I'm doing a project on Tudor food and want to find out about sweets that would have been eaten. There's lots of info on the net saying that sweets were eaten but not what sort of sweets. Can anyone help?
I do know that marizpan (marchpane) was used a lot though.
Yr 5
Callum aged 9
If you have access to a local university library, have a look at Alison Sim's "Food and Feast in Tudor England." Even though you are young, I think you will find this book helpful. And it is never too early to explore a university library! You might also look at http://www.ngfl.ac.uk/tudorhistory/recipes.html. This page has several sweets along with their original recipes (Apple fritters, French toast, Gilded marzipan cake, gingerbread, gooseberry tart with saffron pastry, pears in spiced honey syrup, spiced custard with dates and raisins). Lastly, try the Tudor section of the British Library's site on "Books for Cooks" (http://www.bl.uk/learning/langlit/booksforcooks/1500s/1500sfood.html). Hope this helps!
ReplyDeleteThe first link in PhDHistorian's comment is an old mirror of my website that (hopefully) will be going away soon. I gave them permission to do a mirror of the site for a school network and unfortunately the content hasn't been updated since 2001. I asked them to remove it or put it behind a firewall in the summer but it still hasn't been done.
ReplyDeleteAnyway, the current address for the page is:
http://tudorhistory.org/topics/food/recipes.html
I think in the "Spanish Chronicle" it's retailed that when Anne Boleyn wanted to see Mark Smeaton in private, she called for a sweetmeat, specifically "a little marmalade." And some old woman brought "the marmalade," i.e. Master Smeaton, to the bedchamber. But apparently "marmalade" was made with quinces back then, rather than Seville oranges, and was a traditional sweetmeat.
ReplyDeleteSweets, or sweetmeats as they were known, were a broad variety of sweet treats made from lots of different things. There were comfits, sugar ribbons, marchpane, ohh, so many things.
ReplyDeleteThey were made by a castle confectioner, usually a maid, but the ladies of the court sometimes took up the proffession too.
Fruit was usually covered in sugar.