As long as we walk the earth we have to eat. The not so exciting menu of our prehistoric ancestors consisted mainly of the spoils of the hunt and the collected fruits. With the development of the agricultural society, agricultural products were added. Barley and rye would for centuries be the main food for the common man and the poor. The rich, on the other hand, have provided culinary delights since time immemorial.
No pasta for the Romans
The Romans had very different eating habits than you might think now. The pasta had not yet been invented and the tomatoes, which come from South America, were not yet known in Italy. Porridge with sausage, beans with bacon or cabbage don't really sound like Mediterranean dishes to us. But they were.
The Roman had several eating moments in a day. The day started with some bread with cheese and olives for breakfast. Between the acts you could pick up a sweet sandwich at a stall or a quick bite at the Roman 'snack bar', the Thermopolium. These tents were all over the city.
The poorer people had to eat here because they had no kitchen at home. The Thermopolia sold ready meals, hot and cold snacks. Lunch was also possible in the bathhouse, where quick snacks were available.
Goosenecks and peacock tongues
The evening meal was the most important of the day. Romans without a kitchen ate freshly made pulse, a kind of risotto, or dishes with beans, peas or lentils and cooked meat at a Taberna or restaurant. Sometimes they had received an invitation from their patron (who was honored with a visit each morning) to dine in the evening. That was lucky because the rich patronus served an extensive meal.
This is also where the origin of our three-course menu can be found. During the first course, the guests were served a variety of appetizing snacks, comparable to the Italian antipasti. Fixed items were vegetables, olives, eggs and salted fish made with oil and vinegar. The main course consisted of meat and/or fish, often with an accompanying vegetable, and bread was eaten throughout the meal. Romans were also fond of sweets and ate fruit and pastries for dessert.
Rich Romans had their food prepared by a slave, the coquus. The cooks of the very rich were true artists. Food of which you could immediately see and taste what it was, there was no art to that. With intense flavor combinations, lots of spices and the distortion of the food, the chefs made unrecognizable creations. The herbs they used are little eaten by the Italians today, such as coriander and cumin. The Roman sauces were therefore not subtle and resembled today's Indian curries. The elite went crazier and crazier to outdo each other. Ostrich brains, camel feet or parrot heads were carried into the dining room beyond recognition in the 1st century AD. However, these kinds of dishes were excesses of the very rich.
Eating while lying down
Another big difference from today's eating habits is the way of eating. We now sit neatly at a table or with the blackboard in front of the television, the Romans were at the table. The loungers around the table were intended for a maximum of three people. With your hand supporting your head, you could grab the food served with your other hand. The Romans did not know plates and cutlery, so the food went straight from the bowl to the mouth. Hence the useful invention of the napkin, to get through the meal a bit fresh. The poorer Roman who had been a guest of his patronus was allowed to take the leftovers in his napkin. This allowed his family a few more days ahead.
The eating habits, recipes and accompanying ingredients of the Romans spread throughout their empire, as far as the Netherlands. But with the departure of the Romans in the early Middle Ages, this disappeared again, as did lying down during meals.
At the table!
Until well after the Middle Ages, it was normal to share cups at the table and to put the food on a piece of bread instead of scooping it on your own plate. If you were poor, you also ate your 'plate'. The visitors brought their own knife and spoon and everyone ate with their hands. Forks were used only in the form of meat forks. At the elite came halfway through the 17 e century the personal eating utensils in fashion. But it was still exceptional that everyone at the table had their own plate, cup and cutlery. The sharing of crockery and cutlery did entail rules. The elite and the imitating bourgeoisie did not like brutal behavior at the table. The well-known philosopher Erasmus even wrote an etiquette book for boys in 1530. From this we can learn a lot about the eating habits of that time. So it was neat to eat and drink at the same time as your table companions, not to blow your food cold, not to put back the piece you had eaten from, to wipe your lips before putting them to a cup, no elbows on the table or scratching yourself at the table. Women were extra strict:they were not allowed to get drunk or fall asleep during a meal.
Stew and porridge
“Ordinary” medieval people in our Low Countries mainly cooked one-pan dishes. The open fire in the house was the only source for cooking and above they hung an earthenware pot. The underprivileged Middle Ages used this to make (bread) porridge, a meal soup or a stew with some meat. In principle, people ate twice a day. The warm main meal at noon and some bread in the evening. Farm and manual workers also ate in the morning to gain some extra energy.
