In the 1500's people cooked in a kitchen with a big kettle that always hung over the fire. Every day they lit the fire and added things to the pot. They ate mostely vegetables and did not get much meat. They would eat the stew for dinner, leaving leftovers in the pot to get cold overnight and then start over the next day. Sometimes stew had food in it that had been there for quite some time. Hence the rhyme, "Peas porridge hot, peas porridge cold, peas porridge in the pot 9 days old"!
On occassion they would obtain pork, which made them feel quite special. When visitors came over, they would hang up their bacon to show off. It was a sign of wealth that a man could "bring home the bacon". They would cut off a little to share with guests and would all sit around and "chew the fat"!
Those with money had plates made of pewter. Food with high acid content caused some of the lead to leach onto the food, causing led poisoning death. This happened most often with tomatoes, so for the next 400 years or so, tomatoes were considered poisonous!
Bread was divided according to status. Workers got the burnt bottom of the loaf, the family got the middle, and guests got the top, or the "upper crust".
Lead cups were used to drink ale or whiskey. The combination would sometimes knock the imbibers out for a couple of days. someone walking along the road would take them for dead and prepare them for burial. They were laid out on the kitchen table for a couple of days and the family would gather around and eat and drink and wait to see if they woke up. Hence the custom of "holding a wake".
When folks started running out of places to bury people, they would dig up coffins, take the bones to a bone-house, and reuse the grave. When reopening these coffins, one out of 25 coffins was found to have scratch marks on the inside and they realized people were being buried alive. So they would tie a string on the wrist of the corpse, lead it through the coffin and up through the ground and tie a bell to it. Someone would have to sit in the graveyard all night (the graveyard shift) to listen for the bell; thus someone could be "saved by the bell" or was considered a "dead ringer"!
Till next time...Prim Blessings!
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