Historian Dan Snow samples historical food and drink from across the world.
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00:00:00 Roman Food
00:09:51 Medieval Meal
00:16:59 Aztec Banquet
00:28:16 Tudor Feast
00:37:08 Georgian Dinner Party
00:48:51 Victorian Grub
00:57:03 World War One Rations
01:06:30 World War Two Rations
hard as rock lasts
forever wow the aftertaste hits the back
of your throat very hard indeed why
would you do that it’s just
Grim Sal I’m Dan snow and I’ve just had
a busy day civilizing the natives here
in the Roman province of Britannia and
today I’m going to be eating a typical
meal provided to a Roman officer in that
army of occupation let’s get the eating
[Music]
position the ancient Romans originally
came from Rome but they ruled over a
vast Empire that stretched Way Beyond
that City or even the confines of Italy
the Roman Empire covered Land from the
Middle East North Africa all around the
Mediterranean into north and west Europe
and even parts of Great Britain from 43
ad till around 410 and as they won more
battles and conquered more lands the
Empire got bigger now counting auxiliary
soldiers there could have been around a
million men in the Roman army the life
of a Roman soldier was tough they had to
enjoy hostile natives who were defending
their homelands from Invasion or
occupation they had to undertake
grueling marches across rough and
dangerous terrain they had to deal with
severe weather lack of food arduous
battles to survive all that the Romans
needed a hearty diet a lot of what we
know about that Roman diet comes
something called the Codex theodosianus
a compilation of Roman laws published in
438 it stated that during Expeditions a
Roman soldier should be supplied with
buum aanm Venum coqu atakum said larum
Kem ver beanum or hard tacken bread wine
to and vinegar but also bacon and mutton
so today I’m eating hard tack biscuits a
refreshing drink of posa wild B some
Bash pnip bacon a delicious slice of
cheese hard typed biscuits was the
staple a simple biscuit that was very
very hard it’s made from flour salt and
water hard as rock lasts forever baked
twice at very low
temperatures the great thing about this
is you can cook a lot of this in your
main base then send it out with the Army
if it goes on a long campaign and it’ll
last for months even years if you send
out bread it will go stale and moldy if
you send out flour it will spoil
especially in this damp British climate
so hard tack is your
carbohydrates this tastes like you’re
eating a bit of stone and so one of the
great pastimes in the Roman army was
find something to dip this in whether
it’s a drink or some stew anything to
make this staple a little bit more
exciting the Latin name for this was
bukal latum biscuit and Roman soldiers
became so synonymous of this they became
known as bukari which means Biscuit
Eaters the Romans are famous drinking
wine but in Britain soldiers probably
would have had something called posca
it’s delicious drink here let’s test it
out if anything is made the biscuit even
less edible posca is made by mixing wine
with vinegar
with water and with honey why would you
do that it’s just Grim PCA gets a lot of
mentions in the Roman sources plenty of
the ler talks about it a playright
called plotus mentions it a few times
and also it’s clear that drinking posca
like sharing a posca with someone was a
way that Emperors General senior
commanders could show that they have the
common touch they weren’t scared to rub
shoulders with the ordinary men serving
in the front line one account says that
the emperor hadrien actually led a soul
life and cheerfully ate out of doors
such campf Fair as bacon cheese and
vinegar I bet he had proper rations when
he got home that night the vinegar in
the water apparently well its sharpness
would have helped disguise the taste of
bad water the acidity would have helped
to kill bacteria apparently and
according to a recent study vinegar
makes you feel more full hunger would
have been a common complaint of Roman
soldiers serving on Camp campaign so
vinegar makes them feel a bit more full
no wonder they added to their
wine wow the aftertaste hits the back of
your throat very hard indeed PCA even
gets mention in the Bible during one of
the most famous stories of all time when
Jesus up there on the cross Matthew
writes in his account of that terrible
day immediately one of them ran and
taking a sponge he filled it with sour
wine and put it on a re and gave him a
drink
oh Roman soldiers would have eaten meat
whenever they get their hands on it and
we got good evidence of that from the
vinder Lander tablets these wonderful
written sources found at a fort on
Hadrian’s Wall in Northern Britain they
talk about the food eaten by the Army
station up there particularly what the
commanding officer have eaten guy like
me and the answer is a lot of Venison
and wild Bo let’s check this
out not too bad like poor
but bit more gy now we know from
archaeology carried out at Roman
military sites right across northern
Europe that the plenty of Bones have
been found from that analysis we can
tell the Romans at Ox sheep goat Pig
deer B and hair in most places and they
get their hands on they’ve even found
evidence that they were eating elk wolf
box Badger Beaver Bears BS ibexes and
what otter tastes like while officers
like me were eating delicious treats
like wild B and any other meats they get
their hands on typical Roman soldiers
probably had to make do with a lot of
these vegetables I like mushy vegetables
but if I was going to go and do a shift
standing on Adrian’s wall in a snowstorm
having Spears thrown at me I might want
something a little bit more substantial
in my stomach I do like passing it to be
fair and I’m not alone
the Roman Emperor Tiberius s of pip he
imported them all the way from Germany
across the Alps into Rome and he even
accepted parsnips as tribute payments
instead of gold from Germanic tribes now
according to the author plyy Pips are
also useful in warding off snakes and as
an aphrodisia wouldn’t go that far not
really feeling it but it’s delicious and
it comes from a Roman recipe book put
together in the fifth century it’s
called the epicus and this recipe tells
us to mash the pnets then add cumin Rue
liquin pum oil coriander leaves and
leaks serve goes well with salt pork I
don’t have any salt pork with me today
but I have the next best thing which is
of course bacon which let’s be honest
goes well with anything it was very
accessible to Roman sold bacon because
it was cured with salt and therefore it
would keep well and you could take on
campaign and it wouldn’t spoil delicious
salt was so valuable to Roman soldiers
it allowed them to preserve their food
and they were sometimes paid in salt
instead of money that monthly allowance
became known as a salary s being the
Latin word for salt and that’s where we
get the modern word
salary ah jeez who doesn’t have a good
bit of cheese well the Romans certainly
did it’s one of the things they
introduced to Britain alongside the
mixed blessing of central government
gladiatorial combat underfloor heating
taxation sewers but the cheese we can
all agree was a benefit to Britain and
Roman legionaries brought those cheese
making skills to this occupied territory
