People in the 16th
century cooked and ate many different things. Many of the things that
people ate in the Elizabethan Age were spiced with cinnamon, pepper,
ginger, cloves, garlic, and galingale. People added herbs and spices
to all kinds of foods like meats, puddings, and pies to bring out the
flavor.
Sometimes the meats were not fresh at all. Fish is a good example. When the people of the Elizabethan Age got fish, it was not always fresh, so they had to bring out the flavor by adding herbs and spices.
The people of the Elizabethan Age ate eggs a lot. They used eggs in every possible way. With eggs they made omeletts, fritters, pancakes, and stuffings. They also used eggs as thickeners in sauces and stews.
The people of the Elizabethan age ate different types of meat like beef, mutton, pork, veal, carp, pike, eels, and other fish. They also ate dried fruits, such as raisins, prunes, and dried apricots.
Although salads were made from onions and herbs, vegetables were not very popular in the Elizabethan Age. People in this time period just didn't eat many vegetables.
People of the Elizabethan Age baked and ate bread a lot. Bread was the staff of life. The darker breads were called cheat, cocket, or whole-grain. Sometimes the people of the Elizabethan Age used oats for breads.
They drank different things like
ale, cider, perry, beer, red wine, white wine, and metheglin.
Breakfast in Elizabethan England consisted of bread, beer, wine, herring or sprats. It also consisted of boiled beef or mutton. For dinner the people of the Elizabethan Age ate different meats, salads, and fruits. For dessert or to top the dinner off, they ate something sweet like jellies, different cakes and pies, or pears with caraway.
They made different types of recipes for the meals they ate for breakfast and dinner. The people of the Elizabethan Age even sometimes went on diets. When they dieted they ate black bread, milk, cheese, and eggs.
The people of the Elizabethan Age ate many of the different types of food we eat today. We just have a greater variety of foods to choose from.
See also "Banquets and Feasts" and "Elizabethan Food and Drink"