The chief food of the common people consisted of broth, barley and rye bread, with milk, butter, eggs, and cheese. Green vegetables and beans were also used. The wealthy lived chiefly on wheaten bread, game, eels, fowls, pork, venison; and the servants were called JO Buckmaster's Cookery. loaf-eaters. Knives were in general use, but forks were unknown. After dinner followed the dessert, which consisted chiefly of wine, hone}'-, and wild fruits. Beer, mead, and mulberry juice flavoured with spices were their principal drinks, although French wines were not unknown. Minstrels entertained the com- pany with vocal and instrumental music. Eating and drinking often degenerated into gluttony and drunken- ness; and the feast not unfrequently terminated in quarrels. The principal meal of the Anglo-Saxon was dinner, and this was at eight o’clock in the morning, and supper at five in the afternoon. In 1109, we find at a banquet given near Bath by one of the nobles, that three sorts of broth, meat roasted and boiled, stur- geon, lobsters, eels, oysters, plaice, and horseflesh were eaten ; and the bread was made with rye-meal and barley-meal in the form of cakes marked with a cross, and eaten hot. The poorer classes had abund- ance, but no great variety; and their cooking was chiefly baking in live ashes, stewing, and boiling ; but hospitality even among the poorest was taught and inculcated as a Christian virtue. Every stranger or wayfarer who presented himself at the door of an Anglo-Saxon house, was boarded and lodged for two nights without question, except priests, who were only entertained for one night ; if they remained for a longer period it was thought they were neglecting their duties. In this rude period of our history the Saxon woman was a noble example of every virtue — a good housewife, and the companion and comforter of her husband and children. Her occupations were spin- Early English Food and Cooking. ii ning, weaving, cooking, baking, brewing, and needle- work ; and her embroidery was known on the conti- nent as “ Fine English work.” During the twelfth and thirteenth centuries the office of cook rose to one of much distinction and import- ance. The old English families of the Cokes or Cooks sprang from professional cooks, and no one need bo ashamed of the names of Butler, Brewer, or Baker, because they have their origin in trade. William the Conqueror bestowed portions of land on his master kitcheners. We find it stated that “ Robert Argyllon holdeth a piece of land in Addington, in Surrey, by the service of making one mess in an earthen pot in the kitchen of our lord the king, on the day of his coronation, which mess is a kind of plum porridge or water gruel, with plums stoned and put into it.” This dish was served up at the royal table by the lord of the manor of Addington at the coronation of George IV., and probably at the coronation of subsequent sovereigns. The kitchens of the aristocracy were generally large, well ventilated, and well furnished with everything necessary for cooking. In a list of the utensils of a bishop’s kitchen at Ely in 1262, we have the following : — “A strong table for chopping and mincing herbs and vegetables ; pots of brass and copper of divers sizes for divers uses; trivets, tripods, an axe for chopping bones ; a mortar and pestle, a mover, a pot-slick for stirring, divers crooks and pot- hooks, two large cauldrons, a frying-pan, two

AI-modernized reading of the original text

The chief food of the common people consisted of broth, barley and rye bread, with milk, butter, eggs, and cheese. Green vegetables and beans were also used. The wealthy lived chiefly on wheaten bread, game, eels, fowls, pork, venison; and the servants were called JO Buckmaster's Cookery. loaf-eaters. Knives were in general use, but forks were unknown. After dinner followed the dessert, which consisted chiefly of wine, honey-, and wild fruits. Beer, mead, and mulberry juice flavoured with spices were their principal drinks, although French wines were not unknown. Minstrels entertained the company with vocal and instrumental music. Eating and drinking often degenerated into gluttony and drunkenness; and the feast not unfrequently terminated in quarrels. The principal meal of the Anglo-Saxon was dinner, and this was at eight o’clock in the morning, and supper at five in the afternoon. In 1109, we find at a banquet given near Bath by one of the nobles, that three sorts of broth, meat roasted and boiled, sturgeon, lobsters, eels, oysters, plaice, and horseflesh were eaten ; and the bread was made with rye-meal and barley-meal in the form of cakes marked with a cross, and eaten hot. The poorer classes had abundance, but no great variety; and their cooking was chiefly baking in live ashes, stewing, and boiling ; but hospitality even among the poorest was taught and inculcated as a Christian virtue. Every stranger or wayfarer who presented himself at the door of an Anglo-Saxon house, was boarded and lodged for two nights without question, except priests, who were only entertained for one night ; if they remained for a longer period it was thought they were neglecting their duties. In this rude period of our history the Saxon woman was a noble example of every virtue — a good housewife, and the companion and comforter of her husband and children. Her occupations were spin- Early English Food and Cooking. ning, weaving, cooking, baking, brewing, and needlework ; and her embroidery was known on the continent as “ Fine English work.” During the twelfth and thirteenth centuries the office of cook rose to one of much distinction and importance. The old English families of the Cokes or Cooks sprang from professional cooks, and no one need be ashamed of the names of Butler, Brewer, or Baker, because they have their origin in trade. William the Conqueror bestowed portions of land on his master kitcheners. We find it stated that “ Robert Argyllon holdeth a piece of land in Addington, in Surrey, by the service of making one mess in an earthen pot in the kitchen of our lord the king, on the day of his coronation, which mess is a kind of plum porridge or water gruel, with plums stoned and put into it.” This dish was served up at the royal table by the lord of the manor of Addington at the coronation of George IV., and probably at the coronation of subsequent sovereigns. The kitchens of the aristocracy were generally large, well ventilated, and well furnished with everything necessary for cooking. In a list of the utensils of a bishop’s kitchen at Ely in 1262, we have the following : — “A strong table for chopping and mincing herbs and vegetables ; pots of brass and copper of divers sizes for divers uses; trivets, tripods, an axe for chopping bones ; a mortar and pestle, a mover, a pot-slick for stirring, divers crooks and pothooks, two large cauldrons, a frying-pan, two

Buckmaster's cookery