Breaking the Fast�or�What did they eat for Breakfast?
Royal University of Meridies
Elective, School of Culinary Sciences
SHORT ANSWER:�� LEFTOVERS
“ete a sop hastyly” only
“when he hade herde masse.”
“The noble (14th century) Edward III, in comune dayes seryall, beying no prees of lordes or straungers at his bourde, was served with viii diverse dissches; and his lordes in hall and chamber with v, his gentylmen in court with iii dissches, besides porage; and groomes and others with ii disshes diverse. Then the Kinges meate, two pitchers and dim' wine, ii gallons ale.
Item, for his souper by hymeslf, viii loves,
with the trenchers...,
ii pitchers wyne, ii gallons ale, besides the fruter and the waferer.”
In the 15th century, Edward the IV was served:
“...THE KYNG for his brekefast, two looves made into four manchetts, and ii payne demayne,
one messe of kychyn grosse, dim' gallon of ale.”
Everyone ate porridge.
Thomas Tusser's poem “The Good Housewife” reads:
'Call servants to breakfast, by day star appear/
a snatch to wake fellows, but tarry not here./
Let huswife be carver, let pottage be eat,/
a dishful each one with a morsel of meat.'
"FIVE HUNDRED POINTS OF
GOOD HUSBANDRY",
Tusser, Thomas, (1580)
Breakfast on Fish Days
Breakfast on Flesh Days
Bread and Butter
Thomas Cogan, talks of brown bread and butter as being “a good breakfast for a countryman, although fine white manchet bread, the most expensive form of bread, was usually that recommended for more gently-bred stomachs."
32. Thomas Cogan. _The House of Health_, London 1584.
Irish Bog Butter 15th cent.
BEER FOR ��BREAKFAST
Queen Elizabeth Tudor's breakfast was manchet, ale, beer, wine and a good pottage made of mutton
or beef.
BREAKFAST WAS FOR THE YOUNG, THE OLD, AND THE INFIRM
‘THIS IS NO BREKEFAST: BUT A MORSELL TO DRYNKE WITH.’ (WILLIAM HORMAN, VULGARIA 1519)
The Big Breakfast, Flegel, Georg, 1620
For the Bacon and Eggs Crowd…
DIEGO VELAZQUEZ �1618, SEVILLE
MAKING WAFFLES �BY JOACHIM BEUCKELAER 1550-1565
THE PANCAKE BAKERY �BY PIETER AERTSEN 1560
FROM LOST BREAD TO FRENCH TOAST ENTRY, MAY 2000
MADONNA AND CHILD �WITH MILK SOUP�1510
For breakfast, common Romans ate small, flat loaves of bread that were salted.
For those who were wealthier, a typical breakfast also included milk or wine, fruit, cheese, eggs and honey.
On a Norse farm, the family would eat two meals. One, the dagmal, or day meal, was served an hour after rising. The family ate the nattmal or night meal at the end of the working day.
For breakfast, the dagmal, they might eat some leftover stew still in the cauldron from the night before with bread, or porridge and dried fruit or perhaps buttermilk and bread.
Middle Eastern breakfasts might
include yogurt, nuts, dried fruits, a rice pudding, flat bread, feta
cheese, olives, eggplant
relish, and honey.
Hummus, Fava beans, Labneh, Halloumi with Rocket Greens
Slide 2: Short Answer: Leftovers
Illustration: The Parable of the Banquet without Guests, from Das Plenarium 1480
Slide 3: A quick sop
Illustration: Reales, Carlos, “Bread and Spoon”, 2014
Slide 4: Breaking the fast according to your station.
Illustration: stock photo wine, wafers, fruit
Silde 5: In the 15th century, Edward the IV was served:
Illustration:Medieval Bakers / Ewers at Hampton Court Kitchens
Slide 6: Everybody Ate Porridge
Illustration: The Porridge Eaters, George de la Tour, 1622
Slide 7: Thomas Tusser's poem “The Good Housewife” reads:
Illustration: Medieval Cooks ?
Slide 8: Breakfast on Fish Days
Illustration: Francken II, Hieronymus, Still Life, 1599
Slide 9: Breakfast on Flesh Days
Illustration: Hulsdonck, Jacob van, Breakfast piece with a fish, ham and cherries, 1614
Slide 10: Brown bread and butter
Illustration: Irish Bog Butter in wooden vessel. 15th -16th century. Found near Portadown, County Fermanagh, Ireland. Ulster Museum.
List of Illustrations
Slide 11: Beer For Breakfast
Illustration: Monk drinking beer while filling another pitcher from the keg
Slide 12: Queen Elizabeth Tudor’s Breakfast
Illustration: Pottel, Manchet and Pottel
Slide 13: “Breakfast was for the young, the old, and the infirm.”
Illustration: William Brooke Baron Cobham and his family by Master of the Countess of Warwick 16th Century
Slide 14: Breaking the fast with fruits, bread, confits, nuts, and other easy-to-eat items was preferable to getting up, stoking the fire, and cooking breakfast.
Illustration: “Still Life with Parrot”, Georg Flegel, 1630
Slide 15:
Illustration: “The Big Breakfast”, Georg Flegel, 1622
Slide 16: For the Bacon and Eggs Crowd…
Illustration: Flegel, Georg, Snack with Fried Eggs
Slide 17: Old Woman Selling Fried Eggs
Illustration: Velazquez , Diego, Old Woman Selling Fried Eggs, 1618, Seville 1618
Slide 18: Waffles
Illustration: Making Waffles, by Joachim Beuckelaer 1550-1565
Slide 19: Pancakes
Illustration: The Pancake Bakery, by Pieter Aertsen 1560
Slide 20: Lost Bread, Pan Perdey, French Toast
Illustration: From Lost Bread to French Toast Entry, May 2000
Slide 22: Roman Breakfast
Illustration: Wall painting - Still lifes with food, Pompeii, 79A.D.
Slide 23: Norse Breakfast
Illustration: The Bullion Stone, Rider with Drinking Horn, 900 – 950AD
Slide 24: Middle Eastern breakfasts
Illustration: Stock photo: Hummus, Fava beans, Labneh, Halloumi with Rocket Greens
Slide 25: Flemish Painter’s Breakfasts
Illustrations: Flegel, George, Still Life with Bread and Confectionary
Es, Jacob Foppens van, Breakfast with Oysters, 1645
Flegel, Georg, Still life with Waffles