1/12^th Scale Tudor Kitchen Food

The peasantry and lower classes ate little more than bread and pottage, which is a stew of vegetables and herbs cooked in one pot, with a little meat of some kind added, if available, which wasn't often.  Soft cheese was made if they kept a cow and eggs if they had a hen or two. Almost all but the very poorest kept a pig which once slaughtered was able to provide some fresh meat for immediate use and joints were smoked for later consumption.

Apart from fire dogs, cauldrons, roasting spits and griddles which were made of iron, forged by the local blacksmith, most cooking utensils were either wood or terracotta clay.  Food was cooked over an open fire, very few people had an oven and if they had it, was built in beside the fireplace and could be used for bread and pies.  Serving dishes for the main table were wooden trenchers (plates) and bowls or if the household was a prosperous one, pewter or even silver, with glazed earthenware such as jugs and serving platters.  Forks were unknown, everyone ate with a spoon and a knife.

Spices played a large part in the kitchen, the Tudor palette liked a combination of sweet and savoury flavours and delicately spiced sauces for their meats, quite often these sauces were based on fruits such as redcurrants, gooseberries, barberries, sloes (wild damsons) quince, apples, oranges and lemons. A lot of native fruits were also  pickled in their season to be eaten with roast or baked meats throughout the year; as were oranges and lemons. Housewives also used every part, of every animal, not only in cooking for the family and servants of the household, but also for household items like bone and horn for spoons and leather for shoes and clothes.