I think we can forgive them a lot in
return for the cheese now the Romans
traded different kinds of cheeses all
over their empire we even know the name
of the first identifiable cheese brand
it was called l
the moon so it shows that the
association between the Moon and cheese
goes all the way back to the Roman
Empire it’s not surprising they were so
familiar with cheese CU Roman soldiers
would largely have been raised in rural
communities on farms they knew the
process of cheese making very well so
wherever they ended up they could settle
down and start making some local
cheese the Romans were just really good
at making cheese plyy says in a rather
arrogant way it is a remarkable
Circ*mstance the barbarous Nations which
subsist on milk for so long have been
for so many ages either ignorant of the
merits of cheese or have totally
disregarded them like everything the
Roman army did it was obsessed with
Victory with winning and that really
dictated how it dealt with its food all
this food is easy to store it’s pretty
easy to carry with you and it doesn’t
spoil it gave the Army a huge advantage
they could campaign a long way from
their base for long periods of time
while the other side would run out of
food and have to disperse and go and
find it that meant the Roman army would
be victorious across huge SES of North
Africa the Middle East and Europe they
could build Villas like this one
reconstructed here at butser ancient
Farm in
Britain that is tasteless cold oh and
that is an acquired taste I’m down swing
so there I’ve come to a 13th century San
Abbey at bu to work out just what those
medieval monks would have eaten let’s
see what’s on the
menu cian monks were determined they
would be as self-sufficient as possible
many abies supported themselves through
Agriculture and Brewing ale there’s one
thing the cians didn’t like it was those
other groups of monks who they said had
all gone soft and become Glutton and so
cians rule R the monks should eat only
once a day and meat was forbidden to all
apart from the sick the cian’s diet
largely consist of coarse bread but also
vegetables herbs beans and on really
crazy special occasion they let their
hair down and they might have some fish
some eggs or other Delicacies known as
pittances one of the most famous
franciscans of them all burnard of Clair
vau wrote in a sermon I abstain from
meat Because by overfeeding the B I also
feed carnal desires I strive to take
even bread with moderation lest my heavy
stomach hinder me in standing up for
prayer he sounds like a blast pottage
eaten by almost everyone in the medieval
period is basically a soup a stew or
throwing anything that’s lying around
into a pot and heating it up it contains
vegetables and Grains things like that
often eaten with bread so
let’s give it a
go that is tasteless cold sticky not
very nice but it’s all they had they
were popular because there were lots of
variations on this you just chucked in
whatever happened to be around at the
time they could be boiled up quickly and
served or some potages would sort of
stay on the fire in a pot for days on
end and people just kind of keep adding
additional ingredients from time to time
really this needs frankly anything to
spice it up herbs that could grow here
in the UK noram are quite nice like
Rosemary get that in there ideally salt
but salt cost a bit of money so that was
some almost a bit of a luxury back in
those days but we’ve also got sage and
Thyme frankly I think the more the
better needs every little bit of help it
can
get not that is an
improvement the vegetables in here might
be leaks beans peas cabbage Sprouts no
potatoes of course because Christopher
Columbus had not traveled across the
Atlantic yet and brought back potatoes
and it was common for monks to have
these vegetables growing nearby they had
very well tended Gardens they’d grow
herbs as well there to provide flavor
and also for medicinal purposes sersan
monks were remarkably skilled herbalists
and in many of those Mones like this one
those herb gardens survive to this
day you can’t talk about medieval food
without talking about fish particularly
pickled herring this one is in a
trencher of bread let’s give it a go
basically Herring lot that in Northern
Waters wrap WRA up in bread a plate of
bread oh and that is an acquired
taste it’s um oh it goes on delivering
as well you get the very strong Herring
taste and the pickle really comes
through actually it’s offset a bit now
the nice the nice soft bread not too
bad fish would typically be eaten on
feast days
so important religious days or fast days
and there were about three fast days a
week that Christians reserved in the
Middle Ages there was a Wednesday the
day that Judas betrayed Christ a Friday
in Penance for Jesus’s suffering and
frankly that is
penance now in addition to that there
was the marathon fish eating period of
the year which was lent 40 days no meat
fine if you live on the coast guzzle
down Seafood but when you live Inland
absence was on a very different scale
week upon week of Muddy tasting
freshwater fish or salted Herring and
cod Easter must have been a
party one of my favorite quotes about
this is from a 15th century school boy
who wrote in his diary thou will not
believe how weary I am of fish how much
I desire that flesh will come in again
for I have eaten none other than than
saltfish this Lent and has engendered so
much flame within me that it stops my
pipes that I can scarcely speak nor
breathe I can see how you get like that
after 40 days of
this monks drank a lot of beer there
were hundreds of monasteries right
across Europe all Brewing beers uh
partly because they wanted to be
completely self-sufficient it’s really
safer as well as nicer to drink beer in
a world particularly where there’s lots
and lots of sewage in the water the
Brewing process cleaned the beer and
made it safe for humans drink so men
women and children all drank a lot of
beer in the medieval period monks became
well known for Brewing because they
followed a principle of self-sufficiency
so they wanted to make sure that
everything they ate and drank could be
provided by the monastery themselves the
monks made some important Innovations in
order to keep up with growing demand
they figured out new ways to mass
produce beer they added hops to it to
balance the sweetness from The Malt and
that also acted as a preservative which
meant in the period following the
medieval period when European Sailors
started sailing across vast distances
towards the Americas and Asia they could
take barrels of beer to stop them
getting too
thirsty I think lots of people were
brewing and fermenting and Distilling
and they get their hands on in this
period but monks became particularly
well known for making great beer the
reason they gave was cuz they believed
they need to make the best product
possible since they were working for God
and a subp beer would be a major offense
sure
[Music]
Lads I’m not sure I’m cut out to be
medieval monk I I like the outdoors I
like the idea of being self-sufficient a
life of quiet
contemplation I think food’s just a bit
thin l a beer
though
it’s kind of a weird sensation I like it
though that delicious don’t taste very
nice they don’t send you into a
state hi I’m Dan snow and I’m heading