If you were a nobility in the Middle Ages, you had the right to hunt and therefore also to eat game. This was not for the poor slobs. They were already richly endowed if they had a pig to fatten and slaughter for the winter. The complete beast was smoked, salted, boiled and processed into sausage so that it could be eaten all winter long. Chickens were also ubiquitous and those that stopped laying eggs were slaughtered and ended up in the stew. Although ordinary medieval people ate meat regularly, fresh meat on a spit was a luxury for the rich. Cows and sheep were kept mainly for milk and wool and eaten when they died of old age. These beasts were expensive and medieval people often bought them together to have them herd by a shepherd on communal land.
Vegetables from the vegetable garden
There were also all kinds of animals in the medieval city. In our eyes, the city was rather village-like:you could still find farms everywhere and anyway most houses had a piece of land on which to grow vegetables and herbs and for free-range chickens. Medieval people did eat fresh vegetables, but not all year round:different vegetables grew per season. They boiled the vegetables almost to snot in our eyes. Raw or al dente vegetables were found to be very unhealthy. This probably also applied to the fruit. It was better to avoid eating a "raw" apple from the tree. It was much healthier to eat fruit in the form of purée, jam, jelly or in dried form.
The medieval people used few spices in their kitchen because they came from far and were very expensive. They seasoned food with mustard, vinegar, honey and herbs from the vegetable garden. This is at odds with the recipes handed down from the late Middle Ages full of luxurious ingredients and culinary delights. However, cookbooks from that time were only used by courts and wealthy monasteries:books and recipes were expensive to make and few people could read. The recipes were therefore not intended for the common people. With the emerging spice trade from the East and unknown vegetables from the New World, things changed in our Dutch cuisine. However, it would be a long time before these novelties would end up in large numbers in the kitchen of the common man/woman.
Golden times
In the 17 e century the Dutch economy was doing well, mainly due to the trade of the VOC in the Far East. The population grew with it, but the livestock could not keep up with this growth. That meant less meat than in earlier times. Moving from afar was not an option for many products due to spoilage. This problem would persist well into the 19th century. So food mainly came from the neighbourhood. With the cities becoming increasingly crowded, there was less space for gardens, yards and livestock within the city walls:this space was also built over and because of the nuisance roaming livestock was banned. Urban dwellers were therefore mainly dependent on the food that was available on the market.
Most people still ate rye and barley products in the form of bread or porridge. To make it creamy, the 17th-century man combined his porridge or bread with animal fat, butter or cheese. Once a week, a large pot of meat mash was cooked for the rest of the week and heated up every day. Those with money could afford more meat. Also, products from the New World, such as tomatoes, peppers, maize and potatoes were occasionally on the table during elite parties at the end of the century. Following the French example, the kitchen maid was replaced by a cook for the largest celebrations and parties, such as the meals at baptisms and weddings. This benefited the culinary delights and thus the admiration for the host.
The spices that entered our country in large numbers gave the food a different taste. Compared to today, however, the cook made quite liberal use of pepper, cloves, mace and nutmeg, making the food highly seasoned. A number of cookbooks from this period have been preserved, including the Verwijshe Kock from 1669. It contains not only special recipes for celebrations and parties, but also the preparation of simpler dishes, how people thought about the best way to store food and the influence of food on health.
New inventions, new eating habits
With the advent of the stove, the way of cooking changed. The one-pan dish made way for several pans containing potatoes, vegetables and meat. The eating habits from the 19th century are starting to resemble our contemporary meal more and more.
Flavors from the East became more and more common, potatoes had become the number 1 staple food and the rich feasted on an Indian rice table or macaroni. The invention of the tin can and the refrigerator ensured a longer shelf life of products. The mechanical processing of agricultural products and other food and the rise of the large-scale supermarket also made food cheaper.
Although the poor and working class were often malnourished in the 19th century, that changed in the 20th century. Growing prosperity resulted in more money and thus more and healthier food. Fortunately, every day rye porridge was a thing of the past for everyone in the Netherlands.