** Life In The 1500's ***

[chucksc]

** LIFE IN THE 1500'S ***


Most people got married in June because they took their yearly bath in May, and still smelled pretty good by June.. However, they were starting to smell, so Brides carried a bouquet of flowers to hide the body odor Hence the custom today of carrying a bouquet when getting married.

Baths consisted of a big tub filled with hot water. The man of the house had
The privilege of the nice clean water, then all the other sons and men, then
The women and finally the children. Last of all the babies. By then the water
Was so dirty you could actually lose ! someone in it. Hence the saying, Don't
Throw the baby out with the Bath water..

Houses had thatched roofs-thick straw-piled high, with no wood underneath. It was the only place for animals to get warm, so all the cats and other small Animals (mice, bugs) lived in the roof When it rained it became slippery and Sometimes the animals would slip and fall off the roof. Hence the saying .
It's raining cats and dogs.

There was nothing to stop things from falling into the house. This posed a
Real problem in the bedroom where bugs and other droppings could mess up your nice clean bed. Hence, a bed with big posts and a sheet hung over the top afforded some protection. That's how canopy beds came into existence.

The floor was dirt. Only the wealthy had something other than dirt. Hence the Saying, Dirt poor. The wealthy had slate floors that would get slippery in the Winter when wet, so they spread thresh (straw) on floor t o help keep their F ooting. As the winter wore on, they added more thresh until, when you opened the door, it would all start slipping outside. A piece of wood was placed in the entranceway. Hence the saying a thresh hold.

(Getting quite an education, aren't you?)

In those old days, they cooked in the 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 mostly 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 a while. Hence the rhyme, Peas porridge hot, peas porridge cold, peas porridge in the pot nine days old..

Sometimes they could 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 lead 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 whisky.. 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 and see if they would wake up. Hence the custom of holding a wake.

England is old and small and the local folks started running out of places to
Bury people. So they would dig up coffins and would take the bones to a
Bone-house, and reuse the grave. When reopening these coffins, 1 out of 25
Coffins were found to have scratch marks on the inside and they realized they Had been burying people 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 it to a Bell. Someone would have to sit out 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.

And that's the truth. Now, whoever said History was boring ! ! !

[zzmikezz]

chucksc,

Absolutely fascinating. Thanks!

[Erick_Cantu]

Snopes.com has taught me to take stories like that with a grain of salt.

It's made life rather boring.

[sniper297]

Swag

Methinks someone may have been guessing.

" In those old days, they cooked in the 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 mostly 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 a while. Hence the rhyme, Peas porridge hot, peas porridge cold, peas porridge in the pot nine days old."

Way I heard it, old time sailing ships would cook up a whole bunch of pease porridge when a storm was coming, because you had to tip the galley fire over the side - open fire in a wooden ship was too dangerous in rough weather. The nursery rhyme allegedly came from an old sailor's lament, when the gale lasted for a long time, they had nothing to eat except "Pease porridge hot, pease porridge cold, pease porridge in the pot nine days old."

Personally I find that one more believable, the landlubbers could always reheat it rather than having to eat it cold.

[pstraten]

Interesting, and not all just old wives tales.

"In those old days, they cooked in the 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 mostly 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 a while. Hence the rhyme, Peas porridge hot, peas porridge cold, peas porridge in the pot nine days old.."

The French refined this technique over the centuries, and now it is called a pot-au-feu--except it is made with meat (often beef) and vegetable, not the "pease" (dried or split peas) of the porridge.

A good pot-au-feu is a wondrous thing, but it needs to be kept covered and always be cooking, albeit slowly, just below a simmer. A crockpot on slow setting is perfect for this and probably one reason I have three working crockpots as well as a big soup toureen in my paraphernalia, along with all manner of cast-iron cookware--pans and dutch ovens.

Sorry if this digression was annoying, but I consider soups and stews one of the markers of human culinary evolution and devote a lot of thought to them.

And please, no tired, feeble jokes about crackpots. That was crockpots!


AND P.S. Sniper. I think (having read all the Horatio Hornblower and Aubrey & Maturin books at least twice, that you are quite right about the naval tradition. In particular, also, in going to battle stations, dousing the galley fire was S.O.P. Since, in 1500, relighting a fire would have been a big chore*, landlubbers then (which was before the greatest age of sail and wooden ships--17th-18th century) would have taken care not to let their hearths die overnight.

P.P.S. *Even the wooden "lucifer match" wasn't invented until the mid-17th century. Needless to say, the ol' reliable Zippo lighter came mutch, mutch later...