Food in early modern England is a nuanced and exhaustive study of food habits and changes in food consumption in England between 1500–1750. Drawing on an array of sources that includes food writers, probate records, diaries, cookery books, literary figures, and household management and husbandry guides, Thirsk focuses on the meticulous detail of what, exactly, the English ate and drank in this period. Thirsk's aims are threefold: to acquaint the reader with the diversity of foods in early modern England and thereby counter the idea that earlier diets were monotonous; to demonstrate regional and class variation in foods eaten; and to present both early modern food fads and gradual overall changes to England's diet. Throughout the book, she makes an effort to give all of these subjects considerable weight. Thus Food in early modern England is structured both chronologically and topically. The first seven chapters present gradual trends in food use in fifty-year periods from 1500–1760. Chapter 8 focuses on regional and social patterns of diet, and Chapter 9 gives a “closer look” at a number of different food types: bread, meat, fowl and eggs, fish, dairy foods, vegetables and herbs, fruit, drinks, and condiments and spices. Thirsk argues that the English diet was far from monotonous even at the beginning of the period under consideration, but she also presents a lucid story of England's gradual inundation with new foods. This transition happened relatively quickly in London and other busy ports and far more slowly in rural, inland regions, but the steady influx of new foodstuffs spread widely. Traders’ importation of foreign foods is only part of the story: travellers also introduced unfamiliar eating habits to England, such as the Italian fashion of dressing salad leaves with olive oil and vinegar. Many new trends made use of existing resources. Butter and cheese, for example, were not eaten widely in England until travellers observed their ubiquity in Germany and the Low Countries. Gardening became a fad in aristocratic circles in the sixteenth century, leading to the cultivation of both foreign and domestic fruits and vegetables such as strawberries, cucumbers, radishes, and sweet cherries. These trends were most obvious in London and among the gentry, but Thirsk provides evidence of a slow trickle out to the countryside and down to the lower classes. Aside from the introduction of new foods, Thirsk points out other developments that changed the English diet. Frequent cycles of poor harvests from the late sixteenth century prompted a continual search for famine foods, eventually encouraging the cultivation of the potato, while the English Civil War spurred on the dairy industry after butter and cheese became indispensable soldiers’ foods. New pickling methods drastically improved the ability to preserve foods, and the addition of chimneys to houses changed the way it was cooked. Commercialization, moreover, began to alter approaches towards gardening and animal husbandry: London foodmongers’ reliance on hothouse vegetables and stall-fattened animals drew criticism in the eighteenth century, reminiscent of similar protests in our time. Food in early modern England is a nuanced and thorough book, and it presents the reader with a gold mine of information. Occasionally one can get lost in this barrage of data, but Thirsk provides enough anecdotes to keep the narrative moving along. Among her most effective themes is her evocation of a lost world of taste. Strong salad leaves, rye pastry, distilled herbal essences, and barberries are among the once-prevalent flavours that have slipped away, and a sense of nostalgia for these vanished foods pervades the book. The paucity of sources on rural and lower-class people forces Thirsk to devote the most space to food patterns in London and among the gentry, but she recognizes this problem and offsets it with details about the habits of “ordinary folk” whenever possible (although finicky readers might question her vague use of the term). Occasionally the book suffers from repetition: in particular, the last two chapters recapitulate a number of details mentioned earlier. Historians of medicine, moreover, might wish to see the relationship between food and medicine teased out a bit more. These minor points aside, Food in early modern England is an informative and impressive book, and it convincingly demonstrates that the early modern diet was at least as diverse as our own.
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Dec 30, 2023
Dhanashree V Darade + 3
Open Access
