WHAT THE "STUARTS" ATE Part One

In the Stuart Era, food took up to four-fifths of an ordinary family's budget. Despite ways of treating food, such as salting meat and fish, the diet of the poor remained rather basic. The diet was based on hunks of bread, coarse hard cheese, meat if it could be afforded, and fish. Pottage continued to be a part of the staple diet. Ale was consumed in vast quantities.

At the end of the 17th Century, a writer estimated that half the population could afford to eat meat every day. Below them, about 30% could afford to eat meat 2 and 6 times a week, and the bottom 20% could only eat meat once a week.