Fooles and Fricassees: Food in Shakespeare's England

Fooles and Fricassees: Food in Shakespeare's England was part of the Exhibitions at the Folger and ran from September 10, 1999 to December 30 of the same year. A catalogue from this exhibition, including a recipe book compiled by Sarah Longe around 1610 transcribed in its entirety, can be purchased from the Folger Shop.

Shakespeare and his contemporaries were familiar with a wide range of foodstuffs and seasonings and had strong opinions about the flavor and quality of what they ate. The changing seasons gave them greens, roots, herbs, fruits, and nuts, many of which were gathered in hedgerows, fields, and forests, as well as in kitchen gardens. People enjoyed breads made from a variety of flours, ate every part of the animals that came their way, and used clever tricks to trap birds, feeding them with aromatic herbs to flavor their meat. The diet of sixteenth-century English men and women varied with the seasons, and their foods provided medicine as well as sustenance. While some foods were imported from the Continent, the average diet was based on local specialties.

By the end of the seventeenth century, new developments in agriculture, imported foods, beverages, and seasonings, and a palate that had shifted from sweet to salty had changed the way the English ate. Books on herbs and medicine, laws governing the baking of bread and the importing of spices, household accounts, gardening journals, and even student plays, as well as printed and manuscript recipe books, permit us to see into the gardens, kitchens, butteries, and cellars of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries and to experience some of the food grown, prepared, and stored there.

Exhibition materials

Markets and Merchandise: Where Housewives Purchased Their Supplies

In 1600 approximately 800 markets in England gave rural and urban inhabitants access to a variety of foods. Country residents regularly purchased food at small markets and fairs. City residents, on the other hand, usually shopped for food at markets held once a week. Account books kept for a London household in 1612 record weekly purchases of meats, poultry, wines, cooking fats, and flour and spices. In London, as in other cities, each market sold particular goods such as herbs, cheese, or freshwater fish. Other items were bought from large regional fairs where vendors sold dry goods, livestock, and grains. Provisioning London's residents required a network of sixteen markets. Billingsgate sold grain transported from Thames Valley river ports and from the Baltic, salt from France, onions and roots, imported oranges and fruit, and fresh- and saltwater fish and shellfish. By 1546, Leaden Hall vendors included crops from Essex, Middlesex (corn, cattle), and Kent (fruit, vegetables, hops) although most sellers also displayed boars' heads and other cuts of meat and live poultry.

An image of Leaden Hall Market is from an manuscript describing commercial abuses in London, entitled A Caveatt for the Citty of London. It was presented to the Lord Mayor in April 1598 by one Hugh Alley, a government informer. Thirteen London food markets are depicted in pen and wash in this manuscript. On the page facing these are watercolor illustrations of the aldermen and deputies for the ward in which the market was located. You can view his manuscript in its entirety at the Folger's Digital Image Database on LUNA.