back 500 years to Central Mexico to
sample an Aztec
banquet the Aztecs flourished 5 600
years ago and it reached its greatest
extent this Empire covering much of what
is now Central and Northern Mexico the
empire was led from magnificent capital
city of tet landan and that emerged the
dominant force in Mexico it developed
social political religious and
Commercial systems that s of brought
many of the Region’s city states under
its control that all came to an end when
the Spanish Invaders arrived led by the
Conquistador Hanan Cortez who overr the
Aztec Empire by force capturing tanet
Lan in 1521 which became Mexico City in
the Heyday of the Empire most AES spent
their days working the fields
cultivating food for the inhabitants of
kach land since it was easier to grow
crops than hunt the Aztec diet was
primarily plant-based and focused on a
few major Foods you got maze you got
beans and you add salt and Chili Peppers
those are the constants of Aztec Cuisine
providing the average Aztec with a
well-rounded diet food played a really
important ceremonial role in Tech
culture as well feasts were determined
by the religious calendar and were used
to display wealth they featured singing
dancing storytelling they burned incense
they offered to the gods there was
tobacco and flowers and gift giving
festivities would begin about midnight
some attendees would drink chocolate and
consume hallucinogenic mushrooms so they
could describe their experiences and
Visions to the other guests cannibalism
was deeply rooted in Aztec mythology the
Aztecs believe that gods and goddesses
need to consume sacrificed flesh and
blood of humans in order to sustain
themselves and the world since human
flesh was seen as the food of the Gods
ritual cannibalism had a sacred meaning
bringing the consumer closer to those
Gods so you’d have the victims usually
prisoners of war they’d be sacrificed in
public on top of the pyramids and
temples by having their hearts cut out
their bodies would then be thrown to the
ground when they were dismembered and
the bits of them could be distributed to
the elite and then consumed in stews of
often flavored with salt and eaten with
tortillas luckily today I’ve just got
Frog’s
legs the Aztecs raised turkeys for meat
and eggs in fact the bird was so
important they turned it into a god they
call the jeweled bird a god of both
plague and
purification this is one of the Aztec’s
greatest contributions to World Cuisine
all the Aztec dishes were cooked on a
flat round Pottery griddle called a Ali
and they still use it in rural Mexico
today it’s with the Cal that the Aztecs
made the so-called Tash CL which their
conquerors called the tortilla Which is
Spanish for little cake let’s try this
turkey
tortilla that is delicious we really
should eat turkey more often and not
just save it for
Christmas
so in nle which is the atte language the
word Glo means middle now the best way
to enjoy a tortilla is something in the
middle of it and that apparently is
where we get the modern word taco
from 16th century Spanish chronicler
portrays a really dizzying array of
possible Taco fillings all of which were
avail ailable from a local market at
tanic modern day Mexico City you could
choose between vendors selling tacos
filled with vegetables like Bean squash
Tomatoes Cactus or meat your dog rabbit
turkey Etc but perhaps the strangest
filling was down on the Lake Shore
itself where you’d have water insects
certain amphibians and even
algae however all of these would have
been deliciously spiced with the
seasonings that the azcs love like salt
and chili this what I’m trying today is
turkey tomato pepper flavor with a bit
of chili epote and salt and it’s
delicious eting this reminds me no
European African or Asian had ever
tasted a
tomato Before Christmas of Columbus
sailed across the Atlantic and bumped
into the Americas and brought back a
whole different bunch of
food the Aztecs saw the Frog as CLA te
kle who embodied the endless cycle of
Life Death and rebirth her name means
the one who gives and devours life she
represented Earth and the sky and was
one of the Aztec gods most hungry for
Human Sacrifice let’s give this a
go tastes a bit like
chicken but sort of crossed with
fish perhaps surprisingly it’s about
halfway in between frogs and toads were
very common in the Basin of Mexico it’s
no surprise they played a big part in
azte mythology and toads had another
important role in sort of as religious
practices because they secreted kind of
poison on their bodies that could cause
hallucinogenic States and would be used
in ritual practices that poison that
substance is called buffet tenin and it
impacts your cardiovascular system and
it’s deadly if you have too much of it
now the act of getting high off these
toads was restricted to the the priests
High people in the social hierarchy and
that allowed them to sort of interact
with the Gods in a way that Ordinary
People people couldn’t ordinary folk had
to stick with frogs which is what I’m
eating
today don’t taste very nice and they
don’t send you into a
state most important Aztec staple was
definitely maze it was a crop held in
very very high regard it played a
central part in Aztec mythology when the
Europeans first arrived the Aztecs
described it as a precious our flesh our
bones maze came in a variety different
colors and textures and sizes you can
eat it all sort of different ways it
could be eaten as corn torers Tomales or
a tole this a maze
GRL this is pretty good so what you do
you get your maze
kernels and then it dried out and then
you soak them and cook them in an
alkaline solution
usually lime water and you get this
other nice
porridge maze was so important that
there was a sort of religious calendar
around its Harvest cycle they created
gods and goddesses to represent the maze
in its various stages of development was
a young goddess or God for young Maze
and then when it was old the seeds were
dried it was represented by an old
goddess a popular breakfast now take
times it was served warm with milk cane
sugar
cinnamon definitely take the chill off
in the morning I wasn’t looking forward
to this I didn’t think I was going to
enjoy it but I’ve been
amazed now for the Highlight hot
chocolate remember no one from EUR Asia
Africa had ever tasted chocolate before
the great Colombian Exchange that
followed European explorers heading to
the Americas but the Aztecs have been
enjoying hot chocolate for
Generations oh that’s delicious but it’s
different the way that we used to
enjoying chocolate they eat them as
solid bars they enjoyed chocolate as a
frothy drink made from cocoa beans
chocolate was used in their religious
observances it was used to Mark
betrothals marriages other big mileston
of Life little bit like we do today it
was also a key feature of the big
festivals that brought everyone together
dancing and singing everyone’s having a
great time when you throw chocolate into
the
mix and those clever Aztecs use
chocolates as medicine they mixed it
with loads of other ingredients and this
one’s actually got chili in I can really
feel it at the back of my throat it’s
great and those ingredients varied from
tree bark to aosome tals that depending
on what it was supposed to cure
chocolate was said to be pretty much
