts and a grain called quinoa.
Llamas and alpacas were kept for wool and for carrying loads but they were sometimes provided meat. Incas also ate guinea pigs. They also fished and ate birds. However for most Incas meat was a luxury.
Incas drank a fermented drink called chicha. Ordinary Incas drank from bowls carved from gourds. Rich Incas drank from pottery vessels or even ones made from gold or silver.
Poor people ate off dishes placed on the ground. Inca nobles ate off a cloth on the ground. There were no tables.
Maya Food

Maize was the staple food of the Maya but they also grew beans, chillies, sweet potatoes and squashes. The Maya also ate fruit like papaya, watermelon and avocados.
The Maya ate animals like deer, turkeys, dogs, peccaries (wild pigs) and a kind of rodent called an agouti. They also fished.
The Maya also kept bees for honey.
In the mornings people ate a 'porridge' made of maize and chillies called saka. During the day they ate 'dumplings' made of maize dough with vegetables or meat inside them. The 'dumplings' were called tamales and they were wrapped in leaves from maize plants. The main meal was in the evening. People ate maize 'pancakes' called tortillas. They were eaten with 'stew' made with vegetable and (sometimes) meat.
The Maya drank an alcoholic drink called blache. Maya nobles drank chocolate.

Food in the 16th Century

In the 16th century the rich ate vast amounts of meat. However they rarely ate vegetables. Rich people were not necessarily well fed because they ate too few vegetables. Poor people ate plenty of vegetables because they had no choice! Vegetables were cheap but meat was a luxury.
On certain days by law people had to eat fish instead of meat. At first this was for religious reasons but later in the 16th century it was to support the fishing industry. If you lived near the sea or a river you could eat fresh fish like herrings or mackerel. Otherwise you might have to rely on dried or salted fish.
Poor people lived on a dreary diet. In the morning they had bread and cheese and onions. They only had one cooked meal a day. They mixed grain with water and added vegetables and (if they could afford it) strips of meat.
All classes ate bread but it varied in quality. Rich peoples bread was made from fine white flour. Poor people ate coarse bread of barley or rye.
In the 16th century people thought fresh fruit was bad for you. They did eat fruit but only after it was cooked and made into a tart or pie.
The Tudors were also fond of sweet foods (if they could afford them). However in the 16th century sugar was very expensive so most people used honey to sweeten their food.
In the 16th century new foods were introduced from the Americas. Turkeys were introduced into England about 1525. Potatoes were brought to England in the 1580s but at first few English people ate them. Tomatoes came to England from Mexico and apricots were introduced from Portugal.
Nobody drank water in Tudor times because it was too dirty. Young children drank milk. Everyone else drank ale or, if they were rich, wine. From the mid-16th century beer became common. The Tudors also drank cider and perry.
Rich people liked to show off their gold and silver plate. The middle classes would have dishes and bowls made of pewter. The poor made do with wooden plates and bowls. There were no forks in Tudor times. People ate with knives and their fingers or with spoons. Wealthy people had silver or pewter spoons. The poor used wooden ones.
People in Tudor times made much of their own food. A farmers wife cured bacon and salted meat to preserve it. She baked bread and brewed beer. She also made pickles and conserves and preserved vegetables. Many prosperous farms kept bees for honey.

Food in the 17th Century

In the early 17th century people began eating with forks for the first time.
During the century new foods were introduced into England (for the rich) such as bananas and pineapples. New drinks were introduced, tea and coffee. In the late 17th century there were many coffee houses in the towns. Merchants and professional men met there to read newspapers and talk shop.
In the late 17th century the rich began eating ice cream. Many rich people built special underground chambers in the grounds of their houses for preserving ice during the summer. The ice was covered in straw to preserve it.
However for the poor food remained plain and monotonous. They subsisted on food like bread, cheese and onions. Ordinary people continued to eat pottage each day.

Food in the 18th Century

There was little change in food in the 18th century. Despite the improvements in farming food for ordinary people remained plain and monotonous. For them meat was a luxury. A poor person's diet was mainly bread and potatoes. In the 18th century drinking tea became common even among ordinary people.

19th Century Food

In the early 19th century the working class lived on a dreary diet of bread, butter, potatoes and bacon. Butcher's meat was a luxury. However things greatly improved in the late 19th century. Railways and steamships made it possible to import cheap grain from North America so bread became cheaper. Refrigeration made it possible to import cheap meat from Argentina and Australia. Consumption of sugar also increased. By the end of the 19th century most people (not all) had a reasonably varied diet.
The first fish and chip shops in Britain opened in the 1860s. By the late 19th century they were common in towns and cities.
In the late 19th century the first convenience foods in tins and jars went on sale. Although the principle of canning was invented at the end of the 18th century tinned food first became widely available in the 1880s. Furthermore in the 1870s margarine, a cheap substitute for butter, was invented. Tomato ketchup was invented in 1874.
Several new biscuits were invented in the 19th century including the Garibaldi (1861), the cream cracker (1885) and the Digestive (1892). Furthermore new sweets were invented during the 19th century including peanut brittle (1890) and liquorice allsorts (1899).
For centuries people drank chocolate but the first chocolate bar was made in 1847. Milk chocolate was invented in 1875.

20th Century Food

The diet of ordinary people greatly improved during the 20th century. In 1900 some families sat down to tea of a plate of potatoes and malnutrition was common among poor children. Food was also expensive. In 1914 a working class family spent about 60% of their income on food. By 1937 food was cheaper and they only spent about 35% of their income on food.
Moreover sweets were a luxury in 1914. They became much more common in the 1920s and 1930s.
Food was rationed during World War II. In January 1940 butter, sugar, bacon and ham were rationed. Rationing became much more severe in 1942. From July 1942 both tea and sweets were rationed. Instead of real eggs many people had to make do with 'dried eggs' imported from the USA.
Rationing lasted for several years after the war. Tea rationing lasted until 1952. Sweet rationing ended in 1953. Meat and cheese remained until 1954.
In the late 20th century convenience foods became far more common. That was partly because fridges, freezers and later microwave ovens became common. (Microwave ovens first became common in the 1980s).
The British diet also became more varied. Chinese and Indian takeaways and restaurants became common. So, in the 1980s, did hamburger and pizza chains.
Several new foods were invented in the 20th century. People had been eating ice cream for centuries but in 1903 the ice cream cone was invented. Hot dogs went on sale in 1908. Choc-ices went on sale in the USA in 1921. Sliced bread was invented in the USA in 1928 and it went on sale in Britain in 1930. Spam was invented in 1936. Instant coffee was invented in 1938 and tea bags went on sale in 1953. Fish fingers went on sale in 1955. Meanwhile in 1954 Marc Gregoire developed the non-stick frying pan. Fruit-flavoured yoghurt went on sale in Britain in 1963.
Many new kinds of confectionary were introduced in the 20th century. They included Milky Way (1923), Crunchie (1929), Snickers (1930), Mars Bar (1933), Aero and Kit Kat (1935), Maltesers and Blue Riband (1936) and Smarties and Rolos (1937). Later came Polo mints (1948), Bounty (1951), Yorkie and Lion Bar (1976) and Twix (1979). Also in the 20th century new biscuits were introduced including the bourbon (1910) and HobNobs (1986). Furthermore the ice lolly was invented in 1924.

By Tim Lambert in www.localhistories.org/ edited/adapted to be posted by Leopoldo Costa