Thursday, August 21, 2008

Question from Kivaldo - Food and costs for a Tudor banquet for school activity

I am a teacher of Y6 children (10-11yr olds). We will be doing a topic on Tudor's again this year and I am planning on tying it in with other aspects of the curriculum. An idea I have been presented with for maths is to plan a Tudor banquet. In order to keep it in context, I was wondering if anybody could give me an idea of some different types of food found at a Tudor banquet, but more importantly the cost of these (either per person or, for example, a leg of pork, the price and how many people it would feed).

I look forward to hearing from you,

Thanks,
K

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

The history of food, from production to consumption, has been one of the "hot" topics in history over the past decade or so. Much work is being done in that area. And for those in the UK, the results are most visible in places like Hampton Court Palace, where the Tudor-era kitchens now constitute a major portion of the tour.

I would suggest contacting the curatorial staff at Hampton Court. They can probably suggest a number of accessible publications that deal with Tudor-era food costs, including their own publication, "All the King's Cooks: The Tudor Kitchens of King Henry VIII at Hampton Court Palace."

kb said...

It sounds like you are in the UK. If so, consider contacting Mark Dawson who researched food, purveyance, recipes and costs for the 16th century Willoughby family. Although he is not on faculty at the University of Nottingham, you can most likely reach him through the History department there. If you have no success let me know and I may be able to put you in touch with him. He would be very happy to help you out and pretty thrilled that you are introducing your Y6's to Tudor food.

What a good idea for a project for maths!