good for anything it treated digestion
problems infections fever or heavy
coughs I can see why they thought that
I’ve never had a hot chocolate that’s
got chili in it before it’s kind of a
weird sensation I like it though Coco
was available to Common People from time
to time but it was really associated
with the atic elite the ruler and his
Entourage drank it off their meals they
made it a kind of of you know medieval
Mexican equivalent of an after coffee or
mint chocolate was a status symbol
consumed by the
wealthy it was even given to Warriors as
a reward for axe of Valor in battle you
know have a little metal or a big mug of
hot chocolate what do you prefer well
perhaps the most notorious Aztec
chocolate lover of all was the Aztec
ruer monuma II who allegedly drank
gallons of the stuff each day for energy
and as an aphrodiziac monuma called this
the Divine drink which builds up
resistance and fights fatigue a cup of
this precious drink permits a man to
walk for a whole day without food I
wouldn’t go that far but it’s
[Music]
tasty Aztec food is so remarkable it
existed on the same Planet but
completely distinct from Eurasian
African food and yet now it’s so
familiar as Aztec ingredients like
tomatoes and chocolate have spread all
over the world and are essential Staples
to so many of us thank you very much for
buter ancient farm for letting me come
and try my Aztec
banquet watch out congre you might be
back on the menu and it is absolutely
delicious hi I’m Dan snow and today I’m
going to be experiencing a chuda meal
fit for a
[Music]
king the chuda period is named after the
house of chuda the ruling family that
held the English Throne from
1485 to 16003 and the most well-known
member of that dynasty is Henry VII
Henry VII’s Reign is often remembered
for his Six Wives and his rather full
figure but why was Henry so overweight
well one of the reasons is light to have
been his very hearty diet Henry
regularly feasts on roasted meals and
fatty fish and is said to have loved
snacking on sugary treats today I’m
going to unfasten the belt a few notches
and find out what would have been on the
menu at a chuda Royal
Banquet first up the meat of Kings
venison from Deer of course and all
Aristocrats and Kings love go out for a
day’s hunting several of them had
unfortunate hunting accidents that cost
my life my trusty knife no Forks in
chudah times now that nambi pambi stuff
just eaty with your
fingers now this is a dish that has aged
well still love
Venice
but
interestingly you couldn’t buy deer meat
you couldn’t buy venison it was only
consumed by those who could afford to
have their own Deer Park that is why it
was seen as a a royal aristocratic
food one could only get their knife into
it if it was gifted to you or if you
could afford to hunt it yourself so for
example Henry VII that encourageable
romantic once sent and berin who was
chasing at the time a dead deer carcass
lovely but in fact he accompanied a note
that explained his thinking he said and
to cause you yet oftener to remember me
I send you by the bearer of this a buck
killed late last night by my own hand
hoping that when you eat of it you may
think of the Hunter
so it was like a love letter really I
must say I love venison I would eat more
of it if I could and if I had my own
deer part courtiers Royals like me would
have enjoyed a huge variety of
food freshly slaughtered roasted meat
every day the luxury even of being able
to choose from a menu of different
dishes there was a lot of protein in the
chea diet meals could be up several
thousands calories that’s a lot more
than we might eat today I think it is
true that the shuds including nobility
would have needed more calor than we do
cuz they didn’t just sit about all the
time looking at laptop screens they were
out they the houses were cold they were
on Horseback they were traveling big
distances on foot they were hunting
dancing fighting doing all sorts so they
need to get the old calories
in this is the big one Henry VII ate a
huge variety of food whether he took his
fancy we know he ate swans he ate pies
lamb venison porpus but there are
accounts of him eating Conga eel this is
one of those eels I’ve seen them when
I’ve been diving off the coast of
Britain but I never thought I’d have to
eat one right here it goes I like the
sort of congealed jelly here that’s
formed along the side might have to give
that a bit of a go but in the
meantime let’s get involved
right it’s actually not bad it’s okay
it’s fishy what do you expect just a
normal white fish actually I can get
used to it watch out conre you might be
back on the
menu it looks absolutely
disgusting doesn’t taste too bad
remember it was compulsory to eat fish
on Fridays and during Lent so no wonder
they want a better
variety I’m not touching that jelly
stuff
though I’ve seen these when I’ve been
out diving one almost bit my hand off
when I was diving on a World War II tank
off the coast of Dorset but I never
thought I’d be eating one as you can see
I’m using beet my hands a lot to eat so
there was a strict etiquette around
Clean Hands and you weren’t really
supposed just like go handle other
people’s
food sweet
potato an absolute favorite of mine and
also Henry VII this was brought over
from the new world post Christopher
Columbus this delicious sweet variety of
potato allegedly introduced to the
English Court by Henry VII’s
long-suffering Spanish wife Katherine of
Argan it was
said that Henry could eat over 20 of
these in one sitting and actually
I agree so could I absolutely delicious
no notes at all
Henry he led so much he apparently
offered land and gold to any Gardener
that could grow them the first
definitive account of sweet potato in
England comes from the reign of Queen
Elizabeth the who is Henry VII’s
daughter a man called Gerard herbal
brilliant name wrote in 1597 howsoever
they be dressed they comfort nourish and
strengthen the body so true
Gerard to spice up Western European
diets explorers and Mariners had been
heading out to Asia to get well spices
like pepper cinnamon nutmeg all sorts of
things and it was on one of these
Journeys that Christopher Columbus
accidentally reached the Americas before
Columbus and other explorers brought
back food from the Americans there were
no tomatoes potatoes vanilla chocolate
turkey tobacco or chili peppers in
Europe imagine that Julia Caesar never
ate a tomato or a potato
extraordinary beautiful chuda Rose March
pain now I said Forks weren’t allowed at
the chuda court weirdly there was a
tradition that the King was allowed to
use a fork but only when it was sweet
food so we’re going in on the fork this
time hope it takes the eel taste out of
my mouth this
March
pain was a kind of cakey tar I guess
made of ground almonds shelled ground
very fine sugar and Rose
Water and it is absolutely
delicious it’s like maip pan but
slightly lighter after you’ve had a bit
of Mazy pan you feel like you need to
lie on the ground for a few hours but I
reckon you go your daily business after
this they loved molding this into shapes
like this lovely chudah rose here and
they colored it and they coated it with
fruits and other confits which is nuts
or seeds coated in Sugar basically folks
the chuds love sugar which was
increasingly grown in plantations of
