taken principally from the Larousse Gastronomique eked out with collected knowledge of my own over almost 30 years of researched re-enacting in various genres. |
Meal Schedule of the Bourgeois |
last update: 28 Mar 2012 |
| Breakfast | taken before 9 in the morning and generally consisting of bread, cheese, fruit, sometimes a paté or cold meat. Chocolate swiftly became a favorite morning beverage in the 1700s but coffee was slower to catch on. (Need to check on tea.) |
| Dinner | taken between noon and 1 in the afternoon usually was soup, boiled meat of the pot-au-feu, and vegetables of the season. |
| (no particular name but came to be known as 'Tea' in the 1800s) | at about 4 in the afternoon, this light repast enjoyed by the ladies of the household and children but there is no particular note of what it actually was. In this writer's opinion, it would be bread and seasonal cheese with seasonal fruits, maybe salad; on the other hand, it may have been a sweet cake-like items. Basically, it was a bridge between regular meals so it really could have varied from household to household. |
| Supper | at about 8 in the evening, this was an entrée, roast, side-dishes, salad and dessert. |
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| Beverages at any given meal usually were wine, beer, hard cider, and perry. Yes, even for breakfast and, yes, even for the young. However, what needs to be kept in mind was that frequently (and especially for children), these were consumed in their 'small' form which was a reduced alcohol version. Clean and safe drinking water was an uncommon thing in many locales. Beer-brewing was a reliable way to sanitise water and the other (non-beer) beverages could be cut with water (usually half and half), allowed to sit a few minutes to kill bacteria and thus give a safe, low alcohol drink. Standard beers are 5-7%, wines 7-11%, ciders and perries ran the gamut while small beer was brewed to about 2-3% with the others being about half what they started at. | |