During the Elizabethan period, the large meal we know as dinner was eaten at midday, with the nobility and gentry going in to dinner at "eleven before noon, and to supper at five." In the 17th century, dinner was eaten later, at about two in the afternoon and, a century later, at four. One influencing factor on meal time was the growth of theatre in London. As more theatres were built and as means of illumination improved, shows began later and later in the day, with meal times following. Victorians ate their dinner at the times we do today, anywhere from five to eight in the evening, with the farm worker and country dweller still dining upon a large meal at midday and taking tea or a light supper the early evening.
The age of chivalry and good manners began in the Middle Ages, at which time forks were only used for carving and serving foods. Knives, spoons and goblets comprised the nef, a set of table utensils usually bestowed upon a person once they were of age to eat with the adults, it being up to them to remember to bring along their utensils. By the 18th century, forks and spoons were becoming so widely used that gold, silver and blacksmiths were turning out matched sets in ornate patterns.
The large, coarse towels which were provided at Medieval feasts shrank in size over the centuries until they became what we call a napkin. It was from the Medieval feast that the practice of serving a wide range of foods began, however, the art of dining was refined over the course of the 18th and 19th centuries, when food service was separated into courses and presentation became the thing. So accustomed were Victorian and Edwardians to the ritual of elegant dining that many middle class families clung to the tradition of retaining at least one maidservant whose job it was to serve at table long after the ranks of domestic servants had thinned.
The Tudors referred to the dessert course after a feast as a "banquet," and erected special "Banqueting Halls" to which diners retired after the main meal for a dessert of jellies, tarts and sweet wines, along with other English "afters," such as cheese, apples and puddings. Granted, meal service today has lost some of its past opulence and there are some amongst us who may bemoan the passing of the typically elegant and English dinner of yesterday.
However, the next time a wave of sentimentality threatens, it may help to remember that the typical bill of fare at a Medieval banquet could consist of 80 oxen, 6 wild bulls, 1,004 sheep, 300 calves, 2,000 pigs, 400 harts, bucks and does, 2,300 capons, 3,000 geese and assorted wild game including herons, egrets, bitterns and swans. Hold the mustard.
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by Margaret Visser