enslaved people in the Atlantic and the
Caribbean Elizabeth the first ate so
much sugar that her teeth rotted out and
her breath stank
apparently having said
that I could eat this all day
[Music]
well the chuda court was famous for
drinking vast amounts of beer
600,000 gallons of beer every single
year according to the accounts that’s
about well nearly £6 million based on
today’s money to drink that much beer
we’ve worked out that each of the 1200
or so people at court would need to have
consumed an average of 10 pints every
day now the beer was watered
down still a lot of
booze the chuda period saw England
develop into one of the leading European
powers extending its territorial
Ambitions Beyond The Familiar shores of
Europe This increased wealth and power
was evident in dining Halls across the
country with new foods available and an
increasingly decadent attitude towards
feasting at least for the
[Music]
wealthy I’m getting a bit worried about
Georgian gut health to be
honest sweet breads sound so nice and
delicate but in fact they’re awful
[Music]
hi I’m the extremely eligible Dan snow
with a thousand a year to my name and
tonight I’m a guest at a Georgian Dinner
Party The Georgian era was a period in
British history from 1714 to 1837 named
after the Four hanian Kings George the
George II George I thir and George the
forth it was a time of great change for
the nation it saw Britain establish
itself as an international power at the
center of an expanding
Empire this expansion combined with the
impact of the Industrial Revolution led
to an increase in wealth and the
creation of a middle class Keen to show
off just how much money they had and a
good way for them to do this was by
hosting parties and serving luxury goods
and food items ideally from British
territory around the world foral dinners
and balls were popular as a way both to
show off one’s wealth and for men and
women to meet and mix with each other in
a time when relations between the
genders were restricted this is the
Georg era that we know so well from Jane
Austin period dramas like Bridgeton but
what middle class guests at a Georgian
dinner party have actually been eating
let’s find
out there’s a variety of cold cuts and
meat pies plus a Sumptuous platter of
white soup a staple of the period the
delightful bowl of sweet breads or as
you and I would call them aul and to
finish a bite of Juicy pineapple fresh
from the
tropics a Georgian dinner party was
quite a do the tables would have been
groaning with food several courses and
different dishes in each course guests
who sat down would have soup meat game
pickles jellies vegetables custards
puddings perhaps five dishes perhaps 25
depending on the Grandeur of the
occasion now of course for a country
that was constantly at war with France
in the 18th century French food was the
height of fashion and you had to have a
French chef darling you can tell a lot
about Georgian sensibilities and food
from Reading Jane Austin she creates a
character in Pride and Prejudice called
Mrs Bennett who is hyper socially aware
this is what she had to say about the
food at one of her neighbors parties the
soup was 50 times better than what we
had at the lucases last week and even Mr
Darcy acknowledged that the partes were
remarkably well done and I suppose he
has two or three French Cooks at
least Austin teached us that dinner
parties in the Georgian era were less
about making guests feel comfortable and
feeding them excellent food and more
about status and one-upmanship
white soup was to a Georgian de what
punch is to a frat house party white
soup was meat stock egg yolk ground
almonds cream occasionally a bit of
bacon and it was served at
balls let’s give it a
go gy it’s gamey soup if you can believe
that it fortifies you though you could
tell you’d be ready for a whole night on
the Dance Floor after that Jane Austin
says that white soup was so important
that a ball was actually impossible
without it one of our characters
planning a party says As for the ball
it’s quite a subtle thing and as soon as
Nickles has made enough white soup I
shall send round my cards no white soup
no
party here we
go oh big bit of
CH the thing about these white Foods is
that light with flour and sugar they
were historically considered well status
symbols because they were more expensive
they needed refining processing and
therefore they were lighter and more
expensive than their unrefined
counterparts and it’s possible that the
reason this was like the centerpiece at
fashionable parties was because you
projected an image of wealth right let’s
move on to the main course as you can
see it involved a lot of meats you had
pies you had hams you had breasts of
dark poultry let’s check this pie out
here what have we got here
venison I mean as far as I’m concerned
you cannot go wrong with a pie delicious
dancing
food but you also get some vegetables
things like asparagus when it’s in
season but meat made up a large part of
the Georgian diet even for the middle
class
you got venison game things that could
be hunted and shot that was another way
of showing off to your guests it
suggested that you had a country estate
where those things could be procured or
that you’ve been gifted them by some
Royal aristocratic
friend I’m getting a bit worried about
Georgian gut health to be
honest but fun place to visit now we
come on to the most bizarrely named part
of the Georgian diet the so-called sweet
breads which sounds nice but in fact
they’re awful they’re glands they’re
drawn from the
stomach in one Jane Austin book The
heroine is offered a delicate fra of
sweet bread and some
asparagus
[Music]
it looks like chicken it kind of feels a
bit like chicken but it tastes like lard
or kidney or something frankly pretty
disgusting I think there’s something
strangely poetic about Jane Austin’s
characters standing around having polite
conversations whilst munching on
testicl*s and
ovaries don’t know how polite I’d be if
I was eating that the whole
time so from 1815 or so onwards you
start to see a change in the way the
Georgians had their dinner parties
particularly in London which was the
leader of fashion and a more formal
Place dinner parties started to be
served alarus that means serving food in
separate courses not just one big
groaning table each course would be
taken away and replaced with another
this method became more and more popular
later in the Regency ER the prince
Regent who would become George IV he
loved his food and he loved a little
night out as well now he had a French
chef called Karen who’s credited with
introducing this idea alarus and the
upper classes always took their lead
from the prince region and what was most
fashionable on the continent so his
method caught on amongst the nobility
and gentry from that point onwards a
formal dinner might be two courses
followed by dessert so we’re all
followers of Kem to the present day
the ultimate status symbol in the
Georgian period was oddly a
fruit pineapples could only be grown in
the warm tropical weather but
Aristocrats here in Chile old Northern
Britain decided they wanted to show off
just how much money they had the staff
the facilities to actually try and grow
these at home if you could have a dinner
party where you served homegrown
pineapples it meant you were a wealthy
guy in 1764 the gentleman’s magazine
estimated it cost
£150 to build a hot house to cover the
running costs to buy the initial plant
stock and all this expensive course was
not guaranteed to give any return now if
you stick that through the bank of
England’s inflation calculator that’s
roughly equivalent today to
22,000 in order to grow some of these
pineapples were hot property Maids who
transported them from one house to
another could be accosted by thieves in
1807 there were several court cases for
pineapple theft at the Old Bailey in
London the most notorious was Mr godi
who was sentenced to 7 years
transportation to Australia for stealing
seven pineapples let spare a thought
here for the aspiring middle classes who
want to get ahead but they can’t get
their mits and any pineapples they can’t
afford to grow them well as so often
with with capitalism the market
responded canny businessmen opened up
pineapple rental shops across Britain
companies of all different kinds cashed
on the fruits popularity you see them
engraved and carved into buildings and
the market for pineapple themed Goods
exploded porcelain makers like Wedgewood
produced pineapple shaped well
everything really and the beauty of all
these more durable pineapples is while
the fruit rotted away the statues and
carvings would always remain to remind
guests in perpetuity of just how wealthy
you
were now the Georgians drank all sorts
of wine white wine Clarett which means
wines from the Bordeaux area of France
wine is very important in a Georgian
dinner party hey all dinner parties
let’s be honest in 1825 Mrs Parks wrote
a book in which she talked about the
kind of wines you had to serve at in a
party she said the decanted wines placed
on the table during dinner are white
wines either madira Sherry or buellis
those circulated after dinner are port
madira and Clarett she went on to say
that Claret is generally contained in a
decanter with a handle and of a peculiar
form it’s quite a formal seter and it
wasn’t just the wine that was formal
there were even rules about who you
could talk to and when you had to have
conversation only only with the person
on your right or your left and therefore
where the hostess sat her guest was
crucial now there were some informal
dinners bit less rigid you could talk
across the table at those let your hair
down and you only drank wine with
someone else you don’t just sit there
gling it by yourself never clink glasses
though a lady or a gentleman would raise
a glass to you and you would drink in
return a drink with you
sir
the elite of Georgian Britain lived in a
world of Plenty they’d never had it so
good certainly not true for many other
people in the world at the time and that
Spirit of excess was embodied in the
King King George IV who when he died was
enormously fat and weighed 24 Stone so
ungainly that it gave the undertakers a
real problem with this
corpse hi I’m Dan snow and I’ve come to
a Victorian kitchen built in the 1970s
to sample the food eaten by the normal
men and women let’s see what’s on the
[Music]
menu the Victorian era was a time of
just enormous change a really tumultuous
time social and political upheaval you
got the Industrial Revolution going on
you got Charles Darwin with his ideas
about Evolution Transforming Our vision
of our place in the world you got
Railways extending out across the globe
steam ships
huge era of scientific discovery for
example you get the first telegraphs and
telephones as well and there was also a
big change in diet as the rise of
refrigeration led to the beginning of
Global Supply chains under Queen
Victoria Britain became the world’s
richest country and that gave rise to a
new class of affluent people you might
call them middle class and they all
aspired to have servants so under Queen
Victoria we see a peak in the number of
servants in the UK
most middleclass households aspired to
have at least one or two servants so in
1871 over 4% of the population were
employed in service and the vast
majority of them were
women sheep’s
Trotters these were a very common
Victorian snack people would sort of
just munch on them a bit like kebab and
uh they were a cheaper alternative to a
a nice cut of
meat disgusting I’ve been told that
people used to rip the nails off and
suck out the jelly
inside I mean I don’t even know if
that’s a
thing wait wait no he good the sound
I can see that they are a little bit of
a snack
but I would only eat these if I was
desperate imagine little Oliver Twist
Goring one of
these jellied
eels
I’m going in these are basically chunks
of eel in their own naturally produced
gelatin First Impressions absolutely
disgusting Ino the
fingers oh my
God that is absolutely
disgusting you bite through the oily
greasy gelatin
and you you reach a kind of fishlike
substance within it’s
dry it tastes a bit off oh it does not
improve the aftertaste gets worse and
worse these are sold on food carts in
the East End in London in particular and
the dish was often flavored with a
splash of vinegar or dollop of butter
and I can see why because the natural
taste and flavor of this is absolutely
disgusting they they were cheap in
London particularly at the time because
e was one of the few animals that could
survive in the sewage choked poisonous
temps River in that
period which is nothing more than just
an open sewer and cesspit and run off
for Industrial Waste so as well as
tasting completely disgusting you also
just Goring on poisonous
meat I just can’t do that
anymore oh God
[Music]
one of the Victorian favorite Meats has
fallen out of fashion now and that’s
mutton it’s basically sheep but more
grownup sheeps than those that you would
eat in lamb and they like it could stand
up to long slow cooking they thought it
had a richer flavor
too I mean it does taste like lamb just
older even Queen Victoria wasn’t above
chewing a little bit of m in the Royal
archives we hear that in 1858 she ate
mutton chop and mashed potatoes if it’s
good enough for Queen Victoria it should
be good enough for us let’s get mutton
back on the
menu and when you look at this Victorian
cooking book you can see just how
popular it was there are no fewer well
dozens of
pages every single part of the sheep
could be eaten including the head very
nice the tongue kidneys loin chop so we
got mutton mutton minced mutton
boiled mutton
[Laughter]
broth and finally mutton shoulder which
may be dressed in a variety of ways
boiled and served with onion sauce boned
and stuff with a good ve Force meat or
baked with sliced potatoes in the
dripping pan
[Music]
delicious particularly following the
marriage of Queen Victoria and German
Prince Albert the royal family started
to incorporate lots of Germanic
traditions in their Christmas
festivities and what could be more
christmy than the Christmas pudding love
this the best part of Christmas let’s
just get these out and of course
Christmas pudding one thing you have to
do
let’s put a bit of French Brandy on it
oh there we
go
and create the old festive
Flame come
on oh what it’s not
lighting oh well who cares let’s get on
with it
right nothing better than a bit of
Christmas
pudding
oh
beautiful a l Brandy on
there it’s really Charles Dickens who
cements this little bundle of joy at the
heart of the British Christmas tradition
in A Christmas Carol he writes in half a
minute Mrs crater entered flushed but
smiling proudly with the pudding like a
speckled Cannonball so hard and firm
blazing in half a half a quaron of
ignited Brandy she’s better than I at
that and bed tight with Christmas holly
stuck to the top oh what a wonderful
pudding what on
Charles for the British this was so much
more than just a tasty Christmas Day
dessert this was a little embodiment of
Empire itself the ingredients sew brown
sugar raisins currants candied orange
peel eggs breadcrumbs nutmeg clothes all
spice loads of alcohol that was the
British Empire in a pudding a little
selection of savoring sweet treats like
Britain’s colonies from all over the
world brought together for the enjoyment
of people back
home so for the victorians they might
have a nice Christmas pudding once a
year but on the whole for a lot of the
population slaving away in industrial
cities or working in kitchens like this
the food was
[Music]
[Applause]
[Music]
bad I’m Dan snow and today I’m going to
be eating and drinking like a
longsuffering British Tommy in the
trenches of the first world
war let’s get on with
[Music]
it World War I was one of the deadliest
conflicts in history it saw an
astonishing 65 million men take part in
fighting across the globe the war which
was known as The Great War because it
was so devastating began in July
1914 and finally ended in November
1918 for the millions of British
soldiers that served life would have
been extremely tough imagine waking up
to the sound of gunfire doing up your
scratchy uniform that’s been worn for
weeks and heading into battle with only
a few bites of stale bread and a sip of
tepid tea in your stomach that’s what
life could be like for First World War
soldiers it wasn’t just the constant
threat of danger that made their lives
difficult their diets were pretty bleak
too
trench stew or
MAOI this was the staple for the British
soldiers in the trenches of the first
world war now cooking in those trenches
very difficult indeed so soldiers ate
most of their Russians cold if they
weren lucky enough to get a stove going
it was on a small folding solid fuel
stove known as the Tommy cooker men
carried them in their packs and if they
were behind the lines a little bit
further back they might cook in pots
over charcoal or scavenged
wood
oh it’s absolutely disgusting it’s
basically bully beef corned beef out of
a tin with um a few vegetables chopped
up in there things like turnips and
carrots
biscuits they were
famously hard as
rock get
this
so cut them in half then you add them to
the stew try to make it slightly more
palatable
oh
[Music]
[Applause]
[Music]
this is like eating cardboard bits of
stale cardboard if cardboard get stale
they would try and create the stew in a
small group of men and that would be
dled out into individual mess tins but
that’s
Grim they say that warmed in a tin MAOI
true was edible cold it was a
mankiller can see
why these biscuits so hard you could put
down on the front of your shirt and
they’d act a Kevlar vest stop bullets
that
would if you happen to be a biscuit
manufacturer in 1914 then it was your
lucky day the country’s largest biscuit
family was owned by some peace loving
Quakers Huntley and Palmers and it
played a crucial role in the war it
supplied vast amounts of biscuits less
than a week after the outbreak of the
war in 1914 the factory received the
first of many gigantic orders from the
war office for the manufacturer of
biscuits this was basically like bread
that didn’t go stale you could ship it
abroad Factory had to work night and day
seven days a week to meet the demand
these biscuits were about 4 inches
Square they were made of whole wheat
flour they had no sugar they were very
very hard they could be transported in
bulk and when they got to the trenches
uh soldiers used to dip them in water or
tea and try and break them up a bit
there’s a great quote from a private
pressy of the royal artillery he said
the biscuits are so hard that you have
to put them on a firm surface and smash
them with a
stone look at that I’ve held one in my
hand and hit the sharp corner on a brick
wall and it only hurt my
hand he’s right you could use that as a
weapon if your bullets run
out no Brit is going to do anything let
alone fight a war without a cup of
tea it was comforting it was warm gave a
little reminder of home and the tea also
helped disguise the flavor of the water
which was often transported to the front
in Jerry cans which had been used to
contain petral so it tasted disgusting
tea was also very good at helping to
well dissolve these extremely hard
biscuits you just dunk one of these in
for about 24
[Music]
hours
[Music]
still hard as
rock
chocolate vast amounts of chocolate was
transported to the trenches to try and
keep up morale in December 1914 the city
of York sent a Christmas gift a tin of
chocolate to all the men from York
serving in the forces this was done you
know giving people a sense of Home
reminding them of their friends and
loved
ones that’s improved my morale we
actually have a letter that Henry Bailey
one of those York Lads sent home in
January 1915 he said I feel I ought to
send my very best thanks for the nice
box of chocolate I received so
unexpectedly I’m proud to be able to say
that I’m a York glad and I’m looking
forward to a speedy termination of this
cruel War I shall prize the box as long
as God spares
me the rum
ration talking Brits after all rum was
the lifeblood of those men in the
trenches generally it would be doled out
in the morning although some sources say
it could be given out more frequently
particularly when maybe attacks were
imminent ah one soldier Charles William
nightingall recorded that rum was issued
with cheese every night during the gly
campaign but often it was given out in
the mornings So-Cal St to that’s when
every Soldier grabbed their weapon stood
on the firing step peering over the edge
of the trench in case the enemy attacked
at
dawn the writer Robert Graves noted that
his soldiers looked forward to their tot
of rum at dawn stanto as the brightest
moment of their 24 hours one of the many
myths about the first world war is that
soldiers will end up stumbling across no
man’s land in blind drunk sters as a
matter of routine but in fact that isn’t
correct from what we know about the
ration the British soldier was given
only 116th of a pint every day although
he would have made it his mission to
find more French on the other hand drank
wine obviously nearly a pint every
day cigarettes were an essential part of
army life nearly everyone smoked they
used as currency two cigarettes
apparently was the price of a haircut in
the trenches given what we now know
about cigarettes seems a bit strange but
it’s what you sent your loved ones to
help them thrive in a very tough
environment you could buy them
everywhere behind the lines and you
issued with two ounces of tobacco like
this every single day people in Britain
could also send their loved ones drugs
heroin and particularly a cocaine based
Med called forced March which helped
deal with hunger and fatigue just living
surviving in the trenches was so brutal
so extreme and hard that some historians
think that the only way that they
managed to convince the troops to
actually stay in there was by pushing
enough booze tobacco sugar caffeine and
drugs to the men station there and
having TR some of the food I’ve got a
lot of sympathy for that point of
view it’s like a very very cheap very
disgusting sausage it’s just absolutely
disgusting you would have to be
desperate to eat one of these hi I’m Dan
snow and I’ve come to a wartime kitchen
to find out what an ordinary British
family would have eaten during Second
World War
rationing the UK had too many people and
not enough food Britain had been a big
importer of food before the second world
war and as war broke out the British
government became scared that German
submarines would sink all those ships
carrying food to Britain the British
people would starve and Britain would
have to surrender so on the 8th of
January 1940 rationing was brought in
rationing just means that people are
allocated a very particular amount of
food each it’s very very efficient
everyone got one of these ration books
and that’s register at their local shops
then shopkeepers were supplied with just
the right amount of food for everyone
register on their books ration books had
a sort of coupon system so people could
only purchase what they allotted and no
more a weekly ration was an egg 2 oz of
butter 2 oz of tea an oz of cheese 8 oz
of sugar 4 oz of bacon and 4 oz of
margarine meat wasn’t immediately
rationed but when it was it was done on
meaning cheaper Cuts quickly became very
popular also if you were the royal
family Aristocrats or Winston Churchill
and you had a country estate you could
have food brought into your London
residence so whilst the royal family in
Wiston Churchill made a big show of
having a ration book they eting pretty
well and luckily for Winston Churchill
booze wasn’t rationed ah spam now spam
actually wasn’t on the ration it was an
American salted tinned processed pork
that was very very popular tinning was a
kind of Wonder technology it meant that
food could be kept good to eat for
between 1 and 5 years so spam was issued
to a lot of soldiers in the field and
the Americans used it to Curry favor
with people back here in the UK let’s
give it a
[Music]
try it’s like a very very cheap very
disgusting sausage but frankly the world
where meat is rationed this stuff would
have tasted pretty
good bread and powdered eggs what a
treat
right there was actually a ban on White
Bread during the second world war
something called the national loaf was
brought in Bakers got together and
worked out to use whole meal flour to
produce a standardized loaf so here you
go nice Brown loaf all right I’m going
to have some powdered eggs eggs were
rationed so by July
1942 powdered eggs became available
thank you to the good old USA what you
do is you dry out an egg and then you
smash it to bits then you keep it and it
will last for years and years the
allowance was one tin of dried eggs
every two months now one tin was about
the same as 12 fresh eggs so 12 fresh
eggs every 2 months I’m going to go czy
and have it all in one
go you yet to add water to this egg
mixture to turn it back into something
approaching egg it was 1 tablespoon of
dried egg 2 tbspoon of water if you live
near the countryside you living at some
hens lucky you you give up your egg rush
and exchange it for other
[Music]
Foods doesn’t taste that much like eggs
to be
honest so tasteless the ministry of food
was desperate to get people cooking with
dried eggs dried eggs they insisted were
just as good as fresh eggs and should be
used in the same way they’re very useful
for main dishes that’s propaganda that
is aha butter my favorite bit of bread
and butter but of course this isn’t
butter there’s a war on Hitler doesn’t
let you have nice things this is
dripping it’s the rendered fat that
drops off a piece of beef now I think my
dad must have stock com syndrome because
he still talks about the dripping he
remembers from his childhood with great
affection let’s see what it’s
[Music]
like it’s disgusting it tastes like
rendered fat that’s dropped off a piece
of beef now when it’s hot as you’ll know
from your baking tray is like a clear
liquid but at room temperature it
congeals it solidifies it tastes like a
bit of plasticky plasticine it is
disgusting I don’t know what my dad’s on
about it was a very uh versatile food or
substance I suspect you could probably
use it to grease the axles on your truck
but people loved eating it in a bread
and dripping form piece of bread
dripping on the top little bit of salt
and pepper why not treat
yourself okay here it goes meat was
heavily rationed you allowed 4 ounces of
bacon a week and other meat was
available at a price that meant people
started telling to Alternative forms of
meat meat that in peace time you would
Overlook as unsuitable for human
consumption and that included pigs
Trotters Hooves things like that but
also whale meat whale meat was an
unrationed alternative to meat it was
sold as wacon corned whale meat with its
fishy flavor removed can’t wait to try
that let’s get into these Pig
Trotters oh
goodness
I mean it’s just absolutely disgusting
you would have to be desperate desperate
to eat one of these there still seems to
be mud from the farmyard caught in this
Trotter
here I’m not sure about
this right I’m done with those one thing
that was readily available during those
war time years was vegetables you’ll be
glad to hear these were not ration they
became a main day during the war people
were expected and encouraged to grow
vegetables wherever they could the
expression dig for victory was a popular
catchphrase there was a huge rise in the
number of allotments all over the UK
this is a fake apricot flame it’s in
fact made from
carrot I mean carrots grew like weaves
in the UK got carrots everywhere turnips
there’s plenty of those so this mock
apricot flan was cleverly designed to
fool you into into eating it when it was
in fact carrots smeared with
jam it fooled me in 1941 the minister
for food Lord Wilton issued this Clarion
call for self- sustainability he said
this is a food War every extra row of
vegetables in these allotments saves
shipping the battle on the kitchen front
cannot be won without help from the
kitchen Garden isn’t an hour in the
garden better than an hour in the queue
so true everyone was encouraged to start
Victory Gardens dig up any patch of
Earth in your house and plant vegetables
it and to use
substitutes good old turnip carrots get
them in the food in the absence of sugar
which is very heavily rationed carrots
were added desserts like this to sweeten
them and they had the added benefit
according to the government in that they
helped you see better in the dark and
would protect you from bombs and during
blackout but that’s just cuz the
government wanted to be able to fill
their bellies with carot they wouldn’t
eat anything else I tell my daughter
that she eats the crusts on her toast it
make her hair curly it’s not true and
just in case you thought cartoon
characters pushing annoying public
information campaigns anything new they
had Dr carrot and potato Pete during the
second world war Caron characters to get
people to eat more vegetables as they
were plentiful and
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